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?

The Geordies have apparently sent a strongly worded letter to FA demanding appropriate action against De Jong.

Morons.

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

Dear FA,

Ahm writing te yee as the appointed spokesman of The Toon Utd an thus in turn the Geordie nation an aal geet , canny good an daft card carrying members of wor state. Dyer knaa what Ah mean?

Ah contact yee followin the quite horrific dunsh on the new Ginola a young lad caal'd Ben Arfa bi some guy named De Jong whee is Dutch or summat so they tell me. Dyer knaa what Ah mean?

Ahm sure yee saw the dunsh yourselves bein fancy dan Lunnen types wi yer electricity an yer goggle boxes in yer lounge. Well Ah tell yee yee waad hev none of tha without wor coal yee knaa , none of it! Dyer knaa what Ah mean?

Anyways , as yee will hev seen the dunsh which the ref saw an decided not te even award a free kick fre due te the fact the guy won the baal wez clearly not acceptable. Not acceptable te me, not acceptable te Alan Shearer, not acceptable te Jimmy Nail, not acceptable te Ant and/or Dec or acceptable John McCuric!

Ever since Sunday we've been really narked up heor an its really dyun wor heads in. Wor actually noo concerned aboot wor hopes fre getting CL footie this season noo aal cos of tha Dutch fella an yee Lunnen types an yer bias against the Geordie nation. Dyer knaa what Ah mean?

Well let this be a warning te yee , the nation is rising, the Geordie army will rise as one. There will be ne more coal, ne more The Toon Broon ale an ne more Ant an Dec until wor demands are granted, they are as follows;

* Gadgie City are deducted 3 points an they are awarded te weh

* Keegan is released frem the tower of Lunnen an returned te the thrown of Geordie land

* Wor granted stowed independence an more benefits

* Ant an Dec form a new coalition government

* Nobody can ever syah "I'd love it" te weh agyen

Divvent syah you've not been warned, yee knaa what yee hev te dee an if yee divvent the nation will rise led bi the warrior Spuggie, aye the ginger one frem Biker.

Ah await yer response bi carrier pigeon.

Yours

The Geordie Nation

LOOL

Whilst technically, there wasnt a huge amount wrong with the tackle, it was the excessive nature of it that caused the controversy.

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.

Whilst technically, there wasnt a huge amount wrong with the tackle, it was the excessive nature of it that caused the controversy.

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)

Might mean something when UEFA deny them entry to the CL. My only worry is that I might actually die from the ensuing laughter.

Will never happen. Too many loopholes.

Laws never seem to constrain the rich and powerful.

I'd still have a Lerner over a Sheikh, don't care what you people say.

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.

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

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.

Chelsea still bought loads of players for lots of money and got rid of them though. Just looking on Google now, this list comes up.

Khalid Boulahrouz, signed for £8.5m in 2006. Played 12 games for Chelsea. Sold for £4m in 2008.

Asier Del Horno, signed for £8m in 2005. Played 25 games for Chelsea. Sold for £5m in 2006.

Scott Parker, signed for £10m in 2004. Played 15 games for Chelsea. Sold for £6m in 2005.

Geremi, signed for £7m in 2003. Released on a free transfer in 2007.

Damien Duff, signed for £17m in 2004. Looked decent for a year. Sold for £5m(!) in 2007.

SWP, signed for £21m in 2005 (some say just to stop Arsenal buying him) sat on the bench for three years. Sold back to City in 2008 for £8m.

Hernan Crespo, signed for £17m in 2003. Sent out on loan several times. Released on a free in 2007.

Andriy Shevchenko, signed for £30m in 2006. Sat on the bench for two years, scored twice against us in the 4-4, sent to Milan on loan and was released from his contract a year early.

I know this is becoming increasingly tangential, but Manchester City are doing nothing now that Chelsea didnt do five years ago. I'm sure people hated on Chelsea then every bit as much as they do on City now, but we have all been to sleep since Chelsea were blowing everybody out of the water in the transfer market that we have kinda forgot it happened and accept that Chelsea have always been a top club.

It is going to take City longer to win something than it took Chelsea, but once they have a few trophies in the cabinet and the big money signings are last years news (despite still being in the squad) then people will just move on to the next figure of hate.

The talk of how City are "ruining the game" **** me right off. I'm not having a go at any particular individual, but it is just the general vibe in this thread. The game was ruined a decade ago when the G14 decided that the Champions League would be an ideal tool for them to erect a glass ceiling for everybody else to be trapped beneath. Yes, it was compounded by Chelsea spending oil money on anybody and everybody who could kick a ball straight in the middle part of the last decade and Manchester City aren't exactly helping the cause either, but seriously, the talk that they are the only ones at it are either the words of kids too young to have any kind of knowledge or people who struggle to remember anything that happened longer ago than last week.

/rant

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.

If you think the rest of you are pissed off I got told this morning that my tumour's still growing after this third different type of chemo so probably going to have to see if I can get on a clinical trial or something. Thought the footballmight cheer me up. No such luck.

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.