For the fan, football is about instant, not deferred gratification. Patience forms no part of the terrace pact.
IanBishopsHaircut wrote:Fucking delusional some of these rag journos
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... y-win.html
Haz wrote:IanBishopsHaircut wrote:Fucking delusional some of these rag journos
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... y-win.html
Reads like it was written by a rag that's trying to kid himself everythings gonna be ok. Pathetic.
john@staustell wrote:"Was the Leeds defeat more significant than the loss at Burnley, the draw at home to Sunderland, the rout at Craven Cottage? No. It was part of the same process, of accommodating change in an environment that is intolerant of it"
Haha quite an achievement to put a positive spin on their continuing disasters.
Sure is a process of change, boy!! Tick tock
Sky blue revolution. O M G. you know what. At the end of the season we will be singing like that Master Card Ad. Whilst man city were bringing shame to the city called Machester, the Red revolution of Manchester United was bringing honor to Old Trafford and letting the world know there is a city by the name of Manchester in England. And we are doing this from over a decade consistently. Now shutup City twits and sheikh your butts in front of Arabians. All that money wont buy you EPL let alone a champions league. And that moose of a horse in your side Adabayor Arsenal reject and Argentinian sheshkabab who just showed why Argentina wont be able to win even a single WC in the future 20years, they cant even milk a cow let alone score a goal. They can only run like wild horses. Watch the end of the season. We will see who is having the last laugh. BEGGARS, arent Ya ??
john@staustell wrote:I have fired the following broadside at the Telegraph. It wont do anything, but makes me feel much better!
I feel you should rename 'Telegraph Sport' as 'Telegraph Man U***d Section'. After Henry Winter's ludicrous recent attacks on City ('Do you care you you work for?', he said to Mancini, ignoring the 'Glazer factor' over town) we now - despite Utd not playing, nor being top of the league - have fauning articles by Mark Ogden (another City hater) and Kevin (Giggs for President) Garside in the same edition. One a ridiculous piece about how U***d's recent disasters is 'part of the same change process' and another, for reasons unknown at this time, about how Mark Robins saved Fergie and how great U***d are! Add to this that Winter's match reports are always full of barbs for City matches ('...winning their first away match since August), and sickening, cringing fauning about U***d, and the Telegraph is fast joining the Red tops as a joke on the fan sites. Many years ago when 10M people were outraged on television by Alan Wilkie's penalty award to U***d, Winter's article on the match was only about City fans and aircraft noises!! Please rid your editorial staff of these Fergie-lovers and restore some impartiality, which might be more in keeping with a broadsheet.
Blues are out of the red
STUART BRENNAN
January 07, 2010
THE Manchester derby fell foul of the icy Siberian blast, much to the chagrin of City fans who are itching to test their new, improved team against the old enemy.
But off the field, the Blues' bid to rule the world, starting with Manchester, gathered pace as deeply contrasting news came out of both camps this week.
United are desperately hawking themselves around to major banks, seeking to re-finance their debts as the chill wind of recession bites even deeper than the north-easterly gusts.
And yet, across town, City's owners blithely swallowed up a £92.6m loss without so much as a shudder of apprehension.
City fans are praying the financial shenanigans are a sure sign United's global empire is starting to crumble, and that a new Blue dawn is beginning to rise above Manchester.
Ten years ago, who would have thought the hopes and dreams of Manchester football fans would be the battleground for a financial scrap between a reclusive American millionaire and a suave Arab oil sheikh?
As far as most supporters are concerned, the only contest that matters is the one which takes place on the green oblong, between 22 men good and true.
But it is a sad fact that modern football is more a test of financial muscle than it is of football acumen and spirit.
No longer do teams come up from the second division to win the title, as Nottingham Forest did 30 years ago.
And that is no coincidence. The best teams are the richest teams, and no exceptions, while the best the poorer clubs can hope is to remain in the Premier League beanfeast.
