What happened in December?

[guv111]

After one of the most horrible, disheartening months (January) I can remember as a City fan in the last ten years, it's suddenly as if we have a different manager. I thought the lucky late win against Spurs was going to give us some self belief back, but evidently not. It would be easy to blame one or two key players being absent, but the current rot had already set in well before the Kompany suspension and Yaya heading off to the Africa Cup of Nations. So, what changed?

Was it the deflation of going out of the CL, a sudden accumulation of tiredness that seems to have only afflicted City, or was there a significant event I'm unaware of? Maybe our brand of spur-of-the-moment attacking football was sussed out and now even dinosaurs like Kenny Dalglish know how to counter us? We went from being a free-scoring team with a mean defence to one with a reluctance to shoot and with a wobbly back four who can't even churn out a 0-0.

Everyone knew a bit of a blip was inevitable, but this is taking the piss.

[Original Dub]

I honestly believe after the 1-6 some amazingly strange decisions started happening. The stonewall penalty on Silva at Chelsea to put us two up was a major turning point. We should never have lost that game. It was taken from us and gave us our first league defeat of the season. Every single game since then there has been baffling inconsistencies with the decisions from officials. Handing another defeat to us v Sunderland rattled the whole team and then the sending offs began.

I think we were a machine at the start of the season. Full of swagger and flow. And we were gaining momentum. Our second string went to Wolves and knocked the shit out of the them on the back of the Demolition Derby. Every game we played, we broke new records. The only thing that was gonna slow the machine down was bad decisions. The confidence was never going to leave on its own, it had to be taken and I firmly believe it was taken from us.

If you want to know how we get it back, I would say it would involve being given maybe two lucky goals and then beating the shit out of the opposition by four or five. Its hardly a plan, but nothing over the last while has told me simply scraping results will get us back to where we were before.

At the moment we look like the City I disliked for most of last season, except we're not as good defensively. I'm trying to remember the last time I enjoyed how we played for the whole game and its not coming to me too quickly... Norwich? Can't remember...

[Socrates]

i blame Santa. And those fucking elves. All rag bastards.

[RodneyRodney]

i) The African Nations Cup ; with so many African players earning their living , (. . .and hence remitting income into the econmies of their home nations ), WHY this competition has to be held every TWO years , and in JANUARY is indefensible. It should be every 4 years and in June. If not , then clubs should have FIFA disensation to withhold players from alternate competitons.

ii) There is CLEAR and SUBSTANTIAL evidence of conspiracy against our club , manifesting itself in the numerous unfair refereeing and judiciary decisions against us in the past 6/8 weeks. The same thing happens down under in Rugby League - every season in State of Origin week , the (NSW-dominated) judiciary go out of their way to target a couple of key QLD players for picking their nose on camera, while overlooking chain-saw massacres by potential NSW-match winners.

The difference here is that it doesn't do the corrupt sods any good - QLD have won for about the last 7 years.

iii) Several players have lost form and confidence last 3-4 weeks . Aguero,Dzeko in particular.

iv) Chickens coming home to roost ; namely Adebayor, Bellamy. Mancini IS partly to blame for this - Stg40mill worth of talent playing for our rivals. Mancini SHOULD have done MORE to get these guys back into the team, and discarded them too easily.

Put all this together and it amounts to a fairly SH1TE month or two. Will it cost us the title ? Possibly . Will it go one forever ? Hopefully not. Who is to blame ? A number of people . . .

A prince once asked Buddha the following question :
"O Lord Buddha, teach me a MANTRA that will help me , guide me , and strengthen me - in times of both victory and defeat, glory and adversity, prosperity and poverty , feasting and famine, despair and triumph"

Buddha replied:

[url]"IT WILL PASS"[/url]

[Crossie]

We need to throw the kitchen sink at Fulham and make people fear us again. At the moment they fancy their chances on the counter attack.

[guv111]

I honestly believe after the 1-6 some amazingly strange decisions started happening. The stonewall penalty on Silva at Chelsea to put us two up was a major turning point. We should never have lost that game. It was taken from us and gave us our first league defeat of the season. Every single game since then there has been baffling inconsistencies with the decisions from officials. Handing another defeat to us v Sunderland rattled the whole team and then the sending offs began.

I think we were a machine at the start of the season. Full of swagger and flow. And we were gaining momentum. Our second string went to Wolves and knocked the shit out of the them on the back of the Demolition Derby. Every game we played, we broke new records. The only thing that was gonna slow the machine down was bad decisions. The confidence was never going to leave on its own, it had to be taken and I firmly believe it was taken from us.

