Pep: 'The players deserve a full stadium, we need our fans!'

[Marvin]

Personally I think it's time to just to quit with the booing.
The manager has asked people to stop and the two main culprits from UEFA and FIFA have moved on - so should we.

Let's enjoy this competition. We've got a chance to do really well, we've got great owners, great players, the best manager, the best facilities - let's compliment that with the best fans.

The link between booing and non-attendance is not genuine though. Might as well link the catering menu, or choice of music over the tannoy. Anything coincidental is causal in some peoples minds.

The explanations are more obvious. Limited number of supporters with a limited supply of money.

Liverpool, and Utd are on a downward curve. We are on an upward curve. The football clubs fortunes have already crossed each other, but the fans curve lags behind, but inevitably follows the trajectory of their clubs......that is after all how Utd and Liverpool built their supporter bases. 5 European Cups, and 20 league titles. More titles are on their way to City, therefore the fans will follow. Just wait. The transformation in manchester has been under way for a decade. You see much more City in manchester, indeed anywhere than you ever did. It's all in hand.

If rumour is right, in two years time we'll be playing to 62,000 in 2 years time, so really what is the fuss?

 

[Blue Llama]

I call a spade a spade

I have heard that expression so many times and it’s just a euphemism for – I am going to say what I like irrespective of whether its true, hurts someone or gets everyone’s backup. I don’t care it’s all about me.

 

[Tugay One Cup]

Nice bit of respect shown to the Manager who has got them playing that way.

Baffling, isn't it?

 

[malg]

This - I think that we need to stop kidding ourselves - there is a real problem.

I am not sure what can be done about it - but if we cannot bring ourselves to get out of this attitude of denial that will not help.

Why did the club have to decide in advance to close sections of the stands - not down to the club, they would love the revenue. It is down to the track record of the behaviour of us fans.

So yes - we do have a problem in terms of attendance

And yes - we do have a problem with regard the atmosphere at the ground - the club have tried through consultation and making changes - but 'dragging horses to water' and all that

And yes - we have a problem with the way fans fuck off - and again the club has done so much to provide reasons to stay to the end.

We, as a fanbase, have to man-up and admit that there is a really serious - multi-faceted - problem with not only attracting greater numbers but also the quality of their support.

Really really not sure what we can do about it - well I guess it would help if everyone one here decided to stay to the final whistle unless there really was a 'proper' reason to leave early - but IMO we should at least accept that the issue is real - embarrassing and lets down our fellow supporters, club, owner and players

Couldn't argue with any of that.

 

[taconinja]

I don't really care about booing nor attendance. I'm stuck an ocean away, so I have no right to judge. All I will say is Pep can "gob off" about whatever he likes considering the way he has the team playing.

 

[Marvin]

This has been coming for a long time in my opinion from somebody at the club. Nobody within the club, up until now, has been brave enough to approach the situation. I'm not sure which way it will go now but it has got other clubs supporters talking about it. Most of which are conveniently ignoring the comment from Pep about us always filling it for Prem games.

Klopp approached a similarly touchy subject with Liverpool fans leaving early last season. I'm not sure whether this had any effect or not.

I'm lucky that I can afford to attend every home game and a lot of away games, but I'm also wise enough to know that personal circumstances with other fans means that not everybody is in the same boat as me. I won't slate anybody for not going to a game. That's their own choice at the end of the day and I think Pep has been very brave to approach it so early into his tenure here. He is in a position of power at the moment though especially with the way we've started, so maybe he felt it was the right time to pipe up about it. The club can't do anymore than they are doing IMO with ticket prices. Last nights ticket cost less than some League 2 games do nowadays.

I did mention on the Etihad development thread the other day that I think we should hold off on the further expansion but obviously got shot down and called a rag by the usual suspects. That remains my opinion and while I can see it from the other side, I do believe we should let demand really outstrip supply before going ahead with it

Err what is coming for a long time. The game was played in extraordinary circumstances.

If you bother to take the long term view, then you'll see that City's average attendances have sky-rocketed. And the only thing holding them back going ever higher is the stadium. Something which will hopefully soon be solved.

