OFFICIAL 2023-24 FOOTY THREAD ⚽️: Champions League Final between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid on 6/1 at 3 PM EST

[MakeNTGreatAgain]

People who target the players, or honestly even managers, are just ignorant imo.
Fraud is the reason that City has such an insane level of squad depth in the first place but at the end of the day that's not the players' fault and they still need to put in the work.

to me im not a fan for this reason
yes their players put in work
but its kind of a hard to be a fan of a team who can take out grealish and put in doku off the bench
like that level of talent is insane on the bench
sucks arsenal peaked during this current man city peak

 

[Verde Shuttles]

During this period Chelsea, United have spent just about as much, City's hit rate aside from Phillips, Mathues Nunes? has been crazy. Arsenal could had better depth but they actually helped City, spent money on Zinchenco, Veira and Gaby Jesus.

 

[MakeNTGreatAgain]

During this period Chelsea, United have spent just about as much, City's hit rate aside from Phillips, Mathues Nunes? has been crazy. Arsenal could had better depth but they actually helped City, spent money on Zincheco Veira and Gaby Jesus.

true, that is a good point, they know who to get, i had no idea who doku was before city signed him

 

[Armada]

I think it’s important to note that our depth looks so great because of Pep. The level he coaches guys up to makes some dudes look a lot better and more valuable here than they would at other clubs.

It wasn’t too long ago people was saying “city can afford to have Zinchenko and Jesus on the bench what a luxury they’d be starters at other clubs ” and now at Arsenal people think they not all that. As good as I think Akanji and Ake are I don’t have any reason to believe they’d be this good at another club especially Akanji Dortmund fans where happy to see him go and at city he’s a reliable defender and Pep got him helping our play in midfield like Stones. Lowkey think the same about Alvarez as well he’s really good but people would see his flaws more if he was the main main striker at a club. Haaland presence and the role he’s being asked to play has shielded him from some criticism he would’ve already gotten if he was the main striker.

Going back further I remember the talks of stones being a flop, Sterling not having been worth it (even though I personally always pushed back on that) dudes like Otamendi being a flop who wasn’t worth it. Pep helped turn Sterling into a world better with us for a couple years maximizing his potential, stones is now our best cb when fit imo at worst second best and otamendi made the premier league team of the season the first title pep won with us playing him. Same season delph was balling playing left back and he’s doing nothing now.

We spend a lot but we all know a players price tag don’t equal their quality we benefit a lot rn from having a manager that can maximize these players qualities that I know other managers couldn’t. Our rate of 50 mil flops or not doing as much was more common before he became manager.

 

[Bantz Lord T]

Just like we have spenders like the Dodgers and Mets here in America. There are rich teams full of intelligent people and others who spend like drunk sailors.

 

[Belgium]

I think it’s important to note that our depth looks so great because of Pep. The level he coaches guys up to makes some dudes look a lot better and more valuable here than they would at other clubs.

It wasn’t too long ago people was saying “city can afford to have Zinchenko and Jesus on the bench what a luxury they’d be starters at other clubs ” and now at Arsenal people think they not all that. As good as I think Akanji and Ake are I don’t have any reason to believe they’d be this good at another club especially Akanji Dortmund fans where happy to see him go and at city he’s a reliable defender and Pep got him helping our play in midfield like Stones. Lowkey think the same about Alvarez as well he’s really good but people would see his flaws more if he was the main main striker at a club. Haaland presence and the role he’s being asked to play has shielded him from some criticism he would’ve already gotten if he was the main striker.

Going back further I remember the talks of stones being a flop, Sterling not having been worth it (even though I personally always pushed back on that) dudes like Otamendi being a flop who wasn’t worth it. Pep helped turn Sterling into a world better with us for a couple years maximizing his potential, stones is now our best cb when fit imo at worst second best and otamendi made the premier league team of the season the first title pep won with us playing him. Same season delph was balling playing left back and he’s doing nothing now.

We spend a lot but we all know a players price tag don’t equal their quality we benefit a lot rn from having a manager that can maximize these players qualities that I know other managers couldn’t. Our rate of 50 mil flops or not doing as much was more common before he became manager.

I don't think anyone would disagree that City's recruitment is fantastic, especially with a manager like Pep who can get the absolute best out of them. I think the main point is that the finances are being screwed with to help afford all these players in the first place.
City's leadership doesn't or didn't really have to take into account the finances because they just falsify them anyway. Is player x too risky of an investment? Who cares, just ask the state-controlled sponsors to conjure up some extra millions.

