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Ken Hairy

Haaland

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Haaland is to football what Jonah Lomu was to rugby! I’m genuinely delighted we are out of that division in which we simply don’t compete and back to playing matches which we can actually win. 

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Satisfying seeing the promoted teams getting tonked, even spending millions and millions. But at least they tried (or are trying). 

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The big teams are starting to flatten teams by 6+ a lot more regularly in the PL. This gulf in class will of course be attributed to promoted and lesser teams 'not trying hard enough' rather than the ever increasing power at the top end.

Take nothing away from the spectacle, but if you have people playing a game in which it becomes clear there's no way for you to win, interest will quickly fade.

I saw a mad take on Twitter between two Utd fans where they concluded teams should be banned from promotion for 3 years if relegated after 1 season. Because then at least other teams could 'have a go'; say it with me now, promoted teams are not the problem 

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21 minutes ago, Mason 47 said:

The big teams are starting to flatten teams by 6+ a lot more regularly in the PL. This gulf in class will of course be attributed to promoted and lesser teams 'not trying hard enough' rather than the ever increasing power at the top end.

Take nothing away from the spectacle, but if you have people playing a game in which it becomes clear there's no way for you to win, interest will quickly fade.

I saw a mad take on Twitter between two Utd fans where they concluded teams should be banned from promotion for 3 years if relegated after 1 season. Because then at least other teams could 'have a go'; say it with me now, promoted teams are not the problem 

Though there is somewhat of a cycle to it. 15yrs ago it was Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd regularly spanking people. Then those teams went through transitions losing influential relatively long term managers in Mourinho, Wenger and Ferguson which allowed Man City, Liverpool and to a lesser extent Spurs to compete more - though the former two with new cash rich owners.

Leicester bucked the trend on occasion and Newcastle are not threatening.

I think you are right though, and it's fair to say that all of the measures put in place whilst promising the general English footballing world that it would help to keep the playing field level, are not up to standard, are failing, and in some cases are just lies. Fit and proper tests have been found to be utterly useless. Laws found to have loopholes... some know, such as the ground ownership one, and they have even flicked it on and off... It's all just a huge ball of corruption, greed and no care for the fans - even of the so called top 6. 

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Sorry to be really partisan, but they are Man City to me and always will be. The only 'city' in my vocabulary are Norwich City.

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8 hours ago, WD40 said:

Satisfying seeing the promoted teams getting tonked, even spending millions and millions. But at least they tried (or are trying). 

Forest will be fine against the Brighton's of the world imo, Fulham are doing OK too. Bournemouth though will be worse than we were. 

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Haaland should be close to the 30 mark given how well rounded he is, and how many chances that team create per game. He’s like a better, younger Harry Kane. 

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The Super League needs to happen and soon. There is more than likely going to be a 10 goal spanking for someone this season.

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13 hours ago, The Raptor said:

Still a chance for a swap deal involving hugill?!

What? And risk upsetting the dynamic of the dressing room? Hugill is very popular with the other players 😉

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I mean... Haaland is good, but he's no Teemu Pukki.

Imagine if it was our Finn spearheading Man City's attack, how many goals he'd get. More than Grealish for sure.

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The only question for Haaland this season is how many he’ll win the golden boot by. I thought Aguero was deadly for Man Cuty but this lad is unworldly. They’ve gotta be aiming for Champions League this season.

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9 hours ago, chicken said:

Though there is somewhat of a cycle to it. 15yrs ago it was Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd regularly spanking people. Then those teams went through transitions losing influential relatively long term managers in Mourinho, Wenger and Ferguson which allowed Man City, Liverpool and to a lesser extent Spurs to compete more - though the former two with new cash rich owners.

True but I don't think those teams ever dominated to the extent we are seeing Liverpool and City are now. 

The records points totals in the PL in a single season are:

  1. Man City - 100 points - 17/18
  2. Liverpool - 99 points - 19/20
  3. Man City - 98 points - 18/19
  4. Liverpool - 97 points - 18/19
  5. Chelsea - 95 points - 04/05
  6. Chelsea - 93 points - 16/17
  7. Man City - 93 points - 21/22
  8. Liverpool - 92 points - 21/22

So in the top 8 we have 7 of 8 teams in the last 6 seasons. Scary stuff! You also would see similar with record breaking goals-scored / goal differences etc. Haaland also looks like he will quash all previous golden boot winners this season with a ridiculous goal-tally...

We have never seen a cycle of dominance like this before so it will be interesting to see how or what can turn the tide on this kind of control over the league - perhaps the influence of Pep and Klopp when they go will be enough to bring both teams back to ground / to their rivals' level?

Arsenal look like they could have a good go at bridging the gap somewhat this season, but its hard to look at their squad and maintain that belief, I'm very confident in saying they will Arsenal-it-up at some point. People were saying the same about Chelsea last season when all 3 teams had an equally-strong start. But maintaining the kind of form Man City / Liverpool have over the course of an entire season is just freakish. 

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5 hours ago, 1902 said:

Sorry to be really partisan, but they are Man City to me and always will be. The only 'city' in my vocabulary are Norwich City.

"Citeh" is okay though 😉 

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10 hours ago, chicken said:

Though there is somewhat of a cycle to it. 15yrs ago it was Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd regularly spanking people. Then those teams went through transitions losing influential relatively long term managers in Mourinho, Wenger and Ferguson which allowed Man City, Liverpool and to a lesser extent Spurs to compete more - though the former two with new cash rich owners.

