The day Man City came of age!!!

First topic message reminder :

Sometimes a defeat can tell more about you than a victory....Today despite being three-nil down and a man short..City showed that they are finally a team and not a bunch of expensive mercenaries....

Heart, conviction, passion.. the city players ran the hearts out and for me showed why they are the next big thing in the premiership...

Sure they are out of the F.A Cup but with Europa and the Carling cup it's not the end of the World...

City are finally a team of scrappers who work together and good luck.......

Finally the day this City team came of age!! The future never looked brighter..

It won't last!......bull..

Money talks!! Utd was built with it!!

bottom line..

United earnt it through success, how hard is it to comprehend that?

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:And the City players didn't put it on the line on Sunday..when you nearly got embarrassed..

The envy is oozing out of you!!

If Utd had lost to City why would they have been embarrasseed? You are hoping for True UTD fans to be envious of City but that just won't happen. You keep your sugar daddy money, when he gets fed up thats the end of you lot, you'll be back where you belong lifting the third division play off cup.

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:It won't last!......bull..

Money talks!! Utd was built with it!!

bottom line..

Yes money does talk and over the years Utd have made and spent their own, while up the road, a sugar daddy appeared. How long will he stay?

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:It won't last!......bull..

Money talks!! Utd was built with it!!

bottom line..

It didn't last at Blackburn after Jack Walker spent millions and Chelsea are hardly looking like world beaters at the moment.

Even though United have broken the British transfer record a few times Ferguson has never bought an entire team like Blackburn, Chelsea and now City have.
How many of Mark Hughes' signings are still in the City squad? Mancini has created an entirely new squad since and this is only his second full season in charge

Rooney - "Utd have no ambition"

Okay.....Where is ronaldo these days!!

TRUSSMAN66 wrote:Rooney - "Utd have no ambition"

Okay.....Where is ronaldo these days!!

Ronaldo left to play for his boyhood club. Fair do's. Unfortunately for him, he's not won that much!

Rooney, yet another prem title medal to his name.

Last nights game showed even more about City for me, without Toure and Silva they don't have enough creativity and really struggled to break down a strong Liverpool defence.

Oh well, I'll enjoy our first leg win

Newcastle 3 - 0 Man Utd....Utd 8 - 2 Arsenal...utd 1 -6 City...Bad performances happen..

City had an off night with important players missing and still deserved a draw...

But disappointing for sure.......Nasri and dejong have been poor this year and Savic!!!

Had to laugh when Johnson didn't even get booked and Kompany is gone for 4!!

refereeing this year has been the worst I've seen...

Johnson won the ball cleanly and never looked like catching Lescott with his studs. As Gerrard and other radio pundits have said, Johnson took the ball cleanly and did not make contact with his man...unlike Kompany which is the all important difference!

The FA rules state (bizarrely) that at no point should a players studs leave the pitch....I look forward to 90 minutes of moonwalking at the weekend then. However, FIFA's interpretation is that a two footed tackle should result in a red card when there is clear intent to play the man not the ball or to cause injury to an opponent. Johnson's tackle doesn't contravene FIFA's interpretation, but every player who jumps for a header DOES!

By the way, I don't believe Kompany should have been sent of for his challenge. Mind you, Balotelli should have been sent of for spitting at the ref!

As for City coming of age. They showed great character against UTD and, with eleven men on the pitch, they would have won. However, yesterday, they lacked any sort of guile or creativity and were bamboozled by a disciplined Liverpool defence.

johnson won the ball, the same as kompany did, and to be honest, kompany can feel very hard done by.

The difference between Utd and City is the way they have been spending, and how they have got the money for that spending. Utd have been successful over a long period of time, which has increased their profile around the world to amongst the top 2 or 3 club sides in the world. This has increased their revenue greatly, and prior to the takeover by the Glazers, and even after it they have been hugely profitable. This has given them the means to spend £30million on players, but it has all been generated by the clubs activities.

On the other hand, Man City have been bought by Sheikh Mansour, a man with wealth beyond most people's imaginations. I don't think it is unfair to say that without his purchase of the club, City would be at best a mid table side with aspirations of a cup run.

City spending in the last couple of years has at least been £200million, if not more. Off the top of my head I can count Aguero (34m), Silva (24m), Yaya Toure (24m), Dzeko (27m), Lescott (22m). Thats £130million there, plus others like Kompany, De Jong, Barry, Milner etc take the spending well over £200million.

