There May Be Trouble Ahead

[Tokyo Blue]

i’m just pleased that we’re not playing the devious cunts in a pointless friendly next week. that would be fucking stupid

Thannk, NT. What was I doing wrong?

[Mase]

i’m just pleased that we’re not playing the devious cunts in a pointless friendly next week. that would be fucking stupid

Thannk, NT. What was I doing wrong?

You have to add just the block of numbers from the tweet between [tweet] [/tweet]

[johnny crossan]

i’m just pleased that we’re not playing the devious cunts in a pointless friendly next week. that would be fucking stupid

Thannk, NT. What was I doing wrong?

t'was I TB - just type this [tweet]twitter embed code number only [/tweet]

as in this one

[johnny crossan]

Bernardo’s Barcelona flirtation – the one cloud in Manchester City’s clear blue sky

Manchester City want to keep Bernardo at the club (Photo: Getty Images)
By Sam Lee
Aug 14, 2022


It’s no exaggeration to say the loudest cheer of the second half at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday came when Bernardo Silva trotted over to take a corner.

The Portugual international had just come on as a substitute and the mere sight of his No 20 on the fourth official’s board was enough to bring the home crowd to its feet.

For the next five minutes, and throughout the drinks break, they sang his name over and over ⁠— and loudly.

Granted, not a lot happened in that second half. The hard work had been done against Bournemouth before the break and a Jefferson Lerma own goal to extend what was already a 3-0 lead did not exactly set the pulses racing, so the outpouring of emotion for Bernardo really did stand out.

Manchester City fans, you see, are terrified of losing him. A late-window transfer to Barcelona is far from a certainty, but the prospect lingers.

“I want Bernardo Silva here at 100 per cent, or at 110 per cent,” manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday, echoing his comments from the previous weekend.

“I want him, I want him and I want him,” Guardiola continued. “Because I love him. The reason why I’m a manager is because I can live and train with players and people, human beings, like Bernardo.

“I’m weak when I talk about him because he is a special person to me in these years. The same with Nathan (Ake, City’s Dutch centre-back) — how he behaves when he plays or he does not play. He makes our lives better when we are together.”

Earlier in the summer, Guardiola had batted away questions on the subject of a Bernardo departure, insisting Barcelona will not have it easy. That is still the case — City aren’t going to hand him over without a fight, if at all — but the Camp Nou icon’s recent comments have hardly screamed “Hands off!” at his former employers.

In fact, no matter how matter-of-fact he has been — because he truly does not know what is going to happen, and neither does Bernardo — what he has said has only served to make a transfer sound more likely.

“But I said it before,” Guardiola continued. “I don’t know what is going to happen. He knows how much we want him and we love him. At the same time, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Bernardo has had his eye on a move to La Liga for a couple of summers now, keen for a change of climate and culture, but as soon as it dawned on him that he would not be leaving City last year, he sat down with Guardiola, they hugged, and he vowed to get on with the job at hand.

What followed was one of his best seasons in his five years at City, perhaps shading his heroic efforts in 2018-19.


Bernardo started on the bench against Bournemouth (Photo: Getty Images)
Bernardo Silva started on the bench against Bournemouth on Saturday (Photo: Getty Images)
He was certainly happier in Manchester last season, in large part because of the eased COVID-19 restrictions in the UK, and fans hoped that would help keep him around.

And yet, with less than three weeks of the window remaining, Barcelona are still scrambling around to pull their “levers” and the City supporters are on red alert.

When news filtered through that he was only on the bench for the game away to West Ham on the opening weekend, the worst was feared. Was it a sign he was leaving? In the event, not really: Ilkay Gundogan, who started in midfield at the London Stadium, had a specific job to do and he performed it brilliantly.

So much so that he started again yesterday, with Bernardo again among the replacements, and it was the German who got the ball rolling with the first goal of what would be a 4-0 win over promoted Bournemouth.

During the week, when a respected Barcelona-based reporter wrote that an agreement worth €55million (£46.4m) was in place, City fans inundated journalists with requests for any relevant information. City, as a club, soon made it clear they felt the story was “nonsense”.

Guardiola spoke for everybody inside the club and their fans, too, when he talked about his “love” for Bernardo. Even Sergio Aguero was discussing the theme on his Twitch stream a couple of weeks ago, insisting Barcelona would get the better of the deal if it happens, that it would be a bad move for City.

He also speculated whether Bernardo wants the move because he desires more regular playing time, something which, Aguero said, Guardiola wouldn’t guarantee anybody (apart from Lionel Messi).

There may not be a lot the City fans can do to change the 28-year-old’s mind, but they have clearly taken it upon themselves to show him how much they appreciate him, how much they want him to stay, and how much they love him.

