[Football] Jonathan Wilson's article on Man City cup final.

[Peter Ward]

Wilson's article in the Guardian makes the case that the wealth created superiority of clubs like Man City has created such an unbalanced playing field that there is no longer any true competition at top level football. On the 6-0 slaughter of Watford he argues that ' In terms of competitiveness, you may as well have placed a yellow-and-black blancmange in the middle of the pitch and smashed it with a sky blue oar'. 'Watching Pep Guardiola’s side dismantle their opponents in the FA Cup final was gruesome and reflective of a trend across Europe that suggests the time has come for a super league'.

'But Saturday was miserable, the traditional showpiece of the English season reduced to a grim parade, devoid of any drama, there to satisfy the propaganda wing of a faraway regime. Perhaps some people enjoy watching eviscerations like this: Romans, after all, flocked to the Colosseum for fixtures between lions and Christians that were only marginally less one-sided than this. But even City fans did not seem particularly enthused, grumbling on the underground about a fifth trip to Wembley this season and cheering goals with the weary satisfaction that used to be reserved for a top-flight team battering a minnow in the third round.'

Do you agree?

 

[Eeyore]

The consolation of losing a semi-final to a pedestrian City was that it wasn't us yesterday.

Adding a pedants note, when I was studying the early church I found there was no evidence to suggest that Christians were fed to the lions in the Colosseum.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Wilson's article in the Guardian makes the case that the wealth created superiority of clubs like Man City has created such an unbalanced playing field that there is no longer any true competition at top level football. On the 6-0 slaughter of Watford he argues that ' In terms of competitiveness, you may as well have placed a yellow-and-black blancmange in the middle of the pitch and smashed it with a sky blue oar'. 'Watching Pep Guardiola’s side dismantle their opponents in the FA Cup final was gruesome and reflective of a trend across Europe that suggests the time has come for a super league'.

'But Saturday was miserable, the traditional showpiece of the English season reduced to a grim parade, devoid of any drama, there to satisfy the propaganda wing of a faraway regime. Perhaps some people enjoy watching eviscerations like this: Romans, after all, flocked to the Colosseum for fixtures between lions and Christians that were only marginally less one-sided than this. But even City fans did not seem particularly enthused, grumbling on the underground about a fifth trip to Wembley this season and cheering goals with the weary satisfaction that used to be reserved for a top-flight team battering a minnow in the third round.'

Do you agree?

Seems a tad harsh.

Had Watford put their chances away it could have been a lot closer.

As soon as Watford had to start chasing the game, a thrashing was always on the cards.

 

[LowKarate]

I think that City have lost a lot of good will amongst the football community with the way they’ve paid for their superstar team.

I didn’t watch the Cup Final because I was 95% certain that it would be no contest. Glad I didn’t bother.

 

[Acker79]

I don't know that it's really an original point. We've been talking of the big 6 being in their own little mini league, the lack of points/goals the bottom 6 achieved v top 6 or top 4. Over the last decade we've been talking about the influence of money in the premier league, the growth spurts of Chelsea and Man City being aided by the sudden influx of money giving them the chance to feed at the same trough as Utd, Liverpool and Arsenal. The premier league is better than most in this respect because we have a big six v the big one in Scotland, France and Germany, the big two in Spain.

It will of course get worse with the change in split of money favouring the big 6. We may not get another Leicester, but we could get more Burnley's and Wolves - smaller teams getting into Europe and gaining extra finances, to give themselves a chance of becoming challengers to the big six without an oligarch, maybe sneak into the top four at the expense of one of the established team who will see some drop in finance at least for a season. If it happens often enough it could open up a bit more competitiveness. Or could just pull teams out of the 'big six' making it a 'big three' and the rest...

 

[studio150]

2015 Arsenal 4 Villa 0
1994 Utd 4 Chelsea 0
1983 Utd 4 Brighton 0

These types of results happen once every so often, but it is clearly not evidence for a Super League, particularly given only City of the top 6 reached the semi finals.

While the top 6 are strong, (other than Liverpool) they have all lost PL games this season to teams outside of the top 6.

 

[Davemania]

Man City are Abu Dhabi's plaything. Sheikh Mansour's family is worth a TRILLION dollars, that's 1000 Billion. It's a complete joke. Same with PSG in France. Some of the richest people in the World destroying the leagues around Europe. Abramovich did similar at Chelsea but this is a whole other level. The premier league bought by Abu Dhabi, two years in a row.

 

[Bry Nylon]

Man City are Abu Dhabi's plaything. Sheikh Mansour's family is worth a TRILLION dollars, that's 1000 Billion.

Roll on the demise of oil and the day it goes back to being a dusty shithole in the desert.

 

[Stat Brother]

Listening to a talking head today who seems to think this will actually be the end of City's domestic dominance, and i think he has a point.

City cant keep failing in Europe.
They really have to bin off the League and FA cups in order to finally get their hands on the big one.

 

[monty uk]

Bollocks is it an argument for a super league. It is an argument to distribute the money is a vaguely sensible manner.

