The problem with Man City’s efficient brilliance: It’s so deathly dull…

The Mailbox features the full spectrum of views on Man City and their methods. Also: Arsenal as specialists in failure; and a plea for Trent Alexander-Arnold…

Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com…

What’s the story?
With regards to City, I believe the dispassionate response from the majority of neutral observers stems primarily from one key factor that is at the heart of all sport; the story.

Stories are a vital part of human culture and sport is part of that. Over the years, teams and individuals build up myths and legends around themselves with these great narrative arcs of peaks and troughs. Fergie’s Fledglings winning the treble in 99, the invincibles, Istanbul, but also Tiger Woods coming back to win again, Emma Raducanu at the US Open, the 2005 Ashes series, something probably happened in rugby at some point as well…

What is the story of Manchester City in the Abu Dhabi era? This historically tragi-comic club get bought by a Middle Eastern state with limitless resources and…

They proceed to invest that money in an eminently sensible and well thought through fashion, bringing in strategic long term thinking that involves buying the best in class in both personnel and infrastructure.

That is, as stories go, deathly dull.

It’s not about the money per se, Chelsea once had loads more money than everyone else, but they had a slightly madcap owner who would fire managers and sign unnecessary expensive strikers on a whim. They were gauche and nouveau riche, flashing the cash and, when allied with Jose and John Terry, were perfect pantomime villains. That’s still a compelling story.

You don’t have to like a story for it to stir a reaction; Christ knows I can’t stand Liverpool & Barcelona’s self-mythologising, exceptionalism (This Means Mes Que Un F**k Off)”. But revulsion, even hatred, are still emotions. City don’t even evoke that. Just muted applause at the aesthetic, like a dull book with nice cover art.

Sure, I’d rather Real have won last night, and I’d rather City didn’t complete a seemingly inevitable treble, but the truth is, as or when it happens, I’ll just shrug like millions of others. I’d probably be more annoyed by Liverpool winning a League Cup.
Lewis, Busby Way

Child’s play
I’ve read with interest, then some boredom, the various missives attacking Man City, and the inevitable, retaliatory defence of the club by staunch Blues.

Being ancient now, I have three kids. Most of the time they are wonderful, joyous children who make me laugh, occasionally cry and I can’t express my love for them enough. Any parent will agree.

Whatever those kids do, you forgive them. Whenever they act badly, when you are angry, annoyed, upset, literally at the end of your tether, about to give them the biggest bollocking ever, on the odd occasion you actually think “is this all worth it?” but you keep that firmly to yourself, because it passes. Think about the things you’ve done as a teenager, the things you’ve said to your parents, the stress, the strain, the worry you’ve caused them. Are they still there for you?

Here’s the thing though; if someone else criticises your kids, even though you know they are right, even if you have been thinking the very same thing, your instant reaction is to defend them, and you do so, vehemently. “Who are you to criticise my kids?” you think.

In some ways parenthood is like supporting a football club. Who doesn’t love their club? Who wouldn’t walk over broken glass for a cup final ticket? Who hasn’t come home from a game thinking it was the best day of their lives? And on the flip side, who hasn’t wondered why they bothered after a humiliating defeat, relegation, away trip from hell? Who doesn’t sometimes wonder why they waste all this time, effort, money and emotion on an institution that doesn’t really care at all about them?

For the rest of us who “know” City have cheated/played the system, those who find City’s success tainted, worthless, asterixed, moribund or whatever, know this; those City fans, even if deep in the subconscious, rational part of their brain, accept this could be true, they are never, ever going to admit it.

