CitizenBlue

Haven't been able to watch much of Villa this season. How is Ireland adapting?

What exactly does Carew do? He just looks like a large man lumbering about the pitch, doing not a whole lot of anything positive.

Dream on. Inter's loss is worse than ours and Barca's is $100 million. If you think Barca and Inter will be banned from Euro... well I've got a bridge to sell you. We're still signing people like Assulin to good contracts, what does that tell you about the likelihood of these rules being enforced?

Indeed and I have managed to get hold of a copy.... LOOL

I don't understand this tbh. I'm also baffled by his omission from the Dutch squad on the back of it. He made a good tackle and got the ball. The fact there were unfortunate consequences does not alter whether the tackle was a good one or not. That kind of tackle happens hundreds of times over a weekend. Are they all wrong, or just the ones with unfortunate consequences? There was nothing wrong with that tackle. This. But we're not bothered now that he will return to the club fresh from a 2 week vacation injury free. 8) I'd call it PR mate nothing more, the Dutch side and its manager got a huge amount of stick for the way they played in the World Cup despite the fact they reached the final, in short it was classed as 'anti Dutch' or 'anti total football' and against the principles of their game. De Jong was one of the most visible offenders in the final and this tackle or more the consequences of the tackle as the tackle itself wasn't a bad one coming as they did on the eve of the squad has led to him being left out. Its politics in football and De Jong is the victim of people trying to make a statement, I'm sure he will be back in a Dutch squad soon enough. In the meantime you benefit. Good point. I thought he definitely should have been suspended for what he did to Xabi Alonso. There was no unfortunate outcome like Ben Arfa, but it was by far more reckless and dangerous. De Jong will have to change his technique a bit, make him think about the necessity of tackling a player vs. the angle he's taking. He can still be just as effective without these unfortunate outcomes. I'm sure the coaches and manager will help him to do this as he risks a serious ban if any more bad outcomes happen.

I don't understand this tbh. I'm also baffled by his omission from the Dutch squad on the back of it. He made a good tackle and got the ball. The fact there were unfortunate consequences does not alter whether the tackle was a good one or not. That kind of tackle happens hundreds of times over a weekend. Are they all wrong, or just the ones with unfortunate consequences? There was nothing wrong with that tackle. This. But we're not bothered now that he will return to the club fresh from a 2 week vacation injury free. 8)

Will never happen. Too many loopholes. Laws never seem to constrain the rich and powerful.

Not sure why people say this. He has been the most generous man to us. He bought us Robinho as an introduction gift. God only knows how many jobs he has brought to a part of Manchester that really needed it. Not to mention his redevelopment project for that area. Our fans couldn't love him more. If he left tomorrow, we would still sing his name for what he's done for us.

Whilst I agree, I don't think that's QUITE the point people are making. Man Utd scouted well and made those as big signings. Granted, they've also had some duff signings, but the main argument for Man City isn't that you're buying the occasional big player and building your team around them like Utd have done, you're buying absolutely every big name player there is in a 'throw enough shit and some of it sticks' mentality. Alot of Man City's big signings are already being cast out. Robinho (I know he's a stroppy git but still 30m you're more than happy to just write off), Santa Cruz, Jo, Given.. All of these were big money players that you're just not playing because the next big thing has come along. Even Adam Johnson who has played brilliantly and has the whole country talking about what a prospect he'd be now finds himself on the bench because Man City felt like going out and spunking 20m on David Silva. Those big Man Utd signings you've listed have been used as the spine of their team for several seasons, yours are played until the manager and fans get bored of them and then are released or sold on with absolutely no care about making a loss on the investment. I don't think that's a reflection of the club so much as Mark Hughes' insane spending policy. Half of his signings were complete stinkers that the fans weren't particularly impressed with. Mansour's policy has been to allow the manager to manage the team in all aspects, and that got us in trouble with Hughes. It's not that Hughes didn't scout his purchases so much as his judgment is extremely poor. It would be like judging Villa as a whole for the poor transfer policies of O'Neill. Mancini is signing quality that he has wanted since his time at Inter, Silva being one of them. None of his signings are flops or wasted money. Adam Johnson and Silva play based on our opponent, and Johnson is less effective when we play the counter-attacking style. He will start against Juventus. Men like Sheikh Mansour have extremely high demands. With the UEFA Fair Play rules, we have this year and the next to bring our revenue stream up dramatically. Those are the last years we can write off transfer fees as meaningless losses instead of amortize them. That, along with the 25-man rule, force us to discard players who can't contribute. Be honest, if you had the chance to buy every "big name" player, would you? Of course. Real and Chelsea are the only ones who can compete with us financially, and they do exactly that.

Well said, and not just because I'm a City fan. United's growth has only been part organic. Giggs and Scholes are fine and wonderful, but a quick look at their starting lineup tells us that they rely on money almost as much as anyone else these days: Vidic- 7 million Ferdinand- 30 million Evra- 5.5 million Valencia - 16 million Nani - 14-17 million Berbatov- 30.75 million Rooney - 25.6 million The backbone of their club are purchases and not home grown. Take those players away and what are United? Probably mid-table. The prices at City are inflated because of who are owner is, not because we're foolish with money. Okay, Hughes was pretty damn foolish with money, but Mancini has been far better. Nobody will sell to us except at extortionate prices. United could have bought identical players for 2/3 of the cost.

We could challenge for the Prem if we could improve our play against lower table opponents. Doesn't help us to beat Chelsea and Liverpool only to drop points to Sunderland. The club will hopefully perform better against those types of teams once Balotelli is back.

Stay strong, friend. My uncle was in a similar situation about two years ago. His went into remission, and he and the docs couldn't identify why. Anything can and does happen all the time. Good luck.

Gutted for you guys. You deserved a draw at worst. No luck at all.

At least it wasn't Curbishley.

How did Ireland play? Got to see him for about 10 minutes where he almost scored a goal. Had another pass that looked great. Things will get better once you get your manager situation settled. Can't expect great things from a team abandoned by their manager 5 days before the start of the season.

WTF going on? Last I saw you were ahead 2-1 but this thread is exploding too fast. No feed at the moment. :S

Haven't been able to watch. How is Ireland doing?

Don't understand why people are getting on paulanddonya, he is absolutely right. You cannot make a manager out of a man with such a lack of confidence. It will seriously impair the squad. The gaffer has to look like he's seen it all before, he's confident of what will happen next, etc. This man seems like he will have a panic attack at any moment. You'll have players handing in transfer requests to escape such a debacle. And before anyone asks, no I do not have the stomach to take a job like that.