General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

Why can't you admit you made a false statement about me. You accused me of defending Man City which I never did.

Actually don't bother, I'm putting you on ignore.

He is a very unlucky manager alright, a victim of circumstance that seem to follow him from club to club - hopefully his legacy isn't tarnished of course, you'd hate for that happen.

And the transfer took place over 12 years ago too. Might aswell name Kiki Musampa while he's at it!

When I log onto the PL Thread for 2023-24 and the last two players mentioned are Kiki Musampa and Owen Hargreaves, I wish that international weeks were limited to the summer holidays.

classic. but so outrageous.

i hate all the cloak and dagger shite prob to protect these massive stars/clubs. kick the can down the road till its time barred.

at least the PL dont have a statute of limitations. lets see if they have the balls though

Conspiring to hide a failed drug test from Nani and signing Bebe in the process maybe?

You have free reign to talk crap about city when making a point. You make a statement like:

”Can you imagine City signing these bargain basement players under any circumstances?”

And I pull you up on it, simple really. And there are lots of bargain basement signings by city since the takeover I just gave one example. Stop saying stuff like “under any circumstances” to try make your point. In fact you could have made your point without any reference to Man City but here we are…

It really wasnt.

The Bebe deal stunk for sure but I think it was more a way to keep Jorge Mendes sweet rather than anything more. We had done a lot of business with him and would have been looking to do even more.

Unfortunately his list of clients is hugely impressive

Would love for this to be cut out. It's sickening how powerful some agents are in the game.

It's fairly baseless to add the Nani thing in and actually harms the overall question. There is questions to be asked about Bebe deal but when you turn it into conspiracy nonsense that gets lost

the arguments and comparisons around Hargreaves and Evans are pretty pointless.

City made that signing as backup after their doping had already enabled them to have a feast of stars. The point is the feast of stars that were there before City became any sort of reputable financial juggernaut, helped by obvious massaging of sponsorship deals, creative accounting and the like.

The point is not Hargreaves - anyone can make a veteran signing.

The overall point though is City wouldn't ever find themselves in a situation where they couldn't spend on a striker (and having none in the squad) due to FFP. And end up signing a championship striker to fill a gap.

Because City do not play by the rules when it comes to FFP. Their inflated finances make sure they cannot fall into that situation.

You can say this doesn't happen to them because of excellent squad planning but you can't be surprised when other people will point out the elephant in the room that has given them the ability to buy that squad.

I agree 100% that Utds poor squad planning was what lead them to their issues. That all falls back on the owners and who they have employed at board level.

Utd are paying the price for that now - and it shows that even a club the size of Utd with their worldwide appeal will struggle to just spend endlessly.

But City can somehow find the funds to do it without much issue despite being levels below Utd in terms of world-wide appeal.

kalvin phillips of course for a cool 50m. 29 games in 1.25 seasons. minutes wise its prob closer to 10 games.

and HTF does southgate still pick him?

2 points and then im done on this topic.

1. why go to 17/18? All debates here recently have been since the takeover. Alas, the initial point said under no circumstances and i pointed out circumstances. The original point could have been made with no reference to City but its open season around here. It’s exhausting.
2. City didnt sign those keepers for HG reason, our squad is small and full of HG players that it hasnt been an issue for us in recent memory. There was no need to get around any rule.

Thats me done on this topic.

For the 5th game in 6, Manchester United face a team in the bottom half, and they have won them all, and they have won them all by 1 goal. They have yet to draw a game in any competition this season. This one cold come down to how hurt Everton are feeling and if they can use that on the day.

Man Utd are like the walking wounded at this stage with Casemiro, Shaw, Malacia, Martinez, Diallo, Eriksen, Evans and waiting on Onana and Hojlund.

Everton's own Onana is also potentially back for this game, along with Gomes. Coleman, clearly is still way off coming back. 0-1 or a shock 1-1 first draw for Man Utd.

I would be more concerned if he wasn't falling out with players. Let's be honest, that squad is full of weak characters and freeloaders, it should not be surprising at all that some are unhappy at finally being called out on their bullshit.

Fight away Eric, I am not interested in another Ole pandering to these wasters.

Varane is a permacrock, lovely player in his day but he cannot be relied on. He's on massive wages too, if a semi decent offer from the Middle East comes in January then I'd be happy to see him leave, likewise Casemiro who looks banjaxed, unfortunately.

4th choice CB placed against Varane is wrong, i think. he is second choice to Maguire for RCB with neither really considered for LCB.

as for the talk on Casemiro - the simply explanation, imo, is that he has been absolutely rubbish this season, and was subbed/dropped as a result of poor performance - and now both he and United are looking for a way out.

I do feel ETH's approach, in general, is causing problems though. it seems a lack of communication is a problem, along with training/coaching. I don't know how much of those issues could be attributed to the mess United is in general, or what is specifically on ETH's shoulders alone.

I'd say it's a bad time to be playing Everton 9ver the next week or two. They've been on a decent run of form and now they'll be really galvanised around the PL punishment. Goodison will be a hostile place this weekend.

Varane was top drawer in his day but the body just isn’t reliable anymore. And if his attitude isn’t what it should be, then Ten Hag should get rid of him.

That is an awful goal to concede

Sky will be devastated that there was no contentious red card or penalty decision to fill their HT 'analysis' with.