If we add another 6,000 seats that will be another 6,000 regular match-going fans. We've got 44,000 seasoncard holders. I can easily see that going to 50,000 in the next couple of years.

You'll get smaller midweek Cup games because all the seasoncard holders aren't going to be able to go to every game, and City don't have the local support to make up for missing regulars. And the quickest way to get them is to build a bigger ground.

We would be absolutely stupid not to take advantage of the success and extend the ground.

 

[philiph20]

Nice bit of respect shown to the Manager who has got them playing that way.

He's done a great job so far and is obviously a fantastic manager but all of us are entitled to our opinions, I respect him but I'm not going to treat him like some God and go all 'nited, Scouse or Geordie with all the melodramatic mawkish fawning.

 

[manctheknife]

I have heard that expression so many times and it’s just a euphemism for – I am going to say what I like irrespective of whether its true, hurts someone or gets everyone’s backup. I don’t care it’s all about me.

Maybe. Or maybe she does actually just call a spade a spade.....

 

[BurnCK]

The reason we boo UEFA is because it is corrupt to the core. Changing the rules about the UEFA co-efficient is just one illustration of this.

The reason we go to the games is to support our team. Like it or loathe it the Champions League is the most prestigious club competition in the world bar none. It is not inconsistent to want our team to win that trophy whilst showing our personal disgust towards the organisers and the way they have treated us and our team.

Fair enough, I just feel the 'way they've treated us' is melodramatically blown out of proportion. I had a gripe with FFP, but that's dead now anyway and the man who introduced it is banned from the organisation. Is that not enough to move on? As for the CL being unfair, etc...it always has been, since it's inception, but that's due to UEFA pandering to the 'G14' clubs who threaten to break away.

Anyway, boo or not...whatever makes you feel better, although you're naïve if you think it has any affect on UEFA or their brand.

 

[kaz7]

I have heard that expression so many times and it’s just a euphemism for – I am going to say what I like irrespective of whether its true, hurts someone or gets everyone’s backup. I don’t care it’s all about me.

Lol

 

[trotsky]

That sounds really grown up to me, not. More like the behavior of a 5 year old in Tesco.

Irony?

 

[philiph20]

This has been coming for a long time in my opinion from somebody at the club. Nobody within the club, up until now, has been brave enough to approach the situation. I'm not sure which way it will go now but it has got other clubs supporters talking about it. Most of which are conveniently ignoring the comment from Pep about us always filling it for Prem games.

Klopp approached a similarly touchy subject with Liverpool fans leaving early last season. I'm not sure whether this had any effect or not.

I'm lucky that I can afford to attend every home game and a lot of away games, but I'm also wise enough to know that personal circumstances with other fans means that not everybody is in the same boat as me. I won't slate anybody for not going to a game. That's their own choice at the end of the day and I think Pep has been very brave to approach it so early into his tenure here. He is in a position of power at the moment though especially with the way we've started, so maybe he felt it was the right time to pipe up about it. The club can't do anymore than they are doing IMO with ticket prices. Last nights ticket cost less than some League 2 games do nowadays.

I did mention on the Etihad development thread the other day that I think we should hold off on the further expansion but obviously got shot down and called a rag by the usual suspects. That remains my opinion and while I can see it from the other side, I do believe we should let demand really outstrip supply before going ahead with it

If you sell out your home league games you need to expand I thought this was obvious, it is the chumps league people have issues with which are at most half a Dozen games a season.

 

[Le Havre Oswald]

Bring back the corpse!

bring back the corpse! Bring back the corpse, bring back the corpse. Everyone in east stand level 3 all 40 you, lets here you don't be shy. Bring back the corpse. One more time from the top. A bring back the corpse.

 

[jpinblue]

I was there, I always will be. Never leave early either.

I honestly can't work out why others are not there. Every game.

