pas5898

IIRC the season potter departed (was early season), Brighton had won 5/6 games and were near the top of the table. De Zerbi continued with that, the team Potter had built. Now in his first full season they are closer to 13th than they are 6th, likely to finish somewhere around 10th.

Don't think people are slagging them off. It's this hilarious myth that De Zerbi is a great manager, which Liverpool are hopefully falling for. Graham Potter built this team, the philosophy and the way they play. They've actually regressed since De Zerbi came in; and could easily finish 10-12th this season

I disagree. There's never been a team this stacked and definitely as deep as Man City. Man U and Arsenal in the 2000's -2010's for example were stacked teams. But when "elite" players came up for sale, they had to compete with 3 huge Italians teams, 2 Spanish powerhouses and Bayern with equal spending power. Rodri, Bernado, Diaz and others would / could have probably gone to a Spanish team if they didn't bankrupt themselves. Man City have the likes of Gvardiol, Ake, Kovacic, Grealish (300k a week), Doku, Akanji as squad players. In previous times, they would have gone and played in a first team at Milan, Barca, Juventus etc; but financially they just cannot compete. It's no coincidence they've started dominating as soon the 2 spanish clubs and the entire Italian league imploded. Do you think Haaland would have gone to Man City over Real Madrid if they offered the same terms? Absolutely not, Madrid were in a financial mess at the time. Back in the day a KDB, Diaz, Rodri would have been lured by a Barca, Juve or Madrid; nowadays they just can't compete. Man City's spending power dwarfs that of the entire Europe.

Horses for courses. All managers needs to be tactically astute. Managers of the "top clubs" is more about managing egos, or having a stronger character than improving players. Rob Edwards might not be able to manage big ego's. even Unai struggled at PSG with the biggest of egos. Likewise Pep might not be able to take a team of league 1 players and premier league rejects and improve them to the level where they may stay in the PL. Unai has taken a relegation level team to the cusp of the CL. Improved every player. Rob Edwards has taken a league 1 team to the premier league. Improved every player. Pep has taken unlimited resources, and a stacked team to where they should be. With regards to Rodri, if you look at Man City's form without him, i'd hasten to add he is the main reason why they control games.

I was there and completely agree. We was all discussing this is the dystopian future "death of football, fans and atmosphere". As the game kicked off until their first goal it was literally silent, genuinely worst atmosphere in such a beautiful stadium. Same after we equalised. By the time they went 3:1 their "hardcore fans" near the away section were mainly just trying to taunt the Villa fans, no ground atmosphere at all. They were probably the ones who go away to VP and had the taunting in the reverse fixture (fairs fair). They are now 90 percent a tourist club. My friend is a Man City Fan (Polish + Wisla fan but decided Man City will be his UK team). We went to the Real Madrid semi final last year as his friend and his son could not make the game. Family to the right of me were Rotheram fans I think, In front was a Leeds fan. Guy behind me was from Miami.

I maintain what Rob Edwards has done at Luton is harder than what Guardiola has done at Man City.

If only there was a word for people with ovaries.

Also worth noting, on X there's a lot of talk of attitude problems at Hull and previously at Villa. His performances dropped severely since his wonder goal and being linked with PL clubs. Our club aren't daft. We wouldn't sell a player (if he's that good) to then buy a replacement in Rodgers for 15 million.

Because football people understand Man City are a sports washing organisation and why he was purchased (it wasn't footballing ability). Grealish was purchased for marketing purposes, who happens to be good enough to play in the Man City squad. At the time he was the happy go lucky, Jack the lad, Gazza-esque England star boy. He was purchased to make Man City "likeable" and increase their presence to the masses / less knowledgeable football fans. My step daughter who doesn't really like football, loves Grealish. She had a Grealish Villa kit, the second he left she wanted a Grealish Man City kit. A normal parent would just buy her it. I'm not normal, so told her if she buys one she can live with her dad.

Wearing my Claret and Blue tinted glasses, if we could get the old Grealish, on that left hand side attracting 2/3 players. That would open so much space up for Diaby / Bailey on the other side. Unfortunately that guy is gone. Regardless, he's on 300k a week, only those with over inflated commercial income can sustain that type of wage.

Council are screwed for cash (everywhere). Public services are already strangled, so it's natural "wants" such as sports will take a big hit in the next 5/10 years. There's a big opportunity here. With big investment, the land could become Birmingham's and the midlands premier sports venue for athletics, rugby, even NFL (there's a huge NFL fanbase in the midlands). Bolting on a really good indoor arena is good revenue generator from events such as JuJitsu, Karate competitions which are held every week. A half empty 50k ground is irrelevant, the additional 8-10m a year from lost ticket sales will be easily recouped from other sports in the area. It's a really good idea to out generate competitors in revenue as their fanbase and football based revenue will always be lacking compared to the bigger established premier league clubs. As someone raised in this area I can only commend the investment. It's a shame our club appear to be quite narrow minded when it comes to this, as we could have done something similar around the airport / NEC. (Still waiting for Dr Tony's Theme park)

Genuinely not watched a single race or quali since the Hamilton / Verstappen fix in 2021. I'm not really a Hamilton fan, but to have invested so much time (a race weekend is easily 10 hours of tv) to watch it kind of fixed just took away my care for F1, literally overnight.

