Prince v Pauper – Would you prefer to have money like City?

The kind of player money can buy
Both Manchester City and Newcastle may be the only unbeaten sides in the Premier League as things stand, but for me the similarities end there.

In a way it’s testament to the kind of start that we’ve had to the season. The pauper that is striving for financial self-sufficiency has thus far matched the prince that has spent nigh on £900 million in transfer fees at a time when we’ve actually made a profit on player sales.

Now not for one moment am I comparing us to Manchester City. Our good start to the season has been well deserved but quite simply they are on another planet. Look at their squad and look at ours and you’d have to think that they are equipped to maintain a challenge whilst we fade away at some point.

The reason for this is money. They’ve spent the money to build a squad capable of maintaining a challenge whilst we go about the same principle in a very different manner using careful scouting and trying to cut deals wherever we go. The goal of both clubs is the same (I guess, in time), but in a week which saw Manchester City post losses for the year of £195 million you can see that both clubs are going about it a very different way.

I was inspired to write this article yesterday whilst having a discussion with some of you guys. I found it interesting so thought that it would be good to gauge a bigger opinion on the matter.

Basically my argument is that I’d love it for someone to lavish the kind of cash on Newcastle that has been spent at Manchester City. Even half of it would do me and would go a long way towards giving us a lift up the league. That was countered with people saying that they prefer the way we are going about things currently, so that anything we achieve as a result we can feel proud of as we’ve earned it.

What I want to know is what do you guys think? Would you be happier with a Manchester City style injection of cash allowing us to compete with the best a lot sooner? Or are you happy with the way things are going right now?

Basically I can’t see why anyone wouldn’t want a boatload of money spent on us. I mean we seem to be doing well enough in terms of player recruitment at the moment, that isn’t an issue, but what would be wrong with getting a leg up and getting to the top that little bit quicker?

I keep hearing things about how “none of their trophies will have been earned”, but if I was sat in the stands at Wembley watching my team win trophies, if we were top of the league and looking pretty much favourites for the title, if we were in the Champions League I really don’t think I’d mind.

It’s almost as though we’ve been told about self-sufficiency and are using it as a comfort barrier and believe that it’s good for the club. It is of course in the long run, but it isn’t the only way to go about things.

Now I want to know what you think of it all.

[poll id=”49″]

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

102 thoughts on “Prince v Pauper – Would you prefer to have money like City?

  1. After looking at this link: http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premiership-transfers/newcastle-united-transfers.html, it appears that due to cash restraints and falling crowds in the last two years, you have dealt frugally in the transfer market. Prior to that, you seem to have adopted the tried and tested method of throwing money around like confetti. Not exactly a pillar of virtue or role model of a football club, are you? Just be honest

      (Quote)

  2. I actually like Man City fans. The ones who have stuck with there club have been through alot there and been up and down the leagues. They deserve the money they have. Its a fresh face in the top part of the league as well. Anything to knock man utd off there perch and all there fake fans.

    I wont mind losing today if we play well, give them a real go.

    On a side not – Remember when we lost 4-0 away to stoke last year, i got on one of the virgin trains from stoke after the game and started to speak to one of the authors on this website, well he said he was anyway. I couldnt chat long because i had to get off at stafford to stay there for the night. No idea who it was!! Haha :mrgreen: ever since then ive started to check this website more and more.

    Great work!

      (Quote)

  3. I’d love a cash injection if we had cash to inject.

    If we were to get into debt because of the cash injection I’d rather do what we’re doing at the moment.

      (Quote)

  4. I wouldnt. The first reason is that man. City have no soul at all. There players wouldnt have joined if it were t for tne money, so you question their commitment. 2nd is that in 5 years, when theyve won it all, whats to say mansour wont get bored and leave, and they wouldnt have the money to pay those wages, and they would be in trouble. Wheras we are doing pretty well as we are, thank you very much 🙂 😉

      (Quote)

  5. Are u new to nufc? U seem to forget we already has our go a buying the league in the 90’s we were paying £16m for shearer while they were paying peanuts for the likes of kit symonds etc. We did it and failed have you blotted that out? Hold your hands up don’t start the jealousy now. Good luck to them, they deserve it more than most.

