The Official Manchester City Premiership Champions Thread

[Soir]

im said:

Frankly I hope you smash them in the return!

Bunch of bloody mercenaries, only there for the cash and the chance to win medals, glory and fame without too much effort and with only 1 real competitor in their league.

Totally agree they are mercenaries only there for the cash etc, but they do have more than one team in their league to compete against...spurs,Chelsea, arsenal & man utd could all finish above them!

[stuartmmcfc]

After the first 20 minutes I thought there was going to be a blood bath.
During the 2nd half I (twice!) started to believe.
It's a real shame Ronaldo got the winner 'cos I really hate that posing little prick and Mourinios tailor is going to think he was in the Final when he sees the state of his trouser knees.

More of a concern though is Joe and Vinnies lack of understanding at the moment.

[cliffe_mafia]

stuartmmcfc said:

After the first 20 minutes I thought there was going to be a blood bath.
During the 2nd half I (twice!) started to believe.
It's a real shame Ronaldo got the winner 'cos I really hate that posing little prick and Mourinios tailor is going to think he was in the Final when he sees the state of his trouser knees.

More of a concern though is Joe and Vinnies lack of understanding at the moment.

It was such a contrast to how we play in the prem, I'm not used to seeing us panicky in possession and giving the ball away time after time, or losing for that matter!
On the plus side if we can play that badly against one of the top teams and take it to the wire then hopefully we can learn and push on. Nastasic looks a decent player - was very composed on the ball. Definitely a decent replacement for Savic. Very strange that he was thrown in at the deep end, Lescott must be fuming.

It was a fair result in the end - our gameplan nearly worked. We just need to win the next five games now to qualify!

[Cheib]

[essexplumber]

Cheib said:

Massive club.

Saw a guy in a Citeh shirt in Tescos Church Langley the other day (Essex accent before you all start), does make me laugh, seems you can buy fans as well a trophies.

[stuartmmcfc]

nothing to shout about at the moment

[Cheib]

I see Mancini is complaining about other managers behaviour and using the fact that players were signed late in the transfer window as an excuse now.....he needs to get over himself.

It's pretty obvious if you're Man City the only way you will be able to buy players for a reasonable price is if you do it at the last minute.

I was stunned when Mancini was given a 5 year contract in the summer....I bet he was too.

[stuartmmcfc]

Cheib said:

I was stunned when Mancini was given a 5 year contract in the summer....I bet he was too.

Thanks for that.
I'm a bit speechless at this comment myself so I'll just let it go.

[lazyitus]

27,000 at the game last night? Is that right?

[London424]

stuartmmcfc said:

Cheib said:

I was stunned when Mancini was given a 5 year contract in the summer....I bet he was too.

Thanks for that.
I'm a bit speechless at this comment myself so I'll just let it go.

Why speechless?

It makes sense when you think that if he doesn't win the league/cup/champs league he's likely to be on the block to be fired so will receive a nice big pay off, the club didn't need to give him a 5-year deal. Surely 3 would have been sufficient?

[Cheib]

stuartmmcfc said:

Cheib said:

I was stunned when Mancini was given a 5 year contract in the summer....I bet he was too.

Thanks for that.
I'm a bit speechless at this comment myself so I'll just let it go.

Well he's on more money than Ferguson or Wenger and at five years it's a longer contract than the norm of three or four years. Was I suprised he as given a new contract ? Absolutely not. But doubling his money and the length of it? Yes. He's a good negotiator.

[stuartmmcfc]

It's abut pressure.
If he only had a 3 year deal and he didn't win it straight away then the heat would be on.
Ok, the pressure will mount but this is one element where the owners can show their belief in him and help to reduce the feeling of an axe hanging over him.

On the other hand we've got plenty of money, don't know what we're doing and don't deserve any of this


Incidentally I heard the other day that Wenger is the highest paid manager in the Premiership and yet hasn't won anything in 7 years.
If this is true (the wages, not the trophies) then it puts Robbies deal in perspective?

edit: I've had a look on tinternet and i've seen 3 sites giving 3 different tables, but the latest one (The Mirror) says he's now on 7.5 m a year and Wegner on 7.1m a year- still seems good value to me and you can't have a boss earning a lot less than the players IMO.

Edited by stuartmmcfc on Wednesday 26th September 12:58

[Cheib]

stuartmmcfc said:

Incidentally I heard the other day that Wenger is the highest paid manager in the Premiership and yet hasn't won anything in 7 years.
If this is true (the wages, not the trophies) then it puts Robbies deal in perspective?

edit: I've had a look on tinternet and i've seen 3 sites giving 3 different tables, but the latest one (The Mirror) says he's now on 7.5 m a year and Wegner on 7.1m a year- still seems good value to me and you can't have a boss earning a lot less than the players IMO.

