When I say history I don't mean simply the years a club is active. I mean a history of actually being a big club. Porto and Benfica are bigger clubs than City. Not better teams, but bigger clubs.
Manchester City under Pep Guardiola | Pep on City v Liverpool ref: "He likes to be special"
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
When I say history I don't mean simply the years a club is active. I mean a history of actually being a big club. Porto and Benfica are bigger clubs than City. Not better teams, but bigger clubs.
They are under criteria of number and stature of titles won, attendance, proportion of fans to population etc that's for sure but they also live with the knowledge that a United, City, Real etc will just cherry pick their best players whenever they develop them.
They fulfill their business model really well and credit to them for that but the Portuguese League will never afford them the opportunity to move up the food chain.
City have made pretty good progress post takeover and with a fair wind behind them this should continue.
Pep is staying at City for the long haul!
According to today's sports pages.
According to today's sports pages.
How does that tie in with Pep's repeated hints of him not coaching for a very long time to come?
Ties in like most assessments of corporate media, use caution & fact check before drawing a conclusion
He has stated that he will not be coaching into his 60's as he has other things he wants to do.
He's currently 45 so the question is whether he takes more football appointments first?
He has a 3 season contract at City and has always stated that he's open to extending if all sides want it.
15 years! 15 years till hes in his 60s! FFS! The whole "Guardiola is retiring" nonsence is made up by poor journalists.. In this time if he keep his way of switching clubs in 3 years he would be able to manage 4 more clubs after City! How many trophies he will win till then ?! Just imagine..
Didn't he say he feels he is already in the process of his goodbye?
If he manages till 60 that's a bloody long goodbye.
In other words, don't consider that "I won't be managing into my 60's" as meaning "I will manage until I'm 60" as it absolutely does not.
Yeah, what I was thinking. I'd be surprised to see him stay beyond the three years of his contract.
If there was a scenario where he might go beyond the 3 years, City might be it - he's freely admitted he has near ideal circumstances to work under compared to Bayern & Barcelona. But my guess is that he will leave to pursue a NT coaching position should it present itself
But clubs grow and shrink in relative terms. In their history City have had bigger attendances than United over an extended period, on average for the first third of the time the 2 clubs have been in existence City's attendances were consistently higher. It was only post WW2 that United grew past City.
So dismissing City as a 'small club with no history' is not true on any level. City have never been a small club and have plenty of history albeit much of it not so successful
What is undeniable is that City do not have the amount of Cups and Championships that some other clubs have and so do not have the cache that comes with such a glorious past.
Interestingly the pre WW2 years have City winning 1 Championship to United's 2 and 2 FA Cups to United's 1. Over this period there were other far more successful clubs, by 1921 Aston Villa had won 6 Championships and 6 FA Cups !
I don't know too much about Porto and Benfica and a quick Google search only finds attendances since 2000. Are they bigger ? Who knows ! Currently, definitely not. Historical support, maybe. Trophies, probably (not much competition)
Anyway I must get back to work
Dear God, even after Chelsea's run they would be 4 points behind Barca and 7 behind Bayern in a joint caparison table.
Didn't you know it took pep a lot of tactical genius to win those highly difficult and competitive leagues
Well there is no way I'd even loan Badstuber. I'm sure the Bayern fans will agree with me that he is a walking injury.
I think he played 40 games or something in 4 yrs due to Injury. That''s as a rotation player.
All this 'If he can stay fit' stuff from city's mob is optimistic as hell. It's a massive risk even as a loan and it's quite a poor move
I think he played 40 games or something in 4 yrs due to Injury. That''s as a rotation player.
All this 'If he can stay fit' stuff from city's mob is optimistic as hell. It's a massive risk even as a loan and it's quite a poor move
It's an unfair comparison.
Yup. Barcelona turned out to be historically great and played in a relatively weak league with no rivals, bayern were coming off the treble and were an historically great side that would have posted similar numbers in any league and under any good manager
City have the best team in the league but they're not historically great, and they're competing with 5 other teams who are all on a similar level as them. The 2016/17 premier league really is the most competitive league in world
City have the best team in the league but they're not historically great, and they're competing with 5 other teams who are all on a similar level as them. The 2016/17 premier league really is the most competitive league in world
His Bayern first season record after 20 games is very impressive.. I remember the best game during this period was not in the Bundesliga but in the CL at...Etihad, where Guardiola and his team destroyed Pellegrini's City..
