Our Rivals

RED wrote:Great result for the arses. Fair play.

Top 4 is going to be one heck of a battle now.

I honestly believe 2nd place is up for grabs. City are awful. I can't wait for their match against Barcelona. I hope Messi puts 5 past Joe Fart.

Chelsea, City, Spurs and Saints all out of the FA Cup.

Makes our result yesterday not seem so bad.

What a great opportunity for us to win this comp now.

Not a bad day guys, eh Lets do the business in the replay. We also don't have to wait a week to watch us now.

Utd the only top 4 team still in the FA cup.

All the while giving much needed money and memories to a struggling 4th division side, and getting an extra game to fill up the missing Europe spots.

van Gaal

Hapless_Hans wrote:Utd the only top 4 team still in the FA cup.

All the while giving much needed money and memories to a struggling 4th division side, and getting an extra game to fill up the missing Europe spots.

van Gaal

I'm so

the gooner cnuts are winning.

We need to step it up in the 2nd half.

Liverpool are flying ffs. aaaargh :X we were 10 points ahead of them, now it's down to 2. I can't believe we allowed them to gain that much ground on us. Good thing they play City next, could allow us some breathing space should they lose and we beat Sland.

Spurs dropped 2 points. Saints lost.

3rd to 7th reads: 48 47 46 45 44

So tight this year.

2 hand balls not called against them, ref was utter crap

Important win for Liverpool.

City dragged in the top 4 race? Only 5 points ahead of us now.

I'm not confident at all that we'll finish in the top 4 we just look so poor, especially away from home. We look like the team far more likelier to drop points than Ars, Liverpool and Spurs.

We also have the toughest run of fixtures.

You're right

RED wrote:Important win for Liverpool.

City dragged in the top 4 race? Only 5 points ahead of us now.

I'm not confident at all  that we'll finish in the top 4 we just look so poor, especially away from home. We look like the team far more likelier to drop points than Ars, Liverpool and Spurs.

We also have the toughest run of fixtures.

I have confidence in the team. We have the players and if they are deployed in the right system, they can really do the job. The thing which worries me and which could potentially result in our downfall this season is lvg's ego. I hope he has learnt his lessons and van persie, falcao and evans would never start us for us again. Give di maria an extended break as well from the team. Send him on a vacation with his family or something so that he can get his act together and regain his focus. His mind is not here its like, may be the burglary which took place at his home, the reason.

Thanks Bruce for letting us off the hook for that horror show on Sunday.

Just need a win v WBA and top 4 is as good as ours.

Sterling costing more then Sanchez and Hazard City

In my opinion this transfer (Sterling to City for 49 mil pounds) is the most.... I have no word for it. It can't be real. This amount of money given for a player like him is unreal.

I'm fkin speechless...

Why? City need English players for registration so they were always going to go above and beyond with the money needed. Add to the fact that they are bankrolled by a Sheikh, money is literally nothing to them.

jibers wrote:Why? City need English players for registration so they were always going to go above and beyond with the money needed. Add to the fact that they are bankrolled by a Sheikh, money is literally nothing to them.

Money is nothing to most premier league clubs at this point lets be honest, i don't know why people fuss over it so much.

It's really irrelevant unless the club fail massively as a result and can't sustain it.

I know money isn't a problem for EPL clubs, but Sterling's market value is my problem. Now if he performs at the same level he did for Liverpool if he wants to leave next season clubs will logically have to pay at least 40 mil pounds and he isn't worth that much. Let's say Napoli wants to buy him...

Vlad the Impaler wrote:I know money isn't a problem for EPL clubs, but Sterling's market value is my problem. Now if he performs at the same level he did for Liverpool if he wants to leave next season clubs will logically have to pay at least 40 mil pounds and he isn't worth that much. Let's say Napoli wants to buy him...

Thing about what you just said for a minute...why is it your problem. If someone is willing to pay something for him then that in fact his market value. Not some made up number based on transfers of other players or subjective values of what you deem he is worth.

You are only worth what a club is willing to pay for you and a club is willing to sell you for.

Vlad the Impaler wrote:I know money isn't a problem for EPL clubs, but Sterling's market value is my problem. Now if he performs at the same level he did for Liverpool if he wants to leave next season clubs will logically have to pay at least 40 mil pounds and he isn't worth that much. Let's say Napoli wants to buy him...

Meh that stuff happened years ago tbh, the market has been distorted for like a decade.

But but, people were talking about Bale's market value being overrated.

Everybody "he isn't worth 100 mil E".

