Football

Ahh so City are the ones making the rules. Sounds fair.
Not a great fan of cricket I'm afraid so not an option for me.

City sidestepped FFP 1 by getting Etihad to sponsor the stadium for an insane amount of money. Deals like that have now become the norm.

I didn’t expect you to take my suggest about cricket literally but my point was, don’t recoil in horror at clubs buying success. That IS what football is now.

I’ve stopped investing much emotion in the game and just enjoy watching what is the highest standard league we’ve ever had in England.

Rubbish, he's going to Everton along with Schmeichel, just like the forum's very own Bernard Manning predicted

Apart from the blatant disregard for FFP, how does does Mahrez hand in a transfer request at exactly the same time as Man City put in a (low ball) bid for him. Telepathy? So they're flouting the tapping up rules as usual too.

£70 million for six weeks' cover?

I don't get the tapping up.
I really don't.
Surely it's just like in the real world?

Football's like the real world? OK, I know what you mean.

But it fucks up smaller clubs. Mahrez hands in a transfer request with 24 hours left in the transfer window, because Sane goes an injures himself, leaving us no time to find a replacement. Actually, it's not a disaster, we're safe this season. But with Arsenal screwing up and us having a decent draw in the 5th round of the FA cup, we do have a reasonable chance of European football, so keeping him to the summer would be nice. Now, the only option is to cash in, hope the likes of Gray, Diabate and Iheanacho can step up and then invest in the summer.

Given the amount the drug cheat has spent, Man City not winning the league by a clear 18 points should be considered abject failure. Basically we're French football with not as nice kits.

True - we would have lost it probably earlier this season too. Strange feeling to be able to believe we can win going into every game.
Really looking forward to the rest of the season.

I see your point. But in seriousness, everyone knows Mahrez wasn't going to hang around. It shouldn't be on the smaller clubs to "prepare for being robbed", but there should always be someone else ready to be snapped up/moved in.

It's about the only thing Spurs do better than you.

Everyone "knew" Mahrez was leaving at the end of 15/16 and the end of 16/17. I don't mind him leaving, I do mind him leaving like this.

And they say that cheque book Pep is not a cheque book manager. It beggars belief that this kind of behaviour is allowed.

Sane's only out for six weeks?
Assume the bid for Mahrez shows that Guardiola has to win this year, no ifs, ands or buts! Pressure is on. I assumed City had enough cover across their squad to deal with Sane being out for a bit. But would appear not. Not enough faith in the young un's, so deals for proven Premier League creative talent...

You've and your club have got no leg to stand on given the amount you paid for Van Dijk, when there were other cheaper alternatives available.

Delph, Jesus and Foden injured too. I'm surprised they don't bring Dave Brailsford in to help them back of house.

Yes. But once you've got something in your head, there's no point trying to look at other options. That just leads to buyers regret.

I'm waiting for you bring up sunk costs again...

Saw Molly's Game a few weeks back and sunk costs comes up alot..

Were you moaning when Liverpool were doing this in the 70s and 80s?

If you can remember that far back...

you look at Man City's squad and its a bit thin.. once you get out of the meat of the attacking midfield, didn't realise they only had Jesus and Aguero as recognised strikers.. Surprised they didn't try and hijack the Aubayemang deal.

Until football is a rational market....

I'm surprised Pep isn't promoting some of the youth squad.

I don't think it is comparable. Pretty sure we went through one of our many trophy winning seasons fielding a total of 16 players. I may be wrong though, I usually am.

Where did you get those players from though? It wasn’t the youth system, it was from buying the best players from smaller clubs.

As aggressively as clubs go about their business now? I don't think so

but we only paid £35k ish for keegan and £440k for kenny

peanuts !

Which was a British transfer record at the time...