The Manchester City Thread

Yaya to UFC confirmed

As much as Martin Samuels is an idiot I don't know how much credit Pellegrini really deserves.

A lot. He's done the double in his first season in England and has had City playing some incredible football.

And yet scraped over the line with easily the best squad in the country against one of the weakest field of challengers he could have hoped for.

Saying that, I think he's been a marked improvement on Mancini who would definitely have imploded and sulked after that Sunderland result.

Nonsense. If you're going to be that petty then Ferguson's titles in the 1990's should be devalued given they comfortably had the most money and the best squad. If you win the league over 38 games then you deserve it and the acclaim that comes with it. City played some great stuff this year as well so given that this is his first season in the Premier League he has done a great job.

Where did I say they've not deserved it?

Just that at various points over the season they've tried all tried very hard to throw it away, if Liverpool hadn't imploded over the past 2 weeks they'd have won it despite conceding 50,000 goals and if Chelsea could beat the dregs in the league they'd have won it too.

Obviously they've been the least inconsistent side, because thats why they've got the most points, but they've had their share of attempting to throw it away, too, drawing with Sunderland, for example.

You're being an incredibly harsh and keep ignoring the fact that it's first season in England and that he won the Capital One Cup as well. Oh, and that he did it all playing beautiful football. He's done a great job.

They've lost two games since November. They won the last five games in a row to clinch the title. They've scored an obscene number of goals. The end of this season may feel a bit anti-climatic after Liverpool's wheels fell off but if you're really going to try and downplay what a superb job he's done you're just going to come across as petty.

I don't really see why you think its petty to point out that he's in charge of the massive favourites and therefore winning the title was always basically expected.

All titles are equal, and he's clearly done pretty well, but all champions aren't and its far less impressive him winning the league with City than Rodgers having won it at Liverpool or if Simeone manages it at Atletico. His true test comes next season, for me.

Well you did when i said exactly the same about Mourinho.

Fuck ye cunts. Watch this gloriousness

I don't really see why you think its petty to point out that he's in charge of the massive favourites and therefore winning the title was always basically expected.

If that's the mentality you're going to take then a large number of Ferguson's titles should be devalued considering how often Manchester United were massive favourites and winning the title was basically expected.

Where did I say I was devaluing the title? I think my exact words were 'all titles are equal'.

All I'm saying is that as soon as it emerged that we weren't going to compete for the title this season everyone had City as nailed on favourites (and a great deal of people before even that), it was a title that Mancini probably could have delivered.

Until Pellegrini really shows he's taken City on to a better level, either through better European performances (I know Slash and bluemoon will point to the fact that they got out of their group this time, but those two legs against Barca were some of the weakest I've seen) or delivering titles when teams against them are mounting considerable pressure then I don't think he's due a great deal more credit than Mancini did, and that ended up with him getting the boot which is why next season with, presumably, a bigger challenge from Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and (hopefully) us we'll gauge the true extent of where he is taking City.

Or, to give a different example, did Sebastian Vettel win 4 titles because he was the best driver, or was he a good driver in by far the best car? The evidence of this season will probably go furthest to shaping the answer to that question, but that doesn't mean he wasn't deserving of the 4 he did win. The same is true of this season for City, in my opinion.

- MCFC will lose 10m Euros of its share of income from UEFA for competing in the Champions League completion in season 2013-14.
- MCFC will lose 10m Euros of its share of income from UEFA for competing in the Champions League for season 2014-15
- Rather than having an accumulative allowance of 30m Euros of losses over the next two reporting years (like all other clubs), MCFC will have specific stipulated allowances for 2013-14 and 2014-15 of 20m Euros and 10m Euros respectively. Significantly, MCFC plans to be profitable in 2014-15 and in the years that follow.
- The MCFC Champions League squad for the 2014-15 competition will be limited to 21 players. In 2013-14 the club registered 23 players for the competition and used 21.
- The Club’s expenditure on new players for the upcoming summer transfer window, on top of income from players it might sell, will be limited to 60m euros. This will have no material impact on the Club’s planned transfer activity.
- The wage bill of the whole club (playing and non-playing staff) for 2014-15 will need to remain at the same level as that of 2013-14 season. It is important to note that additional bonuses for performances can be paid outside this number. Importantly, in reality, the existing MCFC business plan sees a natural decline in that wage bill.
- Given the unique nature of the new City Football Group structure – which incorporates MCFC, New York City, Melbourne Heart and a number of other companies, the Club has agreed to certain non-material terms in order to make FFP reporting as easy as possible for UEFA to discern.

At the heart of those discussions is a fundamental disagreement between the Club’s and UEFA’s respective interpretations of the FFP regulations on players purchased before 2010. The Club believes it has complied with the FFP regulations on this and all other matters.

This will have no material impact on the Club’s planned transfer activity.

Importantly, in reality, the existing MCFC business plan sees a natural decline in that wage bill.