bluemoon. - Comments

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#236172 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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First time at home I think since 2009.

Ah. That would explain it.
#236156 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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According to BBC report we apparently had two on target that game. We were really bad so that's surprising.

Yeah, that doesn't sound right. Then again, it's not that important so never mind.
#236150 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Nope, first time since 2009 according to Opta

That doesn't sound right. Fairly certain they didn't get any on target in the derby at the Etihad in 2012.
#236111 The Manchester City Thread
bluemoon.
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The Villa deal was the bigger eyebrow raiser for me. I mean he only ended playing 4 games for Melbourne were he was classed as being in a guest stint which doesn't affect the cap. Then the reports came out that his wage at NYCFC was around 60k. So it seems like there has been some front loading of his contract while he was at Melbourne.

As long as it isn't illegal I am not even that bothered about the City group exploiting the situation they have tbh. Wouldn't be surprised to see some rule changes come in over the next few years though when it comes to players being traded between clubs owned by the same people.

To be honest, I didn't follow the Villa saga all that closely 'cos he didn't really have any bearing to City. I was under the impression he joined Melbourne as a guest player and just left early so any controversy over that has kind of passed me by.

Agree on the prospect of rule changes though. I can't imagine we'll be the only club to set-up networks like this.
#236020 The Manchester City Thread
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It does seem there a bit of dodyness going on though.

Owning three clubs and 'loaning' players between them, especially when two of those leagues have a salary cap and the other involved with FFP, is going to raise some eyebrows.

True but there's a difference between seeming dodgy and actually being dodgy. I can see how it could be - i.e. if NYCFC were paying a players wages during a loan to City - but that doesn't seem to have happened, people just seem to be going to the reflex reaction of it seems dodgy, therefore it is. Everybody was up in arms about the Etihad deal and that was perfectly legitimate despite all the claims along the lines of "it's clearly dodgy".

But thats essentially what it is?

How is it though? What do you think they're actually doing that is against the rules?
#236004 The Manchester City Thread
bluemoon.
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Reports this morning saying Uefa are looking into it.

Sure Wenger called this right back in August.

Wenger claimed it was an FFP dodge. That's so vague it's virtually meaningless.
#235965 The Manchester City Thread
bluemoon.
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All of this is dodgy as hell. How did City loan him for New York if they never bought him? Ridiculous.

If the latest round of reports are actually right then we didn't. He only signed an agreement to sign for NYCFC rather than actually signing for them, then we signed him on a 1-year contract, (the shortest length allowed) with a break clause on the 31st December so he could leave and join NYCFC. This break clause wasn't triggered because he was doing so well.

Frankly the more I read about this, the more I think this is an example of staggering incompetence on City's part as opposed to dodgy dealings.
#235057 The Manchester City Thread
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Easily our best centre-back at the moment.
#234695 Transfer Rumours 2014/15
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I'm not sure Bony's a £30m player, but he's easily good enough to do what Negrado did before he went to shite.

Same here. I think he'll be replacing Dzeko more than Negredo though.
#233285 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Cahill gets away with so much.
#228478 Champions League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Another good draw.
#227142 Champions League 2014/15
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#223618 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
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#223409 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Aye, the guy's a cunt. Always has been, always will be.
#223227 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Awful, awful decision.
#222106 Champions League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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I reckon theres a decent argument that Aguero was better last season when fit. Injured too much though, obv.

If I remember rightly, they were pretty much neck and neck in the scoring charts until about New Year. Then Kun was out for a while and Suárez ran away with it.
#217219 Transfer Rumours 2014/15
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I'm honestly not sure. He's had problems with injury but nothing that you would expect to lead to such a low fee. I'm assuming something has gone on behind the scenes because that's the only way it really makes sense.

I think he'd be better at Arsenal than Tottenham, personally.
#217148 Transfer Rumours 2014/15
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City have supposedly offered Nastasic to Arsenal and Spurs on the cheap.
#215791 Champions League 2014/15
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Older purchases were on purpose I believe, sort of a "we need players right now who can win things while the academy gets up to scratch"

Yeah, I get that. It's not a massive issue but I do think it's a slight negative.
#215499 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Harsh but you might have a point.
#215474 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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We're a joke at the moment. Wenger needs to go.

