the money stick we get beaten by

[Pigeonho]

Potential fans, complete with buying power, and potential investors. And as the matter is a largely speculative one, it's impossible to quantify whether it's harming our chances or not. I accept your first sentence fully, but 5 years down the line from the takeover, I think we've gone well past any levels of acceptable bitterness, and certainly as far as some of the print press goes, we're into the realms of pantomime villainy. Boosting circulation and raising advertising levels is the name of the cut throat game, and having a side like City emerge, who happen to be the natural born geographical enemy of gazillions of armchair rags, plus all the Scousers and North Londoners we've pissed off by nicking their chimps league money and their players, makes me suspect we're never gonna get a genuinely fair press. Not that there aren't positive articles about City around, rather that there are way more loaded, lazy and plain negative ones than we deserve. Might not bother you, but it bothers plenty of the rest of us

Each to their own.

Indeed, and yet you continue to treat those that raise what is at worst a legitimate topic, as though they were certifiable loons walking around with tin foil lining their hats

Because some of the accusations are just plain stupid. On this thread I'm not calling anyone out for being a loon, I'm putting across points that show the money stick thing is part and parcel of having an owner pump money into a club like ours has, and that in my opinion based on our success since that money has come, fans from around the world now watching us and the relatively constant stories we hear of yet more partners coming into the club, it's not doing any harm whatsoever. Someone would have to be very weak minded to not want to invest in the club or support us just because someone on SSN said something about the money we've spent. That's my opinion and you have yours.

 

[LFC-Fans]

Hi Guys, LFC fan here.

Just wondering, when Chelsea were buying success, before you got the money, did you not have a go at Chelsea fans for doing it? Yet now you're in the same situation as them you say things like "You need money to succeed" etc?

I do think you have gone about it in the right way though, you have, unlike Chelsea, put money into the academy and are trying to do things properly. But you're team has SO FEW English players. The only one I can think of is Milner! Surely you cannot deny that you would have liked to have seen City work they're socks off and earn their way to the top? Surely?

Obviously it must be nice to see your team where they are, but come on!

Anyway, its my first post so hello everyone!
Not looking forward to playing you guys in... 2 weeks time is it? :)

 

[ancoats]

messi and Ronaldo now that would be flashing the cash

funny thing is outside of the football club we are building and adding jobs schools and hope for the people and youth of Manchester and the bill for that is more than the owners have spent on players

FUNNY REALLY THAT NEVER GETS THE HEADLINES

 

[Pigeonho]

Each to their own.

Indeed, and yet you continue to treat those that raise what is at worst a legitimate topic, as though they were certifiable loons walking around with tin foil lining their hats

That's because he has to have an opinion on everything and nobody else's counts.

Where have I said nobody else's opinion counts? Also, isn't that what the forum is for, to have an opinion on things and air it? I could lie and say everyone hates us and that my teddy is dripping wet through the tears cried into it after Owen said, twice, that fernandinho cost a lot of money. That wouldn't be a true opinion though so would be pointless posting it.

 

[dennishasdoneit]

Chelsea get it some 11 years on. It's nothing to remotely care about at the end of the day.

But they don't though, do they, or at least to nowhere near the same snidey extent. We get little put downs all the time; Chelsea don't.
Neil Ashton on Talkshite on the subject of Hugo Lloris's error that led to our opening goal against Spurs for example.
".......and you can't make mistakes like that against a team of City's (....?....) ...Flair? Ability? Ruthlessness? No, the missing word was "resources". You think he'd have said that if Rooney had scored after 15 seconds, or Ozil?
And I also think you're quite wrong on the subject of it "not mattering". A lone dig from a sad bitter hack like Ashton might constitute a whole heap of nothing in isolation, but put the remark with all the others from Ladyboy, Custis, Howard, Ogden, Barclay, Herbert etc etc, the loaded questions at press conferences, the shit stirring about having no English players, the sniping from Tyler, ikkle Mickey & Co on match days, Sky Sports News' spiteful little squad price comparison charts every time we play in Europe and so on and so on, and it has to have an effect on our marketability. We are trying to build up a global fan base and attract sponsors. You could argue that we're doing a good job of it, although the empty seats at every home game tell me we've still got room for improvement, but the reality is that we've no way of telling how much better we might be doing if we'd received the positive coverage our football has deserved the last 4 years. Common sense tells me that if you're relentlessly portrayed as nouveau riche arrivistes, who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, most people will eventually buy into those lies. How does that "not matter?"

Exeter blue, take a bow.Great post.

 

[Danamy]

Yet Arsenal have just spent £40mill on Ozil and their fans we're screaming at the Board to spend some money last season and this season.

Once again we had the hand-money gestures in the away end yesterday.

"Look you t***, you cost us £40 million!" * How the f*** are we supposed to take the piss out of City and their spending anymore?"

They also have the most expensive season tickets and have charged away fans £62, they're certainly pulling the money in so if they want to be the best they need to start spending it, either that or carry on winning fuck all.

 

[Bill]

Hi Guys, LFC fan here.

Just wondering, when Chelsea were buying success, before you got the money, did you not have a go at Chelsea fans for doing it? Yet now you're in the same situation as them you say things like "You need money to succeed" etc?

