City and Financial Doping | Charged by PL with 130 FFP breaches | Hearing begins 16th Sep 2024 | Concluded 9th Dec 2024 - Awaiting outcome

[Sandikan]

I hate to say this. Financial doping aside. City successes are not only down to financial doping. They have the best in class for football structure and manager. These combinations are the perfect storm for their successes. Of course money helped but they are not the biggest spenders. Yes I'm looking at ourselves, Chelsea, PSG and Barcelona who are the joke of the football world. And we are the worst. Hope SJR could change all these.

Obviously loads of money can be wasted getting the wrong staff and signings, but there's almost a loosening on what they've done these days.
Talk of how we've "unspent" them, and people seemingly forgetting exactly what they did to start their "project" up.

Whenever you want a laugh remember they're trying to claim they have the same or higher merchandising and revenue than us!
We've messed a lot up, but our operation commercially is incredible. You don't replicate that in a decade with about 1/1000th of the fanbase.

 

[Reddevildans]

Its all about Pep. He's in a class of his own. Once he goes I hope we see them fall a way (even slightly down 1 level) thus giving others hope. We just need to get our shit together and capitalise. Hate to admit it but his football and citys structure is far superior to anyone's in the league. We were never really competing even though we finished 2nd a few times lets be honest.

 

[SER19]

1 charge not dealt with would taint achievements, but 115 not dealt with as they stroll to a treble is just hilariously ridiculous.

Its farcical. Just imagine an athlete sweeping the board at this years Olympics while theres an out standing doping charge. The idea is just so preposterous it doesnt even make sense to think about - but in arguably the biggest sport in the world, you have a team getting more and more dominant year after year while nearly decades old cheating accusations hang over them. I genuinely believe the next season should be delayed until this is resolved - the competition has zero credibility, and the longer it goes on, the more damaging it becomes to actually punish them.

 

[Sandikan]

Its farcical. Just imagine an athlete sweeping the board at this years Olympics while theres an out standing doping charge. The idea is just so preposterous it doesnt even make sense to think about - but in arguably the biggest sport in the world, you have a team getting more and more dominant year after year while nearly decades old cheating accusations hang over them. I genuinely believe the next season should be delayed until this is resolved - the competition has zero credibility, and the longer it goes on, the more damaging it becomes to actually punish them.

When you think there was a lot of this "integrity of the competition" talk with covid recently, it is probably daft this is boring on for years.

Some would argue it's super complex, City's lawyers are obviously making a mockery of it, but I wonder what would happen if the whole league united in boycotting playing games until they were punished. Impossible to happen i know.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Its all about Pep. He's in a class of his own. Once he goes I hope we see them fall a way (even slightly down 1 level) thus giving others hope.

The Abu Dhabi state are going nowhere, if not punished they will be the most dominant team in the history of English football over the next couple of decades.

 

[Salford_Red83]

4 in a row yet you can’t help but feel like no one really cares about them?

Right? What an achievement it would be had it occurred naturally.

It's not exactly an achievement to do what they have in the way that they have.

Nobody cares when a spoilt brat uses their daddy's credit card to buy whatever they want, whenever they want.

It's boring and not something to be proud about.

 

[Nicolarra90]

I hate to say this. Financial doping aside. City successes are not only down to financial doping. They have the best in class for football structure and manager. These combinations are the perfect storm for their successes. Of course money helped but they are not the biggest spenders. Yes I'm looking at ourselves, Chelsea, PSG and Barcelona who are the joke of the football world. And we are the worst. Hope SJR could change all these.

All that begins with the financial doping.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

All that begins with the financial doping.

Some people want to find “genius” in what city have done, when they’ve basically seen Barça and gone, “let’s do that, let’s throw all the money imaginable at doing exactly that, starting with getting all of their top brass in to implement it”.

 

[LordSpud]

1 charge not dealt with would taint achievements, but 115 not dealt with as they stroll to a treble is just hilariously ridiculous.

They ain't getting a bollocking, just a fine

 

[NicolaSacco]

Where @NicolaSacco to tell us how state ownership has been good for competition?

About to win 6 in 7.

