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Feb 1st, home against Sunderland. It will be an explosive match if we haven't signed some good new players by then.

Yes! Butt's off. Suspended for the next game. Thank fuck.

Excellent cross, Jose. Should have shot, though.

Well, if you look at Villa, only Laursen and Barry were fully established before M'ON came. Agbonlahor was there but his development can be attributed to the new regime. Barry's general improvement in form is also linked to O'Neill and how he played him in CM as opposed to shifting around four positions - CB, LB, LM and CM. Ashley Young, one of their most important players, was also bought by O'neill. Who else? Bouma was there before and is an important player but he's out for the season, iirc. Their center of defense, apart from Laursen, is Davies, Knight and Cuellar, all bought by O'Neill. Their rb, Luke Young, also bought by O'Neill, as is his sub, Reo-Coker. Petrov, the cm partnering Barry was also bought by O'Neill. He's basically rebuilt their whole team. Shorey's been shite but also bought by O'Neill and along the way they've promoted Gary Cahill (sold to Bolton) and Craig Gardner, who looks very promising. I just remembered Carew and he's been important so far, although less so this season since the night club incident. But he was also bought by O'Neill. He's done an outstanding job so far.

Kaka is a classic 'vertical' player, a term regularly used by Phil Ball who stole it from the Madristas, iirc. He will not disappoint. He is perfect for the Premiership. He doesn't run sideways, he doesn't make square passes, he doesn't slow the play down. He runs down the pitch to collect the ball and up with the ball at his feet, driving at defenders. He'll be a nightmare to play against when in form and I think he will set the Premiership alight. This is not a Sheva situation where he excelled when playing against defenders who sit back and give him time. Kaka has already shown how adept he is at scoring goals on the counter (CL semi at Old Trafford) and he'll be awesome here. The only doubt I have about him is how he'll perform with Robinho as Robinho hogs the ball moreso than most players that Kaka's played with. Kaka's already mentioned that he's had to do more defending this season because Ronaldinho has a free role and touches the ball often so it'll be interesting to see how he performs with Robinho, but imo, if City are thinking of building a team around one player, it definitely should be Kaka.

Don't know if it's been posted but this was what he said about the 'clash' against Brown “I don’t know why I was sent off, we just had words. He had plenty to say and I answered. “He didn’t actually say anything to me. He was having a rant at Chris. He wasn’t saying too many pleasant things to him. I just said to him, ‘Enough’ and sent Chris to sit down. I don’t know if my reputation precedes me.” Reading that, I feel for him. I haven't seen it and haven't read what Phil Brown's said about it so I'm basing my feelings on the assumption that he's being honest.

Which summer was it where there were three CMs available - Barton, Reo-Coker and someone else - and everyone got excited about all of them?

I don't rate Kinnear at all but I don't mind having him in charge because I think he's on our side and there's certainly nobody higher than him at NUFC who could give two fucks what happens to the club. He's having the piss taken out of him just as much as every supporter. Agreed. I think we'll stay up but apathy is the only feeling I have when I think about the club's future.

'Crunch time'? Get the fuck out, Kinnear. He hasn't had a chance, man.

Haha, I can't wait to see this thread when he actually plays.

You never know, it might be something to do with how they got their money, or their authoritarian rule of a million or so people. They've inherited billions off the back of a genetic fluke, and are ploughing it into ruining English football while ignoring the problems of their own populace and their Emirate's inevitable collapse as it's only tangible source of income runs out.* Yeah, I just hate them cause they're rich, that's it, I'm a hippy. I'm going to try and briefly** make my point though, in a nice simple chart form. And before I do I should add that City's new owners are merely an ultimate result of where football has been going over the last decade, its not entirely their fault, but if you'll excuse the slightly racist pun, they'll be the palm tree that breaks the camel's back. I'll hide it so I don't take up half the page: A lot of people were worried about Chelsea having this effect, and certainly they've pushed us along that road. However the key difference is Chelsea were never rich enough to sustain that kind of spending. City, if we are to believe what people say, have no such limit. Of course I should note this is all worst case scenario stuff, but if City start paying someone a couple million a month then we know we're well on the way. *This is an incredibly simplistic take on a massively complex issue, but it was just my simple way of putting that they are, as with most of the ruling families in that part of the world, a set of bastards. **Hmm, fecked that up didn't I? It's about demand and supply, bro. Every player will want to pay for City but the supply of money just isn't there from other teams in regards to wages, so naturally, they will have to accept lower wages. The pressure will be on clubs who want to keep their players but in the end, City cannot buy all the best players in the world. The situation with Chelsea has demonstrated this. Even though they went out and bought pretty much world stars, the supply of such stars still dwarfs what they wanted so there were still leftovers, so to speak. And even if they spend £100m on Kaka and £200 on Messi, Milan and Barca will spend that money. In a way, it's like the gov't spending money on the economy to boost it. City are just spending money in the transfer market. I don't think wage bills will double. Any club that is prudent will try to sustain itself but clubs that overreach, increase the price of tickets will drive their own fans away and in the end, be the ruin of the club because they can't sustain it. If attendances decrease, clubs will adjust because like you say, income from tickets is significant. In fact, they have already adjusted over the past couple of seasons. Bolton froze their tickets for a bit, Blackburn have decreased theirs etc. The league will still be the same, even if City spend 10x more than their closest challengers each year. It will still come to down to the basics of football, to good coaching, to some luck even. This is the essence of football and why it is so fun. Nothing is ever decided on paper. In the past 15 years, there have been 4 clubs who have won the league. That's not a lot of teams if you're comparing it to other sports (basketball, american football, baseball etc.). Even if City spend like this for the next 10 years, I would bet that a few other clubs are able to win a title every now and then (like Arsenal and Chelsea have during this Man Utd reign).