If you want to know how we get it back, I would say it would involve being given maybe two lucky goals and then beating the shit out of the opposition by four or five. Its hardly a plan, but nothing over the last while has told me simply scraping results will get us back to where we were before.

At the moment we look like the City I disliked for most of last season, except we're not as good defensively. I'm trying to remember the last time I enjoyed how we played for the whole game and its not coming to me too quickly... Norwich? Can't remember...

Good post, mate. If the team are going out convinced that we will get a bad decision from the referee then it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. We will get bad decisions during the course of any given game - almost every team does - it's just that the ones we've been getting have often been game changers. The thing is, we need to get over that, if that is the problem, because while referee decisions are out of our hands the manner in which we approach and play games isn't. Plus, you can't get sent off for a two-footed challenge if you don't go in two-footed.

iv) Chickens coming home to roost ; namely Adebayor, Bellamy. Mancini IS partly to blame for this - Stg40mill worth of talent playing for our rivals. Mancini SHOULD have done MORE to get these guys back into the team, and discarded them too easily.

I'm beginning to sympathise with this point of view.

[Socrates]

i) The African Nations Cup ; with so many African players earning their living , (. . .and hence remitting income into the econmies of their home nations ), WHY this competition has to be held every TWO years , and in JANUARY is indefensible. It should be every 4 years and in June. If not , then clubs should have FIFA disensation to withhold players from alternate competitons.

ii) There is CLEAR and SUBSTANTIAL evidence of conspiracy against our club , manifesting itself in the numerous unfair refereeing and judiciary decisions against us in the past 6/8 weeks. The same thing happens down under in Rugby League - every season in State of Origin week , the (NSW-dominated) judiciary go out of their way to target a couple of key QLD players for picking their nose on camera, while overlooking chain-saw massacres by potential NSW-match winners.

The difference here is that it doesn't do the corrupt sods any good - QLD have won for about the last 7 years.

iii) Several players have lost form and confidence last 3-4 weeks . Aguero,Dzeko in particular.

iv) Chickens coming home to roost ; namely Adebayor, Bellamy. Mancini IS partly to blame for this - Stg40mill worth of talent playing for our rivals. Mancini SHOULD have done MORE to get these guys back into the team, and discarded them too easily.

Put all this together and it amounts to a fairly SH1TE month or two. Will it cost us the title ? Possibly . Will it go one forever ? Hopefully not. Who is to blame ? A number of people . . .

A prince once asked Buddha the following question :
"O Lord Buddha, teach me a MANTRA that will help me , guide me , and strengthen me - in times of both victory and defeat, glory and adversity, prosperity and poverty , feasting and famine, despair and triumph"

Buddha replied:

[url]"IT WILL PASS"[/url]

Just out of interest, how many deaths do you think there would be if they held the ANC in June?

[RodneyRodney]

Deaths from what ? Smallpox ? Meningococcal ? Non-parkinson Lymphomia ? Snakebites ? Be specific

[guv111]

Deaths from what ? Smallpox ? Meningococcal ? Non-parkinson Lymphomia ? Snakebites ? Be specific

I think he means heat exhaustion.

[RodneyRodney]

OK Fine. Just hold it in the SOUTHERN half of Africa . where it is COOL in June

[Socrates]

OK Fine. Just hold it in the SOUTHERN half of Africa . where it is COOL in June

So you are barring more than half the continent from hosting it? Impossible. They have been holding this competition for over 50 years and it is an important part of development of the game. Clubs know full well when they sign African players that they may lose them for periods, we just have to live with it and stop whining.

[RodneyRodney]

Not every TWO years. In the middle of the season in which so many of them make their living . Since Camerroon whacked Argentina in '90, African players have come > and > in demand in Europe. Therefore change things around a bit, to allow for the fact . If you want to play it in June in N. Africa , have night games only in the coastal cities. Or play at 4.00 AM when it drops down to -15 in the middle of a desert , even in summer . . .
Whatever .

I'm just bitching that we have to loose key players every TWO friggin years. If they keep it to evey 4 years and ALTERNATE it between N and S , then you could play it once very 8 years in June and and once very eight years in January , thus a British club would only have this diskcing around once every EITGHT years , which would rediuce the impact somewhat

Thoughts ?

