I'm not, and I haven't been since they started their spending spree. We're supposed to believe that they are suddenly a great team after spending ã500m but they looked rubbish. They just don't look like a balanced team at all.
Trying to buy success just like you lot have done. Only way it can be done these days I suppose, but it doesn't merit any special praise.
Hmm yes because we spent ã500m in just a couple of seasons and didn't build the backbone of our team using players brought through our youth system.
I never said that. Name this "backbone" then. Your starting team is not predominantly made up of academy products and a HELL of a lot of money was spent on it.
I thought they looked a lot more balanced when playing us this time around than last season. Silva and Toure have given them more balance, and the gap wasn't so large that I would write them off. They bossed the midfield for a much larger part of the game than most teams do at OT, and their stats against us were about as good as Arsenal's when they came to us in December, which shows how far they've come. But I still think they're at least a couple of seasons away from a genuine title challenge, and if they don't get into the CL this season their financial house of cards could come crashing down. They've taken longer to put a decent side together than Chelsea did, but that's largely cos they were pretty low profile when they were taken over, so they couldn't attract the top players. They had to make do with cast offs from better clubs (Adebayor, Robinho and K Toure) and the star players from smaller clubs who hadn't already been targeted by the big four (Lescott, Barry, Santa Cruz etc) and fudge them together. But now they've gotten into the Europa League they're starting to consistently attract top quality players and aren't too far off being a real threat. So I'm starting to be more impressed by them, but still don't consider them genuine title contenders.
I was referring to the way Man Utd first built up their team under Sir Alex (particularly in the earlier 90s). Also we spent money on our side that was earned through good business sense (marketing, sponsorship and other football related activities) and on field success (success breeds success). Man City have simply been brought by a billionaire who is throwing his money at them, no work involved at all.
Evans Brown O'Shea Giggs Scholes Fletcher Gibson Name one Premier League club with more academy products in their first team squad. For comparison purposes, Arsenal have one - Wilshire.
What just happened to the AC Milan keeper? I've been watching it on my laptop with the sound turned off.
West Ham. And how many of those play for you week in week out? Two? Three? Hardly your team's "backbone".
City will finish outside the top 4 this year. Have a look at their run in and pay close attention to the away games. Not easy.
Anyone who seriously beleives this money will not get city anywhere is miss guided. It will. They will be premierleague champions within 3 years is my guess. Chelsea proved spending worked. And whilst team unity is all great and that, I think our fans over estimate its importance some what. City still have duds in their team. They need to get a really top cb to partner kompany and another Cm coz quite frankly barry is garbage. They should have out muscled chelsea for luiz imo. They matched us on saturday and gave us a game and silva and torre have been quality. Silva especially, why we never bid for him is beyond me. I also have this horrible feeling mourinho might end up there aswell. Which would really upset my apple cart. RE their game tonight, caught the last 15 or so mmins, the greek teams fans were amazing. They put britains fans to shame. Proper noise, proper atmosphere.
Completely orchestrated though. Their chants aren't witty or spontaneous, just rehearsed, wordless lalala-ing. I liked their flags and colours round the stadium though, very impressive that.
