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Let’s not forget Rodri was dropped for the last CL final.
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Ederson man of the match?
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Inter waiting until the last 5 minutes to actually have a go.
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Funny how you’re never more vulnerable than just after you score a goal.
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Personally, I think I’d have Mahrez on ahead of Grealish. This is going to be a tight game and he can pull a goal out the hat at any time.
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A CL final is a different one off game and in some ways you can see why that can wreak havoc in Pep’s mind because there is less margin for error. Hence you get talk of overthinking it. That’s why I think he didn’t start a natural holding midfielder in the CL final vs Chelsea. I think he wanted to get the game won early but it backfired. (I think similar thinking also played a part in the Benitez decision in 2005 when he dropped Hamann vs Milan and it backfired massively in the first half). If you look at the way he is on the touchline, I think he almost tries to micro manage the game. He’s a perfectionist obsessed with the fine details. And I think he sometimes gets bogged down in that. But as I say, all those matchwinners available to him tonight – he just needs to somewhat relax and have faith that at least one of those players will deliver.
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*Bernado Silva.
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Only concern for City you’d have if it’s still 0-0 after the hour mark and a bit of nervousness creeps in. I do wonder sometimes if that’s why Pep has tried something different in some of these games and been bold to try and get the game won early. Be surprised if he does anything like that tonight because that team has so many matchwinners now that could win the game single handedly and/or change the game at any time. Gundogan, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Haaland, Bruno Silva, etc.
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Still think of Gabriel Batistuta every time I see Fiorentina.
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Who is buying the players though Banjo? Has a new director of football been announced yet?
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I think regardless of the manager, Spurs need to get their recruitment team in order first.
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Well my logic was sound, half way between a City mauling and a sneaky Utd victory was a narrow City victory. Was always going to be closer than we thought as it was a derby. Hard not to see them not get the treble now unless Pep decides to go for an inverted Christmas tree formation vs Inter 😁
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How about white suits? 🤪
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Probably about right Sean 😁. But truth probably in between those two extremes – i.e. a narrow win for City.
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I think Kane will end up at either Man Utd or possibly Newcastle. I just don’t see him going abroad at this stage of his career to have to learn a new language and settle into a different culture.
As for Mount, on the surface I’m like Ed in that you wonder what the fuss is about, however, I think he’s one of those players who stays tactically disciplined and always follows the manager’s instructions to a ‘t’ and managers obviously love those kind of players.
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Regarding big money being spent, regardless of that I think some teams would still dominate (as they always have done) but that has tended to be more about the manager and all the right structures at the club. A big part of Fergie dominating over his era was him changing the culture at the club to be more professional. We had to wait until Arsene Wenger changed the culture at Arsenal before any other club consistently challenged them, but I wouldn’t say they spent a fortune to get there. But then when Abramovich came in it completely distorted the landscape meaning that you suddenly did need big money to compete because of the wages then being offered and the inflatory effect that had. Great for the players and rich clubs, but a lot less so for everyone else. All greed really, and the fans are ultimately complicit in it. Yet when the super league was touted to make things unfair too, they suddenly decided to protest. Bizarre really.
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Isn’t it interesting when you saw the huge level of mass fan protests throughout the country when the European superleague plans were unveiled by the big clubs because it was deemed not “fair play” and all fans wanted it on merit, yet when super rich foreign owners come into any club, there is pretty much silence?
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Lets see how we all did then. Unsurprisingly we pretty much all got City right, but the rest of the top 4, not so much. Knew we’d have an off season, just not that much of an off season. Got all my sackings right though 😆.
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another summer of hoping enough idiots still “dare” to dream and fork out for season tickets
But that’s the thing Banjo. You know there absolutely will be. The fans, both domestic and global are ultimately the ones driving all this. The big money of foreign owners may exacerbate things, but they are a symptom not a cause. It is us fans who are too obsessed with the game which has set us on this track of a few clubs inevitably soaking up the few best managers and players resulting in perfection which is great for them but it’s completely sucked all the fun out of it for everyone else.
As Miguel Delaney put it in the Independent recently, “This is what happens when you give a genius these pristine laboratory conditions. It has eroded the likelihood for human failure that actually enriches sport.”
(Via https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/manchester-city-guardiola-ffp-abu-dhabi-b2342593.html)
If fans weren’t as obsessed, clubs wouldn’t be quite such ruthless business machines and you’d actually have a sport again. But I don’t see how this ends now, other than fans wanting their own billionaire to help them compete.
The only alternative is to drop down a few levels and watch League 1 football. But most fans won’t do that being wedded to their own premier league club. I also suspect for most fans the chase still feels better than the destination, even though they’re kidding themselves they can ever reach that destination. But as T S Eliot said, “humankind cannot bear very much reality.” So they dream instead. Bit of a deep dive but there we go.
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It is Alfie. My fear is he’s already become a kind of cult player that the fans love because of the chaos he can bring on the pitch. But he still looks so raw for the money paid and misses a lot of chances. 50/50 for me next season what happens with him. But that in itself gives us a potential problem in not knowing because Salah is the only reliable attacker we have who tends to stay fit. So if Nunez doesn’t deliver and others get injured, that leaves us short up top.
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