You could have stopped here.
Franz Carr
A cardboard Franz Carr
I donât think anyone rates Doku as a top player yet, but he has top potential. So far, heâs been known at club and international level as a highly skilful impact player who needs to mature and improve his end product. Will be 22 next month so he also better start producing more and more in the next seasons.
Maybe they saw something more in his last season at Rennes to go for it a bit earlier (because letâs be honest, Doku himself probably didnât see City coming in for him last summer). Pep gave credit to Txiki for suggesting or presenting him the idea of getting Doku. They agreed and went for it.
He said in one presser than he loves his ability to dribble, skills in small spaces and encourages him to do that. But of course when you move to a side like City, you also need to be a team player. You have more options, you donât have to do everything by yourself. Youâre not really Okocha at Bolton or Eze at Palace. He probably has a better chance to improve at City rather than somewhere where he receives much deeper, less often, in less dangerous areas and with less support around him. I personally donât see him less fun to watch or something like that.
Sterling improved his numbers drastically (and left his peak at a certain point at City) under Pep and he doesnât have the skills Doku has nor the finishing of someone else (can you imagine Raheemâs career if he had better or more consistent shooting!). Doku might not evolve into a Salah type of goalscoring machine, but if he can consistently hurt opponents with his skills and get into double figures, that should be more than fine.
fixed it for ya.
Few rumours floating around that the 115 charges have been dropped.
Fucking twitter
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Ok
As a person accused of conspiracy theories, lets have one!!
The seed is now planted, despite denials that the charges will be dropped. Public opinion is gauged, a bit of discontent notedâŚ
But the seed is thereâŚ
Next âannouncementâ will have a bit more flesh on the bonesâŚbut also a "respected journalist " will deny it.
In a couple of years of carefully orchestrated media releases and denials, Joe Public wonât give a flying fuck about reality or fantasy.
And the charges will be droppeed.
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I got sent this last night 
Looks like the rantings of that âshitstormâ fella off Blue Loon.
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Troyes, Cityâs French side, had their game abandoned last night due to crowd protests with the team on the verge of the second successive relegation. Their best player is on his way to City this summer despite having yet to play a single game for them after having been loaned to PSV last season and to sister club Girona this year.
Last week there was significant protests over BlueCoâs tepid ownership of them. This is all part of a growing sense that French football is being ruined by multi-club ownership
Good piece by Ollie Kay on it here - The French clubs being bought â and distorted â by Premier League teams - The Athletic
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Did he use the same sources as those political pundits used about Susan Hall winning London.
To all that, Iâd say letâs wait and see. But unfortunately I do feel like footballâs governing bodies do leak information and use the entire population as sort of a focus group to gauge how things will play out for the real news later on.
So I definitely wouldnât rule your idea out.
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At this point Cheaty a black ops team just needs to retire everyone associated with the corporate entity, owners and all. World would be a better place.
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This is obviously some old guy that has followed football all of his life⌠he is chunnering & chunnering on about the obvious, but he says it as it is⌠I felt it was worth reading, just to see how he nailed it down absolutely spot on, in his last paragraph :0)
Watching Man City is like watching maths and thatâs just soulless and boring
I love football and have done for 55 years. Iâll watch any game at any level, much to the chagrin of my partner.
If itâs on TV or on the local recreation ground, Iâll watch it. Iâll even go to watch Dunoon Amateurs in mid-winter. Iâve seen Hibs v Livingston play out a draw in -3 degrees on a Wednesday night and I was sober.
But something odd has happened. As I watched Manchester City play Wolves I was just disinterested, which is worse than bored. I know Iâm not alone in this. The City crowd just murmured like it was an end-of-season dead rubber. Jamie Carragher even commented that it was âflatâ and at the time they were 1-0 up. There was absolutely no jeopardy, and without jeopardy, football is nothing to the neutral.
Obviously their fans will not care that neutrals are bored by them and theyâll predictably and happily tell you so, but the Premier League will. Try selling the best league in the world when its winners are boring and all of its teams in Europe are beaten by clubs that have markedly less money and resources. I mean Real Madrid are financially dominant but are engaging in a way City never are. It makes no sense but it is a strong feeling. Sorry about that. Maybe Iâm full of sh*t, maybe Iâm saying an awkward truth.
