Champions League and Europa League 2011-12

[LNGCats]

Arsenal will struggle to come in the top 6.

However, as a United fan it does make me wonder how far we have to fall to miss out on the CL.

Sounding very United fan, qualifying for the CL seems impossible not to achieve,

[jrb]

Happy in the end with a draw and a point. Thought Napoli played very well tonight. They deserved at least a point. Brilliant at defending and good on the break. Thought we tried to walk the ball in the net tonight(Arsenal esc) Too much tippy-tappy. Very frustrating at times. Really enjoyed the match, the atmosphere and the banter with the Napoli fans. Looking forward to Munich away already.

Moving on.

Originally Posted by LNGCats

Cockney blues on 5Live tonight

I do patronising, and immature, very well.

Grow up for FFS Metrolink/Irwell/LNGCats(?), you obsessed t***! And you call Eutex for his obsessive behaviour on SSC.

Predictably your first post was about tonights attendence, rather than either of City's or United's performances.

I see you've brought your silly Red Issue jibes from the City thread on the Manchester forum to the CL&EL thread.

Let me help you out.

Tonights crowd was over 44K. I might be slightly biased, but in my humble opinion that's a decent crowd, even though it was 2000 short of capacity. (reduced to CL advertising and crowd segregation)

There were no open ticket sales for this game due to the reputation of the Napoli fans on the orders of GMP.

City fans had to have a minimum 60/70(?) loyalty points to buy a ticket for the game.

Obviously Pete Boyle's new anti-City song has got you all giddy.

Perhaps he could add the following lyrics into his new song?

Trafford is yours, Trafford is yours, 10.000 at your parade, Trafford is yours.(I do patronising, and immature, very well, as well)



(Deansgate, Manchester City Centre)

That's my final word on the matter. Feel free to carry on, as we know you will. I'm not going to spam this thread any further. Are you?

[LNGCats]

Hardly, I have commented on all four English teams in the CL this year.

Still, I may be fixated by Chelsea and Arsenal given how they've been competing with United for the last two decades.

Anyway, crap night wasn't it?

Dull dull dull at this time of the CL.

[albionfagan]

Giggs has scored in 22 seasons in a row now, amazing record.

[terryfied]

Originally Posted by jrb

Tonights crowd was over 44K. I might be slightly biased, but in my humble opinion that's a decent crowd...

I don't think your being biased jrb, 44,000 is indeed a decent crowd.

But wasn't it only last season that a lot of City fans were saying United's
46,000 crowd against Wolves in the Carling cup was pathetic?

[albionfagan]

One thing nobody can criticise Man Utd over is attendance, superb numbers throughout their history.

[jrb]

Originally Posted by terryfied

I don't think your being biased jrb, 44,000 is indeed a decent crowd.

But wasn't it only last season that a lot of City fans were saying United's
46,000 crowd against Wolves in the Carling cup was pathetic?

That was due to the 30,000 empty red seats.

Let me be blunt. City will never get the tourist/day tripper supporter, even if we go on a trophy winning run. 95% of our support will always be local. We'll never get coach loads coming from all over the country and groups coming from Ireland, Scandanavia and the far East, etc, by plane, like United and Liverpool do.

So far this season City have sold out every home PL match. Everton is close to selling out already.(will we finally beat them?) We even filled half of Wigan's seats in the upper tier last Saturday.

TBH I still can't believe people would rather attend the Wigan game, but not the Napoli game. My viewpoint is this. As long as I'm there(in all the three cup schemes), that's all that matters. If fellow blues don't want to attend cup matches, that's up to them. Come May, and if we get to one of the cup finals, 'I will get a ticket'.

I'm expecting under 25k for next weeks Carling Cup match against Birmingham.

[albionfagan]

I'm not sure you can categorically say that JRB, Man Utd have had out of town support since the 1950s but you're not telling that a lot of their support hasn't come about because of the success? Just look at the masses of Chelsea fans around now, I was ashamed to see see two Chelsea shirts on my street when I went back to Hull last, and I'm someone with Chelsea sympathies given my old man was a fan.

