Man City - the new bitters?

[Anubis]

9 hours ago, Captain Turdseye said:

Stock reaction on BlueMoon is to either twat or murder all the journalists saying nasty things about them.

 

It's a bold strategy, Cotton.....

[clangers]

Kompany ls leaving. I'm assuming it's because he'd like to move to someone who might win the champions league?

[rubble-rouser]

14 hours ago, Jennings said:

Reading this thread, I think we're the new bitters.

Yep. The thread title is not great. They are a bit obsessed but you won’t be bitter if you keep winning stuff

[Stickman]

Guess someone has been watching too much Al Pacino

 

 

[The Guest]

He should have said yes today is the perfect time to ask the question because it’s absolutely relevant to you winning these trophies whilst your club is being investigated for financial fair play.  If you don’t want to say no we can all assume it’s a yes.

[Ginny]

The media seems to be turning on these cunts now. Hope they get found out. Not like anything will be done about it like. These will be so far ahead again next season but hope the media hound Pepe so he fucks off haha 

[Oh Buoy]

Is BlueMoon the equiv' of our RAWK? Whenever they reference anything regarding our fans it's often cherry-picked from RAWK. I wonder if there's a TLW version.

[Jairzinho]

4 minutes ago, Seasons said:

Is BlueMoon the equiv' of our RAWK? Whenever they reference anything regarding our fans it's often cherry-picked from RAWK. I wonder if there's a TLW version.

All other forums do this. RAWK is 20 times bigger than another Liverpool site. Sadly, it's also chockablock with massive steamers.

[suzy]

Funniest thing I've heard this morning is Pep's coatigan is being auctioned off for charity! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48321363

[The Guest]

47 minutes ago, Seasons said:

Is BlueMoon the equiv' of our RAWK? Whenever they reference anything regarding our fans it's often cherry-picked from RAWK. I wonder if there's a TLW version.

They haven’t got enough fans to have multiple sites the size that we have.  Blue moon is as fake as the actual club.  Every page on a thread contains about 5 posts so threads go into the hundreds of pages to make the site look bigger than it is.

[Code]

2 hours ago, Stickman said:

Guess someone has been watching too much Al Pacino

 

 

 

Jim Boardman? Thats a blast from the past, thought he had moved to Newcastle by now.

[Anubis]

Here's an interesting little thread. Not sure where he's getting this info from, but I don't see how they can walk away from all of this if it's proven. Click on link to go to the thread.

 

 

 

 

[3 Stacks]

Finally being called out in the media for the frauds that they are. Unfortunately, it's like a decade too late. 

[Stickman]

4 hours ago, suzy said:

Funniest thing I've heard this morning is Pep's coatigan is being auctioned off for charity! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48321363

Well they've been trying to pull the wool over everyone's eyes regarding FFP 

[i5x]

Dont think anyone has posted this yet, I read a series of articles a couple of months ago on Der Spiegel Online about Man City and their dealings. Since it is being discussed thought some here may find it interesting. It is pretty damming if true, lets face it they have form for financial breaches, we now have the alleged bullshitting of UEFA in addition. Most of the info used was from Football Leaks.

 

Der Spiegel - Man City Exposed C1
Der Spiegel - Man City Exposed C2

Der Spiegel - Man City Exposed C3

Der Spiegel - Man City Exposed C4

[Redder Lurtz]

On 18/05/2019 at 20:29, Bunk said:

To be fair my arse. You are a gobshite with little to say.

Who's this little "Bunk" shitstain on the site? You've just gone back as far as 2014 negging me you fucking worthless weirdo. 

[Nuzzer]

Guardiola in for Maguire

No doubt impressed by the way he took out Mane at Anfield 

[moof]

Has anyone checked to see how ardja’s doing? 

[VladimirIlyich]

11 hours ago, i5x said:

Dont think anyone has posted this yet, I read a series of articles a couple of months ago on Der Spiegel Online about Man City and their dealings. Since it is being discussed thought some here may find it interesting. It is pretty damming if true, lets face it they have form for financial breaches, we now have the alleged bullshitting of UEFA in addition. Most of the info used was from Football Leaks.

 

Der Spiegel - Man City Exposed C1
Der Spiegel - Man City Exposed C2

Der Spiegel - Man City Exposed C3

Der Spiegel - Man City Exposed C4

Good read that. Not unsurprising but still worth a read.