[PeterParker]

If you want to know how we get it back, I would say it would involve being given maybe two lucky goals and then beating the shit out of the opposition by four or five. Its hardly a plan, but nothing over the last while has told me simply scraping results will get us back to where we were before.

After the bad decision started we had good games with Stoke and Liverpool, so i thought the confidence was restored, but i think there is something more than this inside the club. We had a great game with Scum, in the second half we were great so the confidence was supposed to go through the roof, but it didn't. As someone said before, the other teams figured us out and we need a plan B.

I think we are thinking to much the Yaya problem. Those poor results started with him in the field, remember WBA? Or Sunderland? At Sunderland he was responsible for the goal. He lost the ball and instead of running back, he walked.

The problem is that we look almost the same as we looked the last two years in away games and the fault isn't 100 % of those bent refs.

[Socrates]

Not every TWO years. In the middle of the season in which so many of them make their living . Since Camerroon whacked Argentina in '90, African players have come > and > in demand in Europe. Therefore change things around a bit, to allow for the fact . If you want to play it in June in N. Africa , have night games only in the coastal cities. Or play at 4.00 AM when it drops down to -15 in the middle of a desert , even in summer . . .
Whatever .

I'm just bitching that we have to loose key players every TWO friggin years. If they keep it to evey 4 years and ALTERNATE it between N and S , then you could play it once very 8 years in June and and once very eight years in January , thus a British club would only have this diskcing around once every EITGHT years , which would rediuce the impact somewhat

Thoughts ?

Thought? It's up to them and if they wanted to change they would have done it by now. They are having another one next year to change to odd numbered years, they could have waited 3 years but they chose not to, tells us all we need to know really.

[john68]

Jon,
What a ridiculous post mate. If they held the ANC in June, or any other month, there would be absolute carnage on the streets of Soweto. But can you tell me WTF Mandela and his mates being imprisoned has to do with Yaya, Kolo and City?

(Greater Manchester....my arse)

[john68]

Rodney Rodney...(shakes head)....Oh dear Rodney,

Please tell me that post of your, which made me physically wince, was actually ghost written for you by some Victorian imperialist who still believes Britain has an empire and the civilised World begins and enda at Dover.

It may suprise you to learn that America has been discovered and those little pygmy black ladies no longer pop white explorers into their cooking pots in order to feed their families. Neither, despite the best efforts of old Tarzan films to convince us otherwise, do they wear bras on their heads, halved coconuts on their tits and line up passively to be chucked on passing ships, usually from Liverpool to gently cruise their way to the southern states of America, where they can be willingly employed as slaves on cotton plantations.....Fuck me...How times have changes Eh! (except at Klanfield).

How very dare those nasty insignificant foreigners screw our all important football schedules with their nasty insignificant pan continental tournament. How very ill mannered they were, not ensuring that our local football tams would not be put out in any way by their selfishness and lack of consideration.

Don't they understand that Manchester City and England's Prem League is far too important an institution to be fucked about with?

[s1ty m]

I don't get it. It's the playing in the middl;e of a season that is just daft. Hot in June? Orlando hosted a WC in 94, how hot is it there in June? 100? 120? Portugal had the EC a few years ago and that was roasting too.

I appreciated that the game should develop in Africa, but playing it mid-season is daft.

[john68]

I don't get it. It's the playing in the middl;e of a season that is just daft. Hot in June? Orlando hosted a WC in 94, how hot is it there in June? 100? 120? Portugal had the EC a few years ago and that was roasting too.

I appreciated that the game should develop in Africa, but playing it mid-season is daft.

FFS...Take off the blinkers....it is our mid season. Do we check with them whether it is convenient for them if we hold our Cup Final in May?

[sheblue]

I totally understand why the ACN is on now, but surely it would put some clubs off buying African internationals knowing they will be gone for 5 weeks every second season (and a very important 5 weeks as well). It is a factor to consider and i am sure it has an affect.

[Im_Spartacus]

I totally understand why the ACN is on now, but surely it would put some clubs off buying African internationals knowing they will be gone for 5 weeks every second season (and a very important 5 weeks as well). It is a factor to consider and i am sure it has an affect.

It should, but apparently it doesn't.

I remember a few years ago Allardyce at Bolton was whinging like fuck about it, but he knew that one of the negative aspects of signing an African footballer is that they are likely to piss off for 6 weeks in the middle of the season every couple of years.

Just a question about summer football in Africa was Foe not playing in the ACN when he died, I seem to remember that being around summer time.