      (Quote)

  6. Are u new to nufc? U seem to forget we already has our go a buying the league in the 90’s we were paying £16m for shearer while they were paying peanuts for the likes of kit symonds etc. We did it and failed have you blotted that out? Hold your hands up don’t start the jealousy now. Good luck to them, they deserve it more than most.

      (Quote)

  7. boys just found this whilst searching Richard Branson on yahoo,
    “Sir Richard Branson, Managing Director of Virgin Enterprise, and billionaire philanthropist is reported to have submitted a multi-million pound bid to take over a majority share in Newcastle United Football Club, an offer the current administration is very keen to explore further. The North East Premier League club is currently owned by controversial businessman Mike Ashley, owner of discount sportswear chain ‘SportsDirect’…”

      (Quote)

  8. Al – Not jealousy at all. I realise we’ve been there. I also remember a time when we had a ground that was condemned in parts because it was so ramshackle.

    I’ve not once denied that we’ve spent money in the past. I can’t even find where I’ve written that if you could point it out for us?

    All I’m saying is that those days were great for us, and I imagine they are great now for City fans. It’s no different for them now as it was for us back then really.

    This is about what you’d prefer NOW though.

      (Quote)

  9. Its not that I would turn it down or would be preying someone will inject that sort of cash into the club , if it happen’s it happen’s.

    Nothing against City fans at all either , think they deserve everything that comes their way and fair play to them on anything they win.

      (Quote)

  10. @Toonsy

    Its a good question m8. Like u said yesterday, where will this penny-pinching take us. Come Jan we might lose Tiote & Krull, perhaps we should revisit this question later 😉

      (Quote)

  11. Simplesimon – The problem with looking purely at transfer dealings is that it negates everything else, like how much the club can actually afford.

    the fact that we’ve played 20 years of Premier League football and not amassed the amount of losses that it took Man City one season to rack up says a lot. Yes we spent money, but mainly because we could afford it from the clubs revenue stream with any small shortfall (certainly not £195 million in one year) being made up by our owners at the time.

      (Quote)

  12. “the prince that has spent nigh on £900 million in transfer fees”…

    madness….

    Taking a huge step back from the money discussion to actually look at the personalities behind Man City. Surely the owners over there have NO CHANCE of recuperating any of this huge investment, even if they win the Champions League every year ? 😕

    The Premier League is one uneven playing field imo, and I would love it if somehow FIFA could get the whole financial fair play under control. Not sure how it can be achieved though.

    Believe me, I’m not envious of Man City at all, but just throwing money at something is a bit obsene at the end of the day ?

      (Quote)

  13. Do you think many players sign for Newcastle because it is their dream? no, most come for money or use us as a stepping stone, that’s football I’m afraid at most clubs As has been said we’ve spent money in the past and failed, admittedly not on the scale City are doing but it’s not just how much you spend but what you spend it on and how those players are managed.
    Mancini is doing a great job of it, the “soul” of City is their fans, not their players or owners, good luck to them I say.

      (Quote)

  14. bambams@8. If there is any truth in the rumour, then I find that a great move to be honest.

    It must be possible for a club like Newcastle to be run by a group of big money people (there must be a couple of big money Geordies out there too ?), each of which would invest there wedge, while at the same time getting something out of it from the sponsor front ?

    I would love to see all the big money people, Toonsy, Branson, Nike even Ashley etc all involved at the club. That would be immense.

    Not sure where Owlheed would fit in there though… 👿 👿 👿 👿

      (Quote)

  15. Munich…problem with wanting Fifa to sort out anything is that you’re wanting a corrupt institution to police financial dealings, brown envelopes spring to mind 😉

      (Quote)

  16. Well you should answer the question yourself. I think its pretty obvious though and clearly so do the rest of the fans as the have already voted in this with their numbers at SJP in the past.

      (Quote)

  17. Alan
    November 19, 2011 at 11:16

    “Well you should answer the question yourself. I think its pretty obvious though and clearly so do the rest of the fans as the have already voted in this with their numbers at SJP in the past.”

    I have answered it. Perhaps you should read the article?

    “Basically my argument is that I’d love it for someone to lavish the kind of cash on Newcastle that has been spent at Manchester City. Even half of it would do me and would go a long way towards giving us a lift up the league. That was countered with people saying that they prefer the way we are going about things currently, so that anything we achieve as a result we can feel proud of as we’ve earned it.”