The fact Bernardo has not started either game so far this season is hardly seen as helpful, even if there are reasons for that, and those cheers and chants are designed to show him that they are desperate for him to stay.

And that they are, quite frankly, scared about what happens if he were to go.

City’s squad contains just 16 senior outfield players as it stands, albeit with 21-year-old left-back Sergio Gomez to come, and losing another player, especially such an important one, would threaten to undo all the hope and expectation generated by Erling Haaland’s summer arrival.

Again, it must be stated that City are not exactly open to a sale.

Their stance may be different to the case of Ake, when Chelsea were given a hard deadline to either act or forget about it, and so far that has not been the case with Bernardo and Barcelona, but as much as the Catalans will continue to try, City will continue to resist.


Chelsea were given a firm deadline when trying to sign Nathan Ake earlier in the window (Photo: Tom Flathers/Manchester City FC via Getty Images)
They respect the wishes of their players and won’t stand in the way of anybody who truly wants to go, but at the same time, they know that losing him now would cause a serious problem, even if replaced. They are not ready to roll over.

A friendly between the two teams at Camp Nou in 10 days’ time could become a bit of a circus if there is no resolution beforehand, however.

There is some uncertainty, then, as City begin their season with two convincing wins from two games; the one cloud in an otherwise clear blue sky.

The fans will clearly do what they can to ride out what little storm there is and, perhaps most importantly, so will the club.

[johnny crossan]

i’m just pleased that we’re not playing the devious cunts in a pointless friendly next week. that would be fucking stupid

There's a latin name for that particular literary device which escapes me atm - probably fortunately

could be dirimens copulatio

[Tokyo Blue]

i’m just pleased that we’re not playing the devious cunts in a pointless friendly next week. that would be fucking stupid

Thannk, NT. What was I doing wrong?

t'was I TB - just type this [tweet]twitter embed code number only [/tweet]

as in this one

Thank you, JC and Mase. I was putting the whole url in.

[Mase]

Basically, swivel Barca.

[CTID Hants]

Basically, swivel Barca.

Ah-fookin-men to that, assuming it's true of course.

[Mase]

Basically, swivel Barca.

Ah-fookin-men to that, assuming it's true of course.

I think we’ve briefed his team that if we get an offer that’s suitable then he can go. Which was probably the same last summer as well. But as Pep said, we didn’t get one offer last summer and we’ve not had one this summer. I love Bernie but you would have thought if his agent can’t get an offer to City in 3 transfer windows he’d realise he’s best off staying put.

[CTID Hants]

Today in training, he looks more than happy to me

[johnny crossan]

Today in training, he looks more than happy to me

he's happy to have moved to his new gaff in sleepy hollow next to sensible KDB and away from Jack's midnight raves apparently.

[CTID Hants]

Today in training, he looks more than happy to me

he's happy to have moved to his new gaff in sleepy hollow next to sensible KDB and away from Jack's midnight raves apparently.

Yes but is John the dog happy??

[Mase]

Cry more Mrs Bernardo

[Tokyo Blue]

Move breaks down? There hasn’t been a move to break down. No contact between agent and “selling” club, no contact between “buying” club and “selling” club, just arseholona gobbing off to the media.

[Outcast]

Move breaks down? There hasn’t been a move to break down. No contact between agent and “selling” club, no contact between “buying” club and “selling” club, just arseholona gobbing off to the media.

So technically they've been snubbed?

It's a dick move. They knew can't pull it off, they made themselves look small with this stunt. Lets face it the players they bought are has-beens and unproven.

[CTID Hants]

Move breaks down? There hasn’t been a move to break down. No contact between agent and “selling” club, no contact between “buying” club and “selling” club, just arseholona gobbing off to the media.

So technically they've been snubbed?

It's a dick move. They knew can't pull it off, they made themselves look small with this stunt. Lets face it the players they bought are has-beens and unproven.

Sounds a familiar pattern to one down the road from us, oh dear what a petty never mind.....

Just a shame we are playing them next week, at least the money goes to charity.

[Mase]

The guy that’s tweeted it originally has a pic with Aguero and seems to go on Spanish TV. Not sure if he’s legit.

[Scatman]

The guy that’s tweeted it originally has a pic with Aguero and seems to go on Spanish TV. Not sure if he’s legit.

If I were him I'd buy a house in Cheshire

[Mase]

The guy that’s tweeted it originally has a pic with Aguero and seems to go on Spanish TV. Not sure if he’s legit.

If I were him I'd buy a house in Cheshire

Not sure if he’s thought about the posh part of Wigan

[zuricity]

If i were him i would buy a house in Switzerland.