Todays Champions League final; Man City V Inter

[A Load of Squit 5,198]

14 minutes ago, NFN FC said:

I feel sorry for all the fans that travelled to Turkey to watch that snooze-fest! 

All of those fans who were there are coming home knowing they watched the their team win the Champions League.

I bet none of them care that it was a sh!t game and if it was me I'd be the same.

[Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man 3,827]

24 minutes ago, A Load of Squit said:

All of those fans who were there are coming home knowing they watched the their team win the Champions League.

Only half of them, surely!?

[dylanisabaddog 4,955]

Brandon Williams proves you should never post when you've been drinking. Or if you're an idiot. 

[Mello Yello 2,298]

1 minute ago, dylanisabaddog said:

Brandon Williams proves you should never post when you've been drinking. Or if you're an idiot. 

I've also read his 'uvver' comments....and I personally think the lad with the 2nd World War evacuee haircut needs to stay off social media....not for a while....but maybe forever?....He's a bit of a silly sausage....

[dylanisabaddog 4,955]

16 minutes ago, Mello Yello said:

I've also read his 'uvver' comments....and I personally think the lad with the 2nd World War evacuee haircut needs to stay off social media....not for a while....but maybe forever?....He's a bit of a silly sausage....

Please share

[Mello Yello 2,298]

1 hour ago, dylanisabaddog said:

Please share

Probably not your tabloid....but it was on the mailonline site from williams' twitter and he had a dig at Rio giving City credit for achieving the triple....edukated lad is Branwilliams...

Edited June 11, 2023 by Mello Yello

[pete 320]

Been reading post match posts.  None seem to have picked up the fact that Grealish was anonymous.  As in FA Cup as playing left sided attacker could have expected some crosses but no nothing of interest.  Unsure what he provided over the season as a whole but little trouble regarding goal stats.  The player at Villa took on players beat them and set up others or scored.  He fails to do that at City perhaps it is the way City play him.  But suggest £100m doesn't buy you that much unless you use him to be his best.

Foden looks twice the player now.

[dylanisabaddog 4,955]

3 hours ago, Mello Yello said:

Probably not your tabloid....but it was on the mailonline site from williams' twitter and he had a dig at Rio giving City credit for achieving the triple....edukated lad is Branwilliams...

Oh dear.... 

[cambridgeshire canary 6,756]

4 hours ago, Mello Yello said:

Probably not your tabloid....but it was on the mailonline site from williams' twitter and he had a dig at Rio giving City credit for achieving the triple....edukated lad is Branwilliams...

He makes me look like a genius. Has he ever been to a school?

[Greavsy 2,418]

1 hour ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

He makes me look like a genius. Has he ever been to a school?

Dunno about school, but I know he's been inside Carrow Rd........ Just saying. 😉 

[Yobocop 1,105]

2 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

He makes me look like a genius. Has he ever been to a school?

Don’t do yourself a disservice, you constantly play the village idiot on here so don’t give anyone any ammo to get at you  

[Conrad 171]

5 hours ago, TheDarkKnight said:

If you count in the class of 92,. With the likes of Gary and Phil Neville, Beckham, Sharpe, Scholes, then when you add in Giggs, O'Shea and Fletcher. it's incomparable.

SAF spent £392m in 23 years. Guardiola has spent over £1bn in 6 years.

SAF never had a blanket chequebook.

I would love to see Pep win a league with the likes of Tom Cleverly, Valentin, Alan Smith, Kagawa and Ashley Young as first teamers

Blackburn are really the only comparison you can make to this Manchester City. But even with that, not really.

What a load of old tosh. The price of players now is incomparable with the costs when Ferguson was manager. Then you have to consider gross and net spend. It's like saying Norwich spent more in the last few years than when Dave Striger was manager. Pretty obvious I would have thought

[vos 155]

6 hours ago, pete said:

Been reading post match posts.  None seem to have picked up the fact that Grealish was anonymous.  As in FA Cup as playing left sided attacker could have expected some crosses but no nothing of interest.  Unsure what he provided over the season as a whole but little trouble regarding goal stats.  The player at Villa took on players beat them and set up others or scored.  He fails to do that at City perhaps it is the way City play him.  But suggest £100m doesn't buy you that much unless you use him to be his best.

