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The fear is over…

Fortitude

TV/Monitor Expert
Scout
Joined
Jul 10, 2004
Messages
23,113
Location
Inside right
siw2007 said:
City will be hard to stop in the next few years. But the premier league is getting richer and richer and the standard is getting higher all the time. Last season did show that more and more teams are capable of taking points off them than before. The problem will be European football which the standard isn’t as high which paves way for them to match our trophy hall very quickly.

When it comes to signings, it could prove to be diminishing returns. They’ve got a pretty awesome team as it is and there probably aren’t that many players that can improve them drastically. I think it’s more likely that good signings from other clubs will improve them more than what City can find.

Im also not convinced City are going to be blown wide open by any charges. Their owners are too powerful and too wealthy to allow their investment to go down the drain. The league won’t want their image to be totally tarnished either by stripping any titles. I imagine there may become an acceptance that City have cheated the system alongside fines and embargo, this is the best case scenario.
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They are at the level of fine tuning now; all components are in place for extremely smooth transitions and unlike before, they can legitimately go and entice the best to come in and replace what exits (we'll see this with De Bruyne). Nobody else is in position to do this; Liverpool could've been but their transition was a disaster and utterly reliant on constant jackpot signings, which is nigh on impossible for real clubs (who can't simply discard or leave what doesn't work in squad nether realm).

There has to be realism; perhaps their greatest advantage from cheating is the surfeit of talent that is fresh and raring to go at the point in the season when other clubs are flagging and managing fatigue. Until anyone can utilise a squad how City can, they are way behind the curve, before the football is even factored in.

And regarding teams 'catching up' in terms of taking points etc. That's a byproduct of them finding the system they now have. It's odds on not to occur again.
 

Kopral Jono

Full Member
Joined
Oct 9, 2007
Messages
3,421
If it wasn't for me lurking around this forum just now I already forgot City won THE treble, the very same treble we won fair and square all those years ago, last night. I'm dead serious. If it had been Liverpool I reckon I would be an absolute mess for a good few weeks at least.
 

Shark

@NotShark
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
26,585
Location
Ireland
siw2007 said:
Man City’s success is far from over. But other teams are catching up and if Pep does leave City then they probably won’t dominate like they’ve done for the past 5 years. But that is a big ‘if’ at this point in time.
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Who's really catching up though. Everyone still seems a good 2-3 levels behind them.
 

Prodigy24

Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
3,189
Location
Malmö, Sweden
Every fear I ever had these past 15 years has become reality. Sir Alex leaving, United becoming a joke, Liverpool winning the league, City winning the treble and a bunch of other stuff in between. It's been like a humbling nightmare that doesn't seem to end.
 

siw2007

Full Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2014
Messages
2,404
Fortitude said:
They are at the level of fine tuning now; all components are in place for extremely smooth transitions and unlike before, they can legitimately go and entice the best to come in and replace what exits (we'll see this with De Bruyne). Nobody else is in position to do this; Liverpool could've been but their transition was a disaster and utterly reliant on constant jackpot signings, which is nigh on impossible for real clubs (who can't simply discard or leave what doesn't work in squad nether realm).

There has to be realism; perhaps their greatest advantage from cheating is the surfeit of talent that is fresh and raring to go at the point in the season when other clubs are flagging and managing fatigue. Until anyone can utilise a squad how City can, they are way behind the curve, before the football is even factored in.

And regarding teams 'catching up' in terms of taking points etc. That's a byproduct of them finding the system they now have. It's odds on not to occur again.
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It’s not a certainty that they will replace their best players so easily. History is littered with wonderful teams but could never replace their best players. City with their wealth and operation have the means to get top players in to replace them but it’s not a certainty when the best players are maybe already at Madrid, Barca, Liverpool etc and maybe a team like Newcastle are paying more money.

City’s squad depth is ridiculous. No team should have the resources to assemble a side that deep. Because of that, City will likely continue to dominate for a few years at least, that is the reality. But the standard is increasing in the league, other top teams will build squads capable of challenging. And I do think teams are going to continue to improve in fhe

Shark said:
Who's really catching up though. Everyone still seems a good 2-3 levels behind them.
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I think the City team of 2018-2019 was better than this one. During those years, they genuinely felt invincible. They are still world class now and are the best in the world but they are more beatable now and that is down to the standard of English football getting higher. That was 5 years ago and we could continue to see the gap close over the next 5 years. Liverpool are near enough at that level (outside of their off years) and Arsenal and United are improving too (both teams showing some vision on the pitch).

I am trying to be a little more optimistic but history suggests nothing lasts forever.
 

Rhyme Animal

Thinks Di Zerbi is better than Pep.
Joined
Sep 3, 2015
Messages
11,193
Location
Nonchalantly scoring the winner...
They could barely keep a clean sheet this season and but for Arsenal bottling it they’d have not won the PL.

Europe was also very weak this season (that Inter side are more fitting of a Europa league final than a CL final) with a WC crammed in the middle that greatly benefitted City and greatly hurt other sides.

They are a really good side being greatly overrated right now.
 

simonhch

Horrible boss
Joined
Aug 17, 2010
Messages
14,551
Location
Seventh Heaven
Supports
Urban Combat Preparedness
I’d care if I knew any city fans and have to deal with their gloating, but they truly have hardly any. Not a team the neutral Can root for. And who even cares when they cheated their way to the top? This is the most non event treble imaginable. They leave everyone cold.
 

sugar_kane

Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
3,551
I was much more worried about Liverpool finally winning the PL, luckily when that happened it ended up being a bit of a damp squib due to everything being played out behind closed doors (almost to the point where I actually felt a bit sorry for them…)

I was chatting to my missus about it yesterday and how the treble is such a big part of United’s history but actually much of that is down to the dramatic fashion in which we won it. City did it with a fairly boring 1-0 win.
 

Bangor_Red

Full Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2006
Messages
735
Location
Bangor,NI
Rhyme Animal said:
They could barely keep a clean sheet this season and but for Arsenal bottling it they’d have not won the PL.

Europe was also very weak this season (that Inter side are more fitting of a Europa league final than a CL final) with a WC crammed in the middle that greatly benefitted City and greatly hurt other sides.

They are a really good side being greatly overrated right now.
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Having the squad they have where the 2nd 11 is almost as good as the first 11 really showed massively in a season with a world Cup shoe horned in the middle.

Even if kdb or haaland were removed for any reason they aren't noticeably weaker. Whereas every other team misses their best players
 

Tincanalley

Turns player names into a crappy conversation
Joined
Apr 12, 2011
Messages
10,167
Location
Ireland
For a nation state, it’s a good start. There is still landing a crew on the Moon, solving the climate crisis (or at least not adding more to it), inventing the perfect sofa. As for football the actual clubs that competed, Arsenal, Pool, United, even Inter and Real, etc did okay. The light blue mist attaching to the trophies this year should not be mistaken for Manchester City. The Borg are in - the club is a front. None of the trophies were won. They were stolen.
 

colombianmancunian

New Member
Newbie
Joined
Aug 26, 2022
Messages
733
Bert_ said:
It was a crude joke. Apologies if it caused offence.

Original post was daft though. Will never get my head around people wanting us to become a PR tool
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Apologies received pal.

I’m rooting for Qatar mainly because they have plans to invest in infrastructure, clear the debt, and totally get rid of the leeches, something SJR haven’t stated. On the other hand, what Sir Jim have done at Nice scares me. I don’t want that for United.
 
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