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Manchester City Thread

I have nothing against Man City, but what is happening now is ruïning football.
Basically all the top players are going to PSG, Man City, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

I can understand that this is nice for the fans of those clubs, but it's bad for football.

Look what happened to the splendid Atletico team: Courtois, Felipe Luis, Diego Costa all where bought by Chelsea (and i have a feeling i have forgotten somebody). It's a miracle Arda Turan and Koke are still there. They have a good team once again ? Yes, but at the end of the season the better players will leave once again...


16 year old Odegaard will go to Real Madrid, why on earth ? They promised him first team football ? What a joke...and if it would be true, who will be on the bench: James Rodriguez, Kroos, Modric ? Isco ? on no that one is already a squad player at best...

I wonder what will happen to Southampton's team at the end of the season...

Rant over...i'm sorry.
 
I don't know about Southampton. The only three players I can see leaving them are Clyne, Wanyama and Schneiderlin really.

Regarding Ödegaard, apparently Real offered him a place in their first squad rather than in Real Madrid Castilla. I don't think it means anything though, he'll probably play a few minutes only and then get loaned out for a few seasons. The real sad case here is Strömsgodset, who get close to nothing for him.

Smaller teams are feeder clubs now. If they're not youth players, it doesn't matter since the Premier League balloon is so inflated even smaller teams like Stoke can buy players who are amongst the better players in the league they came from. City, Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Real and Barcelona poach players from Ajax and Feyenoord as soon as they turn sixteen.

I'm not saying these players owe much to their teams, but at the very least it would've been nice to have them play for the teams which developed them. This way the gap is only increasing, quality players are pissing their careers away because people like Florentino Perez, Sheikh Mansour and Roman Abramovich will just buy proven players instead of letting the talents they poached play.

Chelsea played with eight different players against Watford last week, yet zero academy players apart from Aké who came on in the 80th minute. Similar case for City, where Boyata started, though I believe Boyata is only at City because he's a home-grown player. I've seen him play for Twente and it was visible that he had talent but due to him not getting regular minutes he was clueless at times.
 
Been like this since I was a kid. Only the teams and leagues have changed. When I was a kid it was Serie a that seemed to get the best players. They snapped up England's best in Gazza and Platt not long after Italia 90. Lineker went to Barca

Over here utd used to regularly snap up the PLs best and brightest, Cole, Keane, Parker and so on, and, if not for Walker/Hall they'd have grabbed Shearer too.
Liverpool used to snap up the best players from lesser teams, eg. Collymore


All the top players are going to the top teams in the top leagues.
Top 4 in PL City, Chels, Utd, Arse
Top 2 in LL Real, Barca (tho not with the ban for now). Valencia probably in the future
Top 1 in BL Bayern
Top 1 in L1 PSG


Guess the main difference is that the top squads are bigger today due to more games and with the game being faster.


As for foreign youth players. The world is a different place today. People are more comfortable living abroad nowadays. Travel is cheaper, you can talk face to face with your family and friends from across the planet at any moment, there's more foreign managers, staff and senior players etc.

There's also FFP now, of course, which won't exactly help matters
 
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gerd said:
I have nothing against Man City, but what is happening now is ruïning football.
Basically all the top players are going to PSG, Man City, Chelsea, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

I can understand that this is nice for the fans of those clubs, but it's bad for football.

Look what happened to the splendid Atletico team: Courtois, Felipe Luis, Diego Costa all where bought by Chelsea (and i have a feeling i have forgotten somebody). It's a miracle Arda Turan and Koke are still there. They have a good team once again ? Yes, but at the end of the season the better players will leave once again...


16 year old Odegaard will go to Real Madrid, why on earth ? They promised him first team football ? What a joke...and if it would be true, who will be on the bench: James Rodriguez, Kroos, Modric ? Isco ? on no that one is already a squad player at best...

I wonder what will happen to Southampton's team at the end of the season...

Rant over...i'm sorry.
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Well said and no offence to Chelsea or Man City fans here but you would be just like any other club without the oil money.

