dockers_strike

Personally, I think we have a better chance of beating them over 2 legs than in a one off final.

Laughable except it isnt funny. Becoming a 'benchmark' in football? Benchmark in cheating more like. Manchester City are targeting an era of “unprecedented” success under manager Pep Guardiola after the Premier League champions announced record revenues and profits. City’s turnover for last season soared to £613 million – the second highest income ever recorded by an English club – and they also posted record profits for the club of £41.7 million. The £43.2 million rise in revenues – fuelled by steep increases in commercial and matchday income – pushed City to eclipse rivals Manchester United’s £583 million turnover for 2021/22. That figure fell just short of the £627 million turnover United returned in 2018/19, still a record for an English club. City’s commercial revenue of £309.4 million increased by almost 14 per cent for the year ended June 30 2022 thanks largely to 12 new global and regional partner deals and is the highest in English football history. t dwarfs United’s record commercial income of £279 million in 2019/20 and helps to explain why the club were listed as the second most valuable football brand in the world behind only Real Madrid in Brand Finance’s latest report. After winning six Premier League titles in the past 10 years, including four in the past five seasons under Guardiola’s management, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the City chairman, said the club were aiming even higher in the future. “If we are to be true to the efforts of all those people that have contributed over the last 14 years to deliver our current successes, we must challenge ourselves to question everything we accept as optimal, and to define new and unprecedented goals and the right strategies to achieve them,” he said. “This is the task that Sheikh Mansour [the City owner], our shareholders and the board have set our management team. In doing so we recognise the fundamental truth that continuously delivering football success for our fans will also continue to create value for our shareholders.” Ferran Soriano, the City chief executive, echoed Al Mubarak’s remarks and said he was convinced the club would be even more successful over the next decade than the last 10 years. City are currently second in the Premier League, two points behind leaders Arsenal, and chasing a first Champions League crown. Guardiola is out of contract at the end of the season but City hope to persuade him to sign a new deal. 'Strong revenue performance ultimately driven by "beautiful football"' “Our strong revenue performance was due to multiple factors, but ultimately driven by the “beautiful football” we play and the continuous fan growth that it generates; more fans, more audiences, more people in the stadium and more partners that want to be commercially associated with Manchester City,” he said. “The last 10 years have been the most successful in Manchester City’s history and I am certain the next decade will be even better. “We have more to achieve and you can be sure we will do everything we can to ensure that the club cements its place among the very best in the world. We know how difficult it is but our aim will always be to win again … and again.” While Guardiola’s side won back-to-back Premier League titles, the success was mirrored elsewhere at the club with the youth teams winning the Premier League 2 and Under-18 titles for the second successive year. City are at the forefront of the international stable of clubs owned by their parent company, City Football Group, and over the last five seasons the group has won the top league in six countries – England, the United States, Japan, India, Australia and Bolivia – three teams of its teams have clinched promotion to the top leagues in Spain, France and Uruguay and a total of 23 trophies have been landed. Al Mubarak believes City are becoming the benchmark for the rest of Europe and that their Abu Dhabi owners are realising the ambitions they had when they bought the club in 2008. “In 2008, we gave ourselves the target of exceeding the benchmarks that had been set by others within football, and in doing so, to also exceed the new standards that we believed leading clubs would achieve in the time it would take us to catch up,” he said. “Our aim was clear – to one day be the club that set the benchmark for others. The statistics and results show that in many ways we are beginning to achieve our long-term ambition. “But football does not stand still and other leading clubs continue to evolve and develop. We therefore need to constantly challenge ourselves to improve upon what we have achieved. This means innovating further in Manchester and beyond. Reimagining ourselves and how we move forward in Manchester and through City Football Group (CFG), the industry leading, multi-club organisation that Manchester City sits at the heart of.” Despite staff numbers increasing by 40 to 549, City’s wage bill dropped marginally to £353.9m, below United’s league high wage bill of £384m for last season. The club also revealed that profit from the transfer of player registrations hit £67.7m – taking the total over past five seasons to more than £250m – and helped to drive record net profits for last season of £41.7m. The success of City’s academy is also starting to bear real fruit. Since 2011/12 up to last season, 191 academy graduates have gone on to have professional careers in the Premier League, lower English leagues or main European leagues. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2022/11/07/manchester-citys-revenue-soars-613m-second-highest-english/

This is just fucking ace! Buckle up, it's a long one!

