KaKa

Agree. Should have done better.

Monaco lead. Wilfred Singo header.

Akliouche starts for Monaco and about to go up against Villa. Should be interesting.

Ah, okay. Interesting. That's pretty cool. Cutting costs in those areas certainly makes more sense than the everyday workers.

City have had to play Inter, Sporting, Juve and Feyenoord alongside Sparta and Slovan. They unsurprisingly hammered both Sparta and Slovan, who are the sort of teams they usually have in their group. They would have qualified already by now. They don't get off that easily this time around though.

They still are in this format though. Think it's a much better balance overall. Instead of always having them in tough four man groups were the bigger teams always have it easy.

Sheesh. Didn't realise the £20 million had been confirmed. Oh well. Would have easily got that back from Saudi too. How annoying.

Do we officially know what we paid in the end?

We would have been able to justify a decent fee for Vlachodimos. Greek number 1. Previous Champions League experience at Benfica. Would have been a great look.

Yeah, I hear you. That's what I was trying to say It's just such a long table.

I see. But do they have to make appearances etc. on behalf of the club or anything like that? Or is it just a lifetime title and benefit.

The previous groups were getting so diabolical, with just a few having teams that had to compete to get through. Was usually just a couple of teams that everyone knew were going to come through, beating up on some minnows. The table for this format looks a bit mad with do many teams in it, but it's pretty straightforward to understand. A lot more less obvious teams seem to at least be in with a shout of progressing, and the bigger teams are getting more of a test that some are in danger of failing.

I didn't realise all these guys were still getting salaries. Do they all still do work for the club in some capacity?

Oh my goodness! We could have made some really decent money with such a move! Such a shame. Dangit!

Yeah, been far more interesting.