Topic: Man City - cheating bastards rumbled

[PeterTheRed ...]

Sadly it's an incredible signing.  Most of the league is already scared to attack City in games and Haaland is only going to create more fear.  I'd say he wouldn't be peps first choice style wise but he is just a freakishly good goal scorer.

Everyone thought the same when Guardiola added Ibrahimovic to the team that already had Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Henry, Yaya Toure and Dani Alves ...

[Flaccido Dongingo]

Sancho looked shit hot in that league also and turned out to be a pudding.

He's a good signing for them no doubt but there is zero guarantee he'll take them to another level.

Sancho is a very good player, don't judge him while playing for that shower of shit.

[thejbs]

Sancho looked shit hot in that league also and turned out to be a pudding.

He's a good signing for them no doubt but there is zero guarantee he'll take them to another level.

That's less about not being good enough in the Premier league, and more about playing in a directionless team full of fannies.

[Dull Tools]

La Liga is taking legal action against PSG and City in EU courts.

Arguing that they have not taken sufficient action against both of them. Also arguing PSGs chairman also being chairman of ECA is a conflict of interest.

The lawyer they hired acted on behalf of Wikileaks.

They also moaned that the Premier League have taken no action even though they have been investigating for 4 years.

[tubby]

Who are they taking legal action against?  UEFA as well as the PL?

[rafathegaffa83]

Who are they taking legal action against?  UEFA as well as the PL?

Tariq Panja is saying Madrid has definitely hired lawyers to take on PSG in the French courts
https://mobile.twitter.com/tariqpanja/status/1537028072507162625?cxt=HHwWgoC--e24z9QqAAAA

[tubby]

What's their case against PSG though?  That UEFA let them do what they want?  Surely they should be going after UEFA, I don't see how they can get PSG on anything.

[PeterTheRed ...]

What's their case against PSG though?  That UEFA let them do what they want?  Surely they should be going after UEFA, I don't see how they can get PSG on anything.

Well, the publicity of the court case itself will bring the shady dealings of PSG and Man City in the spotlight. It is a good PR tactic by Real Madrid and La Liga. It might not end up in a court verdict, but it will certainly put UEFA and the PL under pressure ...

[JRed]

La Liga is taking legal action against PSG and City in EU courts.

Arguing that they have not taken sufficient action against both of them. Also arguing PSGs chairman also being chairman of ECA is a conflict of interest.

The lawyer they hired acted on behalf of Wikileaks.

They also moaned that the Premier League have taken no action even though they have been investigating for 4 years.

About time somebody did as the authorities are not doing anything. Uefa were sent packing by Abu Dhabi’s lawyers and CAS. The PL are taking the piss with their slow moving case, maybe that is to do with Abu Dhabi’s lawyers too tho. Although I really would not be surprised if Boris’ mucky paws are in there somewhere protecting Abu Dhabi investment, like his involvement in the Saudicastle takeover.  The more spotlight is put on these cheating bastards, the better.

[SamLad]

What's their case against PSG though?  That UEFA let them do what they want?  Surely they should be going after UEFA, I don't see how they can get PSG on anything.

isn't this the same as Leeds and Burnley going after the Bitters?

[Sharado]

What City will gain in finishing they'll lose in control. Last season they effectively had 6 midfielders. Even we struggled to live with it in the first half of both our league games.

Haaland's a great player but this is it for me. They will have to change how they play and it remains to be seen if Haaland will make them more or less effective. His injury record isn't that great either and no team can just flick a switch to go from being effective using a striker to every bit as effective without one during the season. To get the best out of him - and his best is very very good - they obviously have to play to his strengths.

We ran city bloody close last year of course, but in our 2 league games against them they felt to me more dominant than in most in recent years dating back to maybe 2019 [the covid year doesn't count!] They absolutely squeezed the life out of us, and at anfield in particular we got ourselves ahead well against the run of play. I'd say they felt more in control in those games than the 2-1 which could have gone either way in 2019, or obviously in the year we stuffed them at anfield, or the champs league games etc.

