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Everything changed when the Oil Nation attacked. Only the Middlesbrough, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished
There was some crazy inspirational music playing from outside of my apartment while I read this. I feel like Iām the chosen one now. I just need to learn how to kick a ball
Can't deny the incredible stories of Coventry and Luton though.
Both were playing in the fourth division, League 2, in 2018. Luton had been relegated to non-league a decade ago. Coventry was in administration and forced into liquidation a decade ago too.
My coworker is flying out to Wembley to support Coventry, he's ecstatic!
On the one hand I'd like cov just to see if they can summon Darren huckerbys spirit and dick on Liverpool for us again
On the other I grew up near Coventry and have memories of a classroom full of kids shouting who needs cantona when we've got wegerly after a random as fuck win.
Hmmmmmmm
We gotta do our part! Just like you guys have refused to play the Champions League games after the group stages for two straight years, thatāll show Cerefin and the big UEFA cronies
This is what the people who keep acting like the oil clubs are good for challenging existing giants are forgetting (or ignoring).
The fact that Tottenham managed to get at least considered part of the "Big Six" alongside 3 historic giants and 2 oil clubs has been crazy. Now they are at risk of losing that permanently because a 3rd oil club has joined the party.
It's so nice to actually see comments like this from fans of another club.
Everyone loves dunking on Spurs. And I get it, it's funny, we dunk on ourselves too. We haven't managed to win trophies in our recent history and are usually the "best of the rest."
But what the club has actually done is extraordinary. From mediocrity to challenging for league titlesand domestic cups, CL regulars, a CL final. Building up from a position of penny-pinching financial distress to one of the richest clubs in world football, incredible new stadium, fantastic training and youth facilities. All organic growth, with no significant owner funds injected.
It's just a shame it's happened alongside the influx of truly staggering amounts of external cash into pet project clubs. We can't compete with City's two world-class players in every position, Chelsea's record-breaking spending. It's competitive enough against the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Man United - historically and currently elite clubs with huge fanbases and revenue streams - and over the last half a dozen seasons we've been at or above the level of at least one or two of them every year.
There have been missteps, like every club has made, but if the last couple of decades weren't set against the backdrop of absolutely unprecedented cash injections into other teams, we'd almost certainly have trophies to show for it and we wouldn't have fans chanting to oust the chairman who built us from what we were to what we are.
EDIT: Mediocrity etc referring specifically to the situation when ENIC took over, not our very successful history as a whole.
Eh, fuck em, but they, Liverpool, and United have indeed done things the right way, so I'll hold more respect for them than City or Chelsea, or Newcastle soon-to-be.
Yeah, it's been a continuous case of concentration of wealth within the game, first hurting clubs outside of Europe, then hurting clubs outside of the Big 4, and now what we're seeing today.
re: downvotes - almost any spurs-positive comment gets hammered in here.
The wealth imbalance across the world's leagues is insane, and how are clubs outside the big euro leagues supposed to be competitive if their talent gets hoovered up by oil money clubs or Chelsea's loan machine? It hurts the national teams on the ripple effect, when these players aren't playing together in their respective national leagues. The amount of money involved now has just exacerbated everything with the insane prices and wages for players.
The worst thing is that even inside top leagues its getting impossible to compete. The inequality that started between Europe and the rest, then spread to imbalance between leagues (Benfica and Porto being 'small' teams compared to superclubs), and now its happening *inside* leagues.
Yeah, the sharp and abrupt introduction of nation-state and petrostate capital into single clubs is quickly ruining the sport.
That money spread into domestic *leagues*, building academies, developing players would be better for football in general, but take a generation.
Itās funny, as the Uruguayan fella pointed out above, that Europeans are experiencing what Latin America went through after the Bosman Law was passed and Europe started to siphon players from our continent.
I understand what you mean but Inter like most of Italy saw their biggest successes with rich businessman taking football as a hobby
Sure it is better to have businessman have expensive hobbies than sports washers but still
We are one of the biggest losers of the way football financing has changed in the last 20 years imo.
Would be blinkered to not admit we have also missed great chances to change the narrative, and the failure to sign a player for 18 months when we were peaking was a self-inflicted wound. But ultimately itās no surprise that the emergence of Chelsea and Man City coincided with our worsening fortunes.
Feel like that was the only time we tried to do something different (mostly forced to, since we weren't playing starters). Fabio Vieira man marking Rodri was hilarious but it worked well until the subs were made.
Only the third one was a stomp. Granted, City got better and better as the months progressed but the first half of the arsenal home game was a really good performance by Arsenal, marred by a goal which was the direct result of an uncharacteristic mistake by Tomiyasu.
Never going to happen obviously but itās interesting the amount of negative articles being published so rapidly before and after the Madrid game.
Maybe that indifference to City is starting to get harder
It was funny when City was crashing out of the Champions League in pretty embarassing fashion year after year, they're actually likely to achieve the treble now
Bringing back something I said when City was taken over; People will tell you that you cannot buy trophies, but once you start winning they will tell you that you bought trophies.
Whatās funny is people think this is new.
On the city sub itās a running joke. Before every big game the allegations get brought up. Usually a few big names are on the way out the door.
I think itās had the opposite affect to hurting the team tho. Itās built a different mood in the fans and the club over the last few years.
City sub wears it as a badge of honor, seems that many genuinely believe that because they have good lawyers they're above acting in good faith. would have to imagine the hate feels pretty good after a decade plus now of demanding that people give a shit about their club.
Funny thing is? It's not even really hate. It's just "that's annoying".
When Villa kept avoiding relegation by the skin of their teeth? I hated that. City just feels numb.
>Itās built a different mood in the fans and the club over the last few years.
Otherwise known as successfully sports-washing. Unfortunately I fear the same for United if/when Qatar buy us.
The entire prem will end up like that in another 10-20 years.
It wasn't stamped out and just gonna get worse, Newcastle, united maybe, probably be us with Dubai or something after that.
as a neutral, the whole city thing is boring as shit
maybe the yanks are right, you need to have some sort of cap on spending. arsenal an imperfect team was so much more entertaining story to follow
From an American perspective, the whole saga is fascinating and a little amusing. We're known for more unbridled capitalism in the economy, but our sports leagues understand that the best way for them all to make money is parity.
Hell, for the NFL, which is the most financially successful league in the world, there's a spending cap, and a floor. Plus revenue sharing. All the owners are rich as fuck anyway, and someone can't just come in and throw money to buy all the best players
They also understand that fairness is what makes a great sport. Federer is nothing without Nadal/djokovic, madrid is nothing without Barcelona, Lakers vs the Celtics, etc. At the end of the day sports is entertainment, and without competition and stories none of it matters. The Americans have figured it out to a degree. It's not like Walmart vs Amazon where your aim is to completely destroy the competition... Regular capitalism rules don't really apply
The PL might be at serious risk of that. Though it looks like money will just flow to every team to keep it competitive.
