Do City leave you cold?

[Pogue Mahone]

The always excellent Ken Early has put himself in the firing line recently by saying that City leave him cold. He just can’t bring himself to get any enjoyment out of their undoubted excellence.

I’m the same. I just don’t care about them. I should hate them and every goal should be a knife through my heart but it’s all just “meh”. Their football is amazing. Probably the best the PL has ever seen. But it’s all about establishing total and utter dominance. Which ruins games as a spectacle. It’s just relentless crushing of butterflies on a wheel.

Knowing how much money they spent to get where they are now takes away the sting from their constant accumulation of trophies. They basically looked at the best team on the planet - Barcelona - and rebuilt their entire outfit in another country. Personnel and all. That’s a once in a lifetime financial flex we’ll never see again. So everyone else is just feeding off the scraps from their table. Dull dull dull.

I’m old enough to have lived through bitter rivals rubbing our noses in it before (Liverpool) and never stopped caring the way I do now. I despise Liverpool but the Klopp squad is definitely more entertaining and interesting than City. Possibly because they have more flaws? They definitely don’t leave me numb like the berties do these days.

Particularly interested in thoughts from non-United fans. Do you find anything entertaining or exciting about the Manchester City project?

 

[alexthelion]

They're robotic, there never seems to be any improvisation or joy to their play.

 

[acnumber9]

Their success means nothing. No other football fan has any respect for them. And they know it.

 

[SirScholes]

they exist purely because of a lottery win, I don’t recognise any of their achievements

it’s like having the cheat code on football manager, sure it’s cool but you know deep down winning is just not as rewarding

 

[lex talionis]

English tiki taka. City are thoroughly uninteresting to watch or care about.

 

[flameinthesun]

The always excellent Ken Early has put himself in the firing line recently by saying that City leave him cold. He just can’t bring himself to get any enjoyment out of their undoubted excellence.

I’m the same. I just don’t care about them. I should hate them and every goal should be a knife through my heart but it’s all just “meh”. Their football is amazing. Probably the best the PL has ever seen. But it’s all about establishing total and utter dominance. Which ruins games as a spectacle. It’s just relentless crushing of butterflies on a wheel.

Knowing how much money they spent to get where they are now takes away the sting from their constant accumulation of trophies. They basically looked at the best team on the planet - Barcelona - and rebuilt their entire outfit in another country. Personnel and all. That’s a once in a lifetime financial flex we’ll never see again. So everyone else is just feeding off the scraps from their table. Dull dull dull.

I’m old enough to have lived through bitter rivals rubbing our noses in it before (Liverpool) and never stopped caring the way I do now. I despise Liverpool but the Klopp squad is definitely more entertaining and interesting than City. Possibly because they have more flaws? They definitely don’t leave me numb like the berties do these days.

Particularly interested in thoughts from non-United fans. Do you find anything entertaining or exciting about the Manchester City project?

Think a large part of this for united fans would be the fact that our team is nowhere near them, so whilst our games are still derbys, apart from local pride most of the time we are not fighting them for titles. I'm sure if we were fighting them to the end for a league we would feel something more. For example in fergies last years I definitely felt a lot hatred for them after tevez, them winning, then fergie winning in his last season. Now we haven't been even close to challenging them.

In terms of city and pool, they both play more exciting football than us.

 

[Sayros]

They're robotic, there never seems to be any improvisation or joy to their play.

That's the feeling they give me as well. It's beautiful to watch (although terribly frustrating experience to deal with as a fan of the opposition), but it feels like there's a bit of uncanny valley with them, it looks and plays like an incredible team, but then something short-circuits and the system falls apart, usually in the Champion's League. It's a testament to what money and a brilliant coach can do, but it's also turning the PL into a bit of a joke with their dominance, a la Bayern or PSG. It will be interesting to see how the team (and league) evolves once Pep is gone.

 

[Wolf1992]

That's the feeling they give me as well. It's beautiful to watch (although terribly frustrating experience to deal with as a fan of the opposition), but it feels like there's a bit of uncanny valley with them, it looks and plays like an incredible team, but then something short-circuits and the system falls apart, usually in the Champion's League. It's a testament to what money and a brilliant coach can do, but it's also turning the PL into a bit of a joke with their dominance, a la Bayern or PSG. It will be interesting to see how the team (and league) evolves once Pep is gone.