I honestly don't know how Haaland will work in that sense. He's got all the tools but he could not be more different from playing one of Foden, KDB, Mahrez or god knows who at false 9. Also with a 'proper' number 9 like Haaland you surely know where the threat is coming from and can mitigate more against that, for me at least, which is I think partly why Pep never does too well with out and out number 9s [Eto/Ibra/Aguero as mentioned]. I don't think I'm saying all this just to cope with them adding yet another world class option to an already stacked squad, but I don't think he's a guaranteed success at all. He's not come to sit on the bench either.

[tubby]

isn't this the same as Leeds and Burnley going after the Bitters?

But they were going to go after the PL for enabling it, same as Real should be going after UEFA.  They can't take PSG to court, can they?

[SamLad]

But they were going to go after the PL for enabling it, same as Real should be going after UEFA.  They can't take PSG to court, can they?

to be honest I don't follow this stuff that closely, but I think they were threatening the club not the PL.

can a club sue another?  why not?  even if just to raise the issue / put pressure on the league, who will want to avoid that becoming a trend which would lead to banana league accusations.

[El Lobo]

to be honest I don't follow this stuff that closely, but I think they were threatening the club not the PL.

can a club sue another?  why not?  even if just to raise the issue / put pressure on the league, who will want to avoid that becoming a trend which would lead to banana league accusations.

Because the leagues are the ones who have let them get away with breaking the rules. They're not beholden to Real Madrid for anything. It'd be like me suing Johnny Depp cos I dont agree with the outcome of his court case.

[JRed]

I wonder how city fans will feel when Haaland activates his release clause in 2 years time and goes to Madrid?

[A-Bomb]

About time somebody did as the authorities are not doing anything. Uefa were sent packing by Abu Dhabi’s lawyers and CAS. The PL are taking the piss with their slow moving case, maybe that is to do with Abu Dhabi’s lawyers too tho. Although I really would not be surprised if Boris’ mucky paws are in there somewhere like his involvement in the Saudicastle takeover.  The more spotlight is put on these cheating bastards, the better.

This needs to grow some legs by keeping it in the media, a fucking lighthouse beacon should be shining on these contemptible regimes using football as vehicles for their sportswashing, endorsed by the relevant authorities through ignoring their breach of rules all football clubs should be adhering too.

It brings the game of football into disrepute and threatens the integrity of what sport should all be about, tearing down barriers, race, colour of skin, nation, equality etc.... promoting fair play and celebrating success from an equal playing field.

I want to see these fuckers pinned to a wall - with the message being, you will not absorb an entire sport for your political ends. 

[Fromola]

They did but they started to become far more vulnerable, or at least teams found ways to get at City better, from 19/20 onwards. They then changed it to combat that, making themselves incredibly boring to watch.

Boring the opposition into submission has been a great tactic for them. We keep games exciting which gives opposition encouragement.

Once teams concede to City they just want to keep the score down. We let a lot of leads slip. We were the only team to come back from behind against them all season. One thing they really have over us is the ability to effortlessly control games throughout.

[RedSince86]

Hopefully this is the start of the ESL putting the framework in to disregard the state owned clubs and showing UEFA if you won't act then we will and do it without you.

Well done to Tebas, seems to be the only person high up in Football who's said what is is about state ownership, he can't be bought and despises anything that sppils the integrity of Football.

I wish he was the EPL CEO because Richard Masters is a fucking joke, the shambolic way he bowed down to Government pressure allowing the Saudi's in, the so called FFP trial against City and the Everton debacle with their losses.

[jepovic]

Haaland's a great player but this is it for me. They will have to change how they play and it remains to be seen if Haaland will make them more or less effective. His injury record isn't that great either and no team can just flick a switch to go from being effective using a striker to every bit as effective without one during the season. To get the best out of him - and his best is very very good - they obviously have to play to his strengths.

