Pep Guardiola Threatens to quit Man City

Alex99 said:
£50 million Ugarte, £40 million on Zirkzee, £55 million on Mount, £45 million on Onana, £65 million on Hojlund, £80 million on Antony, £80 million on Sancho, £35 million on van de Beek, £50 million on Wan-Bissaka, £80 million on Maguire, £50 million on Fred.
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Jesus Christ, when you see it listed out like that it really is unbelievable. The money we wasted on utter dross and average at best players.

Fingers crossed we seemed to have turned the corner a bit and the last few transfers we've made all seem pretty good.
 
Robertd0803 said:
Yeah its bizarre that no one ever was even remotley linked with the likes of Aguero, Toure or Silva despite Madrid/Barcas obvious appeal to every player in history.
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Why would anyone care about Real Madrid when they have the opportunity to play for a club with no history at all, artificially propped up by oil money from a tyrant, in a dreary industrial city in the rainy north of England?

I've always wondered just how much City pay their players under the table. It has to be a lot in order for them to absolutely never ever lose a player that they didn't want to lose. It's not even as if they've had loads of success in the CL. Up until relatively recently, they had been massively underperforming in Europe, so it's not as if that part was a reason for players to prefer City.

Everyone knows City cook the books and lie through their teeth about their finances, so it's really pathetic for Pep to go around talking about how others are spending more than them. Financial dishonesty is what defines that club. I had to laugh when he recently began whining about how much other clubs are spending. Pep, you're the figurehead of the single biggest financial fraud vehicle in the history of the sport.
 
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Regarding madrid not trying to get city players, imo it's because city can match and maybe top them in wages. They also have stability and the highest rated manager in the world and play in the m8st prestigious league in the world. Guardiola has provided a more stable outfit than madrid and imo they , for the most part have looked more likely to win trophies every year than madrid. City dominated teams more than madrid and have been the better team, I would say.
 
Alex99 said:
I don't think players have got worse. We've just massively overspent on players that were never that good in the first place.

£50 million Ugarte, £40 million on Zirkzee, £55 million on Mount, £45 million on Onana, £65 million on Hojlund, £80 million on Antony, £80 million on Sancho, £35 million on van de Beek, £50 million on Wan-Bissaka, £80 million on Maguire, £50 million on Fred.

It all adds up.
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I completely forgot about van de Beek.
 
Massive Spanner said:
Have to say some of his recent comments and speeches, especially about Palestinians, and now ICE, are making him a lot more difficult to dislike. Nice to see someone speak out.
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Yeah and Sudan. I wonder if he ever aired his grievances with Mansour and family, or whether he was happy taking millions of pounds off them instead. He’s a clown.
 
Massive respect to him for speaking about the humanitarian issues across Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan among others.
 
Nickelodeon said:
Massive respect to him for speaking about the humanitarian issues across Palestine, Ukraine, Sudan among others.
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All while working for a regime not interested in human rights whatsoever. Yeah, right, massive respect.
 
Posh Red said:
Bit of an anticlimax. Was listening to the radio and they said ‘big news about city at six’.

Basically said it’s unlikely he stays on after the end of the season, according to city sources.
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Oh OK, they are probably right.
 
SilentWitness said:
Ridiculous article this.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cyv5d7q34e1o
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The governing bodies of football like to keep politics out of the game, which I understand.

But he has his opinions, and he is leaving soon by the looks of things - I doubt he cares whether he upset some bigwigs, let alone this nebulous Manchester Jewish group who no doubt would have remained silent had Pep not mentioned the atrocities committed in the name of their religion.

It's not like he singled them out, either.
 
An aside that’s just occurred to me about his net spent chat for the last five years, there’s the impact of that Saudi splurge that massively benefited a narrow group of teams. I doubt City, Chelsea and Liverpool could’ve offloaded the likes of Mahrez, Laporte, Koulibaly, Joao Felix, Fabinho, Henderson, Darwin Nunez and co for big money with no wage subsidy anywhere else. They got ageing players or flops out of the door that massively helps their figures.
 
reelworld said:
still better than saying nothing at all, like 99% of the footballing world. Especially when the head of FIFA is licking Trump and Mileikowsky ass.
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Of course but it is meaningless. He’s is a complete hypocrite as I’ve said here already. He takes money from a regime who has zero interest in the human rights of women or minority groups. If he comes out ever and says that hurts him I’ll change my mind but until then he gets no “massive respect” from me.
 
ron86 said:
Not to take this down the current events route but I'm sick of any criticism over isreal being labelled anti-semetic. They can commit all sorts of atrocities without being called out. Fair play to Pep, hes allowed an opinion. Of course he works for an abhorrent regime but it doesn't mean hes not right and he didn't have to speak out
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Couldn't have said it better. It is one of the most powerful rhetorical/political tactics, and it is extremely widespread
 
Alex99 said:
I don't think players have got worse. We've just massively overspent on players that were never that good in the first place.

£50 million Ugarte, £40 million on Zirkzee, £55 million on Mount, £45 million on Onana, £65 million on Hojlund, £80 million on Antony, £80 million on Sancho, £35 million on van de Beek, £50 million on Wan-Bissaka, £80 million on Maguire, £50 million on Fred.

