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So this article is from ESPN rating the teams on their transfer business over the summer, thoughts?

http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_ ... ichael-cox

Manchester City -- 8/10

Sergio Aguero is the Premier League's most exciting newcomer, while Samir Nasri adds yet more technical quality, and Gael Clichy has endured a poor couple of seasons but might well simply need a new start and a fresh challenge. In all, City has made itself a contender for the title. There are only two caveats. First, Vincent Kompany still lacks a top-class center back partner, with Joleon Lescott and Kolo Toure a little shaky and newcomer Stefan Savic an unknown. Second, Shay Given's departure means City doesn't have an established backup goalkeeper. This might well be irrelevant, but an injury to Joe Hart would be an issue.

Manchester United -- 9/10

United's three main signings -- David de Gea, Phil Jones and Ashley Young -- were all wrapped up before the window officially opened, which allowed the squad to settle quickly. De Gea hasn't covered himself in glory so far but will become a fine keeper, while Jones looks at home and Young has surprised even his biggest admirers. The one question mark about United is experience. Gary Neville, Paul Scholes, Edwin van der Sar, John O'Shea, Wes Brown and Owen Hargreaves have all left in the past year, and don't discount how important that influence is around the training ground.

So there you have it, De Gea, Jones, and Young is better buisness than Aguero, Nasri, Clichy, and Savic.

This doesn't even include the fact scum overpaid for all three and our four signings were very reasonably priced (for city standards anyway). Clichy for a little over a quarter of the price of Jones, come on now.

not bothered by this ... they gave us an 8, good enough. They were never going to rank us above United and given the wankfest over phil jones and ashley young, it was never going to be any different. most united fans rank smalling and jones in the top 10 defenders in the world ... and now that nasri has joined us, he was never that good anyway. You can't expect the media to be any different.

ESPN US is a parade of absolute clowns when it comes to football coverage. David Hirshey, Harry Harris, James Martin...horrible stuff. McManaman, who is a hack even when he's not co-commentating Liverpool games. And how could I forget that odious little troll Tommy Smyth, who hates City with every fiber of his being.

Of course ESPN US is also known to boil down an entire round of Premier League fixtures into one set of highlights from one team's game during their weekend SportsCenter broadcasts. Zero points for correctly guessing which club is regularly featured.

Now ESPN did step into the breach left by Setanta's demise, and they do employ Ian Darke and Richard Jolly, but there is a hell of a lot of shit they foist upon us otherwise.

United will always be above City is people's eyes until City starts winning trophies on a regular basis and can also beat United regularly.

Michigan Blue wrote:McManaman, who is a hack even when he's not co-commentating Liverpool games.

He really holds a grudge against City. Even on the spare chance that he says something remotely positive, he has to add in a 'but' (the defense was shit, when will Balo explode, for the $ this should happen all the time, just look at the talent wasting on their bench....). I've heard each one of these many times whenever Mcmanananan is on one of our games

Second, Shay Given's departure means City doesn't have an established backup goalkeeper. This might well be irrelevant, but an injury to Joe Hart would be an issue.

And the back up to De Gea is?

Come to that ........... De Gea ;-)

Factually incorrect - we HAVE an experienced back-up keeper now.

Thats pretty amazing considering i think any manager or football fan for that matter would rather have Aguero, Nasri and Clichy over DeGea,Young and Jones.

Cloud fucking Cuckoo Land for the United faithful.

As soon as teams realise they have to force Young down the outside onto his left peg and cut off his stock-in-trade step over and cut in curling a cross/shot with his right the much less effective he´ll be

This isn't really from across the pond though, the man who wrote this article, Michael Cox, is the guy behind zonalmarking.net, and lives in London, if I'm not mistaken.

ryanmjo wrote:This isn't really from across the pond though, the man who wrote this article, Michael Cox, is the guy behind zonalmarking.net, and lives in London, if I'm not mistaken.

I think you're right. But the amount of City hatred here in the states is staggering considering most people here don't know anything about football.
When I get into arguments here it's usually me vs. 10 rag glory hunters and the media only makes it worse.

halnone wrote:

ryanmjo wrote:This isn't really from across the pond though, the man who wrote this article, Michael Cox, is the guy behind zonalmarking.net, and lives in London, if I'm not mistaken.

I think you're right. But the amount of City hatred here in the states is staggering considering most people here don't know anything about football.
When I get into arguments here it's usually me vs. 10 rag glory hunters and the media only makes it worse.

I don't see it as City hatred pre se, more link an annoyance. All the footy fans here in the USA seized on Scum, Bin Dippers and - later in the dance - Chelsea during the team sport shirt crazy, and they would hate for anyone to ruin their "support" of "their" club. You know the ones who cannot name anyone on Scum other than Rooney and "that guy that looks like Michael Jackson and the one with the horseface" and wouldn't know Eric Cantona and Bobby Charlton from a hole-in-the-ground.

lads let them talk wath they want , so they beat never worse arsenal , you all know they are more fameus in korea then in europe , i will tell u year before city didnt have more then few funs out of island , now i see more and more poeple like city like how thwy play like becose they been underdog and they starting to be big , so fuck espn , people love city

The way we look at barca in la liga, or inter in serie A is the same way everyone else sees the rags and the prem.

It's not really anti city when they wank over the rags, they have won everything over the last 20 years. For a neutral they are the prem's barca/inter. It will stay the same for probably the next 3-5 years regardless of what we win, if there's a few league titles and maybe a CL trophy in those 3-5 years then maybe a few people will use us as the example instead but thsi will still happen.

I find it extremely ironic that YES the media chanel created by the late George Steinbrenner (owner of the New York Yankees) chose to broadcast Arsenal. The city of 'what have you done for me lately' sticks with a team that has done nothing for a long time in New York eyes, even the Rangers are moving in the right direction now still under GM Glenn Sather!

Let's face it apart from the Yanks who follow the game closely by tuning into the UK/European press really don't have a clue what is going on. It's like trying to follow U.S. baseball, ice hockey or basketball over here the only place to get accurate info is from U.S. sites now that channel five's coverage has been shut down!

steveo_88 wrote:I find it extremely ironic that YES the media chanel created by the late George Steinbrenner (owner of the New York Yankees) chose to broadcast Arsenal. The city of 'what have you done for me lately' sticks with a team that has done nothing for a long time in New York eyes, [highlight]even the Rangers are moving in the right direction now still under GM Glenn Sather![/highlight]
Let's face it apart from the Yanks who follow the game closely by tuning into the UK/European press really don't have a clue what is going on. It's like trying to follow U.S. baseball, ice hockey or basketball over here the only place to get accurate info is from U.S. sites now that channel five's coverage has been shut down!

Yeah I just don't see what you are seeing... ;)