 

[Bozo]

I got banned/called a rag last time I talked about the empty seats problem, so I'll just leave this here ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[citymad]

You understand that people who boo the Champs League anthem are City fans don't you? We are there to support the team, but take the opportunity to make our feelings known about the corrupt organisation that governs the competition. You might not give a shit about that, so bully for you, don't boo the anthem. Some of us remember what UEFA tried to do to our club and what they'd do again given the chance, so fuck them and fuck their anthem.

Grow up and don't attend Uefa organized games if you don't like it.

 

[Dodge]

Not posted for a while but this has really got my back up.

No-one has the right to criticise or question last nights attendance, absolutely no fucker. I don't care if its our much-esteemed coach, the press, the wind up merchants on here, or Lord God Almighty himself. The fans who attended should be congratulated on turning up TWICE, and the no-shows who took the time & trouble to purchase tickets & travel to the abandoned game should be as well.

I bought the bundle and travelled up from Leicester Tuesday night, 3 days after we travelled to Manchester for the Rag game and 4 days before travelling again for the Bournemouth match. I simply could not justify or take the time off work to make the what would've been the 4th trip in 7 days. Our merry bunch of ex-pat Mancs totalled 8 on Tuesday night but only 2 could go last night. Who the fuck has the right to question our loyalty? Who the fuck is going to pay for my time off. Who's stumping up for fuel? We made an 8 hour hour round trip on Tuesday for less than fuck all, but who gives a shit. It took twice as long to get from Leicester than it did on a plane for the Germans. How many of them turned up last night?

Last night was the first CL home game I've missed for 4 years, and I was gutted that I couldn't make it for purely economic reasons. Meanwhile, a multi-millionaire coach rolls out cheap shots and innuendo about the supporter base. Sorry, that don't wash with me..at all. In fact, it royally pisses me off.

Our coach (and club) should be congratulating the 30-odd thousand who turned up TWICE, not making snide ill-informed comments and feeding the supporter base to the fucking wolves.

Stop booing? Fuck off. We're City, we're barmy (there must be a song there somewhere), we do daft stuff and that's what makes us different from the rest of 'em. PC brigade out in force, lets not upset UEFA, lets be positive and cow down to the bigwigs in Geneva. Fuck right off.

Sorry mate, we're City and we do things differently here..

And long may it continue.

Booo..

 

[hinchcliffes bulbous conk]

Well he cant have been talking about the home league games or away ones for that matter given his short time here and the fact its generally full for league games.

Is it an issue not selling out for the CL? yes, of course it is but there are long standing reasons why, something he or someone at the club should educate him about and this weeks game was an absolute fuck up given the weather and 24 hours notice of rearranged kick off.

For what its worth, the atmosphere last night was great given the size of the crowd and the performance was out of this world.

Thats the only talking point from the game imo.

Yeah that's all fair enough. I think he gets so consumed in ensuring everything's in place to maximise the chance of victory and he considers a full stadium as part of this.

I was there last night with my Dad and we both commented on the atmosphere being good.

Poor timing with all things considered and not fully understanding our issues with UEFA.

Implying we should just get over it will piss sections of our support off and understandably so.

But the sentiment of having a full stadium packed to rafters, roaring on the blues ala Hamburg does make sense.

 

[sweenyuk]

For me it is part of the managers role to sell the club to the public. Mancini did this well as he connected very closely with the fans, same with Sven, Keegan and even Pearce in recent years. Hughes was never going to win us over and Pellers was no sales man... I accept many couldn't make it to the rearranged game, I only fully decided to go at 5pm but even if the original game was played large parts of the ground were closed. Local teams with big name managers and winning teams could sell out their grounds for a training event, we are supposed to have 10,000 on a waiting list for season cards so why are those who can't get in for a premier league match not using the cup games as an opportunity to attend..?? Our marketing team need to up their game, our ticket office needs to improve, our sales directors need to price everything (not just tickets) at a level the working class can afford the full package (ticket, food, merchandise, programme) Car parking and public transport needs improvements but we the fans also need to play our part and start attending games. There are a hard core who do attend all home games including myself. There is an even harder core who attend all away games too, but there is a large section that would rather save money and watch cup games on TV.

 

[cibaman]

Was the 30,000 att the number of people in the ground or tickets sold?