Media Thread - 2021/22

[Citizen of Legoland]

A reminder that this was Delooney almost exactly 12 months ago to the day.

Redshirt establishment toadying? Tick

Factually incorrect about united and liverpool being historic title rivals?
Tick

Hilariously wrong prediction?
Tick

Any mention whatsoever about the prospect of the cult winning consecutive titles by double-digit margins being bad for the game?
Big fat X

What a difference a year makes, eh

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Haha, he thought Utd would level out and need two more players! Give up the day job Delooney! Try comedy.

 

[Bonzo Nododo]

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Thanks. I remembered that but didn't have the exact detail to post it. ESPN dead right for once saying it is going to be a great season.
I see they have changed the alphabet a bit to put the rags on top.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

I’ve always thought Buncie comes across as a mad boxing fan who can’t believe his luck that he gets to broadcast and write about the sport. It’s one of his best qualities.
Very good to hear that he is a genuinely decent bloke as well. Not a surprise but still good to hear.

That's pretty much it, he gets paid extremely well because he loves his subject matter to the point, he knows more than anyone else about it.

And he hates United!

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

Media has decided to turn on Grealish.

Should please some on here then .

 

[LongsightM13]

1. It is simply untrue that City is state-owned. Anyone and everyone who says otherwise is either ignorant of our true ownership structure, or understands it but dishonestly describes it as something else to suit their own purposes and arguments.

2. What is undoubtedly true is that the ultimate owner is a very rich man. (The majority owner, that is. The minority owners are Chinese and American investors. The very substantial sums these investors parted with to own a share of City is something that is often overlooked by those with their own agenda to promote.)

3, City has gone from being a club that spent the majority of the three decades before HHSM bought the club either in the bottom half of the premier league or completely outside it. Since then it has become (arguably) the best team and the best run club in the world. Those things do not happen without significant investment.

4. It is from a wider perspective undoubtedly a bad thing that it is only if your club is owned by a very rich man that you can challenge at the very highest level for a sustained length of time. However this has been true for a very long time before Sheikh Mansour bought City and it is a situation that was made worse by the formation of the premier league and the champions league.

5. As City have demonstrated, what is required is a sustained initial period of funding at a very high level. What then happens is that success breeds success. Our accounts show that we are self financing. It is some time since HHSM put additional funds into the club.

6. City are still funded by a number of businesses with connections to Abu Dhabi. Rather more comes from businesses with no such connection (other than perhaps a desire to do more business with the Emirate). A very significant proportion of City's income is related to success on the pitch, in particular TV revenue. Success breeds success.

7. What the board at City had was a strategic vision of a worldwide group with all the advantages that involved. That vision is in the process of being realised. To describe peak Barcelona as the Apple of the football world is only to tell half the story for two reasons. First, Apple had many years of success behind them, and so had the resources to develop the visions of their visionaries. Whether or not Barcelona might had the financial wherewithal to develop the idea of a global football brand but they certainly did not have the vision. (I have never heard anyone at Barca say "of course we wanted to pursue Ferran's 'Barcelona Football Group' idea but we couldn't afford it." I have however heard many say that at Board level Barcelona just weren't interested in the idea. What is clear, though, is that the concept that has become/evolved into the City Group was first offered to Barcelona, who simply looked at it and turned it down. If they had pursued that vision, Txiki and Ferran would not be at City, and neither would Pep. What HHSM delivered was the environment in which that idea could be developed and implemented. We are now beginning to enjoy the fruits of that process.

8. As to purchasing Barcelona's leadership team wholesale, virtually any other premier league club could have done that, not just City. Certainly United, Liverpool and Chelsea could have done, if the Barcelona team had been willing to go there. None had the foresight to bring that team in, but most could have afforded to do so. Pep, Ferran and Txiki simply don't have salaries that only City can afford to pay.

9. The reality is that a propaganda war is being fought by those who for whatever reason - emotional, commercial, whatever - have some motivation that City's success runs adverse to. These people aren't likely to let things like facts get in their way. It is why we hear distortions, exaggerations, simple untruths and irrational opinions at every stage. "City is state-owned." Simply untrue. "City has a bigger squad than everyone else." Simply untrue, we have a smaller squad at present and started the season with the same size squad as everyone else. "City dominance is boring." Any club dominating is boring, but the same mouthpieces were curiously silent when the rags won all those titles in the 90s and 00s, and said nothing about Liverpool leading the league at the same stage of the season just two years ago. "All City's funding is investment disguised as sponsorship from related companies." No it isn't. Read the accounts. Read the CAS judgment.

The answer to those who parrot these and similar untruths is to know the details, but be prepared: details don't interest these people. (Where have we have seen this style of argument before?)

Well said that man

 

[LongsightM13]

That's pretty much it, he gets paid extremely well because he loves his subject matter to the point, he knows more than anyone else about it.

And he hates United!

Love the guy, I’ve even read his novel!

 

[The Light Was Yellow Sir]

Dont think Txiki or Soriano were working for Barcelona when we appointed them. Also City are worth more than who ever you consider owns Manchester City has invested.

Apple's success I'm pretty sure has come with buying or leveraging technology developed by others and they have also paid big fines for infringing others patents. Also Apple were initially funded by its owners.

Do you think that is Apple, whose debt was just shy of 1 billion in 1998? The one that credit agencies said their paper was effectively ‘junk’? The one that now has a debt of over 100 billion dollars, so it can effectively operate without paying taxes? Or another Apple, that is none of those things?

 

[Citizen Green]

@Chris in London & @SilvaisSkyBlue thank you very much for your articulate fact based responses. Wonderful stuff.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Haha, he thought Utd would level out and need two more players! Give up the day job Delooney! Try comedy.

He was allegedly told by his employers to give Twitter a break last year over fears he genuinely couldn't cope without it and was was risking his job.

Both him and Ian Herbert are acutely aware that people have approached the press box at the Etihad seeking them out.

Wankers.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

Defo a red, mate, @Prestwich_Blue knows his family well
Also there was this among other stories about him on here

Prestwich Blue knows Rob Harris family. Dad ran the Jewish Gazzette I believe.