I have always wondered where you would place Manchester City historically in terms of club size? 10 years ago they was a nothing club and now they are a something club. Has the ground made a huge impact also?

Are Man City bigger club historically then Everton? WHU? Newcastle? Spurs? I am curious to see what people think when you think about Man City's recent success

I would say so, yes - their Honours Board is pretty decent.


http://www.11v11.com/teams/manchester-city/tab/honours

Can Everton, Spurs, Newcastle & WHU beat that?

City have a proper history, one that pre-dates the current regime, one that stands comparison with Spura and Everton, and surpasses Newcastle and WHU.
Bell, Summerbee, Lee were greats of their time.
Mind you, they used to buy our discarded strikers back then too
http://www.corbisimages.com/images/Corbis-42-36073673.jpg?size=67&uid=f90cb3c1-1ec7-4fb0-9667-9ee64c4da74e

I was at Old Trafford in 74 when Denis Law famously scored against United and they were subsequently relegated. A horrible day for football violence that one.

I like City more than any of the current Champions League clubs for two reasons:

1. They aren't United, Chelsea or Arsenal.

2. David Silva plays for them.

I approve of this post

I'm a veteran City supporter of approaching 1000 live games and he is the best I've seen and my all-time favourite player. He was seriously off his game last night tho.

I am a fan of old man city, as a football watcher

does your 1000 games stretch back as far as bell, summerbee and franny lee?

i remember maine road fondly...a very wet wednesday we won 1-0 there with huge puddles on the pitch, mark robins with the winner....93/94 it might have been. we went down anyway!

saw us get done 5-1 and 6-1 there too mind...

One of my early recollections was the 1969 Cup Final v Leicester.  I was only a young lad then and watched that on TV but did go to Wembley for the first time in 1970 for the League Cup Final. I became a fully fledged Maine Rd regular from 1974. So, yes does stretch back as far as Bell, Summerbee and Lee.

I've looked up the Leicester game you mentioned and it was 1994/1995. We followed you down a couple of years later.  I can't  remember the game at all but another Summerbee was playing then - his son Nick.

I like City more than any of the current Champions League clubs for two reasons:

1. They aren't United, Chelsea or Arsenal.

2. David Silva plays for them.

I approve of this post

I'm a veteran City supporter of approaching 1000 live games and he is the best I've seen and my all-time favourite player. He was seriously off his game last night tho.

been meaning to write this for weeks


Manchester city spend fortunes and are already 1/3 shots to win the title

Arsenal are inconsistent, and have real issues spending money to strengthen what they have from who is available

Man U rebuilding

Liverpool permanently rebuilding..sell suarez, spend  sell sterling, spend. spend badly, it might be said

Chelsea trouble behind the scenes?

that leaves space for the likes of Palace, Swansea etc to fill into the top 6 perhaps temporarily

at the other end there are bad teams

sunderland, newcastle, villa, west brom, three promoted teams grappling to adapt..jury out on stoke


performance in europe has been bad for 3 years, and the co-efficient that gets us 4 teams in the champions league must be in trouble


is this cyclical, an accident of so many teams with issues in the short term only?

or is it structural? overpaying average talent, a transfer of wealth from tv deals to players that means they have little incentive to perform?

City are stronger now than than at any point in the last 5 years including their 2 title winning years. Despite last night, I'd would say it is an inevitability that they will bridge the gap in the next few years to the Big 3 of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern.

Arsenal likewise IMO are stronger than they were 5 years ago.

Chelsea were the real deal just over a month ago before  the season started.

United  post Ferguson have not been great. I'd say it is inevitable they will become a major force again when the rebuild is complete. The problem now of course is they have been so dull - before the Liverpool game at the weekend they had only scored 6 times in their last 10 league games. That is unheard of for United and whilst personally I'm enjoying their struggles it is not what we are used to or good for the Premier League.

Liverpool/Spurs. Hmmm.

Looking at the teams City have played this year, we have had big battles with Everton and Palace, both very imprssive  and, to a lesser extent,  Watford.  Comfortable wins only against WBA (very poor) and Chelsea. Of the games I've seen on TV not involving City  I've also been very impressed with Swansea and, just for you, Leicester!