Prize money and broadcast fees are distributed on a calculation which takes into account their games broadcast. Which favours the top clubs. In 17/18 both Manchester clubs received £149m each. We received £107. That is compounded every year, so the bigger clubs are getting bigger just on those fees alone.

£42m extra would buy us another striker, if not more. Maybe that income should be shared differently. If it was equal we'd get £120m.

 

[Milano]

Roll on the demise of oil and the day it goes back to being a dusty shithole in the desert.

Never going to happen, these ****ers own half the planet now.

 

[ofco8]

Roll on the demise of oil and the day it goes back to being a dusty shithole in the desert.

Yes, my thoughts are that what goes around comes around.

Eventually these money men will get bored and have other interests to fund.

Remember when the League started in 1888 that Preston were the big boys, then they went into demise and then every decade a new club became biggest.

Currently it is the big 6. Man U were the Man City equiv when Fergie was in charge but they have hit a blip.

Any club that has potential could be bought up by big spenders and the balance could shift.

Also, I like us having the big clubs to have a pop at and hopefully start getting some decent results against them.

Football may not be fair but life isn't, full stop,,

 

[ATFC Seagull]

He's got a point. The Premier League's USP was always that anyone can beat anyone. Someone in Asia tuned in to watch someone they'd never heard of like Brighton vs Liverpool because it would be a competitive game, and there was no reason why Brighton couldn't get the points. The same couldn't be said about Valladolid vs Barcelona, Palermo vs Juventus, Mainz vs Bayern or Nantes vs PSG, at least not with anything like the same regularity. If that dies the league has a problem.

 

[Mr Banana]

We may not get another Leicester, but we could get more Burnley's and Wolves - smaller teams getting into Europe and gaining extra finances, to give themselves a chance of becoming challengers to the big six without an oligarch

Finishing sixth doesn't do much to bridge the gap, the difference in prize money between the CL and UEL is vast. It helped Rangers to achieve a profit but for Premier League clubs it's worth relative pennies. Every year the same five clubs take the top four, the financial gap soars.

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Not a lot in football hacks me off more than teams funded by state money or by money made by individuals from state assets.

It is all money which should have been invested to benefit the citizens of those countries.

Nothing can be done about it, really - except dislike the teams it applies to.

 

[southstandandy]

Reflected in the league now too.

Used to be the big six and now it appears (for a few years at least) it will just be the 'big 2'

As with another poster I didn't bother watching the game as the score was largely predictable (I predicted 5-0 so wasn't far out). Even Liverpool in 2nd place in the league finished 25 points higher than Chelsea in 3rd place with a goal difference of +43 over them. Things are getting ridiculous now in my view.

Whatever sport I'm watching I want it to be relatively competitve and the way City have effectively bought their success almost undermines what they have achieved.

Would it just not be more cost effective to pop into town and buy lots of lovely silver trophies they could display in their cabinet and then save on the millions spent of fees and wages?

 

[Iggle Piggle]

I haven't got a problem with a European super league. Our top 6, Bayern, PSG, Barcelona, Real, Juventus and another 9 made up of anything from atheletico Madrid, Dortmund and Ajax would serve up top class competitive football and leave the rest of us to get on in a league which I'd hope would be like the Championship. Getting to the PL is great but we are a world away from the super teams with no realistic way of catching up - Barber said as much in his mission statement missive where the club haven't got a clear and obvious goal.

The most obvious issue is that our 100 million TV money would dissappear overnight as the rights for a Premier league devoid of Man utd, Liverpool et al would be a fraction of that today. Which is why it would never happen.

 

[Weststander]

Listening to a talking head today who seems to think this will actually be the end of City's domestic dominance, and i think he has a point.

City cant keep failing in Europe.
They really have to bin off the League and FA cups in order to finally get their hands on the big one.

The names ManC are going for this summer are the cream of world football, they’re only going to get better, so next season they’ll target all 4 trophies again.

Mansour’s £1.3B sportswashing investment is about to get a bit costlier.

ManU, with their chaotically assembled current squad, appear to be targeting the likes of Wankbakasa, Maguire and Rice, at £100m’s. They’re hopelessly playing catch up, and I can’t see them making much of a dent into the results of Mansour’s 25 star players.

So next season, more of the same.

 

[Jim Van Winkle]

Wigan beat mega spending Man City 1 nil in 2013 - cup final upsets still happen.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

Prize money and broadcast fees are distributed on a calculation which takes into account their games broadcast. Which favours the top clubs. In 17/18 both Manchester clubs received £149m each. We received £107. That is compounded every year, so the bigger clubs are getting bigger just on those fees alone.

£42m extra would buy us another striker, if not more. Maybe that income should be shared differently. If it was equal we'd get £120m.

It's the European competition matches and the income that generates which makes the difference, not the domestic incomes.

Hard to find exact figures, but expect it more than doubles their incomes, plus it adds to their fan bases and means more merchandising sold and they can charge more for advertising / sponsorship, etc......