A German team, in transition just after Covid at a fervent Wembley stadium. This would have been the first game many of the German players played in front of fans for 15 months! Despite all of that, it took Thomas Muller inexplicably missing a 1 on 1 chance just before we sealed the game. I genuinely believe, we will look back on this era as a huge missed opportunity with a novice in charge.

Despite a plethora of attacking talent, his methodology is to keep it tight at the back, don't concede. Against the lesser sides Kane will inevitably score, and despite a defensive set up its enough to stat pad and win 3/4:0. Against the better sides, despite being ultra defensive you will invariably get picked off or they will take their chances. Brazil should scored 3 tonight, whereas we created absolutely nothing.

Fair. If we was in the unfortunate position of Ukraine, we'd be conducting health and safety meetings, and ensuring our 140 tank drivers meet DEI standards, whilst Vlad walks into 10 downing street.

Comparing apples and oranges. Any UK based defensive warfare wouldn't be fought on land. We're an Island, if it was, it would be too late (hence the reason we don't need 500 tanks). Our defense is made up of surface to air and naval (which is also sadly lacking due to the Nato protective blanket)

Just posting in case it helps someone. Back in November, my wife went to Latvia and came back really unwell. She went to the doctors, saw a GP, noticed her blood oxygen was low, anti biotics and a few days in bed and she was fine. A week later I felt terrible, spent a week in bed, couldn't get enough air in, coughing etc. Covid tests negative. Went to the doctors, the nurse said no sign of infection go home and it will get better. Week or so later I was now struggling to breathe normally - again went to doctors. Didn't see a GP, saw some sort of nurse, did the usual observations - "it's a viral infection will get better". 4 days later - I could barely make it up the stairs without vomiting phlegm, high heart rate etc. Went to the doctors, same response. My wife kicked off, told me to go back, I ignored her as I just wanted to sleep and leaving the house was hard at this point. 3/4 days later, I was in bed, and physically could not get enough air in, panting, hallucinating etc. Wife called 999 as at one point I was unresponsive to her; ambulance dispatched, rushed to hospital. I just didn't have the ability to take in enough oxygen, my "resting" heart rate lying in hospital was 140+, I had infections in both lungs at the bottom and within the airwaves. I'd also cracked my left rib from coughing so much for a prolonged time. After 4 weeks of various anti biotics and steroids I recovered. I'm 36 and now have permanent widening of my airwaves and quite severe scarring of the lungs. Previously, I was playing football twice a week, now I can barely run around with my kids in the back garden. Went to Disney Florida in Feb, spent half the time sitting down on benches. I missed 2 months work and most importantly the Man City and Arsenal games in December. Moral of the story: 1) Listen to your wife. 2) If you feel something is wrong don't take no for an answer and ensure you see a proper GP. You pay for this service. Don't get fobbed off by under qualified and/or busy staff at the GP's surgery.

Can almost guarantee the promotor is somehow Saudi backed. They will receive 10's millions for the friendly, just before the FFP cut off

Basically can guarantee Toney goes to the Euros instead of Ollie with this (unearned) selection. Under the guise of "seeing what Toney can do", he will play 70 mins, Watkins 20 mins, disjointed at the end of the game.

We've gone all season without our equivalent of Maddison (Buendia) and De Ven (Mings) whilst juggling midweek football and we've had more wins that Tottenham all season.

Once they can guarantee a sell out for all games. tourist clubs want minimal season ticket holders (we will head the same way potentially). Increasing the price / removing benefits / removing concessions is another soft ploy to do this. Liverpool added 15k new seats in the last few years but 0 season ticket holders. Liverpool have the highest spend per person, per game despite only charging £860 for a season ticket. That's because half the ground is full of accountants from the Cotswold's who go to Anfield once a year spending hundreds in merch + hospitality. To get a ticket for a game you need to be member which is another £50 per person. I'm a season ticket holder at VP. I genuinely rarely spend a single pound at the ground. Those who go to 2 games per year spend more per game (visit the club shop, hospitality, food and drink). With their awesome stadium, Spurs want a piece of that pie. An elderly fan, who buys his season ticket and nothing else is taking that seat up from a Korean fan kitted out in Son merch!

Interesting conversation on the Athletic Pod a few weeks ago. By being publicly traded, Man U are held to short termism to protect the share price. The perfect example is Anthony. Man U needed a "marquee" signing having been turned down most of the summer. They approached Ajax right at the end of the transfer window, who were delighted with 30-40 million for Anthony. Despite being happy with the fee, they declined the offer as they couldn't get a replacement in time before the end of the window, so fobbed off Man U with a 100 million Euro counter offer, or wait until the next window. To their amazement Man U agreed and signed the player! Despite being a limited player, to ignorant shareholder Anthonys showreel made him out to be the next Ronaldinho and the market reacted favourably. I guess the same happened with Casemiro as well after being turned down by De Jong.

Indeed. No matter what they will not win the next election. It's all sabotage for the next government now!

Apart from the 3 coming up, they were on most people cards for relegation. He seemed a little bit punchy on their lack of Jan spending, so i'll be interested to see how this plays out over the summer. He's done a fine job and will be in demand.

Agreed, but to be fair, the issues with the club aren't necessarily manager related. I think people, the media included are starting to realise that. Any club could recruit 15-20 young mercenary type players, on long, very secure contracts and even Unai would struggle to get a tune out of them.