Unbelievable

Not a chance

I was certain it’d be back for this season too, what with no European football

Urgh this game is going from bad to worse

Tonali and Barnes, but for Isak and Joelinton. Ouch

Tonali and Barnes discussing what Howe must be thinking leaving 100m of talent on the bench in favour of Longstaff and Murphy

Jesus, how poor are we defensively?

Pathetic defending by BDB sadly

Ffs

Damn, that deserved to go in the net

Howay the lads

Just seen our lineup. Longstaff ahead of Tonali

You’re just being silly now. Look at F1 where they set a budget cos that was around the amount some of the biggest teams were spending already, and low and behold a few years down the line other teams are catching up. Could set a limit to current top spenders’ outgoings, adjust for inflation and that would work very well. Of course that’s not what the big clubs want, for obvious reasons.

Exactly, and the rules we have in place today that City are claimed to have breached have been put in place by these very clubs specifically to stop them (and other clubs like us) and guarantee their place at the table. As I said I have no problem with Man City getting punishment for breaking these rules, but I do have a problem with the existence of the rules in the first place, fans of other clubs downplaying their achievements by pointing at them and ignoring their own clubs' malicious behaviour and failure to compete with them even on what is factually now an even keel and has been for years.

His point correctly being that if these anti-competitive rules weren't put in place, City wouldn't have had to resort to such practices in order to catch up with clubs who built themselves up similarly by vastly outspending their peers. As I said, City deserve to be punished for breaking the rules (if indeed it turns out they have), but these rules should not be in place and regardless of how City got there, they are still much better managed with similar means nowadays than the likes of Man United and Chelsea. Fans of those clubs really shouldn't be complaining and take a long hard look at the owners of their own clubs messing up so laughably.

No, the point that City fan made was about whether City deserves to always have their success caveated by the asterisk that they did it spening a lot of money. They are brilliantly managed and deserve praise for that. You know full well that if we ever get to be in their position fans of Liverpool, Arsenal and Man United will not stop pointing out how it is due to the vast wealth of our owners (and therefore unfair), completely ignoring that a) this is exactly how they rose to the top in years gone by, b) we (so far) have not outspend any of them and neither have City over recent years and c) none of their clubs would still be considered "top six" if they had suffered Mike Ashley-esque ownership for a decade and a half, taking us from a regular CL qualifier to a yoyo club which revenue stagnated whilst theirs tripled or quadrupled.

Well, that's the point that City fan made as well, and the problem we are facing isn't it? Liverpool, Man U and more recently Chelsea and City all got to become where they are ("top six" members) by at one stage outspending the competition to gain a position where their reputation, academy, etc. meant they could compete and hover up the biggest sponsorships without investing as big. They then pulled up the draw bridge when Arab owners with more wealth than themselves took an interest and they feared they might lose their cosy position at the top that they thought nobody could challenge.

I take it from this that you are in favour of these rules allowing and specifically brought in to allow some clubs to spend more than others? If so, I don't quite know what to say really. Should Man City be punished for breaking FFP rules? Yes Should Man City be derided for winning trophies by spending similar amounts to other clubs? No Should these rules be scrapped for being anti-competitive? Absolutely Should Newcastle United owners break the rules as long as they are not scrapped? Up to them, but I'm happy to accept they are not willing to and build the club within the current regulations whilst hopefully at the same time challenging the rules as they are internally Just checked btw, Man City is 11th in transfer spend over the last five years, having spent less than a third of what NUFC spent, and less than a sixth of Chelsea, less than a fifth of Man U and about a quarter of what Arsenal and Spurs spent (source). They absolutely deserve a lot of credit for how they are run and should be a good model for us to follow, albeit without the initial investment (to the same extent).

Whether Man City should be punished for breaking rules or deserve to have their success diminished and belittled by fans of other clubs are two different things. That fan expressed quite succinctly that other clubs at various critical stages of their history also outspend their competition to get to the top, something they’ve made damn sure can’t be done anymore as soon as owners richer than them entered the English game. As for how City went about becoming the four time PL winners they are, they’ve clearly been managed much better than some of the other clubs with similar revenue and spend, and for that they absolutely deserve credit.

Absolutely brilliant response from the City fan

Why not? They’re both class when fit, but not often enough fit as to be reliable to be considered first XI options imo.

So that’s another couple of years then? Surely the likes of Villa are going to kick up a fuss about this at their next meeting?

What have the PL said about the Leicester ruling?

Let me get this straight: you'd consider PIF "pouring money into the club for transfers were it nor for PSR" bending or breaking the rules? Seems pretty evident to me that PIF have so far invested to the limit allowed by the rules. If that limit changes, it stands to reason that they'd invest more. Would it be limitless, silly levels of spending that would blow everybody else out of the water? Probably not, seeing as recent quotes suggest they want to build NUFC as a best in class operation, not just a team assembled in one or two transfer windows by throwing a few billion around in transfer fees. Thankfully so too.

Why are you so fixated on what PIF need to do TCD? They are the majority shareholder and have put people in place that they trust to execute their vision for the club. PIF is one of the world’s largest public investment funds, with hundreds if not thousands of investment projects in its portfolio, some far bigger than NUFC. Their objective is the betterment of the Saudi people. They are not, nor will they ever act like, a random billionaire with a pet project. As fans all we can expect is that they hire the right people and act with the club’s best interest at heart. So far so good I’d say.

In, as in definitely present. Whether I’ll actually be able to play I will let you know when you’re going to create the teams. I’m slowly recovering from quite severe back pain that started over two months ago. I have a mate coming over with me from Holland. Will ask him if he would be interested in playing.