Manchester City Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2017 Mod warning post # 1403

Xavi6

Nope, sub not used on Saturday

Jelle1880

All of this has been widely shown on TV, newspapers,... but when you look at it it's quite impressive

The Balotelli Saga so far

£10,000 in parking fines.
Car has been impounded 27 times.
£300,000 fine for throwing darts at the youth team.
Won £25,000 in a casino, gave £1,000 to a tramp outside the casino.
Threw tomatoes at a Serie A manager.
Threw Water Balloons at a Serie A disciplinary hearing.
Started a fight with 4 bouncers after breaking the "no touching" rule at a strip club.
The "bib" saga.
Had a £120,000 Audi imported, wrote it off within a week.
Had his friend approach girls in a nightclub and say "Balotelli will see you now"
Sent to the shops by his mother to buy essentials for the house, came back with a giant trampoline and a Vespa and a Scalectrix.
Has started fights at training with Kompany, Boateng, Tevez and Richards.
Was frequently seen at the AC Milan superstore while playing for Inter Milan.
Went on TV wearing an AC Milan shirt with his name on the back while playing for Inter.
Whilst playing for Italy under 21's, he is fouled, he sits on the pitch for 3-4 minutes ignoring the opposition, his team mates and the referee.
He is then offended when he gets sent off and protests about it.
Winks at Ferdinand after FA cup semi final and celebrates in front of the United fans.
After the cup final on live TV, he says " I have been sh*t this season, am I allowed say sh*t on TV?
Was stopped by police going around his hometown of Hulme with £25,000 cash in the passenger seat. When asked why he replied " because I'm rich"
Had to be physically hauled away by Zanetti for refusing to let Samuel Eto'o take a penalty that he had earned.
Once broke up with a girlfriend via text whilst she was presenting a live show.
Slept with an Italian model while his girlfriend was downstairs.
Drove his car into a women's prison because he wanted to "look around"
Has connections with the Italian mafia, he has testified in court at a Mafia trial.
Brought his Ipad on to the bench for Italy's international against the Faroe Islands because he wanted to play games on it.
Was seen in a Manchester shopping centre "hi-fiving" city fans the day after City had beaten United 6-1.
Became the face of a firework safety campaign a few days after setting his house on fire from letting off fireworks indoors.
Hands £50 notes to strangers when out shopping in Manchester.
Chanted "Rooney, Rooney" at the prostitute who claimed to have slept with Wayne Rooney.
Italy had just brought out a brand new home kit, at the start of the second half for their first match wearing the new kit, Balotelli came out in the old kit, claiming he didn't like the new one. Nobody else had changed.
Turned the landscaped back garden of his house into a Quad bike track.
Went in to Manchester Uni library and tried to pay off all outstanding book fines for everyone.
Adopted a stray cat which keeps going in to their training sessions.

EdenHazard

The funniest is the Milan Superstore one hahahahaha

G.K.

That's not even all of it...

Xavi6

An interview with Yaya in L'Equipe apparently quotes him as saying he wants to finish his career at City and make history.

Also:

I'm pretty sure that when I'm an old man, sat around, they will still talk about me here.

He's not wrong.

_blank_

Had his friend approach girls in a nightclub and say "Balotelli will see you now"

SEPT 23 1989

Not looking forward to this

Nailz

Forget the match; did you see TV3's disgracefully obvious use of Windows 8!?

born2bwild

Nailz wrote: »

Forget the match; did you see TV3's disgracefully obvious use of Windows 8!?

Product placement?

Weird to see Shay in a suit btw.

Xavi6

Well that was...interesting...to say the least.

Completely shot ourselves in the foot by going two down as the gulf in class in general play was pretty evident for most of the game. Had we scored first I think we would have run away with it. Once again though set pieces are our undoing.

Barry's passing was a killer as well, broke up so many attacks by selling players short or overhitting 15 yard passes. I'd have taken him off and not Garcia. Aguero's footwear issue was rather annoying as well.