Allegedly, the first coloured film of powered flight by the Wright Flyer, shot in 1908. People seeing man's first few powered flights must have been awestruck at the sight of this.

Great pod, nailed just about everything from the game today and the upcoming EFL Cup game against Derby. Would really like to see Ramsey play and Ben Doak come on around the 60 minute mark.

This. Besides, arsenal fans will become insufferable again if they win the league. Id rather they were back in their box. If we cant win it yes, let city run away with it every season then something might be done about them although I could see newcastle besting them in a few years once they start the self sponsoring mega deals the PL reckons they've put a stop to. Yeah, me too!

Arsenal and Newcastle are like a surprise cup team getting a run of good results. Newcastle could be real dark horses especially benefitting from not having to play in Europe. They will probably still put out weak sides in the EFL and FA Cup to concentrate on league position. I dont think they have particularly good players apart from their 'Bruno' guy. Almiron has struggled to score 6 goals in the 5 years he's been there but this season, seems prolific or a flash in the pan. The rest appear journeymen who have the wind in their sails. Arsenal could start to wobble when the league resumes after thhe World Cup and later in the season if they are still playing in Europe and both cups. Whatever other clubs do, we'll go nowhere unless our form improves and we stop getting beat by allsorts of shite teams.

Fuck me, that 2nd half was nervy never mind the last 15. Id have taken the draw before kick off so, Im fucking delighted with the win and 3 points. We absolutely bossed the first half. Darwin was lively and unlucky not to get his name on the scoresheet. Mo scored both and even if Dier fucked up, Mo still had work to do. Might be a bit harsh on Darwin but he should take note how Mo just chipped the ball over the almost prone Lloris. Absolutely world class finish by Mo because he didnt break his stride from getting past Dier to lifting the ball over the keeper. Im no coach but that's all you need do when the keeper is low to the ground. Fucking just smacking it along the ground gives the keeper a chance to block it with his arm, leg, body or face! The first goal was well worked with a cross by Robbo, nice touch by Darwin to find Mo then leave the keeper rooted to the spot and just watch it end in the opposite corner of the net. Fantastic. Trent played a sublime cross field ball but several times, his defending was woeful sometimes losing Sessegnon completely. Robbo was full of energy all game. I actually thought Konate outshone Virgil today at the back. I just wish I could feel the same about the 2nd half. It was obvious Spurs were going to throw everything at us yet, the first 10 minutes, we seemed to have our heads stuck up our arses thinking the game was won. i wasnt surprised when they did score because you could see it coming the way we started slowly again. Nothing more showed this by Alli taking an age over a clearance then finding Kane was right on top of him so by the time he kicked it, the ball cannoned off Kane and could have gone anywhere. All that said, Alli was keeping Spurs out almost single handedly with his saves and collecting crosses. He might be disappointed not keeping a clean sheet but there was nothing he could do to keep Kane's shot out. The last 15 was just backs to the wall defending and I think Jurgen should have been making changes before Spurs scored. Bobby was constantly giving the ball away in dangerous places as was Elliot who generally had a good game. Spurs made a few desparate claims for pens. I thought Trent's shove in the 1st half could have been given, even if it would have been very harsh, on another day. Why do that and risk the ref or VAR giving it? Kane kicked Konate and claiming a pen was just laughable. Moura wanted a pen which was looked at by VAR apparently for Thiago's foot near his face. Ox and Joe coming on in the last few moments sihnalled how desparate we were to defend the lead and to be honest, Id resigned myself to Spurs equalising because almost every clearance in the last 5 minutes seemed to either fall to them or, we'd have the ball and the players seemed stuck in 2 minds whether to hold onto it or leather it down the other end only to end up being robbed of the ball. Not nice to watch but we held out. Fuck the game against derby, it isnt a priority in my opinion. Play the kids and squad players. We need to make sure we hammer Southampton next Saturday who may be without a manager by then. Fucking arsenal and newcastle both won? Fuck me, lets hope they get some injuries at the world cup and fall away in the 2nd half of the season else even 4th is going to be a tough task. MoTM is Mo although Alli ran him close.

