Noisy Neighbours - the Man City thread

[hhyftrftdr]

Agueroooo is running at the 1.10 at Southwell today. Would be rude not to!

Can horses pull up with hamstring injuries?

[hhyftrftdr]

Horse had 3 legs.

Just what our injured captain needed....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-35276635

[hhyftrftdr]

Frustrating last night. Everton were tough to break down, and when we did Howard was in fine form. Big blunder by the ref in injury time to not award a spot kick. However, in real time I thought it looked close, it was only seeing a replay on the train home that it became obvious it was a clear penalty. Maybe Sterlings rep is working against him? Was a bonus to discover that Arsenal had conceded a last minute equaliser whilst waiting on the platform

Stones was an interesting one last night. At times he looked very much a multi million pound defender (albeit playing OOP at right back), very comfortable on the ball, other times he looked a bit too comfortable on the ball and was caught out a few times. I think we missed a trick not targeting him more over the 90 minutes, didn't get Sterling in enough 1 on 1 spots vs him.

Impressed with Everton. Very solid team. The trio of B's (Barkley, Besic and Barry) give them a nice balance in midfield. Lukaku was well marshalled but is always a threat even when he doesn't do much. Gonna be another tight game against them in 2 weeks time, with a place at Wembley at stake. I'm pretty sure the London police force would prefer us to go through in order to avoid an all Scouse duel in the capital!

[Archer]

Frustrating last night. Everton were tough to break down, and when we did Howard was in fine form. Big blunder by the ref in injury time to not award a spot kick. However, in real time I thought it looked close, it was only seeing a replay on the train home that it became obvious it was a clear penalty. Maybe Sterlings rep is working against him? Was a bonus to discover that Arsenal had conceded a last minute equaliser whilst waiting on the platform

Stones was an interesting one last night. At times he looked very much a multi million pound defender (albeit playing OOP at right back), very comfortable on the ball, other times he looked a bit too comfortable on the ball and was caught out a few times. I think we missed a trick not targeting him more over the 90 minutes, didn't get Sterling in enough 1 on 1 spots vs him.

Impressed with Everton. Very solid team. The trio of B's (Barkley, Besic and Barry) give them a nice balance in midfield. Lukaku was well marshalled but is always a threat even when he doesn't do much. Gonna be another tight game against them in 2 weeks time, with a place at Wembley at stake. I'm pretty sure the London police force would prefer us to go through in order to avoid an all Scouse duel in the capital!

Frustrating indeed. Thought we played well 2nd half, so dominant, and only seemed a matter of time before the goal came. The "penalty" seemed pretty blatant from where I was and that's 4 in the last few games where clearly on replay they should have been given. Fine margins and all that.

Sterling continually scared the life out of Stones which was good to see. MOTM for me. Interesting on the playback on Sky the commentators said they couldn't understand why Sterling didn't appeal for the pen. Well the last time he appealed he was booked for diving when in fact it was a penalty

Never seen the ground so empty at kick off. When we got it we thought we'd got the  time wrong. Manchester totally gridlocked again and it's a big problem for these night games. 1 guy I know said it took him 2 1/4 hours to get there from Sale. Aamzing.



Win tomorrow and we go

[Archer]

 The first 5 games of the season and then we played West Ham. And lost.....:

Click to see full-size image.

The last 5 games and then we play West Ham:

Click to see full-size image.

[DMorgan]

What was with all the inflatable bananas in the crowd?

[booder]

Hope De Bruyne injury not serious , guy is different class.

[TightEnd]

De Bruyne will be out for 6 weeks: damaged ligament and damaged ankle.

A shame. back for the run in....

[hhyftrftdr]

Welcome to Manchester, Pep.

[hhyftrftdr]

Very proud of the club today. In what is a delicate situation, I think they've handled it in a fantastic manner. In announcing it now, they've avoided potential internal conflict with staff/players, the media now can't throw wild speculation about like confetti, MP knows/knew the score and has the chance to leave the club in the summer with another trophy/ies in the bag.

We've had a lot of cloak and dagger shit in the past (Mancini in the stands for Hughes' last game), we had to put up with Cooks foot in mouth gaffs (Milan ''bottling'' the Kaka transfer etc), but we are run in a quietly efficient manner these days. From top to bottom, its a sleek business model. Rarely are we on the back pages for the wrong reasons. And MP gets the respect he deserves, and has the chance to leave the club as a big winner if it all falls into place between now and May.

Still waiting for the day our owners get bored of their new play thing......

[George2Loose]

Huge coup but unsure about the timing. Might scupper your chances this year

[hhyftrftdr]

Huge coup but unsure about the timing. Might scupper your chances this year

Gonna have to elaborate on that for me please

[George2Loose]

Well we all know what happened when Fergie called time on his career before he changed his mind. When things aren't going wel will the players dig in got Pelle or think "fuck him he's off"

I also question this "proud of the club" for announcing things. More likely everyone knew and their hand was forced

[George2Loose]

I think the only reasons City don't get a hard time like Chelsea do for basically buying success and not sticking with their managers is:

1) their history of being shit
2) Manchester United

U can probably switch that order actually

[hhyftrftdr]

I'll outline why I think the timing is optimal.

We have some huge games on the horizon. A cup final, CL, big league games as we chase Leicester. Why let the media run riot with rumour and conjecture? They could have printed what they wanted, when they wanted. Whilst stuff happening off-field shouldn't disrupt the actual football, it inevitably does.

By making this announcement today, it nips everything in the bud. There is no grey area, no confusion. Everyone knows MP is in charge until June, and then Pep takes over. The players know MP is in charge until June, and then Pep is coming in. If you're a player, fully aware that the best coach in world football will be in charge in a matter of months, you really think they are gonna give half arsed performances? Time will tell of course, but this could be a massive kick up the arse for any player thinking of slacking off cos they were unsure if MP would be here next season or not. I'm sure Pep will be viewing every game like a hawk from here on in.

I also liked how MP was allowed to reveal that its actually him leaving the role. The contract extension he signed had a clause in for both parties, and Manuel is exercising it from his side. Of course, he might have been somewhat pushed into that decision behind closed doors, but its still a nice gesture from the club for MP to leave on his terms, and hopefully with a sack full of trophies at the end of the year. It's nice to see City acting in such a professional way, after the aforementioned cloak and dagger stuff with Hughes and, to a lesser extent, Mancini.

3 managers in 8 seasons is hardly drastic these days (and Hughes wasn't their choice and ultimately doomed). Feel free to uphold the mantra of not sacking managers if it means keeping dinosaurs like LVG in charge. The modern game has changed, some clubs adapt and prosper, some don't and fall away....