Did Balotelli was good when he came on and was unlucky with that header which was saved. Good to have Pablo back in the starting line up as well.

Not sure what this means for Mancini now as we're not mathematically out of it yet. People say he's cracking up but they said the same thing when we were eight points down and look what happened there.

Bottom line though is we should not be taking one point off Ajax, it's not good enough.

folan

all in all, city played best in the last 30 mins, and most of that was down to Mario some good attacking football. can see how the team misses the likes of Silva.

But defensively, something has gone very wrong. the defence looked very lethargic at times, and there was an absence of tracking players down in our own half. and the corners? less said the better. Where NDJ when you need him? Oh, thats right, hes a 3mil player we can dispense of.

All in all, I can complain about a should have been penalty, or the goal that wasn't, or wonder who buys Augero his boots, but the root problem was City, and City themselves. Ajax showed us how it should be done.

karma_

Very disappointing performance last night in fairness. Can't disagree with what the above two posts have pointed out. I thought Barry and Garcia was poor and their passing was awful. What is the problem with Nasri? He always seems to make the wrong decision and invariably ends up losing the ball. In general our passing recently is very tight, and looks uncomfortable, it's fine when a gap does appear but it can be frustrating.

Truth be told, I'd rather go out of this now and finish bottom to rule out the euro and we can concentrate on the league, besides, we've waited this long we can wait another season.

Other than that, we are still in good shape in the league and unbeaten so it's not all doom and gloom, I have half a notion now that our league performances will take off now that Yaya has finally found the net again.

Xavi6

Apparently the ref didn't report Mancini last night so he won't be punished.

folan

Xavi6 wrote: »

Apparently the ref didn't report Mancini last night so he won't be punished.

really? im surprised both him and balotelli didnt get some last night.

anyone else notice Vinnie pushing Balotelli away last night with a "why do i even bother" face on him

StephenHendry

SomethingElse wrote: »

Shakhtar Donetsk are unbeaten in all competitions (without any exclusions)!

I was specifically talking about their performances in the Champions League. They have still come away with the 9 points, but they look beatable, even in what could be described as a relatively weak group. They need to improve before the knock-out stages, the players returning from injury should help somewhat.

Do City fans think a run in the Europa League will benefit the club, or would they be just as happy to finish bottom?

they may not even get a europa lge spot the way things are going,

Xavi6

Still buzzing from that win, though beating Spurs isn't nearly as fun now that 'Arry's gone.

Definitely deserved the three points on the balance of play, and we were denied two penalties in the process. Great to have Silva back and the fact he lasted 90 minutes after Platt said he wouldn't is great to see. His pass for the equaliser was sublime.

Bale was anonymous for most of the game, and that's credit to another super performance from Zabaleta. Absolutely love the bloke.

SEPT 23 1989

Have we finally turned the corner?

karma_

Xavi6 wrote: »

Still buzzing from that win, though beating Spurs isn't nearly as fun now that 'Arry's gone.

Definitely deserved the three points on the balance of play, and we were denied two penalties in the process. Great to have Silva back and the fact he lasted 90 minutes after Platt said he wouldn't is great to see. His pass for the equaliser was sublime.

Bale was anonymous for most of the game, and that's credit to another super performance from Zabaleta. Absolutely love the bloke.

Zabs was excellent as usual, hopefully he will get his goal soon, he's had some great chances and got into some fantastic positions in the box in recent matches. I had to laugh to myself in the match thread when a poster mentioned that they thought he wasn't a very good footballer.

Scuba Ste

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Have we finally turned the corner?

Too early to say. I thought we were getting better against Ajax and better again against Spurs, so hopefully. defending set pieces needs to improve though.

Silva makes such a big difference. I like Nasri, I think he keeps the ball very well and can beat players and pass but his passing is always square and around the box. Silva picks out some lovely through passes.

If Zab was striker I swear we'd have scored 4 in the last two games. Fantastic player.

Xavi6

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Have we finally turned the corner?

