Manchester City Football Club

[jrb]

Originally Posted by TheFly

Not with financial fair play it won't.

Bye Bye Chelsea, did they dominate? Nope, since Roman's arrival we have won more League Titles.

Same with City, let's see the transfer spend this summer.

United are still developing, and they have been playing average all season. Thanks for confirming that.

If we are average, how come we are joint top and 50/50 to win the league with a near record points haul?

God help you when the young uns start playing.

Eg? De Gea. Take off his slips in the 1st 3-4months and he has been outstanding since-more points and no Champs League Group exit?

All good fun. You need to win at Newcastle, that is the biggy. Not draw, win.

Not that old Chestnut again(FFPR) Fly. Are they still in season?

We've been over this a trillion times before. There's no point. You don't know, I don't know, and neither does anyone else in the world apart from the privileged few at City and UEFA. Let's leave it at that.

Indeed, let's see City's transfer spend this Summer. Guessing. As Nerd states. The players being sold will generate substantial transfer funds. Even if there is a shortfall, that will easily be made up without impacting on the FFPR.

Off the top of my head. Let's say Tevez stays. Dzeko, Ade, Kolo, kolarov, De Jong, Johnson(?), Bridge(please God), and a host of fringe players will go. Guessing. £25-£30mill. In will come a centre half(Jan Vertonghen?), a left back(?), a winger(Eeden Hazard?), and John Guidetti will be brought back from Feyenoord. Done and dusted.

So City's transfer expenditure will be minimal this Summer. Agreed? Good.

The rest of your post is subjective. Average? Young-uns????? De Gea and...?

From a City fans perspective.

United are where they are because of Sir and the system he uses. (respect to Sir) Any other Manager with those players would have struggled to keep up with City, nevermind make a credible title challenge. As long as Sir and his watch continue ticking, United, regardless of the players, will always be there or there abouts.

Going back to FFPR in a very vague way

Let's give the MUEN the benefit of our continual doubt.

Manchester City's mega-rich Sheikh wants to create a world-beating team of home-grown stars

Journalistic licence

City’s owners have set aside more than £170m for the project opposite the Etihad Stadium;

That alone(on a training complex and...) is roughly equivalent to one third of United's current and outstanding debt. Scary isn't it. (I think Mansour is here for the long term)

Even more scary is this.

Bosses have pledged a permanent home-grown presence in the first-team squad from 2027;

I can't predict the future. I can't read the tea leaves unlike your good self. But even you must be able to see a future that will be blue, with sporadic flashes of red every now and again.(I know Mansour is here for the long term)

I actually have no issue with City winning the title. Keep it in Manchester.

I nearly choked before wiping away a tear. Beautiful.

[jrb]

Martin Samuel.

Maybe it was the song. There is something rather wonderful about the coda to Hey Jude, something very affecting. They were at a peak then, The Beatles.

Hey Jude was recorded during sessions for their epic White Album, when they had their own record label, complete artistic freedom and were on top of the world. If the band wanted the first single on Apple to be seven minutes long, if Paul McCartney wanted a sing-a-long fade-out lasting four minutes, that's how it was.

'Paul walked over to the grand piano and said, "Hey, lads, have a listen",' recalled Ron Griffith of the group Badfinger, the first to sign to Apple. 'He then played a full concert rendition of Hey Jude.'

McCartney's vision for the song was unflinching. He told George Harrison to stop playing a guitar response to every line. 'The movement you need is on your shoulder,' sang McCartney. He didn't know what it meant, either. 'I'll fix that later,' he told the band. John Lennon said he should keep it in. 'It's the best line in the song,' he insisted.

When it came to the final chorus, the orchestra - 10 violins, three violas, three cellos, two flutes, one contra bassoon, one bassoon, two clarinets, one contra bass clarinet, four trumpets, four trombones, two horns, percussion, and two string basses - were paid double time to stay behind and clap and sing along.

'Astonishingly transcendental,' said former Yale professor and musicologist Alan Pollack, on the coda of Hey Jude. 'What could have been boring is instead hypnotic.' Lennon was more concise. He called it McCartney's masterpiece.

