Have to disagree, we will be stronger again next season and probably the season after that. We will be contenders for the foreseeable.
The most important reason is clearly the not606 celebration party in our spiritual home hosted by our jovial host RHC . Oh & as frank says "would be rather pleasant".
Trough gorging? A club that lives within its means isn't trough gorging, a club that goes from a nothing Leyland Daf Trophy competitor and the lower leagues to League Champions and favourites for the Champions League and also 5th/6th richest club on the planet in just over a decade is truly gorging in the Abu Dhabi trough of oil wealth. Not jealousy just don't like it when City fans act like they've somehow earned their current status legitimately.
All clubs have a history of external investment Liverpool were the 2nd club in Liverpool languishing in the 2nd division before the Moore’s family money transformed their fortunes Now the likes of Jack Walker turning Blackburn into champions will never happen again. It’s a disgrace FFP,a self serving disgrace
I am not saying we won’t be contenders. We can’t be sure we’ll have the title within our grasp like now. History teaches us otherwise. A very good season is NEVER followed by an even better season. Look at the whole history of the premiership winning sides, All sides who have an excellent season always invariably have a worse one the next. That’s why it is so difficult to win two in a row. Even those who do win again have a tougher one. So did we ever follow our close runs with an even better season? Never so far. We always have a good excuse. Suarez leaving, manager not good enough, morale lower. Let’s not bury our heads in the sand and hope that next season will be better. NO is my answer. I’ll be willing to bet a huge amount on us not achieving 60 points after 23 matches next season WHETHER we win the title or not this.
You're chatting out of your hoop, Sir John Moore's bankrolled Everton, a local businessman called T V Williams lent LFC money to repair the Kop and refurb the players changing rooms when Shankly arrived, the Moores family never had total ownership of LFC until David Moores bought the majority of shares in the early 90's.
Even ignoring the crimes against humanity that ultimately fund your club, the only reason you've escaped FFP punishment is because your owners also own the TV company that pays for CL rights. You can feel it in your heart that all of your victories are hollow. That's why you play to a half empty stadium despite the football you play actually being attractive (apart from Fernandinho) and successful.
Actually, I have to agree. FFP is a stupid restriction and all it has really served to achieve is encourage people to do "creative accounting". It's a failed practice (and always was going to be). The idea behind it is nice, but the execution has been so ridiculous it should be axed.
Something needed to be done to stem the flow of outside money coming to a select few though - and still does. Can you think of a better system? If the problem is with the practice rather than the principle, then surely that can be fixed rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
As much as FFP has failed, what City are doing in my opinion is doping similar to what athletes do. I have no issue with them bankrolling player purchases or stadium expansions. The point where they are literally setting up shell companies to bump their commercial revenues and also funding player wages is what I am totally against. I really struggled to understand a club who cannot fill their stadium both home and during pre season trips can attract such commercial revenues. I compare that to Liverpool who are growing organically to the point they will be recording the largest club profit ever.
City have literally been caught inventing fake sponsorships to cover their losses: "We will have a shortfall of £9.9m in order to comply with Uefa FFP this season. The deficit is due to RM termination. I think that the only solution left would be an additional amount of AD sponsorship revenues that covers this gap." https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/46101803
I am in two minds about this. It will stop a club like Blackburn ever winning the league again or even competing amongst the top clubs. What's wrong with a club like say Sheffield Wednesday getting a new billionaire owner (possibly a fan) and buying new players under a good manager, getting promotion and competing at the highest level? Why should the club be limited in its expenditure by its revenue? It would be an investment for the owners who will recoup their initial investments by the huge increase in value of the club. The FFP really maintains the status quo: the top 6 clubs in England will always remain top 6 and the top clubs in Europe will stay the same too. On the other hand, we could have (some would say already have) clubs injecting huge sums of money just to acquire the best players irrespective of the market or their needs. Both Manc clubs do this (with the Abu Dhabi rulers >>> richer than the Glazers) and the likes of Real Madrid and Barcelona which don't have mega rich owners but are practically owned by the local or regional councils of Madrid and Barcelona. That is huge resources.
NEVER is such a long time... I'm sure i can pull out several examples to prove you wrong. you said very good first and then went and said excellent. Howver i only need one example to prove the NEVER wrong. I suppose if you limit this to sides who win prem and then have poor year thereafter then: a) 1992/93 utd win double having won the legue the prior year b) 2007/08 utd win league and cl double having won title the prior year. b) 2008/09 utd win the league and league cup and world club cup after winning league and cl the prior year I've not even looked at city or cheslea.... Every season is different and different amounts of luck apply. thats fine but to say never is a bit much. What we are seeing today is City running close to be not quite at the level of last season but they would not consider last year "excellent" they only won two trophys (the ****s) The margins at near perfection are so fine that a couple points here or there might make a season look worse The reality is next season man city might not be on 50 points never mind 60 next year. we don't know what the requirements in league are next year. What do we have to show this is not a one off like 2013/14 a) Genuine world class keeper b) Genuine world class Centre half. c) Genuine world class forward who scored goals. (like 2013/14) d) Good to every good Left, right full back and right CB (gomez) e) Half decent false 9 f) good but perhaps inconsistent Left side forward In 2013/14 our team was Mingolet Johnson Skertl Sahko Flanagan Gerrard Allen Lucas/henderson Sterling Suarez Sturridge We are not probably the ultimate team we could be yet.... but we are so far ahead of that team in both attack and defense there is no reason to think that we will get picked clean by real and barca and end up 8th or something. Our back 5 is pretty much there. reserves sure are iffy and there could be work done. Midfield needs work but there's players there who might step up next season (ox and keita esp) The attack first 3 are class. We don't have cover sure. SO who knows what will happen but this is not going to just fall apart in the short term... when klopp goes eventually i'm worried big time but thats not next year.
What's good about that? Why don't we scrap the promotion system and just award PL places based on a lottery? Same thing.
My view: a) FFP is largely meaningless even form the point of view of stopping clubs jump the queue.. why? wolves... it could be argued that over a 5 year period a club can grow very significantly and break into the cosy top clubs. The revenue in prem is just so huge. b) should a club be limited in its expenditure by revenue numbers .. YES. whats happening is 10 other clubs try to compete with city and we see teams over spend and go bust. Whats happening now is the league is so awash with money that a lot of clubs are just ticking over now and their owners are pocketing cash left and right dodgily. the league is now really noncompetitive outside the top 6. Even those spending like everton cant get close. c) there are only so many billionaires who can afford to literally wash a billion down a drain. The city model is not replicated many places. The reason is quite simple. d) the giant clubs with giant revenues are not really willing to spunk 200mil on neymar. Its the mad clubs. now... barca did spunk 100 of dembele and 146mil on coutinho... but they had the cash in as well as revenues... The real issue for me is city can go spend 50mil on every position, not many clubs can turn down the fee for keepers, full backs etc so they have driven fees sky high... the lfc get criticised for matching them to get genuine world class players in based on selling another player... yet city can spunk on full backs, centre halves, keepers etc etc and not an eyelid is batted. And Chelsea get away with it completely without a word said,
