Gotta love Costa (when he's on your side). Liverpool fans can't really be calling him out when Suarez was just as bad, if not worse, and was still defended. Not that I'm condoning what Costa did.

Glad to have bounced back from a shocking FA Cup result. Hopefully make the most of a couple of big games coming up which could really push us towards the title.

He's fucking ace.

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26 Jan 2015 07:52:32

By Shola | On 25 January 2015 - 22:23 PM

When did Owen Coyle go from young British* manager who plays football the right way to his current status.

Seem to just happen.

*British enough

About halfway through his Bolton reign, just nobody noticed for a bit.

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25 Jan 2015 21:13:53

By Chera | On 25 January 2015 - 13:54 PM

Anyone seen the video of Hart before the game saying 'we don't need to win this competition man'. If I was a City fan I'd be a bit pissed about that. Always said he comes across as annoyingly cocky.

Apparently it's an old video. Hart does seem like a bell-end though.

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25 Jan 2015 21:11:24

By Number 1 | On 25 January 2015 - 15:04 PM

Clearly. Owen Coyle and Malky Mackay certainly resemble poor managerial ones, and Dave Whelan's foot in mouth has caught up with him, which doesn't help.

Hiring Owen Coyle after Martinez left still strikes me as a monumentally stupid decision.

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25 Jan 2015 11:34:40

By Number 1 | On 24 January 2015 - 22:37 PM

I'm surprised Wigan have been so poor since they lost the play-off semis at QPR last May. It was fairly understandable there might have been some long term burnout following the intense campaign they had in 2013/14, but they seemed to have sleepwalked into trouble, panic-sacked Rosler, and then just fallen apart.

They've made a number of really bad decisions since they got relegated.

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24 Jan 2015 17:13:57

By The Platypus | On 24 January 2015 - 17:10 PM

You also lost to Arsenal at home.

Yeah, fair point.

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24 Jan 2015 17:02:15

By The Platypus | On 24 January 2015 - 16:56 PM

Well, at least we're in good company.

I guess.

Hey, at least we lost to a Championship team. Loser.

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24 Jan 2015 16:55:45

Awful second-half for us.

#239359 The South American Football Thread

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23 Jan 2015 17:42:34

Bit of fun.

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23 Jan 2015 07:03:04

By Jonas | On 23 January 2015 - 00:22 AM

Holy...

Proper Argieball tackle there. To be fair to him, Ricky Centurión (the player he tackles) is an absolute cunt.

Not as bad as this either...

#239115 The Manchester City Thread

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22 Jan 2015 20:46:38

By Jonas | On 22 January 2015 - 17:22 PM

I saw Celina got his 'debut'. How highly is he rated? Just too bad he seem to have chosen Kosovo over Norway on international level.

Not sure about the club as a whole but I've seen him a few times and he's never particularly impressed me.

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21 Jan 2015 22:01:54

Combination of the two with a hefty dose of PR.

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19 Jan 2015 19:10:50

Don't see it. I don't see why the club would want rid of him and I don't really see why he'd want out. He's already a club legend, he's got a young family (his wife is a Mancunian blue) and it's not like Bayern or Madrid will give him a pay rise or anything. With hindsight I think Mancini's last season was the chance for him to leave.

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19 Jan 2015 16:44:20

Bizarre as it is to say this about a City player, he should have stopped play and sent him off to be honest. It was a blatant second yellow.

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19 Jan 2015 16:18:33

By Telegram Sam | On 19 January 2015 - 16:01 PM

Did you think it was a penalty yesterday?

A soft one but yeah I think so. Monreal's looking for it but Kompany leaves his knee out and catches him.

I was more surprised that he didn't get a second yellow for the foul on Sanchez than I was upset about the penalty.

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19 Jan 2015 15:58:18

By Slashman X | On 19 January 2015 - 15:47 PM

Kompany is mainly overrated due to 'pundits' falling over each other to be mates with him and can't find fault with anything he does, so they blame Demichelis and other football fans take that as gospel. He's been 'poor' for 2-3 seasons, at least compared to the beastly 11-12 season (which was basically perfection). He's still one of the best 'leaders' in the game though and basically irreplaceable.

Demichelis has been our best CB since last January and that's a fact

Aye, I think this is a very good example of how stupid many pundits and journalists are when it comes to football. When you're 'in', you're in. Regardless of actual form and ability. It's the same reason Joe Hart gets so much leeway and you still hear him described as being in good form.

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19 Jan 2015 15:42:59

Yes and no.

On his best day he's still comfortably the best centre-back in the league and one of the best in the world. On the other hand, his best day doesn't seem to come around as often as it did, and his decision-making has noticeably deteriorated. Personally I think it's the result of a combination of several factors. Age, a defensive system that provides him with significantly less cover than it should do/used to and a lot of injuries.

I still think that if you put him in a system like Chelsea's or like City's in 10/11 or 11/12 he'd flourish but probably not to quite the same extent as he did.

Demichelis is just awesome though.

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19 Jan 2015 15:35:30

He started off really well but got that injury two or three matches in and has looked completely off the pace since then. Unfortunately so has Fernandinho for the most part. There are far too many players looking like shadows of their former self.

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19 Jan 2015 08:29:12

I'm not expecting it to go well.

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18 Jan 2015 19:42:05

It's a rant but whatever.