And even now, when 45,000 Sky Blues stay behind on the final whistle to celebrate a milestone victory over Manchester United, by singing the na-na-na chorus, and inserting City at its end, the emotion on display, even for neutrals, is greatly moving. On Monday it felt like a spell, and, sure enough, like saying Candyman three times into a mirror, it brought forth Beatles disciple Liam Gallagher, who gave an impromptu press conference, underlining the fact that City always shaded Manchester's music wars, too.
The Fall, New Order, Oasis and Doves versus Mick Hucknall - we should really leave it there - Terry Hall of The Specials and The Stone Roses on United's side (although you will notice the colour scheme in the iconic Pollockesque portraits of the Roses is sky blue and white, due to photographer Kevin Cummins being an absolute City nutter and singer Ian Brown not spotting his mischief).

Anyway, we seem to have digressed somewhat, but the point is this. Imbued in City's moment of glory was inescapable sadness, too: because this club is the last. For as long as UEFA remain in charge of the purse strings of English football, we will never tread this path again. The door is shut now.

This is the last group of fans who can be lifted from mediocrity by the fairytale: the one where a very rich man flies in bearing gifts and transports a club to the heavens. And surveying the sheer pleasure that it brought one half of Manchester on Monday, we have to ask: how did football allow this to happen?

How did the sport permit a single man's idea of what is right and preferable to erase one of the most potent forces for good in the game? Money from outside, coming in, to make dreams come true. What on earth was wrong with that?

Forget Portsmouth, forget Leeds United, forget the financial disaster stories that are trotted out to make fans think like accountants and turn their fun, their weekend release, into an extension of mundane, recession-blighted existence.

This is not about spending money a club does not have, or ruinous owner loans that are given and then just as unthinkingly recalled. The focus here, specifically, is on the Abu Dhabi project and others like it, when a very rich man gives - without expectation of return - money to a football club to have a right old go.

Take City away and what would this season have brought? A 13th Premier League title for Manchester United. Unlucky for some; mainly those who seek variety. Here comes another one, just like the other one.

There are competitions throughout Europe that will become wholly one-dimensional after this. It is why we need City to finish this job now, to win at Newcastle United on Sunday, then against Queens Park Rangers and form a powerful rivalry across town.

We cannot rely on the old ways, football's natural rhythms, the ebbs and flows caused by successful investment or unfortunate mismanagement.
UEFA will protect the worst from themselves and the best from the others, so City are the last of it. The era of austerity is upon us and there won't be too many singsongs from here.

[Cobbydaler]

[Saul Silver]

Didnt see the game between Chelsea - Newcastle but if Newcastle actually play as well as they can then City will be in for a very hard game.
Big IF though.

[DiscoSteve]

Where did the Hey Jude thing come from? After all he's an Everton supporter.
BTW, have a poke here if you want to play that track or other items from macca's back catalogue... really quite cool... http://www.paulmccartney.com/web/guest/jukebox

[jrb]

It may irk some on here(maybe not?), but it's not far from the truth.

Comment: Manchester City buying glory? Now that's rich!

Stuart Brennan, MEN.

How many times have you heard the following said over the last two days, in pubs, offices and factories all around this great city?

“Yeah, but it doesn’t count as much because City have bought the title.”

Putting aside the obvious response, which is that the title is a long way from being over, it is breathtaking nonsense.

If you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor, you get the feeling that this particular pot, blackening the name of the kettle, is stuffed with sour grapes.

Of course City, if they close out this season, have bought the Premier League. But then again, which Premier League winner hasn’t?

The problem that United fans have got is that, under the austerity of the Glazers, they HAVEN’T bought the title, as they have been doing for the past 20 years.

In the history of English football, United have broken the transfer record five times. City have done it three times – and one of those was on super-flop Steve Daley 32 years ago.

Under Sir Alex Ferguson, the Reds have set new highs in the transfer market to bring in Andy Cole (£7million), Juan Veron (£28.1million) and Rio Ferdinand (£29.1million).