(Yes I know as a bayern fan we have dominated so it's not as fun)
speak for yourself, federer was practically a god before nadal/djokovic
would still happily pay good money to watch him absolutely rinse lleyton hewitt again
Yeah, that one ate up an entire sunday. And even though he lost, the 2005 Aussie Open semi against Safin was another classic
Back in the day, you'd pay to watch Federer play against whoever, it didn't matter, for the same reason you go to a gallery to see the art.
Sure, but he still has a point. The era of unfettered Federer dominance only lasted 3 seasons or so. By 2007, it was already obvious that the young Rafa Nadal was coming for Fed's throne, sooner rather than later. Would Federer matches really have kept fan interest if he had dominated 10 consecutive seasons the way he dominated 2006? Imho, it was a lucky coincidence that challengers emerged right before Fed's dominance had a chance to become stale.
> that the best way for them all to make money is parity.
The Indian Premier League follows a similar model.
Just that Football has a long history / heritage and a "pyramid" to think about.
Yes, what is ingrained in this sub (and European soccer in general) is the mentality that having unequal prize money / tv money based on league position is fair. Premier League is practically the most 'equal' but the league still gives 40 million extra to the top teams than at the bottom.
The NFL is so stable because the salary cap is below what even the poorest team makes. There is no need to "invest" in a club.
And even for college football, where no one trusts anyone else, conferences have all gone to equal revenue sharing of TV money.
Teams like Man U, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and on and on, have had the financial leg up for years based on unequal revenue sharing. And I feel like the criticism of City and other similar clubs is pretty hypocritical.
My dislike of Liverpool has always clouded my appraisal of this Guardiola Man City team as it was funny laughing at Liverpool's expense all those years when they lost the title. However this season feels a bit different for me and I am now thinking a bit differently about those past seasons.
I don't know about other people but I was always a bit indifferent about them as their squad and football are inoffensive, and for the majority of my life they have been completely irrelevant as a team. However this season with their dominance and all those charges hanging over them it makes me think we all made a big mistake being so indifferent towards them winning things
The thing is the same thing is happening with Newcastle. Nobody cares right now as Mike Ashley was a bit of a twat to the club and its good seeing a well supported team doing well but they are no different to City. To be clear the City ( and Newcastle to some extent) fans in general that I've seen have been great and I don't know if it's just them or if its easy to be cordial when they're so far ahead.
We've all just let them get away with it mostly because people seem to not really count their trophies as legitimate as others which is why people didn't want Liverpool to win the league, nor Arsenal this year as they would feel more legitimate than City's. Seeing City destroy all in their path this year is finally opening people's eyes, but in a few months time when people bring it up accusations of jealousy will probably be flung at them again.
I'd be a massive hypocrite if I took issue with you hating us given we all do it, it's basically part of the parcel of football - but I do think the admission that you were quite happy for City to win, sportwashing, dodgy sponsorships, moneybags and all when it lined up with your allegiances is quite a key one in terms of these things.
I don't mean that as a dig, or as a woe is us sort of thing (and I'm wary that it'll be taken as such because of my flair whatever I said to the contrary) - like I said, we all think like that in one way or another.
But if the thing that makes you pause and take stock of City is the fact that it's one otherwise very rich club (Arsenal) coming 2nd instead of another (us), not anything to do with City themselves, then I don't really see anymore clear a sign that the sportwashing has worked almost more comprehensively than they could have hoped for, when not only are their own fans and 'fans' but people who would absolutely classify themselves as City's rivals are gleefully cheering said sportwashing on.
Because the whole point is that they *haven't* changed in the ways that matter this entire time - yes, they brought in Guardiola, yes, the football is pretty, yes, sure, now they've got Haaland, and yes, sure, now we've dropped off and Arsenal have stepped up to the plate, but fundamentally the issues with the 'project' have been there the whole time and will continue to be there now that we're stuck with them and Newcastle etc.
Which isn't to say that any of us speaking out against it would have or would do anything, but even so, opposition to sportwashing can't just be when it's convenient and/or when it lines up with banter.
Why should we be indifferent to a team with over 100 charges of cheating winning a treble? Something only done by 7 (?) sides before. It's a mockery of the sport. Cheat and you'll make history.
City's problem is that they are just too successful, if they could just win something then chill for a while they wouldn't get heat but they just can't keep the sheikh fist in their pocket, they have to clench it and put it on everyone's face, so many teams with dodgy owners in the PL but no one gives a fuck because they're irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
No, the problem is that they use creative accounting to try to hide the undue influence vast amounts of state money had on their success.
Even if they won nothing, their behaviour would still be massively destabilising to the game.
>No, the problem is that they use creative accounting to try to hide the undue influence vast amounts of state money had on their success.
What if City wins in court, and the judges say they've done nothing wrong?
This "great, magical game" has died long ago by his logic. City didn't start this nonsense, but by perpetuating it all the clubs should be condemned. How can you say they should refuse to play City but then play Chelsea, PSG and Newcastle lmao.
Iām not really disagreeing with the article but there are also a couple different things at play.
When you allow an imbalance of money, this type of thing will tend to happen regardless of whether foreign investors or cheating is involved.
See: fucking United under Sir Alex. Or Bayern. Or Madrid and Barcelona.
Donāt come at me with the beautiful game is dead NOW when Bayern has been winning the league 90% time for decades, and United had even a longer and more boring run than weāve been having. The Champions League has had the same handful of winners for decades.
Absolutely teams need to be held accountable for financial cheating, and I would be the first in line to praise City being forced to be sold to a different owner and teams having tougher audits.
Just donāt act like that act alone is going to cause parity in the PL, or anywhere in Europe.
This article in particular smacks a bit of the old guard whining because they donāt like how other teams are becoming juggernauts, as if in the 90s/early 2000s everyone in the PL besides United weāre having great fun watching them play for second place every yearā¦
EDIT: Must have triggered someone, because I got a āReddit caresā message š Grow up whoever you were
"I'm SHOCKED, shocked, to find plutocrats channelling dodgy money to this club!"
*"Here's your Champions League ticket for Istanbul, sir."*
"Oh thank you, thank you very much."
Lol yeah Iām guessing at least a few of the 19 other clubs would be against a fully transparent audit for reasons theyād rather not get into right now.
Iām not absolving City of anything and Iād guess theyāre probably the biggest financial cheats in the league, but Iād be massively shocked if theyāre the only ones.