People always complain about the market value of the players. With Di Maria was the same.

Now, suddenly things are different.

However, I agree with what you said.

@Mole I know, but I was saying that Sterling is the cherry on the top of the cake.

I know people complain they always will tbh, i'm just saying that personally i don't care. The money is there because the public finances it whether we realise it or not, the tv deals and sponsorships happen because we as football fans make the sport a world wide phenomenon.

The more it happens the more these ridiculous deals are gonna happen, which is why Newcastle fans get so pissed off with Ashley ( well there's lots of reasons) we get 100s of millions going into the club every year and it doesn't get invested.

When clubs like Stoke can offer 12m+ like it's nothing for Shaqiri you know financially the game is *bleep* compared to what it was, it's just how it is now really we can either embrace it or just decide to be one of those against modern football weirdos lol.

City eventhough they are paying loads we cant deny they are revamping their pool of young players.
Also bought the hugely rated Patrick Roberts from Fulham, 18 y.o kid for 11 mil.

SAF would have placed a priority on getting the highest rated kids in England, but in last 2 years somehow I feel lvg has fallen short in that regard.
He has gotten 1 or 2 good players but lost out on majority. That kid Upamaecano from France under 17. We lost him too after tracking down for months.

And city in that regard it seems has become the new United. The irony is Roberts wont get a look in in a city side unless he is something extraoridnary any time soon, but if it was we who bought him because its lvg the chances of a breakthrough would have been much higher as he really believes in giving youngsters chances.

Hope this wont repeat and the club will pay whatever it is required to get the top talents.

**After viewing today's action between the top 4 and City's back to back home defeats.**

Under that dinosaur, we couldn't beat Bournemouth, Norwich, Stoke, Saints and Sunderland. ffs.

All we needed was at least 2 wins from those fixtures and we'd be right in the hunt, not only for top 4, but for the title too.

But 250m spent and we're looking down worrying about WH, saints and even Liverpool from over taking us.

I'm just lost for words at the ineptitude of it all.

City bought Gundogan and Nolito + Pep Guardiola as their coach
Chelsea bought Batshuayi + Antonio Conte as their coach
Arsenal still fighting for Draxler or other big signings - still with Wenger
Leicester - going for van Persie
Tottenham - didn't hear much about them this summer regarding transfers, but they can only improve if they don't sell their core players
Liverpool - bought Mane, they are full of strikers (Origi, Benteke, Mane, Balotelli...)

There is no particular team to be afraid of. Everyone wants to improve, everyone will fight for the title, every game is important.

However, I would like to say my opinion about Pep and Conte as our future opponents. I expect Mourinho to make us very strong, a team very aggressive physically. He will try to adapt to what's best for the team (this is what he said). He doesn't have a certain style.

I think Pep will stay with his philosophy of tiki-taka, small, agile, fast, very skilled players but physically weak. When I say weak I don't talk about stamina.
In Spain it worked, with the best squad in the world, world class players fitting his style on every position. He took Bayern with world class players on every position, fitting another style, but insisting with his own and failed.
Now he comes to City and it's like this: either he adapts to EPL and proves he is a even better manager than he actually is (and he is a very good manager), either he stays with his possession game and most probable fails with it. Honeslty, from how I saw Pep in the past, I think he will stick to his old preffered style.

Antonio Conte, I expect him to make Chelsea the strongest team of our rivals. Conte is a good tactician, not the best, but he works a lot at the attitude, mentality and team chemistry. He likes to have his teams united and work hard until the last second. He usually insists on not giving up, on playing for the team, running like hell and being aggressive to intimidate the opponents. Very very professional, concentrated on hard work, not a person to raise up your voice to.

What do you think of Arsenal's performance against Liverpool?

I think Chelsea is the strongest team and the favorites to win the title. City didn't look good, but they are hard working team and they will be title contenders.

I don't know what to say about Spurs and Liverpool. Maybe one thing about Liverpool is that I am not sure they will have enough consistency and the necessary squad depth to fight for the title considering that they have UCL this year.

Chelsea's season will depend on what they do in the remaining 4 days of the month. They are seriously short in personal. Need a minimum 3 more new players.
Arsenal will be fine. They always smash lesser teams and get beat by big teams. So no surprise they lost yesterday. Will put on a run of victories some stage like they always do.
Pool will do the reverse. Beat the big boys and fail to small teams.
City will defo improve. Once these attackers start to adapt I can see them really flexing their muscles.
Spurs is the only team I am kinda unsure about at this point in time.