Topic: 115 charges for the scorched earth cheating bastards on & off the pitch

[west_london_red]

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/40107349/philadelphia-union-cavan-sullivan-man-city

Article about the Philly MLS team signing a 14-year-old American player with a clause in his contract that says he'll automatically move to City when he turns 18. I have no idea what kind of financial fuckery is involved there (presumably there's money coming from City to skirt the MLS salary limits), but check out this very organic quote from the kid:

Pardon me while I vomit in the corner.

They probably are a lot of kids dream, he’s 14, say he started watching football when he was 4, 6/10 years he’s been watching football City have won the title. That’s not the kids fault, he’s just a kid, it’s those who have allowed it to happen that need to take a look at themselves. Hopefully when he’s joins them he’ll enjoy playing in League 1.

[Terry de Niro]

They probably are a lot of kids dream, he’s 14, say he started watching football when he was 4, 6/10 years he’s been watching football City have won the title. That’s not the kids fault, he’s just a kid, it’s those who have allowed it to happen that need to take a look at themselves. Hopefully when he’s joins them he’ll enjoy playing in the Moss Side Sunday Park League.

Fixed it for you.

[BigBrainArteta]

Im hearing alot of City fans say they want Alonso as manager. Totally inauthentic club. They have hired the backroom staff at Barcelona to fill all thier coaching positions. They were supposed to look to Kompany as a Pep replacement to keep some 'City' about them, but it looks like they will target an ex-Liverpool player.

As an Arsenal fan. I love the fact our manager is ex Arsenal player (Arteta), our director of football is an ex player (Edu), and Merteacker is head of youth development. But City, these guys will hire anyone and dont have any sense of heritage.

[RayPhilAlan]

Im hearing alot of City fans say they want Alonso as manager. Totally inauthentic club. They have hired the backroom staff at Barcelona to fill all thier coaching positions. They were supposed to look to Kompany as a Pep replacement to keep some 'City' about them, but it looks like they will target an ex-Liverpool player.

As an Arsenal fan. I love the fact our manager is ex Arsenal player (Arteta), our director of football is an ex player (Edu), and Merteacker is head of youth development. But City, these guys will hire anyone and dont have any sense of heritage.

And you only picked Wenger 'cos you thought his first name was Arsenal

[A Red Abroad]

Im hearing alot of City fans say they want Alonso as manager. Totally inauthentic club. They have hired the backroom staff at Barcelona to fill all thier coaching positions. They were supposed to look to Kompany as a Pep replacement to keep some 'City' about them, but it looks like they will target an ex-Liverpool player.

As an Arsenal fan. I love the fact our manager is ex Arsenal player (Arteta), our director of football is an ex player (Edu), and Merteacker is head of youth development. But City, these guys will hire anyone and dont have any sense of heritage.

So, when Wenger arrived in north London, what 'heritage' was that?

Clubs (try to) employ the people they think will be best for the job.

Yes, it's romantic if there is a previous connection with the club, like Liverpool's 'boot room' promotions - but history shows that many successful managers (eg: Shanks, Busby, Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho, Klopp and more) had no previous connection with the English clubs they were successful with.

[Son of Spion]

Im hearing alot of City fans say they want Alonso as manager. Totally inauthentic club. They have hired the backroom staff at Barcelona to fill all thier coaching positions. They were supposed to look to Kompany as a Pep replacement to keep some 'City' about them, but it looks like they will target an ex-Liverpool player.

As an Arsenal fan. I love the fact our manager is ex Arsenal player (Arteta), our director of football is an ex player (Edu), and Merteacker is head of youth development. But City, these guys will hire anyone and dont have any sense of heritage.

Be fair. Now Shaun Goater has ruled himself out, what choice have they got?

[cptrios]

How many times does "Xabi is nailed on to manage Real" have to be said?

[smutchin]

Im hearing alot of City fans say they want Alonso as manager. Totally inauthentic club. They have hired the backroom staff at Barcelona to fill all thier coaching positions. They were supposed to look to Kompany as a Pep replacement to keep some 'City' about them, but it looks like they will target an ex-Liverpool player.

As an Arsenal fan. I love the fact our manager is ex Arsenal player (Arteta), our director of football is an ex player (Edu), and Merteacker is head of youth development. But City, these guys will hire anyone and dont have any sense of heritage.