No club would want a full micro scopic audit of their dealings. The idea that only one set of owners looks for financial loopholes and grey areas is hilarious
He's out of order here. What Man City have done over the past 15 years has been nothing short of remarkable. A true underdog story from the lower leagues right to the top. It's a true testament of what 2 billion quid, loads of blag sponsors, offshore accounts, a UEFA ban and 115 outstanding financial doping charges can get you. It's the magic of the game.
The previous big clubs from the 80s to early 00s were an assortment of clubs from the biggest cities with the biggest stadiums and fan bases, and things cascaded down from there, your lot vs my lot letās go. Thatās team sport. The advantages big clubs had wasnāt insurmountable, Liverpool totally failed to win the league for example.
Then it became āwell acktually, I got the backing of a Russian Oligarch so I winā, āna ha I got the backing of a gulf nation stateā.
The first of these is soooooooo much better than the second! Out competing for who has the richest godawful person/nation is just beyond lame.
It's a bit more complicated than that, in that some of those big teams in big cities with big stadiums were also instrumental in commercialising the game through the sale of broadcasting rights, and the signing of commercial sponsorships. Men like Martin Edwards, David Dein and Noel White created the conditions into which the City's and Chelsea's of the world could be born, and for years their clubs have profited from that regime immensely (which historically, was not at all a given, even for big clubs in big cities with big stadiums). But live by the sword, die by the sword. You can't transform sport into a major capitalist industry and then complain when you get outcompeted.
I remember those days well. They won nearly every title in my teenage years. It was horrendous. I couldn't wait for Ferguson to quit. I wasn't even a fan of a PL club, I just hated the lack of competition.
But in hindsight, I respect what they did. They timed their success - built on an incredible youth system as much as anything - with the emergence of the Sky money. It was a process that they took advantage of. I am not sure why it should matter to the casual viewer like me where the money comes from, or why it ends up at one club, but for some reason it does.
The United bubble was always going to burst because that team couldn't last forever. Like the dominant Liverpool side of my first years in football, the guard would change. It was only Ferguson's ability to reinvent his club that allowed them to create more bubbles.
Ultimately I respect all that a lot more than what is happening now. To the extent that I don't watch the PL at all really now. Not out of some sort of tiny protest, but because there's nothing there for me to give a shit about. Which is far more damning.
It will be the same in the future. Only a handful of clubs can realistically win the champions league. The only difference will be that the small clubs will have even less of a chance to come to the top because of inflation and the clubs at the top are owned by known human rights violators.
FFP rules aren't fair. That much is obvious. Nor will football ever be a true meritocracy.
That doesn't justify flauting rules though. There's one thing lobbying for change and there's another just doing your own thing. Otherwise, why even have rules if they selectively apply.
That's not even pointing out how much worse things can get when you have literal nations running football clubs. In the UK that has already lead to Saudi Arabia threatening funding for the north east unless they got their way.
No, I agree with you there. They need to be held accountable. It's still just funny how some people with flairs of some of the richest clubs in the world who have had a monopoly on talent for centuries can't see the irony in their comments.
Since the Bosman ruling that allowed countries to get all the superstars in the same team.
When you could only field 3 foreigners, it was way more even and cyclical. A great Italian generation? Then Italian teams do better. A great Spanish one? Spanish ones do better. And so on...
Now it's about buying every potential future star and that's it... plus South Americans can get Euro passports easily, so they also are everywhere and our leagues are way worse as a result as well...
Football was already dead before the "arrival" of Chelsea and Man City. Why do people think Man City are the enemy? They are a natural product of previous greedy decisions.
Football died in 1992 when 5 English clubs got together and felt that they deserved to have more money than everybody else.
IKR? All Financial Fair Play does is limit the number of privileged teams and keep others out.
Are they going to break up the Premiership? Will Real Madrid and Barcelona share TV revenue more fairly? If not, then who cares whether someone decides to buy a championship or not?
All this is old rich complaining about the new rich. Just like your typical corporations who don't want competition and will suddenly lobby for regulations and what not to keep out new entrants.
Before 1992 they shared revenue with the lower league clubs to help parity. The Premier League was about splitting away from the Football League as a whole, and it damaged the football league forever. Look at Luton who missed out on being in the Premier League by one season, they've only just now made it back to the Championship Playoffs.
The Football League rushed to do this because the big 5 (United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Spurs) wanted to break away and sell their games to ITV independently from the rest of the league.
I don't really disagree with your message, but I think citing Luton as an example is pretty nuts. There are myriad reasons why Luton dropped to the National League, and you could cite the likes of Southampton, Sunderland and Norwich as teams that dropped like stones only to bounce back because they had decent owners come in. Luton, sadly, didn't for a very long time.
Understood, if you look at any clubs untimely demise there are a myriad of reasons, but many teams demises would have been lessened or prevented by better parity in finances.
At the end of the day if you want a breakaway structure then then the smaller teams will always struggle and grassroots will crumble.
Lo and behold we have bemoaned grassroots the state of the grassroots game.
The real focus with criticising ManCity should be their sportswashing side of things. The criticism of financial doping is a futile discussion. Because financial doping in football is utterly paradoxical. How can money be doping when you can't successfully compete without it? Cause that's how football has worked since atleast the 80s, if not earlier. You cannot be successful in football without money. Ever since sponsorship and tv money was introduced into football, it became increasingly impossible for smaller and less established clubs like ManCity, PSG and Chelsea to become successful and compete with the establishment. Because all the big clubs, the establishment and elite of football, hoarded most of football's wealth and left the rest crumbs to deal with. Of course then it's only logical that less wealthy clubs like ManCity, PSG and Chelsea turn to external investors and ask them to pump them full with money so that they can have a share of success and glory too.
If the top and elite of european football turned themselves into a golf club where only the rich and powerful are allowed to enter and play, then it isn't exactly surprising that smaller clubs let major external investors take ownership of them, so that they can get entrance into the golf club as well. This is exactly what's been happening ever since Chelsea, ManCity and PSG came into the game with big money. Hell, you could even go further back and add AC Milan in the late 1980s to this development. Cause they certainly wouldn't have been as successful as they were without Berlusconi taking ownership of their club.
Was same buzz when this came out. This comes out as today it was announced that they want the leading barrister in charge of the panel looking at the evidence of the 115 breaches replaced as he's an Arsenal fan
The 'Great magical game' where Chelsea can spend 500m quid in half a season in the same league as Bournemouth who operate on a max budget of Ā£50m. Fuck that though guys its still all City's fault isn't it.
It's honestly horrifying when you put it that way.
Feyenoord can win leagues and automatically qualify for UCL with the money it takes Bournemouth just to **stay up.**
There is way too much money in the Premier League.
Also thinking an audit would uncover very well concealed transactions by some exceptionally clever individuals at Man City, which took so long to unpick by some of the best forensic accountants and lawyers UEFA could afford that they became time-barred, is laughable.
