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That was the Week that Was (Feb 3-7 2025)

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Monday Feb 3:

 

Fairly quiet transfer window in which Man City spent more than the rest of the league combined. They’re gone legit now though, don’t forget. All that cheating was years ago, they aren’t doing anything dodgy anymore, no sireebob. I’ve seen it suggested that they’re doing their spending now before the punishment comes down on them, but if this is the best they can do then God help them when the punishment does come. Are they actually better now than they were at the beginning of the month? I still think they’re shite and these new lads (with the probably exception of Marmoush) won’t make any difference.

 

I’ll say it here and now. These lads they’ve signed in this window will be flops. Maybe that Marmoush might be good, but he’s essentially just the replacement for Alvarez who left in the summer, and he’s probably a downgrade. None of these others are ‘Man City level’ players. They’re finished. What we’ve seen from them over the last decade is over and it won’t be coming back. And that’s irrespective of whatever punishment they get. I’m not saying they won’t ever win the league again, but the days of their dominance are gone.

 

Look at what they’ve done over recent years. How many new signings have proved to be better than the players they replaced? Some have been decent, some have been shite. Other than Haaland though, none of their signings in the last three or four years would get anywhere near their team from five or six years ago. Doku, Akanji, Grealish, Savinho, Ortega…. these jabronis they’ve bought this month… Not exactly Sterling, Mahrez, Kompany, Fernandinho etc are they?

 

Their recruitment has been a bit shit, but it doesn’t compare to that of their neighbours, who are completely fucked after years of overpaying for sub standard players. And then any time they have a kid who looks decent, they hype becomes so out of hand that they drown in it. Remember when we were told Koby Mainoo was a superstar? Now we’ve got that fuckwit Rio Ferdinand doing an interview with Lenny Yoro and telling him “Jose Fonte said to me ‘If he carries on working hard and continues to develop, he can reach Virgil van Dijk’s level, easy’.”

 

Keep my captain’s name out your fucking wobbly mouth. Honestly, Ferdinand’s obsession with Van Dijk makes me cringe, because you know he sees himself as an equal. It’s horrendous. The levels of delusions from knobheads like him and Sol Campbell is breathtaking. Campbell said recently that he’s better than Virgil because Virgil didn’t play against Rooney, Henry, Owen, Drogba and *checks notes* Duncan Ferguson. Hmmm.

 

Virgil HAS played against Messi, Suarez, Ronaldo, Benzema, Haaland, Kane, Vardy… all of whom would have absolutely run fucking rings around Tory Sol. No idea how I ended up down this rabbit hole so I’ll skip back a few paragraphs to check. Ok, I was talking about United and City and their shit recruitment. I have no idea if Yoro will turn out to be any good or not, but chancers are he won’t because he’s in a terrible team with no hope of bringing in the quality around him that he’d need to be able to shine. I’d also question his sanity too, because he had options and actually CHOSE to sign for United. Not the brightest bulb in the box, clearly.

 

As for us, not much happened on deadline day. Danns went to Sunderland, but only after signing a new deal with us first. Good move for him, they’re an exciting young team that’s doing really well in the Championship so he’ll be playing in high stakes games.

 

Tyler Morton was the subject of a bid from Boro but they didn’t come close to meeting the asking price so he’s still here. I’m glad, he’s boss and we might yet need him. If we get a couple of injuries in the middle of the park suddenly he’s going to be on the bench and will probably needed to start some games to allow the others to get a rest.

 

Ben Doak is staying at Boro and reports suggest that he had a meeting with Edwards and Hughes where they said he wasn't for sale and hell be part of the first team squad next season. Whose spot is he taking then? Mo's or Chiesa's?


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Howe knows his way around a tactics board. He’s beaten Newcastle three times already this season and hasn’t conceded a goal yet.

 

 

Howe has definitely beat Newcastle three times this season but they have conceded goals in those losses. Especially when he used Bournemouth to do it a couple of weeks ago.

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Anubis is the winner of this week's "spot Dave's completely intentional mistake". Well done mate, at least I know someone is paying attention. 

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City's transfer spending has been weird for a while now.

 

Some of their fans were ecstatic that they bought Gundogan back in the summer, but he's been a huge part of the reason they've been so weak in midfield all season. It'd be like us bringing Henderson or Fabinho back!  

 

Marmoush didn't look anything special until the first half of this season and his best position is as a striker anyway. He's not a winger like they've had before so unless he plans on being a backup to Haaland for the next 9 years he's going to be playing out of position. 

 

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24 minutes ago, Megadrive Man said:

City's transfer spending has been weird for a while now.

 

Some of their fans were ecstatic that they bought Gundogan back in the summer, but he's been a huge part of the reason they've been so weak in midfield all season. It'd be like us bringing Henderson or Fabinho back!  

 

Marmoush didn't look anything special until the first half of this season and his best position is as a striker anyway. He's not a winger like they've had before so unless he plans on being a backup to Haaland for the next 9 years he's going to be playing out of position. 

 

I thought Marmoush was pretty good last season. (Just checked - 12 goals and 6 assists in 29 games). But he's an out-and-out striker/2nd striker, deffo not a winger as you say. He's very similar to Alvarez in terms of positional preference. He'll either end up playing out of position, diluting his value to the team, or playing 2nd fiddle to Haaland. So they'll have ended up paying for a slightly older, probab;ly not as good as, replacement for Alvarez - and who will be off to Afcon every five minutes.

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Players aren't allowed to have personalities anymore. Any that do, have it media-trained out of them. When I started going in the late sixties and into the seventies, there were loads of personalities and plenty of mavericks - Frank Worthington, Stan Bowles, Rod Marsh to name but a few. 

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Been watching loads of youtube stuff from that Simon Ferry talking about Di Canio and Gravesen, and it's absolutely hilarious.

 

But I was thinking the other day when I was hearing about Di Canio's madness and fist fighting with his players in the tunnel, that in 10-15 years when this current generation are telling stories they're gonna so dull. "Remember that sick burn so and so gave thingymejig on Insta"

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51 minutes ago, dave u said:

Been watching loads of youtube stuff from that Simon Ferry talking about Di Canio and Gravesen, and it's absolutely hilarious.

 

But I was thinking the other day when I was hearing about Di Canio's madness and fist fighting with his players in the tunnel, that in 10-15 years when this current generation are telling stories they're gonna so dull. "Remember that sick burn so and so gave thingymejig on Insta"

Dunno, I reckon Quansah's will be pretty good.

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6 hours ago, dave u said:

Anubis is the winner of this week's "spot Dave's completely intentional mistake". Well done mate, at least I know someone is paying attention. 


I see them all, I’m just too polite to highlight it, it’s an age thing. 

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2 hours ago, DaveT said:

Players aren't allowed to have personalities anymore. Any that do, have it media-trained out of them. When I started going in the late sixties and into the seventies, there were loads of personalities and plenty of mavericks - Frank Worthington, Stan Bowles, Rod Marsh to name but a few. 

Totally spot on, especially with Guardiola. Rafa was like that too. 
 

You deal with human beings, they have feelings, ups and downs, and personnel issues interfere with professional life. 

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On 10/02/2025 at 12:15, dave u said:

Anubis is the winner of this week's "spot Dave's completely intentional mistake". Well done mate, at least I know someone is paying attention. 


I noticed too but didn’t want to be called a smart arse!

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