Arteta and Alonso are both Guardiola disciples so it’s quite plausible that either could be in the running to replace him when he goes.

Hopefully by then it will be no longer such an attractive job due to them playing non-league football.

[smutchin]

How many times does "Xabi is nailed on to manage Real" have to be said?

Say it as many times as you like, it’s still speculation.

[JRed]

Be fair. Now Shaun Goater has ruled himself out, what choice have they got?

Dickov

[SamLad]

Dickov

I don't think calling SoS names is really called for.

[JRed]

I don't think calling SoS names is really called for.

Wasn’t talking about SoS…

[vblfc]

Dickov

bless you!

[SamLad]

Wasn’t talking about SoS…

I know 

[JRed]

I know 

I might’ve been talking about someone else…

[Son of Spion]

Dickov

No need to get personal.


 

[JRed]

No need to get personal.


 

I knew you’d get it 😉

[taylorb1991]

https://twitter.com/MC_of_A/status/1788777003446841767


More evidence of just how fit and proper Mansour is

[JRed]

https://twitter.com/MC_of_A/status/1788777003446841767


More evidence of just how fit and proper Mansour is

Fucking piece of shit.

Although he has built some apartments in Manchester so I guess that evens it out.

[taylorb1991]

Fucking piece of shit.

Although he has built some apartments in Manchester so I guess that evens it out.

Terrifyingly, that genuinely seems to be the outlook of the majority of City fans

[TheShanklyGates]

Is this a real Premier League title race or a skilfully maintained illusion?

Intrigue, mind games and a credible chance of Manchester City slipping up are all missing from this supposedly epic battle

Hello, hello. Testing. Is this thing still on? As we head into the penultimate weekend of the Premier League season, a title race does putatively appear to exist. Arsenal are top, a point ahead of Manchester City. City have a game in hand. Mathematically speaking, nothing yet is decided or settled.

What remains to be seen, of course, is whether this is actually a real title race, or whether we are simply living through a skilfully maintained illusion. After all, it’s almost three months since City dropped points against anybody other than a direct title rival. They haven’t lost in the league since December and are on a run of six straight wins. Three more will be enough to retain the league title. Two will do if Arsenal slip up at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Jeopardy, peril, parry and thrust, bumps in the road, boiling tempers and fevered brows: these are all the classic ingredients of a title race. Instead City have basically eschewed them all, ripped up the script in favour of a bloodless cruise to excellence.

The model here is 2018-19, when City merrily strung Liverpool along for 15 weeks like some elaborate internet phishing scam, tantalising them with the prospect of a prize which ultimately was never in their grasp. Liverpool lost once all season, won their last nine games and finished on 97 points. City won their last 14 games and – surprise! – finished on 98.

This season has superficially felt like more of a scrap, with Liverpool originally making it a three-horse race, and several changes of lead as a result of fixture vagaries. But the meta-narrative has basically been consistent throughout: City gradually ratcheting up the pace until nobody can live with them.

It may well be that Arsenal’s own challenge foundered with the 2-0 home defeat by Aston Villa in April. They could still climb their own personal Everest and get to 89 points – their highest total since the Invincibles season. They could finish with a record of 16-1-1 in their last 18 games, only to reach the summit and find City already there, beaming at them, the blue flag planted. It may turn out that the last month of their season was a total waste of time, time spent pointlessly persuading themselves that they were chasing something real.

And in this respect, they would hardly be alone. For months, an entire title race industrial complex – foaming pundits, portentous headlines, meandering phone-in shows – has been assembled in anticipation of an epic denouement, as if a thrilling finish could simply be willed into being simply by incantation. Conversely, it is remarkable just how few dramatic twists there have been, how little noise and fury, how little of the intrigue and mind games that would normally signal a tightening of the race.

What we get from City, instead, is the kind of faint electronic hum you associate with a household appliance you have long since taken for granted. Everybody is united and ready, all the tendrils pointed in a single direction, all the nerve endings calibrated towards a single focus. Pretty much the only hubbub has been some rumbling about the future of Jack Grealish and potential midfield transfer targets for the summer. This is City’s business, and they know it better than anyone else.