I mean, just listen to how absurd the idea is to begin with, a bunch of football businesses are doing battle with the oil state of Abu Dhabi.

Have you literally been waiting for Liverpool and Arsenal to lose a game in order to post that?

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

Its farcical. Just imagine an athlete sweeping the board at this years Olympics while theres an out standing doping charge. The idea is just so preposterous it doesnt even make sense to think about - but in arguably the biggest sport in the world, you have a team getting more and more dominant year after year while nearly decades old cheating accusations hang over them. I genuinely believe the next season should be delayed until this is resolved - the competition has zero credibility, and the longer it goes on, the more damaging it becomes to actually punish them.

What is almost as farcical as what City are doing, is what the media are not doing. They need to grow a spine and at least start mentioning this on regular basis, it can easily be done without legal implications, but it's basically as if it's not happening when you hear most of them.

I was to listening to some guy on Sky this morning going on about it been fair that Ten Hag got grilled on us about to have our worst ever Prem season, 'because that is our job' and 'it is what the public expect us to do', well he's right, but spare me this holier than thou crap unless you're able to do with the what should currently be the biggest story in football.

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

They ain't getting a bollocking, just a fine

I'd love to see how they'd sell this as justice to the every day fan.

 

[SER19]

What is almost as farcical as what City are doing, is what the media are not doing. They need to grow a spine and at least start mentioning this on regular basis, it can easily be done without legal implications, but it's basically as if it's not happening when you hear most of them.

I was to listening to some guy on Sky this morning going on about it been fair that Ten Hag got grilled on us about to have our worst ever Prem season, 'because that is our job' and 'it is what the public expect us to do', well he's right, but spare me this holier than thou crap unless you're able to do with the what should currently be the biggest story in football.

Its awful, and so transparent. The premier league is the golden goose of all of these sports outlets. Its painful to watch them just pretending its fine - the same creeps will probably be asking to be on the huge expose that will eventually be released about whats happened. I've said it before, and i'll say it again, I think its the biggest story in sport and the media are pretty much tiptoeing around it with vague excuses about not interfering. There's no legal reason to not actively call out just how much the league is undermined by this still going. There have been people calling out for it to stop since 2009 - thats 15 years ago!

'Best league in the world' has become their trademark. We're all supposed to be grateful for 'what Pep has done for the game.'

These guys, like Neville, are cowards - spineless guys wary of where the next payday will come from and probably in the pocket of Mansour. Carragher is the only one with balls

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Have you literally been waiting for Liverpool and Arsenal to lose a game in order to post that?

No, I posted 5 years ago that 3 decades of domination like we’ve never seen before in England were ahead of us.
Every football business is now competing with the oil state of Abu Dhabi, was always inevitable. Only Newcastle can prevent it I’d say.

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

Its awful, and so transparent. The premier league is the golden goose of all of these sports outlets. Its painful to watch them just pretending its fine - the same creeps will probably be asking to be on the huge expose that will eventually be released about whats happened. I've said it before, and i'll say it again, I think its the biggest story in sport and the media are pretty much tiptoeing around it with vague excuses about not interfering. There's no legal reason to not actively call out just how much the league is undermined by this still going. There have been people calling out for it to stop since 2009 - thats 15 years ago!

'Best league in the world' has become their trademark. We're all supposed to be grateful for 'what Pep has done for the game.'

These guys, like Neville, are cowards - spineless guys wary of where the next payday will come from and probably in the pocket of Mansour. Carragher is the only one with balls

I still shudder at watching that gawd awful Sky Sunday Supplement programme, which basically consisted of the main names in the media having a big plate of breakfast pastries in front of them whilst sounding as smug as hell for about an hour and a half every week.

The stories about how wonderfully well City looked after them stood out at the time, which bascially is all we need to know.

 

[SER19]

I still shudder at watching that gawd awful Sky Sunday Supplement programme, which basically consisted of the big names in the media sounding as smug as hell for about an hour and a half every week.

The stories about how wonderfully well City looked after them stood out at the time, which bascially is all we need to know.