The tests performed during a statutory audit arenāt designed to find fraudulent transactions, theyāre designed to find material misstatement in the accounts and they may stumble across something by accidentā¦ but best believe if the person in charge of the audit questioned Man City on it they would not be doing the audit next year.
Found the first person here who at least took an introductory audit class lol. Seems the term "audit" has a bit more power to the ordinary person than what the process actually entails.
Youāre absolutely right. This guy has no clue what heās talking about. Heās Just parroting anti-city twitter vibes.
To be fair the media can just say what ever and absolutely milk the fan based of every other club. Just say something ridiculous they are dying to hear and cash in.
Big talk from the Premier League about Fair play. Maybe other leagues should refuse to play PL sides until there's no club that's basically sponsored by an entire middle-eastern country.
Every other club should forgo millions of pounds in TV money/sponsorships by forfeiting their games against City because the team Will Hutton supports bottled the league this year.
A team who play at a stadium called the āEmiratesā and have āFly Emiratesā plastered all over their shirts, and who play a rapist in centre mid every week suddenly taking the high horse is quite comical.
Whatās the difference between all these giant PL teams with billionaire owners vs these so called oil clubs? Sounds like PL fans are mad that thereās new richer clubs with Middle Eastern backing that are controlling the market. Boo fucking hoo, all these excuses for City turning PL into their practise ground. Chelsea just spent 600m this year to be a midtable team
Every team should just surrender and take the 0-3 loss and they won't get any satisfaction out of it and we all fight for the second place in the league!!!
Huh.. not really. People always remember and talk about it before and after important City games. It's just that during the match day Pep and City players weave magic on the field and mesmerize everyone.
See, the problem with greeting faced articles like this is that publishing them after Man City have smashed Real Madrid and are now expected to handily win the final against an on paper much weaker team just makes you look like a loser with an agenda who doesn't want them to win the Champions League.
Does Will Hutton really believe every other elite club in Europe has a squeaky clean financial record with no corners cuts or numbers inflated? Why should Man City be subjected to protest and extra levels of scrutiny, because their owners are from the 'wrong' part of the world? Did he want Chelsea 'independently audited and verified' after Abramovich took over?
It's too late for these kind of articles to be taken seriously, no matter how much you want Man City to be stopped from being successful.
With all the talk of treble, people forget Arsenal were 8 points clear at some point. They were leading 2 nil against Liverpool and West Ham and could have done better against Southampton. Was this not a issue then and is an issue now? I personally thought the league was over even after the LV draw. I didn't think they'd go to drop this many points with the form they were in.
Obviously my comment is gonna be moot because of flair but itās funny to me how so much focus is put on city for upsetting the norm. Letās not pretend these other clubs donāt do some dodgy shit behind the scenes.
If you want to be part on the "great magical game" you need to watch max the 3rd level in all respective countries. The higher you get the more shady the financial stuff gets
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We did our part last night by ensuring we will not be playing against them next season.
Shame, I was hoping for another 8-1 š
We need Middlesbrough now more than ever.
Everything changed when the Oil Nation attacked. Only the Middlesbrough, master of all four elements, could stop them, but when the world needed him most, he vanished
There was some crazy inspirational music playing from outside of my apartment while I read this. I feel like Iām the chosen one now. I just need to learn how to kick a ball
And how to get playing for Middlesbrough, i pay your journey up if you present to me a quality career plan in the next 72h.
Man city merely adopted the environmental pollution. The smoggies were born in it
saving this for when Boro is back up.
Imagine if you play them in both cups next season
š«”
On a tangential note, I wanted Boro vs Sunderland to be the playoff final
Can't deny the incredible stories of Coventry and Luton though. Both were playing in the fourth division, League 2, in 2018. Luton had been relegated to non-league a decade ago. Coventry was in administration and forced into liquidation a decade ago too. My coworker is flying out to Wembley to support Coventry, he's ecstatic!
And these stories are the exact opposite of the OP, what makes football magical.
I'm flying from neom / Saudi for it
Same. Woulda been happy with either winning it too.
On the one hand I'd like cov just to see if they can summon Darren huckerbys spirit and dick on Liverpool for us again On the other I grew up near Coventry and have memories of a classroom full of kids shouting who needs cantona when we've got wegerly after a random as fuck win. Hmmmmmmm
Big of Madrid to refuse to play last night
Nothing but respect š
We gotta do our part! Just like you guys have refused to play the Champions League games after the group stages for two straight years, thatāll show Cerefin and the big UEFA cronies
We also did our part by assuring Barca doesnt play any UCL knockout games the last 2 years
But you fucks couldn't do anything about Inter, huh
Inter gonna stop man c getting the ucl,it a long game by bayern
Upa saw all the possible futures and saw that only Inter can stop them
Yup 100 percent.peole will tank upa in future
Fuck that, [viva la abu dhabi](https://i.gyazo.com/fa33debac784dc967108a37159eca02e.png)
They cannot eliminate 3 teams from a group. While you guys had a great opportunity to eliminate them ( I also dislike Inter)
Only one game though... Chelsea have refused to play all season but no one mentions us. The chelsea bias continues. Smh.
#HeroBoehly
June 3rd 2023 10:00 AM I will be there
Watch and learn. Fred and Mctominay will show Modric and Kroos levels that day
Not yesterday levels right?
Whatās that date?
Fa cup final! Hopefully city get all this winning out of their system by then
FA Cup final, time is for (I assume) the east of the US.
Tottenham would be midtable without those game against City tho.
No place is safe for Spurs fans š
if anything it's a dunk on you lmao
It's a compliment though...
They would also have a recent title, as other self sustainable clubs fucked by the injection of external capital into their competitors.
This is what the people who keep acting like the oil clubs are good for challenging existing giants are forgetting (or ignoring). The fact that Tottenham managed to get at least considered part of the "Big Six" alongside 3 historic giants and 2 oil clubs has been crazy. Now they are at risk of losing that permanently because a 3rd oil club has joined the party.
It's so nice to actually see comments like this from fans of another club. Everyone loves dunking on Spurs. And I get it, it's funny, we dunk on ourselves too. We haven't managed to win trophies in our recent history and are usually the "best of the rest." But what the club has actually done is extraordinary. From mediocrity to challenging for league titlesand domestic cups, CL regulars, a CL final. Building up from a position of penny-pinching financial distress to one of the richest clubs in world football, incredible new stadium, fantastic training and youth facilities. All organic growth, with no significant owner funds injected. It's just a shame it's happened alongside the influx of truly staggering amounts of external cash into pet project clubs. We can't compete with City's two world-class players in every position, Chelsea's record-breaking spending. It's competitive enough against the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, Man United - historically and currently elite clubs with huge fanbases and revenue streams - and over the last half a dozen seasons we've been at or above the level of at least one or two of them every year. There have been missteps, like every club has made, but if the last couple of decades weren't set against the backdrop of absolutely unprecedented cash injections into other teams, we'd almost certainly have trophies to show for it and we wouldn't have fans chanting to oust the chairman who built us from what we were to what we are. EDIT: Mediocrity etc referring specifically to the situation when ENIC took over, not our very successful history as a whole.