It all adds up.
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Brilliant stuff.
Throw Pogba in for 86m or whatever it was too.
Which was the worst of the lot as we got zero back.
At least everyone else on that list we'll get a fee for. Bar Maguire, but we'll have at least got many seasons out of him. And he's revitalised himself after a woeful 18months in there.
 
Alex99 said:
I don't think players have got worse. We've just massively overspent on players that were never that good in the first place.

£50 million Ugarte, £40 million on Zirkzee, £55 million on Mount, £45 million on Onana, £65 million on Hojlund, £80 million on Antony, £80 million on Sancho, £35 million on van de Beek, £50 million on Wan-Bissaka, £80 million on Maguire, £50 million on Fred.

It all adds up.
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Why we finished 15th last year with no CL for 2/3 years. These bad signings add up. I think this season has been better purely because of good signings. Manager tried to keep us shit but we’ve got rid now.
 
I'm sure Haaland was worth just around 60m, and no more. I wonder why no other, bigger club activated that clause or were interested.
I'm also sure Cherki was worth just 30m, and no more. Thank god no one noticed he was available at that price and came in to steal that transfer.
Guehi was a steal at 20m, too. It's remarkable how no other big club, especially one who'd won more honors recently, noticed he was available for that fee.
Donnarumma for 20m was sneaky smart as well, they had no GKs and no other club went for him given his modest demands
Just like the others, free run at Semenyo, too. Cheap price at 60m, no one saw the transfer clause coming.

That's 5 players who'd fit right into CL and title winning teams - Haaland, Cherki, Semenyo, Guehi, Donnarumma. City got them for a bargain 190m all in all with solid scouting. The fact that these players rejected Madrid, Liverpool, United was solely down to City's historic standing in the game, the swelling home support, and Pep's genius - and nothing to do with under the table deals or exorbitant wages or state-sponsored influence or sporting/financial capital compounded across say, 130-odd violations of sportwashed oil money.

I applaud Pep for his net spend. What a manager. It makes sense that given how little money they give him, they regularly lose to United sides.
 
Gandalf Greyhame said:
I'm sure Haaland was worth just around 60m, and no more. I wonder why no other, bigger club activated that clause or were interested.
I'm also sure Cherki was worth just 30m, and no more. Thank god no one noticed he was available at that price and came in to steal that transfer.
Guehi was a steal at 20m, too. It's remarkable how no other big club, especially one who'd won more honors recently, noticed he was available for that fee.
Donnarumma for 20m was sneaky smart as well, they had no GKs and no other club went for him given his modest demands
Just like the others, free run at Semenyo, too. Cheap price at 60m, no one saw the transfer clause coming.

That's 5 players who'd fit right into CL and title winning teams - Haaland, Cherki, Semenyo, Guehi, Donnarumma. City got them for a bargain 190m all in all with solid scouting. The fact that these players rejected Madrid, Liverpool, United was solely down to City's historic standing in the game, the swelling home support, and Pep's genius - and nothing to do with under the table deals or exorbitant wages or state-sponsored influence or sporting/financial capital compounded across say, 130-odd violations of sportwashed oil money.

I applaud Pep for his net spend. What a manager. It makes sense that given how little money they give him, they regularly lose to United sides.
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Can you be a little less subtle, please? I'm not sure what you're saying.
 
He's been at City for 10 years but I never had big problem with him. People will mention some annoying things he said etc but what great manager didn't? I'm sure rival fans hated some of the things Fergie used to say. And now coming out and speaking on genocide in Gaza, great respect for him. Jewish council of Greater Manchester reacted but he never mentioned Jews or even Israel anywhere. It's not antisemitism - Holocaust, Gaza, Ukraine, that's all human tragedy that we should speak about, especially as it's happening as we speak.
 
BorisManUtd said:
He's been at City for 10 years but I never had big problem with him. People will mention some annoying things he said etc but what great manager didn't? I'm sure rival fans hated some of the things Fergie used to say. And now coming out and speaking on genocide in Gaza, great respect for him. Jewish council of Greater Manchester reacted but he never mentioned Jews or even Israel anywhere. It's not antisemitism - Holocaust, Gaza, Ukraine, that's all human tragedy that we should speak about, especially as it's happening as we speak.
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I do appreciate him speaking on things other people in his profession don't. And that's pretty much about it.

It's hard to give him credit for it when he's been actively spent the last decade defending his own owners through their own atrocities while spearheading their sportswashing project. It annoys me when posters do this handwavy dismissal of the elephant in the room. This mindless promotion of the great manager myth - when in fact, after his Barca days, we simply have no idea of how good he is because he's operating in settings which have never been and will never be available to any other manager in the game. No other manager, not even Fergie, has or will have Pep's freedom in choosing and replacing the entire squad as and when he sees fit at any time, at any cost, by any means, and with no long-term consequences for poor decisions or expensive transfers. Only Fergie had the kind of support Pep gets in being able to build a whole club around him to suit his vision, and Fergie had to earn it without the financial muscle, without the ability to silence of the media, without the phalanx of lawyers to engage the entire footballing infrastructure and get away on technicalities, without state-sponsored influence peddled across all dimensions of the footballing ecosystem, without monopolizing youth academies and feeder clubs and under-the-table deals to keep feeding the talent pipeline. Other managers have things like budgets and constraints in their game of swords and shields, Pep starts off with unlimited money and machine guns. It's like people crediting Pep for playing great Minecraft, while ignoring that all other managers play in Survival while Pep plays in Creative.

