Rival watch

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That thumping by Arsenal was their only loss in about 15 league games. They’ve really started buying into Poch’s tactics and unfortunately we all know what he’s capable of as a manager.

Not sure about that. It's a very lucky club with scummy fans, boosted originally by huge amounts of money that never had to be paid back, and when floundering afterward taken over at a ludicrously high price followed by the acquisition of 512 players on really odd contracts. Normally a team would pay the price for having 765 players on 8 year contracts, but somehow they will get away with it as they always do. But basically I think they are an average club with Cole Palmer.

Others might well then say, if Chelsea can make such a good signing, then why can't we? Well, I think that if you sign 824 players, then one of them is bound to be good. But most clubs are not going to take the risk with all those signings (and they have opened themselves up to great risk now, given FFP or whatever it is now). And incidentally, while Chelsea are lauded for making a brilliant signing (while the other 968 are not mentioned), why are City not criticised for selling him?
 
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Not sure about that. It's a very lucky club with scummy fans, boosted originally by huge amounts of money that never had to be paid back, and when floundering afterward taken over at a ludicrously high price followed by the acquisition of 512 players on really odd contracts. Normally a team would pay the price for having 765 players on 8 year contracts, but somehow they will get away with it as they always do. But basically I think they are an average club with Cole Palmer.

Others might well then say, if Chelsea can make such a good signing, then why can't we? Well, I think that if you sign 824 players, then one of them is bound to be good. But most clubs are not going to take the risk with all those signings (and they have opened themselves up to great risk now, given FFP or whatever it is now). And incidentally, while Chelsea are lauded for making a brilliant signing (while the other 968 are not mentioned), why are City not criticised for selling him?

I think you’ve misunderstood the point I was making, it’s not about the buying of loads of players or how they got the money to do such, it was about their players are now learning and understanding Poch’s tactics after a difficult first half of the season. They’ve improved massively in the second half of it under him and it’s down to the fact he’s very good coach - as we all know. For context they’ve only lost 3 league games since January, we’ve lost 5 in the last 6. Palmer’s obviously been the focal point of it all after an excellent season but others have upped their games too, Madueke being one, even Jackson is looking marginally like a footballer now, Gusto’s another that’s gotten better with time. Their squad’s quite young and knowing how Poch works, they’re likely going to get a lot better next season providing he stays.
 
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Not sure about that. It's a very lucky club with scummy fans, boosted originally by huge amounts of money that never had to be paid back, and when floundering afterward taken over at a ludicrously high price followed by the acquisition of 512 players on really odd contracts. Normally a team would pay the price for having 765 players on 8 year contracts, but somehow they will get away with it as they always do. But basically I think they are an average club with Cole Palmer.

Others might well then say, if Chelsea can make such a good signing, then why can't we? Well, I think that if you sign 824 players, then one of them is bound to be good. But most clubs are not going to take the risk with all those signings (and they have opened themselves up to great risk now, given FFP or whatever it is now). And incidentally, while Chelsea are lauded for making a brilliant signing (while the other 968 are not mentioned), why are City not criticised for selling him?
In the case of Cole Palmer, there's something else going on

Brighton put in a bid for him a couple of years ago yet the Mansourites point blank refused it, even though Palmer himself has said he wanted out even then, because they knew that Brighton would sign him for £25m but would likely sell him for £90m+ and the team that could pay that would be an obvious threat to their position

On the other hand, selling him to Chelsea is - weirdly - less of a threat, starting with how if he flopped the Mansourites have £40m in their pocket and know Chelsea would be selling him at a loss, but mainly because Chelsea habitually go through boom and bust cycles (and the current bust cycle has lasted longer than usual) which effectively makes him a potential sleeper agent who can nick points off Man Utd, Liverpool et al yet is unlikely to pose a threat at the top of the table due to Chelsea finding ways to fall apart

It's the same as when they point blank refused to include Jadon Sancho in the Kyle Walker package because they knew that either we could build on the previous couple of seasons or make absolute bank if we sold him and build that way instead - but selling him to Dortmund was okay as they were never in any position to threaten them, and if a team did pay through the nose for him later on it would likely be Man Utd or Chelsea who, again, are weirdly not a threat due to their inconsistency and inability to stick with a plan

It's similar to how Chelsea didn't seem have any issue selling Daniel Sturridge to Liverpool knowing if they had any momentum they'd inevitably **** it up sooner rather than later even though on paper Liverpool were a direct threat to Chelsea's position - though I think the Mansourites and Chelsea haven't through through providing Arsenal with about a third of their starting xi these days
 
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... And incidentally, while Chelsea are lauded for making a brilliant signing (while the other 968 are not mentioned), why are City not criticised for selling him?

Because they sold him to a club they do not consider to be rivals.
If the other top PL 3 sides came in for Palmer, then they
would have either tried to massively inflate the fee, or do
a Sancho (as they did with Spurs) when they couldn't do that.
 
As Hbic said, it’s also worth pointing out that in Palmer’s case, he sought an exit from City due to lack of game time (something I fear a few of ours will soon do). At that time too, not many would’ve likely been interested in parting with £40m for him but it’s actually proven to be one of the signings of the season. It looked a good deal for City at the time, perhaps not so much now.
 
I quite enjoyed the United v Newcastle game.The bald United Baltic defender was impressive. Just what we need.....PLEASE! a hungry footballer.
 
Brighton penalty claim against Chelsea last night:
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Start at 1.07 if the link doesn't take you straight to it.
How is Doku's vs us a penalty and this, the next ****ing day, isn't?
 
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Golly. Look at the league results for the last 6 games in the PL. Spurs have lost 5 of their last 6 games! Only Sheff United are worse.Played 6.Lost 6. Should be interesting on Sunday. Two bloody awful teams whatever their managers tell us!
 
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Brighton penalty claim against Chelsea last night:
You must log in or register to see media
Start at 1.07 if the link doesn't take you straight to it.
How is Doku's vs us a penalty and this, the next ****ing day, isn't?

Just watched that, it's pathetic. But don't forget that was not awarded under Rule 21.9.2 which determines what a penalty is on a Wednesday. Our match was under the rules for penalties on a Tuesday. Note of course that the rules are sometimes reversed when it's not a leap year.

I really think penalties awarded (and not awarded) really makes a difference to the table. How we only ended up with two all season is mad. That stat of touches in the box per penalty was quite telling. Plus there's the evidence of getting kicked in the head, or being wrestled to the ground not counting, when clearly many incidents that may not have counted for us did count for Chelsea. I won't even attribute it to certain teams benefiting - let's just say it is clearly inconsistent.
 
Just watched that, it's pathetic. But don't forget that was not awarded under Rule 21.9.2 which determines what a penalty is on a Wednesday. Our match was under the rules for penalties on a Tuesday. Note of course that the rules are sometimes reversed when it's not a leap year.

I really think penalties awarded (and not awarded) really makes a difference to the table. How we only ended up with two all season is mad. That stat of touches in the box per penalty was quite telling. Plus there's the evidence of getting kicked in the head, or being wrestled to the ground not counting, when clearly many incidents that may not have counted for us did count for Chelsea. I won't even attribute it to certain teams benefiting - let's just say it is clearly inconsistent.
Just to make it worse, the ref for Brighton v Chelsea was on VAR for us v City.
It's not even different officials.