[Dr Nowt]

Ken Early: City’s domination has been bought – and they’re paying the price 

It’s time to accept that oil-funded success and mass popularity will never go well together

Pep Guardiola at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. Pep looked less like a happy football coach watching his side make history and more like an anguished scientist whose prototype civil defence robot has just run amok at a trade show. Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA 

Ken Early

about 3 hours ago

     

The strangest moment of Saturday’s FA Cup final came in the seconds after Manchester City’s sixth goal, when the camera cut from the mob of celebrating City players to Pep Guardiola, who was slumped on the bench with his head in his hands.

Pep looked less like a happy football coach watching his side make history and more like an anguished scientist whose prototype civil defence robot has just run amok at a trade show, slaughtering several bystanders.

It looked as though he understood that the very scale of the victory had begun to devalue it, that City were now in the territory of negative marginal returns, that the reaction to this turkey shoot would go beyond appreciation and congratulation, towards accusation and perhaps even condemnation.

'We’ve done the domestic f**king treble, no one’s ever done it before, but you’ll all have Mo Salah on the back of the f**king papers tomorrow!' 

And so it proved.

The Cup-winning manager’s post-match press conference is usually laudatory, but Pep’s ended with a journalist asking whether he, like his predecessor Roberto Mancini, had ever received any extra payments from City’s ownership group on top of his regular salary.

Angry

Guardiola looked about as angry as anyone has seen him since he arrived in England.

“Do you know the question you’re asking me?” he hissed. “If I ever received money for another situation, right now, today? Honestly, do you think I deserve to have this type of question happen – what happened with Roberto I don’t know, the day we won the treble – if I received money from other situations? Oh my God. Are you accusing me of receiving money?”

You could say he did not dignify the question with a denial. This was not supposed to be happening. For Pep, the whole point of moving to City was to prove that he could succeed at a club that seemed to lack the advantages of the established giants.

 

“For a man who has spent his life in clubs steeped in history, Manchester City might indeed seem an unusual choice,” writes Martí Perarnau in The Evolution, his fly-on-the-wall account of Pep’s latter period at Bayern.

“Perhaps the question answers itself . . . [Pep] feels attracted by a club less bound by tradition and custom . . . he knew that he would be able to work without feeling that he was shattering long-established customs and practices.”

Club legends

At Barcelona, he was carrying on a tradition of excellence inherited from Johan Cruyff; at Bayern he had to contend with club legends peering over his shoulder, commenting and criticising.

At City, the history was waiting to be made and the only club legend he’d have to contend with was Noel Gallagher. “City was a blank canvas and he would be free to create as he saw fit . . . By creating a new brand of City football and the language that goes with it, he could begin to build his own unique legacy.”

It must therefore be frustrating to see that this new “legacy” has not won universal acclaim.

Related

• Ken Early: Guardiola’s joy will be tempered by Champions League regret
• Ken Early: Klopp must find way of improving his finished product
• Ken Early: Football’s new age neutralises philosophies of the past

Lately Pep has taken to complaining that the media in England are biased against City in favour of the traditional big clubs, Liverpool and Manchester United.

When he noted in his pre-Cup final press conference that the Daily Mail website’s top story last Monday had been about Paul Pogba rowing with Manchester United fans rather than City winning the league, he was making, in more polite terms, the exact same point that an angry Man City fan shouted into the Wembley press box on Saturday: “We’ve done the domestic f**king treble, no one’s ever done it before, but you’ll all have Mo Salah on the back of the f**king papers tomorrow!”

City victories are now the default outcome in this rigged game and there is not much left to say about them 

On one level it’s obvious why media outlets might cover Manchester United and Liverpool more than City: these clubs have much larger fanbases and far more people are interested in what they’re doing.

But it also needs to be acknowledged that, unlike the confrontation between Pogba and that enraged United fan, City’s story lacks the essential elements of drama.

Whether they like it or not, most people see their treble as more transaction than triumph.

At Wembley, City brought on three substitutes – Kevin de Bruyne, Leroy Sané and John Stones – each of whom would have been the best player in Watford’s team. There’s no magic or mystery about why their squad is so strong.

They have a net transfer spend of more than £1.2 billion over the 11 seasons since the 2008 takeover. That’s almost 50 per cent more than their closest rival over that period – the Qatar-funded PSG – and half a billion pounds more than the team in third place, Manchester United.

Closest comparison

Football has not seen anything like this before. The closest comparison is with Chelsea after the 2003 Abramovich takeover, but their spending was nowhere near as sustained or comprehensive.

