MUTINY by players.Konspiracy??.... We will see

[moomba]

what I want is to see is 11 players sweating blood for Manchester City on the pitch.

I'd rather see 11 players that perform and get results, not bothered about whether they need to run around to do it (although personally I like those that do put in the effort(.

I guess it's the old Anelka v Dickov debate. Not being English I guess I'm not as tied to the huff and puff approach as others.

 

[slbsn]

I dont think anyone wants another Sven v Hughes debate but even if I accept the dead man walking theory, this doesnt explain the dire performances from November to March (ie before it even emerged that Sven was under serious threat)?

I wasn't expressing a theory.

Well it isnt fact. Anyway even if it explains 2/3 ridiculous performances there does appear to be something wrong with a number of our squad that neither Hughes NOR Sven could address. That does seem to be fact

 

[mr t]

Who is the player no longer in the squad - Is it Tal Ben Haim?

I ask this because after the Santander game my mate told me that both he and Elano had been told that they would never play for City again. Now Elano is on the scene but as for Ben Haim................

Ben Haim was a sub or played every match from 2/8/8 to 18/12/8, he's not been the team since 21/12/8. I checked here see if he has an injury. http://www.physioroom.com/news/english_premier_league/epl_injury_table.php. He's fit to play, i think.

Ta mate - so it looks as though there might be something in that - interesting.

 

[BobKowalski]

You can't really argue with Mr Harley I guess...

...and to be honest I am pig sick of the whole thing and pretty much past caring who is to blame. I am indifferent to Hughes purported targets whose only saving grace is that they may save us from the threat of relegation this season although what we do with them after that f**k knows. I am seeing little in the way of leadership from anyone at the club and can't quite work out why or how Hughes has managed to alienate players that he picks on a regular basis or how we ended up with a player like TBH given that the manager didn't want him from the off - seriously why was Hughes not saying why the hell we spending 3/4/5 mill on this rubbish? And where are all the Hughes supporters telling me that TBH was a good solid buy?

I am bored with the Elano saga and frankly it would just be better if we sold him because I don't think I can take another Elano thread nor can I put up with yet another SGE/Hughes comparison or is the squad good/average/terrible (its all three - capable of the good, the mundane and the downright terrible). If the players are unmanagable (something I am sceptical about) or past it or stale or you just don't like their haircuts then ease them out and replace them with quality players its not as if we are short of f**king cash or something.

I am baffled and astounded that we have royally f**ked up to the extent that we are two points off the drop zone in January and dumped out on our arses from two cup competitions and that we are supposedly looking at Scott Parker as the answer to our ills. A player who has not set the world alight at his last three clubs. I mean we couldn't find anyone better for the money?

So we are awash with money with a manager who has yet to actually manage and can't until he gets in another 5 or 6 players in addition to the 5 or 6 he has already bought (or had bought for him or whatever) with a chief exec running the show who talks in tongues and seriously should learn to keep his mouth shut oh and helped out be a lawyer from West Ham who was censured by the FA for lying when giving evidence on the Tevez affair.

Its not exactly the A team is it?

On a plus note Bridge is a solid buy which given we are in troubled waters could be very handy

 

[reni800]

Interesting...

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article2097664.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... 097664.ece</a>

"RICHARD DUNNE insists Manchester City’s billionaire board must stick by manager Mark Hughes.

Sparky is clinging on to his job by his fingertips, with City two points above the Premier League drop zone and out of the FA Cup after a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

The club’s Arab owners have given him £100million to spend in the transfer window despite fans calling for his head.
And City skipper Dunne, 29, said: “The club need to keep backing him because the players believe what we are doing in training is right. Hopefully he will get the chance to show what he can do in the transfer market.
“We have had a couple of poor results and people have been too quick to point the finger. In training, the manager has been confident and telling us it will turn around — and that has helped the players.”

 

[Wooderbeen]

Can I ask for serious answers to this qyestion and not a slanging match that other threads have developed into.

I'm addressing it to everyone who believes that it is possible that there may be some truth in this story (which includes me).

Do you not think that there is something strange when a group of experienced professional footballers, from all sorts of different backgrounds, come to the conclusion that the training methods and management techniques being used are bad for the club?

Instead of automatically writing it off as a disgrace and the players being soft, do we give no credence to the judgement of players like Dunne who have time and again proved that they are willing to sweat blood for this club?

Do the previous good, hardworking and professional characters of players like Dunne, Vassell, Hammann, Kompany, Ball, etc count for nothing?

Until the end of last season, when everyone has to admit that there were excpetional circumstances, these players have consistently been hardworking professional players, not scared of hard work and willing to put everything in for the shirt they are playing in.

Yet because they raise questions about the manager's techniques we are automatically writing them off as poncing leeches who constantly want to act in a manner that has previously been the opposite of everything their careers have stood for?

