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Man City - the new bitters?


Naz17
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Good strong reply by the Club. I've never booed, but guess what, I'll be boooing from every orifice against Real Madrid. UEFA, you shithouses, you have just poked the hornets nest, prepare for the ramifications. You're going to feel the pain, a lot of pain, a lot of financial pain because we are going to rip you to pieces you corrupt pieces of shit. You hurt my club, you hurt me. This could be the kick up the arse us fans have all needed to get back to being one. Let the fun begin.

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A few things-

 

It's worked out well that they never won the CL to this point. It'd be infinitely more awkward for UEFA to strip them of ill-gotten trophies, so now they simply boot them out of even participating. 

 

Also, I'm so glad the reds have the ridiculous lead they do. Not even the most bitter, one-eyed opposition supporter could pretend that City could've reeled the reds in but for this rather significant distraction. 

 

Lastly, I think West Ham are in for a beating of a lifetime. City at home after this announcement will be a fairly angry atmosphere, and Moyes' cowardly methods will be the perfect fodder for these flat-trackers. 

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1 hour ago, Jose Jones said:

Nah, I reckon strip them of the titles. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the teams who came second get retrospectively awarded them. Just Man City shouldn’t be recorded as winners.

make them martyrs not for me. Exposed cheats is better imo

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One more time then.

 

There are countless examples over the past couple of decades. If you're caught doping, you're stripped of the titles you nefariously won. Those titles are then handed to the various runners-up - the rightful, honest winners. Those handed-on titles aren't devalued in any way. They're devalued if you let cheats keep them or declare them as simply "void" in order to spare blushes.

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39 minutes ago, magicrat said:

It does beg the question how a medium sized club can ever break into the European elite without pumping in vast sums of cash and falling foul of FFP rules. It's obvious years of losses will happen before they get revenue to a level where they can operate profitably, City just chose to lie and ignore the rules and the shit has hot the fan eventually . I don't know what the answer is but much as I despise City UEFA are no saints and run a crooked game to protect the established few as many have said on here over the years. 

How does a medium sized club break into the European elite? They cannot. Until they have 10 or 20 years track record of playing and winning elite European competition. That's the point of being elite, isnt it? You've a history of winning elite competitions and not just getting lucky in a once in a life time lottery.

 

If a club just rocks up and spunks huge, and I mean huge, amounts of money, that doesnt make them elite and never will. In my humble opinion.

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9 minutes ago, magicrat said:

make them martyrs not for me. Exposed cheats is better imo

So you let ben johnson, lance armstrong and a host of other drug cheats deny clean athletes and teams their just reward of being 'gold medalist' or champions? Nah, it's easy for us sitting on the side and say dont give the runners up those titles when they've sweated blood and made sacrifices in their lives to try and achive those goals only to see them robbed by cheats.

 

 

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1 minute ago, dockers_strike said:

How does a medium sized club break into the European elite? They cannot. Until they have 10 or 20 years track record of playing and winning elite European competition. That's the point of being elite, isnt it? You've a history of winning elite competitions and not just getting lucky in a once in a life time lottery.

 

If a club just rocks up and spunks huge, and I mean huge, amounts of money, that doesnt make them elite and never will. In my humble opinion.

Pretty much agree and I am not defending City.  My point was that if you're not in the club now there is no chance of getting a membership and sharing in the spoils. Everton have history and have won plenty of trophies but there isn't a hope in hell they will ever be a major force again.

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3 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

So you let ben johnson, lance armstrong and a host of other drug cheats deny clean athletes and teams their just reward of being 'gold medalist' or champions? Nah, it's easy for us sitting on the side and say dont give the runners up those titles when they've sweated blood and made sacrifices in their lives to try and achive those goals only to see them robbed by cheats.

 

 

Fair points and opinion pretty much divided from what I've read so far. I think we can be fairly sure the FA won't go that far anyway. 

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8 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

How does a medium sized club break into the European elite?

Well - there really is no place for a medium sized club at that table. And you don't buy your way in anyway.

 

But over the last 10-15 years teams like Dortmund, Atletico, Sevilla have played their way into the mix. The Red Bull clubs are trying to do it now.

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Just now, TheHowieLama said:

Everyone in England knew they were cheating and did nothing. Can't go back now 

Knowing and proving are different things. I wouldnt hold on anyone, not even city being banged to rights on 'knowing' they were financially doping. Once you have substantive evidence considered by a proper due process that proves they have been, that's totally right and proper they are then banged to rights.

