Manchester City’s victories are absolutely meaningless IMO

[viv_andersons_nana]

Again, I understand the rules and where they came from. The point is that these rules do exist and when it comes to the Premier League only one club is doing what City are doing. It does not matter why the rules came to be. Premier League clubs voted in favour of introducing them and as such they must be followed.

And City aren’t paying fines to the Premier League. They’re contesting the charges. They’ve paid two lots fines to UEFA. Lots of other clubs have also paid fines to UEFA over the past few years. So these rules that were invented to prevent clubs breaking through into the established order have actually been applied to clubs like Inter, Juventus, AC Milan and Marseille as well and those clubs have been punished for breaking them.

Did Boro falsify its accounts in order to sign Boksic, Ince, Juninho or Ravanelli? Or anyone else. Or did they just pay them all loads of money and follow the rules that were in place at the time. Did Steve Gibson secretly set up shell companies in the middle east and funnel undeclared payments to players and officials? I guess we’ll never know.

Also, you can say these things are designed to keep everyone in their place and I broadly agree but UEFA have punished a lot of clubs. In Italy, Juventus and Napoli are being investigated for inflating the values of players in order to make it look like they’ve got more money then they have. Cheating, basically. They’re looking for ways around the rules. I understand that. But if you do that and get caught then tough sh*t, we have the rules in place and you should be punished.

But, again, if you have evidence that Boro, Manchester United, Luton Town or Blackburn Rovers or anyone else have been doing what City are accused of then it’d be interesting to read through it.

 

[viv_andersons_nana]

Also we don’t know that City haven’t spent more than Manchester United or Chelsea because they are charged with falsifying accounts and haven’t been declaring all payments made.

Nobody is arguing against City being an awesome football team, against Guardiola being one of the greatest and most influential coaches all time. It is, as I saw Nick Harris say on Twitter the other day, as simple as admiring that machine but also lifting up the bonnet and asking how it came to be. Which appears to be what the Premier League have done.

 

[GazBoro]

This will have been said about Liverpool in the 80's, Man Utd in the 90's, Chelsea in the 00's and so on, English football is cyclical and at some point Man City will fall from grace for a while. Perhaps Newcastle will be next on the pedestal?

It is cyclical, but now we have clubs that are bankrolled by nation states and the money involved will keep them at the top for as long as the money flows. Not only that these 'Elite' clubs hoover up all the best youth talent and get them on their books ASAP so no one else can get them. Its almost on an industrial scale now. They have moulded the whole system in their favour, that's something clubs back in the day never did, or could - not to the extent we're seeing now.

Like I said, it won't change until we see a single club become so dominant as to make a mockery of the entire system that's been created. I'd rather that club be City than the skunks though!

 

[Redwurzel]

If Poster don't think there is massive sports washing going on...

Do you remember a guy called Roman Abramovich? - we were told he was a massive Chelsea fan, had a big flat in London and some spare cash from his businesses he built up in Russia that's why he bought the club.

 

[Abel Tasman]

Excellent article on Man City written by Barney Ronay. Another journalist who is a Millwall fan but knocks the spots off the other one.

Manchester City’s perfection is laced with coldness and unease | Barney Ronay

A hard regime’s soft-power project is reaching its final expression – footballing brilliance but a sense of dislocation

www.theguardian.com

Interesting article. I hear all the stuff about state financing (and subsequent rule breaking). The fascinating bit is about the fact they seem to have created the perfect working conditions there. Isn’t this what all sports teams should be aspiring to? I’ve listened to some sports science podcasts which talk about the setup there and it sounds incredible. Built for the long term as well.

 

[Zoophonic]

Interesting article. I hear all the stuff about state financing (and subsequent rule breaking). The fascinating bit is about the fact they seem to have created the perfect working conditions there. Isn’t this what all sports teams should be aspiring to? I’ve listened to some sports science podcasts which talk about the setup there and it sounds incredible. Built for the long term as well.

Oh for sure. They’ve created an incredible environment and an unbelievable team. The money they have spent has been spent really wisely and they’ve got the systems to stay at the top for years and years now. It’s just the money they’ve spent hasn’t been within the rules and they’ve got numerous cooking the books charges against them. But on the pitch they set the benchmark.

 

[h_m_boro]

Interesting article. I hear all the stuff about state financing (and subsequent rule breaking). The fascinating bit is about the fact they seem to have created the perfect working conditions there. Isn’t this what all sports teams should be aspiring to? I’ve listened to some sports science podcasts which talk about the setup there and it sounds incredible. Built for the long term as well.

City - or Pep - has a system. Players are bought specifically to do a job in the system. £10m, £20m, £50m.....whatever. The player has to perform and understand the system.

Compare to Chelsea who have a scattergun "player" approach - he's good, we'll buy him! Ultimately they have ended up with a wonky unbalanced squad, and are so far from having a good "team" it's brilliant

This is one aspect where City/Pep can't be knocked.

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

Oh for sure. They’ve created an incredible environment and an unbelievable team. The money they have spent has been spent really wisely and they’ve got the systems to stay at the top for years and years now. It’s just the money they’ve spent hasn’t been within the rules and they’ve got numerous cooking the books charges against them. But on the pitch they set the benchmark.

And they're being investigated, along with 75 other clubs. It will be interesting to see what the punishment is. A fine will be no problem to them

It's just another aspect of the cheating so prevalent in the game, both on and off the pitch.

The rules for off pitch need reviewing and measures put in place to restrict domination by a small number of clubs. Limits to spending and club sizes that each club in the relevant division can afford. It's time football became more of a sport.

 

[HolgateCorner]

Interesting article. I hear all the stuff about state financing (and subsequent rule breaking). The fascinating bit is about the fact they seem to have created the perfect working conditions there. Isn’t this what all sports teams should be aspiring to? I’ve listened to some sports science podcasts which talk about the setup there and it sounds incredible. Built for the long term as well.

A few years ago I went to a conference where the Mercedes Formula 1 team was held up as an example to ordinary companies operating in competitive markets of how to do things to a very high standard.

It was an enjoyable but laughable example and I think the same applies to anything Man City does.