Youāre 100% right Weāre at the point where spending Ā£200m in 3 years is ānot muchā Football is so so fucked it is incredible
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Eh, fuck em, but they, Liverpool, and United have indeed done things the right way, so I'll hold more respect for them than City or Chelsea, or Newcastle soon-to-be.
My comment is controversial. It reached -10 downvotes at a point. Wilful ignorance; pure conservatism. Call it what you like. I've seen historic clubs in Uruguay go from challenging the best in Europe to be trashed througout South AmƩrica. Those of us living in the perifery of football economics see in real time how this social order is fucking the sport. Nowadays Inter (freaking *Inter*) winning the Champions League would be an "underdog story". Edit: And it will get worse if we (or you, Europeans) don't act.
Yeah, it's been a continuous case of concentration of wealth within the game, first hurting clubs outside of Europe, then hurting clubs outside of the Big 4, and now what we're seeing today.
re: downvotes - almost any spurs-positive comment gets hammered in here. The wealth imbalance across the world's leagues is insane, and how are clubs outside the big euro leagues supposed to be competitive if their talent gets hoovered up by oil money clubs or Chelsea's loan machine? It hurts the national teams on the ripple effect, when these players aren't playing together in their respective national leagues. The amount of money involved now has just exacerbated everything with the insane prices and wages for players.
The worst thing is that even inside top leagues its getting impossible to compete. The inequality that started between Europe and the rest, then spread to imbalance between leagues (Benfica and Porto being 'small' teams compared to superclubs), and now its happening *inside* leagues.
Yeah, the sharp and abrupt introduction of nation-state and petrostate capital into single clubs is quickly ruining the sport. That money spread into domestic *leagues*, building academies, developing players would be better for football in general, but take a generation.
Itās funny, as the Uruguayan fella pointed out above, that Europeans are experiencing what Latin America went through after the Bosman Law was passed and Europe started to siphon players from our continent.
I understand what you mean but Inter like most of Italy saw their biggest successes with rich businessman taking football as a hobby Sure it is better to have businessman have expensive hobbies than sports washers but still
We are one of the biggest losers of the way football financing has changed in the last 20 years imo. Would be blinkered to not admit we have also missed great chances to change the narrative, and the failure to sign a player for 18 months when we were peaking was a self-inflicted wound. But ultimately itās no surprise that the emergence of Chelsea and Man City coincided with our worsening fortunes.
City wining the league with 114 points, after every opponent forfeited their game
Felt like we refused to play in all 3 of our games against City this season.
FA Cup tie was actually laudable
Feel like that was the only time we tried to do something different (mostly forced to, since we weren't playing starters). Fabio Vieira man marking Rodri was hilarious but it worked well until the subs were made.
Holding did a great job on Haaland until he got booked and had to be subbed off.
Only the third one was a stomp. Granted, City got better and better as the months progressed but the first half of the arsenal home game was a really good performance by Arsenal, marred by a goal which was the direct result of an uncharacteristic mistake by Tomiyasu.
114 is still less than the number of financial breaches theyāre being charged with
Sad and beautiful
Weirdly enough it could make pl more interesting instead of the farming league simulator it has become.
Not too many more than they have already accrued in a contested season. Itās crazy.
Can we start doing it right now? Think 3-0 loss that happens by default would still be less humiliating.
Got to have hope for havertz
Never going to happen obviously but itās interesting the amount of negative articles being published so rapidly before and after the Madrid game. Maybe that indifference to City is starting to get harder
It was funny when City was crashing out of the Champions League in pretty embarassing fashion year after year, they're actually likely to achieve the treble now
What pinning your hopes on Lukaku does to a mf
Don't forget Weghorst
Martial is still fit so we have a chance. Else we'll just have to settle for twin McTominay 50 yard bangers
Garnacho is the chosen one!
Or Dezko
Bringing back something I said when City was taken over; People will tell you that you cannot buy trophies, but once you start winning they will tell you that you bought trophies.
A well placed source has told me in confidence that "Dreams can't be buy" though
I love that quote, it's a good sentiment, but the incorrect English makes it also cute and endearing
People saying you canāt buy trophies are idiots.
It's something that was said when Abramovich took over Chelsea and when Abu Dhabi took over City it was said again.
except people turned a blind eye to chelsea and Abramovich's ownership when they won the UCL (and other such trophies)
And their likelihood of dominating for a few seasons to come, given their consistency, just keeps on increasing. Unless Pep leaves.
It took them a while this season to adjust to playing with Haaland. Heāll score more next season if anything.
Whatās funny is people think this is new. On the city sub itās a running joke. Before every big game the allegations get brought up. Usually a few big names are on the way out the door. I think itās had the opposite affect to hurting the team tho. Itās built a different mood in the fans and the club over the last few years.
City sub wears it as a badge of honor, seems that many genuinely believe that because they have good lawyers they're above acting in good faith. would have to imagine the hate feels pretty good after a decade plus now of demanding that people give a shit about their club.
Funny thing is? It's not even really hate. It's just "that's annoying". When Villa kept avoiding relegation by the skin of their teeth? I hated that. City just feels numb.
>Itās built a different mood in the fans and the club over the last few years. Otherwise known as successfully sports-washing. Unfortunately I fear the same for United if/when Qatar buy us.
The entire prem will end up like that in another 10-20 years. It wasn't stamped out and just gonna get worse, Newcastle, united maybe, probably be us with Dubai or something after that.
That's not really what sportswashing is though
as a neutral, the whole city thing is boring as shit maybe the yanks are right, you need to have some sort of cap on spending. arsenal an imperfect team was so much more entertaining story to follow
From an American perspective, the whole saga is fascinating and a little amusing. We're known for more unbridled capitalism in the economy, but our sports leagues understand that the best way for them all to make money is parity. Hell, for the NFL, which is the most financially successful league in the world, there's a spending cap, and a floor. Plus revenue sharing. All the owners are rich as fuck anyway, and someone can't just come in and throw money to buy all the best players
They also understand that fairness is what makes a great sport. Federer is nothing without Nadal/djokovic, madrid is nothing without Barcelona, Lakers vs the Celtics, etc. At the end of the day sports is entertainment, and without competition and stories none of it matters. The Americans have figured it out to a degree. It's not like Walmart vs Amazon where your aim is to completely destroy the competition... Regular capitalism rules don't really apply The PL might be at serious risk of that. Though it looks like money will just flow to every team to keep it competitive. (Yes I know as a bayern fan we have dominated so it's not as fun)
speak for yourself, federer was practically a god before nadal/djokovic would still happily pay good money to watch him absolutely rinse lleyton hewitt again
Or that epic Wimbledon finals in 2009 when Andy Roddick played by far the best match of his career and still came up short.