I can't believe people still don't know where to find streams, but fyi, there aren't any today.

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Over the summer SSN ran a banner for about half an hour after Portugal got knocked out (I think) confirming that Ronaldo had left Manchester United. They're shameless. This is going to feck up football something fierce. I don't blame the billionaires, I blame the Premier League for letting this happen. Fit and proper person test, what do you have to do actually fail it? Eat a live child in front of the Pl board? Christ it'd probably have to be one of their own kids before they'd even bat an eyelid. As for people coming up with tedious excuses about how its always been this way, they need to grow some sense. Wages like this are completely unsustainable, and everyone else will have to compete. Sure its fine for City and Chelsea, but what about the rest of us, we'll pay to compete the way we've had to of late, with massively inflated ticket prices. How long do you expect fans to actually put up with that? I'm not going to panic yet, as it's still City, and they're a joke. But this summer, or maybe the next, they're probably going to start smashing up all the rules. Oh and one thing people aren't considering is what this will force other bigger clubs to do. Man Utd have to stay competitive or the club is screwed financially. If its getting to the point where to do so we have to pay obscene wages like this then we'll do the obvious. We'll fuck off the current TV deal and make our own, then the rest of the league will have to follow suit. If you think English football is stale and uncompetitive now... What does the fit and proper person test have to do with any of this? Does being mega-rich mean that they're not 'fit and proper'? Or is the spending insane amount of money part that bothers you? They have a competitive advantage and they're using it. If you want to laugh at them, I suggest you do so now because when they get one or two players in, the rest will follow and that's when everyone's fucked, including Man Utd. Stop whining like a little girl just because they're going to outspend you It's good for City. They're lucky that their owner/s picked them out of all the other clubs and they will be very fortunate to watch some great players play for them (which they will, in time, no doubt do). Face it, in a few years' time, City will probably have won a few trophies, whether they be mere Cups or an actual league title remains to be seen but they will challenge and break up the top 4, which, from an objective sense, will be awesome to watch. The league will become more competitive with the influx of more foreign talent and the overall quality will increase (as it has in the past 10 years). With there being only 4 CL places, having 5 teams that actually have a shot at the title each year will be fun to watch. It'll be even more enjoyable if Man Utd finish 5th each year

Can't get over 1996. I'll never hate a team more than Man Utd.

No fight, no fight at all.

The Chelsea players just look like they don't give a shit. Honestly, no one's making any runs, they're not going in for the 50/50s, not chasing loose balls etc.

Drogba did an 'Enrique' there.

Team full of diving cunts. Both of them.

Had to score there. Not a bad game, this.

The ref's going to lose control of this soon. He can't be dishing out yellow cards like that.

Hahaha. Boom goes the dynamite!

I'll take this anyday of the week. Dyer was, at one point, one of the most exciting CMs in the league. When Speed covered the defensive part, Dyer was fucking electric running up and down with the ball and almost unstoppable. End product is important, of course, but there's more than that in football. Likewise there's more than just scoring goals for strikers. Jonas is a player who changes the way the other team defends. He keeps possession better than any winger of ours has done in the past few seasons and uses it intelligently. If only our team had some more intelligent players with better movement...

Jesus, two or three bad games and suddenly we need someone better. Before the Wigan game, we had kept 4 clean sheets in 7 matches and Coloccini played a big part in that. It was only after our settled backline was broken up (and one of them replaced by S Taylor) that we've been leaking goals again. I do feel that some of his poor performances have come because he's still not yet settled. The same happened with Vidic and Evra in their first seasons and that's why they were on the bench for a lot of it. Unfortunately Colo and Bassong are the best we've got so he's gotta play through this learning period.

Pav's done well generally but he's only scored 3 in the league, so I'd say he's struggling a bit. On the other hand, people say Bent's struggling but he's got 7 league goals already. You need to bang 'em in in the league 'cos that's where it counts the most.