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Post by theblackpage on Nov 21, 2019 11:16:36 GMT -5
The humble one. Love how he said that he wouldn't couch the spurs when he was at Chelsea.
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Post by Zeke on Nov 21, 2019 17:52:42 GMT -5
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Post by Calvinball on Dec 20, 2019 12:16:08 GMT -5
Cautiously optimistic about Arteta.
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Post by tao on Dec 20, 2019 12:51:51 GMT -5
I will say that I’m surprised he’s on a win streak and he hasn’t chewed out any of the Tottenham players yet.
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Post by essien on Dec 21, 2019 1:43:09 GMT -5
I think Leicester City will be a big test for Man City today. They're set up pretty much perfectly to expose our weakness of defending the transition. Vardy is going to need special attention and I think we'll need to be cleverer with tactical fouling than we have been this season.
Good luck to Flamengo in the Club World Cup final.
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Post by theblackpage on Dec 21, 2019 11:44:12 GMT -5
Went to my first Championship game two weeks ago when I was in London (Fulham (1) v Bristol City (2). Their level is stupidly higher than Dutch Eredivisie and I was surprised how both teams gave it a full 100%. I'm not used to this since my local team are in the lower region of the second division here and they play like amateurs. Also, the atmosphere at Craven Cottage is insane and I loved how you can walk from the tube through the park to the entrance. We were walking there with hundreds of people. For next year a premier league game is on the list. (Waiting for an invite to see the Manchester Derby essien).
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Post by Joost on Dec 24, 2019 4:48:39 GMT -5
Went to my first Championship game two weeks ago when I was in London (Fulham (1) v Bristol City (2). Their level is stupidly higher than Dutch Eredivisie and I was surprised how both teams gave it a full 100%. I'm not used to this since my local team are in the lower region of the second division here and they play like amateurs. Also, the atmosphere at Craven Cottage is insane and I loved how you can walk from the tube through the park to the entrance. We were walking there with hundreds of people. For next year a premier league game is on the list. (Waiting for an invite to see the Manchester Derby essien). which team is this? (I'm a Sparta Rotterdam fan) Somethimes "de keuken kampioen divisie" can be fun to watch. Everybody can win from everybody. But overall I'm happy Sparta is back in the 'eredivisie' I went to a League one game this earlier this year, Charlton Athletic. There was a very Nice english vibe and the tickets were 35 pounds instead of 200 in the premier League.
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Post by theblackpage on Dec 24, 2019 9:57:32 GMT -5
Went to my first Championship game two weeks ago when I was in London (Fulham (1) v Bristol City (2). Their level is stupidly higher than Dutch Eredivisie and I was surprised how both teams gave it a full 100%. I'm not used to this since my local team are in the lower region of the second division here and they play like amateurs. Also, the atmosphere at Craven Cottage is insane and I loved how you can walk from the tube through the park to the entrance. We were walking there with hundreds of people. For next year a premier league game is on the list. (Waiting for an invite to see the Manchester Derby essien ). which team is this? (I'm a Sparta Rotterdam fan) Somethimes "de keuken kampioen divisie" can be fun to watch. Everybody can win from everybody. But overall I'm happy Sparta is back in the 'eredivisie' I went to a League one game this earlier this year, Charlton Athletic. There was a very Nice english vibe and the tickets were 35 pounds instead of 200 in the premier League. Roda JC I love Sparta and they deserve to be in the Eredivisie. Also amazing that they won against AZ last weekend with the death of Jules Deelder in their mind.
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Post by tao on Jan 26, 2020 10:27:56 GMT -5
Ahhhh, TFW Premiere League isn’t on Sunday morning TV, so you resort to watching Bundesliga...
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Post by essien on Feb 15, 2020 4:35:01 GMT -5
So, this year's biggest football news story: Manchester City banned from the Champions League for two years, subject to an appeal. I was quite shocked when I heard this, particularly because one of the most respected journalists covering the club had reported recently that there wasn't going to be a ban at all.
The ban could have huge implications for the club if it's upheld. Pep will most likely leave, and there's the possibility that star players will leave too. It'll be difficult to attract new players for the duration of the ban as a) they'll want European football and b) we won't have the Champions League revenue to help pay for them. There's also rumours that the Premier League could impose sanctions too. How will the owners react to their reputation being damaged in this way?
