Manchester City Thread

bebo said:
I wonder with all the ££ spending on players which team has the player with the highest shirt sales in the PL ?


I love the fact that the player of the year n top scorer was bought for £2.5m ...I know it took 5 years to develop ,but rome wasn`t build in a season.
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This year it was Rooney, Gerrard, Torres in that order.

RvP Has been great this season, but the last few years the EPL top scorers have been big price players (Drogba, Tevez, Ronaldo, Berbatov)- so it's hardly a trend.
 
Stef about Kompany: it still isn't won. But it seems Belgian players have become some sort of hype if you look at the players who are mentioned as transfer targets:

Fellaini: Chelsea, Man Utd
Hazard: everywhere
Dembele: Man Utd
Witsel: Real Madrid

About City's money: the difference between City and United is much, much smaller than between United and the big clubs from countries like Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Scotland and all the Scandinavian countries. Man United had no reason to complain.

A club like West Ham United as a bigger budget than our giant club Anderlecht...Genk were the laughing stock of the CL, yet they had a team of homegrown players with the budget of a League One club. Give those clubs the budget of Man Utd and they win the CL.
 
Very well deserved win. Utd were disappointing imo. Tactics weren't right too. Think he went too defensive, but he didn't expect Nani and Rooney to be a bit out of it. He should've changed things earlier when he realized things weren't happening the way he wanted and Park started failing slowly.

Really enjoyed City's performance though, even though they looked very shaky the first 10-15 minutes or so. United could've taken full advantage of that but it's all gone now.

And good performance from Kratos. Imo he should be player of the year.
 
gerd said:
About City's money: the difference between City and United is much, much smaller than between United and the big clubs from countries like Belgium, Holland, Portugal, Scotland and all the Scandinavian countries. Man United had no reason to complain.
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but teams in belgium, holland etc.. are not playing in the premier league, its an irrelevant comparison.

gerd said:
A club like West Ham United as a bigger budget than our giant club Anderlecht...Genk were the laughing stock of the CL, yet they had a team of homegrown players with the budget of a League One club. Give those clubs the budget of Man Utd and they win the CL.
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of course they will:P
 
It's not an irrelevant comparision since they meet in Europe and those big clubs attract all the best young players.
I've said this in other threads too: people who are prasing Hazard for years now are saying that in our under 16 national team we have 5 or 6 players who have everything to become as good as Hazard (not that they will). Of that team only two players are in Belgium the rest are with big clubs. One of these players asked 300.000 euro's as signing money. He is 15 years old.


I'm a youth coach myself and during summer i visited "De Hoop" (Ajax youth academy. I talked with a couple of youth developers (one of them former Ajax and Inter player Wim Jonk). When i asked them how many of the supposed big talents make in to the first team of an Eredivisie team, they talked about between 3 and 5%. What will become of the 95% of the kids who don't make it?

The money difference is killing football, but it certainly isn't the difference between Man Utd and City which is the problem. It's the difference between the big leagues and the smaller ones. You will agree with me in 10 years when all the best players are playing in Russia for the likes of Anzhi and Grozny...
 
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95%! My God... Poor things. What happens to these guys? Do they end up failing? Sulking? Rejected? Or just happen to find another job?
 
You mean 'De Toekomst' gerd, which means 'The Fututre'. :P

And I agree. Teams like Man City are killing football. The differences between them and teams from other countries is too much. It's really unfair. Here in the Netherlands you can't even have a penny in debt or you'll get stripped of your license. And when look in Spain it's incredible, clubs like Valencia and Atletico Madrid have hundreds of millions debt, yet still being allowed to buy players for high prices. Look at this years Europa League, AZ coming so far with a 3 million budget, yet still managing to beat Valencia.


EDIT: @ Lami, most of them just get another job and continue playing at Amateur teams.
 
Dazzlà said:
but teams in belgium, holland etc.. are not playing in the premier league, its an irrelevant comparison.
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No, it's really not. If one part brings up the difference in budgets, then this is a relevant comparison. These teams meet in the CL, which is bigger than PL in terms of prestige. (I don't know financially, but I suspect CL is bigger there too)

If any English "Big Club" has any reason to complain, it would have to be Arsenal. But they've gotten a freaky good stadium and a very healthy economy through long term plans and great management in return. Ironically, most Arse fans don't seem to recognize that and whine like babies for the lack of trophies. They've more or less secured their place as a top club for all eternity, but still they are complaining. But i digress...

Bottom line is, United could spend more if they really wanted to, but it's a nice excuse to use when the expected ass whooping from the blue part of the city comes along.
 
Yes Damjan, De Toekomst...i get that wrong every time i talk about it.
It's an impressive set-up they have. They let the kids play matches which shoes that a GPS-like tracking device in it. Afterwards they can feed this information to a CPU-program and can analyze the playing style of young kids...i was almost salivating when seeing it put to use...that is every youth coach's dream.
They also have complete indoor pitches...

If you ever have the chance to visit De Toekomst, just go...

