ronk wrote:Original Dub wrote:I think we're one the very few groups of fans who go on and on about the fair play league - no matter what side of the argument you're using it for...
It probably has somehing to do with us getting into europe twice because of it...
Talk to any of the top four fans about the fact that they're coming last or close to bottom of the fair play league and they'll laugh their tits off. Big teams don't care about the fail play league... fuck it, they don't really care about their discipinary record or press opinion of how tough of a team they are...
Why do we?
We're never gonna be the roughest team in the league... just like we're probably never gonna be the fairest again...
This talk of Hughes turning city into long ball butchers was total tripe at the time and is even more ludacris now, fari play table or not.
We were the fairest team not already qualified for Europe.
I think most City fans actually do care about whether we're a team of thugs and seen as such. I don't see a problem with expecting high standards and for our footballers to be honest.
This bullshit that all the top4 have about having bad tempered clashes every time they play is tiresome. I'd prefer to see us just playing football, wouldn't you?
It is just football though. We'll probably end up somewhere in the middle with regards to fair play and discipline etc and thats fine with me.
I don't want us to be like leeds or wimbledon but that won't ever happen again anyway, so I don't see the concern with this at all. Of course I want to see flair and skill - its a huge part of football, but so is passion. Passion brings hard hard tackling and a very physical element to a game. Its only natural that 9 times out of 10 a top of the table clash will have more passion, thus having slightly heavier tackling which can be mistimed and thus seen as being "bad tempered".
I want an equal measure of skill, passion, flair and steel in every game but it won't always work out that way.
In essence I want to win the league, and if we finish bottom of the fair play league I couldn't give a fuck.
Who finished bottom of the fair play league last season or the season before? Are they widely known as thugs?