Q I’m here with Manchester City Sporting Director Josh Steer looking back on his first year of charge with the end of the season drawn to a close. First let’s review may focusing on the league to begin with 2 wins 2 draws a solid month for you wasn’t it Josh?
A Well 8 out of 12 is a good return however we were point behind chelsea and if drawing to stoke and hull cost us the league then we wouldn’t be happy at all, fortunately Chelsea collapsed allowing us to capitalise and win the title!
Q Did you expect to win the title? Your media prediction was second
A We expected to challenge of course I wouldn’t say I’d expected to us to win it but at the same time it’s not a surprise we were on a few teams who could win it and this year we did and it’s a fantastic achievement for us
Q So you won the title and the carling cup earlier in the season surely going to Wembley to face west ham in the F.A cup final you must have thought you had it in the bag no?
A Of course not, west ham are a great club with a good team myself and the rest of the staff and players expected to win but sadly it wasn’t to be but it just makes us hungrier next time to win it
Q How much of a role did you have in helping this team win then? You signed Trippier, Volland and Balanta while letting go Jovetic, Kolarov and Sagna. Are you ahppy with how your signings have performed do you regret any of your sales? Jovetic had a very good season for Newcastle
A Yes he did, I don’t regret any transfer dealings I did Jovetic is a good player and is playing being the no.1 at a team like Newcastle he was never going to get the game time here with aguero, dzeko bony and now volland selling him was the right choice. In terms of our transfers im happy volland did extremely well playing upfront and on the right he’s very young and will improve and learn a lot while being here. Trippier and balanta both had a part to play over the course of the season and add depth and quality to the squad trippier of course is club grown making him extra valuable to us aswell.
Q How happy are you with pellegrini did he meet your targets?
A Pellegrini has done a great job, obviously he has no say on transfers and works with players he has and he’s done very well our targets were to hit top 3, quarter final of the champions league and a semi-final of a domestic cup and he’***** all of those targets and exceeded in some aswell.
Q There are rumours you were unhappy with his choice of formation 4-4-2… and he only has one year left on his contract
A I’m happy with the job pellegrini has done he’s got results, im not going to discuss his contract
Q So what business can we expect to see in the summer transfer window?
A It’s going to be a busy one that’s for sure as you already know lampard, Nastasic, Sinclair, Negredo already have their transfers in place and will be moving along. Demichellis, Richards, Boyata contracts expire at the end of the season and we won’t be renewing them. Whilst we are actively looking for suitable clubs for Fernandinho (16.5m value 100k). But of course all players have their price
Q what about incomings?
A We are planning to bring in around 4 players ideally one of them will be English we want a new central midfielder, an attacking left winger a left back and a centre back Expect to see two from abroad and two domestically.
Q What are your expectations for next season?
A Our aim is to win the champions league next season everything is secondary other than qualifying for it of course.
Q That’s all the time we have thanks Josh
A Your welcome J
( I have a lot of free time – student xD)