so this agenda thing.

[Len Rum]

MG]

except that ffp only came about when we got rich. not a sniff when Chelsea got roman.

Good point. Moving towards that agenda camp again.

All aboard.
DD, Opposite Blue and fetlocks on the back seat.

 

[Latics Fan SJK]

It's good to see the "non agendistas" making a fightback.
Theirs is a noble cause which is purely emotional and spiritual and rises above boring worldly issues of facts ,evidence and logic.

Keep taking the meds, Len.
Doctors say they're pleased with your progress, and are considering giving you a room of your own, as that de niro is clearly a patient with higher support needs, and you two sharing isn't ideal.

You still fighting the corner, bud?

 

[George Hannah]

It's good to see the "non agendistas" making a fightback.
Theirs is a noble cause which is purely emotional and spiritual and rises above boring worldly issues of facts ,evidence and logic.

Keep taking the meds, Len.
Doctors say they're pleased with your progress, and are considering giving you a room of your own, as that de niro is clearly a patient with higher support needs, and you two sharing isn't ideal.

You still fighting the corner, bud?

He's straight out of Henshaws

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

The Rag/Dipper Meedya have but a single item agenda - they are biased in favour of anything scuttling about the pitch in a MANUre or Liverpool shirt. Part of that single item agenda is that they are gonna be negative about much of what MCFC as a club achieve. Our achievements will be diminished or ignored. Compare this to other non-Rag/Dipper outfits, although BTShite are doin' a pretty good hatchet job on The Arse at the moment.

There is also a single item agenda within the echelons of Uefa, and that is to make sure that every hurdle is put in place of upcoming teams who are likely to challenge and usurp any CL places once occupied by the Rag/Bayern/Hispanic Axis.

For people to suggest that there is no agenda flies in the face of what is under their noses, or in front of their eyes.

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

It's good to see the "non agendistas" making a fightback.
Theirs is a noble cause which is purely emotional and spiritual and rises above boring worldly issues of facts ,evidence and logic.

Keep taking the meds, Len.
Doctors say they're pleased with your progress, and are considering giving you a room of your own, as that de niro is clearly a patient with higher support needs, and you two sharing isn't ideal.

You still fighting the corner, bud?

It's a thankless task mate, but somebody has to do it.
The latest logic from the Brains Trust is that an agenda 'is more difficult to prove'.
Which presumably explains why nobody has done it yet, because there is more chance of Lord Lucan trotting Shergar on to Glenn Miller's plane than any of that 'proof and evidence' stuff turning up anytime soon.
Ask these basket cases just who is in on this global conspiracy, and to what ends, and they haven't got a clue - it just exists, like air or dark matter.
Proof is for the non-believers.
They make the Roswell, Twin Towers and Diana conspirators look like paragons of common sense.
I daresay some loon will be on shortly moaning that City weren't mentioned once on CBeebies this morning, or that Mister Maker had a red suit on, or that Natalie Pike isn't on page three.
The last of which I accept is regrettable.

 

[tonea2003]

Keep taking the meds, Len.
Doctors say they're pleased with your progress, and are considering giving you a room of your own, as that de niro is clearly a patient with higher support needs, and you two sharing isn't ideal.

You still fighting the corner, bud?

It's a thankless task mate, but somebody has to do it.
The latest logic from the Brains Trust is that an agenda 'is more difficult to prove'.
Which presumably explains why nobody has done it yet, because there is more chance of Lord Lucan trotting Shergar on to Glenn Miller's plane than any of that 'proof and evidence' stuff turning up anytime soon.
Ask these basket cases just who is in on this global conspiracy, and to what ends, and they haven't got a clue - it just exists, like air or dark matter.
Proof is for the non-believers.
They make the Roswell, Twin Towers and Diana conspirators look like paragons of common sense.
I daresay some loon will be on shortly moaning that City weren't mentioned once on CBeebies this morning, or that Mister Maker had a red suit on, or that Natalie Pike isn't on page three.
The last of which I accept is regrettable.

its becoming like the the ship of fools fets :-)
lots of claims.......you know the rest

 

[Chris in London]

Keep taking the meds, Len.
Doctors say they're pleased with your progress, and are considering giving you a room of your own, as that de niro is clearly a patient with higher support needs, and you two sharing isn't ideal.

You still fighting the corner, bud?