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13 minutes ago, magicrat said:

Pretty much agree and I am not defending City.  My point was that if you're not in the club now there is no chance of getting a membership and sharing in the spoils. Everton have history and have won plenty of trophies but there isn't a hope in hell they will ever be a major force again.

Spurs were thereabouts for a few years and still have a manager that has won loads. They needed to capitalize on their sustained good form these past few years though. 

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4 hours ago, Trumo said:

If a team must be stripped of a title for flouting regulations, it should go to the team that finished immediately below them or lost to them in a final. I know it's not the best way for another team to be awarded a title, but the authorities - having chased the money for so long and promoted their 'product' to such an extent that millions of pounds have poured in from all over the globe - cannot really afforded to void entire seasons.


A awful way to win what you’ve originally been cheated out of, but the teams receiving these correctly reassigned trophies, should create a separate section or display in their trophy rooms that clearly points out how these ‘wins’ came to pass.

 

A few constant reminders dotted around the football world for future generations of supporters to marvel at.

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3 hours ago, Philtrum said:

IAN LADYMAN: If Manchester City have won trophies by CHEATING the system then we must put an asterisk against their success and question how long Pep Guardiola will stick around

 

There has been an asterisk against much of Manchester City’s recent achievements ever since UEFA opened their investigation against the English champions in 2018.

If our most successful modern club have assembled their haul of trophies by cheating the system then does any of it really count?

This will be the question pondered with some enthusiasm by City’s rivals at home and across the continent over the weekend and we already know the conclusion they will reach. They will forever believe that City — in the middle portion of Abu Dhabi ownership at least — have bought their success by foul means.

 

In terms of reputation, UEFA’s judgment last night is bordering on catastrophic for City.

It goes against everything they claim to stand for, against everything they have told us. It means — if all appeals subsequently fail — that history will have to be rewritten. Wherever they go, a whiff of dishonesty will follow.

But the implications for City this morning go beyond those concerning credibility and fairness. They reach deep inside the most fundamental part of the club and tap manager Pep Guardiola squarely on the shoulder. Yes, this is about numbers and pound signs and interpretations of complicated UEFA regulations that may not have been terribly well thought-out in the first place. But this is about football, too, and this may yet be the greatest threat to City of all.

 

Guardiola, for all his preaching about style and the development of footballers, is a coach who exists to win. Like all the great football people, second is nowhere to Guardiola.

He has won handsomely in England — two Premier Leagues and three domestic cups in three full seasons — but has fallen short in Europe. He has not won the Champions League since 2011, two managerial postings ago.

That is almost a nine-year cycle that a coach who arrived in England at the peak of his powers remains obsessively desperate to break. Yet, as it stands this morning, the Catalan — who will be 50 next year — is now quite literally out of the game.

The practicalities and the complexities of football’s legal system will mean that what will surely be a drawn-out appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport could yet see them play European football next season. But beyond that? Nobody — least of all Guardiola — can really be so sure.

As of last night, they are no longer members of the elite club. From Guardiola’s point of view, he might just as well be coaching on the moon.

 

Contracted to the club until the end of next season, Guardiola has recently been giving a Kevin De Bruyne body swerve to questions about his future. Maybe now we understand part of the reason why.

This is Guardiola’s fourth season at City as it is. If he doesn’t win the Champions League this time, how long will he wait? Two more years before he gets to have another go? It seems rather unlikely.

So this feels like a tipping point for City and their manager and just as club officials will now seek to protect and project their reputation, so will he.

A self-proclaimed man of principle, Guardiola has faced questions about the transparency of his employers’ conduct before and has understandably hidden behind the fact that UEFA had proven nothing.

But what now? Where does this leave a man who for so long has constructed a reputation around the most earthy, balletic beauties of our sport? What will it say about his achievements here if they were — in part at least — purchased on the never-never?

 

This is Guardiola’s quandary now. He has friends at City. That, to some extent, is why he is here in the first place. They have been telling him for a while to ignore the noise, that UEFA’s fair play rules have always been designed to punish the upwardly mobile anyway.

And they may have had a point. Strip it all away and much of this does not seem terribly fair. But that is of no comfort to Guardiola this morning.

City might not have liked the rules but they did know about them from the get-go. It may will be that this is where this business eventually starts and ends.

This story will certainly play out for a good while yet. City’s aggressive stance last night — and the fact that UEFA suggest they have never really complied with the investigation — suggests that the club always suspected this is where it was heading.

They believe they are victims in this and in some quarters they will find a sympathetic ear.

But their manager never really did like to hang around in one place for too long.

He now has his own reputation to think about. If he wants to push against the door, he now finds that it is already partly open.

 

 

"But their manager never really did like to hang around in one place for too long."

 

 

 

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