Mase

RE: Pep always having great players - when he joined City we’d finished 4th the season before and had the same points as the team in 5th. We had Sagna and Clichy as our fullbacks, we had Bony upfront. We had Mangala scoring own goals. We had Fernando anchoring the midfield! We had Fabian Delph starting. He built the team he has now, yes he spent money, but he identified players that could either fit in to his style and philosophy of playing straight away (but there’s not many about), or ones that he could improve and get them playing the best football of their careers. Players come to City and completely change the way they play under Pep. Rodri is a perfect example - absolute donkey when he first came and has since become one of the best in his position. Look what Pep did with Sterling!! You have Sunday league teams playing out from the back and keeping possession! He’s completely changed the game.

Is your owner not able to do the same? As far as I’m aware, improvement of facilities doesn’t go against FFP. Any reason why Brighton can’t do what Leicester did and spend £80m of the £100m they got from Caicedo and create fantastic academy and training facilities like Leicester have done with the Maguire money?

For me, I’d like to see teams like yourselves, Villa, Brighton etc be able to break the “top 4” without the corruption of trying to keep the red teams in it. In 2013 the chief of the Premier League openly said that Man U not winning the league was detrimental to the Premier League - he said that openly and people just ignored it. The excitement of Leicester winning it the other year showed that new fans will be brought to the league by a new team winning it. But realistically it’s not about fans anymore, it’s about money. It’s a shame but that’s the way it is now. My favourite memories are still of games at Maine Road, playing football at halftime behind the Kippax. Football and the rules were more simple then, it was more enjoyable. No matter what City win I’ll always look back and have fonder memories of the Maine Road days than now. Going into school as a kid surrounded by red shite that never went to matches and having a me vs them attitude was great! Football just needs that enjoyment back, the life is being sucked out of it every season.

At the same time, City have probably the best facilities for academy kids in the land, so would it not be on the shoulders of other teams to catch up with them and provide something similar? Then maybe kids would choose other academies apart from City. City shouldn’t lower their standards just to make it easier for other teams - other teams need to raise theirs. It’s not like Pep is in favour of giving kids a really good run anyway. We usually develop them to then sell for peanuts to other teams who either have them in their team for years, or sell them for more than double what they paid a year later.

Just knew with Ian Wright acting the clown while pulling the balls out without mixing them and Keane beaming, that the Rags would get Coventry They could have made it less obvious

This is the same ref that when Haaland put Grealish clean through in the last min against Spurs, he blew for a City freekick after waving advantage. the guy is a nonce

Gotta say, that was a class tackle!

That Murphy lad good? Seems to be dealing with Doku well, although Doku has been crap recently

I can honestly say we don’t get anything from refs, but looking at this forum and others - all fans think their team don’t get anything

Good luck lads. May the best team win!

Exactly. How can clubs get their revenue to the same level as the teams in red without a decent lot of money being spent in the first instance? Basically saying “it’s a closed club now - you’ll never be able to compete”. Why clubs continue to vote for this is baffling.

Man United get a cash injection and the rules get changes……I’m so shocked……

not a clue. It’s not uncommon. The other season there was rows of empty seats in their end

Nope. There was pockets of empty seats.

just a follow up to this (I was going to start a thread to get your opinions but I don’t think I’m allowed) - my dad was telling me he saw loads of trouble at the City game on Sunday. He said that quite a few “tourist” Man U fans bought tickets in the City end thinking it would be fine (which is weird as their away end was empty) - and it might have been…..until they stood up cheering when United scored!! He said he could see pockets just jumping up and it kicking off when Rashford scored. There was someone a few rows behind him that jumped up and the stewards were on him straight away - launched him out and threw his half and half scarf away. Others got whacked as they were being chucked out. What are your thoughts? If a Sunderland fan jumped up screaming and shouting in a derby in your end would you expect them to get a few digs? For me, I think it’s baffling that any fan, even a tourist, would think it’s okay to jump up and scream and shout in the wrong end, especially in a derby. Imagine it happening at Celtic - Rangers!!! I think there would be manslaughter charges dished out! As a kid we went to quite a few away grounds and sat in the home end because we knew people that supported the home team. I’ve sat in the Holt End at Villa Park when Alfie Haaland scored the first and I just looked up at my mum and she shook her head and I kept quiet. Been in the West Brom, Sheff United, Blackburn, Macclesfield home ends and just kept quiet when the likes of Shaun Goater scored. It’s just common sense. But there seems to be a new wave of tourist fans that don’t really understand this.

