Media bias against City

[r.soleofsalford]

brazil getting giddy about uniteds "great signings"


while sterling is a disrespectful ****

 

[Bill]

the anger we (blues that is)feel on here is nothing compared to the fear and the hurt of the rags, the grievers, the media and Platini.

love it.

 

[Garry.Cook]

brazil getting giddy about uniteds "great signings"


while sterling is a disrespectful ****

Also, it's "disgusting" how a player of 20 can be financially set for life..."not that i'm a bitter ex-player or anything like that". No, Alan, you're a bitter fucking ex-rag mate.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Also, it's "disgusting" how a player of 20 can be financially set for life..."not that i'm a bitter ex-player or anything like that". No, Alan, you're a bitter fucking ex-rag mate.

clark trying to talk about loris was quickly put back on track by the fat **** to talk about de gea and united

 

[Garry.Cook]

Strangely though, I don't mind listening to him because he's the type of ex-rag who's just thick enough to still be non-threatening. Some of them can really get on a wind up and piss me off but I find myself chuckling to myself at how thick as pigshit he is most of the time. Ignorance is certainly bliss in his case.

 

[Bill]

in the interest of balance.

this guy calls it right. the clubs involved are irrellevent.

Raheem Sterling has backed himself to shine at a top club, Fabian Delph's bottled out

• • 20:00, 13 July 2015
• • Opinion
  • 
  • by DaveKidd

The Aston Villa midfielder’s a very good player and a tough cookie too but his decision to scrap move and stay shows he doubts himself, writes Dave Kidd

• 4529 Shares
• Fabian Delph performed a late U-turn and snubbed a move to Manchester City, it was inevitable that his Aston Villa manager would praise the ‘loyalty’ of his England midfielder.
  
  Sherwood might as well talk about pixies at the bottom of the garden as speak of loyalty in the Premier League or have Delph regarded as some anti-Raheem Sterling.
  
  As if an £8million release clause was inserted into the £75,000-per-week Villa contract that Delph signed earlier this year out of the player’s life-long devotion to the Holte End faithful.
  
  But when push came to shove, and the clause was activated, Delph simply didn’t back himself to become a first-team regular at City, when the midfield options at the Etihad suggested he should have fancied his chances.
  
  He’s a very good player, Delph, and a tough cookie too.
  
  But he’s bottled this one.
  
  Neville Williams
  
  
  Going nowhere: As Sterling kisses trophies Delph will be stuck kissing the Villa badge
  
  
  
  
  Sterling, meanwhile, has backed himself to play regular Champions League football at the Etihad.
  
  And self-belief is often half the battle.
  
  In some ways, it is heartening that a player of Delph’s growing stature has opted to stay with a club outside the Premier League’s roped-off elite.
  
  But it will be noted within the game that Delph doubts himself – and now, aged 25, he may never receive a similar chance again.
  
  Delph was apparently persuaded by Villa team-mates - and City rejects - Micah Richards and Scott Sinclair that he would be risking life as a bit-part player by joining Manuel Pellegrini’s side.
  
  Which suggests Delph views himself as having a similar status to Richards, Scott Sinclair, Jack Rodwell or Adam Johnson - Villa and Sunderland players perennially fighting relegation rather than Champions League contenders.
  
  There is an obvious argument to suggest Roy Hodgson will be happier with Delph spurning City than with Sterling embracing them. And the idea of two first-choice England players sitting on the bench would indeed have concerned the national manager.
  
  Reuters
  
  
  Mane attraction: Hodgson would rather have Delph playing at Villa than on City's bench
  
  
  Yet Sterling and Delph both have the potential to be better than that.
  
  Sterling believes it, while Delph does not.
  
  Had both been playing regularly in a City side bidding for Champions League and Premier League honours, it would have been a boon for Hodgson, heading towards next summer’s Euros.
  
  As the tedious Sterling saga reaches its inevitable conclusion, we’ve had the outrage, the backlash against the outrage and now the backlash against the backlash.
  
  But if we’re going to declare that the world’s gone mad when an emerging 20-year-old is signed for £49million, then we’d better prepare ourselves for lunacy taking over the Premier League asylum.
  
  For the £5.1 billion TV deal which kicks in next season, and the (welcome) relaxing of Financial Fair Play rules will soon make such figures the norm.
  
  Watch nextLiverpool: Stern-faced Brendan Rodgers »
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  Sterling is far from the finished article. He must knuckle down and improve if he is to play regularly at City but it’s nonsensical to claim that he is merely the puppet of an unscrupulous agent. He is a talented player with the self-confidence to take on defenders - and the challenge of City.
  
  Only the most cynical of conspiracy theorists will claim that the whole Sterling pantomime has been orchestrated.
  
  Yet Liverpool can walk away with a record transfer fee for an Englishman and are able to paint Sterling and agent Aidy Ward as the bad guys, while the player and his representative get the move and the commission they had craved, deemed a fair trade-off for a sustained PR kicking.
  
  It all suggests that Sterling has a thick enough skin to deal with life at the top.
  