If you start winning things you'll start pulling in masses, and if you can continue that for decades you'll be filling 75k stadiums with OOT support.

[terryfied]

Originally Posted by jrb

We'll never get coach loads coming from all over the country...

Isn't that because all City fans live in the City of Manchester and therefore get the bus or walk to the stadium?

[JimB]

Spurs team to play PAOK:

Cudicini; Walker, Corluka, Bassong(c), Townsend; Giovani, Livermore, Carroll, Yago; Kane, Pav

subs: Gomes, Fredericks, Nicholson, Pritchard, Parrett, Stewart, Barthram


This is going to be ugly. Possibly embarrassingly so.

Very little experience on the pitch. None on the bench. Players playing out of position (Corluka, Dos Santos, Townsend). Average age of squad five and three quarters.

And a 4-4-2 formation that will mean an already weak midfield (only one ball winner - the others all being attack minded midgets) being utterly overwhelmed.

I think I'll give ESPN a miss.

[Toadboy]

Originally Posted by LNGCats

Was that Kelly Dogleash Fergie ripped apart in the ITV interview

Great stuff from the old man.

NSWAF.

Really? Just seen it, he got pyar beasted, the daft auld sod is a bully, he's insecure and he's obnoxious.

[yoshef]

Originally Posted by albionfagan

Giggs has scored in 22 seasons in a row now, amazing record.

That doesn't surprise me, the dirty bugger.

[thewallpart6]

Attack vs defence and defence so nearly won. Great result for Stokes anyhow.

[jrb]

Barca V AC.

Crowd 96,000.

Seriously. That's unreal.

[jrb]

Originally Posted by terryfied

Isn't that because all City fans live in the City of Manchester and therefore get the bus or walk to the stadium?

Something like that.

[Jack Rabbit Slim]

Originally Posted by jrb

Barca V AC.

Crowd 96,000.

Seriously. That's unreal.

Considering the capacity of that stadium Barca don't half seem to have some shit attendances on average though.

[JimB]

Originally Posted by JimB

Spurs team to play PAOK:

Cudicini; Walker, Corluka, Bassong(c), Townsend; Giovani, Livermore, Carroll, Yago; Kane, Pav

subs: Gomes, Fredericks, Nicholson, Pritchard, Parrett, Stewart, Barthram


This is going to be ugly. Possibly embarrassingly so.

Very little experience on the pitch. None on the bench. Players playing out of position (Corluka, Dos Santos, Townsend). Average age of squad five and three quarters.

And a 4-4-2 formation that will mean an already weak midfield (only one ball winner - the others all being attack minded midgets) being utterly overwhelmed.

I think I'll give ESPN a miss.

I take it all back!

The kids were fantastic. Some very neat, passing fotball and they outplayed their experienced opposition for long periods. They only looked vulnerable in the last few minutes as tiredness crept in and concentration wandered.

If anything, the more experienced players (if you can call a 21 year old Walker and a 22 year old Dos Santos "experienced") were the weaker links. Pavlyuchenko and Bassong in particular.

[massp88]

How many Napoli supporters were at Etihad the other night? Looked like they had a solid amount that made the trip up north to Manchester.

[Toadboy]

And did they get terrorised?

[Splish]

Originally Posted by JimB

I take it all back!

The kids were fantastic. Some very neat, passing fotball and they outplayed their experienced opposition for long periods. They only looked vulnerable in the last few minutes as tiredness crept in and concentration wandered.

If anything, the more experienced players (if you can call a 21 year old Walker and a 22 year old Dos Santos "experienced") were the weaker links. Pavlyuchenko and Bassong in particular.

I'd be dead chuffed if I was you Jim, I think they put in a solid performance, especially away from home. Some hope for the future