Awful result today but I think a result like that has been overdue, we've had narrow escapes in basically every match since Boxing Day (Burnley, Sunderland, Wednesday and Everton). We've kept picking up results more or less all season but all the same problems have kept cropping up - dodgy defending, slow inaccurate passing and blunt attacking - and today was the first time we've done them all at the same time and been properly punished for it in the league this season.

Aside from the systemic problems, we've also got personnel issues that are ridiculous given the money spent since Pellegrini arrived and the heights we've reached in his time. Two unconvincing keepers, one consistent full-back who has been played into the ground, no truly reliable centre-backs, a midfield that hinges almost entirely on the whim of Yaya Touré and the diminutive genius of David Silva and a front-line that is embarrassingly lacklustre when Aguero's knackered.

And all that without even mentioning how unbelievably shit our set-pieces are. Bit sick of Pellegrini at this point to be honest.

#237526 Barclays Premier League 2014/15

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17 Jan 2015 08:53:19

By JL94x4 | On 17 January 2015 - 06:08 AM

I never compared him as a footballer to Ba, I said we could end up seeing his career path take a similar route to Ba, only because he has the likes of Aguero, Dzeko, Jovetic to get ahead of to gain a starting place, its not an easy task. Negredo found it tough and Jovetic is atm.

It's not that tough a task though. Jovetic clearly isn't a natural centre-forward, Dzeko has been up and down for ages and has looked utterly appalling this season whilst Aguero is injured so regularly that Bony is basically guaranteed a certain amount of chances.

And with regards to Negredo his problem wasn't a lack of opportunities (he displaced Dzeko in about 3 matches at the start). It was the fact the fucked his shoulder up and was asked to play through the pain resulting in a complete lack of form.

#237104 La Liga 2014/15

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15 Jan 2015 20:13:37

Fernando Torres has scored twice for Atleti against Madrid in the Copa del Rey.

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15 Jan 2015 18:11:59

By King Luis | On 15 January 2015 - 09:46 AM

Well of course you will but you'll also sign more players in the summer no doubt and you'll also be required to have the full quota of home-grown players again so he could quite easily be left out in order to accommodate either the new signings or those home grown players

That's a lot of assumptions. Why would we drop him when there are other non-Home Grown players who have proven over a decent period of time that they actually deserve to be moved on.

By Poe | On 15 January 2015 - 12:04 PM

I swear I've never heard such polarising opinions on Dzeko than on this website.

He's brilliant for about 6 months then the worst striker in the world for the next 6.

That's partly because he's really inconsistent and partly because it's only really me and Slash who have strong opinions on him (and Slash loves him).

By BR. | On 15 January 2015 - 12:33 PM

I also thought something similar to be fair haha, although I think Remy at Chelsea is gonna be the best example of this, Bony will probably play a bit more than him.

Let's see what happens.
.

Aye, whether he succeeds at City or not, I think it's a bit harsh comparing him to Ba, he already looks like a better player.

I agree though. Best just to wait and see what happens.

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15 Jan 2015 08:36:02

By Number 1 | On 14 January 2015 - 15:48 PM

Man City sign Bony for £25million, potentially rising to £28million.

Be interesting to see if he is able to meet the potential, and also if it fucks up Man City's FFP even more.

Hard to say for certain but it shouldn't given we've (sort of) sold Negredo for £24m and loaned Nastasic out for a fee and with his wages paid.

By King Luis | On 14 January 2015 - 18:05 PM

Just brought this up in the transfer thread, seems mental on all accounts. Bony's saying he's excited to play in the CL but that could only be for 2 games at a push and even then City are going to have to remove a player from their squad, also could see him being moved on next season or becoming even more of a bit part player.

The fuck are you on about, KL? Are we not going to be in the Champions League next season? Do you seriously think he can't get in front of Dzeko (chronically underwhelming) and Jovetic (who's not actually a striker) or that he'll flop badly enough that he's moved on after next season? We've kept Dzeko for four years ffs.

By King Luis | On 14 January 2015 - 18:05 PM

Just brought this up in the transfer thread, seems mental on all accounts. Bony's saying he's excited to play in the CL but that could only be for 2 games at a push and even then City are going to have to remove a player from their squad, also could see him being moved on next season or becoming even more of a bit part player.

Did anyone listen to the Football Ramble this week, one of them mentioned City might be about to be investigated for holding companies with massive loses being used to get around FFP

The Independent did a piece about that. Seems to be a lot of fuss about nothing really.

By JL94x4 | On 14 January 2015 - 21:43 PM

Bony will be the same as BA was for Chelsea sit on the bench for a few seasons then end up in a shit league like Turkey.

By Shola | On 14 January 2015 - 20:35 PM

Bony will be excellent in the 'I'm not a supersub role'

Given all of Aguero's injuries and the general shitness of our other striker so far, I think he'll probably have a more substantial role than that.

#236382 The Manchester City Thread

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12 Jan 2015 18:33:35

By Ninja | On 12 January 2015 - 18:00 PM

If Lampard had actually cost money it would make sense, but seeing as he didn't the idea that its an 'FFP dodge' is absurd, even if you assume he's been given a hefty signing on fee.

Exactly. This is why it's been annoying me.

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12 Jan 2015 17:22:07

By Chera | On 12 January 2015 - 17:03 PM

Could City not basically have Lampard without paying his wages? Rather than declare his wages on their wageroll to the FFP they could say that they have loaned him from New York who will pay all his wages for the duration of the loan.

That is possible but City have said they're paying his wages. Realistically if they're trying to cheat FFP it'd be a good idea to come up with something slightly less transparent than that.