I've always thought the Financial Fair Play rules were a protection racket for the established elite clubs (how can Man Utd's millions of debt be ok but City's millions of investment be bad?) but it doesn't change the circumstances. I'm hopeful the appeal will be successful and the club can at least get the ban reduced if not suspended, but not confident. It's going to be a long few months...
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Post by v9733xa on Feb 15, 2020 11:12:40 GMT -5
So, this year's biggest football news story: Manchester City banned from the Champions League for two years, subject to an appeal. I was quite shocked when I heard this, particularly because one of the most respected journalists covering the club had reported recently that there wasn't going to be a ban at all. The ban could have huge implications for the club if it's upheld. Pep will most likely leave, and there's the possibility that star players will leave too. It'll be difficult to attract new players for the duration of the ban as a) they'll want European football and b) we won't have the Champions League revenue to help pay for them. There's also rumours that the Premier League could impose sanctions too. How will the owners react to their reputation being damaged in this way? I've always thought the Financial Fair Play rules were a protection racket for the established elite clubs (how can Man Utd's millions of debt be ok but City's millions of investment be bad?) but it doesn't change the circumstances. I'm hopeful the appeal will be successful and the club can at least get the ban reduced if not suspended, but not confident. It's going to be a long few months... Would you mind explaining this ban/scandal to an outsider? (I don't follow this sport at all.) I read a story on this yesterday but was a little confused by the details. Other than "cooking the books," what exactly was the result of the investigation? And do you think this is something you'd find in other clubs?
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Post by essien on Feb 15, 2020 19:27:19 GMT -5
So, this year's biggest football news story: Manchester City banned from the Champions League for two years, subject to an appeal. I was quite shocked when I heard this, particularly because one of the most respected journalists covering the club had reported recently that there wasn't going to be a ban at all. The ban could have huge implications for the club if it's upheld. Pep will most likely leave, and there's the possibility that star players will leave too. It'll be difficult to attract new players for the duration of the ban as a) they'll want European football and b) we won't have the Champions League revenue to help pay for them. There's also rumours that the Premier League could impose sanctions too. How will the owners react to their reputation being damaged in this way? I've always thought the Financial Fair Play rules were a protection racket for the established elite clubs (how can Man Utd's millions of debt be ok but City's millions of investment be bad?) but it doesn't change the circumstances. I'm hopeful the appeal will be successful and the club can at least get the ban reduced if not suspended, but not confident. It's going to be a long few months... Would you mind explaining this ban/scandal to an outsider? (I don't follow this sport at all.) I read a story on this yesterday but was a little confused by the details. Other than "cooking the books," what exactly was the result of the investigation? And do you think this is something you'd find in other clubs? Sure, I'll give you my slightly biased rundown... So going back to the start, in 2008, Manchester City were taken over by Sheikh Mansour, a member of the UAE royal family and a multibillionaire. He set out his ambition for City to become one of the best clubs in the world. At the time of the takeover, City were a mid-table Premier League team that had gone through some tough times. Mansour immediately started investing huge amounts of money into the club to buy players and improve the infrastructure so that it could compete with the other top clubs in Europe. Fast forward a few years, and UEFA (the body that governs European football) were coming under pressure from the established elite clubs in Europe who felt threatened by clubs like City, backed by billionaire owners, being able to outspend them. There was also a lot of concern at the time (and continues to be) about clubs spending outside their means to try and remain competitive, and risking going bust in the process. UEFA's solution to this was to introduce new rules called Financial Fair Play (FFP). This restricted clubs finances - essentially, clubs could no longer spend more money than they generated, thus restricting the amount of money that wealthy owners inject into their clubs. Clubs that breached these rules could face sanctions such as being fined and banned from European competition. UEFA claimed these rules were about ensuring clubs managed their finances responsibly so as not to go too far into the red. Within a season or two of the FFP rules being introduced, City breached the restrictions and were charged by UEFA. Their punishment was a huge fine and restrictions on their squad for the next season. City managed to sort out their finances in the following seasons to avoid further punishment, and eventually became a profitable business. Everyone thought that was the end of it until about 18 months ago. A group called Football Leaks acquired a trove of emails purported to have been hacked from Manchester City's email servers, and shared them with a German newspaper called Der Spiegel. Der Spiegel ran a series of articles which revealed that City had been cooking the books to get round the FFP restrictions in the years following their punishment. This basically