    This is why I wrote the article ^^^

      (Quote)

  18. City fan here, trust me you would love it :0) I still feel the same City fan as I did when we were in the old third division or going home on a mini bus after we had lost at Maine Road to Stockport County (with County fans!)

    Accountants are a bit of a moving target but the comment above about Sheik Mansour and his investment is not really accurate

    His total spend (no debt) including £200M for the club is £800M, clearly a lot of money, but shareholder funds are £300M and you could argue that the club is worth a lot more than the £200M he paid for it. He is part of the ruling family in a country that owns 9% of the world’s oil so it is less than one penny to him. Hands up who had heard of Abu Dhabi or Ethihad 3 years ago

      (Quote)

  19. Posted too early! just wanted to finish by saying its a beautiful sunny day, you boys will make lots of noise and I’m off in a mo

    Bring it on!

      (Quote)

  20. Good luck to Man City. The De Jong incident kind of left a bit of a sour taste when some of their fans were defending De Jong as some sort of saint who was unlucky when he clearly isn’t and look at the world cup final ect. I suppose this is normal though and we would defend from other fans that call Tiote a thug. (IMO he is nowhere near as bad as De Jong and actually goes for the ball not the leg but thats just my opinion). Anyway getting back on topic, 🙂 I would like to see our club continue to do what it’s doing at the moment. Definately I think we need to spend on a striker, CB and LB in January though and if the team can stay up the top end of the league I think the added income should warrant it.

    I don’t think the comparisons are fair between us in the 90’s and City now. We didn’t spend anywhere near the amount that City have and even then it has taken them like 3/4 years of trial and error to get to where they are now. After 3/4 years of not winning anything we just sort of fizzled out.

      (Quote)

  21. Peter Smith
    November 19, 2011 at 11:25

    “I still feel the same City fan as I did when we were in the old third division or going home on a mini bus after we had lost at Maine Road to Stockport County (with County fans!)”

    This is why I don’t begrudge City fans ^^^

    Like us they’ve been through **** and came through it the other side. It’s different to someone like Chelsea who’d not really had to deal with any **** and struck lucky because of where they are.

      (Quote)

  22. Wasn’t the Man City owners looking at Newcastle and some other clubs before they bought City?

    To all those that hate Ashley, just think that was one final nail in the coffin from Hall and Shepard. 😉

      (Quote)

  23. Peter Smith

    Spot on there mate, the Man City fans of old know how it is travelling the length of the country in a transit fan to follow there club through thick and thin. We have all done it in years gone by, and done it for the love of our club, no matter what.

    That Man City have been fortunate enough to obtain a rich benefactor then all well and done, congratulations. I would just rather see a more fair financial playing field for all european clubs.

    Karl Heinz Rummenige regularly the chief bottle washer goes apeshit over this cos his club FC Bayern have really got there house in order, and are on a real sound financial footing. But how can they compete financially with the Man City’s and Chelsea’s of this world ? I mean the majority of Italian clubs are on the bones of there **** financially too…

      (Quote)

  24. To the City fans, your luck in getting the Abu Dhabi rulers as owners has everything to do with the sheer incompetence and arrogance displayed by our owner and his pals when we were on their shopping list when they went on the beer instead of attending a meeting in the UAE.
    I dont begrudge you for one second, enjoy it, and heres hoping that the Qataris come in for us and hopefully this time, Ashley will show them the respect they demand and we will finally be rid of his big fat shadow which hangs over this club.

      (Quote)

  25. Just curious…

    To the Man C fans reading this, (it’s on Man C newsnow) what is your expectation for the game today? Do you think you will just turn up and flatten us? Do you think you will have to work for it? I’m just interested to see what the opposition think to our start to the season.

      (Quote)

  26. Toonsy – the shortfall was not as little as you make out. Just looking at the last two seasons, Newcastle have made overall losses of £17.1M and £15.2M respectively. Are you suggesting that this is a sustainable business model? City have had to speculate, to accumulate, in the short term to meet FFP regulations in the future. They are not in any debt and they have a plan to break up the cartel at the top. I am not advocating that City’s spending is good for the game but I don’t think that you can hold yourselves up as a model of how to conduct business.