As a result of UEFA bringing in the new fair play rules, City (and other clubs) will have found themselves needing to increase their levels of revenue so it is higher than their spending. The rules require teams to balance their books over 3 years, so a team such as City which reported a loss of £194million last year (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/8899304/Manchester-City-announce-record-annual-losses-of-195m-for-2010-11.html) will naturally be looking for a solution.

Part of that solution has come from the deal with Etihad Airways, widely reported to be worth just under £400million over 10 years.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/jul/08/manchester-city-deal-etihad-airways

I have had a bit of spare time so had a look at some other sponsorship deals, both for shirt and stadium.

Shirt Sponsors
1. Barcelona - 25m a year for 5 years - Total 125m
2. Real Madrid - 18m a year - Total £72m
3. Man Utd - Reported to be £20m a year for 4 years - Total £80m
4. Liverpool - £20m a year for 4 years - Total £80m

Stadium Sponsors - a lot harder to do because football teams rarely have sponsored stadiums
1. Madison Square Garden - £187m for 10 years
2. Barclays Center, New York - £260m for 10 years
3. Allianz Arena, Munich - £10m a year - unknown length of time

So City's sponsorship deal is roughly £40m a year, over 10 years. How and why would a stadium in Manchester, used by a team with a fairly average world profile attract a deal which is equal to the previous highest individual shirt and stadium sponsorship deals. When an iconic arena such as Madison Square Garden, used by the New York Knicks for 41 home games a year, as well as many other events can only get £18million a year why is the Etihad drawing so much more?

If I was to be a cynic, I would say it is because the chairman of Etihad Airways is Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who also happens to be the half brother of Sheikh Mansour, the owner of Man City. I can't believe that the UEFA inquiry into this won't find something slightly dodgy about the whole deal.

I know I have gone hugely off topic, but I find it amazing that people can continue to justify City's spending with "well Utd did it too" without considering how and where the money came from. I know that this makes no difference to the common fan, but the fact remains that for a neutral like me, I object hugely to the way City have purchased their team, and the way they will inevitably go on to win titles and cups.
In my view, City would appear to have found a way around the incoming fair play rules, via a route which allows their owner to pump more money into the club but under the guise of a sponsorship deal with Etihad.

I can't believe that UEFA......

Or you don't want to believe...

Utd fan aren't you....!!

Fact is Utd would love the Sheikh......

Least he doesn't go around spying on Women in toilets..

Sponsorship deals and such have to be at fair value though under the new Uefa rules. Fair Value in a financial sense is the price that would be paid by two unconnected parties at arms length.

The Etihad deal is the first test of how stringent UEFA will be with these rules. Under the rules UEFA can change the value of the sponsorship deal to what would be considered a true value on the market and adjust the City accounts by that under their inspections. Question is though do UEFA have the balls to actually go through with it and challenge City on this 1?

I'm a Leeds Utd fan, and I would much rather be a Man Utd fan than a City one.

They may have spent money to help get where they are, but not in the vast amounts that city have. To use the arguement that Utd have broken the transfer record X number of times doesnt really tell the whole story.

A quick bit of research shows that since 1995 Man Utds have spent £238m on transfers (once any money made from player sales is deducted) - roughly £14.8m per season.

Since 2006 - City have spent £461m, roughly £92.2m per season. (Utd works out at £69m - £13.8m per season).

I guess the point i'm trying to make is, City need the Sheik. Lose him and they won't be able to compete as they have this season.

Utd have shown that they're not reliant on a sugar daddy investor to make them successful, more like unearthing homegrown talent, and unheard of young starlets from the continent. And thats the kind of club i'd much rather support. Not one that throws money at any big name who fancies a big pay day for a year or 2.

I know it is only half time, but The day Man City came of age!!! just might be on another day !!!!

DAVE669....Should hold his head in shame....

One minute he's trying to justify Suarez racist statements and the next he's saying Johnson's tackle was better than Kompany's and didn't merit penalty!!!

Talk about rose-tinted fanatics...Soccer doesn't need fans like him!!

As for the guy above...City certainly showed passion when 3-0 down with 10 men....and clumping you 6-1!!!

But you're right I mean Rooney has never wanted to leave utd because they lack ambition or anything!!

Jealousy knows no bounds!!

As for the guy above...City certainly showed passion when 3-0 down with 10 men....and clumping you 6-1!!!

When did City beat my team 6-1?? Stick to your boxing page, this is a Football forum, not Soccer.