Bayern is only ahead of Dortmund by 3 points now, City is dominating PL more than Bayern in Germany.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

That's the feeling they give me as well. It's beautiful to watch (although terribly frustrating experience to deal with as a fan of the opposition), but it feels like there's a bit of uncanny valley with them, it looks and plays like an incredible team, but then something short-circuits and the system falls apart, usually in the Champion's League. It's a testament to what money and a brilliant coach can do, but it's also turning the PL into a bit of a joke with their dominance, a la Bayern or PSG. It will be interesting to see how the team (and league) evolves once Pep is gone.

That’s usually Pep losing his mind and picking an absolutely ridiculous team to try and prove he’s operating at a higher level to mere mortal managers on the biggest stage of all.

 

[Leftback99]

I don't mind their football as I appreciate how hard it is to be that dominant. But I think the main thing is that it doesn't affect us as we're nowhere near challenging. Much rather them be this good than Liverpool.

 

[mu4c_20le]

Nowhere near prime Barca for me, there is no passion, just the usual motions. Might be because it's a team of well drilled mercenaries.

 

[#07]

They're robotic, there never seems to be any improvisation or joy to their play.

Agreed.

Everything about City is sanitized. Including City's football. Bloodless, emotionless. Like the entire sportswashing entity. A pristine and shiny thing designed to neutralise opposition not incite it. The team reflects the ownership in that way.

 

[giorno]

That’s usually Pep losing his mind and picking an absolutely ridiculous team to try and prove he’s operating at a higher level to mere mortal managers on the biggest stage of all.

That only really happened 3 times, and one of those was him going for what his players wanted. Rest of the time was either injuries or CL, oppos are great and shit happens

 

[SER19]

Ken Early article is the best summation of city I've ever read.

 

[horsechoker]

We'll get someone coming in and saying "yeah we'll I'd love us to be robotic and excellent"

The thing is they've achieved an almost robotic boring excellence like when you play fifa career mode and win nearly every game.

The only genuine moment they've had is the agüero winner against QPR.

They've had no real climb to the top.

Moreover their squad is just full of bland personalities who can play football well. At least Toure, Balotelli, Hart and to some extent Aguero had that.

The only real character I see there is Foden.

 

[Ladron de redcafe]

English tiki taka. City are thoroughly uninteresting to watch or care about.

I don't think they're as dominant in possession as that side was, but I'm curious to see how they match up with that Barcelona team statistically.

 

[adexkola]

Did any neutral fans get any "fun" out of United's dominance in the 90s and 2000s?

Because I'm not sure what this Early man is saying actually. Does he find their dominance boring? Or the way they play (there's another thread for that)?

 

[Zaepron1]

They're a bit like Dubai; a soulless experiment and plaything of the rich elites.

 

[Sayros]

Bayern is only ahead of Dortmund by 3 points now, City is dominating PL more than Bayern in Germany.

Let's talk in 3 weeks.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

I swear someone else started this thread a couple of weeks ago.

 

[zenith]

They're a machine, backed by unlimited oil and how long does anyone want to watch a machine, no matter what it produces

 

[Wumminator]

They represent all that I hate about sport and by extension the world

 

[FootballHQ]

There are more interesting styles to watch around europe for sure.

Liverpool are a better team to watch at their peak but they aren't winning the league this season.

 

[kidbob]

They are basically Barca without Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and Dani Alves. So basically an amazing team but without any of the components that made that Barca team to watch at times.

 

[sullydnl]

The biggest factor for me is that while I spent my childhood devloping normal feelings of football rivalry via constant interactions with Liverpool, Arsenal and even Leeds fans, I barely met any City fans in real life. So not being from Manchester, that bred in reason to care in the slightest wasn't there. My overriding memory of them is as pretty shit relegation/promotion candidates featuring players like Shaun Goater, who turned up to probably get beaten by us.

It's hard to switch from that mindset as an adult. Even when they're winning, I just don't care that much.