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I really don't see how City have the best team in the league.
Based on what exactly? They have an awful defence & are 6th best team during the year. 2016, with an Ok-ish midfield and some top top drawer attackers.
Do they have the best team based soley on some attacking players?
How is it a massive risk? They probably won't even notice the money they have to spend for the loan.
Funny fact, crazy Pep's City now are in the exact same from as Chelsea over the last 6 games. If we beat Everton and make it 6 wins from 7 will Pep still be found out, will we still be struggling and at what point does a crisis become good form.
Its a huge risk on the field if we're bringing in someone injury prone in a position where we are already light. Well provided he's the only one we bring in.
I guess that's the important point. Of course you shouldn't have to rely on him staying fit, that's true.
suppose hes back to being a darling after that demolition job on West Ham? 
cup games ey
cup games eyIt's the highest level of football/domination I've ever seen, and it happened against a very good team too! It was amazing.
It was and the home fans applauded Bayern generously.
He's on parole more likesuppose hes back to being a darling after that demolition job on West Ham?
Is that the 3-1 game at etihad where negredo scored late?That was probably the best performance from an away side in cl i have seen in recent years.Bayern was looking unstoppable at that time.
The 20 that were left did.
I remember thinking after that game Bayern would win back to back Champiosn League titles if they kept their form up. It was football domination, maybe the most dominant performance by a visiting team in England din a European competition. Gary Neville got so xenophobic after that game claiming an English coach would have been savagely crticised if they set City up they way Pellegrini set City up. I Know Bayern lost vs City at the Etihad twelve months or so later but in the 2014 group stage they played so well with ten men for the majority of that game only to lose to an Aguero goal in 2nd half stoppage time. It
Actually Bayern were so good that a lot of the usual "early dart" merchants did a bit of overtime.
United's playing a defence held together by hopes and wishes. So do chelsea and liverpool for that matter. City's defenders aren't any worse, they're just more exposed. In terms of individual talent and quality, only united are on city's level, but city's talented is distributed among more players. They should not be nearly as reliant on any individual player as united are with ibra and pogba. They've been mismanaged, is all.
Also losing gundogan was a pretty big hit for them
Don't agree, I wouldn't swap any of our defenders for any of theirs tbh, bar maybe Kompany who is a crook. Think all our defenders are better than theirs. People are quickly forgetting Stones was terrible last season too.
Certainly guilty of GBH on United's title hopes in 2012
They are as reliant in Aguero and De Bruyne.
Losing Gundogan was quite easy to predict. It is like us complaining that Schweinsteiger was not fit last year.
About the defense, I think that Otamendi is on the level of any of our defenders, and so is Kompany but he is always injured. Stones is a bit shit though.
Gleaming from the post match what little Pep would ever reveal it seems pretty clear City are going to sign a central defender in this winter window and apart from a short term option I imagine Txiki will seek a potential starter.
Laporte would make sense with Bonnucci extending but the Basque club are not easy to negotiate with - City will have to overpay to get him. Would be a smart signing, IMO
Laporte would make sense with Bonnucci extending but the Basque club are not easy to negotiate with - City will have to overpay to get him. Would be a smart signing, IMO
More in terms of if he is brought in to cover a injury crisis... hes a risk
That's down to mismanagement imho. But now that i think abou it, yeah, there's really not much difference between city and united. Just that city's second tier stars are more experienced than united's. Miki targaryen has been a revelation to me. Didn't rate him much at dortmund
Agreed, that was their biggest mistake in the transfer market. Not having proper cover for gundogan. Still think they have an easier time replacing him than you would with herrera
Disagree about stones, but the point is, their defence really isn't particularly worse than united's or chelsea's. It looks worse because they are far more exposed due to the team having yet to master guardiola's system. Hell, guardiola played mascherano and javi martinez as CBs and they looked competent in the role, because the system protected them
Didn't he turn them down in the summer when City matched his buy-out clause, choosing instead to sign a new contract? Why do you think Laporte will about-turn and suddenly be interested in joining City?