What a poor article. It assumes Utd will only lose one more game this season. Not very likely. And, as you say, why would Mata going to Utd have any bearing on us, given we have our 4 points in the bank already?
Pretty sure that article is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, although it is Metro so hard to tell... They've basically just played out the season from where we are now on Football Manager 2014, once with Mata at Utd and once without. Apparently the transfer will also result in City gaining 10 more points and coasting to the title, rather than narrowly winning it by 2 points over Arsenal and Chelsea. Perhaps Whinger ran this experiment too and that's what he's so upset about!
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jan/24/jose-mourinho-juan-mata-arsene-wenger He's not wrong. But then Moaninho goes on to complain that what's really not fair is that Arsenal's games are scheduled so that they get more rest than Chelsea.
Mourinho claims Mata is being sold out of respect to the player who wants to move - as clearly he doesn't figure in Chelsea's plans. I'm amazed that one of the best players in the league over the past two seasons - and member of the PFA Team of the Year 2013 isn't wanted. Not sure where he fits into the Utd team, but he's such a good player that it doesn't really mata . Pellegrini has a point when he says that the rules shouldn't allow transfers in January because of the risk that a wealthy club (like City of course) could undermine rival clubs by signing their best players. Although unlikely it is theoretically possible - especially if players have release clauses in contracts. Now Wenger would be upset if Mertesacker and Koscielny suddenly left for Manchester before the 31st January!
You're all looking at this far too narrowly and perhaps dismissing what W said because of who he is. I don't care who said it, there is a potential here (again) for the mega rich teams to exploit the system. I don't know what the true reason was for the Mata transfer but that is irrelevant. The point is that a team could use this to their advantage, and selectively strengthen other teams in order to manipulate the remaining matches. I suggest a rule that a player can't play more than twice in the PL against the same team.
Arsenal have only played chelsea once this season so your rule change would not affect mata playing against arsenal for man utd. I think you are in fact falling for wengers bollocks talk. It was a pointless whine which makes no sense ... if players are allowed to change clubs in Jan then it is irrelevant who they have played against, who they left and who they've joined. wenger and arsenal were all strangely silent when they took advantage of the rules regarding late signings when they signed Arshavin after the January transfer deadline...which benefited them...so presumably that was ok.
Have you actually read/heard what he said or are you just going by the word or mouth? It certainly wasn't a whine. He made a moot point because arsenal have benefited from what he's getting at in the past... But it certainly wasn't a whine.
cini65, you are now whinging about us having whinged about Whinger's whinge. You're as bad as Whinger!
You're whinging about me whinging about you having said Wenger whinged. You're a worse Whinger than THE Whinger.
Plus it's fulled by Wenger feeling pressure re the title challenge. I didn't see any of our fans complaining when we signed Robbie Keane in the transfer window in January. The only clubs who can feel the window is unfair are clubs in relegation fights with bigger clubs as the bigger clubs can buy their way out of trouble. Otherwise the system is OK. You can't buy the title in January, in fact teams which strengthen in January which are in a strong position lose an advantage. As for selling players to teams you have played twice so to gain an advantage over rivals, that's like saying loan moves should been banned as Chelsea loaned Lakaku to Everton so if we're to believe the paranoia then Chelsea only sanctioned that loan to make Everton stronger. Even if that's the case, every club at some point gain an advantage but these little advantages don't win titles, they just give people under pressure a reason to moan.
What? So, you're whinging about us whinging about whether or not we're worst whingers than Whinger whinging?