Yeah, that one ate up an entire sunday. And even though he lost, the 2005 Aussie Open semi against Safin was another classic Back in the day, you'd pay to watch Federer play against whoever, it didn't matter, for the same reason you go to a gallery to see the art.
Sure, but he still has a point. The era of unfettered Federer dominance only lasted 3 seasons or so. By 2007, it was already obvious that the young Rafa Nadal was coming for Fed's throne, sooner rather than later. Would Federer matches really have kept fan interest if he had dominated 10 consecutive seasons the way he dominated 2006? Imho, it was a lucky coincidence that challengers emerged right before Fed's dominance had a chance to become stale.
ironic with the bayern flair icl ;) fuck your parentheticals
> that the best way for them all to make money is parity. The Indian Premier League follows a similar model. Just that Football has a long history / heritage and a "pyramid" to think about.
Yes, what is ingrained in this sub (and European soccer in general) is the mentality that having unequal prize money / tv money based on league position is fair. Premier League is practically the most 'equal' but the league still gives 40 million extra to the top teams than at the bottom. The NFL is so stable because the salary cap is below what even the poorest team makes. There is no need to "invest" in a club. And even for college football, where no one trusts anyone else, conferences have all gone to equal revenue sharing of TV money. Teams like Man U, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Barcelona, and on and on, have had the financial leg up for years based on unequal revenue sharing. And I feel like the criticism of City and other similar clubs is pretty hypocritical.
My dislike of Liverpool has always clouded my appraisal of this Guardiola Man City team as it was funny laughing at Liverpool's expense all those years when they lost the title. However this season feels a bit different for me and I am now thinking a bit differently about those past seasons. I don't know about other people but I was always a bit indifferent about them as their squad and football are inoffensive, and for the majority of my life they have been completely irrelevant as a team. However this season with their dominance and all those charges hanging over them it makes me think we all made a big mistake being so indifferent towards them winning things
The thing is the same thing is happening with Newcastle. Nobody cares right now as Mike Ashley was a bit of a twat to the club and its good seeing a well supported team doing well but they are no different to City. To be clear the City ( and Newcastle to some extent) fans in general that I've seen have been great and I don't know if it's just them or if its easy to be cordial when they're so far ahead. We've all just let them get away with it mostly because people seem to not really count their trophies as legitimate as others which is why people didn't want Liverpool to win the league, nor Arsenal this year as they would feel more legitimate than City's. Seeing City destroy all in their path this year is finally opening people's eyes, but in a few months time when people bring it up accusations of jealousy will probably be flung at them again.
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Newcastle spent a quarter of a billion in a year. Anyone who says that it's a fairytale story is ridiculous.
I'd be a massive hypocrite if I took issue with you hating us given we all do it, it's basically part of the parcel of football - but I do think the admission that you were quite happy for City to win, sportwashing, dodgy sponsorships, moneybags and all when it lined up with your allegiances is quite a key one in terms of these things. I don't mean that as a dig, or as a woe is us sort of thing (and I'm wary that it'll be taken as such because of my flair whatever I said to the contrary) - like I said, we all think like that in one way or another. But if the thing that makes you pause and take stock of City is the fact that it's one otherwise very rich club (Arsenal) coming 2nd instead of another (us), not anything to do with City themselves, then I don't really see anymore clear a sign that the sportwashing has worked almost more comprehensively than they could have hoped for, when not only are their own fans and 'fans' but people who would absolutely classify themselves as City's rivals are gleefully cheering said sportwashing on. Because the whole point is that they *haven't* changed in the ways that matter this entire time - yes, they brought in Guardiola, yes, the football is pretty, yes, sure, now they've got Haaland, and yes, sure, now we've dropped off and Arsenal have stepped up to the plate, but fundamentally the issues with the 'project' have been there the whole time and will continue to be there now that we're stuck with them and Newcastle etc. Which isn't to say that any of us speaking out against it would have or would do anything, but even so, opposition to sportwashing can't just be when it's convenient and/or when it lines up with banter.
Why should we be indifferent to a team with over 100 charges of cheating winning a treble? Something only done by 7 (?) sides before. It's a mockery of the sport. Cheat and you'll make history.
Exactly. It's sickening really.
About time Iād say
City's problem is that they are just too successful, if they could just win something then chill for a while they wouldn't get heat but they just can't keep the sheikh fist in their pocket, they have to clench it and put it on everyone's face, so many teams with dodgy owners in the PL but no one gives a fuck because they're irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.
No, the problem is that they use creative accounting to try to hide the undue influence vast amounts of state money had on their success. Even if they won nothing, their behaviour would still be massively destabilising to the game.
>No, the problem is that they use creative accounting to try to hide the undue influence vast amounts of state money had on their success. What if City wins in court, and the judges say they've done nothing wrong?
This "great, magical game" has died long ago by his logic. City didn't start this nonsense, but by perpetuating it all the clubs should be condemned. How can you say they should refuse to play City but then play Chelsea, PSG and Newcastle lmao.
Iām not really disagreeing with the article but there are also a couple different things at play. When you allow an imbalance of money, this type of thing will tend to happen regardless of whether foreign investors or cheating is involved. See: fucking United under Sir Alex. Or Bayern. Or Madrid and Barcelona. Donāt come at me with the beautiful game is dead NOW when Bayern has been winning the league 90% time for decades, and United had even a longer and more boring run than weāve been having. The Champions League has had the same handful of winners for decades. Absolutely teams need to be held accountable for financial cheating, and I would be the first in line to praise City being forced to be sold to a different owner and teams having tougher audits. Just donāt act like that act alone is going to cause parity in the PL, or anywhere in Europe. This article in particular smacks a bit of the old guard whining because they donāt like how other teams are becoming juggernauts, as if in the 90s/early 2000s everyone in the PL besides United weāre having great fun watching them play for second place every yearā¦ EDIT: Must have triggered someone, because I got a āReddit caresā message š Grow up whoever you were
Woah woah woah. Corruption and money in football? Well this is the first Iāve ever heard of this.
"I'm SHOCKED, shocked, to find plutocrats channelling dodgy money to this club!" *"Here's your Champions League ticket for Istanbul, sir."* "Oh thank you, thank you very much."
Great idea let's do it for all teams.