Since the Abu Dhabi takeover, City have done it twice, on Robinho (£32.5m) and Sergio Aguero (£38m).

And if that is not enough, United’s team on Monday contained the most expensive goalkeeper in English history, as well as the most expensive defender and the most expensive teenager, not forgetting the fact they had a £30million striker sitting unused on the bench.

Monday’s game pitted a £300million squad against a £250million squad, hardly prosperity versus poverty.

When Fergie won his first league title in 1993, it came on the back of a £6.75million spending spree on Gary Pallister, Danny Wallace, Neil Webb, Paul Ince and Mike Phelan. That sounds like peanuts today, but in 1989 it represented a huge outlay.

It paid dividends too, as the Reds won the league two years running, and they have continued to spend more than the vast majority until the relative austerity of the Glazers.

The only teams who have hitherto challenged United’s hegemony have been Blackburn, funded by Jack Walker’s fortune, Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea and Arsenal under Arsene Wenger.

Perhaps only Arsenal could claim to have won the title on anything resembling a budget, but they also spent big ahead of their title successes, splashing out over £20million on talent such as Marc Overmars, Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Petit in 1996.

Wenger has a reputation as a manager who doesn’t spend, but he has flashed the cash when necessary – remember Thierry Henry (£10.5m), Sylvain Wiltord (£13m), Jose Reyes (£13m) and a chap called Samir Nasri (£15.8m)?

The bottom line is that the top flight of English football ceased to be a pure football competition many years ago. If you want to win the title, you need a top manager and top players, all of which cost.

City didn’t ruin football, as some sniffy fools have suggested. They have just joined the game, and started to play by rules not of their own making.

Once the notion that City are doing something wholly new and horrendous is nailed, there is an even more scurrilous nonsense dragged up.

“Well, yeah, everyone spends money, but United’s money is their own – they earned it, and weren’t just given it by some Arab sheikh.”

Of course, this is specious nonsense, the kind of tripe spouted by the fans of rich clubs who don’t want upstart oiks elbowing their way to a place at the trough.


This is where UEFA’s financial fair play rules come in. You would like to think they are a genuine attempt to rein in the financial madness which has enveloped football, and stop clubs spending beyond their means in a vain grasp for glory.

But when a club like City, financially secure through owners who are pouring millions into football and their community, is under scrutiny, you have to doubt UEFA’s true intent.

Blame

That makes it look like a charter for the establishment, trying to ensure that global brands like United, Real Madrid and Barcelona will NEVER be challenged.

United fans, and UEFA, should be looking at the priorities of the Old Trafford owners, rather than the benevolence of Sheikh Mansour, if they want to see where the blame will lie if the balance of power shifts over the course of the next 10 days.

There are plenty of grounded Reds fans who know this. One of their number said, three years ago, that City’s owners were supplying the Blues with ‘rocket fuel’, while United’s rulers were forcing Sir Alex Ferguson to drag a tractor behind him.

United rake in more money than anyone else, but sizeable amounts of their income comes from the pockets of their own fans – who have suffered huge price increases over the past five years – from concentrating their efforts to become a global brand, and from trading on the club’s name.

City have tried to maintain their local identity and support as well as expanding their horizons, and are active and purposeful in engaging with their community. The Glazers, meanwhile, seem most preoccupied with trying to re-balance their balance sheet.

That should be a far more important argument than petty nitpicking about how the money was made – it should be a case of ‘Where is the cash going?’ rather than ‘Where did you get it from?’

City didn’t beat United on Monday because their owners have bigger bank balance.

They won because they deserved to win it.

Roberto Mancini out-thought Sir Alex Ferguson, and his players showed a desire and determination, as well as a level of football, which proved beyond the Reds on the night.

No-one should forget it was the greed of United, who were instrumental, along with Arsenal, Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham in forming the Premier League, which led directly to where we are today.

To win the Premier League, you need to be both financially stacked and football savvy, and the two are inter-dependent.

So for any fans – Red or otherwise – to start bleating about it now is pathetic.