I think we need to be in the top 4 and hence qualify for the CL to retain the likes of Mo, Alli, Virgil, Diaz and probably Jota and Nunez never mind attract the calibre of players we want. And no, I dont think we're signing Bellingham whether we're in the CL or not. I dont think it's just about the accounts myself and would be a disaster if we dont qualify. You only have to see how it's affected arsenal and to a lesser degree united or spurs.

Thought the same! Apparently the lad has done a follow up vid because of the aggro caused after the game by the fans of the one true Merseyside team everyone else loves (the shite) rather than hates (us).

Think Hendo will be in for either Fabinho or, more likely Elliot myself.

I think Rememberance Day is fittingly on 11 November this year?

Eating everything out of a fucking bowl! 25% of people say they now eat most or all of their food from a bowl with 10% saying they never use a plate to eat their food off. That's not the odd meal, it's everything including a roast dinner or fish and chips!

Are there any PL refs at the World Cup? Oh my god, Oliver and Taylor. Here's hoping they make an absolute balls up in a major game and ridiculue PGMOL and the PL!

Haha, 'Do the shite fans have a chip on their shoulder?' and the first words out of his trap are.......'No, it's Liverpool fans........! Wonder what he thinks tonight?

There was a programme on Granada tv about a ref in the Football League. It was before the Premier League and admittedly, he wasnt a Division One ref at the time. The cameras followed him around incluing showing what he did outside football etc. Then it switched to a game and pre match stuff. The camera is in the officials dressing room before a game and he's telling his 2 linos he's in charge and how he will look to ref the game. Next thing he says 'I dont want anyone else ie the linos, giving a penalty. I'll make the call and if I need to speak to you, I'll come over and ask you what you saw.' In other words, he's telling the linos not to signal a pen by putting the flag across their chest as he and he alone will make the call. Ive no doubt many refs in the PL, especially the ones with big egos and in the EFL still operate like that today.

One fucking went off behind ours just now, sounded like Id expect a battlefield tactical nuke does when they go off. It was that fucking loud with a pressure wave!

Cant see Stevie accepting that particular poisoned chalice and the shite fans would be against it every bit as they were with Rafa.

Only downside is we cant mock them until after we've played tomorrow.

Think he might struggle with that bit!

Just seen city Fulham result. 5th minute inury time penalty to city, who was the ref, Anthony Taylor? Presume it's the type of pen appeal that regularly gets waved away for Mo? I mean obvious pen for the shite against them turned down and everyone went 'WTF?' and so it continues.

Talk about the twilight zone.

Sheeesh! Braver man than me, these home build helicopter guys!

Well if they're incompetent, they shouldnt be reffing or running the line in PL games never mind headline PL games. If they're corrupt, nuff said. Was that lino dropped from the assistant ref's list for a game or two? No sniggering at the back! There's far too much bias shown by refs and linos towards us. Yes, I know other fans can say the same about their team. These are the same fans who call us LiVARpool despite all the evidence regularly showing we're below average in benefiting from VAR decisions. There's also the weird situation where oppos can kick shit out of our players and escape yellow cards but then one of ours is carded. We frequently seem to come out of games with more cards than the oppos yet we've been fouled more! Looking back, Taylor's alleged comment to both managers pre kick off is appalling and stupidity at best. You're going to ref a high profile game such as this and you're effectively telling the managers Im going to let players off with far more than I would in another PL game? Seriously? Stupid Taylor made a rod for his own back if those alleged comments are true especially as everyone views his 'Im an Altrincham fan' with a heavy dose of salt. But we keep coming back to the lino and that incident. Im sat probably 100 yards away from that in the SKD Upper and even I could see that was a foul by Silva. Even Mr MaGoo would have seen that. The FA want fans, players and managers to respect the officials. Im on board. At the same time, officials seem to get off close scrutiny for glaring errors in games. No better place to start would be stopping Taylor reffing any game involving either manc club although that wont stop his bias shining through whenever he'd ref us against any other PL team. Next, linos need to be held accountable for clear errors such as this in games. Then, the officials would start earning everyone's respect.

Even at this level, that's a class goal!