Ya ive heard this type of thing from several people. If youre the average hack, keeping your head above water, the sheikh can keep you onside very easily

 

[Judas]

Probably win another treble. As much as no one cares, how much longer can the rest of football sit back and watch this joke carry on?

 

[Nicolarra90]

Some people want to find “genius” in what city have done, when they’ve basically seen Barça and gone, “let’s do that, let’s throw all the money imaginable at doing exactly that, starting with getting all of their top brass in to implement it”.

Hopefully they don't find the next Guardiola or else by 2040 they will be the top winners of England.

 

[Flying high]

Probably win another treble. As much as no one cares, how much longer can the rest of football sit back and watch this joke carry on?

I know it's frustrating, but it's been said for a long time that the hearing will be towards the end of this year. Until then, the media will continue to tiptoe around the subject because they don't want to get sued.

Everyone in football, apart from 115 fc, want it done sooner. But we have to give the PL the benefit of the doubt until then. These things can go badly wrong if they try to rush. As long as they're kicked out of the league and the owners barred from running a club in this country when it's done, then we can all get back to competitive football once more.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Hopefully they don't find the next Guardiola or else by 2040 they will be the top winners of England.

They’ll find whatever it takes, they’ll be no giving a manager time, or waiting till it’s cheaper to sack. And make no mistake, if Alonso or anyone else looks like the new top manager, they’ll pay whatever it takes.

They’ll be dominant as feck, because well, they are a state. It’s like fighting the US military with a spud gun.

 

[NicolaSacco]

No, I posted 5 years ago that 3 decades of domination like we’ve never seen before in England were ahead of us.
Every football business is now competing with the oil state of Abu Dhabi, was always inevitable. Only Newcastle can prevent it I’d say.

Odd coincidence that you chose today to make that post!

I think it just *feels* like it will be 3 decades to you, I certainly don’t see it like that. You only have to look at Chelsea, Utd and even the Barca of the last 5 years, to see that spending absurd amounts of money does not always equate to success. City have all their ducks lined up right now, only one of which is financial firepower. The worst thing that could happen to the Prem is to have a Bayern/PSG style decade-plus of domination, but I don’t expect that to happen.

 

[adexkola]

Probably win another treble. As much as no one cares, how much longer can the rest of football sit back and watch this joke carry on?

As long as "no one cares". You can't "not care" and also feel the need to do something about it.

 

[Withnail]

I know it's frustrating, but it's been said for a long time that the hearing will be towards the end of this year. Until then, the media will continue to tiptoe around the subject because they don't want to get sued.

Everyone in football, apart from 115 fc, want it done sooner. But we have to give the PL the benefit of the doubt until then. These things can go badly wrong if they try to rush. As long as they're kicked out of the league and the owners barred from running a club in this country when it's done, then we can all get back to competitive football once more.

I truly admire your optimism.

 

[foolsgold]

They'll do the treble treble nxt year

It's like the SPL.

 

[Flying high]

I truly admire your optimism.

That has to be the minimum. City's owners have not only systematically cooked the books since they got here, they've also made it as difficult as possible for football authorities to bring them to justice.

Anything less would be totally useless.

 

[Judas]

As long as "no one cares". You can't "not care" and also feel the need to do something about it.

Ok babe.

 

[Withnail]

That has to be the minimum. City's owners have not only systematically cooked the books since they got here, they've also made it as difficult as possible for football authorities to bring them to justice.

Anything less would be totally useless.

I'm well aware. I'm just not convinced they won't weasel their way out of it with some absolute bullshit technicality.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

I think it just *feels* like it will be 3 decades to you, I certainly don’t see it like that. You only have to look at Chelsea, Utd and even the Barca of the last 5 years, to see that spending absurd amounts of money does not always equate to success.

The difference is that all of those teams have to live with their bad spending decisions, and the likes of Barca have pulled every lever imaginable to stay afloat due to them. Chelsea’s decisions have hurt them so much they’ve had to accept a manager having them as a mid table team for an entire season. The players are playing regardless of their performances, whilst Jack Grealish can be another in a long line of players just unfancied for weeks or months, in the case of Stones, seasons because they don’t have to live with their “misses”.
United keep managers on until they miss CL football, to make it cheaper to sack.