We are not talking about poncing trouble causers like Bellamay or Kieron Dyer here. We are talking about a man who has run through walls for this club, Richard Dunne, and a man who most would agree has always been the epitome of 'the model pro', regardless of ability, in Vassell.

Is there no possibility of the methods that Hughes is using, cmbined with his management style ever being open to examination and cross examination?

Cos this thread just seems to be full of people who automatically accept that if Hughes has implemented training regimes that all these players, from differing backgrounds and countries find poor, then that is no fault of Hughes and the players are just a bunch of twats. Even if that is the complete opposite of their character.

Furthermore, if, as has been suggested above, Hughes came in with details from Frank (hardly what people could call a stable, rational or reliable football source of knowledge) saying that all the players are twats, and has proceeded to carry these through even when the mad bastard has left, then wouldn't you expect some of the players to be unhappy that the word of a nutty politician, who the majrity of us accept knew fuck all about football and handled himself very badly at the end of the season, is being taken as read and their new manager has come in with an attitude that has already labelled them bastards?

Not looking for an argument but anything approaching a balanced view is lacking on this thread and I feel it's fair to post something questioning this from another angle.

Long, but good post. For my part, I think who's training techiques are right and who's are wrong, is a side issue. As you said... who on here really knows? Nobody. The issue, for me, is that Hughes is in charge. Like it or loathe, he's been given the job of running our team and that includes the training regime. If you're a player by all means disagree, even go home and have a grumble to the wife, but you're surely still under a contractual obligation to give it your all. The suggestion that the players have instead decided to stage some kind of protest doesn't reflect well on them at all. IF it is true.

 

[slbsn]

what I want is to see is 11 players sweating blood for Manchester City on the pitch.

I'd rather see 11 players that perform and get results, not bothered about whether they need to run around to do it (although personally I like those that do put in the effort(.

I guess it's the old Anelka v Dickov debate. Not being English I guess I'm not as tied to the huff and puff approach as others.

I dont remember the "old Anelka v Dickov debate" - it was pretty with anyone with a brain who'd you would rather have. Huff and puff is never a replacement for ability but top players dont take the shortcuts the flawed able players like Elano take.

But this is not about one or two players, this is about how we become a top top club. And there is only ONE way. Look at the top 4 over the last 10 years. In fact, look at the teams like Everton and Villa who are next in line. Look at our best players so far - Ireland/SWP have worked their asses off as well as shown their ability. You need both - its not a choice. The only top player I can think of that doesnt appear to work his arse off is Berbatov and the jury is well and truly out on him.

And hard work is particularly important away from home for some reason. You rarely win at Stoke or Blackburn or similar playing beautiful football at the expense of work rate. And those games represent at least a quarter of the season. Whether we can find or develop 2/3 Rooneys, Gerards, Lampards will be decisive for us.

 

[Superhands]

Interesting...

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/article2097664.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sp ... 097664.ece</a>

"RICHARD DUNNE insists Manchester City’s billionaire board must stick by manager Mark Hughes.

Sparky is clinging on to his job by his fingertips, with City two points above the Premier League drop zone and out of the FA Cup after a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest.

The club’s Arab owners have given him £100million to spend in the transfer window despite fans calling for his head.
And City skipper Dunne, 29, said: “The club need to keep backing him because the players believe what we are doing in training is right. Hopefully he will get the chance to show what he can do in the transfer market.
“We have had a couple of poor results and people have been too quick to point the finger. In training, the manager has been confident and telling us it will turn around — and that has helped the players.”

interesting that he has gone out of his way to mention he training

 

[Wooderbeen]

what I want is to see is 11 players sweating blood for Manchester City on the pitch.

I'd rather see 11 players that perform and get results, not bothered about whether they need to run around to do it (although personally I like those that do put in the effort(.

I guess it's the old Anelka v Dickov debate. Not being English I guess I'm not as tied to the huff and puff approach as others.

I agree and of course you'd always rather have the results to show for it. But we haven't. Which is why I think Harley's point is valid. I DO want to see some passion and some pride. Some of our players, contrary to what is believed on here, do have considerable ability and if they played with a little more heart, I think we'd see them at the top of their game again. I'm not suggesting, as the OP is, that they're not performing on purpose, but their performance levels have dropped - no doubt about it. Yes, I know that Hughes is to blame in part, but so are they.

Blood, sweat and tears don't win games, I agree, but if it's between that and what we've been witness to a few times over the last couple of months... I'll take it.

 

[Alex Harley]

I didnt' mean to run around like headless chickens but to marry thier undoubted talent with a better workrate As thing the top teams in this league do every match not when the whim takes them.That is the sort of thing I want to see not the limp performances of late