I don't think so. We're conceding too many goals from set pieces and giving ourselves deficits to overturn.

Until we stop doing that I'll be concerned, and we've some big games coming up with Chelsea away and Everton and United at home within the next month.

Kess73

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

Have we finally turned the corner?

I would not be too worried about City.Playing well below your best and in a far more disjointed manner than last season still has City 2nd in the table and only 2 points off of top spot. Not to mention being the only undefeated team in the division.

Your form in Europe is not great but it often takes a club a few seasons to get up to speed in Europe so as much as you City fans would love to hit the ground running in Europe I do think you guys will get it right in the end and these early CL years will become an afterthought.


You are leaking more goals than normal, but more often than not you are still getting the right result and as cliched as it is, that is the sign of a good team. Personally I think it is just a matter of time before the City team gels again and starts dominating games rather than grinding out results.

SEPT 23 1989

I think its starting to happen,we just need to put in the type of performance like Norwich away last season to really give us the confidence to play at the next level,when this happens i think we are going to run away with it

Xavi6

Good read on an ex-City player if anyone remembers him -

http://fourfourtwo.com/interviews/one-on-one/482/article.aspx

Blatter

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

I think its starting to happen,we just need to put in the type of performance like Norwich away last season to really give us the confidence to play at the next level,when this happens i think we are going to run away with it

lol, that's a ridiculously arrogant stance to take.

SEPT 23 1989

Blatter wrote: »

lol, that's a ridiculously arrogant stance to take.

Kess73

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

I think its starting to happen,we just need to put in the type of performance like Norwich away last season to really give us the confidence to play at the next level,when this happens i think we are going to run away with it

I don't think that even a City team that was clicking would run away with the league, given how strong both United and Chelsea look this season, but it would be a damn hard team to get anything from.


I actually think that Chelsea are closer to having the best starting XI in England than City at the moment (in that I think that Chelsea could have the stronger and more balanced starting XI in less new players than I think it would take City to do so), but that takes nothing away from how highly I rate the current City team tbh.

I think it is going to be a hell of a three way battle for the title this season and that the current top three will all be fighting for the title well into April and maybe even May, with the rest of the league getting neckache from watching them.

Blatter

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

In all seriousness, it is. United haven't clicked yet either, have arguably had more difficult fixtures so far and are still top of the league.

Blatter

Kess73 wrote: »

I don't think that even a City team that was clicking would run away with the league, given how strong both United and Chelsea look this season, but it would be a damn hard team to get anything from.


I actually think that Chelsea are closer to having the best starting XI in England than City at the moment (in that I think that Chelsea could have the stronger and more balanced starting XI in less new players than I think it would take City to do so), but that takes nothing away from how highly I rate the current City team tbh.

I think it is going to be a hell of a three way battle for the title this season and that the current top three will all be fighting for the title well into April and maybe even May, with the rest of the league getting neckache from watching them.

I think Chelsea fall short in terms of squad depth. I think they'll need to get a lot of luck on the injury front and/or invest heavily in January. As it stands, they have no reliable goalscorer which is a huge negative for them. They also don't have replacements anywhere close to the quality of Mata/Hazard/Oscar. United and City have far more attacking fire power and that'll probably tell as the season goes on. Chelsea also have to contend with the Club World Cup, which isn't ideal for a squad lacking in quality cover.

Losing Yaya Toure to the ACN will be another factor to consider when talking about City, when he's not playing well, or not playing at all, I think City tend to struggle. A huge plus for City in terms of the league would be if they finish 4th in their CL group and avoid the Europa League.

Kess73

Blatter wrote: »

I think Chelsea fall short in terms of squad depth. I think they'll need to get a lot of luck on the injury front and/or invest heavily in January. As it stands, they have no reliable goalscorer which is a huge negative for them. They also don't have replacements anywhere close to the quality of Mata/Hazard/Oscar. United and City have far more attacking fire power and that'll probably tell as the season goes on. Chelsea also have to contend with the Club World Cup, which isn't ideal for a squad lacking in quality cover.

