coachpotato

Sounds churlish to say it after we’ve gone through, but that last 20 or so minutes was frustrating because we just switched off, got complacent and if it weren’t for Alisson we’d probably be playing extra time against a team with fuck all to lose and their tails up. It shouldn’t happen when you’ve dominated play, scored two goals and looked all over that you’d get another two at least. Anyway, through to the next round, hope we get a decent draw, love to see Chelsea get Everton!

Just looked it up, Bates bought them for £1 in 1982 and Abramovich gave him £18m when he took the club over, the club had debts of £80m at the time.

Didn’t he buy them off Bates for a £1? Or was that someone else?

They’d then always be the club that had the longest stay in the top division without being relegated.

Surely that’s “unearned income”? FFP not breached then?

I’ve no idea how much Chelsea owe Abramovich, or how much their club is worth, but the cynical bastard in me can’t believe for one minute that Abramovich has done all he has for that club “ for the love of it”. Billionaires don’t tend to be philanthropic, they don’t get to be billionaires if they are, and given he’s a billionaire with known links to a thug and gangster, it’s extremely unlikely anything he is doing or saying has anything but an ulterior motive to it. Wouldn’t trust him or his mates as far as a one armed midget could throw them.

Not a single mention of how many times they and United get a Greater Manchester referee officiating in their games. Myopic.

Several of their players shushing our fans, Kepa blatantly holding up the penalty takers, Tuchel bringing off a keeper who’d had a great game for one who is an “expert” penalty saver who didn’t save one. Couldn’t have happened to a more arrogant, self entitled, obnoxious bunch of pricks. Hasselbaink saying they had the better chances as well, deluded twat. Well, look at the name on the trophy gobshites, it isn’t yours.

Unfortunately, the Tottenham and Southampton results apart, they are winning ugly, and that’s how you win titles. I still believe they’d weaken their team (if that’s possible with their squad) for league games if it meant they played full strength in the CL quarters or semi’s, depending on who they were drawn against. I’d love them and Chelsea matched up in either! Guardiola has a history of bizarre selections and tactics when the going gets tough, so there’s definitely hope as long as we keep on winning and keep a better goal difference.

This.

In this country, the majority of fans are like Evertonians, they take the moral high ground when it comes to corruption and cheating, they believe it doesn’t/can’t happen in this country but are quite happy to call out corruption in Italy or elsewhere. Simply put, where there’s money, there’s corruption, our league has the most money and so, if you believe that, why wouldn’t there be dodgy dealings? I’ve watched football for a long time now and although I don’t get all decisions right, when I see incidents like tonight’s at Goodison, my first instinct is usually right. Immediately Rodri put his arm towards the ball and controlled it, and his reaction straight after, convinced me it was handball. The replays convinced me further. Why any official couldn’t see that with all the technologies available leaves me personally with one conclusion, whoever was calling it has an agenda to not call things as they are, in other words, they are corrupt. Perhaps there are some who are similarly corrupt in our favour, maybe not, I don’t know, but nothing would surprise me after tonight.

Rather than Everton playing well, City have been poor, for them. When they get their shit together they’ll score, but before then, Everton might get one to make things interesting. Can’t see City scoring less than two here though.

If he carries on improving it’ll be difficult to keep him here. Someone will pay good money for him to have a first team place. In the longer run, it might be better to allow him to move on, but with a buy back clause should we need him back at some point.

As I said in another thread, if we play as we can do, there’ll be no problem. Other teams know this, we know this, everyone knows this. When we play our best we are pretty much unbeatable. So, it’s down to us.

If we play as we can play, we win. And that goes for pretty much any team we play against, City included.

Anyone, not just well known footballers, and their families should be able to go on a night out without getting hassle or grief from knobheads doling out abuse or worse. If those fellas, and they weren’t kids by the looks of them, are from around here then I hope they’re identified and dealt with, regardless of which club they might support. You wonder what kind of idiots do things like that and what points they’re hoping to make.

Not a hope in hell of them getting anything against City. City will be stung by todays result and will probably score 5 against them. Southampton we’re unlucky not to have scored another 2 and that was down to little arms….allegedly.

Never was very good at sums was Micah. It’s still a tall order, but not as tall as it was at 3pm today. You never know.

Once the “Virtual” crowd kicks in “Manchester City attendance figure v Watford 178,756.” Seriously, a virtual crowd??

As for Ferdinand and anyone else who thought it was undeserved or a fluke, the score was 2-0, you just suck on that until after the next game and see how you feel then.

At this stage of the competition you shouldn’t expect a walk over, unless you’re playing Porto, and so it proved. I said at the weekend we seem to have recovered some of the “mentality monster” attitude and that was evident I thought tonight. Once we started playing as we can, and the changes kicked that into gear, they didn’t have an answer, good as they obviously are, and I expect us to finish the tie at Anfield, but it’s only half time and games can be turned around……as we well know!

Decent game. Officials seem to be decent too, ref taking no shit most of the time and Lino’s that actually flag when there’s an offside! Who’d have thought it! We need to be a bit calmer at times, both at the back and up front, but they aren’t used to a press like ours and it’ll be interesting to see if they last our pace out or not as the game progresses, just don’t make any silly errors and we’ll be fine. There’s a second leg too of course, irrespective of what happens tonight.

SSN gutted that City have had a fifth goal chalked off for offside, for now. It’ll end up with them setting a new record for the knockout stage, which currently stands at 7-0, as City never slack off against anyone usually. Hope they draw PSG in the semi final.

The main (only?) reason Guardiola was brought in was to win the Champions League with all its kudos, otherwise, why would you need to sack managers who had won the domestic title? It’s all about raising the profile for the sports washing owners, and the highest profile is Champions League, then World Club winners, something Guardiola alluded to, albeit sarcastically, the other day when he said they shouldn’t be called the best side in the world as either Chelsea or Palmeiras would be that after their game. That’s why I hope they continue to fail in the CL as it’s the one they want desperately and will throw unlimited funds at to win. Love to beat them in the final, but not sure the heart would stand it!

Perfect description.