It's a thankless task mate, but somebody has to do it.
The latest logic from the Brains Trust is that an agenda 'is more difficult to prove'.
Which presumably explains why nobody has done it yet, because there is more chance of Lord Lucan trotting Shergar on to Glenn Miller's plane than any of that 'proof and evidence' stuff turning up anytime soon.
Ask these basket cases just who is in on this global conspiracy, and to what ends, and they haven't got a clue - it just exists, like air or dark matter.
Proof is for the non-believers.
They make the Roswell, Twin Towers and Diana conspirators look like paragons of common sense.
I daresay some loon will be on shortly moaning that City weren't mentioned once on CBeebies this morning, or that Mister Maker had a red suit on, or that Natalie Pike isn't on page three.
The last of which I accept is regrettable.

The reason I struggle with this debate is that nobody seems to agree on what they mean when they say 'there is an agenda' or 'there is no agenda'.

When fetters says 'there is no global conspiracy aimed at taking down Manchester City' I agree with him completely. But when other posters say 'there are vested interests at work in UEFA/the media etc which lead to 'established' teams getting far more favourable treatment in a variety of ways, with City suffering by comparison' I completely agree with that also.

I simply don't believe that Mr Big is sitting in an office surrounded by shark infested fish tanks, stroking a white cat and plotting the downfall of Pellegrini's blue and white army. Equally, I do believe that the media (esp SSN) concentrate far more on eg rags and dippers for reasons of commercial interest, and that UEFA for commercial reasons are more concerned with propping up the status quo than about giving any and every team a fair crack of the whip. Propping up the status quo may not have the damaging of Manchester City as it's objective, but it achieves much the same result in any event.

So if I am right does this mean there is an agenda or there isn't one? I get the impression with this debate that about 95% of people see the treatment of our club in the same way, and are disagreeing with each other about the label you attach to what we can all see in the media every day.

In UEFA's case whether the 'agenda' is to harm Manchester City in order to protect the established elite, or to protect the established elite at all costs which involves Manchester City being harmed as sort of collateral damage is to my mind an academic distinction. Whether that does amount to an agenda by some definitions but not by others seems an equally arid distinction to draw given that whatever it's cause, we largely seem to agree that City get a far more negative reception than clubs of comparable league status. Likewise, whether Sky and other media outlets view it as in their commercial interests to promote attention on the traditional sky 4 clubs at the expense of city, or whether they regard it as in their commercial interests to adopt a stance that is largely critical of city and far less critical of other top 4 teams (rags and dippers especially) is again something of a moot point.

 

[Chippy_boy]

The Rag/Dipper Meedya have but a single item agenda - they are biased in favour of anything scuttling about the pitch in a MANUre or Liverpool shirt. Part of that single item agenda is that they are gonna be negative about much of what MCFC as a club achieve. Our achievements will be diminished or ignored. Compare this to other non-Rag/Dipper outfits, although BTShite are doin' a pretty good hatchet job on The Arse at the moment.

There is also a single item agenda within the echelons of Uefa, and that is to make sure that every hurdle is put in place of upcoming teams who are likely to challenge and usurp any CL places once occupied by the Rag/Bayern/Hispanic Axis.

For people to suggest that there is no agenda flies in the face of what is under their noses, or in front of their eyes.

We're going around the houses a bit here but you don't differentiate between what's just biased reporting and a coordinated agenda deliberately and consistently aimed at damaging City. There's no doubt the former exists, and no evidence at all of the latter. There's more rag reporters and they hate us and see everything through red tinted glasses, so our achievements are not properly recognised and our mistakes pounced upon. What do you expect from rag reporters? We do and say exactly the same about the scum on here.

Moving on to FFP, you have to ask yourself, do the powers that be in UEFA hate City specifically? Did they hate us before Sheikh Mansour came along? Was there something Peter Swales did that meant Platini thought, "I am going to get those bastards one day". No, clearly not. No-one in UEFA sat there with some pathological hatred of City, devising cunning plans to stop us particularly. We weren't even on their most long range radar.

So what's FFP all about? Everyone here seems to think it's about the G14 trying to protect their positions and maintain the status quo. That's partly true, but it's not the whole story. The truth is we, City, have frightened Platini and UEFA. What's frightened them is the prospect of an investor coming along with effectively infinite funds. An investor who can buy any player he wants at any price. That idiot (can't remember his name) that ADUG put up as spokesman in the days after the takeover did us no favours whatsoever in this regard. He raised the prospect of us buying all the top players in a matter of months, winning everything in sight and being the biggest team in the world almost overnight. In short, being completely unstoppable and effectively ruining the Champions League spectacle with one team winning it every year, at a canter.

Never before had that frightening scenario been possible. Abramovic is rich, but not that rich, and it was clear that he either did not have the funds, or was unprepared to invest the funds, to buy instant CL success. But we were an entirely different proposition. We represented a serious threat to the very viability of Platini's entire competition. At the same time, the big clubs were all scared too. You had Rummenigge and David Gill and possibly even Abramovic bending Platini's ear every 5 minutes asking what's to be done to stop these new "cheats" ruining everything.