[TheFly]

Have United fans moaned about the money?
Not to my knowledge.

Just like Chelsea, enjoy. It wont last. You will never generate the revenue to compete over anything other than 1 year. After the float.

Bye bye.

[bagg10]

Originally Posted by TheFly

Have United fans moaned about the money?
Not to my knowledge.

Just like Chelsea, enjoy. It wont last. You will never generate the revenue to compete over anything other than 1 year. After the float.

Bye bye.

this is the same chelsea that are in the fa cup and champions league finals?

keep the blinkers on cos you're going to need them. you think your HISTORY is what attracts supporters? bollocks, i'm afraid! it's success! and un!ted have been fortunate that city have been sh!t in the brief periods when un!ted have been poor. if you haven't noticed, and i certainly have, there are more and more kids wearing blue these days and if we continue to be better than the reds then we're only going to get bigger.

still, you'll always have your history books to bore your grandkids with eh!

[jrb]

Originally Posted by TheFly

Have United fans moaned about the money?
Not to my knowledge.

Just like Chelsea, enjoy. It wont last. You will never generate the revenue to compete over anything other than 1 year. After the float.

Bye bye.

Have United (fans) moaned about the Money?

What?

Ours or yours?

Are you having a laugh?(Fly)

It's all we've heard since day 1. Only interrupted by the continual moaning about lack of transfer money/spending down the road.

Fly, your record is stuck again.

Just like Chelsea, enjoy. It wont last. You will never generate the revenue to compete over anything other than 1 year

Buy a new needle will you.

PS. I knew it would irk the Fly.

[js1000]

Originally Posted by Saul Silver

To be honest I think mancini has got the better of Fergie this season with the 'mindgames'.
When he says that United are still favourites, hes just passing the pressure over to us taking the media hype off his own players for them to just do the business.
He also has said something which has infuriated Martin Oneil. He basically said united would win Sunderland away easily, Oneils unhappy that Mancini has labelled his side a pushover which means he will be forcing a result from his players to prove him wrong.

Fergie has been hit hard by another manager this season, something which rarely happens. Ask Wenger, Mourinho, Benitez, Keegan etc.

Only Mourinho has got under Ferguson's skin, while managers like Keegan and Benitez have fell for silly comments really. Mancini has played a blinder re. United being favourites.

Many myths have been blown asunder as well. "United have experience which means they will win", "United know what to do at this stage of the season" etc. The irony is inexperience cost United the match on Monday with young De Gea in the wrong position & Smalling not marking Kompany.

I sense the title may well have been lost on arrogance and complacency. How those 20 title t-shirts, bets being paid out and trophy being sent back to OT only to be returned may come back to haunt United. Worst nightmare would be losing on goal difference, you'd never hear the end of that 6-1 defeat.

[TheFly]

Shall we speak after the Newcastle match?

Not really sure I give a shit if City win this year, it's the same shite every year.
Arsenal will dominate with the new stadium.
Can't compete with Chelsea.

League titles keep on coming. United are about to float and will have profits of £150m+ per season to spend, likely in a 90,000+ stadium.

[Caiman]

Nike will produce Manchester City's kits from 2013/14 season

http://mcfc.co.uk/News/Club-news/201...it-partnership

[jrb]

Fly, did the tea leaves tell you?

If they did, why didn't you tell us first?

Manchester City ditch Umbro for Nike as new kit deal is announced

Manchester City are set to ditch current kit suppliers Umbro in favour of Nike in a new kit deal announced today.

In a club statement on their website, City say that a new deal will begin the season after next and last for six years. Nike also provide the kit for rivals Manchester United.

Umbro will no doubt feel disappointed that they're being dropped for what is surely a much more lucrative deal, but City have been maximising their commercial revenue as they look to be able to comply with UEFA's Financial Fair Play regulations.

Financial details of the deal have not been announced yet but it will be a huge improvement on what the club was receiving previously, Manchester City have never been a more commercially attractive proposition than they are now and with their fan base growing the kit deal will surely reflect that.