We ran city bloody close last year of course, but in our 2 league games against them they felt to me more dominant than in most in recent years dating back to maybe 2019 [the covid year doesn't count!] They absolutely squeezed the life out of us, and at anfield in particular we got ourselves ahead well against the run of play. I'd say they felt more in control in those games than the 2-1 which could have gone either way in 2019, or obviously in the year we stuffed them at anfield, or the champs league games etc.

I honestly don't know how Haaland will work in that sense. He's got all the tools but he could not be more different from playing one of Foden, KDB, Mahrez or god knows who at false 9. Also with a 'proper' number 9 like Haaland you surely know where the threat is coming from and can mitigate more against that, for me at least, which is I think partly why Pep never does too well with out and out number 9s [Eto/Ibra/Aguero as mentioned]. I don't think I'm saying all this just to cope with them adding yet another world class option to an already stacked squad, but I don't think he's a guaranteed success at all. He's not come to sit on the bench either.

A very similar argument could actually be made for us, changing from Firmino to Nunez. We're more direct than ManC to begin with, but it's still a major change in style. I could see both teams struggling a bit with this, looking less dominant but perhaps winning even more games in the end.

[El Lobo]

A very similar argument could actually be made for us, changing from Firmino to Nunez. We're more direct than ManC to begin with, but it's still a major change in style. I could see both teams struggling a bit with this, looking less dominant but perhaps winning even more games in the end.

We play with three 'attackers' though. They don't, certainly not a central one and most certainly not someone as direct and big as Haaland. Its definitely a change for both, but theirs will be a much bigger change.

[SamLad]

Because the leagues are the ones who have let them get away with breaking the rules. They're not beholden to Real Madrid for anything. It'd be like me suing Johnny Depp cos I dont agree with the outcome of his court case.

I get that, but if the governing body is basically ignoring you, paying some money on a lawyer to get a headline might start the pressure building when nothing else is working., and might get other clubs to chime in too.

[Fromola]

Hopefully this is the start of the ESL putting the framework in to disregard the state owned clubs and showing UEFA if you won't act then we will and do it without you.

Well done to Tebas, seems to be the only person high up in Football who's said what is is about state ownership, he can't be bought and despises anything that sppils the integrity of Football.

I wish he was the EPL CEO because Richard Masters is a fucking joke, the shambolic way he bowed down to Government pressure allowing the Saudi's in, the so called FFP trial against City and the Everton debacle with their losses.

The PL won't do anything that they see as damaging the brand. As if they're going to admit City have cheated their way to league titles, or Everton should have had a points deduction.

[Sharado]

A very similar argument could actually be made for us, changing from Firmino to Nunez. We're more direct than ManC to begin with, but it's still a major change in style. I could see both teams struggling a bit with this, looking less dominant but perhaps winning even more games in the end.

I see what you mean, but it feels less of a shift for us [to my, admittedly biased, eyes at least]. Bobby's not played loads really and we've seen Sadio and Jota used as slightly more 'traditional' 9's, along with the odd shift there for our previous number 27. I also think our 'style' has always seen Robbo and Trent firing balls into the box [I guess you could maybe say the same about KDB/Cancelo for city though] which we've got to hope Darwin absolutely eats up. As ever with anything city/liverpool based it's fine margins, but I would say it's less of a gear shift for us than for them.

[taylorb1991]

About time someone started to try and stop these state owned clubs. I only wish the executives at Premier League clubs did the same. If we all actually came together against the 2 sportswashed clubs then the Premier League would be forced to act. As it stands I think most owners are firmly against what City have done and what Newcastle are going to do, judging by the move to try and stop self-sponsorship but the lack of a very public campaign that could play out in the media is frustrating.