Foden looks twice the player now.

We have seen him quite a bit this season but can't get my head around why he is so highly rated. Hugs the touchline and plays well back finding plenty of space but after several touches usually places the ball inside to a creative  team mate. Does not often take on his fullback and open up the opponents defence. Obviously is acting under Pep's instructions and wonder if his role is mainly to be a readily available outlet. Somewhat overrated but is good at falling over !!!

[Pyro Pete 1,907]

Apologies if this has been posted already.

 

[Yobocop 1,105]

On 11/06/2023 at 22:33, TheDarkKnight said:

Duh.

Last time I checked Manchester United weren't under investigation for 115 acts of impropriety.

It's completely different. Alex Ferguson brought through Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville, Fletcher, Evans, O'Shea, Giggs, Sharpe. Who have City brought through? Foden. The rest, Pep opened up his blank chequebook and spent, spent, spent.

I don't recall Manchester United outstanding the league by the amount that City have outspent everyone (including money on brown envelopes).

However, if you can prove differently, by all means, chime in.

I'll repeat. Once Pep win trophies with the likes of Evans and O'Shea, Claverley, etc, then you can compare him with SAF.

Different times mate 

SAF still spent on the likes of Yorke, cole, sheringham, poborsky, Stam - much more than other clubs were able to at the time but as you say he built the club up from the bottom and built the basis that many youth setups follow today. 

Man City will have a youth setup and it will probably save them when invariably all of this FFP stuff comes and bites them in the proverbial 
 

 

[TheGunnShow 5,968]

On 11/06/2023 at 22:33, TheDarkKnight said:

Duh.

Last time I checked Manchester United weren't under investigation for 115 acts of impropriety.

It's completely different. Alex Ferguson brought through Scholes, Gary and Phil Neville, Fletcher, Evans, O'Shea, Giggs, Sharpe. Who have City brought through? Foden. The rest, Pep opened up his blank chequebook and spent, spent, spent.

I don't recall Manchester United outstanding the league by the amount that City have outspent everyone (including money on brown envelopes).

However, if you can prove differently, by all means, chime in.

I'll repeat. Once Pep win trophies with the likes of Evans and O'Shea, Claverley, etc, then you can compare him with SAF.

Yep, I reckon Guardiola would need a similar amount of time as Farke did to get things to click with us, if at all. Klopp can always say he got an unheralded Mainz team into the Bundesliga and kept them there for three seasons. Guardiola's only ever been at clubs where he's had a financial advantage over the rest of the league. Ferguson can always say he got Man Utd back to the top of English footy, not to mention his success at Aberdeen.

[Yobocop 1,105]

5 hours ago, TheDarkKnight said:

Financially, there was more of a level playing field back then. Manchester United only had their financial muscle because of SAF's success.

They certainly weren't able to outmuscle their competition in the same way that Newcastle and Manchester City can.

For instance, in the 07/08 season, Arsenal spent £22m. United spent £13m and Liverpool spent £18m.

I mean, Manchester United lost out on Paul Gascoigne because Tottenham offered to buy his sister a sun bed. These days, Manchester City are giving Haaland's agent and his Dad £30m each, in order to finagle his signature. 

Like I said, more of a playing field. Which is why United Treble was much, much more of an achievement.

Agreed 

[Conrad 171]

40 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:

Yep, I reckon Guardiola would need a similar amount of time as Farke did to get things to click with us, if at all. Klopp can always say he got an unheralded Mainz team into the Bundesliga and kept them there for three seasons. Guardiola's only ever been at clubs where he's had a financial advantage over the rest of the league. Ferguson can always say he got Man Utd back to the top of English footy, not to mention his success at Aberdeen.

