Wandy

They are taking yesterday's result as badly as you'd expect. Meanwhile, in other news, one of them openly admits that his dad hates Bukayo Saka because he is black... https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/saka’s-goal-today.1613237/

£100m+ player. We actually got him for a bargain, the lad is simply world class.

He’s hating being here and is missing Milan. You can just tell.

Having listened to Eales on the radio on Thursday, and watched the first episode of the Amazon documentary, I'm fairly sure that they have no plans to relocate away from the current area of the city centre. Eales was waxing lyrical about the cathedral on the hill, and I think they do truly place a lot of significance on that prime location, so I think they will try everything they can to get 65k out of the current footprint. If that's not possible then they may have a Leazes Park contingency plan. I just don't see the Arena site happening, and I'm less sure that I'd want it anymore tbh.

The games that I was watching you could literally see the people in the various stands clapping along with the song. I think you can pick up from the sound coming through the TV where the singing is coming from in a stadium. For years & years I have poured scorn on Anfield's atmosphere but it definitely seems to have improved recently. You could say the same for Old Trafford too.

Normally I'd agree but, watching some of their live games last season, I was actually impressed at the singing that came from all four sides of the ground. They've also got a songbook that is significantly better than most of the league.

Not really cherry picking bud. In amongst the pointless bickering, the point I was trying to make was that a newly built stadium wouldn't necessarily be soulless. The risk would obviously be there though if they got the design wrong.

Good article that. I actually think it's now a big eight though, rather than seven, as Villa are only going to get stronger & also have seriously wealthy owners.

Higher is higher, the rest is semantics. The stadium that you singled out as having a soulless matchday experience compared to SJP is, in fact, rated higher than SJP for that very thing by actual visiting away fans.

So the Emirates is soulless, yet away fans rate it’s home atmosphere higher than SJP. Remind me again about own goals?

The case isnt closed at all, you lunatic. This was used to dispel the myth about the stadiums that get lazily tagged as "soulless bowls" by the likes of you. I look forward to you providing all of this evidence of the fantastic SJP atmosphere from away fans.

See, I disagree with that. If a stadium was built big enough to let back in all of the noisy fans from the last 20 years who walked away, with well designed & symmetrical stands, then you would see a much better atmosphere. The best option to improve the current SJP though is extend L7 to the Gallowgate to give it a horseshoe effect, then squeeze a new two tiered stand onto the East Stand plot, with a glass section taking its roofline up to match L7s. Your then keeping all of the sound in. Level 7 isnt great for views but if it extended around most of the stadium then people in it would feel like your actually a part of the match experience. At the moment there is a feeing of detachment when your up there.

A cop out if ever I saw one.

Here's a recent survey of best home atmospheres, from away fans who actually went. SJP is behind other stadiums that are regularly tagged as "soulless". https://www.midnite.com/rundown/best-worst-premier-league-grounds-atmosphere

Show me all of these online reviews of the SJP atmosphere from away fans who went and raved about it then, and I will concede the point.

Where's this popular opinion you speak of? I've literally just pointed out a set of fans who said SJP's atmosphere was worse.

It is a myth. It’s a myth that City’s atmosphere is garbage and SJP’s is amazing. The truth is somewhere in between, and I’ve already pointed out that Bournemouth fans rated the Etihad atmosphere better. The Wor Flags experience at SJP is increasingly being confused with genuine atmosphere IMO.

It’s ugly architecture, that’s why. In the same way the city has great Georgian architecture to be proud of, then the remnants of the 1970s is equally something to shudder at.

That’s a total myth about the Etihad. For instance, Bournemouth fans do an away trip special YouTube video for each PL ground and they rated the atmosphere at the Etihad better than SJP. However they rated the overall match day experience up here as the best in the league, and that was mainly down to the stadium location and the warmth of the support to them as visitors. To be fair though, they did actually like the fact that all of the stands at SJP are of different design. The sheer physical size of SJP is what blows people way usually.

It’s a stadium of three parts really, which is where I suppose the “character’ comes into play. The L7 expansion looks magnificent from the outside but the match day experience within it is crap. The Gallowgate now looks dated due to its cowshed roof but the accoustics are superb and it feels like a “proper” football stand. And then you have the East Stand, which actually has great views but is truly hideous on the outside. And yeah, that is the embarrassing part of the stadium.

Depends what your priorities are really. SJP wins hands down for location, but the Etihad has better all round views and accoustics than SJP. There are areas in our stadium that I simply will not sit because the match day experience is so poor, so I’d rather just watch it on the TV. The same can’t be said for the Etihad.

Whatever changes happen to the club under this ownership, the only thing that is sacrosanct is the city centre location. Pretty much everything else though there can be a conversation about. If someone with a crystal ball offers me a state of the art stadium outside of the city centre and Man City’s last 15 years of success, or a moderate upgrade of SJP on it’s current footprint with zero trophies won in the same 15 years, then I take the latter every time.

Have to disagree. A club’s stadium is all part of the bragging process for fans, and the East Stand is proper cringeworthy from the outside.

The main problem with it is that the L7 extension killed the accoustics and offered pretty dreadful views, unless you are in the lower rows. I still miss 1990s SJP immensely.

There would be hell on. That is never happening. Or anything even remotely like it.