You would be no different to say, Newcastle or Sunderland really. The thing is, when people think of Man City and Chelsea, they think of MONEY. They dont think of classic & historical teams and managers (well maybe more do with Chelsea but point stands)

Who can name 5 Man City legends off top of their head from history? Now try and name 5 Liverpool or Man U legends - it's easy.

Yes I am jealous!

And one could argue that Man City are making history NOW.

I personally like the oil clubs being in league in a way as it makes it more interesting - but also leaves a bitter taste in my mouth when I see City throwing cash at anything and everything whilst Wenger sits there twiddling his thumbs.
 
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City dont change their squad every window. They buy sensible and players that are needed. Chels were buying and loaning out so others won't get them. I paint City w/ a different paint brush . It's all opinions really and City are the new boys on the block they were force to dump funds to sit w/ the top 4 for fun clubs.

Aquero is the best EPL player and he's been at City for s few years.
 
Football has always been a story about rich benefactors. People over a certain age or interest in football history tend to understand this.

Name 5 pre Moores family Liverpool legends. I can't.


Here's a question for you. Who was the last all English team to win the league? You might find a few legends in there :SMUG:

But yes we haven't won as much as clubs like Liverpool, Arse and Utd but in 60 years when hopefully City have many more trophies who is gonna be counting pennies? I don't give a poo how much Dalglish cost or how LFC scraped the funds together. He was a great player who won a lot of medals and entertained thousands even millions of people. The likes of Zabaleta, Kompany, Aguero, Silva will stand besides the likes of Bell, Lee, Summerbee, Meredith, Trautman, Doyle, Corrigan et al, in time and we'll look back at them as you look back at your legends \o/

I consider players like Kinkladze, Lake, Weaver, Goater, Dickov legends even if they weren't or (in Lake's case) weren't allowed to become our greatest ever players nor played in successful teams. Tho I do consider Kinky to be one of our greatest players, at least in my lifetime. If only he was in our squad today. He'd rip the PL to shreds!
 
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Danny Mills? :LOL:

He's an end alright, a fkin bellend! What a greedy twat he was. Sat on a fat contract picking up his wages for 3/4 years. Worse than Adebayor :RANT:
 
I'll have to admit though, I only really started watching live matches around 2008 when I found the magical world of streaming. Before that I only watched MOTD when I could stay up long enough. :LOL:

The only real overpriced buy City have made recently is Fernandinho, €40m was way too much for him, especially considering that fact that he was 28 at the time. Before that the Robinhos etc. were too much but now with the new board they are making good buys. Mangala might be overpriced but he still has plenty of time too prove people wrong.
 
Godotelli said:
Football has always been a story about rich benefactors. People over a certain age or interest in football history tend to understand this.

Name 5 pre Moores family Liverpool legends. I can't.


Here's a question for you. Who was the last all English team to win the league? You might find a few legends in there :SMUG:

But yes we haven't won as much as clubs like Liverpool, Arse and Utd but in 60 years when hopefully City have many more trophies who is gonna be counting pennies? I don't give a poo how much Dalglish cost or how LFC scraped the funds together. He was a great player who won a lot of medals and entertained thousands even millions of people. The likes of Zabaleta, Kompany, Aguero, Silva will stand besides the likes of Bell, Lee, Summerbee, Meredith, Trautman, Doyle, Corrigan et al, in time and we'll look back at them as you look back at your legends \o/

I consider players like Kinkladze, Lake, Weaver, Goater, Dickov legends even if they weren't or (in Lake's case) weren't allowed to become our greatest ever players nor played in successful teams. Tho I do consider Kinky to be one of our greatest players, at least in my lifetime. If only he was in our squad today. He'd rip the PL to shreds!
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You forgot Shaun Goater! FEED THE GOAT AND HE WILL SCORE!

:APPLAUD:
 
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:BEBOooooooooooooooooooo: :DANCE:
 
None in the damn team :(

No Dzeko (nor Milner) in the squad either.

We've had the worst luck with absences this season. No-one has had their spine ripped out like we have.
 