Losing Yaya Toure to the ACN will be another factor to consider when talking about City, when he's not playing well, or not playing at all, I think City tend to struggle. A huge plus for City in terms of the league would be if they finish 4th in their CL group and avoid the Europa League.

In terms of squad depth I would favour City, but that is why I said first XI rather than squad.

I do think that next season Chelsea will be much stronger again even if they do not buy another player between now and then because they have some truly exciting young players due back from loan periods, and I think that three or four of them will be ready to compete for first team places from the start of next season. Given that they will of course buy players between now and then, we should see their squad depth improve dramatically even with a few departures thrown in.


City, as already said, have the edge in squad depth imho, but I would question the quality of some of that depth. In certain parts of the pitch I don't think they have the quality but then again there are a few young players at City that I would only have a passing knowledge of at best so they could well have some serious young quality there that I am unaware of.

Then we have your team. Written off season after season. No midfield quality they say. No depth they say. Dodgy defence they say. But despite all the expert opinions one things remains constant and that is United near the top season after season. I think United's first team and depth is actually very decent at present and the supposed weak links in the first team are nothing of the sort, but I think United have a problem with age and that it will take some very good signings spread over a few windows with very few duds to avoid a potential banana skin in a couple of seasons.


If I had to bet right now on how I see the league finishing in May, I would be going with a top three of

Chelsea
City
United.


If Chelsea go for a quality CM to put beside Ramires (as is rumoured) and a quality defender in January, then I would be even more confident of them winning the title regardless of who City or United sign (save for a Messi sized signing of course).


But City were worthy Champions last season, and I would not be surprised to see a similar final day come next May as last season, with City and at least one other being capable of winning the title on the last match day.

Scuba Ste

Xavi6 wrote: »

I don't think so. We're conceding too many goals from set pieces and giving ourselves deficits to overturn.

Until we stop doing that I'll be concerned, and we've some big games coming up with Chelsea away and Everton and United at home within the next month.

We haven't had a particularly hard run so far and when we have played better quality teams in Europe we've struggled so I'm not too confident.

No team is running away with anything. I see it between us and United though. I can't see Chelsea maintaining their early form, I think they'll drop off.

Xavi6

So Suarez eh? :pac:

Xavi6

Just been doing some reading on various forums and apparently there was a focus group meeting held on Sunday after the Spurs game to discuss the possibility of expanding the stadium. It would involve sticking another level on each of the ends, bringing the capacity to around 64k. It can't go any bigger due to the foundations not being able to handle more.

The other theory doing the rounds is that the new training campus thing is just a cover and a brand new stadium will be built on that land, and once it's done the current Etihad Stadium will be levelled with the training facilities going there.

I'll be interested to see if anything more concrete comes out of it.

Oh yeah, and in before the "You can't get 47k at the moment so why would you increase the capacity?" comments.

amiable

Xavi6 wrote: »

So Suarez eh? :pac:

Wanting and signing are two different things

Xavi6

amiable wrote: »

Wanting and signing are two different things

I've no real interest in him other than to see the shittstorm it would create.

He's not better than Aguero or Tevez and Dzeko offers something he can't in terms of physique. Mario's Mario.

amiable

Xavi6 wrote: »

I've no real interest in him other than to see the shittstorm it would create.

He's not better than Aguero or Tevez and Dzeko offers something he can't in terms of physique. Mario's Mario.

Deja Vu

Maximus Alexander

Kess73 wrote: »

If I had to bet right now on how I see the league finishing in May, I would be going with a top three of

Chelsea
City
United.

I would be willing to bet good money that this will notbe the outcome.

I don't think Chelsea have a snowballs of winning the league. 1 and 2 will be United and City, in either order.

googled eyes

Xavi6 wrote: »

Just been doing some reading on various forums and apparently there was a focus group meeting held on Sunday after the Spurs game to discuss the possibility of expanding the stadium.

