Really enjoyed watching City there. People can bang on about owners and money (and it is destroying the game) but they pretty much played the perfect game of football, admittedly against vastly inferior opponents. The closest I've seen Pep's side replicate his great Barcelona teams. It will be an interesting match in a couple of years' time though - if Newcastle haven't had an excursion to our league by then. The Toon's ownership is even more questionable of course, but I'm excited for their massively loyal and long-suffering fanbase, who can do little about who owns them. I hope they challenge the other 'moneybags' teams soon and that the owner keeps his distance.
They can do little about their ownership. But they could have not started protesting that the ownership hadn't previously been let through the door; and they might also not attend the games with tea-towels on their heads. A shrug is one thing. Pulling your pants down, and letting them sportswash you, another. I hope they finish bottom. And, similarly, I hope that Ci'eh's blood money continues to reap its zero Champions Leagues.
City are an amazing team and stylistically as you say they have now pretty much fully adopted the Guardiola-era Barcelona way of playing. But it’s undoubtedly true now that unfortunately the Premier League has become like Scottish football (but with 3 elite teams instead of 2) where no-one else even has a hope in a game against the elite tier teams. Competition is out of the window and the huge majority of games are now a meaningless foregone conclusion - gone are the days of ‘on any given day’
What their blood money has done is to invest millions in the local area creating jobs & opportunities for many people , they have brought the club to the local community invested on the field of play to bring a fantastic team for the fans, I wish them every success .
Can't disagree with that. You have a city club there who pull in 51,000 every game and they looked like they belonged a couple of divisions lower. There are many problems with the league setup at the moment, money being the prime one for me. But I think a big factor in the imbalance was initiated when they allowed the Premier League to be separate from the EFL. You have a tiny number of clubs risking insolvency to join the feast and it's crumbs from the rich man's table for the rest.
Two good decisions I saw yesterday - City's third allowed by VAR and Robertson's upgrade to red. I'm not sure if Kane's even got referred, but he should have walked too. But you can't avoid VAR unless fans stop bellyaching about referees after every single game and the pundits stop dissecting decisions afterwards. Not happening!
"Their owners might chop up the odd journalist but golly gosh isn't Match of the Day going to be exciting now there is another sportswashing husk of a team with a different coloured kit?"
Given that we're still flogging arms to them I think we'll struggle to express our disapproval through boycotting football.