You've had lots of injuries in def but many of them have been to youngsters like Blackett, whereas we've had to do without our best players. And now we're without Yaya. We've both been hit hard in different ways

Anyway, reports that 27m fee agreed for Bony with Vitesse owed 7% of it

Rumours tho that Milner isn't signing a new contract and may be sold to Liverpool :/
 
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Yeah I mean players like Rojo, Blind, Di Maria, Carrick, Jones, Rafael, Shaw, Falcao, Herrera and I could go on really all being out for extended periods isn't important players just Blackett and other youth players. :SS
 
Godotelli said:
We've had the worst luck with absences this season. No-one has had their spine ripped out like we have.
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That is United, there is no argument about that.

Anyway, is that even an excuse for the richest club in the world ? I'm afraid this could prove to be a bad thing for football. City might have learnt their lesson andcould buylots of usefull fringe players who would be starts or very big prospects in almost every other club in the world except Chelsea, PSG, Bayern, Real and Barcelona.
 
One of the issues with Chelsea, and not something I have seen City do, is that they use talented youth players as purely financial investments and are making money out of it. Theyve signed a huge number of young players, directly loaned them out for 2-3 seasons and have sold them for quiet a bit of profit. That is so far removed from sport its horrible to see.

There was a post awhile ago about this and some shady ownership company.

As for the Bony signing, surely the only winner in this deal is Swansea?! 16mil profit for 18months, not bad.
 
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No question Utd have had the worst injuries in terms of quantity (even if you discount the the likes of Keane, Lingard) but they haven't been hit quite as hard when it comes to being without their best/most important players

City's best:: 6000 mins (Kompany, Yaya, Silva, Nasri, Aguero)
Utd's best: 6600 mins (De Gea, Carrick, Di Maria, Rooney, RVP)
Chelsea's best: 8800 mins (Terry, Matic, Fabregas, Hazard, Costa)


On paper, Bony is a good addition I think/hope. He adds qualities we don't have, namely strength and the ability to hold up the ball (haven't seen a PL ST as good as him at bringing down the ball on his chest under pressure for quite some time). You'd think Dzeko would have this ability but he doesn't.
25m (rising 3m based on success) in Jan for a proven PL goalscorer with a good injury record who only turned 26 a few weeks ago isn't far off what you would expect these days. The likes of Sanchez, Fabregas and Costa were only bought for 30-35m because they were sacrificed for incomings or they had a release clause. They'd all cost a lot more now that they're at clubs who want them.

I still expect a further shakeup in the summer in terms of strikers. Jovetic will be sold no doubt, his injury record is appalling, and Dzeko too perhaps.
 
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dplane said:
Worked out great for ya.
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:APPLAUD:

Everton always play well against Man City for some weird reason.

Chelsea look so strong at times this season where as I think Man City have too many weaknesses:

* The manager - I still dont rate him
* Navas. All speed no final product. An expensive Aaron Lennon
* Mangala. Has been pretty bad so far.

Still the 2nd best team in the league though, I would love City's problems!
 
Just wanted to ask if someone could tell me something about Nastasic. What kind of defender is he? What are his strengths and his weaknesses?
 
Draxler31 said:
Just wanted to ask if someone could tell me something about Nastasic. What kind of defender is he? What are his strengths and his weaknesses?
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He's young so his main weakness is committing silly fouls he doesn't need to.
He's not the fastest but his strengths are his reading of the game and his composure. He's a very calming presence at the back, his debut for us was away at Real Madrid, at age 19, and he was totally unfazed by it. His distribution is quite good also.

This is based on his only real full season with us in 12-13 where he was out YPOTY and arguably our best defender.
Since then he suffered a few injuries and Pellegrini froze him out. I and many City fans don't know why. We're quite gutted at losing him. He started at CB for us last season when our away form was terrible and was involved in a high profile fuck up which was all Hart's fault. He pretty much disappeared into the abyss after that. He came back for 1 game iirc against Chelsea in the FA Cup and I was so happy to have him back because up until then Demichelis was finding it difficult. Nasty played well but then disappeared again and hasn't been seen since.

The more I think on it the more annoyed I am at losing him. He's not a gladiator who will dominate in the air but given time, and injuries permitting, he could be a top modern defender. £10m, or whatever it adds up to if you take the option in the summer, could end up a bargain.
 
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