And back on topic, i hope Ajax cfan get the rewards for this way of working and not some giant foreign club...
 
Yes I've been there a number of times, it's quite impressive. Feyenoords youth is about as good as Ajax' I think. Feyenoord doesn't have money, so they were pretty much forced to play with young players from their academy. That didn't go well for the first seasons but now they are doing well again, currently second place. Centre midfielder Jordy Clasie will be a very good player in the future, has the same style as Xavi.
 
Two interesting stats:

From Soccernomics, the correlation between Wages and Success is: 72%
From Pay as you Play, the correlation between Transfer fees and Success is: 89%

So, to be honest, statistically speaking City were always going to win the league eventually. That's why it just doesn't quite feel right to me.
 
Congrats to City on winning the league. Two things:

1. It's harder to hold on to than win
2. Let's see where you are when you aren't allowed to lose £150m a year
 
C'mon mate. As much as I enjoy reading your posts, you're coming across like a broken record now. You've been saying the same thing over and over and over. They got the money, bought in good players and a good manager and won. Congrats to them. Let's not sound too bitter.
 
Agreed and in honesty without City their really wouldn't be a challenge for us this year domestically atleast and considering it feels like Déjà vu with Chelsea in 04/05 Im much more confident of us overcoming these lot than I was then.

This is City's moment, 44 year's they've waited! Whilst less than a year ago we recorded our 12th title in the last 19 years and surpassing Liverpool's record so no matter how they did it they going to be ecstatic and they should be.

Congrats to City winning the league.
 
hangon city have not officially won yet have they?

city draw or lose next game and utd win then it is a utd title?
 
Could you imagine Hughes ' QPR spoiling the party? Hugher former United player and sacked as City manager...
beachryan, there are thousands of clubs who could say exactly the same about Man Utd. Money rules football...Man Utd has credited years from big money, now it's other teams.

For me as a neutral, City played the better offensive football. David Silva, Aguero, Nasri, Balotelli, Tevez, Yaya Touré...they are all players that attract people to stadiums.

I also would prefer an EPL where money would be less important, where a team like Reading might be contenders for the title next season, where even the biggest clubs could relegate and where the CL final could be Montpellier-Athletic de Bilbao. But i bet most Man Utd fans would not like that either.

Money in football is good as long as it is our clubs that have most money, when they are surpassed by other teams, then money is a curse.

City deserve the title if they win it, just like United would deserve it if they would win it next week.
 
Yes. It's all a bit premature. Next week if it happens, I'll congratulate City fans and they are some of the most loyal passionate fans in the world. 44 years they supported their club through thick and thin, through lower divisions, with great passion, filling up the big stadium even in 2nd division, it's been a long wait and they deserve it. But there's still one game left and anything can happen.

Lami said:
C'mon mate. As much as I enjoy reading your posts, you're coming across like a broken record now. You've been saying the same thing over and over and over. They got the money, bought in good players and a good manager and won. Congrats to them. Let's not sound too bitter.
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I told Ryan this long time ago. Unfortunately, 50% of his posts are about the same thing and he regularly digs up articles, information and other stuff about just how much City have paid, spent, etc.

Things we all already know but have come to terms with where as I think for him, he truly isn't over Sheikh Mansour's arrival yet even though it's now been awhile!

Despite the fact that he's a complete broken record about Man City, he's a great guy and one of my fav posters here.
 
PLF said:
I told Ryan this long time ago. Unfortunately, 50% of his posts are about the same thing and he regularly digs up articles, information and other stuff about just how much City have paid, spent, etc.

Things we all already know but have come to terms with where as I think for him, he truly isn't over Sheikh Mansour's arrival yet even though it's now been awhile!

Despite the fact that he's a complete broken record about Man City, he's a great guy and one of my fav posters here.
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From the beaches to Wall Street "The Accountant" has been to every organization for every finances in search for a loop hole. This is not about fair play its the survival of the World economic crisis . So, I hope he meets w/ Obama`s Finance Guru and hopefully the New French Prime Minister and to regulate FIFA/UEFA . He deserve a shield n a cape... :COAT: I just wonder if this was Fulham would there be an out cry? mmmmm....interesting...
 
Aw, thanks for the messages all. To be fair I am in that industry, and did economics as a degree, so it does appeal to me a bit more than the average joe I guess.

I'll give it a rest then, and am genuinely happy for a lot of friends that are City fans - hell growing up in Bermuda I was a brief City supporter while Shaun Goater was doing his thing there.

Next step will be converting their league dominance to the CL - which to be honest they should be able to do. Their group this year was ridiculous.

And Yaya Toure is an excellent, excellent player. Great to see him flourish after what must have felt kind of like a step down when leaving Barca.

Anyone hear anything about Balotelli? He was fit and at the match, but wasn't on the subs bench. Seems an odd decision - if City needed a draw late he'd be a great option from the bench.
 
Didn't expect it to be so quiet in here. Looks like both sides of Manchester are getting drunk ATM :)

Congrats to City. It was a last day thriller after all.
 
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