Football

That’s a massive shock. Hardly any empty seats at the Etihad.

Coventry or Luton in to the Premier league.
Amazing.

Surely next season is the best chance Derby will ever have to hand on the lowest points total record to another club?

That will never be beaten. And goodness knows teams have tried.

Try growing up sonny.

What Ivan Toney did was bad. But remember when Joey Barton was charged witb 1260 breaches over 10 years and that time he got himself sent off in the 55th minute against Man City to hand them the title in 2012?

Jonathan Liew on point today.
“Does it matter?”

“The march of hard power”

Nothing makes me happier than seeing both Sunderland and Middlesbrough fail so close to the finish line.

Pep Guardiola’s side have the perfection of a finely executed military campaign, the perfection of sovereign wealth and strength

Coventry or Luton in to the Premier league.

Amazing.

Great to see Cov doing well after all they went through with Sisu. Shame Mike Ashley owns the stadium now though.

Dunny why but seeing Toney's ban reminded me of the time Rio Ferdinand got 8/9 months for missing a doping test - that was certainly something else at the time

Fuck Toney. He knew the rules, he clearly had no regard for them whatsoever. I think he’s lucky to only get 8 months.

Does anyone know how Toney got caught, was he just rocking up to the bookies?

Yes.
A premier league international footballer was just going to a high street bookies.

Most of the bookies have deals with the FA to inform them if players are betting on football (don't know if that is what happened in this case).

Still. At least it stops Spurs from wasting 30+ million on him, not playing to his strengths, and then not selling him.

Someone's still going to come in for him, and likely pay much more than 30m.

a good letter to football 365 after last nights game

" .... I find myself thinking football is definitely broken. City playing arguably the biggest football club in the world off the park as if they are Accrington Stanley. They have created footballing perfection through financial doping. How do city fans feel about this in their heart of hearts? I find myself rooting for Madrid as if they are plucky underdogs, not a team who benefits from unequal Tv rights and historical government support themselves in Spain.

How did Arsenal and Liverpool the last few years even attempt to keep the pace with this footballing Frankenstein? It all feels so hollow. City could very feasibly win the treble only to have it stripped from them following investigation. What does this achieve? Everybody knows City are the best team England has ever produced and awarded titles wlll be tainted anyway. So we have two options, City win undeserved titles through cheating or the best of the rest win undeserved titles through default. What a wonderful world. "

amen

and the financial doping works twice. they get the best team up front and then they have transfers to do later which also earn revenue to churn back into the team

from the telegraph today via bbc football gossip
" Paris St-Germain want Manchester City's Portugal midfielder Bernardo Silva, 28, for £70m after failing to sign him last summer. "

another £70mn in the coffers to financially dope some more

i wish the fa would hurry up and deal with the 100+ ffp breaches by city, seems to be dragging on forever would be nice to get it resolved and have city play on a level playing field like most of the rest of us.

Selling a player is financial doping? So are Villa financially doped from selling Grealish?

Nowt so bitter as a hacked off LFC/MUFC 'fan', though to be fair Arsenal are giving them a run for their money.

"the final boss to be overcome should be rather more intimidating than a ragtag squad of things that were popular in England several years ago: Edin Dzeko, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Romelu Lukaku, Goldie the Blue Peter dog and social democracy"

"And now at last, they stand again just one game from glory, and in their way stands the ultimate test: Inter, the team lying third in Europe’s fourth-best league."

Anyone else just happy to see Real getting walloped?

Anyone else just happy to see Real getting walloped?

As above, they were the plucky underdogs in this one and I'll always love Carlo for what he did last season.

A premier league international footballer was just going to a high street bookies.

I thought the bets were placed whilst he was playing at Peterborough and for Brentford in the Championship?

no, aston villa spotted the young talent grealish in a local park and trained him up to be worth £100mn, city buy him with £100mn garnered from some dodgy sponsorship deal with a company noone has heard ever of, one is transfer dealing one is dodgy dealing.