      (Quote)

  27. DJG@27……..good point regarding defending our players, for De Jong read Barton… 👿 👿

    For the bad press which he brings with him, I’m so happy that he is no longer at wor club.

      (Quote)

  28. So nufc fans are saying that if we won the league title in the 90’s it wouldn’t have been deserved then? Because we most certainly didn’t generate the money ourselves as somebody above tried to Surgest. For those saying what we win will be deserved I tell you now that will be nothing, well maybe the carling cup. Football since the start of the premier league in about nothing but money and those going on about fair play are insane it’s there to keep the top clubs top which now includes man city with the 11th largest turnover in the world and they are rising every year keeping uefa’s monopoly intact end of!

      (Quote)

  29. I don’t think Ashley had any intention of selling the club. Didn’t someone spot them out there and they were basically on holiday getting pi$@ed. 😆

      (Quote)

  30. Robert@32…

    The Qataris will be looking to improve the footballing image throughout european and world football prior to the World Cup over there. Which better way to do that than by sponsoring the toon ?

    Ditto the 2012 Olympics…there must be some serious money to be made for some sponsor during the Olympic Games at the toon… ?

      (Quote)

  31. Simplesimon – so you’ve pointed out losses from when we were in the championship and last season? Nice. Thats two years, one without Premier League football I’ll add, which still accounts for less than 20% of what City lost in this one season alone.

    The fact (that you omitted) is that were on course for breaking even and have reduced our losses systematically to a point where, we’re told anyway, that we won’t be making any losses.

    I’d suggest that to go from losing the amour we were losing to breaking even is indeed a good business model.

      (Quote)

  32. To me though money is ruining the sport. Don’t get me wrong EVERYTHING is about money, but there has to be other motives as well. Some players now are purely motivated by money eg. Tevez. If you needed surgery would you want a surgeon that was purely motivated by your money, or one that wanted to help you as well. Would you want your collegues at work to care only about their paypacket?

      (Quote)

  33. richietoon…I’m sure the sponsors will find a way round that, at least outside of the stadium ?

      (Quote)

  34. What a top article and fantastic responses. Ill admit, I only read this because it came up on newsnow and I usually like to have a laugh at the ill informed haters we blues have and are having to put up with since the sheik bought our club, but this is brilliant. An actual reasoned discussion on the subject, and a fanbase who, even when they dont agree with what’s happening in east Manchester, don’t resort to media **** and hyperbole to make a point. You lot, author included, are a credit to football and your club, and I really hope that, whether it comes through wheeling and dealing, or through a magnanimous takeover by deep pocketed owners, you get the stability and success you obviously deserve.

    To answer the question though, its absolute dreamland for us blues, and to not want to be in the position we are in is folly, football has always been financially skewed, but to get a chance at the big prizes, whilst watching some amazing football after, in my experience, 35 years of thin and thinner is fantastic, the soul of the club remains utterly untarnished, as we believe we’ve paid our dues and deserve a little fortune.

    Good luck, sincerely, for the rest of the season (excluding today natch)

    Good read. Proper fans.

      (Quote)

  35. I was gonna say you must be getting haters every week before the match. To those toon fans saying lets do a Man City. Not sure I would like that every week.

      (Quote)

  36. City fan here, but one with great respect for Newcastle United.

    Firstly, let’s all agree that anyone giving it the “no soul” stuff is an idiot.

    Secondly, £900m on transfer fees?!? Try halfing that. We don’t mind a bit of banter, but the TalkSport schtick a few people quote is annoying and lazy.

    City fans are still the same – still pretty self-deprecating, still capable of laughing at themselves, most of us still don’t take ourselves very seriously, all that’s changed is we’ve now got quite a good side instead of a **** one.

    As for today’s game, we’ll treat it with respect. Newcastle aren’t where they are by accident, they have a very good young goalkeeper, the back four are being organised well, the central midfield is amongst the best in the league, you defend well as a side, and Ba’s amongst the most natural finishers in the league. We’re not thinking the game’s already won, most of us are anticipating a very close game, a tough win by the odd goal, possibly even a draw.

    We’ve got a lot of work to do if we’re going to be realistic title contenders, but hopefully we’ll get there, and if we do, hopefully you lads will still be going well. Much rather you lot grabbed a top four place than any of the other candidates.