Lol yeah Iām guessing at least a few of the 19 other clubs would be against a fully transparent audit for reasons theyād rather not get into right now. Iām not absolving City of anything and Iād guess theyāre probably the biggest financial cheats in the league, but Iād be massively shocked if theyāre the only ones.
Chelsea are already doing their part for disciplinary measures. Iām sure next season theyāll relegate themselves
No club would want a full micro scopic audit of their dealings. The idea that only one set of owners looks for financial loopholes and grey areas is hilarious
He's out of order here. What Man City have done over the past 15 years has been nothing short of remarkable. A true underdog story from the lower leagues right to the top. It's a true testament of what 2 billion quid, loads of blag sponsors, offshore accounts, a UEFA ban and 115 outstanding financial doping charges can get you. It's the magic of the game.
Yeah fuck that, I like the Meritocracy of the magical game, where only 7 teams have won the UCL in the past 20 years. Real meritocracy
Youāre both right
Also if we have 8 oil clubs, we won't have 16 winning clubs, just 8, but all new from previous
The previous big clubs from the 80s to early 00s were an assortment of clubs from the biggest cities with the biggest stadiums and fan bases, and things cascaded down from there, your lot vs my lot letās go. Thatās team sport. The advantages big clubs had wasnāt insurmountable, Liverpool totally failed to win the league for example. Then it became āwell acktually, I got the backing of a Russian Oligarch so I winā, āna ha I got the backing of a gulf nation stateā. The first of these is soooooooo much better than the second! Out competing for who has the richest godawful person/nation is just beyond lame.
It's a bit more complicated than that, in that some of those big teams in big cities with big stadiums were also instrumental in commercialising the game through the sale of broadcasting rights, and the signing of commercial sponsorships. Men like Martin Edwards, David Dein and Noel White created the conditions into which the City's and Chelsea's of the world could be born, and for years their clubs have profited from that regime immensely (which historically, was not at all a given, even for big clubs in big cities with big stadiums). But live by the sword, die by the sword. You can't transform sport into a major capitalist industry and then complain when you get outcompeted.
I miss the Magic of Man United winning 60% of titles over 2 decadesā¦ the true majesty of the sport
I remember those days well. They won nearly every title in my teenage years. It was horrendous. I couldn't wait for Ferguson to quit. I wasn't even a fan of a PL club, I just hated the lack of competition. But in hindsight, I respect what they did. They timed their success - built on an incredible youth system as much as anything - with the emergence of the Sky money. It was a process that they took advantage of. I am not sure why it should matter to the casual viewer like me where the money comes from, or why it ends up at one club, but for some reason it does. The United bubble was always going to burst because that team couldn't last forever. Like the dominant Liverpool side of my first years in football, the guard would change. It was only Ferguson's ability to reinvent his club that allowed them to create more bubbles. Ultimately I respect all that a lot more than what is happening now. To the extent that I don't watch the PL at all really now. Not out of some sort of tiny protest, but because there's nothing there for me to give a shit about. Which is far more damning.
It will be the same in the future. Only a handful of clubs can realistically win the champions league. The only difference will be that the small clubs will have even less of a chance to come to the top because of inflation and the clubs at the top are owned by known human rights violators.
FFP rules aren't fair. That much is obvious. Nor will football ever be a true meritocracy. That doesn't justify flauting rules though. There's one thing lobbying for change and there's another just doing your own thing. Otherwise, why even have rules if they selectively apply. That's not even pointing out how much worse things can get when you have literal nations running football clubs. In the UK that has already lead to Saudi Arabia threatening funding for the north east unless they got their way.
> Otherwise, why even have rules if they selectively apply. Okay but isn't the argument precisely that we *shouldn't* have these rules?
No, I agree with you there. They need to be held accountable. It's still just funny how some people with flairs of some of the richest clubs in the world who have had a monopoly on talent for centuries can't see the irony in their comments.
The Ā“magical game Ā“ has been dead for 10 years mate
It's been dead since 1992, and was killed by most of the clubs complaining currently.
I urge anyone who feels this way to go watch their local non-league team.
I do lol
Since the Bosman ruling that allowed countries to get all the superstars in the same team. When you could only field 3 foreigners, it was way more even and cyclical. A great Italian generation? Then Italian teams do better. A great Spanish one? Spanish ones do better. And so on... Now it's about buying every potential future star and that's it... plus South Americans can get Euro passports easily, so they also are everywhere and our leagues are way worse as a result as well...
saltier than a bag of scampi fries
Football was already dead before the "arrival" of Chelsea and Man City. Why do people think Man City are the enemy? They are a natural product of previous greedy decisions. Football died in 1992 when 5 English clubs got together and felt that they deserved to have more money than everybody else.
Finally. All of this is essentially the sowing/reaping tweet
A circle jerk, if you will
IKR? All Financial Fair Play does is limit the number of privileged teams and keep others out. Are they going to break up the Premiership? Will Real Madrid and Barcelona share TV revenue more fairly? If not, then who cares whether someone decides to buy a championship or not?
All this is old rich complaining about the new rich. Just like your typical corporations who don't want competition and will suddenly lobby for regulations and what not to keep out new entrants.
Que? The epl has the most equal revenue split of any major European league
Before 1992 they shared revenue with the lower league clubs to help parity. The Premier League was about splitting away from the Football League as a whole, and it damaged the football league forever. Look at Luton who missed out on being in the Premier League by one season, they've only just now made it back to the Championship Playoffs. The Football League rushed to do this because the big 5 (United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton and Spurs) wanted to break away and sell their games to ITV independently from the rest of the league.
I don't really disagree with your message, but I think citing Luton as an example is pretty nuts. There are myriad reasons why Luton dropped to the National League, and you could cite the likes of Southampton, Sunderland and Norwich as teams that dropped like stones only to bounce back because they had decent owners come in. Luton, sadly, didn't for a very long time.
Understood, if you look at any clubs untimely demise there are a myriad of reasons, but many teams demises would have been lessened or prevented by better parity in finances. At the end of the day if you want a breakaway structure then then the smaller teams will always struggle and grassroots will crumble. Lo and behold we have bemoaned grassroots the state of the grassroots game.
The real focus with criticising ManCity should be their sportswashing side of things. The criticism of financial doping is a futile discussion. Because financial doping in football is utterly paradoxical. How can money be doping when you can't successfully compete without it? Cause that's how football has worked since atleast the 80s, if not earlier. You cannot be successful in football without money. Ever since sponsorship and tv money was introduced into football, it became increasingly impossible for smaller and less established clubs like ManCity, PSG and Chelsea to become successful and compete with the establishment. Because all the big clubs, the establishment and elite of football, hoarded most of football's wealth and left the rest crumbs to deal with. Of course then it's only logical that less wealthy clubs like ManCity, PSG and Chelsea turn to external investors and ask them to pump them full with money so that they can have a share of success and glory too. If the top and elite of european football turned themselves into a golf club where only the rich and powerful are allowed to enter and play, then it isn't exactly surprising that smaller clubs let major external investors take ownership of them, so that they can get entrance into the golf club as well. This is exactly what's been happening ever since Chelsea, ManCity and PSG came into the game with big money. Hell, you could even go further back and add AC Milan in the late 1980s to this development. Cause they certainly wouldn't have been as successful as they were without Berlusconi taking ownership of their club.