Isn't the Ethiad new in terms of a stadium being just 10 years old? Could this be a ploy to work around the FFP rules (if they have any real power).Lets say City invest a load of cash into expanding or building a new stadium, would that mean they could spend more on players?

Oh and leave Suarez alone.... He's ours

Gillington

No thanks to Suarez,no better then what we have at the minute imo.

Kess73

Maximus Alexander wrote: »

I would be willing to bet good money that this will notbe the outcome.

I don't think Chelsea have a snowballs of winning the league. 1 and 2 will be United and City, in either order.

Chelsea have a good team and squad. Would be foolish to completely write them off imho. Plenty wrote City off at one point towards the end of last season and look how that turned out.


Of course City could win the league this season, and of course United could win the league this season, but I could just have easily have said one of Chelsea, United, and City will win the league as a safe comment.

I just think Chelsea in the league this season will prove to have that annoying habit that the best teams have of getting result after result regardless of form. City also have this trait and so do United.

If I went on my own personal preference as to who I would like to win the league this season (using realistic choices of course:)) then I would lean towards City over the other two, but I just think that Chelsea and City will be closer this year than a lot of people think and that it won't be a result of City dropping in quality/form, but rather Chelsea improving to compete with City.

Will I Amnt

Gillington wrote: »

No thanks to Suarez,no better then what we have at the minute imo.

Sure he's worth 50-80m apparently... or Dzeko plus 40m.
One of the top 5 players in the world apparently.
People are even debating which 3 City players they would swap him for.

Did he morph into Messi since the weekend or something??

Professional Griefer

Think i seen on twitter that City are giving away some dvd for last season for free or sumin. Aguero retweeted the official city account.

Xavi6

cambo2008 wrote: »

Sure he's worth 50-80m apparently... or Dzeko plus 40m.
One of the top 5 players in the world apparently.
People are even debating which 3 City players they would swap him for.

Did he morph into Messi since the weekend or something??

I haven't laughed as much at a thread in long time, some Pool fans are hilarious

niallo27

Xavi6 wrote: »

I haven't laughed as much at a thread in long time, some Pool fans are hilarious

Why is it so funny, Suarez is in a long term contract at a club he wants to stay in, city have endless amounts of money, add these together and your going to need maybe 60 million to get him off liverpool, he might not be worth it that but when your dealing with city or chelsea you can demand that much.

Xavi6

niallo27 wrote: »

Why is it so funny, Suarez is in a long term contract at a club he wants to stay in, city have endless amounts of money, add these together and your going to need maybe 60 million to get him off liverpool, he might not be worth it that but when your dealing with city or chelsea you can demand that much.

It's funny because you think that a club would need to stump up a world record fee for a player who isn't even the best in the league, never mind anything outside of that. He's not all that, as much as you want to believe he is.

The scenarios mentioned by cambo all happened in that thread and are equally ludicrous. Very entertaining though.

And you can demand all you want but clubs like City and Chelsea will just laugh at you and he'll eventually leave anyway RVP style*.

*Just to clarify, that's if Pool don't get CL football by the time he enters the last year of the new deal, so the summer of 2015 when he'll be 28 and getting itchy feet.

slingerz

Xavi6 wrote: »

It's funny because you think that a club would need to stump up a world record fee for a player who isn't even the best in the league, never mind anything outside of that. He's not all that, as much as you want to believe he is.

The scenarios mentioned by cambo all happened in that thread and are equally ludicrous. Very entertaining though.

And you can demand all you want but clubs like City and Chelsea will just laugh at you and he'll eventually leave anyway RVP style*.

*Just to clarify, that's if Pool don't get CL football by the time he enters the last year of the new deal, so the summer of 2015 when he'll be 28 and getting itchy feet.

Liverpool wont let his contract run down so far to be fair. As regards the cost, Liverpool would be well able to fetch a princely fee for Suarez, while 60 million is a tad unrealistic they will be looking for circa 50 million should any club try to push through a transfer for the player in the next 12-18 months if he maintains current form.