That’s the difference with an oil state, it’s a bottomless pit and you’re beyond naive if you don’t see massive domination from a state with a bottomless pit of money.

Their rise to domination was inevitable, like nothing we’ve ever seen before but 100% inevitable due to their financial strength; so why on Earth would they suddenly not be inevitable when they are a fecking oil state, playing a game against businesses.

 

[The Irish Connection]

4 in a row with 115 hanging over them would be beyond ridiculous.
No way the league can claim to be the most competitive in the world.

 

[Flying high]

I'm well aware. I'm just not convinced they won't weasel their way out of it with some absolute bullshit technicality.

My understanding is that this isn't like a full legal trial. If the PL are convinced they have enough evidence then I'm not sure they have to worry too much about legal loopholes.

But clearly I'm not an expert. I'm just going on what I've read.

 

[Zed is not dead]

The difference is that all of those teams have to live with their bad spending decisions, and the likes of Barca have pulled every lever imaginable to stay afloat due to them. Chelsea’s decisions have hurt them so much they’ve had to accept a manager having them as a mid table team for an entire season. The players are playing regardless of their performances, whilst Jack Grealish can be another in a long line of players just unfancied for weeks or months, in the case of Stones, seasons because they don’t have to live with their “misses”.
United keep managers on until they miss CL football, to make it cheaper to sack.

That’s the difference with an oil state, it’s a bottomless pit and you’re beyond naive if you don’t see massive domination from a state with a bottomless pit of money.

Their rise to domination was inevitable, like nothing we’ve ever seen before but 100% inevitable due to their financial strength; so why on Earth would they suddenly not be inevitable when they are a fecking oil state, playing a game against businesses.

I was arguing the same a couple of weeks ago but people don’t seem to grasp this concept.
They can replace Kalvin Philips with Kovacic and Nunes, both of whom barely featured anyways, and they can bench Grealish for Doku, who himself replaced Ferran Torres, and you can be sure Doku can be replaced by another winger this summer if he fails to deliver, same as Joao Cancelo has been loaned and replaced by a 90m Gvardiol without batting an eyelid.
I’m not even talking about the life expectancy of their defenders such as Mangala, Laporte, or Otamendi.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

I was arguing the same a couple of weeks ago but people don’t seem to grasp this concept.
They can replace Kalvin Philips with Kovacic and Nunes, both of whom barely featured anyways, and they can bench Grealish for Doku, who himself replaced Ferran Torres, and you can be sure Doku can be replaced by another winger this summer if he fails to deliver, same as Joao Cancelo has been loaned and replaced by a 90m Gvardiol without batting an eyelid.
I’m not even talking about the life expectancy of their defenders such as Mangala, Laporte, or Otamendi.

They can also offer the best manager around when Pep finishes a king’s ransom and an extra off the books deal, and if he’s failing after 8 months, fire him for the next best thing because compensation means feck all to them.
The very fact they managed to convince Pep to not only come to Manchester City, but to spend by far the largest part of his managerial career there tells you just how persuasive their bottomless pit is.
They will never have to pay a price for a few poor buys, or be burdened by some bad decisions.
They simply aren’t a football club, and will never operate like one, they are an oil state.

Better if everyone stops the facade of calling them a football club. They are the Abu Dhabi State Football project.

 

[thisisnottaken1]

It's like the SPL.

Not even Scottish football has this level of dominance. At least in Scotland there are two teams competing for the title - Celtic and Rangers. Obviously that’s not really a wise thing to say considering that either one of them has won the league for the past forty years, but still. Winning three trebles in a row is ridiculous and unprecedented. Winning two trebles in a row is unprecedented, as is winning four leagues in the row in England or an English club winning two consecutive champions leagues since it became known as the champions leagues. It should be viewed as illegitimate and ridiculous, which it is, but unfortunately too few people view it as that, which will ultimately result in them overtaking us. Hell, them beating two of our achievements this season will be unprecedented. That’s fecking upsetting, and as United fans we should be rooting against them as a result.