      (Quote)

  37. Toonsy – I am happy for Newcastle but the point that you are missing is that one swallow doesn’t make a summer and one year of financial stability doesn’t mean that you are where you are, because of your financial principles. That is down to shrewd management. Good luck for today – but not too much!!

      (Quote)

  38. Some good Man City lads appeared on here today, well done to you, good crack.
    At the end of the day we’re all united in our dislike for the red half of Manchester anyway… 😉

    Let’s hope we can eke out a draw today at your place, that would be immense !

    Howay the lads…!!!

      (Quote)

  39. DJG….most hate us anyway doe to the press with their “deluded” ****, whatever happens today we’ll see City in the Champions League final next season 😉 😆

      (Quote)

  40. Tom- Why will City get found out? UEFA can scrutinise all they want but they’re not doing anything. They have already softened their stance on penalties, instead of being banned from CL they will be fined! Wow, that will really hurt them.

    Fair play rules are unenforceable – Simple. If any company want to take a contract and treat it as a loss leader there’s nothing anyone can do about it and it’s common practice around the world.

      (Quote)

  41. Personally I hope Man City win the title this season, and I have thought that for a while I’m not just saying that today. I hope we finish strongly and sign some more quality cheapies. It will be difficult for both but it’s great really and makes it more worth it. Wouldn’t want to finish 1st because we’re in a **** league.

      (Quote)

  42. It probably means more if you win without spending much, but I would have to say I would rather be a prince than a pauper 100%. You need money to compete in the league and I would be much happier if some billionare buys the team and spends a lot on it. Man U spends a lot and they win, Man City is speding a lot and they are getting positive results. Chelsea spend a fortune and are considered a successful club. Give me the money all they way.

      (Quote)

  43. I see Lawrenson has us down for defeat, again – 2 nil.

    …but Russel Grant has us down for a 2 -1 victory! It’s written in the stars!!

    whoo hoooooooooo :mrgreen:

      (Quote)

  44. The figure spent on players is nowhere near the figure you quote. I’m sure the Arabs looked at Newcastle at the time they decided to get into the premier league. Why they didn’t pursue that is probably down to your owner. As has been already pointed out NUFC have spent big in the past (Shearer et al) and I’m sure Mike Ashley has lost a fortune during his ownership of the club. No club will catch up with United, Chelsea or Arsenal without investing loads of money on players.

      (Quote)

  45. Guys, for one City haven’t spent any where near £900m on players!! They have spent something like £400m. The media and every Tom, **** and Harry were saying it would take City five or six year just to get into the Champs league! They were wrong it took Mancini one whole season even with Mark Hughes’s mess to clean up, parts of which he is still doing (Tevez etc).

    Alan, City revenues this year put them in the 11th position next year they will be in the top 5 or 6 as you need to add at least £25m for Europe and £40 for the Etihad deal! Over taking both Arsenal, Chelsea and Milan’s etc but beaten by Utd, Real, Barca, Liverpool and Munich.

    For those saying ‘what if the owners just walk away’ get real and actually listen to what you are saying this is said by bitter, jealous types and simply makes no sense they are business people why would even the thickest of morons ‘just walk away’ form a £700m investment I’m afraid this in wishful thinking from the haters and a saying which is only for the dummies out there!

    DJG, most city fans that I know don’t think they are going to flatten any body those that say this are giving a out bit of banter and a wind up. You cannot possibly erase 30 years of disappointment because of one successful season! Although we are well on the way of doing this J.
    I don’t know who will win today but I’m obviously leaning towards City with our squad and the fact we are at home. On Newcastle I like Ba, I did when I seen him with the Hammers and think you got one of the bargains of the season powerful in the air but so are Kompany & Lescott. You have a good defence but we have the best attack, well in the world at the minute, and although I don’t like Guterirez? that much because to me he keeps the ball to much putting his head down running at the defence it seems every time when it would have been better pass but that said he seems to cause us problems anyhow maybe it just personal taste.
    I remember in 1995/96 Newcastle had not long signed Faustino Asprilla to go with Ferdinand, Ginola and the other big money signings that in today’s market would have cost as much as City’s team today. I thought we were gonna get battered I could see no other result, but we got a 3-3 draw so in today game anything can happen it‘s a one off game. But I’ll go 2-1 City.