As regards Suarez not being all that, in his defence, playing for Liverpool is hardly a level playing field when comparing him to Aguero, RVP, Rooney etc. He would undoubtly be in the same class bracket as those players he is simply a different type of attacking threat. If he was to be compared to any of them it would probably be Aguero that he is most comparable with

niallo27

Xavi6 wrote: »

It's funny because you think that a club would need to stump up a world record fee for a player who isn't even the best in the league, never mind anything outside of that. He's not all that, as much as you want to believe he is.

The scenarios mentioned by cambo all happened in that thread and are equally ludicrous. Very entertaining though.

And you can demand all you want but clubs like City and Chelsea will just laugh at you and he'll eventually leave anyway RVP style*.

*Just to clarify, that's if Pool don't get CL football by the time he enters the last year of the new deal, so the summer of 2015 when he'll be 28 and getting itchy feet.

Well Chelsea paid 50 million to liverpool for torres, who is laughing about that one, why are you talking about 2015 we are talking about the january window or summer and it would need take near a world record fee to get him away from liverpool. Why compare him to messi, do you think city would get messi for 50 or 60 million, would they ****. It would take nearly 150 million or more to get him away from Barca. Its doesnt matter what you think he is worth its what it would take to for him to leave Liverpool is what people are talking about.

Xavi6

niallo27 wrote: »

Well Chelsea paid 50 million to liverpool for torres, who is laughing about that one, why are you talking about 2015 we are talking about the january window or summer and it would need take near a world record fee to get him away from liverpool. Why compare him to messi, do you think city would get messi for 50 or 60 million, would they ****. It would take nearly 150 million or more to get him away from Barca. Its doesnt matter what you think he is worth its what it would take to for him to leave Liverpool is what people are talking about.

Everybody is laughing at that one. Chelsea got burned once and it won't happen again.

City's days of big spending are done as well, we won't see another fee of Aguero's proportions paid for a player so that's why it's funny to talk about those ridiculous figures.

It also wouldn't take a world record fee to get him from Liverpool, you would sell for less if it was even a consideration because that's all you'd get.

You might have gotten an astronomical figure a few years ago but not now, it'd either be a decent fee in and around 30 mil or nothing at all.

Xavi6

slingerz wrote: »

Liverpool wont let his contract run down so far to be fair. As regards the cost, Liverpool would be well able to fetch a princely fee for Suarez, while 60 million is a tad unrealistic they will be looking for circa 50 million should any club try to push through a transfer for the player in the next 12-18 months if he maintains current form.

As regards Suarez not being all that, in his defence, playing for Liverpool is hardly a level playing field when comparing him to Aguero, RVP, Rooney etc. He would undoubtly be in the same class bracket as those players he is simply a different type of attacking threat. If he was to be compared to any of them it would probably be Aguero that he is most comparable with

You're right, Aguero is the most comparable and his finishing is far better than Suarez. That's the big difference.

As for the fee, as I said above, the big fees are over as far as City are concerned and I can't see Chelsea doing it either. Who else is there?

slingerz

Xavi6 wrote: »

You're right, Aguero is the most comparable and his finishing is far better than Suarez. That's the big difference.

As for the fee, as I said above, the big fees are over as far as City are concerned and I can't see Chelsea doing it either. Who else is there?

they wont get him without a big fee. unlike RVP he has years to run on his contract. if it was 12 or 18 months it would be different.

as for finishing Suarez is not as good as Aguero in that regard but he does create more for himself, im sure if he had someone even half decent to play alongside they'd get an awful lot of goals from his work

greendom

slingerz wrote: »

they wont get him without a big fee. unlike RVP he has years to run on his contract. if it was 12 or 18 months it would be different.

as for finishing Suarez is not as good as Aguero in that regard but he does create more for himself, im sure if he had someone even half decent to play alongside they'd get an awful lot of goals from his work

absolutely - Aguero is the better finisher and Suarez the better creator - deadly combination one would think.