Man City bottle jobs like Arsenal if they don’t win the treble; Mount for Bruno at Man Utd

If Arsenal bottled the Premier League, Man City need to win the treble to avoid the same label, and one Man Utd fan is almost certainly alone in thinking Mason Mount for Bruno Fernandes would be great…

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Now that Man City have coasted to the league, and given that Arsenal were fairly or unfairly accused of bottling the league depending on your preference, City have to win the treble now or else they have bottled it?

Given their overall quality, squad depth, lack of injuries/suspensions and quality of opponents (Sorry Inter and to a lesser extent, sorry Man Utd), they must win all 3 trophies surely?

When Man Utd won their treble, they certainly weren’t as imperious as City have been (although undefeated from end of December 1998 onwards) and had very little wriggle room against a great Arsenal side. City have played a second string against Sheffield United and could afford to get 1 point from their last two games. Man Utd didn’t have that luxury.

I don’t want to compare achievements cos a real treble is amazing but if there is talk of bottling, Man City very much are in that chat if they don’t win all 3 trophies. Personally, I think they will win both cups, but I could see Man Utd springing a surprise.

OK, first and foremost, I’d like to say that I’m a City fan.

Just putting that out there.

I also think that Harry Kane is a phenomenal striker / goalscorer & I hope he ends up finishing as the all-time PL goalscorer (as long as he stops scoring against us, FFS).

But Haaland is the player of the season.

The equivalent of 4 games less (minutes wise, all comps), 20 goals more (all comps), 4 more assists (all comps), less yellow cards.Both take penalties, both qualified for the CL, but the reason that Haaland got more CL games is because Kane only scored once.

Please let us get Harry this summer.

The man is incredible, and playing weekly alongside Marcus could be great for the 3 Lions.

Do not write off Sancho either just yet, it could be a United-cum-England front 3 before you know it.

At least this way we can actually improve while spunking huge sums of quid.

Sign Jude up too! How can Madrid or Paris compete right, the poor cities, or City themselves, not like they have a dynasty in the making to offer Jude or anything.

Am I the only Manc who thinks we should try pinch Declan and that if Madrid do want Bruno, an effective net-zero fee for Mason would be great for us?

Jokes aside, well, bubbling bitterness aside actually, as painful as it to see Pep march City to their own now-likely treble, it does make Manchester even more of a special English footballing city, you can’t argue against 2 teams claiming the treble from one city being incredible for the city’s bragging rights, The Home Of English Football anyone?

rather than Haaland, despite the latter’s record breaking exploits.

A quote I read from Kane stating “I am just looking forward to a nice break and some games with England” made me draw two conclusions (not about who he’ll be playing for next season because: “Daniel Levy”)

1) What it says about the atmosphere Gareth Southgate has engendered within the England national team camp that a player is actually looking forward to it after a long, hard season.

2) What it says about how utterly depressing/disheartening Kane must have found it being part of the Spurs team this season.

England have come a long way since the Capello boot camp days…

Tottenham striker Harry Kane during a match

As no one responded to I guess I’ll have to do it myself. Saying Haaland has made City worse while ignoring the fact that City can still win a treble this season seems premature. And ignoring the adaptation period that City went through after two years of a False 9 to a very True 9, meant City dropped some points as Pep tinkered his system seems kind of important in the analysis. And then ignoring the form of City post tinkering, at the business end of the season, when City won 12 PL games in a row when it mattered and City looked very much better with Haaland in the team, well it just makes you look silly.

And then to refer to Grealish as “£100m on England’s golden boy to be a squad player” and also ignore Grealish’s form this year when he has been a mainstay and integral to how City play, especially in 2023, just undermines your credibility and any point you’re trying to make.

Like everything, context is important and removing any to just focus on Goals For, Against and Points only tells half a story.

highlighting Klopp deserves more credit for losing very competently should look around at similar situations and see who cares.

Manchester United during Fergies final seven seasons.

5 premier league titles(losing one by finishing 1 point behind Chelsea and one to goal difference to City)
3 champions league finals in 4 years(losing 2 to Messi’s probably best team of all time Barcelona)
3 league cup final wins
1 FA cup final loss
5 charity shields wins(1 loss vs Chelsea)
FIFA club World Cup win (2 losses)

Looking back on it this way, you could make a case of this being one of the greatest premiership sides in history, but nobody says that, why? I think it’s because they lost two Euro finals, didn’t have 5/6 titles in a row and did half of it with Antonio Valencia in Ronaldo’s place and a semi-retired Scholes.

Liverpool have won 1 EPL, 1 CL, 1 FA, 1 LC, 1 Charity shield and 1 club World Cup in eight years since Klopp took over. Yet, how often do we hear that “they’re one of the best of all time!”? (10 trophies less never sounded so good)

Don’t get me wrong, they were very good, and gave the neutral something to cheer, but in pretty much every season, they were losers. One of the final losers, sure, but still left in the loser pile come May.

I reckon their entertainment factor conjoined with Liverpool fan fever will make this period more than it was, but just like United 2007-2013, the memories of what was will fade because reality of today will stand in its place.

Luton in the Premier League IS ludicrous.

A club that has never graced this revamped top flight, relegated from the top tier in the year the league launched, and non league under a decade ago.

But that just makes their story all the more beautiful.

The Premier League, with its billionaire owners, multi millionaire players and glory hunting fans, isn’t supposed to be for the likes of Luton – or their faithful.

But in August Luton Town will take their place alongside 19 other clubs competing for the Premier League title. They won’t get near the title of course. But neither will 18 other clubs as City makes it four in a row. But for Luton at least, it’s going to be one hell of a ride. And who could possibly begrudge them that?

Obviously football opinions are very subjective – I saw a John Nicholson tweet at the weekend about how much he enjoyed the Luton/Cov game and the style of football, to which some people disagreed and he pointed out that there’s more than one colour in the football rainbow and I entirely agree.

So I accept I could be in the minority here, but one glaring error in . Man United in 9th? I read Brighton in 1st fair enough, then thought it must be United 2nd, no Arsenal – okay I can sort of see that, 3rd – no, 4th…, 9th eh? Maybe we’re being judged on where we were 15 years ago or the size of the club or online-fans who have never been near OT.

Look back at the BBC pundits pre-season predictions, only 3 pundits had us in the top 4 (for comparison 8 pundits had Arsenal in the top 4) – we then lost at home to Brighton and got humiliated by Brentford. But by the end of the season finished comfortably third, won our first cup for 6 years and still have the FA Cup Final to go. We’ve absolutely smashed our pre-season expectations – despite only being able to sign unwanted loan players in January. And things basically ony look like they’re on the up.

Out of the literally dozens of pundits and ‘experts’ asked to give their top 4 predictions at the start of the season, I don’t think a single one had Liverpool outside the top 2. Conversely, I think a single lone maverick (Rob Green?) put Man United in the top 4. And yet Ian King has Liverpool 11th in the expectation table and United 9th…utter lunacy. Especially as the f365 expectation table is the real quiz.