Recent content by RipleysCat

To be fair, Sunderland were never really in the game once City equalised. It wasn't surprising to see Sunderland go ahead, given their record against City in recent years at SoL. That record undoubtedly had a psychological effect, both on the Sunderland players and City players. I think had...

You showed nothing that any team in your position wouldn't have done.

I don't think it's a case of tight arse owners monty. City and Chelsea spent because their owners have much more money than the rest. In terms of what the owners of City and Chelsea have spent compared to their owners overall wealth, then it's a relatively small amount of their wealth that...

As a City fan, it's easy to write what I am about to, but I do genuinely mean what I'm about to say. Really good cup final. Sunderland were much the better team in the first half, and it took two absolutely outstanding goals to break Sunderland down. City's third goal was merely material -...

Congratulations on getting past United in the semi-final. Interesting stat - Sunderland have not lost to City outside of Manchester in their last five games. City have not lost to Sunderland outside of Wearside in their last nine games. In the last 8 meetings between the two clubs, Sunderland...

No, it's a cheap shot all right. An unnecessary comment in a thread that has been, by and large, a relatively civil discussion. Whether the players mentioned were household names or not is irrelevant. Whether they were coverted by big clubs or not is also irrelevant (simply because of one...

Players are all individuals until they are "moulded" into a team. So how much of the current squad has Arsene "built", as opposed to bought? He didn't nurture Ozil, or Rosicky, Giroud, or Podolski. Carzola, or Vermaelen. Or indeed Koscielney, Arteta, or Mertesacker. How much money a club...

Like buying is a bad thing in football all of a sudden. I have to ask though, why, Lazarus, did you mention Southampton?

To be fair, in regards to wages, the Bosnan ruling is more accountable for the vast increase in wages. In 1994 - one year before the Bosnan ruling, Chris Sutton becomes the first English based player to earn £10k per week when he signed for Blackburn. 6 years later in 2000, Roy Keane becomes...

I'm simply putting the spending from different periods into their proper context in regards to the period such spending/investments were made. Hence why I used Blackburn as an example - £50m enabled them to go from a 2nd tier club to winning the title. As well as rebuilding their ground...

No, I don't want "PURE" inflationary figures, because PURE inflationary figures can never account for the much-higher than inflation increases we've seen in football pretty much since it's inception. Transfer fees, wages (at least since the abolition of the maximum wage in 1961), and to a...

Exactly! Which is why you should never use the base rate of interest to compare the amounts spent today with the amounts spent by clubs in the past. That's what you have done. My point has been to show just how futile doing that actually is. So many variables have to be taken into account...

Fair enough - but then I am in a discussion with Piskie, and I'd at least hope that all my previous comments (in regards to the discussion we're having) weren't merely forgotten (and/or dismissed). I did, quite clearly, in a previous post, mention Blackburn, and their spending the 90s, and how...

Just as a matter of interest, how long did it take you to pay back his loan? What was the year when that loan was paid back in full?

Again, I was referring to Blackburn as the second tier club. Not Arsenal.