Leicester bucked the trend on occasion and Newcastle are not threatening.

I think you are right though, and it's fair to say that all of the measures put in place whilst promising the general English footballing world that it would help to keep the playing field level, are not up to standard, are failing, and in some cases are just lies. Fit and proper tests have been found to be utterly useless. Laws found to have loopholes... some know, such as the ground ownership one, and they have even flicked it on and off... It's all just a huge ball of corruption, greed and no care for the fans - even of the so called top 6. 

I do admire they way ManC play and enjoyed last night's game. But it is all so false in reality.

Ake and Laporte have injuries so they spend £17M on a young CB just in case. Alvarez was bought two seasons ago, he went out on loan and now comes back and fits in seamlessly. Its almost like the playground selection where all the best ones ended up on one team.

The money WHU have spent, over £180M, will not see them in the top four. I believe Manure have spent over £200M. I thought there was a cost of living crisis.

 

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8 minutes ago, keelansgrandad said:

The money WHU have spent, over £180M, will not see them in the top four. I believe Manure have spent over £200M. I thought there was a cost of living crisis.

 

Different rules, different world for football.....

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nice to see Pukki on the list of the most goals in the first five games ok he was on the bottom with 6 but that is some going in the PL 

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23 hours ago, cornish sam said:

If he stays at city for 5 or 6 years then shearers record will likely be gone at this rate...

I'm sure I saw somewhere that there's an understanding he will move to Real Madrid after a few seasons, so just using Man City as a stepping stone to his dream move (though that could be paper talk). Even so, it won't take long for him to break loads of records.

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9 hours ago, keelansgrandad said:

I do admire they way ManC play and enjoyed last night's game. But it is all so false in reality.

Ake and Laporte have injuries so they spend £17M on a young CB just in case. Alvarez was bought two seasons ago, he went out on loan and now comes back and fits in seamlessly. Its almost like the playground selection where all the best ones ended up on one team.

The money WHU have spent, over £180M, will not see them in the top four. I believe Manure have spent over £200M. I thought there was a cost of living crisis.

 

 

8 hours ago, Greavsy said:

Different rules, different world for football.....

I totally agree with both of you.

In reality these days, you are financially competing with mega-wealthy oil-rich nations of wealth or muli-billion corporations that own the likes of Liverpool and Man Utd.

It's just insane.

I'd love to advocate for a US style transfer system and a wage cap, but honestly, now we are out of the EU I just can't see it happening. I know that might sound bizarre but it needed all of the big leagues in Europe to sign up to it. As a nation, we're now too desperate for the money in general, either in the tax we do get off the footballers or just because of football in general. It has to be considered an export product now and brings in a lot from outside. Football tourism for example, either because of fans following their teams away in Europe or fans coming to England to see/visit a team/player they support/follow here.

It's going to take someone brave to try and sort out footy as it is because it just isn't sustainable. 

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16 minutes ago, OnDaBall said:

I'm sure I saw somewhere that there's an understanding he will move to Real Madrid after a few seasons, so just using Man City as a stepping stone to his dream move (though that could be paper talk). Even so, it won't take long for him to break loads of records.

Aren't Real Madrid, and Barcelona for that matter, a bit skint at the moment? 

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5 minutes ago, chicken said:

 

I totally agree with both of you.

In reality these days, you are financially competing with mega-wealthy oil-rich nations of wealth or muli-billion corporations that own the likes of Liverpool and Man Utd.

It's just insane.

I'd love to advocate for a US style transfer system and a wage cap, but honestly, now we are out of the EU I just can't see it happening. I know that might sound bizarre but it needed all of the big leagues in Europe to sign up to it. As a nation, we're now too desperate for the money in general, either in the tax we do get off the footballers or just because of football in general. It has to be considered an export product now and brings in a lot from outside. Football tourism for example, either because of fans following their teams away in Europe or fans coming to England to see/visit a team/player they support/follow here.

It's going to take someone brave to try and sort out footy as it is because it just isn't sustainable. 

The control lies with the mega rich though. It genuinely needs them to lose interest and invest in something else in their masses. That or the TV audience need to turn off and refuse to watch or stop paying sports based subscriptions. Unlikely to happen sadly 

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Just now, SwearyCanary said:

The control lies with the mega rich though. It genuinely needs them to lose interest and invest in something else in their masses. That or the TV audience need to turn off and refuse to watch or stop paying sports based subscriptions. Unlikely to happen sadly 

It does now yes. It'd take the governing bodies of the sport and various countries to tackle it together.

I'm not convinced all of the corruption is gone from FIFA. They could have sent a message with this world cup and the previous one in Russia, but they didn't.

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2 hours ago, chicken said:

Aren't Real Madrid, and Barcelona for that matter, a bit skint at the moment? 

Probably why he's gone to Man city, gives the Spanish government time to bail out Real and Barca, so it can go back to business as usual.

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19 hours ago, Jimmy Raggatip said:

A fantastic player.

I see a lot of pundits have already had to roll back their opinions that he'd be a flop

Beast of a man. Great positioning and deadly finishing. A defenders nightmare. 

Fantastic all round perfect footballer 10/10. Machine.

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