Yes, in the 11 seasons from 2003-4 to 2014-15 Chelsea were football’s biggest spenders, but their net outlay of £751 million was only 10 per cent more than City’s in the same period, even though City spent very little between 2003 and 2007.

Chelsea’s net spend in those 11 seasons was 64 per cent of the total combined net outlay of Real Madrid and Barcelona, whereas City’s since 2008 is more than Real Madrid’s and Barcelona’s put together.

Guardiola might see the apparent obsession with City’s spending as yet more evidence of the pervasive bias against his club. After all, Manchester United under Alex Ferguson enjoyed a near-hegemonic position in English football, yet their financial power was not held against them as City’s has been.

 

The crucial difference was this: everyone knew that United’s power and success had grown out of years of intelligent decisions. They had the best manager. They were the first club to understand the commercial potential of their brand.

They invested in expanding Old Trafford at a time when that was the best economic move a club could make. They turned youth team players into sporting and commercial stars. Even those who resented United’s domination understood that it had been earned.

Alleged rule breaches

City’s domination has been bought, and that would feel unfair even if they were not currently being investigated for alleged rule breaches by Fifa, Uefa, the Premier League and the FA.

On social media their fans often respond to criticism with variations on the theme “We won the lottery, you’re just bitter”. But bitterness is a natural reaction in the circumstances. To neutrals, City’s success is not an inspirational sports story. It’s just another depressing example of the Matthew principle we see at work in almost every economic arena, with the rich leveraging their wealth and power to get richer, and the rest left further and further behind.

Free markets might sound good in economic models, but in real life they always seem to end up getting cornered, and City have had this one where they want it for a few years now.

City victories are now the default outcome in this rigged game and there is not much left to say about them, so it’s not really surprising that the focus has increasingly turned to issues surrounding their funding and ownership. It’s enough to make you question the whole concept of sportswashing.

It’s as though City are perched on the back of a dragon, peering down at a sullen populace 

Abu Dhabi might have got involved with City as a way to project and improve its global standing, but is that how things have played out? If you had polled football fans in 2007 about what they associated with Abu Dhabi, you’d probably have received a lot of blank looks.

Now they’ll mention Yemen, slaves, the abuse of human rights and so on. Was it really worth it?

City do at least have an army of sky-blue advocates fighting their cause on social media. When the New York Times reported last week that Uefa’s investigatory chamber was set to recommend a one-year Champions League ban for City, the response from many fans was to lash out: Uefa were corrupt, Financial Fair Play was an establishment stitch-up, the NYT journalists were Liverpool fans, and this disgraceful hit-piece on City had only been published because the NYT owned shares in Liverpool (the NYT did at one point own shares in Liverpool’s ownership group, but sold them in 2012).

Clearly, many fans would rather latch on to any conspiracy theory than wait to see if the stories had substance. You shudder to imagine what might happen if Saudi Arabia ever does buy Manchester United, and that enormous worldwide fanbase becomes weaponised along similar lines.

It’s been the most successful week in City’s history, and the pity is that their manager, fans and PR department have seldom sounded more angry. It’s time to accept that oil-funded success and mass popularity are never going to go together.

It’s as though City are perched on the back of a dragon, peering down at a sullen populace, wondering incredulously why they are not loved. Shouldn’t it be obvious?

[Bjornebye]

22 hours ago, suzy said:

Funniest thing I've heard this morning is Pep's coatigan is being auctioned off for charity! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48321363

 Nothing wrong with that to be fair. If they raise a few quid for a good cause then that’s great. Maybe one of the Gallaghers can cough up a few grand for it. Actually the more I think about this the better the news is because quite frankly I was sick of seeing the fucking hobo on the touchline wearing it.

 

 Whats the score with suits in the cup final as well? To be fair I doubt Klopp would want to wear a suit for it but isn’t it tradition? Saw Javi Gracia leading his team out on Saturday suited and booted looking proud as fuck while this little corrupt goblin shitstain was walking out with a face like he wasn’t arsed in a t-shirt and jumper looking like he had just been released from prison. The fucking queg.

[suzy]

4 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

 Nothing wrong with that to be fair. If they raise a few quid for a good cause then that’s great. Maybe one of the Gallaghers can cough up a few grand for it. Actually the more I think about this the better the news is because quite frankly I was sick of seeing the fucking hobo on the touchline wearing it.

