BluessinceHydeRoad
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 26 Mar 2012
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- 2,562
Gary Neville is, along with Souness and Martin Samuel, the most objective pundit to be found in the English media. City are not spotless paragons of virtue but since 2008 we have unquestionably been a force for good in the English and European game and the best run club in domestic football. The three wise men whose names began this post have been the only ones who have given City fair credit for this. Gary Neville has always opposed FFP and was one of the first to attack UEFA when they "disciplined" City in 2014 ("Unbelievable! The obligation to make a profit!" was his tweet, if I remember correctly.) He has never wavered from his opposition to FF and UEFA or his support for City on the matter. He has certainly wanted to see Salford City invest and progress - just as City's owners wanted to see us progress between 2008 and 2012. But we don't accuse City of ditching the principle of investment now the club is expected to live within its means as an act of policy and not a surrender to FFP. If Neville agrees with the right to invest at least he is consistent, arguing that at Blackburn, Chelsea, City and United in the past it has been good for the game. He wants clubs to be allowed to invest in the future to be able to challenge those recently successful in the game and that seems scarcely relevant to Salford at the moment.
This leaves Fernandinho. When Neville first claimed that Ferna was a "master of the dark arts" it was one comment in a eulogy of his many and varied skills. Mastery of the dark arts was simply one in a battery of skills anyone playing in his position needed and to Neville it was essential. He argued that all the great players had had it and he named a string of them, one of whom was Roy Keane. Ferna certainly has a cynical element in his game and I think he is simply better than anyone else because he knows exactly when to use it. He's not the only cynic but he's certainly better at it than the rest. The trouble is that other pundits picked out what suited them from Neville's analysis (a trick they have repeated many times, most recently with CAS decision and then with Pep's "disrespectful" remarks about Arsenal) and painted Ferna as the innovator of a uniquely cynical and dishonest way of playing.
This leaves Fernandinho. When Neville first claimed that Ferna was a "master of the dark arts" it was one comment in a eulogy of his many and varied skills. Mastery of the dark arts was simply one in a battery of skills anyone playing in his position needed and to Neville it was essential. He argued that all the great players had had it and he named a string of them, one of whom was Roy Keane. Ferna certainly has a cynical element in his game and I think he is simply better than anyone else because he knows exactly when to use it. He's not the only cynic but he's certainly better at it than the rest. The trouble is that other pundits picked out what suited them from Neville's analysis (a trick they have repeated many times, most recently with CAS decision and then with Pep's "disrespectful" remarks about Arsenal) and painted Ferna as the innovator of a uniquely cynical and dishonest way of playing.