Funny really that City, United, ourselves, Spurs, Everton and Liverpool are all pretty shit right now. Southampton might just make the Champions League at this rate.

There's basically only about three teams that are actually playing at, or above, their level - Chelsea, Southampton and West Ham. Maybe Newcastle on recent form too. Everybody else seems to be playing below their ability.
#215129 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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He's not one of the best players in the world though.

It depends entirely on how you're defining that though - one of the best can mean anything from one of the top 5 to top 100 players in the world - and even then it's relatively subjective.
#215111 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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He's right though, Silva isn't too consistent.

He's not right, though. Silva is consistent. He doesn't score consistently, I'll agree with that, but it's very rare that he plays badly.
#215022 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Bullshit.

Silva is horribly inconsistent. He's not even close.

For every world class performance he puts in, he's anonymous for 5. He has 2 goals and 2 assists this season, against Newcastle, Hull and West Ham.

Haha. Jog on, if you seriously believe that then you're an idiot.
#214832 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Aguero is easily one of the best players in the world. Why is he never talked about as such?

He plays for City (and he gets a fair few injuries). Silva gets the same sort of treatment and he's in the same class.
#214629 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
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We might actually be worse at the moment.

The combination of having confidence at rock-bottom, iffy tactics, dodgy selections and even dodgier substitutions isn't doing very well for us.
#214492 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Watch Clichy dive in and completely put himself out the game, he's absolutely useless nowadays.

He's really weird. He switches almost at will between being a quick, competent defender and complete liability.

He touched it twice when it was free kick apparently it should have been an indirect free kick to QPR.

It wasn't a free-kick because the ball didn't leave the penalty area (which it turns out is a rule).
#214478 Barclays Premier League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Very strange start. Two disallowed goals for QPR.
#214045 Champions League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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Thoughts on Soriano and Begiristain era transfers?

Happy with them overall. Overpaid a bit for some, probably underpaid a bit for others. Apart from the age of them - generally older players - I have no real issue with them. From the outside it seems to me that Txiki is very good at his job.
#213271 Champions League 2014/15
bluemoon.
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What do City fans think of your transfer dealings post take over?

Of all the players you've signed its hard to think of too many that have been unqualified successes; Kompany, Silva, Toure, Aguero, and Zabaleta spring to mind but thats about it. And theres a vast litany of players who just seem like squad filler? Neither World Class nor bad, just a bit stuck in the middle.

For me: Good but not spectacular.

Well, considering since the takeover we've been buying players for about four different levels/standards (Europa League, Champions League, title contenders, title winners) I think a lot of the transfer activity was alright, but there were more than our fair share of mistakes.

The Hughes-era was undoubtedly the worst - but bizarrely also brought in three or four of our best players of the last 6 years - the likes of Adebayor, Kolo Touré and Roque Santa Cruz were unforgivable wastes of money. My only real criticism with the players we signed is that we weren't more intelligent with how we picked our targets, Hughes, and Mancini to an extent, were consistently allowed to buy very obvious targets for fees that weren't especially good for us. i.e. 'Premier League proven' players, I think if we'd spent last time trying to sign those types of players we would have improved quicker and probably spent less money. A better manager than Hughes wouldn't have hurt either.

For me, part of the issue is expectation. When were the takeover first happened the spokesman was a bell-end who went around very loudly talking about how we could and would sign all of the best players in the world. Frankly, I don't think that was ever actually the plan, but understandably that encouraged people to look at City's signings with that in mind. I think it's only the last few seasons that our transfer activity has been particularly bad. The García/Sinclair window was truly disastrous and we're fortunate it hasn't caused more issues and this past window doesn't look that brilliant now albeit with the important factor of FFP restrictions. Both times we've won the league, we've had, for one reason or another, low-key transfer windows aimed at improving the squad, when really we should probably have tried to improve the first-team. Missing out on Hazard after the title-win still stands out as a horrific mistake, it was a ludicrous time to get self-righteous about agent fees.