involved Sheikh Mansour directly reimbursing companies who were sponsoring City, and making some payments off the books through separate entities. Following the news stories in Der Spiegel, UEFA decided to investigate, and a year later, have just announced this two year ban. City have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing throughout the process and are now appealing the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. They argue that the information was illegally obtained and taken out of context, and that the investigation has been prejudiced and politically motivated from the outset. The appeal will need to be decided by July if City are going to be banned from the start of next season, but this is likely to be a long process, so the ban might get pushed back while the appeal is being heard. I'm kind of torn on how I feel about this, because while it does seem on the surface that City have been very shady (not to mention pretty stupid to have this information sitting on their email servers)m I believe there are some mitigating factors: 1. The information was obtained by illegal means. Football finances are a really murky world, and who knows what we'd find out if every club's transactions were laid bare like this. 2. The FFP rules are a protection racket. They clearly favour the established elite clubs who already generate huge amounts of revenue. They don't want other clubs coming in and taking a slice of their pie, and it's disingenuous for them to claim FFP is about preventing clubs from going bust. 3. The rules were created by UEFA, the case was investigated by UEFA, and the punishment was decided by UEFA. Who decided that a two year ban was appropriate? The people who run UEFA aren't independent - they all have vested interests in the established elite clubs, and are heavily influenced by the various league and club bosses. Like FIFA, they have their own history of corruption too. That's much longer and more detailed that I meant it to be, but hopefully gives you an idea of what's gone on. I found it quite cathartic to write it out. It sounds dumb but it's been a stressful couple of days since the news broke. I spend a lot of time and money following this club. There's sections of the media (and rival fans) who are arguing that City's recent achievements should now be viewed similarly to Lance Armstrong's or the Russian Olympic team's. I don't buy this at all. This is about finances, not sporting performance.
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Post by v9733xa on Feb 15, 2020 23:12:48 GMT -5
But couldn't one argue that they bought players that they shouldn't have been able to afford? And therefore broke what are effectively "cap" rules? (I suppose that's something of an equivalent.) Reading this and some more from a couple sites -- a good round-up from ESPN -- has me thinking that UEFA had no choice here. They had to do something severe, especially after the first penalty years ago and then a reveal that it not only didn't stop but got worse. I mean, that's accounting fraud. It's probably criminal. Thank you for the recap. That was thorough and interesting.
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Post by essien on Feb 16, 2020 4:48:03 GMT -5
But couldn't one argue that they bought players that they shouldn't have been able to afford? And therefore broke what are effectively "cap" rules? (I suppose that's something of an equivalent.) Reading this and some more from a couple sites -- a good round-up from ESPN -- has me thinking that UEFA had no choice here. They had to do something severe, especially after the first penalty years ago and then a reveal that it not only didn't stop but got worse. I mean, that's accounting fraud. It's probably criminal. Thank you for the recap. That was thorough and interesting. Yeah, that's a perfectly reasonable view and I can see why a neutral party would see it that way: they knew the rules, they signed up to them, they've broken them so they deserve to be punished and should expect to be criticised. The nuances for me are to do with what led to the investigation and how it's been handled, and the FFP rules themselves. Something I should add is that it's not beyond the realms of possibility that another club (or group of clubs) instigated the hack against Manchester City. We'll never know, but there are some huge geopolitical forces at work here. City have said they've been closely monitoring the finances of other clubs in recent years, which makes me think they might start slinging some dirt of their own soon. On the rules themselves, I don't see it as a basic salary cap like you get in other sports because it doesn't create a level playing field. Historically successful clubs can continue to spend huge amounts of money and operate irresponsibly, while smaller clubs that want to invest in a responsible way and catch up with the big boys are prevented from doing so. To me, that's patently unfair and the behaviour of a cartel. I don't feel like I should defend the club's wrongdoing, but I don't think the news reporting is balanced or gets across some of the intricacies.
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Post by Calvinball on Feb 16, 2020 9:58:39 GMT -5
My interpretation of this is similar to anytime the NCAA comes down on a big program for rules violations. If you go across all of Europe and really dig into the books of any big club you will probably find a FFP violation in any of them, no one is wholly innocent and they are all probably doing something wrong.
Instead of cracking down on everyone EUFA is cracking down on City as an example for everyone else. The ban will be upheld and EUFA will have proven their point. Much like when Reggie Bush and OSU got in trouble for financial reasons a few years back.
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