The College Dropout

Anyone but City for me

Barnes has 10 league goals this season tbf to him

Fair enough. That's just my observation from tihs season. Will look at some of his clips from last season. I assume those assists came from cutbacks and such after some good movement.

Aye he makes the attacking runs that ASM doesn't. ASM always wants it to feet rather than running onto things. Barnes has no creativity. Never see him beat a man, cross (well) or pass it well. Run and shoot. Movement. That's his game. Him & ASM for the left. Almiron & Gordon on the right. It's good but it doesn't scream Champions League.

Barnes is a finisher and has great movement. I don't rate his all-round game much. I like him but would prefer a left-footer

Injuries / didn't trust his body / not the right mentality

That doesn't matter. If I go into a job and keep the things that worked well previously and achieve comparable results that were seen as a success - I would have done a decent job. You're letting your personal bias cloud your judgement. Obviously Rafa did a better job. He built that foundation and he managed the fans much better.

It's not just the money. Politically it's the easiest "big" job going, probably the easiest ever. Everything is built for him - all his mates in positions of power. There's no major outside influences on the football operations. A docile fanbase. Compliant and non-demanding media. Chelsea had money. But it was always Roman's ship and his cronies needed constant management. City is Pep's ship.

Pep is the best league manager of all time and City have unlimited resources and easy internal politics. He needs to go elsewhere man. Go back and rebuild Barcelona.

This is true and will be his downfall. While Pep is at City. City will win 80% of PLs. Unless they receive significant penalties they will continue to dominate. I Don’t think the football public has realised how utterly dominant City are. They’ve had their worst season in some time and will likely win the double at least.

I've got no love for Bayern like. I didn't know until recently that Adidas, the second largest sports manufacturer in the world owns 8% of Bayern and has a seat on the board. The current Bayern President is a former Adidas CEO too. Adidas have a huge influence on football in general.

Aye Bruce did do a decent job at first. Aye a lot of it is down to using Rafa's template but he still did a decent job.

Aye the management pool at the highest level is small. Smith doesn’t sound exciting but… who else? Any manager on the ‘up’ will stay clear. It’s too risky to go totally unproven at this stage. The big problem was letting Rodgers go on so long. They could’ve sacked him a long time ago and gone for a Loupetegui(sp?) type manager. Someone at this point - only desperate managers would take the job.

Kane would be a fool to go to Man Utd. IMO he should go abroad. Madrid. Bayern. He’ll not win the biggest trophies at Man U.

Just focused on beating Villa we do that and confidence is sky high. Second focus is injuries. Let’s get ASM and Miggy fit with nobody else going down. Without injuries we are 70+ points. Likewise if spurs lose Kane for 3+ games it’s all over for them. He’s having one of his best ever seasons. If he plays all 38 games like he’s on track to do - he’ll score 30+ goals. If he sits out 5, they’re done.

In the same interviews Andy Cole is tremendously complimentary of ‘Clarky’ who convinced him to join Newcastle in the first place. Even though Cole went back into the team after the spat he thought that was the reason he was sold. Cole also left Blackburn after a little spat with Souness. I think the very best managers get players back on side after little spats and learn how to treat players individually. I’ve heard how SAF never gave Nani the hair dryer treatment.

Been listening to some Andy Cole interviews recently. I didn’t know the reason he was sold was because of a little spat with Keegan. Poor form by both imo

Not sure what’s best for us re: Liverpool.

Good chance Liverpool don’t even qualify for Europe this season. Will do well tk get Europa league.

Me and @kaka slating Martinelli he did got a goal and an assist mind. But he’s an ugly player to watch as well. Weird dribbling and running style. Runs with his head down. Weird technique as well. Opposite to a player like Hazard.

who cares? Arsenal will always be Arsenal. They won’t win 8 titles out of 10. Ever. Man City can. They need knocking down a peg. People already act like they’re invincible.

A lot of analysis of the Xhaka spat with Trent. Xhaka should’ve hit the deck and starts rolling around when that happened.

5 league titles in 6 seasons for 1 club is piss poor man. People like City winning because they have a small fan base. But it makes the league hollow when a hollow team dominates. They’ll be better next season too. When they have ‘off’ seasons they need to not win the league.

No it’s not. 96 isn’t even the biggest bottle job. Man U were something like 7 points clear with 5 games to go and lost it to City. Lost to Wigan. City. 4-4 draw against Everton did them in.

He’s quick. Strong. A finisher. And has the sniff. Dribbler, great presser But vision, passing.. just general play he’s limited. Ramsdale with some massive saves.