Post-Barca, Pep's only achievement is in denying Klopp - the best manager of the recent PL era - and his Liverpool side all the silverware they could have won with their well-built, entertaining sides. It is unfair to everyone else in the game when you compare them willy-nilly with a man playing with cheat codes.

I cannot help but feel that anyone calling Pep great because of the trophies or the football is either too simple-minded, or intentionally obtuse and reductive, or paid off (in case of the media where pundits never seem to bring up the charges), given the way they ignore the behemoth of contextual advantage he has across every single dimension of the game before he gets to the act of putting XI out on a pitch. If anything, it is a testament to football and the PL - that in a sport rigged to City's advantage, in a league where all other teams compete for a marathon and Pep starts his fancy jogging at the 21km mark - other sides still turn up and beat the cheats. That there is only so far all the mountains of unfair advantage can take you once it's 11 against 11 on a pitch. And it is a testament to Klopp that he built a team that could prove that across the course of multiple campaigns.

So yeah, good on him for speaking up on Gaza. Does nothing to undo the lifetime's he's spent becoming the OG football terrorist, chipping away at the magic of the beautiful game. I am relieved we were shit and poorly run in his heyday, I don't know how Liverpool fans stomach how this man unfairly stole the thunder of their recent pomp years.
 
IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos said:
An aside that’s just occurred to me about his net spent chat for the last five years, there’s the impact of that Saudi splurge that massively benefited a narrow group of teams. I doubt City, Chelsea and Liverpool could’ve offloaded the likes of Mahrez, Laporte, Koulibaly, Joao Felix, Fabinho, Henderson, Darwin Nunez and co for big money with no wage subsidy anywhere else. They got ageing players or flops out of the door that massively helps their figures.
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I'd still take Henderson back tbh, he went as a top player, still.
Fabinho had developed the turning circle of a barge though, so you have a good point there, I was amazed at the amount we got for him
 
RedRocket9908 said:
Unbelievable that he is now moaning about Guehi not being allowed to play in the Carabao Cup final when they knew the rules before they signed him, Pep has already benefitted from a silly rule change that allowed Semenyo to play in the Semi's and now he is asking for another change to allow Guehi to play the final, what a joke

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/cy8y677z23go
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It's the playbook of all these guys - if you keep complaining about things and acting like you are hard done by, you will get some preferential treatment at some point. Rodri literally came out and said refs were corrupt the other day so he'll surely get a ban, be sure that Pep will make a song and dance about that as well.
 
IrwinwasbetterthanCarlos said:
An aside that’s just occurred to me about his net spent chat for the last five years, there’s the impact of that Saudi splurge that massively benefited a narrow group of teams. I doubt City, Chelsea and Liverpool could’ve offloaded the likes of Mahrez, Laporte, Koulibaly, Joao Felix, Fabinho, Henderson, Darwin Nunez and co for big money with no wage subsidy anywhere else. They got ageing players or flops out of the door that massively helps their figures.
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Mahrez went for a pretty normal fee relative to his level. €30m or something which was fine at his age (32) but not amazing and Laporte went for less €25m or so at 29 years old. Laporte in particular had a pick of top clubs and chose the money. The Saudi splurge had no real effect on City whatsoever. Selling the stock pile of young players we built is why net spend is so low which is a completely different argument even if I don't like how ourselves and Chelsea went about recruiting said stock piles and it should have some regulation.

Mahrez for €30 or Delap for €20m etc.. it was selling u21's like Shea Charles or Carlos Forbs and that level of player for over €10m per head, that pumped City way up. This season alone Bobb, Couto, McAtee and Perrone all went for a combined €90m or so.
 
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padr81 said:
Mahrez went for a pretty normal fee relative to his level. €30m or something which was fine at his age (32) but not amazing and Laporte went for less €25m or so at 29 years old. Laporte in particular had a pick of top clubs and chose the money. The Saudi splurge had no real effect on City whatsoever. Selling the stock pile of young players we built is why net spend is so low which is a completely different argument even if I don't like how ourselves and Chelsea went about recruiting said stock piles and it should have some regulation.

Mahrez for €30 or Delap for €20m etc.. it was selling u21's like Shea Charles or Carlos Forbs and that level of player for over €10m per head, that pumped City way up. This season alone Bobb, Couto, McAtee and Perrone all went for a combined €90m or so.
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Yes, I’m absolutely sure you’d have got clubs in Europe to give you €87.5m for a 32yo Mahrez, 30yo Cancelo and 29yo Laporte, and had them take on their €600-800k combined weekly wages at the same time…
 
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