Sure, recent performance in Europe has not been the best. I don't think this is due to a lack of quality and it strikes me we play a completely different game. Using a poker analogy, the Premier  League 90 minutes is like a "super turbo" and many European games are "slow structures".

The risk of losing the 4th spot to Italy is real. Ironically, this is due more to poor performance by English teams in the Europa League than the Champions League.

[Probably not your cup of tea Tony]

All this funeral talk reminds me of my favourite TV show; Six Feet Under.

Superlative television. Not for everyone, but if you 'get' it, it stays with you. Does make you think about things that might not otherwise cross your mind.

Probably not your cup of tea Tony

Good read. I'd rather die than watch shite like that. Which may mean I get to feature in an episode.

Glad you posted, as I have a little question for you.

We have, as you know, a very lively "Sports & Betting" Board, & I'm currently trying to help rev blonde up a bit.

On that Board, we have dedicated Team threads for 5 Premier League Teams - Arsenal, Liverpool, Man U, Stoke (eh?), & Newcastle.

Note the oddity - no thread for the incoming Champions, & probably the best assemblage of football players at any one club in England.

So I need your help to come up with a fun name for the thread. It must not include that odious term "citeh" or I will throw up every time I see it, just as I do when I see "chelski" or other juvenile nicks. Then I'll get it started, make some noise & puff, & you can chip in with your inside knowledge of Man City. Think you are the only one here who supports them, which is a bit odd.

Get back to me within 24 hours, please.

Excellent suggestion by the way Tikay.  I love this place but don't really post much but I might be persuaded to contribute more with a dedicated  City thread.

Agree totally with the "citeh" reference - odious indeed.

[Probably not your cup of tea Tony]

All this funeral talk reminds me of my favourite TV show; Six Feet Under.

Superlative television. Not for everyone, but if you 'get' it, it stays with you. Does make you think about things that might not otherwise cross your mind.

Probably not your cup of tea Tony

Good read. I'd rather die than watch shite like that. Which may mean I get to feature in an episode.

Glad you posted, as I have a little question for you.

We have, as you know, a very lively "Sports & Betting" Board, & I'm currently trying to help rev blonde up a bit.

On that Board, we have dedicated Team threads for 5 Premier League Teams - Arsenal, Liverpool, Man U, Stoke (eh?), & Newcastle.

Note the oddity - no thread for the incoming Champions, & probably the best assemblage of football players at any one club in England.

So I need your help to come up with a fun name for the thread. It must not include that odious term "citeh" or I will throw up every time I see it, just as I do when I see "chelski" or other juvenile nicks. Then I'll get it started, make some noise & puff, & you can chip in with your inside knowledge of Man City. Think you are the only one here who supports them, which is a bit odd.

Get back to me within 24 hours, please.

From rags to riches.

We're not really here.

City; ruining football since 2008.

Don't you wish your captain was Kompany.

I swear you'll never see a thread like this ever again......stupendous.

It's still early and my brain isn't functioning properly yet, I might be able to come up with some more genius potential titles later. I'm at Eastlands later so what better place for inspiration?

How about Noisy Neighbours?

From a City perspective in  response to a United supporter I prefer:

"Not in my lifetime"     http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/ferguson-can-city-be-top-dogs-not-in-my-lifetime-1789944.html

"Welcome to Manchester"  (the beautiful Tevez psoter)

"This is how it feels to be City, this is how it feels to be small"

"It should have been 10"


However, I rather like "City - ruining football since 2008" from hhyftrftdr's excellent suggestions

Test how good you would be as a linesman:

http://graphics.wsj.com/are-you-good-enough-to-be-a-tennis-line-judge/

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/174/poker-goals-challenges/pads1161-bracelethunting-1508230/index103.html

TY...had a scoot over there and last post was:

I'm also managing a football team now, so happy about that, extremely motivating and one of my legit goals is to be a professional manager after poker finishes. Let's see how we do in first season. I'll be updating here with results, tactics I use etc, if you don't like football (soccer) I'm sorry!

Need to rest and recover before moving house tomorrow and then wcoop starts the next day.

Let's cross fingers for being well for all of wcoop.

Vamos

Found the football manager bit really interesting but the thing is I don't doubt  that many on here would be interested in that as well! Hope you post it in here....

