The title race- the telling statistic

[Man from delmonte]

Manchester City are the GOAT football playing team!!..Win there next two matches then the double treble a distinct probability just unbelievable!!.

Man City are just so... Robotic.

Nothing exciting in the way they play, it's just so dull seeing them win the league every season without really showing much for it.

This is the way I feel about them. If they were exciting to watch I wouldn't have such issues with them but it's just functional and effective rather than thrilling. Whilst it got tedious Man Utd dominating things in the 90s, they were a stylish team to watch and I could appreciate them. As good as the likes of KDB and Haaland are, City are so so dull and unenjoyable as a spectacle.

[Woodman scoreboard]

If anyone can't enjoy watching the likes of foden and KDB and haaland and super Jack etc really must have a serious agenda against city .....they are like poetry in motion ....

City are boring to watch. I just don't find sideways possession where one team has XI behind the ball and the other has 90% possession at all fun. It's not competitive and there's zero fun to be had in such a one sided contest. 

That doesn't mean I can't see the undoubted skill, quality and talent. It's phenomenal to see, really. But so it should, when you're allowed to cheat your way to assemble a squad with billions of pounds.

Don't hate the players or the fans for it but they havnt been fou d guilty of anything yet .

---

If anyone can't enjoy watching the likes of foden and KDB and haaland and super Jack etc really must have a serious agenda against city .....they are like poetry in motion ....

City are boring to watch. I just don't find sideways possession where one team has XI behind the ball and the other has 90% possession at all fun. It's not competitive and there's zero fun to be had in such a one sided contest. 

That doesn't mean I can't see the undoubted skill, quality and talent. It's phenomenal to see, really. But so it should, when you're allowed to cheat your way to assemble a squad with billions of pounds.

If you find them dismantling real Madrid last season ...you really don't like football.

The difference Woodie/China is in days of old even the best clubs only had 1 or 2 world stars so they couldn't shine as brightly. They may have had a Haaland, but not a De Bruyne too, and be able to assemble a squad with bit part players that would walk into virtually any other team in that division.

We're the same age and we can recall a time when at the top level football was competitive. 

Football has to be made more even. It may be tricky to do, but for the good of the game it has to happen eventually.

That boat has sailed

[Spandaubaggie]

If anyone can't enjoy watching the likes of foden and KDB and haaland and super Jack etc really must have a serious agenda against city .....they are like poetry in motion ....

City are boring to watch. I just don't find sideways possession where one team has XI behind the ball and the other has 90% possession at all fun. It's not competitive and there's zero fun to be had in such a one sided contest. 

That doesn't mean I can't see the undoubted skill, quality and talent. It's phenomenal to see, really. But so it should, when you're allowed to cheat your way to assemble a squad with billions of pounds.

Don't hate the players or the fans for it but they havnt been fou d guilty of anything yet .

---

If anyone can't enjoy watching the likes of foden and KDB and haaland and super Jack etc really must have a serious agenda against city .....they are like poetry in motion ....

City are boring to watch. I just don't find sideways possession where one team has XI behind the ball and the other has 90% possession at all fun. It's not competitive and there's zero fun to be had in such a one sided contest. 

That doesn't mean I can't see the undoubted skill, quality and talent. It's phenomenal to see, really. But so it should, when you're allowed to cheat your way to assemble a squad with billions of pounds.

If you find them dismantling real Madrid last season ...you really don't like football.

The difference Woodie/China is in days of old even the best clubs only had 1 or 2 world stars so they couldn't shine as brightly. They may have had a Haaland, but not a De Bruyne too, and be able to assemble a squad with bit part players that would walk into virtually any other team in that division.

We're the same age and we can recall a time when at the top level football was competitive. 

Football has to be made more even. It may be tricky to do, but for the good of the game it has to happen eventually.

That boat has sailed

You seem to want it to get wings and fly too whilst jizzing about Haaland and De Bruyne. 
Football will have to change eventually when there is no competition. 
It may be a bit down the road and the European super league may arrive but the disparity will make many turn away at some point.

[Woodman scoreboard]

How many years have people been saying this .the TV deals keep on going up . I'm a realist it's not going to be a level playing field not even teams with pots of money .

[Spandaubaggie]

How many years have people been saying this .the TV deals keep on going up . I'm a realist it's not going to be a level playing field not even teams with pots of money .

You're not a realist Woodman. You're a pessimist. You were pessimistic about us staying in business during the Lai crisis and you're pessimistic about the future of football, giving a negative that's the way it is and you can't do anything about it vibe.

Eventually something has to give. It may mean the European league or it may mean an unholy war where the good off the game for all fights tooth and nail against a few self interested brands.

Personally I see a handful of teams breaking away eventually and the current Prem being a much more level playing field with regulations to ensure competition.

Sport needs drama and the drama of the top 4 in the Champ fighting tooth and nail to the last kick for the Prem sure beats waxing lyrical about Man City's billion pound squad assembled corruptly by a State, having the best players, best coach and best lawyers that oil money can buy, winning year after year.

[Brentbaggie]

How many years have people been saying this .the TV deals keep on going up . I'm a realist it's not going to be a level playing field not even teams with pots of money .

You're not a realist Woodman. You're a pessimist. You were pessimistic about us staying in business during the Lai crisis and you're pessimistic about the future of football, giving a negative that's the way it is and you can't do anything about it vibe.

Eventually something has to give. It may mean the European league or it may mean an unholy war where the good off the game for all fights tooth and nail against a few self interested brands.

Personally I see a handful of teams breaking away eventually and the current Prem being a much more level playing field with regulations to ensure competition.

Sport needs drama and the drama of the top 4 in the Champ fighting tooth and nail to the last kick for the Prem sure beats waxing lyrical about Man City's billion pound squad assembled corruptly by a State, having the best players, best coach and best lawyers that oil money can buy, winning year after year.

This - both about Woodman's pessimism and football's "elite". 

I have no doubt that football will eat itself in the not so distant future. The disgorged rest of us will have a competition that is a competition as opposed to a never-ending banquet where the top table is a bloated bulimic forever gorging and vomiting back up the same old "rich" fare thinking they're healthily tasting the best nature can offer. They will eventually sicken and begin to die but by then it will be too late. The moneymen will demand they continue to turn out to a worldwide audience of supporters based anywhere but their traditional home. The elite clubs will protest they cannot continue in the same sterile league that has no beginning, end, promotion or relegation but their cries will be the sound of a soon to be extinct ape in the desert.  No one will care, only their traditional "supporters" - but their anguish will count for nothing. They will provide less than .3 % of the club's annual revenue, they will have no seats on the board or places in the league's management "structure" and they will look on forlornly as the false idol of superiority will reveal itself as Mammon, the demon of wealth and greed, the master that appropriates and then enslaves those that worship it. Wailing and beseeching a truer value the clubs will realise their folly only to discover they are being dragged into the vast fiery maw that is a never-ending hell of six games a season against Real Madrid, in Cairo, Sydney, LA, Saudi, Shanghai and Singapore surmounted by the Beelzebub that is Sky. And it is only Hell that will mend them.

[Spandaubaggie]

How many years have people been saying this .the TV deals keep on going up . I'm a realist it's not going to be a level playing field not even teams with pots of money .

You're not a realist Woodman. You're a pessimist. You were pessimistic about us staying in business during the Lai crisis and you're pessimistic about the future of football, giving a negative that's the way it is and you can't do anything about it vibe.

Eventually something has to give. It may mean the European league or it may mean an unholy war where the good off the game for all fights tooth and nail against a few self interested brands.

Personally I see a handful of teams breaking away eventually and the current Prem being a much more level playing field with regulations to ensure competition.

Sport needs drama and the drama of the top 4 in the Champ fighting tooth and nail to the last kick for the Prem sure beats waxing lyrical about Man City's billion pound squad assembled corruptly by a State, having the best players, best coach and best lawyers that oil money can buy, winning year after year.

This - both about Woodman's pessimism and football's "elite". 

I have no doubt that football will eat itself in the not so distant future. The disgorged rest of us will have a competition that is a competition as opposed to a never-ending banquet where the top table is a bloated bulimic forever gorging and vomiting back up the same old "rich" fare thinking they're healthily tasting the best nature can offer. They will eventually sicken and begin to die but by then it will be too late. The moneymen will demand they continue to turn out to a worldwide audience of supporters based anywhere but their traditional home. The elite clubs will protest they cannot continue in the same sterile league that has no beginning, end, promotion or relegation but their cries will be the sound of a soon to be extinct ape in the desert.  No one will care, only their traditional "supporters" - but their anguish will count for nothing. They will provide less than .3 % of the club's annual revenue, they have no seats on the board or a place in the league's management "structure" and they will look on forlornly as the false idol of superiority will reveal itself as Mammon, the demon of wealth and greed, the master that appropriates and then enslaves those that worship it. Wailing and beseeching a truer value the clubs will realise their folly only to realise they are being dragged into the vast fiery maw that is a never-ending hell surmounted by Real Madrid and the Beelzebub that is Sky.

Love it Brent. Great post- akin to some documentary on Sky Arts.

[Fido]

How many years have people been saying this .the TV deals keep on going up . I'm a realist it's not going to be a level playing field not even teams with pots of money .

You're not a realist Woodman. You're a pessimist. You were pessimistic about us staying in business during the Lai crisis and you're pessimistic about the future of football, giving a negative that's the way it is and you can't do anything about it vibe.

Eventually something has to give. It may mean the European league or it may mean an unholy war where the good off the game for all fights tooth and nail against a few self interested brands.

Personally I see a handful of teams breaking away eventually and the current Prem being a much more level playing field with regulations to ensure competition.

Sport needs drama and the drama of the top 4 in the Champ fighting tooth and nail to the last kick for the Prem sure beats waxing lyrical about Man City's billion pound squad assembled corruptly by a State, having the best players, best coach and best lawyers that oil money can buy, winning year after year.

I think everyone would agree that scrapping the CL and returning to the knockout days is probably the single most important thing (or it’s at least in the top two) that should happen to the game. It’s a cash multiplier for the top teams, the domestic game is far less competitive and they get to hoard loads of talent that should be playing on a weekly basis in whichever league. This will never happen and a breakaway European league has tried and failed already and most likely will do so again. I think this is more realistic than pessimistic, personally.

[AnelkasBeard]

I have to agree with Woodman/China, the ship has sailed and the genie is out of the bottle, granted the three wishes and fucked off to genie land. There's too much money in football as it currently is, and too many people have vested interests to see it fail and/or generate less money in a more "competitive" environment.

I wish we could have a more playing field, but these days have been coming (in England) since 1992. Since then we've had what, 7 teams win the league? 5 usual suspects, another who bought their way to it in 1995, and the once in a lifetime season where Leicester won it.

I think there's two ways we see more of a level playing field, i.e. clubs below the Prem surviving financial. Either, all the big clubs eventually fuck off to a Super League OR there is more of a revenue spread. Not enough to be even because it's not in the top clubs interest, but my hope is that the big clubs realise that players have to come from somewhere, have to learn their trade on loan somewhere etc. A player that may be deemed not good enough for a top academy may be seen as good enough at the next level down and develop into a superstar. Eberechi Eze is a perfect example, and Bellingham is another extreme example.

[Spandaubaggie]

This is turning into a good thread.

I think we'll see and are seeing a generation of a different kind of fan too. There may be the Man U supporting Brummies, but they will choose to also support a local team as they can't get a ticket to Old Trafford for love nor money.