He’s at it again tonightA US radio commentator I was listening to today had a brilliant way of putting it -- I'm paraphrasing -- "An arrogant bully like Perez, who used to being in power, and unchallenged, thinks he can simply speak and his words will make a thing so. Who asked Perez to 'Save football'? No one."
The "cutting a deal" bit makes a lot of sense.No problem, have edited the poll for you, removed the "N" option and moved "None of the Above" as a last option instead of in the middle.
In my personal view, it's ALL of the above ...
It started with "Not good but had little choice" ... as we were not given too much time to plan or think it through or consult fans/players etc etc.
Then it went from there to "We became what we've always hated" when we allowed that shambles of the statement with Glazer's quotes on our website. ... which was "An ill judged cock-up" ... but I guess had to go with it if that was the statement agreed by all 12 clubs and every one put up the same, then we couldn't really have something of our own going on ...
I think around that time it was "An opportunist bit of mischief making" against UEFA as City I believe thought TSL might kick-off or not but it would hurt UEFA and make them sit up and listen (see Pep's quotes were anti-UEFA quite a bit in his presser calling them out).
And finally when the powers be saw how it was unfolding and all, they quickly went into developing "A cunning conspiracy to hit our enemies hard" ... I believe when all these big wigs started resigning from UEFA and City saw PSG and Bayern were getting in bed with UEFA, they had to choose a side quickly ... and they went with lesser of the evil ... which was UEFA ... they ditched these American so called new friends (who they knew never were our friends) but it was a matter of keeping your enemies closer I believe ... we then saw the opportunity that UEFA was all of a sudden cleansed up by Agnelli, Woodward and all the likes resigning from there ... so a little rinsed UEFA and something to bargain with seemed a good option and we cut a deal with them and I am absolutely certain we cut a deal ... that UEFA statement issued by Cefrin calling us by name as a beacon of hope and all that and welcoming back into the European family and all those glowing words ... I swear I have tried typing all that and you can't type it as fast as that statement came out within minutes of City's statement that they're leaving ... so that is a fact those two were released in coordination with each other and since then no other club has been "welcomed" by UEFA that way tells me we totally had turned and gone into that what you call a cunning plan ... It's never been UEFA's current bosses (Cefrin and his team) that we've had problems with or even have good relations with FIFA and that Infantani ... it's been these Woodwards and Agneli's and so inside UEFA who have conspired against us, just like the hateful 9 when they wrote to CAS so yeah sure PSG and Bayern are still in there but now so are we, on the inside ... which is what we went running in to TSL for in the first place - to be inside rather than out.
... so for me it's kind of ALL OF THE ABOVE!
Here's how I think it went:
1) The club were rather coerced into this at a very late stage under huge time related pressure and in a state of panic joined in.
2) Despite that, after the announcement the club had every intention of following this through.
3) After the huge backlash from the team and fans the club decided it wasn't worth the mess for something they never really wanted to be part of in the 1st place and started to look for ways out.
4) Something, something, Aleksander Ceferin.
5) Club withdraws ASAP.
If there was a cunning plan, I'd assume it was put together late on in cahoots with UEFA once we were engineering an exit. If there was some brilliant mastermind plan however, I doubt we'd ever know of it.
It was an ill-judged cock-up in my opinion. We've spent a decade plus trying to catch up financially and on the playing field with our rivals and have got over UEFA's continued meddling at CAS. Then this new idea comes up and we'll have thought, quite rightly in many ways, that we'd be left behind again and we'd better jump on board with it and see what it becomes.
However, the actual result is that we've become what we've always hated. I don't think the club really had much choice on this. How would we have felt if it did take off and we weren't part of it? I'm hugely disappointed in City for being so hypocritical - we should have avoided becoming what we all have bemoaned and hated - but would I have been expressing disbelief and anger at the club if they hadn't joined it and it did take off? Quite probably! Because we're all a fickle bunch at the end of the day.
Whilst the other clubs took off with huge investment and won everything, would I be sat there saying the same argument about how we have the moral high ground and it isn't a proper competition? If those other clubs were winning it then the facts soon get forgotten. Liverpool's success is all because they're such a historic institution that no other football fans would ever know. The fact they got some money, secured promotion and then bought the best talent around to gain that success is forgotten now.
If you voted for 'cunning conspiracy' I want you to know that you're utterly naive. Stop letting blind loyalty cloud your judgement. There is no getting around this, the board have dragged our club's name through the mud and irreversibly damaged the reputation of MCFC.
There is no conspiracy, just pure greed.
If you don’t think this was well planned out, I think you’re naive.
If City were jumping on board with this with enthusiasm, why no quotes from anyone from the club?
Why no communication on social media?
Why did Pep and the players come out against it?
If we’d backed out because of the fan reaction, why no apology to fans? Why no explanation to try to get fans back on side?
If we weren’t keeping Ceferin sweet, why did he release a statement glowing in praise of us within 90 seconds of our official announcement?
The idea that City’s executives planned for months to completely transform the landscape of European football and double our broadcast revenue, but backed out after 36 hours because of a couple of banners and a Gary Neville rant just seems so ridiculous that it’s just not plausible.