That is why a Big Four has evolved in English football, four teams with large support, traditionally with sound financial backing, and with a virtual monopoly on the extra cash generated by the Champions League.
With the worldwide recession finally taking a chunk out of football, separating the real powerhouses from the paper tigers, City have suddenly found themselves free from the fear of financial meltdown.
As long as Sheikh Mansour owns the club, and as long as his oil-based wealth remains intact, the Blues have a security which is the envy of the other 91 league clubs - even of Chelsea, whose future remains subject to the whim of a rich Russian.
Liverpool look the flimsiest of the Big Four. Their takeover by American duo George Gillett and Tom Hicks has proved to be a nightmare, with Rafa Benitez being told he has to sell before he can buy in the current transfer window.
But the news this week that United are seeking another re-financing of some of the club's debt - last recorded at £699m and growing - should send a shiver down the spine of everyone of a Red persuasion.
The fact is that United have, since the Glazer takeover in 2005, made a net spend of just £6m in the transfer market.
That is down in large part to the £80m sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid last summer, but there can be little doubt that United, like the Glazers' other sporting concern, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, are working under financial constraints.
The release yesterday of City's financial figures for the year ending May 31, 2009, reveal that Sheikh Mansour splashed out £395m on the club - and that was before the summer purchases of Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Kolo Toure and Joleon Lescott.
The Abu Dhabi United Group loaned City £305m, and then simply swallowed up that debt by turning it into shares in the club.
The fact United have continued to collect trophies in the last four years, and make light of their stringent spending, is everything to do with the genius of Sir Alex Ferguson and the enduring ability of his players, and nothing to do with the Glazer stewardship of the club.
Duncan Drasdo from the Manchester United Supporters Trust put it succinctly: "If it was a race, then United are dragging their owners behind them like a tractor, while City's owners are providing rocket fuel."
Ferguson is providing the Herculean strength to keep dragging those tractors, while the City rocket is still being tinkered with in preparation for take-off.
Ferguson celebrated his 68th birthday on New Year's Eve, and with his retirement looking likely to coincide with the debt chickens coming home to roost, the perfect storm is brewing over Old Trafford.
Not that City fans can afford to be complacent, or to relax their vigil.
If their club is to break clear of earth's atmosphere and head for the stars, they need to learn some of the lessons which United have blithely ignored.
First of all, it is no good wallowing in silverware and glory if the price you pay is that of your soul. And all the trophies in the world are worthless unless you take your traditional support with you on the rocket ride.
United have, in recent years, answered critical letters from supporters with a standard reply which, in essence, suggested there are others waiting to take their seat if they are not happy.
City have a supporters liaison officer and are far more sensitive to the wants and needs of their fans.
Whether City will ever match United in terms of being a worldwide brand is a different question. Whether City fans WANT to match United in that regard is another.
That global support is continually cited as a major strength of United. But, if and when they do have a bad patch on the field - which history dictates is a certainty - it will become their biggest weakness.
The growth of United as a worldwide phenomenon has been at the expense of many real United fans - lads and lasses from Salford and Stretford who feel alienated, disenfranchised and priced out of watching their team play.
City have had dozens of false dawns in the past, but those United fans who scoff at the latest threat, or those Manchester City fans who are sceptical through years of disappointment, are beginning to look at this Blue revolution in a different light.
Sheikh Mansour is a serious man, with serious intent, whose motives are to invest in City, and develop it as a flagship for the cultural, sporting and social transformation he is trying to effect with Abu Dhabi's oil wealth.
Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Typical rag who knows fuck all about football and supporters, or "fan" as he puts it.For the fan, football is about instant, not deferred gratification. Patience forms no part of the terrace pact.
KinkyKinkladze wrote:Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:Typical rag who knows fuck all about football and supporters, or "fan" as he puts it.For the fan, football is about instant, not deferred gratification. Patience forms no part of the terrace pact.
I was about to drop a cheeky bomb about patience and attitudes to Hughes, but I won't bother.
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