 

 Whats the score with suits in the cup final as well? To be fair I doubt Klopp would want to wear a suit for it but isn’t it tradition? Saw Javi Gracia leading his team out on Saturday suited and booted looking proud as fuck while this little corrupt goblin shitstain was walking out with a face like he wasn’t arsed in a t-shirt and jumper looking like he had just been released from prison. The fucking queg.

Aah but that t shirt and jumper are probably very expensive! It's what he wears every week under his coatigan, I think the jumper is cashmere. I also wondered if Klopp would have worn a suit!

I notice in that article it was from his wife's boutique in Barcelona, that's probably what amused me.

 

[Bjornebye]

10 minutes ago, suzy said:

Aah but that t shirt and jumper are probably very expensive! It's what he wears every week under his coatigan, I think the jumper is cashmere. I also wondered if Klopp would have worn a suit!

I notice in that article it was from his wife's boutique in Barcelona, that's probably what amused me.

 

Can never work out if his wife is hot or looks like a mechanic. 

[Dr Nowt]

In the first few days of this week, some close to Pep Guardiola were debating whether the Community Shield should be counted among next week’s celebrations if Manchester City win the domestic treble, thereby changing the very language around it all. Something else around this FA Cup final, however, has already changed. Not least the discussion.

It is a historic fixture that could see City complete their greatest ever feat with that unprecedented treble, or Watford enjoy their greatest ever day with a first major trophy… but you wouldn’t think it from any of the build-up. You sometimes wouldn’t think City were celebrating anything at all.

 

The days leading up to the 138th FA Cup final have been dominated by the most modern of football controversies around

the English champions.

 

One did admittedly come from celebrating that Premier League title, as footage was released of City employees singing a terrace chant that references supporters of title rivals Liverpool being “battered in the streets” and “victims of it all”. There then followed a New York Times report that Uefa investigators would suggest City are suspended from the Champions League over allegations of lying about violations of Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. Thursday brought the confirmation from the European governing body that the English champions have been referred to the Club Financial Control Body adjudicatory chambers following the conclusion of the investigation.

City responded to this with highly assertive statements. In the case of the footage, where arguments had been made the chant referred to the attack of Liverpool fan Sean Cox and the Hillsborough disaster, the club wholly denied either meaning.

 

“The song in question, which has been a regular chant during the 2018-19 season, refers to the 2018 Uefa Champions League final in Kiev. Any suggestions that the lyrics relate to Sean Cox or the Hillsborough tragedy is entirely without foundation.”

 

However, there was no acknowledgement of why a chant featuring the lyrics “battered in the streets” was being sung by employees in the first place.

Watch more

• In terms of the FFP case and the New York Times report, City declared themselves “disappointed, but regrettably not surprised by the sudden announcement of the referral to be made by the CFCB IC Chief Investigator Yves Leterme” and that “the accusation of financial irregularities remains entirely false”. This was despite the fact that the club is, in this case, actually accused of misleading investigators, not FFP violation.

 

With both statements, the nature of City’s response actually prolonged the news cycle, and brought more questions – not to mention emotional responses from fans.

 

It’s difficult not to feel some sympathy for Watford in all of this, as preparations for a special day in the club’s history have been greatly overshadowed.

 

Part of that is down to modern football, and how we in the media admittedly don’t view the FA Cup with a traditional reverence anymore. It is now a lesser competition, and a lesser story. Much of it, however, is down to the modern Manchester City.

 

Previews like this would at this point usually look at previous attempts to win the treble, where they fell, why this has never been done before and why it is such a novel feat.

The reality is such a history would be almost irrelevant, because City’s campaign bears virtually no relation to anything that has come before it.

The Abu Dhabi takeover is simply unprecedented. It is beyond the issue of inflation in football, and even separate from the damaging economic stratification fellow super-clubs have been responsible for, which has so eroded the status of competitions like the FA Cup. Football has always been dictated by money, yes, but until City 2.0 came along it was never to such a degree dictated by this level of money. It is genuinely on a different scale, and they have consequently been capable of achievements on a different scale.

 

A treble would really just be a logical – perhaps inevitable – end point to the extent of this investment, that represents the most lavish and intelligent football project in history. It would be a fitting feat of total domination.

Hence, we have a situation where the best manager in the world in Pep Guardiola can have a club almost perfectly constructed to his preferences.

Hence, we have a situation where some Uefa sources actually worry about where this FFP story could go, because it might require the governing body to take on immense legal power funded by Abu Dhabi’s infinite resources. It was only in October that leaked emails obtained by Der Spiegel showed chairman Khaldoon al Mubarak stating “he would rather spend 30 million on the 50 best lawyers in the world to sue them for the next 10 years.”