Beyond that, a frightening calm. There is a school of thought out there that City is a club driven by grudges and enmities, fuelled by antagonism and spoiling for scraps at any opportunity. Perhaps this is true at a boardroom level, or on the wild frontiers of the internet, where City fans remain unrivalled in their capacity to nurture conspiracy theories and illusory slights, desperate to be hated. But within the four hard walls of that pale blue dressing room, Pep Guardiola has long since mastered the art of turning out the lights, stifling the noise, smoothing away the rough edges in pursuit of a frictionless winning machine.

This much is evident from the thunderously tedious Netflix documentary chronicling their treble-winning season, a show so lacking in internal tension that at one point we are treated to several minutes of Grealish talking – seriously – about how much he loves Bovril. “Oh, them Bovrils at Bristol City, now we’re talking,” Grealish croons. “How good is it? Manu [Akanji], you ever had a Bovril, do you like gravy? I took about eight home with me. I was giving them out to people. Bovvy. I love it.”

For Guardiola, part of this intense calm derives from experience: not only the knowledge of having been here before, but the security that one more title will not make or break his legacy either way. “It’s not winning or losing that will change my opinion about this season,” he said this month. “We can lose all four games, and that means I don’t trust my players? It’s impossible.”

The little flurry of injuries from earlier in the season has cleared up, leaving a fully fit squad for the visit to Fulham on Saturday lunchtime. Meanwhile Arsenal must watch and wait before going to Old Trafford to play what is technically still Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United. And as much as Arsenal will start as favourites, Liverpool have discovered three times this season that a wounded United, under no obligation to win and happy simply to play on the counter, can be a surprisingly dangerous animal.

Either way, at some point – be it on Tuesday or the following Sunday – the strong likelihood is that City will be toasting another title, a sixth title in seven seasons, the sort of dynastic dominance English football fans have always liked to deride in other countries. Perhaps this is the true farmers’ league now: a league that was bought up and cultivated, and is now being harvested at leisure.

The outcome of the Premier League’s 115 charges against City remains some distant paradoxical point on the horizon: never actually getting closer, however much time passes. And in any case, the ultimate innocence or guilt of City is only really of tangential relevance here. The broader picture is that dominance on this scale, whether earned legally or illegally, whether earned through the patronage of a state or a mastery of regulatory fine print, comes with a cost to the spectacle as a whole.

Perhaps then the bewilderment about the title race is the sort that becomes inevitable when a league begins to revolve so thoroughly around one club. This is City’s universe now, and even when you push at the walls it is never entirely clear how much of it is real and how much projection.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/may/10/premier-league-manchester-city-arsenal-pep-guardiola-mikel-arteta

[The North Bank]

Excellent read that. Its all depressingly predictable.

[TomDcs]

Yeah great article that.

The sports washing has been done, the politicians, football authorities, PGMOL, and lots of the media have had their noses in the proverbial trough. Fans of most other clubs are apathetic about City at best, ‘at least it’s not [insert actual big club, usually LFC]’. The legal machine around the charges is already rolling. Get used to more of the same.

[JRed]

Yeah great article that.

The sports washing has been done, the politicians, football authorities, PGMOL, and lots of the media have had their noses in the proverbial trough. Fans of most other clubs are apathetic about City at best, ‘at least it’s not [insert actual big club, usually LFC]’. The legal machine around the charges is already rolling. Get used to more of the same.

Yep. It’s not even a sport anymore. They have destroyed the game.

[lobsterboy]

Terrifyingly, that genuinely seems to be the outlook of the majority of City fans

And their mayor

[redgriffin73]

Good article, what a depressing read. I did enjoy "thunderously tedious Netflix documentary" though!

[A Red Abroad]

And their mayor

Is Burnham drinking the Koolade too?

That's depressing.

[Mister Flip Flop]

https://twitter.com/MC_of_A/status/1788777003446841767


More evidence of just how fit and proper Mansour is

Yeah yeah yeah but the bottle thrown at the bus a few years ago that's the real scandal.

[oojason]

https://twitter.com/MC_of_A/status/1788777003446841767
More evidence of just how fit and proper Mansour is

For anyone reluctant to click on twitter...


'Children ‘piled up and shot’: new details emerge of ethnic cleansing in Darfur':-

As El Fasher stands on the ‘precipice of a massacre’, rights groups call for sanctions after new testimony describes atrocities carried out by RSF paramilitaries in Sudan

www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/09/darfur-atrocities-ethnic-cleansing-human-rights-watch-report-rsf-sudan


and...