Ferguson was given many years before he had any success at Manure. Wasn't it Robbins in the FA Cup that saved him from the sack? Unfortunately no manager, certainly in the Premier League, will be given that length of time now if the Club wants to be successful. Guardiola is constrained by circumstances when it comes to youth over experience and the need to buy in established players.

[Aggy 758]

5 hours ago, TheDarkKnight said:

Financially, there was more of a level playing field back then. Manchester United only had their financial muscle because of SAF's success.

They certainly weren't able to outmuscle their competition in the same way that Newcastle and Manchester City can.

For instance, in the 07/08 season, Arsenal spent £22m. United spent £13m and Liverpool spent £18m.

I mean, Manchester United lost out on Paul Gascoigne because Tottenham offered to buy his sister a sun bed. These days, Manchester City are giving Haaland's agent and his Dad £30m each, in order to finagle his signature. 

Like I said, more of a playing field. Which is why United Treble was much, much more of an achievement.

Skysports article the other day - only nine trebles in the history of the European cup (since 1955). Four in the 53 years between 1955 and 2008, five in the last 14 years since 2009.

Does rather suggest something in the last 14 years makes it easier to win trebles - you’d think that’s likely to be the fact the really big clubs can now afford a second eleven who are still better than most of the rest of the division’s first eleven.

[TheGunnShow 5,968]

6 minutes ago, Conrad said:

Ferguson was given many years before he had any success at Manure. Wasn't it Robbins in the FA Cup that saved him from the sack? Unfortunately no manager, certainly in the Premier League, will be given that length of time now if the Club wants to be successful. Guardiola is constrained by circumstances when it comes to youth over experience and the need to buy in established players.

Think the notion that Robins saved his job has been shown as not quite right over time, but certainly Ferguson wasn't popular amongst the crowd. He did still win the FA Cup that year, three years into his rule.

Guardiola may be constrained in being expected to get established players, but he can pretty much get anyone in he fancies. Ferguson famously couldn't get Alan Shearer and Paul Gascoigne in, to name but two.

[TheGunnShow 5,968]

1 minute ago, TheDarkKnight said:

Time has proven how great SAF was.

Time doesn't always translate to success. If Moyes had a decade at United, they'd barely be a top 6 club at the end of his tenure. Same with Rodgers at Liverpool. And Potter at Chelsea. And countless others.

Even Wenger, with all his success, was being ushered out of the door by the Arsenal fans as they were sick of him.

The consistency that SAF had, when the sucess came, sets him apart from all others.

The reason Martin Edwards gave SAF time, in the face of media and fan derision of Ferguson, was because SAF walked into a club that had no direction. No discipline. No scouting and there was a chance that United would be relegated when Ferguson took the job (United were 2nd bottom).

It took years for Sir Alex Ferguson to change the drinking culture at the club, thd general lack of discipline and the negligence when it came to local scouting.

Chances are, Guardiola's next port of call is PSG. And we know what will happen. It'll be trophy laden as he has a virtual limitless money pit.

He's pretty much playing Football Manager with cheat codes.

Nailed it. And that's why Ferguson and Klopp will always have the edge over Guardiola for me. I don't dispute that his teams play wonderful football, but it's considerably easier to do so when you can buy precisely what you need for it to work, or indeed precisely what you need to evolve it.

It's a lower level of football, but I'd go as far as to say Farke's first Championship win was a more surprising and greater success than pretty much any of Guardiola's titles simply as Guardiola's always been with highly favoured teams. No-one had Farke's first Championship-winning team on the radar. And by the same token, I'll say Ranieri's PL with Leicester was a better achievement than any of Guardiola's PL wins.

Pep does deserve immense credit for consistency though. Granted, it is easier with the cash available that he has, but it's often gone wrong before. He's done incredibly well to keep his teams focused, hungry, and effective. In that regard, he can justifiably stand shoulder-to-shoulder with SAF.