Messing with finances shouldn't be framed as something unique to City. They're not the first and certainly won't be the last.
Chelsea had great recruitment with insane levels of spending and that's been questioned for years as well. I don't think people would be surprised if Abramovich had some skeletons in his closet.
We've never really seen anything on the sheer scale of City though.

 

[heggsy]

5 years

 

[Armada]

I don't think anyone would disagree that City's recruitment is fantastic, especially with a manager like Pep who can get the absolute best out of them. I think the main point is that the finances are being screwed with to help afford all these players in the first place.
City's leadership doesn't or didn't really have to take into account the finances because they just falsify them anyway. Is player x too risky of an investment? Who cares, just ask the state-controlled sponsors to conjure up some extra millions.

It's hardly a unique thing to mess with finances but the sheer scale of it is unprecedented.

I can’t lie I’ve grown really tired of the finance arguments especially after the CAS ruling, people are going to believe what they want it doesn’t matter to me anymore as much as it used to.

I’ve never thought the club owners are clean I don’t think that of any billionaire owner or owner group I’m not one to go to bat for the ethics of billionaires and what magic with finances they won’t pull. The only thing I believe is that I don’t think the clubs current owners would be that incredibly stupid and or blatant with cooking the books that Tik Tok and Twitter journalists who don’t have an ounce of the evidence that was presented to CAS could crack the code. It’s not that I think the owners of the club are innocent or that moral or above it that they haven’t done those things I just don’t believe they’d be that incredibly stupid to risk everything being that blatant to do this stuff to the insanely cartoonish level that people talk about. Maybe if Trump was the head of the ownership group I’d believe they’d be that stupid and blatant.

 

[fluid hips]

Purple is a dope color for jerseys. Surprised few teams use it

That was my high school color and team jersey

 

[fluid hips]

Cristiano thinks he's making the balon dor shortlist

 

[vtotheinay]

is this a 10 year old kid?

 

[rolaholic]

 

[rolaholic]

 

[fluid hips]

true, that is a good point, they know who to get, i had no idea who doku was before city signed him

He was cooking in the last Euros

 

[fluid hips]

That's a good mom right there. She knows that bish is temporary

 

[vtotheinay]

 

[rolaholic]

 

[rolaholic]

No way P$G are this dense and actually expected another club to give them anything to cover what P$G themselves had agreed to in the first place??

 

[Bosa]

 

[Beans]

I can’t lie I’ve grown really tired of the finance arguments especially after the CAS ruling, people are going to believe what they want it doesn’t matter to me anymore as much as it used to.

I’ve never thought the club owners are clean I don’t think that of any billionaire owner or owner group I’m not one to go to bat for the ethics of billionaires and what magic with finances they won’t pull. The only thing I believe is that I don’t think the clubs current owners would be that incredibly stupid and or blatant with cooking the books that Tik Tok and Twitter journalists who don’t have an ounce of the evidence that was presented to CAS could crack the code. It’s not that I think the owners of the club are innocent or that moral or above it that they haven’t done those things I just don’t believe they’d be that incredibly stupid to risk everything being that blatant to do this stuff to the insanely cartoonish level that people talk about. Maybe if Trump was the head of the ownership group I’d believe they’d be that stupid and blatant.

How can you say that and your main sponsors are companies also owned by your owners.. cmon fam, you really telling me you don’t think your owners are capable of such acts? Saying you make more money than Real Madrid, enough of this farce.. CAs ruling had more to do with being time barred than y’all not actually doing anything wrong. I would have more respect if you was like “yeah we cheat.. deal with it broke asses”

 

[Armada]

How can you say that and your main sponsors are companies also owned by your owners.. cmon fam, you really telling me you don’t think your owners are capable of such acts? Saying you make more money than Real Madrid, enough of this farce.. CAs ruling had more to do with being time barred than y’all not actually doing anything wrong. I would have more respect if you was like “yeah we cheat.. deal with it broke asses”

Main sponsors having ties to owners of a club isn’t that uncommon and I straight up I said it’s not that I believe they aren’t capable I said I don’t believe they that stupid. These things get checked by several accounting firms the risk on that level would be absurd. And it was not just down to time barred they would not make such a defensive statement like they did if all the evidence was just time barred on a technicality. They said flat out the claims could not be proven with the evidence presented and that some of the evidence was straight up doctored.

Regardless tho if you ask me this isn’t even a question of innocence it’s a question of if what’s being accused on such a large scale can be proven and I have a really hard time believing it can especially considering these charges are based on the same weak evidence UEFA got thrown out