I think it would have to boil down to fan pressure to see some real action, in the same way the Super League was stopped, even though it's clear to anyone that the Super League was a direct result of the hyper-inflation in wages and transfers caused by City and PSG in the first place. I'd love to see fans put pressure on their clubs to not travel to St James Park and the Etihad and take a fine or points deduction, make a mockery out of the league in the same way the top brass have by letting these human-rights abusers come in and cheat their way to the top. Unfortunately that won't happen because most fans of other clubs would still prefer to see City win over us or United and turn a blind eye to the sportswashing.

[jepovic]

I see what you mean, but it feels less of a shift for us [to my, admittedly biased, eyes at least]. Bobby's not played loads really and we've seen Sadio and Jota used as slightly more 'traditional' 9's, along with the odd shift there for our previous number 27. I also think our 'style' has always seen Robbo and Trent firing balls into the box [I guess you could maybe say the same about KDB/Cancelo for city though] which we've got to hope Darwin absolutely eats up. As ever with anything city/liverpool based it's fine margins, but I would say it's less of a gear shift for us than for them.

Yeah, I think you're right. I think we never really played as fluidly without Bobby in the spring, but we did win a lot of games. I could see the same thing happening next season for both ManC and us. Barring any major injuries, both teams look ridiculously good with their new strikers.

[alonsoisared]

Haaland is an unbelievable striker, above Mbappe for me. Absolutely deadly. But Man City are already regularly racking up between 95 and 100 points, they can't win every game. They'll win some games they'd have drawn last season because of him but they'll also drop a point or two elsewhere because Bernardo or someone else has been missed. They can't possibly improve that much in the league because they're already, along with us, about as perfect a premier league team as there's ever been.

The big difference with him will be in Europe IMO. If they don't win it with him up front they might as well pack up and fuck it off because it will never happen. He's an absolute killer. They get knocked out of champions league ties in moments of madness when the control disappears and they can't cope without it. The burst of spurs goals at the Etihad, us at Anfield, the way they fell to bits in the Bernabeu. In Haaland they have a player who doesn't need the team to be playing perfectly to be able to come up with something extraordinary. All he needs is a sniff and he can win those big one-off ties in a flash.

Course, there's always the chance Pep drops him for a final to incorporate Zinchenko as a roaming playmaker and we'll never know.

[Mister Flip Flop]

The PL won't do anything that they see as damaging the brand. As if they're going to admit City have cheated their way to league titles, or Everton should have had a points deduction.

This.

People are going to be waiting a long time before the Premier League do anything to hurt the brand. They literally had no problem with a Russian gangster buying a club or the Saudi's who are probably the most disgusting regime on the planet buying Newcastle.

[RedSince86]

The PL won't do anything that they see as damaging the brand. As if they're going to admit City have cheated their way to league titles, or Everton should have had a points deduction.

Time to leave the PL then... create another breakaway like in 1992, with stiffer rules against state ownership and owner linked deals and allow in house streaming rights.

[MonsLibpool]

Time to leave the PL then... create another breakaway like in 1992, with stiffer rules against state ownership and owner-linked deals and allow in-house streaming rights.

This.

The oil clubs are ruining the game with their greed. The threat of a breakaway league might be enough to make them toe the line. Why share our TV revenue when oil clubs will stain the integrity of the competition by spending obscene amounts anyway?

If clubs and their supporters come together to stamp them out, they'd have no chance.

[jillcwhomever]

I don't know what drives me to despair more, the oil clubs are people going on about super leagues. Both belong in the same place in the bottom of a dark endless pit.

[jillcwhomever]

This.

The oil clubs are ruining the game with their greed. The threat of a breakaway league might be enough to make them toe the line. Why share our TV revenue when oil clubs will stain the integrity of the competition by spending obscene amounts anyway?

If clubs and their supporters come together to stamp them out, they'd have no chance.

This line just makes me laugh my head off. The oil clubs are ruining the game, yet a super league will somehow not ruin the game. Can you not see the irony here?

[JRed]

This line just makes me laugh my head off. The oil clubs are ruining the game, yet a super league will somehow not ruin the game. Can you not see the irony here?