      (Quote)

  46. I think the thing hear is that we have a big stadium and a great fanbase and therefore a big club income stream. The fact that we are only making £100m whilst city are talking 200m+ shows the potential that we have to grow. At the moment our wage bill is probably about £50m and should decrease as we off load a few high income wasters. We should over the next 5 years be able to increase that to say £150m and still stay within 70% of our income if we increase it to where it should be. The problem is then finding the capital to buy the players to pay the wages to. That’s where the Rich owners have helped. However, we could scout another half dozen players over the next 18months and have the sort of squad that is genuinely capable of sustaining a european campaign.

    Do I want a cash injection, er yes. Do we need one, probably not. What we need is Llambias doubling the income streams.

      (Quote)

  47. Lawro = clueless, we would be rooted to bottom of leage with 5 points if he get all his predictions right!

      (Quote)

  48. I cant believe 40% actually think they would turn down a multi billionaire investor willing to shamelessly splash the cash on the world’s best players. Come on be honest, we would all bite somebody’s hand off for that and the glory that it would bring. No question. 🙄 😆

      (Quote)

  49. By the way I note people pointing towards City having lots of ‘new’ fans? Here is a fact on attendances for you guys.

    2003/04 season City’s average crowed was 46,834 in 2010/11 the average was 45,972.

      (Quote)

  50. Here’s the way I see it, trying to see it from a Man City fans view point.
    First of all, I would imagine that 99.9% of genuine Man City fans are absolutely over the moon with this money bags owner and manager/team/squad.
    Man City fans have saw their team drop to the depths of the league in their time and probably know how easy it is to follow suit without a genuine business plan and the club built on down to earth solid foundations.

    Man City’s problem and it is a major problem, or has been , is, they have played second fiddle to Man Utd for far too long and have suffered the consequences of trying to emulate or better them.

    The problem with that was , Man City didn’t have the financial clout or the right managerial ethics to push Man Utd due to the fact that Alex Ferguson stole a march on them in modern times and has managed to keep an influx of quality players all pulling the same way, Man City were always looking for that wizard type but basically hired and fired manager after manager due to the pressure of trying to keep up with their neighbours.

    In that respect ,. it’s no wonder their fans will be **** a hoop over the investment, or shall I say the pouring of cash into the transfer coffers, plus they appear to have a manager that clearly knows what he is doing and like him or loathe him, he’s getting results.

    Granted ,buying the quality they have makes a managers job easier in the skill department but it still has to be managed tactically and to get them playing as a unit instead of individuals, plus the ego’s that come with these massive fees paid out.

    That said: It’s any fans dream to have what they have if looked at in bragging terms and thinking about today and worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes.

    Newcastle are a one club city and although we don;t have that Manc pressure of two clubs vying for one “I am” bragging right, we still use Sunderland as our yardstick and some of us probably thought we would be left behind when Ellis Short and Niall Quinn took on the role of bank rollers with passion.
    Clearly that hasn’t worked and we are still top dogs doing it “our way” whilst Ellis Short is sifting through the debris, looking for plan B.

    I’ve went a long way around this but there are two ways to view it.

    1. A fast track to success with no guarantee’s that the fast track won’t come to a shuddering halt.
    Or

    2. A carefully planned out route that we are taking “now” with just about every ingredient in place to at least knock on the big boys doors and shout” we are here so watch your back”.

    Option 2 gives us a better than average chance of future fighting at the right end of the table that we know is sustainable and gives the future generations a better than average chance of carrying Newcastle into that future while many other big spenders will have suffered the dreaded financial meltdown.

    I prefer the way we are going. 😀

      (Quote)

  51. City fan here. No axe to grind with NUFC, and I hope we get a good game this afternoon.

    The piece above speculates on how it might feel if you acquired a billionaire backer. Well, I can tell you. It feels strange. I’ve been supporting City since 1974, so my first reaction when looking at the current table is ‘only 9 points from safety’.

    I’ve sat nursing too many pints, wondering – if I could do a ‘Back to the Future’ and see that City would never win anything again – whether I’d still support them. (Answer: of course I would, no matter how futile.) I don’t do that so much any more.