'along with owning Manchester City Football Club, Sheikh Mansour is also the primary connection between the UAE government and their allies in the RSF who are carrying out these unspeakable atrocities':-

[JRed]

Yeah yeah yeah but the bottle thrown at the bus a few years ago that's the real scandal.

Don’t forget the database hacking too.
Despicable crimes against humanity.

[vblfc]

For anyone reluctant to click on twitter...


'Children ‘piled up and shot’: new details emerge of ethnic cleansing in Darfur':-

As El Fasher stands on the ‘precipice of a massacre’, rights groups call for sanctions after new testimony describes atrocities carried out by RSF paramilitaries in Sudan

www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/09/darfur-atrocities-ethnic-cleansing-human-rights-watch-report-rsf-sudan


and...


'along with owning Manchester City Football Club, Sheikh Mansour is also the primary connection between the UAE government and their allies in the RSF who are carrying out these unspeakable atrocities':-

So we should expect the UK government to step in with sanctions on City?  I won’t hold by breath.

[taylorb1991]

So we should expect the UK government to step in with sanctions on City?  I won’t hold by breath.

Surely someone should question Manchester's MPs about this. Needs raising in parliament

[zero zero]

Don’t forget the database hacking using old passwords too.
Despicable crimes against humanity.

Adjusted for accuracy

[BoRed]

So we should expect the UK government to step in with sanctions on City?  I won’t hold by breath.

We can expect the UK government to intervene with the PL ... to allow general Hamdan to buy himself a club as well.

[decosabute]

Yeah great article that.

The sports washing has been done, the politicians, football authorities, PGMOL, and lots of the media have had their noses in the proverbial trough. Fans of most other clubs are apathetic about City at best, ‘at least it’s not [insert actual big club, usually LFC]’. The legal machine around the charges is already rolling. Get used to more of the same.

Liew is the only Guardian writer with a pair of bollocks. Been consistently good on this stuff for a while.

[meady1981]

Even though I’ve moved on completely from my younger years of football hatred by quite some distance, there’s still a part of me that winces at Utd’s treble. It’s quite clearly a better achievement than we’ve ever had in a season which takes some doing. I still can’t bare to watch those late goals against Munich. I remember the Semi against Arsenal vividly. The premier league win against Tottenham.
City’s ‘treble’ on the other hand means absolutely nothing to me. I know they played Inter in the final and that’s about it. I haven’t wasted a thought on it since. It’s meaningless. An apparition. No one cares. Barely even their own fans. The most controversial thing Jürgen has ever said, and the truest, is that it means 5 times more to our fans than others. And he means them. I’d feel a bit gutted if Arsenal won the league. Fucking annoyed if Utd won it. Ashamed if Everton did. Them though.. nothing. Pointless.

[koptommy93]

Even though I’ve moved on completely from my younger years of football hatred by quite some distance, there’s still a part of me that winces at Utd’s treble. It’s quite clearly a better achievement than we’ve ever had in a season which takes some doing. I still can’t bare to watch those late goals against Munich. I remember the Semi against Arsenal vividly. The premier league win against Tottenham.
City’s ‘treble’ on the other hand means absolutely nothing to me. I know they played Inter in the final and that’s about it. I haven’t wasted a thought on it since. It’s meaningless. An apparition. No one cares. Barely even their own fans. The most controversial thing Jürgen has ever said, and the truest, is that it means 5 times more to our fans than others. And he means them. I’d feel a bit gutted if Arsenal won the league. Fucking annoyed if Utd won it. Ashamed if Everton did. Them though.. nothing. Pointless.

I get what you mean, but every year they win it is just another nail in the coffin for the league.

[Black Bull Nova]

When we won the title it was like when Kasparov beat that computer, Deep Blue, at chess.
An anonymous, meaningless, corporate (IBM), machine that no-one actually warmed to, playing real people with vulnerabilities and charm.

[keano7]

I get what you mean, but every year they win it is just another nail in the coffin for the league.

If the 115 charges ever do get heard and they’ve been proven guilty, every trophy win since 2012 will be officially tainted as ‘obtained by cheating’.

[BarryCrocker]

If the 115 charges ever do get heard and they’ve been proven guilty, every trophy win since 2012 will be officially tainted as ‘obtained by cheating’.

And they'd be ridiculed even more for the trophies they didn't win while cheating. It would put our win in even more perspective.