City Football Group

[ursus arctos]

EIM is obviously closer to this, but my sense that a large majority of these nutters only became City fans after they got good.

The old school City supporters I know are all appalled by their behaviour.

[EIM]

EIM is obviously closer to this, but my sense that a large majority of these nutters only became City fans after they got good.

The old school City supporters I know are all appalled by their behaviour.

There's a definite generational gap between city fans. But the paranoia runs deep. The issue is that Twitter makes the idiots louder and seem a lot more representative.

[caja-dglh]

I think there's a secret cabal of city hating journalists who message each other about city being grubby, and then report than instead of all the good things city do, like buying players, scoring goals and winning trophies.

Something weird happened to City fans' collective psyche when they became good. So much of their identity was based on being underdogs, and the likeable alternative to Manchester United that they have absolutely no idea how to process and handle criticism.

It is funny - I was thinking about it just the other day. I can't actually think of the last City game I watched on TV. Quite often weekends go by when I don't even know who they are playing and (much more often) without knowing which day the game is on. After we won things I maintained interest for a while. Now - even when it is simply a matter of knowing when to turn on my TV - I am totally out of touch.

[Sporting]

Out of tangential interest is there a thread here on decently run clubs with sensible and not too corrupt owners?

[Tony C]

Something weird happened to City fans' collective psyche when they became good. So much of their identity was based on being underdogs, and the likeable alternative to Manchester United that they have absolutely no idea how to process and handle criticism.

Concerning a great deal of City supporters this is a well observed and essentially correct assessment.

Much of this mindset is indeed a result of being in the same city as United. For almost forty years pre - 2008 City were a byword for at best mediocrity but generally failure, and all the while had to suffer the indignity of sharing a city with Ferguson's silverware-gorging beast. For the Abu Dhabi group this was a godsend, a perfect storm. A club with a decent fanbase and history, desperate for success whose followers wouldn't ask too many questions about where the money came from if it offered a hint of success. Most football fans are a damned sight more interested in football than politics anyway so who cares about a few human rights violations when we've got David Silva and Yaya Toure in midfield and we're suddenly knocking six in at Old Trafford and winning the PL?

The Abu Dhabi group were the knights in shining armour come to rescue a club in distress. And creating jobs and regenerating one of the most depressed areas in the city and seemingly wanting nothing in return but the unbridled joy of having bankrolled a fairy tale. What's to criticise? You're only jealous. It's a great story. Just don't read the small print.

[sw2borshch]

Are these journalists and football movers and shakers denigrating Man City on their breaks from talking the Mags down and trying to stop the Saudi takeover/ousting of Ashley? Where do they find the time?

[sw2borshch]

Ferran Soriano clearly felt a little out-done by Arsenal trying to sack Gunnersaurus so takes the opportunity of the pandemic and clubs going bust to push his reserve teams in the Championship idea.

Was there anything on this reported anywhere? Only seen it here.

[caja-dglh]

Was there anything on this reported anywhere? Only seen it here.

The Guardian ran with it

https://www.theguardian.com/football...-citys-soriano

[Gangster Octopus]

It was also slagged off in today's i

[beak]

The Paranoid Style in English Football is something I find as fascinating as it is incredibly tiresome. Always puts me in mind of an old Harry Pearson comment where he relates meeting (as I recall) a couple of Newcastle fans on holiday who explain to him that such-and-such happened "because they hate us" (cf. the replies to any tweet from the official Premier League account over the last months).

I've never been able to understand what it is about a strong and successful NUFC that has the powers-that-be quaking in their boots, but there you are.

[sw2borshch]

To be fair, it has me quaking in my boots. And there is certainly still a lot of paranoia here about the Three Points Affair. I can remember a clip of a Barnsley fan fuming outside Oakwell when they were in the PL about a (perceived?) slight fuming that 'they' didn't want little old Barnsley in their PL or some such.

Mind, it was always the Italian fans that were reputed to be the masters of the paranoid style and it turned out that they were broadly right.

Has Qanon commented on Trump's battles against the football authorities?

[Furtho]

The Chinese member of the City Football Group are considering a change of name...

https://twitter.com/titan_plus/status/1349218640512442368

[imp]

Can't wait to see them take on the Shaolin Soccer crew.

[Reginald Christ]

Only seeing it now but great post, Tony.

For almost forty years pre - 2008 City were a byword for at best mediocrity but generally failure, and all the while had to suffer the indignity of sharing a city with Ferguson's silverware-gorging beast.

And ironically it was the global profile of that same beast that played a part in the Abu Dhabi regime purchasing City to begin with. What better way to demonstrate your power and wealth than dethroning one of the giants of the game? "Biggest club in the world? Mate, they won't even be the biggest club in their own city by the time we're finished."

[Satchmo Distel]

The authorities are pandering to Panda-ing,

Shaolin Soccer - Mach Schau, Lin?