This is how FFP was born. It's not anti-City per se. It's about UEFA being scared of what might happen if financial restrictions were not introduced. The mechanism they chose to adopt - the break even requirement - is super convenient since it stops clubs like City and protects the Gills and Rummenigges. And the naive and weak Platini gets to sleep at night honestly believing (genuinely I think he does) he's doing the right thing for the good of the game. There's no sinister anti-City plot. Just vested interests of rich owners and a weak UEFA president trying to protect his beloved competition.

 

[chesterguy]

Keep taking the meds, Len.
Doctors say they're pleased with your progress, and are considering giving you a room of your own, as that de niro is clearly a patient with higher support needs, and you two sharing isn't ideal.

You still fighting the corner, bud?

It's a thankless task mate, but somebody has to do it.
The latest logic from the Brains Trust is that an agenda 'is more difficult to prove'.
Which presumably explains why nobody has done it yet, because there is more chance of Lord Lucan trotting Shergar on to Glenn Miller's plane than any of that 'proof and evidence' stuff turning up anytime soon.
Ask these basket cases just who is in on this global conspiracy, and to what ends, and they haven't got a clue - it just exists, like air or dark matter.
Proof is for the non-believers.
They make the Roswell, Twin Towers and Diana conspirators look like paragons of common sense.
I daresay some loon will be on shortly moaning that City weren't mentioned once on CBeebies this morning, or that Mister Maker had a red suit on, or that Natalie Pike isn't on page three.
The last of which I accept is regrettable.

OK you have constantly tried to reduce the argument by Reductio ad absurdum and oh how we laughed so funny...not!!

Throughout this thread there are a load of examples of where people have highlighted the fact that the media are biased as has been said by many this is not an agenda of the media as they are doing it for monetary gain ie keep the clubs like Liverpool and Man Utd on side they are the ones with the most fans they are the ones that will generate the income. If you dont think that is the case listen to talksport for a day I dare you and you will think you are listening to ManU radio

Within the media it is also true that it is filled with many who have grown up supporting clubs like Arsenal United and Liverpool who were dominating the league and they are now in a position to report on these clubs. It is quite clear that how we are reported and other clubs are reported is completely different and just read articles by Ogden in the Telegraph he may not have an agenda he certainly has a bias

The agenda is with the clubs. The agenda is with those clubs like Liverpool and United who wish to maintain their place in the commercial stratosphere. They need to maintain their aura of superiority to keep the masses coughing up their money for merchandise. So these clubs are using their commercial strength to manipulate the media as it does not play well to have not won the league in the premier league era, it does not play well when you have finished 7th and your fiercest rivals have won the league. But the media need these supporters on side so what better way than to ignore clubs like Chelsea and City the new upstarts and focus on the old guard

An example of this is the BBC have a reporter following United in pre season Simon Stone City have no-one following City

Over time a new establishment will form and at the moment when United buy a player May, Robson, Macari ,Bosnich, et al are wheeled out to say he is the Pele when you turn on the TV many have links with Liverpool United and Arsenal and true they bring out Fowler and McManaman when talking about City but they are really Liverpool in my eyes. But that will change but it will take a generation of us and Chelsea being at the top and we will get treated the same

 

[nijinsky's fetlocks]

Alright - now this maybe a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence, but in the interests of glasnost, compromise and appeasing the conspiracy theorists, here is my olive branch of truth and reconciliation.
Agenda - no, it doesn't exist, as it implies a pre-arranged and coordinated multi-organisation Illuminati-esque set up of epic proportions, with the goal of destroying Manchester City.
Not only is this utterly unfeasible - it is also, by any reasonable criteria, going rather badly, if last year's Premiership is any yardstick.
Bias - well, yes - this probably does exists because, (and I know this will be hard to accept for some folk), not everybody supports Manchester City.
I know, I know - it's unfathomable, but some folks in the sports media actually support other teams.
This, along with the Sky 'loyalty' to their traditional cash cow big four, which Chris alluded to earlier, probably explains why not every article in the Daily Fail, or headline story on Sky Sports News is praising us to the heavens.
Many journalists are lazy - many don't like City's arrival at the top table - many have allegiances to other clubs.
This may result in bias or disproportionate representation in their tabloid chip wrappers, but it is proof only of possible bias, not a definite agenda, because these folk are simply far too thick to orchestrate such a conspiracy, and don't really give a flying fuck who wins the premiership just as long as scribbling a few paragraphs of bollocks about it pays for their bar tab.
So some folk are biased, but there is no agenda.
I know this will be akin to telling the believers that there is no tooth fairy, but they have to find out sooner or later.