Because it reveals important truths, the most important of which is that we donât, as neutrals, care how skilful the football is, we donât care if we feel bored. The game felt non-competitive, like a pre-season friendly and yet it shouldnât, given its significance in the title run in. This is not me just being ornery, loads of people feel likewise, to the point that itâs commonly acceptedâŚ
City are possibly the most boring title winning side ever. Sorry Arsenal, you know how it will go.
I saw the 1968 title-winning side. The difference was total. Not as brilliant but that made them more brilliant.
Or more accurately theyâre the only side where this feeling of indifference has any traction. And by the sound of their own fans, or perhaps itâd be more accurate to call them an audience, they agree. Itâs not the teamâs fault. Theyâve been assembled and trained so well, they just inevitably find a way to win. They are perhaps too good.
Itâs best embodied by Erling Haaland who is as unexciting as getting a cheat code which leaves you feeling empty because you didnât âearnâ the win. Itâs extraordinary. Obviously he barely plays football, heâs just a function playing this successful redux of the game. I know heâs brilliant at what he does and wouldnât want to be at all critical of how he plays. But it is like watching a dad dominating in a kidsâ game.
You might think this is all crap. Perhaps it is, but I canât help how I feel. No amount of swearing, ad hominem attacks and aggressive abuse changes how I feel. I might even suggest all the screaming âI donât care, youâre stupidâ is a little too loud and long by a small minority. A little too âmethinks the lady (or City fan) protests too much.
There have been lots of dominant sides down the years, so why is this side disengaging? I donât know and canât work it out. Itâs a real phenomenon. I do appreciate their great football, but it doesnât engage. Someone said they turn off every time they go a goal up. I understand that.
Obviously, itâs just a conspiracy against City, just listen to the rabid fans when you say theyâre boring, dear me, youâd think what people feel is important to them. They say theyâre not interested in your stupidity but spend so much time and effort being defensive with you, you could be forgiven for feeling more important and thatâs not true. I donât know about you but I donât commit an ounce of emotion to what anyone thinks about Boro. Which is probably just as well. To think of being aggressively rude to anyone because of what they think about the club is nothing short of a waste of time and preposterous.
Guardiola canât make it more interesting and at times he looks thoroughly bored. He is just doing his job really well, which is to win games and help sell the league to other territories. But imagine if City did not exist, how much more exciting the league would be without these âtraining gamesâ as Carragher called them.
The inevitability of their wins is what new fans from foreign countries, where predictability is valued and appreciated, love. Thatâs not here. Pity the poor commentator who has to work on their predictable games. They must be told not to say how boring it is, but you can hear it in their tones. If you want tension, go somewhere else.
I feel a bit guilty about my lack of interest. City are obviously brilliant. Iâve no interest in denying that. But I am just disinterested. I canât help it. It might not be rational, but football isnât, just listen to appalled fans objecting to the fact you donât share their view. No one being rational would do so because a world where everyone agrees about football would be very boring, not to say very odd.
Theyâre 5-1 up now and you could hear a pin drop. Itâs easy to say the football is great, therefore their games are great. But that would be a lie, albeit one that dare not speak its name in the Premier Leagueâs ivory towers. They will doubtless point to satisfied fans but thereâs more neutrals than City fans, and they need some edge to games.
Right now, thereâs something remarkably non-breathtaking about them. Itâs like maths v poetry. No one ever fell in love with a quadratic equation and no matter how brilliant or clever you say the equation is, it doesnât express what is in your heart. You might not agree, but plenty do. Yes, itâs weird.
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Iâm sure thereâs some nerd somewhere who did.
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I once managed to mash one out over a pivot table, but only because I was so pleased with it. And also because Iâd just watched âEyes Wide Shutâ.
The last paragraph
Maths vs Poetry
The most amazing description of how how City football is ruining competition.
Aside from their financial misdemeanours, they are a crime against football. The âgreatâ coach Pep is managing the machine. And its far from pleasing, even to their own manufactured support.
PS
Dont mind the Philistines who think Maths might compete with Poetry in the sexiness stakes.