A Man City fan hits back at the ‘old Premier League elite’ for taking the ‘moral high ground’. Also: Arsenal are ‘virtually identical’ to ‘boring Citeh’…
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City fan here. I’ve so enjoyed the mails about City in the last week or two, especially when the writer purports to take the moral high ground. City are cheats, financial dopers, their trophies are hollow and so on. Wouldn’t be there without petro-state squillions, etc.
Isn’t it interesting that the most vociferous of these come from fans of what I would call the ‘old PL elite’?
Because the inference, if not the downright accusation, is that had Sheikh Mansour bought Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal or Spurs, then the supporters of said clubs would’ve walked away in their droves never to darken their home stadiums again. Easy to say when you’re not in those shoes.
But here’s the thing. Firstly, like everybody else reading this, I don’t EVER get a say in who buys my club or what they subsequently do with it. Secondly, there was no lack of support for City when AD bought the club and, amazingly, the same thing happened when the Saudis bought Newcastle.
And I’m really going to stick my neck out here and say that if Sheikh Jassim buys either United or, as reported by F365, Spurs as an alternative, neither OT nor WHL will be empty afterwards as a result. Quite the reverse.
In that event, Liverpool and Arsenal fans (along with Utd or Spurs depending on who DOESN’T get bought) will, of course, lose their moral high ground collective sh*t and F365 will be bombarded with mails from outraged fans.
One thing that puzzles me though. If AD bought City, the Saudis’ Newcastle, and the Qataris want to buy either United or Spurs, then why did none of them want to buy Liverpool?
City’s current dominance – and make no mistake, 5 out of 6 titles is absurd dominance – is undeniably impressive. And of course, City fans want and should be able to celebrate it. For me, there are two crucial hurdles to overcome before there’s no asterisk to be added:
Firstly, despite all the revisionism on the success of Arsenal/United in the 90’s (and then 00’s) neither of those teams spent anywhere near the level of magnitude more than other clubs that initially Chelsea and then City did when ‘ramping up’. If anything, City should be thanking United’s utterly inept ownership – if you take United off the gross spend of wages/transfers there’s no one near City (up until whatever Boehly is doing). This really is the point – for more than a decade one team has spent the most on transfers and wages virtually every season. It has successfully brought in a dozen players for big money who didn’t work out, and happily replaced them with better players at big money. Every window, every season. That’s City’s advantage. In isolation, yes, VVD, Allison and Maguire are more expensive. But City brought in 5 players in each position, and now have it right. Is that impressive? I don’t know.
Secondly, how much cheating can you justify? It seems City fans are fine to have made up sponsors so they could purchase, say Aguero. But what if it turns out the only reason Sergio was at City was an off-the-books second salary, hidden from view? Does that change anything? City fans kind of have to be binary on this and reduce it to nihilism: money in football was absurd already, so any breaking of rules is justified because the system is so flawed. I have sympathy with the view that the system is broken, but if you sign up for a competition and agree to a set of rules, you should get punished if you break them.
Regardless, congrats and enjoy. In the end, this will likely be a short moment in history where a team is this good. If you can separate that from the above, as well as the reason Abu Dhabi are even involved, that’s wonderful.
I have some bad news for the various Liverpool, Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man City fans flooding the mailbox, arguing whose title was most exciting: nobody who doesn’t follow your club ever really cheered them on to any title, ever.
No matter how exciting you think it was, or how well deserved: the rest of the world doesn’t care or remember.
We definitely don’t think your club’s triumph represents the glory days of the Premier League. We just don’t give a sh*t.
The one exception to this is Leicester. We ALL loved it when Leicester beat all of you.
In the realm of American sports, I’ve always enjoyed college basketball and football much more than the NBA and NFL. Play in the pro leagues is too smooth and efficient and looks like a video game. In contrast, in college sports, there is always the very real possibility of an unpredictable play or an incredible upset.
And this brings me to Citeh. Citeh is to the rest of the Premier League as American pro sports are to their college sports. My main problem with Citeh is not that they are so corrupted (even though they are) and not that they are unbeatable (even though they are). My problem is that watching Citeh play is profoundly boring.
Boring as in you just know that they’ll make their next pass. Boring as in you know that they’ll score the next goal. Boring as in you know they’ll win the next game. Boring as in you know they’ll win the league again. Everything about them is so smooth and tight and controlled, just like the top of Pep’s head. There is no drama. There is no soul.
They have become a juggernaut by eliminating every vestige of human foible from the game. It may make for a great trophy acquisition, but it most certainly does not make for a beautiful game.
For all the talk of the games which lost Arsenal the title, if you take out the two games v City then the records vs the other 18 teams in the league are virtually identical. If both teams win their remaining games then City have been 1 point better against ‘the rest’ of the league
So for every point Arsenal frustratingly dropped against Southampton, Everton, West Ham and Liverpool, Man City have virtually the same amount of frustrating points dropped against the likes of Forest, Everton, Villa, Spurs, and Liverpool.
The games that really decided the title were the six points up for grabs in the games between the two sides. And sadly from an Arsenal point of view, we only showed what we can do in 45 minutes of those two games and City ran out deserved winners on both occasions.
Okay I’ll bite because it’s a particularly ridiculous point that Stewie brings up time and time again.
“Arsenal will Never, ever get anywhere because large swathes of their fans are Specialists in Failure! Never looking inward, forever blaming Citeh.”