  And while Delph can kiss his badge, Sterling will soon be kissing trophies.

 

[Tim of the Oak]

brazil getting giddy about uniteds "great signings"


while sterling is a disrespectful ****

From Brazil, the guy who had to plead to the MUEN for scum fans to get behind him and even the rags thought AB was a joke figure!

 

[r.soleofsalford]

From Brazil, the guy who had to plead to the MUEN for scum fans to get behind him and even the rags thought AB was a joke figure!

i heard a rumour delph had failed his medical how true this is i dont know, but it may account for the strange turn around

 

[mancity dan]

The Times has an alternative, more balanced view this morning.... (lifted from the SSN facts thread)

The tendency in the past few years has been to characterise Manchester City as some sort of graveyard for English players. It is a perception that will probably be given another airing this week as Raheem Sterling prepares to complete a £49 million move to the Etihad Stadium from Liverpool that will make him the most expensive English player in history.

In truth, it is a largely unfounded view that has gathered momentum the more it is lazily cited but one that hardly stands up to even vague examination.

Joe Hart joined City as a 19-year-old from Shrewsbury Town and has thrived in the nine years since, establishing himself as first choice for club and country and one of Europe’s leading goalkeepers.

James Milner made 201 appearances over five seasons during which time the midfielder won two Barclays Premier League titles, the FA Cup and the League Cup, which is probably far more than he can expect to win at his new club, Liverpool. Another midfielder, Gareth Barry, was an unqualified success. Eyebrows were raised at the £24 million City paid Everton for Joleon Lescott in 2009 but the centre half would come to justify the fee.

Micah Richards was an integral part of the first Premier League title-winning team in 2012 before the defender’s City career was derailed by a succession of injuries. Similarly, Jack Rodwell was rarely fit, a cycle of injury problems rather than a lack of opportunities to blame for the midfielder making ten starts in two years.

Scott Sinclair, the winger, did not play because he was not good enough and should never have been signed from Swansea City. Comparisons could easily be drawn with the predicament of Victor Moses at Chelsea, only Sinclair’s status as an Englishman ensured his exile was worthy of far greater scrutiny than the Nigeria winger’s battle against obscurity at Stamford Bridge.

Wayne Bridge and Nedum Onuoha served a purpose before improvements were found as City’s ambitions grew. Richard Wright is a third-choice goalkeeper. As for Adam Johnson, Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini’s predecessor as manager, had no doubts about the England winger’s talent and was desperate for him to deliver, but the player’s failure to apply himself properly off the field proved an enduring frustration and had inevitable consequences on it.

The point is nationality has no bearing on whether a player will succeed or not at City but application and attitude does. Sure, as a high-profile Englishman in a team blessed with too few of them Sterling will be under frequent scrutiny. Yet it is the combination of an exorbitant fee and a sullied reputation that have actually served to ramp up the pressure and leave this gifted 20-year-old with a lot less room for manoeuvre than he might ordinarily have experienced. Sterling has got his move but at what cost?

The task facing Sterling at City does not exactly mirror that of Johnson. The former Middlesbrough player, albeit two years older than Sterling when he moved to the Etihad, cost only £8 million from the Teesside club and was gradually introduced into the first team. At £49 million, there will be no hiding place for Sterling. His age will buy him some time and offer hope of a long, fruitful career at the club but at that price City and their fans will expect consistency, not one good game in five.

Nonetheless, Johnson’s plight is a cautionary tale for Sterling and there have been enough indiscretions in the latter’s recent past not to dismiss the theory that he could be more trouble than he is worth. Mancini with Brian Marwood, now the managing director of the City Football Academy, and the support staff at the club spent hours trying to counsel Johnson about the importance of conducting himself in the right way as well as reaching out to those close to him, but lifestyle issues persisted. Mancini would complain publicly about Johnson’s drinking habits. When Johnson was charged in April with three offences of sexual activity with a girl under the age of 16 and one of grooming, the disappointment was felt keenly at City.

Sterling has had his brushes with the law. He was cleared at Liverpool magistrates court in September 2013 of common assault on a former girlfriend, a few months after a charge of common assault on a different woman was dropped just as the trial was due to start.

In April, he was photographed allegedly smoking a shisha pipe and inhaling nitrous oxide for recreational purposes and that is before we get to his ugly contract stand-off with Liverpool, the undignified attempts to agitate for a transfer and the dubious advice he has received from his agent, Aidy Ward, who has been rebuked by Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager.

Pellegrini may not be too concerned, though. It was in March that the City manager spelt out his longing for another “crack” player — a game-changer — and in Sterling he believes he has found one. It will certainly be interesting to see where and how the Chilean deploys his impending arrival. If he opts to start Wilfried Bony up front with Sergio Agüero, Sterling may be used primarily out wide, but it would be no surprise to see the player form part of a three-man attack with Agüero and David Silva.

English football needs Sterling to succeed, but his nationality will not be a factor if he falls short.

 

[Garry.Cook]

i heard a rumour delph had failed his medical how true this is i dont know, but it may account for the strange turn around

Naa, he definitely bottled it.