The College Dropout

They agreed to rules. Pretended to abide by them. And didn't. So they could win trophies and league titles. It's much more cheating than what Everton or Forest have done. Forest holding on to Brennan Johnson for a few extra months is fair. City siphoning wages off the books.... is cheating.

Also not much to lose by playing his best side all the time. I think Pep will play his strongest side every game he can unless players are genuinely tired in the moment. I think Gvardiol is in a good moment which is important to Pep. If he's physically fit and not fatigued hugely he'll start all games if Pep thinks he's the best LB. But as you say - Ake could pop up at LB at any moment.

Point is City are willing to do everything and anything to win. We are not - seemingly. The legalities of what they've done - I don't care about that much. We won't get a Court-PL or FA Cup

That's fair. But my point also stands. It's not succeed by any means. City is succeed by any means. True. But City are not trying to comply overtly and play by the rules. They are refusing to cooperate with the FA in their investigation. It's antagonistic. And... City have probably broken some rules. And are actively using footballing hacks. We've not tried to do any of that. Which I think is an indication of intent. I have no doubt that PIF want us to win but it's not by any means necessary. I'm sure they think other clubs will fight to make it a reality but they will let them take that risk.

Agreed. But look how PIF have bullied the PGA tour. They don't need to make friends. I'm not suggesting they don't have high ambition for us. But so far - it doesn't look like ultimate success or die. They won't break the rules to win. In all likelihood City have broken rules to win. They will fight in court to win.

Aye. But anchoring doesn't restrict incomes either. Just expenditure. Anchoring is genuinely good for the sport. People talk about how great Pep, Klopp are. But the disparity in the league is enormous financially. Their second string are on 2x the wages of Burnley. It's not managerial magic that makes them better still.

They don't seem to be threatening a challenge to the UEFA caps and they are more restrictive. And it's less anti-competitive than the UEFA caps IMO. It's preventing clubs from using financial disparities to create monopolies. There are no legal ways for a Burnley to catchup to Man City as the rules stand. Under anchoring - they could (in the PL).

Different footballing landscape. Can't compare. How quickly did they jump on it after the introduction of FFP? FFP didn't even exist when they bought City iirc. Can only park direct cost of the squad at the club (transfer fees, wages). With that anchoring will always be a limiting factor. Also I think City have realised the footballing model they have now is probably best for sustained success. The PSG thing doesn't work so well.

Think ultimately we are a bit of both. Just look at the away kit. How things end up with the footballing rules might determine on which end we are closer too. Us being in the CL with the green kit, Sela on the front, Noon on the sleeve, that's a vanity thing no matter what. It will only get more and more as time goes on.

Also multi-club might be on the way out. Not sure if it will hold up legally though.

Pure conjecture but I don't think PIF are as invested in us as City's owner's. They'll invest as much as they can with us. But they've not the multi-club thing or done the courtroom thing. City's approach is football domination. They will do anything necessary to win. Cheat. Use hacks. Resist transparency when they get investigated. It's like a Mafia boss. It's win or bust - no in between. Willing to antaganise the footballing authorities and establishment when they have too and take it to court. PIF haven't done any of that. Played within the rules and not looked to push back hard. But that has ultimately been smart. We are in a unique position. We align with City on some legal challenges. We align with the many on other legal and footballing challenges. Only clubs we don't have many mutual things in common are the red tops.

Yes. The anchoring only impacts PL. We want to be in Europe so we need to abide by the 75% revenue limit and we are already close to the limit.

Not enough other PL clubs won't vote in favour of it. So if it's going to go, it will go via the courts. That article makes a great point about the multi-club setup. City are loss making but can use clever accounting to shuffle costs to other clubs/businesses.

Don't jinx it please. Still time.

A part of me is thinking Eddie is lying. Denial. Yeh it's a major blow. We'll do tremendously well to finish top 7 from here.

Don't overthink it. Focus on teams and players in good form. Focus on players with good matchups in 36 & 38 cos you have the freehit. Like.. KDB is a differential so no need to go Doku (unless you really like him). Or just captain Foden as most will go to Haaland. All depends on how far behind you are. Less than 20-30 points - just make the best common sense transfers (this might depend on the playstyle of who you are chasing). Maybe have an alternate captain but like Foden rather than Haaland.. not like... Olise (which might work but is super punty). You might not need to chase until 37 or 38. If you are chasing 30+ then you might need to go a bit more different. The NO #1 team is sufficiently different from me that I'm just going to play my own game. The chasing pack is similar to me so they have to go differential or hope the small differences pay off big. In a paid league I'm 2 points ahead of someone with a similar team to me (he just brought in Gvardiol ffs). We are likely to be close come end of GW37. My GW38 playstyle will depend on whoever is in the lead but a captain zag could probably decide it.

Seems to only have 1 plan and that doesn't include defending set-pieces. IMO Spursey is a mindset. A mental vulnerability. That also comes with a lack of quality in-depth and a football culture. They pay by far the lowest wages of the top 6 iirc. Bale, Modric, Walker, Trippier etc. go on to better teams and become serial winners. It's just Spurs are ultimately a bit short of quality and then mentality. You've just been a bit lucky in-game.

I think it's just a settled team and slightly better team spirit. There's quality there. If they defend decently they can score goals. I still think they are susceptible when teams come and defend deep well. WHU have lost everything but with the rivalry they might turn up. It's Forest on the counter I think they'll drop points/lose.

Neville has become out of touch with the modern game. Just cliche. Yes Chelsea have found some form but it’s been about time.

Olympiacos?????????

I do think Chelsea have turned a bit of a corner.

10 points off top spot in the NO league. Just about top in my paid leagues. 2 GWs. A top 10k OR. Win NO league. Win my paid leagues. It’s all to play for. Best FPL season ever. Going to beat my 60k finish a couple seasons back by some margin.

I like Henry on CBS. He's still cool on there. Meeks & Carragher try hard and Thierry does Thierry. He's a bit less tactically analytical than Carragher. But he's great when talking about mentality, being a winner etc. and his knowledge of European football is better than the others.

Yep. I find it very frustrating that the financial side of football has become so important, but the only 100% accurate data we get comes out once a year on a one year delay. Big yep. Everything else is just rumour and conjecture. The Targett being on £100k is a strong rumour started the The Mirror but nobody knows for sure. He's not been fit enough to try and shift to give us further indication.

Sometimes Carragher in-particular forces the banter. But in general, the more relaxed tone is refreshing. Sometimes when Man U would lose on "Super Sunday" and they used to have Souness, Neville, Keane etc. the atmosphere was one of genuine real-life crisis. I've seen Micah and Carragher look visibly awkward in the room because everyone is so serious and obviously they enjoy the result. Football is fun and rarely that deep.