The problem is, most of us don’t want to have to be in a league with cheating, state owned clubs. If the authorities are not going to stop them, and the other clubs don’t create a league without them, then the only other choice is to give up football. Once there are one or two more state clubs in the Pl there won’t really be much point to it.

[MonsLibpool]

This line just makes me laugh my head off. The oil clubs are ruining the game, yet a super league will somehow not ruin the game. Can you not see the irony here?

You can't ruin something that's already been ruined.

[SamLad]

But they were going to go after the PL for enabling it, same as Real should be going after UEFA.  They can't take PSG to court, can they?

guardian is saying La Liga has filed complaints with UEFA.

[MonsLibpool]

What we want is a level playing field but the regulatory bodies like UEFA are useless and supporters and clubs don't care enough to make a coordinated effort to get rid of them. Do you want to see Abu Dhabi/Saudi winning the league and CL 10 years in a row?

That's what the sport is becoming. They inflate the market to levels that other teams can't compete with which will lead to some eventually going out of business. I can't wait for the day their illicit means will catch up with them.

[jillcwhomever]

What we want is a level playing field but the regulatory bodies like UEFA are useless and supporters and clubs don't care enough to make a coordinated effort to get rid of them. Do you want to see Abu Dhabi/Saudi winning the league and CL 10 years in a row?

That's what the sport is becoming. They inflate the market to levels that other teams can't compete with which will lead to some eventually going out of business. I can't wait for the day their illicit means will catch up with them.

The Super League will solve nothing, just another league for another set of elite clubs leaving everyone else behind. Besides which it will be the most boring league ever, playing the same teams over and over again and over again. That's before of course, they start carting games off to the middle east and America and whatever other country that puts up enough money. Then we won't even be able to see the league and god knows how much we will be charged for the "privilege."

[JRed]

The Super League will solve nothing, just another league for another set of elite clubs leaving everyone else behind. Besides which it will be the most boring league ever, playing the same teams over and over again and over again. That's before of course, they start carting games off to the middle east and America and whatever other country that puts up enough money. Then we won't even be able to see the league and god knows how much we will be charged for the "privilege."

Isn’t the CL changing to a similar format as the ESL? All teams in the same league? Just won’t be playing all the teams but it will be shite. The only issue with the ESL was the qualification for it, however there would’ve been more Pl clubs taking part than currently in the CL and I believe they were also going to have a form of qualification. So the CL is arguably more elitist already as very rarely does any team out of the big 6 qualify. The massive bonus from the ESL was controlling the spending of the State owned clubs. If something isn’t done about them soon then the game is dead anyway.

[Jshooters]

This needs to grow some legs by keeping it in the media, a fucking lighthouse beacon should be shining on these contemptible regimes using football as vehicles for their sportswashing, endorsed by the relevant authorities through ignoring their breach of rules all football clubs should be adhering too.

It brings the game of football into disrepute and threatens the integrity of what sport should all be about, tearing down barriers, race, colour of skin, nation, equality etc.... promoting fair play and celebrating success from an equal playing field.

I want to see these fuckers pinned to a wall - with the message being, you will not absorb an entire sport for your political ends.

Unfortunately the media come out with shite like this from the Guardian’s ‘Fiver’

La Liga clearly still has the funk on over not signing Kylian Mbappé, filing complaints to Uefa that PSG and Manchester City are in ongoing breach of FFP. “La Liga considers that these practices alter the ecosystem and sustainability of football, harm all European clubs and leagues, and only serve to artificially inflate the market, with money not generated within football itself,” sniffed big cheese Javier Tebas.

[Barneylfc∗]

Getting £12m from Southampton for Ireland's back up keeper. Nothing dodgy about that at all.

[JRed]

Unfortunately the media come out with shite like this from the Guardian’s ‘Fiver’

It’s a shame we don’t really have much of an independent media. How any journalist can defend what these horrific regimes are doing is a disgrace.,