 

Hence, we have a situation where it almost feels futile to treat this FA Cup in the traditional manner of such a showpiece, where the tactics of a potential upset are discussed. City have put in place a formula where a brilliant manager and his exceptional squad are maximising the greatest resources, and it’s yielding the greatest results.

There’s first of all the fact City have won 64 of their last 76 league games over the past two seasons. There’s second of all the fact they’ve won all eight fixtures against Watford since the latter were promoted by in 2015, with an aggregate score of 25-4. Troy Deeney statements about “cojones” pale against stats, and power, like this.

 

It is why this has long been a treble that has felt entirely inevitable, rather than in any way sensational. That would instead be how to describe Watford denying them that feat. The figures indicate it would probably be the greatest upset since Wimbledon beat double-chasing Liverpool in 1988. It would certainly be greater than City’s own defeat to Wigan Athletic in 2013, since the club are a different entity to then. The full effect of the importation of an entire technical department from Barcelona – described within the game as “the Apple of football” – has been seen. It has meant, in the words of Arsene Wenger, that City have added the highest intelligence to the highest investment. That is in severe contrast to an otherwise similar project in Paris Saint-Germain.

 

Watford’s own ownership structure has come under criticism in the last few years, not least for the high turnover of players and managers, and how it has been so difficult for supporters to identify with so many transitory figures.

One of Javi Gracia’s many managerial masterstrokes – along with his tactics, and general approach – has been restoring a sense of identity to the team and the club. There is a core there, an idea there. A cup run has done wonders for this. A first ever trophy would do something else entirely, and maybe confirm the start of a new Watford era entirely.

 

Many City supporters have similarly wrestled with their identity over that time, albeit in a different way. It often feels like they are still in the midst of a long adjustment process as they continue to adapt from being one of the most endearingly neurotic English clubs to – yes – the most lavishly-funded project in football. It is, in truth, probably more difficult to mentally square the two than it is for Watford to beat them.

 

Before the takeover, there was a club infamous for spectacular failure and players being given socks with holes in the toes. Since then, there is the most polished football product imaginable – right down to glossy documentaries showcasing it all – but also owners from a country that bring much uglier questions.

Abu Dhabi has been accused of the most grave of human rights abuses and is a key actor in the war on Yemen, where it stands accused – among other things – of funnelling money to groups accused of war crimes and of subjecting detainees to electrocutions and sexual assaults.

It’s just a different world and some of the adjustment to it has been visible in the emotional – usually angry – responses from City fans to some of the news stories of the last week.

 

There have been obvious celebrations of the title win, but they’ve also been underlined with anger about how those stories were reported, how this is all an agenda, whether rivals would get the same coverage – much of the usual stuff.

And yet there are also some elements here outside the norm. You don’t have to scroll too long on social media to find supporters defiantly referring to their club’s statements and talking about how they’re up for the battle; where they're almost litigating on behalf of the club against Uefa.

Some sources familiar with Middle Eastern politics have already noted how this is a strikingly similar media approach to that in Abu Dhabi, and the United Emirates, where “criticism is not tolerated”. Instead, it is assertively struck back at. The issue, again, is how this might just bring further questions.

 

Scroll along a bit further on social media and you get more than defiance. You get City fans – and many at that – actually going further and openly defending the Abu Dhabi regime. They talk of the benefits of living in the Emirates, high-quality free health care, whether Matthew Hedges was a spy and even weigh in on the war on Yemen. Much of these involve a series of responses like “what about Saudi Arabia?” and even accusations of “anti-Arab bias”.

While it is unreasonable – and, frankly, psychologically unrealistic – to expect fans to in any way disconnect from a club they have invested so much of their lives into because of who buys them, this is something else. It does warrant criticism of those supporters. It is the sort of effect any public relations office would dream about. Some sources would even argue it is just one reason why City were bought in the first place. 

It is why this all feels a bigger story than an FA Cup final that is fairly predictable, and a treble that has become fairly predictable. That is what this City have done.

And sure, the possibility remains that Watford might genuinely do something spectacular, which is what any upset would be. That alone is illustrative. All of this is infinitely more meaningful for football than what an almost inevitable feat like a treble would be.

This is the modern City. This is modern football. This is the curious context of this year’s FA Cup final.

[suzy]

1 minute ago, Bjornebye said:

Can never work out if his wife is hot or looks like a mechanic. 

Have no idea what she looks like *goes to google*