Media Thread 2017/18

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deano ou812 said:
Yip was watching it was spot on,although him and Merson both said the arsenal invincible team was a better achievement but only just,Geoff shreeves saying but look at the number of records city broke achieving the 100 points,also arsenal did draw 12 games although not knocking their achievement...
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You could go unbeaten in the league and end up relegated, as good an achievement Arsenal’s unbeaten season was, I think the Rags 99 team and Pegs 1st Chelsea team were better and neither of those are as good as this City team
 
Skip Donoghue said:
You could go unbeaten in the league and end up relegated, as good an achievement Arsenal’s unbeaten season was, I think the Rags 99 team and Pegs 1st Chelsea team were better and neither of those are as good as this City team
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@deano ou812 Its our absolutely moronic fascination with clean sheets and no losses, which is a completely arbitrary measure of performance (defence or otherwise). Why is a 0-0 or 5-5 more worthy of applause than a 5-1, or even a hard fought 2-1 away from home? Or a close 2-1 loss away after some questionable officiating, which is one of only two losses all year (hypothetically)?

Pep doesn’t care about clean sheets or outlier losses; he cares about dominating the game, and scoring more than everyone immediately in front of us on the pitch. He only really cares about losses if they are frequent and a symptom of a larger issue. He understand that, in the modern game, participating in all of the competitions, with varying levels of competence in officiating (and other factors that you cannot control), that going unbeaten is very near to impossible. And, yet, we nearly did it!

Arsenal’s unbeaten season was a wonderful achievement, but no more impressive than our 100 points (which they could have only dreamed of attaining).
 
BluessinceHydeRoad said:
Yes, I think ESPN should think carefully about who it gets to write its analyses next season because the author of that article clearly watched a different season to the rest of us. This season has been at least as competitive as any other PL season in all but one respect and that is, of course, that the champions are the greatest English top flight team ever. The gap of 19 points to second is the greatest ever and the champions total of 100 points is a clear record, but from second down to bottom there is less of a gap than there was, in for instance the 2016-17 season. United got 81 points to WBA's 31: in 2016-7 Spurs were second with 86 points while Sunderland were bottom with only 24. The gap between 6th and 17th this season was 27 (63 to 36) compared to 29 last season (69 to 40). The lower number of points amassed shows a more even competition since no side (apart from the champions) is winning all the time. And an analysis of results in detail confirms this: United lost away to all three promoted sides, one of which finished in 15th place and one in 16th, they could only manage a draw at relegated Stoke and Southampton took a point away from OT and would have had 3 but for some dubious refereeing. The team of the year for many, Liverpool, lost at relegated Swansea and drew both matches against bottom team WBA (and lost at Anfield to them in the FA cup). So, at least as interesting as any other PL season and anyone who can describe a season in which one team breaks the record for ... (enter any record which comes to mind) ... "as amongst the most forgettable in the 26 editions of the Premier League" really has to be a knuckle head who deserves a very special form of certification.
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Certified "Top Bitter".
 
SebastianBlue said:
Another asterisk on our title win, then...

Why the 2017-2018 Premier League Season Underwhelmed
Premier League's lack of quality outside of top six more apparent than ever in 2017-18

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/engl...of-top-six-more-apparent-than-ever-in-2017-18

Here is the end of the article if anyone wants a summary of the latest method of diminishing our triumph—I am sure there will be calls to shackles us next season for “the good of the league and worldwide product!”
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Funnily enough, in the golden season when the rags won the treble, this Utd team would have finished above them. Not only that, he seems to base his assertion on Burnley having a negative goal difference whilst finishing 7th. 1999, West Ham finished fifth with, you’ve guessed it, a negaitive GD. This happens in most seasons. His other assertion is that the bottom half teams couldn’t beat anyone from the top six, which suggests he didn’t actually watch any games this season!
Bournemouth, Brighton, Newcastle, Swansea and Watford all beat Arsenal.
Bournemouth, Palace, Newcastle, Watford and West Ham all beat Chelsea.
Leicester and West Brom beat Spuds, whilst Brighton, Southampton, Watford, West Brom and West Ham drew with them.
Liverpool lost to Swansea, didn’t beat West Brom or Everton and drew with Stoke and Southampton.
Utd, as we know, lost to the 3 promoted teams and West Brom.
 
Leto said:
The idolisation of Salah this season is all a bit much. It feels a bit patronising too, like they can't believe anyone from the Arab world could be any good at football. The Channel 4 documentary that is on TV soon is another part of it.
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It's only right that Salah's achievement this year be recognised - although, I don't recall any similar documentaries eulogising other great goalscoring feats on terrestrial TV. So, I do see your point.
Similarly, it's only right that Sky Sports - a company steeped in recording the history of the modern game - dedicate a tribute to the Centurions. That said, it shouldn't be on on the Monday night after the cup final. That's a night for the cup winners to celebrate what some of us old farts still regard as a fine achievement.
The most interesting comparison between the Salah's achievement and that of the Centurions is the qualification process that each had to undergo before recognition was awarded.
The Centurions were stringently compared to feats of past great teams - mostly from the pre-PL era. Results and points tallies were measured and extrapolated. The dust blown from tattered old record books, dating as far back as the century before the last century before the experts finally agreed that, yes, probably we're missing something... but, well, yes, these Centurions are the best of all time. Although they didn't go unbeaten. And they didn't win a treble. But yeah...
For his part, as he approached greatness, Mr Salah's goal tally was constantly diligently compared with greats of the past such as Bob Latchford or Dixie Dean.... Oh, hang on.
 
We have progressed since 2008 and the media messages of "noisy neighbours", "not in my lifetime", "you cannot by success", "players will always choose clubs with history", "overpaid mercenaries", " rich mans plaything", "financial doping", "buying success" and more recently "Emptihad", "worthless trophies", "underachieved with spend", "cannot compare with other top team achievements".

I am old enough to remember times when Barcelona was not considered to be a top club in Europe and it was hard to see the Milano clubs being displaced as the richest and most successful clubs around. I also remember Liverpool promoted from the second division, buying all the top players with Moores family gambling money. The legendary Bill Shankley at Huddersfield had first applied to manage Manchester City before appointed by Liverpool. History is constantly being rewritten.

Achievements are quantified by trophies but measured by statistics. The Manchester City Centurians set new benchmarks never before achieved in over a hundred years even when adjusting to 3 points for a win even though most years teams played 42 games instead of the current 38.

City have set new benchmarks that cannot be ignored. Other clubs and the media are finally waking up to the fact that this is just the start. However much they dismiss, deflect or denigrate the City achievements, the achievements will still stand when they are long gone. Manchester City are giants picking up new support across the world, especially the young.

10 years ago, football was red with a bit of blue. Now sky blue is everywhere as a colour identified with success. Pep is changing football. Best of all is how he connects with the owners, staff, players and fans as a family. Global dominance is on its way. Martin Samuel gets it as do a few other journos. In the main the media panders to a bygone age but the shift will be swift if City continue to grow and dominate, which looks likely with Pep and a young team.
 
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