Fans never have and never will have any direct influence on the success their clubs have on the pitch. They might like to think of themselves as the 12th man and that their ability to make noise will prove the difference between landing a “historic” treble United have already achieved – but that’s absolute nonsense.
Football success is determined by two factors – how well-run your club is and how much money the owners put in. You only have to look at Chelsea for proof of this. Champions of Europe just two years ago, they’ve ripped up their structure and have an owner who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Result? They’ve gone from London’s top club to West London’s third club.
If being a good fan was all it took – Palace would be London’s top club. As it is, London’s top club, for this season at least is the Arsenal again.
Newcastle finally feel on the home stretch for that sweet European classical musical next year. Leicester will fight on Monday, and going to Chelsea can’t be taken for granted, but it feels like on this form 2 or 3 points from those two games is doable.
In the end, in the big moments, Newcastle have stood up to be counted at St James’ Park in front of the fans. The best performances of the season – of any Newcastle season in 10 years or more – have come at home against the other sides in the top half. Against the other teams from Chelsea up Newcastle’s home record reads won 7, drawn 1, lost 2, with 26 goals scored and 10 conceded.
Most of all, in the three big home games in the late-season fight for the Champions League – Man U and Spurs in April, and Brighton on Thursday – Newcastle have turned it up to the max. Both involved intense press, aggression, and attacking intent, and that led to a combined 12 goals (and >11xG) in three games to take points off several of our closest rivals for 3rd-4th places. It didn’t happen in the Carabao final, and perhaps that came too soon in the teams’ development, but ever since they have shown some of the biggest performances come when the pressure is on, and that will be massive if the club is going to go on to chase trophies or hopefully get into European knockouts in the future.
By the way, take nothing from Brighton who have been a fantastic club and team since coming up from the championship with us in 2017. A lot of sympathy for their tough run-in with next to no recovery time and a game every 3-4 days for a month which forced them to part-rotate. Fingers crossed they can hold onto the European place they deserve.
Fingers crossed also Newcastle can get over the line on CL qualification, but all around this has been a great season I think above most fans’ expectations. Howe has been brilliant in his use of a squad still partly in transition, and the admittedly high spending has had a strong hit rate that some bigger spenders can only dream of – Bruno, Isak, Trips, Botman, Burn and Pope all doing excellently and pre-takeover players being massively improved or finding their best form, like Almiron, Wilson, Joelinton, Murphy and Longstaff.
That being said there are clear and obvious gaps in quality depth – a specialist left back, in defensive and central midfield, and at wide forward – which means Howe and the recruiters have some pretty clear routes to improve for next season, along with full preseasons for Isak and Gordon, while hopefully keeping the intensity that has worked well this year.
Well done, HWTL
Regardless of whether Man City are being punished or not, Ivan Toney is an individual who knows not to bet on football. He didn’t do it once, twice, ten, twenty or even one hundred times. He did it over 200 times.
That he is only being banned now, where 3 months of his ban will be over the summer period is pathetic. Brentford will replace him over the summer with a capable loan, but Brentford shouldn’t be in the position they are in.
As soon as Toney was being investigated he should have been suspended. His goals this season are worth over 20 points.
Ludicrous decision.
I feel that if there is an afterlife, I will go up rather than down. I have worked in education safeguarding/inclusion for over 20 years. I have run marathons for charity, and I have helped friends move home and picked them up from the airport in the middle of the night.
However, I despise a few things that may mean I have to spend some time in purgatory before my ascent upwards.
Newcastle – in the space of 6 months they have become a time-wasting, soul-sucking, morally ambiguous club that is fronted by a man who wouldn’t look out of place defecting at a Trump press conference – I mean he even had the temerity to say that he is trying to entertain a nation the other day – HOW?
David Silva – the Guardian Football Weekly podcasts’ “hipsters choice” as footballer of the year – a nasty argumentative little man with a chip on his shoulder, a pernickety tactical fouler that has the arrogance to think that he because he plays for City and is managed by the Steve Jobs of football that he can do whatever the f*** he wants.
The majority of the fourth estate – please grow some balls and say SOMETHING that approaches an opinion that doesn’t make your broadcast sound like I am watching the Lego movie every weekend – everything is not awesome.
Man City have possibly financially cheated their way to multiple titles – but 99% of pundits NEVER mention it (Barry Glendening aside).
Frank Lampard is not a Top-Top manager and never will be – someone say it.
Proper football men – would it have been better to go for younger upcoming managers that the PFM now in charge of Leeds, Leicester and Everton – not according to the Media as these are Top-Top proven managers.
Thank you, goodnight
Man Utd have held talks over a move for Ivan Toney and have set a limit for a potential transfer bid as the Brentford star’s contract demands have been revealed.
Man Utd have ‘internally discussed’ signing Brentford striker Ivan Toney or Everton’s Dominic Calvert-Lewin, according to reports.
The Brentford striker was once valued at a considerably higher price than the currently reported tag of £50m or nearest offer
Man Utd’s attempt to restock their striking ranks has seen them set their sights on Ivan Toney but the club have been advised to adjust their expectations.
Brentford and England striker Ivan Toney ‘wants to join’ Man Utd in the summer transfer window, according to Sport Bild reporter Christian Falk.
According to reports, Arsenal could end up signing Brentford and England forward Ivan Toney on a free transfer despite interest from Manchester United.
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