 

[CoopersDream]

The difference is that all of those teams have to live with their bad spending decisions, and the likes of Barca have pulled every lever imaginable to stay afloat due to them. Chelsea’s decisions have hurt them so much they’ve had to accept a manager having them as a mid table team for an entire season. The players are playing regardless of their performances, whilst Jack Grealish can be another in a long line of players just unfancied for weeks or months, in the case of Stones, seasons because they don’t have to live with their “misses”.
United keep managers on until they miss CL football, to make it cheaper to sack.

That’s the difference with an oil state, it’s a bottomless pit and you’re beyond naive if you don’t see massive domination from a state with a bottomless pit of money.

Their rise to domination was inevitable, like nothing we’ve ever seen before but 100% inevitable due to their financial strength; so why on Earth would they suddenly not be inevitable when they are a fecking oil state, playing a game against businesses.

Hypothetically what you're saying is true. City hypothetically doesn't need to live with their bad decisions. They haven't really made many bad decisions (at least not since Pep arrived, they obviously bought a whole slew of overpriced players in the first few years after the takeover), though, so it's more hypothetical than anything. What you're describing with sacking managers at first sight of poor performances, buying players and replacing them at once is actually a lot closer to how Chelsea have operated over the past 15 years than City. No club in the Premier League has gone through as many players and managers as Chelsea has over the past 15 years. So they have actually been doing exactly what you accuse City of being able to do. The only reason they haven't been able to perform as well on the pitch as City as because they've had much worse upper management (now obviously, City being as well run as they are is part of their cheating). And even so, until Pep's second season Chelsea was just as successful, and even more so than City.

What duds has City really had since the arrival of Pep that they moved on from fast? I'll give you Bravo obviously, Nolito didn't make any mark whatsoever, Danilo as well and then obviously Mendy was a terrible transfers all things considered. Lately Kalvin Phillips hasn't lit the world on fire. But that's about it. The rest of the big transfers has worked out for them, they have all contributed considerably to their success during these years (even someone like Ferran Torres who only was there 18 months clearly did contribute and then sold for a considerable profit).

 

[Steve Bruce]

Not even Scottish football has this level of dominance. At least in Scotland there are two teams competing for the title - Celtic and Rangers. Obviously that’s not really a wise thing to say considering that either one of them has won the league for the past forty years, but still. Winning three trebles in a row is ridiculous and unprecedented. Winning two trebles in a row is unprecedented, as is winning four leagues in the row in England or an English club winning two consecutive champions leagues since it became known as the champions leagues. It should be viewed as illegitimate and ridiculous, which it is, but unfortunately too few people view it as that, which will ultimately result in them overtaking us. Hell, them beating two of our achievements this season will be unprecedented. That’s fecking upsetting, and as United fans we should be rooting against them as a result.

The difference between city and Liverpool is when Liverpool win the toss, we never hear the end of it.

City winning the treble is barely audible.

I haven't lived in Manchester for 28 years so I'm sure it's a lot worse in the city. But in northern Ireland, you see a city shirt once a month let alone having to suffer listening to them at all tbh. Liverpool on the other hand, you come across them every day.

 

[adexkola]

What duds has City really had since the arrival of Pep that they moved on from fast? I'll give you Bravo obviously, Nolito didn't make any mark whatsoever, Danilo as well and then obviously Mendy was a terrible transfers all things considered. Lately Kalvin Phillips hasn't lit the world on fire. But that's about it. The rest of the big transfers has worked out for them, they have all contributed considerably to their success during these years (even someone like Ferran Torres who only was there 18 months clearly did contribute and then sold for a considerable profit).

And they got around the flop of Mendy by playing inexpensive midfielders at the LB position (Delph/Zinchenko) for 5 years.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

League is theirs to lose and they won’t. Madrid are our last hope but based on the first leg it’s hard to see them winning at City.

 

[Blood Mage]

Two trebles in a row for these cheating fecks is just making a mockery of the sport. Time for the governing bodies to do something and give football it's soul back.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

I can't stand them.

If they go unpunished, the sport is finished.

 

[Josep Dowling]

4 in a row and 2 trebles. They would eclipse two records that United hold. Maybe at that point something might actually be done. Media would rather laugh at United rather than discuss the real story of football.