I do think you have gone about it in the right way though, you have, unlike Chelsea, put money into the academy and are trying to do things properly. But you're team has SO FEW English players. The only one I can think of is Milner! Surely you cannot deny that you would have liked to have seen City work they're socks off and earn their way to the top? Surely?

Obviously it must be nice to see your team where they are, but come on!

Anyway, its my first post so hello everyone!
Not looking forward to playing you guys in... 2 weeks time is it? :)

yawn

 

[Shirley]

But they don't though, do they, or at least to nowhere near the same snidey extent. We get little put downs all the time; Chelsea don't.
Neil Ashton on Talkshite on the subject of Hugo Lloris's error that led to our opening goal against Spurs for example.
".......and you can't make mistakes like that against a team of City's (....?....) ...Flair? Ability? Ruthlessness? No, the missing word was "resources". You think he'd have said that if Rooney had scored after 15 seconds, or Ozil?
And I also think you're quite wrong on the subject of it "not mattering". A lone dig from a sad bitter hack like Ashton might constitute a whole heap of nothing in isolation, but put the remark with all the others from Ladyboy, Custis, Howard, Ogden, Barclay, Herbert etc etc, the loaded questions at press conferences, the shit stirring about having no English players, the sniping from Tyler, ikkle Mickey & Co on match days, Sky Sports News' spiteful little squad price comparison charts every time we play in Europe and so on and so on, and it has to have an effect on our marketability. We are trying to build up a global fan base and attract sponsors. You could argue that we're doing a good job of it, although the empty seats at every home game tell me we've still got room for improvement, but the reality is that we've no way of telling how much better we might be doing if we'd received the positive coverage our football has deserved the last 4 years. Common sense tells me that if you're relentlessly portrayed as nouveau riche arrivistes, who know the price of everything and the value of nothing, most people will eventually buy into those lies. How does that "not matter?"

And who are you worried about buying into those lies? Players? Potential fans?

You can't come from relegation scraps and relative obscurity, to buying players for upwards of 30m, paying high wages and winning titles as a result of that expenditure without attracting comments like those you are so offended by. If Newcastle had been taken over instead of us, they would be getting the same comments, probably by many on here too when they gave us yet another spanking with their expensively assembled squad. It's just the way it is, but 2 FA cup finals, won of which we won, a league title and some of the best players in the world playing for us suggests such comments aren't really doing any kind of damage whatsoever.

Potential fans, complete with buying power, and potential investors. And as the matter is a largely speculative one, it's impossible to quantify whether it's harming our chances or not. I accept your first sentence fully, but 5 years down the line from the takeover, I think we've gone well past any levels of acceptable bitterness, and certainly as far as some of the print press goes, we're into the realms of pantomime villainy. Boosting circulation and raising advertising levels is the name of the cut throat game, and having a side like City emerge, who happen to be the natural born geographical enemy of gazillions of armchair rags, plus all the Scousers and North Londoners we've pissed off by nicking their chimps league money and their players, makes me suspect we're never gonna get a genuinely fair press. Not that there aren't positive articles about City around, rather that there are way more loaded, lazy and plain negative ones than we deserve. Might not bother you, but it bothers plenty of the rest of us

Correct, I've been going on about this from day one. It is not just the market in the UK more importantly it is the global market especially Asia and the US and the bollox that gets written about us is sent around the world and believed as fact.
Saying that, it seems to have cooled off recently to an extent that we are sometimes being purposely ignored or perhaps there is not so much crap now Bob and Mario or no longer around..

 

[garymj]

Football is like any industry, you have to speculate, to accumulate, its no good going on about " play the game for the game sake" and all that. football sold its "soul" to sky sports along with the so called " big five " years ago.

 

[jrb]

Hi Guys, LFC fan here.

Just wondering, when Chelsea were buying success, before you got the money, did you not have a go at Chelsea fans for doing it? Yet now you're in the same situation as them you say things like "You need money to succeed" etc?

I do think you have gone about it in the right way though, you have, unlike Chelsea, put money into the academy and are trying to do things properly. But you're team has SO FEW English players. The only one I can think of is Milner! Surely you cannot deny that you would have liked to have seen City work they're socks off and earn their way to the top? Surely?

Obviously it must be nice to see your team where they are, but come on!

Anyway, its my first post so hello everyone!
Not looking forward to playing you guys in... 2 weeks time is it? :)

No, I wasn't arsed. Neither were the majority of City fans. City weren't anywhere near Chelsea, never mind the other Sky 3, which included Liverpool, when it came to the title, CL places, or winning trophies.

United fans, Arsenal fans, and to a lesser extent Liverpool fans, have been the most vociferous fans regarding City's spending and success. Why? Because just like Chelsea this meant we could buy the best players available and outbid any of those 3 clubs mentioned. This made us another threat alongside Chelsea, off and on the pitch. Which in turn meant less success and less trophies for United, Arsenal and Liverpool.

Just out of interest. How many English players have Liverpool got? How many play on a matchday compared to your foreign players? And where would Liverpool be without *Luis Suarez*?