Edited by stuartmmcfc on Wednesday 26th September 12:58

As well as trophies the way you analyse a manager's sucess is how they perform vs their budget....there's a very close correlation in terms of total spend (wages and transfer spending) and success.

Here's a table showing total spending of PL clubs since 2003/4

http://transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/transfer...

As you can see Wenger's net spend is actually negative in total since 2003/4 and is 20th in that table and finished Top 4 in the real table. Obviously wages are a huge factor and Arsenal's wage bill is fourth or fifth highest in the country so they are quite competitive on that basis.

If you look where Wenger and Ferguson have finished over the last ten years or so they have both outperformed the points won/pounds spent index by 10 points or so consistently....which is miles ahead of anyone else. I'll try and find that piece.

Abramovich knows this which is why he fires anyone that doesn't win something as they are underperforming vs the budget they have (despite what he might otherwise say). Mancini has a budget that means if he doesn't win something he's undperformed. What will be very interesting is if Mancini manages to keep Man City as dominant as they were last year whilst having to deal with FFP if/when it comes in....that's when you'll know how good he is.

[London424]

Cheib said:

stuartmmcfc said:

Incidentally I heard the other day that Wenger is the highest paid manager in the Premiership and yet hasn't won anything in 7 years.
If this is true (the wages, not the trophies) then it puts Robbies deal in perspective?

edit: I've had a look on tinternet and i've seen 3 sites giving 3 different tables, but the latest one (The Mirror) says he's now on 7.5 m a year and Wegner on 7.1m a year- still seems good value to me and you can't have a boss earning a lot less than the players IMO.

Edited by stuartmmcfc on Wednesday 26th September 12:58

As well as trophies the way you analyse a manager's sucess is how they perform vs their budget....there's a very close correlation in terms of total spend (wages and transfer spending) and success.

Here's a table showing total spending of PL clubs since 2003/4

http://transferleague.co.uk/league-tables/transfer...

As you can see Wenger's net spend is actually negative in total since 2003/4 and is 20th in that table and finished Top 4 in the real table. Obviously wages are a huge factor and Arsenal's wage bill is fourth or fifth highest in the country so they are quite competitive on that basis.

If you look where Wenger and Ferguson have finished over the last ten years or so they have both outperformed the points won/pounds spent index by 10 points or so consistently....which is miles ahead of anyone else. I'll try and find that piece.

Abramovich knows this which is why he fires anyone that doesn't win something as they are underperforming vs the budget they have (despite what he might otherwise say). Mancini has a budget that means if he doesn't win something he's undperformed. What will be very interesting is if Mancini manages to keep Man City as dominant as they were last year whilst having to deal with FFP if/when it comes in....that's when you'll know how good he is.

I'd hardly call winning the league on goal difference with basically the last kick of the season dominance, but ISWYM

Oh and I can't wait for FFP to come in and pray that it has some teeth!

[stuartmmcfc]

but what a last kick it was!

[Cheib]

London424 said:

I'd hardly call winning the league on goal difference with basically the last kick of the season dominance, but ISWYM

Oh and I can't wait for FFP to come in and pray that it has some teeth!

Yes dominance was the wrong word! They should have won it easily though. The fact they didn't was all about Ferguson...love him or loathe him you have to respect him.

[stuartmmcfc]

loathe him but you're right you have to repect him.
What he did last season with a mediocre side (by utds standards) was very impressive.

[kippax]

Yep hate Taggart with a passion but have to admit if he was managing City we'd have win title by Feb!

Compare the 2 teams man for man & there are only 2 maybe 3 at most who I'd take over City counterpart.

[digikal]

kippax said:

Yep hate Taggart with a passion but have to admit if he was managing City we'd have win title by Feb!

Compare the 2 teams man for man & there are only 2 maybe 3 at most who I'd take over City counterpart.

likewise only Silva, Toure and maybe Kompany would get in a full strength United team.

[kippax]

digikal said:

likewise only Silva, Toure and maybe Kompany would get in a full strength United team.

Your joking right?

Hart instead of your clown
Aguero , Tevez or Ballotelli instead of Wellbeck
Richards or Zaba instead of the ninja turtle

There is only Vidic when fit over Lescott, possibly Evra over Clichy but that's close & Rooney over Dzeko.

4th would be Scholes who despite being a pensioner is still better than Milner or Barry.