    For the first time in my life, the club is being run by competent professionals with a long-term vision for the club. Sure, at present all you read about is transfers and so on, but behind the scenes the scouting network has grown fivefold, the club is at the centre of a major redevelopment of east Manchester (one of the grimmest areas of our fair town), and we have around 20 young professionals currently out on loan to other clubs (plus Adebayor and Crocky Santa Cruz). Watch out for John Guidetti, Scapuzzi, Harry Bunn, Denis Suarez, Gai Assulin in the not too distant future. Even if they don’t make the City team, many such players will sell for £1m or more each.

    Mancini and his coaches have got every player in that team playing to the best of their ability, and enough players to compete. If they don’t, they’re dropped. Micah Richards is a player reborn this year, while Balotelli, what can I say?

    It’s no coincidence that this year City have made a whopping loss. After this year, the ladder comes up, and all those teams who currently enjoy success in Europe will continue to do so, while poorer ones will be left behind. That would be my worry for the likes of NUFC and Everton, both great clubs with great supporters who now face decades out in the cold because they will not be able to spend the cash needed to catch up.

    I genuinely hope you can keep your early season form going (but not at our expense), and surprise everyone by finishing in the top four. For that, you’ll need good luck with injuries and a bit of cash in January, perhaps.

    From where I’m sitting at the moment, the future has a decidedly blue tinge.

    Now, back to those pre-match nerves.

      (Quote)

  52. Toonsy, you know where I stand on this – I think it was my post that started you thinking!

    Simple answer for why I voted “no”: what we have done this season so far is a far, far bigger achievement than anything Citeh can do. Yes, they’re on a different planet, but so what? Two things come to mind when you think of that club:
    1. They’re no better than they should be
    2. I wouldn’t want to be on that planet. It’s full of arseholes. (See under “Tevez”)

    So no, no, no. Silverware that represents no real achievement may as well just be a block of metal. Look at the press today and try to find the same glowing terms applied to our opponents as us. Lots of figures about losses and spend, lots of negative ***** about Tevez and some glowing references to individuals. But the write-ups on the Toon are all about surprise, achievement, excellent management, intelligence, spirit, organisation and so on.

    I don’t resent Citeh and as someone’s already said – I generally like their supporters almost as much as I hate those who support the red side of the city. But I do slightly pity them, because no matter what happens, I’ll never respect anything they achieve using the oil money of some foreign sugar daddy.

    Just an opinion; glad to see it’s an evenly spread vote! How boring would it be if everyone thought the same? :mrgreen:

      (Quote)

  53. Nice write-up Kippax. Good point that Citeh isn’t all about the money – it’s well-run too. I don’t think you’ll find much negativity about the club on here… except possibly some De Mong comments! 😆

      (Quote)

  54. Interesting to see that the City fans don’t seem to be taking us lightly. A compliment?

    Perhaps people should ignore the media when they call us lucky or point to a favourable fixture list and look at the people who watch their own team and others week in week out?

      (Quote)

  55. City fan here.

    Our clubs have both been badly run in the past, fallen out of the premiership, with diehard fans who take nothing for granted.

    Newcastle is a very recognizable “brand” with a very unique, die-hard identity, that is being underfunded.

    Any foreign billionaire thinking of buying a premiership club will already be looking at Newcastle, now that there’s no way you will get demoted this season. Imagine how that will increase if you make the europa, or (dare I say it) Champions league places?

    Its quite reasonable on these NUFC web boards, isn’t it? Proper punctuation, reasonable arguements etc. Have you ever been on a manchester utd fan site? Your eyes get assaulted by all that red. They even smell bad, somehow.

      (Quote)

  56. They shouldn’t though really Toonsy, we are where we are for a reason. We were actually the better team for large parts of the game when Barfa got snapped. I still can’t believe the bookies have us down as 10/1 shots to win today.

    I’d love it if we beat them. Be nice to be treat with a bit of respect by the media, and not just as lucky or deluded.

      (Quote)

  57. Biscuits and ice cream??? If any of you are on route to City go round to City square before or after the game it will astound you to see some of the spending the owners have done on this area on the food front you can eat food by Marco Pierre White on the cheap and watch band’s live it’s unbelievable. So just check the area out big screens heated outdoor bars etc. We are spoilt!! LOL

      (Quote)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *