Summer Transfer Shit and Everything Else

[WMUG]

We live in hope.

It's worth pointing out that relegation to the Championship would be totally inadequate.

When it happened to Juventus, they just came straight back up and 5 years later, started a run of 10 titles in a row.

The only thing that would be different with City is that they wouldn't take as long to start that run.

That's essentially getting off scot-free despite fundamentally undermining the game.

I think the minimum I could accept would be a forced sale of the club, a la Abramovich, and relegation to League 2.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Hmm dunno current FS rules means it would be hard for them, they might get back into the premier league but most of their stars would leave and they wouldn’t be able to overspend in order to replace them. That’s why Newcastle despite having billionaire owners haven’t been really able to push on

[Letters]

That's essentially getting off scot-free despite fundamentally undermining the game.

The game have enabled this.
They creation of the PL, the expansion of the CL, the aggressive marketing of the PL and CL worldwide.
These things are intended to generate huge amounts of money and the effect is to tip the scales ever more in favour of the haves.
The creation of the PL means the gap between the money in that league and the rest is such that teams coming up into it spend all season desperately trying to stay in it, often failing. And the golden parachute payments mean you can get teams yo-yoing between the divisions.
The expansion of the CL means you can now have a group of teams at the top of each league who can, with decent management, stay there year on year.

Chelsea couldn't have done what they did without a billionaire sugar-daddy buying their way in to the top table. Same with City.
I'd love it (just love it) if City were relegated into oblivion. Obviously won't happen, but it would be brilliant.
But you're just treating the symptom not the cause.

The issue with all this - apart from just how much it costs to go and watch football now - is predictability. Before the season started we all knew that City would probably win the title, Arsenal had a chance and no-one else was that likely to be in contention. Obviously there will be some bumps in the road along the way but long gone are the days when you just had no idea who would win the title. In the 60s there were 8 different champions - only Liverpool and Utd won 2. This century (which we're now nearly a quarter of the way through, eek!) there have only been 6 different champions, and one of those was Leicester who were very much an outlier. Predictability is the death of sport.

[Marc Overmars]

We’ve had an offer of 35m from Saudi for Trossard.

Would be incredibly pissed off if we accepted it.

[Mac76]

We’ve had an offer of 35m from Saudi for Trossard.

Would be incredibly pissed off if we accepted it.

Likewise and I'd also be disappointed in him if he wanted to go, I thnk he surely wants to fight for a PL title and potentially a cup or two rather than play in a meaningless league

[Mac76]

Before the season started we all knew that City would probably win the title, Arsenal had a chance and no-one else was that likely to be in contention. Obviously there will be some bumps in the road along the way but long gone are the days when you just had no idea who would win the title. In the 60s there were 8 different champions - only Liverpool and Utd won 2. This century (which we're now nearly a quarter of the way through, eek!) there have only been 6 different champions, and one of those was Leicester who were very much an outlier. Predictability is the death of sport.

Liverpool are showing every sign that they will compete this season (and therefore are supporting my much-rubbished prediction that they would beat Arsenal into second place ) so that's three teams (assuming we don't throw it away early) competing but as to your main point, yes Citeh will win, especially with Haaland in this kind of form - all very predictable and not what it should be like

[HCZ_Reborn]

I don’t know, don’t get me wrong no team had even won four titles in a row before City but for a time when the league wasn’t dominated by one team you as you just have, had to go back sixty years

Yes between 1975 and 1999 you had nine different teams win the title compared to six between 2000 and 2024

But you still had the likes of Liverpool winning it three times in a row, and winning ten titles between 1976 and 1990


Things are even worse now granted, but to claim that things were ever any different you’d have to go back to a time before any of us were alive which you accept yourself.

[Marc Overmars]

Likewise and I'd also be disappointed in him if he wanted to go, I thnk he surely wants to fight for a PL title and potentially a cup or two rather than play in a meaningless league

I mean if they doubled that then we’d be silly not to consider it because every player has a price.

I’m ok with him having a chip on his shoulder but I just hope Arteta and the club do enough to ensure he’s committed.

[Letters]

Yes between 1975 and 1999 you had nine different teams win the title compared to six between 2000 and 2004

That was a good trick

[HCZ_Reborn]

Liverpool are showing every sign that they will compete this season (and therefore are supporting my much-rubbished prediction that they would beat Arsenal into second place ) so that's three teams (assuming we don't throw it away early) competing but as to your main point, yes Citeh will win, especially with Haaland in this kind of form - all very predictable and not what it should be like

I think Liverpool may look like title challengers early on, but where we lack depth up front…they lack it (as well as quality) in too many key areas….yesterday’s game was every reflection on how shit United are. The only area of the park where we are not superior to Liverpool is up front. Even with Partey being finished our midfield is better, our defence is miles better, I think we are at a point where our goalkeeper is better. Martinelli has been poor on current form but I think either he or Trossard are better than Gakpo and Saka is better than probably all of their forward players barring Salah (and if he gets injured they are truly screwed)

Comparing Slot to Arteta, well Arteta as a coach is between poor and average at best….haven’t seen enough of Slot to judge but it’s a big gamble putting someone who has only ever coached in the Eredivise to replace Klopp