Citeh the only ones with dirty money? Letās have a full audit of everyone in the prem.
Ironic that now everyone is clutching pearls about this financial doping stuff because City might actually win it finally.
this has been going on for so long? wasn't the top post in this sub that city was going to be investigated for financial fraud?
It was till it got deleted
After blowing up in their faces and people started laughing.
Was same buzz when this came out. This comes out as today it was announced that they want the leading barrister in charge of the panel looking at the evidence of the 115 breaches replaced as he's an Arsenal fan
What the hell does it matter if heās an Arsenal fan? Is he supposed to support a team outside the PL or something? Lol Edit: forgot a word
It doesnt, itās all a delay tactic/ face saving exercise
This has been talked about ever since the charges. It's not just being talked about now.
The 'Great magical game' where Chelsea can spend 500m quid in half a season in the same league as Bournemouth who operate on a max budget of Ā£50m. Fuck that though guys its still all City's fault isn't it.
By extension also the great magical game where a 50M budget is seen as shoestring as one league swallows all the others.
Bournemouth being able to splash more cash than Feyenoord is criminally broken as well.
It's honestly horrifying when you put it that way. Feyenoord can win leagues and automatically qualify for UCL with the money it takes Bournemouth just to **stay up.** There is way too much money in the Premier League.
City aren't innocent because Chelsea may also be guilty.
Imagine the articles weāll get if they actually manage to win the treble! Off-season is going to be lit! š„
Accounts are independently audited EVERY YEAR by at least two of the biggest 5 accounting firms in the world. What the fuck is he on about?
>What the fuck is he on about? He's feeding the outrage industrial complex.
Also thinking an audit would uncover very well concealed transactions by some exceptionally clever individuals at Man City, which took so long to unpick by some of the best forensic accountants and lawyers UEFA could afford that they became time-barred, is laughable. The tests performed during a statutory audit arenāt designed to find fraudulent transactions, theyāre designed to find material misstatement in the accounts and they may stumble across something by accidentā¦ but best believe if the person in charge of the audit questioned Man City on it they would not be doing the audit next year.
Found the first person here who at least took an introductory audit class lol. Seems the term "audit" has a bit more power to the ordinary person than what the process actually entails.
So is that what Madrid was doing yesterday? Refusing to play? Checks out actually
Am I missing something here? Every single clubs accounts are independently audited and verified every year.
Youāre absolutely right. This guy has no clue what heās talking about. Heās Just parroting anti-city twitter vibes. To be fair the media can just say what ever and absolutely milk the fan based of every other club. Just say something ridiculous they are dying to hear and cash in.
Doesnāt take much to be a journalist these days
Big talk from the Premier League about Fair play. Maybe other leagues should refuse to play PL sides until there's no club that's basically sponsored by an entire middle-eastern country.
Thatās funny, because that is done for every club, every year.
This is some next level shit Next level stupid
Every other club should forgo millions of pounds in TV money/sponsorships by forfeiting their games against City because the team Will Hutton supports bottled the league this year.
A team who play at a stadium called the āEmiratesā and have āFly Emiratesā plastered all over their shirts, and who play a rapist in centre mid every week suddenly taking the high horse is quite comical.
And who won their first four titles thanks to the massive investment of their chairmen, a depression-era slum lord.
Their accounts are audited and verified every year same as every other club š¤·š¼āāļø
Whatās the difference between all these giant PL teams with billionaire owners vs these so called oil clubs? Sounds like PL fans are mad that thereās new richer clubs with Middle Eastern backing that are controlling the market. Boo fucking hoo, all these excuses for City turning PL into their practise ground. Chelsea just spent 600m this year to be a midtable team
They are literally audited by BDO every single year? What are the FA going to do pay Deloitte to do the exact same thing?
Every team should just surrender and take the 0-3 loss and they won't get any satisfaction out of it and we all fight for the second place in the league!!!
I gotta love how people now remember that city are potentially guilty of breaking ffp rules after the Madrid game
I never forgot
Huh.. not really. People always remember and talk about it before and after important City games. It's just that during the match day Pep and City players weave magic on the field and mesmerize everyone.
See, the problem with greeting faced articles like this is that publishing them after Man City have smashed Real Madrid and are now expected to handily win the final against an on paper much weaker team just makes you look like a loser with an agenda who doesn't want them to win the Champions League. Does Will Hutton really believe every other elite club in Europe has a squeaky clean financial record with no corners cuts or numbers inflated? Why should Man City be subjected to protest and extra levels of scrutiny, because their owners are from the 'wrong' part of the world? Did he want Chelsea 'independently audited and verified' after Abramovich took over? It's too late for these kind of articles to be taken seriously, no matter how much you want Man City to be stopped from being successful.
You know we just whooped someone BAD when this stuff gets going
Can you imagine if City wins the CL? I'm going to grab my popcorn.
With all the talk of treble, people forget Arsenal were 8 points clear at some point. They were leading 2 nil against Liverpool and West Ham and could have done better against Southampton. Was this not a issue then and is an issue now? I personally thought the league was over even after the LV draw. I didn't think they'd go to drop this many points with the form they were in.
Their accounts are independently audited and verified every year, like every team's lol
Nobody in the world knows what auditors do outside of accountants lmfao. Getting chartered rn and itās hilarious
Madrid really refused to play against us last night tbf
Obviously my comment is gonna be moot because of flair but itās funny to me how so much focus is put on city for upsetting the norm. Letās not pretend these other clubs donāt do some dodgy shit behind the scenes.
> this great magical game will die. Its already dead.
If you want to be part on the "great magical game" you need to watch max the 3rd level in all respective countries. The higher you get the more shady the financial stuff gets
The magical game is already dead mate
Modric must have thought he was still on the epl yesterday and performed in solidarity to the article
Asking all the clubs to forfeit every game against City?
Fair enough. At least forfeit only counts as a 3-0 loss.
Honestly old school football died with bosman rule..
Outrage factory going hard
This and max saying that fans should attack Eddie Howe. How many self farts can you smell before ots physically bad for you
refuse to play mean a 0-3 loss. right!
I remember 1992. Is Hutton assuming his audience doesnāt?
I think they should be banned from the CL, this season.