And then you have the fact that they're so good it often renders games they're in uncompetitive. For example most teams would have to put a fair few goals past us before I thought the game was done, whereas City were effectively able to hammer us 2-0 as I never for a second thought we'd come back. Which is a credit to how dominant they are but it doesn't make for exciting games when they're that easily killed off.

 

[Pexbo]

The fact we so freely got behind them when it was them or Liverpool in the title race tells you everything.

Absolute nothing club on all levels. Literally nobody cares or takes their “success” seriously.

 

[adexkola]

I googled this Ken Early bloke and found the article. This part sticks out:

Look at the joy Manchester United have given the world these last several years. Lurching from crisis to crisis, they continue to be more watchable than City’s vastly superior team.

He must be a Liverpool fan. There's no other way.

 

[Wolf1992]

Did any neutral fans get any "fun" out of United's dominance in the 90s and 2000s?

How many neutral fans were watching PL in the 90s? Cable TV wasn't massive back then, i doubt there were a lot of neutral fans watching PL games every weekend outside of UK.

 

[Shane88]

Early is an insufferable twat.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Did any neutral fans get any "fun" out of United's dominance in the 90s and 2000s?

Because I'm not sure what this Early man is saying actually. Does he find their dominance boring? Or the way they play (there's another thread for that)?

Ken Early did. And I have friends of a similar age that support other teams with similar opinions. United were a team with huge characters, relentless but occasionally flaky. The whole “Fergie time” meme was a real thing. How often do City need last minute winners in an average season? So much more pantomime to those United sides than there is to Pep’s faceless techno-midgets and their sterile brilliance.

 

[horsechoker]

I googled this Ken Early bloke and found the article. This part sticks out:



He must be a Liverpool fan. There's no other way.

To be fair, I've enjoyed Arsenal for the same reasons

 

[padr81]

Perished, everytime we play I go on the beer and the wife throws me out for the night

 

[Mike Smalling]

They also seem to be completely devoid of personality, to the point where all the players just feel the same. If you lined up Laporte, Dias and Rodri I’m not sure I could tell you who is who.

Liverpool make it much easier to hate them with the likes of Robertson, Horrenderson, Salah, Firmino, etc.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

I googled this Ken Early bloke and found the article. This part sticks out:



He must be a Liverpool fan. There's no other way.

I think he is. And he’s right about our floundering giving joy to millions. I mean, isn’t that obvious? We’ve become comedy gold.

 

[Spaghetti]

Boring players, boring style, boring club.

I see City as the “joker card” in that their success has zero meaning, but it stops Liverpool winning. Apart from a few real knuckle staggers, their fans know the success is hollow too.

So yeah, I agree with the chap in the original post.

 

[TenonTen]

How's their global fanbase currently?

I swear I hardly ever see any City fans on social media. Very few.

Given that they are so dominant in the most marketable league in the world you'd expect them to have great international significance and fan following.

Compare that to Chelsea(who also suddenly became a top top club post Roman) who have a huge international fanbase and its pretty surprising.

Yet City hasn't been able to gain enough fandom globally.

 

[paraguayo]

I think the Pep robotic football has made this 'cold, distant' thing geater. When they had Balotelli, Tevez and whatnot they provoked more feelings out of me and others.

 

[Champ]

City are a team that now deem to have been created as soon as they won the lottery, take the statues outside the ground for proof of that.

The fact they have the best players near enough in every position is just taking the competition out of the game,
Essentially, they would have been done for monopoly of the game if there were a regulatory board who discusses these sorts of things.
Quite simply, they cheat their way to winning and no one cares enough about them to care that they do it!!

 

[mu4c_20le]

How's their global fanbase currently?

I swear I hardly ever see any City fans on social media. Very few.

Given that they are so dominant in the most marketable league in the world you'd expect them to have great international significance and fan following.

Compare that to Chelsea(who also suddenly became a top top club post Roman) who have a huge international fanbase and its pretty surprising.

Yet City hasn't been able to gain enough fandom globally.

Good point, they have a couple of fan channels and thats it. Not even many plastics. PSG have more global fans

 

[Nick7]

I don’t really give a shit about them. They place nice football when on song, but at the end of the day, I don’t give a shit if they win the league or a cup when we’re not challenging them because they’re a nothing club that won the lotto.