Umbro is owned by Nike but they trade as two separate companies, former Manchester City boss Garry Cook made his name in sport with Nike leading huge brand drives for them.

A statement on the club website reads:



Manchester City Football Club and NIKE Inc. today announced a new partnership that will see the sponsorship of the Club move from Umbro to the Nike brand from the start of the 2013/14 season.

The Umbro sponsorship, which has been in place since June 2009, will continue to the end of the 2012/13 season, after which all kit, training wear and related products will be designed, manufactured and distributed by Nike. The contract will run until 2019.

“We’re excited by the opportunity to further develop the relationship between City and Nike Inc, which builds on the successful partnership the club has already enjoyed with Umbro, and reflects both the ambitions of the club and the Nike brand’s position within the world of football”, commented Nike Brand President, Charlie Denson.

John MacBeath, Interim Chief Executive Officer of Manchester City Football Club added "We are delighted to have further strengthened our relationship with the Nike family.

"Nike's deserved reputation as the leading global sports brand, its unparalleled R&D capacity, leading global retail distribution networks and award winning marketing capabilities mean that this is a very important step forward in the evolution of Manchester City.”

Remember the rule. No discussing the FFPR, as we don't know a thing.

Can I just......?

Etihad money.
Nike money.
1st or 2nd PL money.
Champiopns League money.



What other deals have Sheikh Mansour, Khaldoon & Co got lined up?

PS. Sorry Caiman, just noticed you've posted a link. Fly may have missed it though.

[jrb]

City seem to have friends in very high places who seem to understand.

Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Scudamore, talking in his office on Thursday

Scudamore enjoyed his trip to the Etihad on Monday, noting that the wealthiest club in the world, a target for Michel Platini’s Uefa FFP rules on spending, remained very engaged with its past

“There were loads of ex-players there: Francis Lee, Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee, Joe Corrigan, Tommy Booth. I thought: ‘This isn’t a club that has forgotten its heritage.’ What’s happening at City now means so much to people who have borne the scars for 40 years.

"We have to make sure that FFP doesn’t kill what we are. We have to keep monitoring it. You can’t go to the Etihad and say ‘that’s wrong’ when you look at the way the (Arab) owners have invested in the club, outside the club, look at that fans’ area and the (Etihad Campus training) development.

“It would have been nice for Platini to be there on Monday. It is a strong point to make to him: this is what you get when you welcome in inward investment. Any other industry would be welcoming that inward investment. We should welcome it with open arms.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...-in-style.html

[jrb]

Off to the Toon in Half an hour.

It's that my bum?

If you listen very carefully.

Squeak, squeak, squeak.....

"COME ON CITY!"

[dgnr8]

Hope you had a great time Jerbster. Can't get a ticket for next week but I should be pissed up somewhere in town watching it, if I happen to bump into you then I'll get you a (hopefully) celebratory pint.

[DiscoSteve]

I'll be there on Sunday - not even daring to think about the result never mind type anything into a computer.... :-(

[jrb]

A once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Jerbster is about to be posted.(either tonight or tomorrow)

It's akin to Where's Wally.

If nothing else it will keep the Manchester masses, blue and red, occupied until that date with destiny.

[jrb]

Originally Posted by dgnr8

Hope you had a great time Jerbster. Can't get a ticket for next week but I should be pissed up somewhere in town watching it, if I happen to bump into you then I'll get you a (hopefully) celebratory pint.

Words cannot describe Dgnr8. (see the.......)

Sorry to hear about the ticket. Hopefully one will turn up.

If City do..... (I'm not typing it), I'll be in town afterwards. It's a big place, but if we do bump into each other(see the....), the first is on me matey.

[jrb]

Originally Posted by jrb

A once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Jerbster is about to be posted.(either tonight or tomorrow)

It's akin to Where's Wally.

If nothing else it will keep the Manchester masses, blue and red, occupied until that date with destiny.

As promised.



Not content with making Sky, I'm now on the extended Highlights on City's website. http://www.mcfc.co.uk/ Visible after Yaya's first goal. (That's if you really want to see what I look like? )