Was depressing watching Villa yesterday. Sherwood has been watching Barcelona and Pique too much and insisted Guzan (also terrible distributer) passed through the back via Richards. They went backwards and sidewards way too much and one of the reasons was so that their full backs push right on.

So Richards/Clark go either side of the box, the central modified player becomes a centre half and the full backs push right on. I can't remember either full back getting behind Man Uniteds defense or creating one attacking chance.

A lot of games are going to be low scoring because all teams are starting to play this strategy and it's just lots and lots of backwards and sidewards passing, incredibly boring.

What about United's approach to the game in the Val Gaal era? So, so dull. 

[opta stats would simply just show how poorly cabaye performed]

the point was he played very well consistently for years. it was said by mulhuzz cabaye carried our team, but it was very much a defensive minded strategy from pardew that williamson was a part of and we ran way above expectation with the goal returns from cisse/ba. now williamson as a 31 year old is definitely not premier league standard, especially when exposed by such a poor 10 infont and around in

predictably as soon as cisse started to run to expectation we ran out of ideas and failed miserably.

opta stats would simply just show how poorly cabaye performed when those who remember him do so because of a few (admittedly impressive) free kicks.

can palace really have cabaye/bolasie/zaha in attacking options.

i rate cabaye so much against the average rating that lets bet $1k on Palace with their starting handicap. I expect him to be way way way overvalued and I assume you guys don't. So lets say bookies give them 45 points expectation, ill take the under and 45 is a wash? anybody can quote to book

His Opta stats for his final half season in 2013/2014 with Newcastle are excellent. Based on "per 90 mins played" stats he had the highest rating  for any Newcastle player.  He was ranked in the top 10 of all PL players. Players above him were: Suarez, Gerrard, Ramsey, Aguero, Hazard, Rooney, Silva, Toure...  Says it all really.

is he loaned back out as part of deal?

Well, he has flown out to Aussie with Delph today to join up with the 1st team squad and EDS (Elite development Squad - U21s). Nothing published on immediate plans after that but I suspect he will integrate with the EDS squad over the next couple of months or so and find his feet at the club. Some of the top EDS guys train a fair bit at different times with the 1st team squad. Presumably decision then made for the next stage. I suspect loan but possibly he goes straight into the 1st team squad.

United face big loss on record signing Di Maria

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/sport/football/Premiership/article1583055.ece

ANGEL DI MARIA has agreed personal terms with Paris Saint-Germain and hopes to join the French champions before the start of the Ligue 1 season. PSG are negotiating a fee with Manchester United for a player who became the Premier League club’s record signing less than 11 months ago.

United paid Real Madrid an initial €75m (then £59.7m) for the Argentina international, also committing to pay £3.95m of “guaranteed variables” and cover £3.2m of Fifa-mandated “solidarity payments” to his former clubs. They are expected to take a big loss on what remains a record fee paid by an English club, but will remove the Premier League’s highest basic salary of £11.96m from their wage bill.

Only seen youtube clips but Roberts  looks at a brilliant talent.  Good investment for City and saves spending £49 million on him when he is a 20 year old

As for the talksport headline in Tighty's post - yawn.

Also the initial fee is undisclosed but quoted in the range £2million to £5million with the inevitable raft of add ons depending on appearances etc.

I would change the umpires call relating to referred decisions in cricket. If the technology is as accurate as it says it is, just give it in or out.

There have been so many ridiculous referrals given not out due to umpires call and it makes a mockery of the whole thing. I know the referrals are there to eliminate clangers but there is too much riding on these games nowadays not to be as accurate as possible.

Agree with that.

Tilts me that there isn't an increased use of technology in football as well for the black and white decisions.

what would first choice 11 be? squad seems great imo



                     Mignolet

Clyne  Lovren (expecting better season) Skrtel Moreno

                       Can

         Milner                 Henderson

                     Coutinho


     Benteke                 Sturridge


Lot of options on bench

I would think Liverpool fans would want to see the £29million Firmino in there. Certainly he is one player I’m really looking forward to seeing in the PL this year.

Since Rogers took over 3 years ago the spending on new players under his watch is now around £300 million if including Benteke. So really, even allowing for the high profile departures, the squad should be strong! 

A big year ahead for Rogers. Just seen  he is favourite in the "first PL manager to be sacked market."