He's from Summerseat mate, but Summerseat is a village in Bury. He went to school in Rammy as well, so all of the above haha. His brothers are football mad as well. His dad even more so. His dad is also fuckin solid, to put it politely There was a story from when Kieran was with Spurs and he had a party that Dele Alli attended and Alli said something to Kieran’s dad and got gripped. Theres some funny stories but probably not for on here haha.

My dad took me to Maine Road in ‘95 and it was just all Mancs. When we went on holiday during the 90’s and 2000’s it would be so rare to see someone else in a City shirt that when we did we’d go over and have a chat. If someone foreign asked who we supported and we said, “Manchester City” they’d automatically respond with “Yes Manchester United!!” Unfortunately now on a match day there’s a good number of tourists, people walking down the steps of the stand to take a picture at the front. I understand that it’s inevitable, but I do sometimes wish for the old Maine Road days. We went away last summer and there were tons of kids in City shirts running around, most of them not English kids and probably never been to watch one of our games. My first thought is “they’ll never know what it’s like going into school as the only City fan, surrounded by Man U fans taking the piss every Monday!” As someone’s said, the half and half scarves need banning. Not just for a derby match but all together! They’re horrendous.

Mark Halsey said a few years ago that refs are told what to do. It got swept under the carpet at the time, but we’re seeing it in all its glory this season!

I know how it works. You think if that was any team other than the ones that play in red that the ref wouldn’t have blown on 98? Konate faked a head injury to stop Forest’s attack and then somehow Liverpool are given the ball when play resumes?

8 minutes of injury time and score in the 9th Quite clear what’s happening this season, with it being Klopp’s final one.

Finally, the clubs that actually voted for FFP, are seeing what the red teams forced them to vote for. Brilliant!

Apologies mate, when the original charges were issued and released, in the premier league statement they only quoted the rule numbers we had broken not the descriptions, and they were quoting from an old version of the rule book so the rule numbers we were being accused of weren't aligned. Hence one of the rule numbers aligning with grass length. They had to update the charge numbers.

Samuel is usually spot on with his takes - and he is with this also. He’s being OTT with the £60m but he’s essentially saying pay decent money or do one. It might not be £60m but £10m today is pathetic. A manager will get that in comp when sacked by a club that doesn’t want them. Newcastle aren’t the ones getting rid here, it’s the Rags that are approaching every man and his dog, so if they want him so much - pay up!

Even Forest - a club that’s been in the lower leagues for some years but traditionally a top top club.

Our 115 charges aren’t just related to FFP - some of them are from just before FFP came into play. There’s charges relating to the length of the grass being too long! One of the charges was written incorrectly when the Premier League published them - which City’s lawyers caught straight away and the League had to backtrack and change the charge. It’s amateur stuff! As you rightly say, we’ve (City) got the PL tied up in legal knots because, contrary to the average brain dead football fan sheep, this isn’t just about points deduction, fines or relegation - this is people potentially doing time in prison for tax evasion. If found guilty it would have to involve the Government and HMRC. The fact is, the PL last February were pushed by the red teams into charging us quickly thinking it would derail our challenge against Arsenal - it did the opposite. And now the dust has settled they’ve realised what a huge issue they have on their hands. I don’t for one minute think City are squeaky clean. But at the same time I don’t think we’ve done anything the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool, United, Chelsea etc haven’t done over the years. Look at United’s world record deal with US owned/based Chevrolet the other year. Crazy unheard of numbers at the time and then the guys at Chevrolet that gave the deal the green light get sacked and Chevrolet are were in serious financial trouble. They just don’t want a non-US owned club taking their power. The more competition the better for the league - the likes of yourselves, Villa, Everton etc, these are the clubs you want to see getting money pumped into them and challenging. You guys last season, Villa this season. It’s good to see. But if that means it pushes Liverpool and United further down - we saw in 2013 the exec for the PL say publicly that Man United’s poor form isn’t good for the league, we had Masters a few weeks ago refer to Everton and Forest as “small clubs”, they’re desperate to protect the red teams. Hopefully the other teams will wake up soon and see what’s going on.