So be my guest, shout from the rooftops if you like, but the likes of Levenshulme Blue are not one day going to say “yeah you’re right lads, we did cheat, and I’m sorry. I now follow Man U and would like to be known herewith as Levenshulme Red”.
ANON

Going postal
So sometime back I compared City’s situation with the US Postal dominance of cycling and how it was achieved.
The point was that, although a lot of other teams and or individuals were also cheating and were caught, Armstrong and his team protested innocence, bullied people into silence with threats of legal cases that the doubters would not be able to afford to defend etc. Performance on the roads of the Tour were achieved at the expense of integrity and honesty and anyone who dared question it was immediately set upon by the PR team that had been assembled and often threatened with expensive legal cases. Armstrong’s ‘are you calling me a doper or a liar’ stance at a press conference for example. They assembled a team of the best lawyers and doctors which enabled them to achieve their dominance. It was driven by Armstrong and his team mates had to follow along because they had to literally be able to keep up with him. This is what it would appear City are doing – and just as with Armstrong and co – the evidence is mounting, Der Spiegel is perhaps the equivalent of Times journalist Walsh (called ‘the worst journalist I know’ by Armstrong and accused of being ‘willing to lie, to threaten people and to steal in order to catch me out’). Well, we all know how that one turned out – maybe the City allegations from Der Spiegel (a lot of which went untested in court as it took so long to bring the case) may turn out to be true too.
I have sympathy with City fans, they aren’t the ones who are doing anything wrong, but, in my opinion, they do need to open their eyes to what is becoming an overwhelming body of accusations presumably based on incontrovertible evidence. FFP rules do seem to have been written by the rich clubs to insulate themselves from any challenge to their position but they are the rules as they stand, acting illegally (and I believe that the FA case is based in law relating to accounting and not just a case of breaking ‘football rules’) to circumvent rules that are perceived as unjust does not make the actions excusable. This was not meant to be a comparison to Armstrong personally but to the background set up of lawyers and PR teams that appear to be manipulating or circumventing the rules just as US Postal did when Armstrong rode for them and later teams. The comments of ‘the wage bill is lower than team x’ or that City have ‘spent less than team Y’ are to me the equivalent of Armstrong consistently saying he’d never failed a drugs test. I had several friends who believed Armstrong as ‘surely he would have been caught by now if he was cheating’, others said ‘he’s doing it and they’ll catch him eventually’ – I’m in the latter camp with City – I picked the wrong group with cycling and have therefore become more cynical as a result.
Steve, Leeds since 1970, looking forward to Plymouth away next season

City and envy
As someone who is neither a fan of City nor another big club, it’s not particularly hard to see through the cloak of jealousy this morning. Financial doping seems to be the buzzword for trying to make investing in the club you own a bad thing.

City obviously are where they are because they have money to spend but they’re hardly the only club with practically near unlimited reserves. How much more would United or Chelsea have to outlay to come near creating a performance like last night, let alone the repeated excellence City produces year on year? Lest we forget Liverpool being transformed into serial winners after adding the world’s most expensive defender and goalkeeper?

Compare the two Manchester sides together, one side’s owners invest freely not only on the pitch but in infrastructure and outreach programs, and the other takes money out of the club and leaves off the field to rot. Yet only the latter has the moral right to spend money?

Just a lot of very transparent jealousy from people who wished their owners acted and spent like City do.
James

City will remember
City fan here, been so since the early mid 90s, so keep hearing that City’s wins feel hollow and empty to other supporters! Oh I am sorry, watching United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool win stuff made me feel all full and happy inside, I really cared that football was all okay because a traditional big team kept winning it the ‘right way’.

Oh wait, I couldn’t give a t*** about them, as, funny this, they were not my team.

This team won’t be remembered!?, tell you what, it sure will be by City fans, and that is all that matters. Do I fondly look back on other clubs teams of years gone by? Not at all

! Arsenals draw specialist Invincibles? I remember pizzagate and that silly penalty vs City, that’s pretty much it!

As for FFP, the reason it grates on City fans is because it’s more a chicken and egg situation. If FFP had existed for the eternity of football than yeah, bloody cheats etc, but it didn’t, it was contrived by UEFA after much moaning by traditional ‘elite’ clubs that City were upsetting the applecart, what City did was spend big to bridge the gap between a relegation fodder team and the elite, then spend on par with the elite thereafter, but as the rest of football didn’t like it and changed rules to stop that, some alleged clever accounting occurred. We don’t care, we only did it because you made us do it etc etc, otherwise the owners of the club couldn’t invest in their business how they liked, which it turns out they are pretty good running a football club.

Lastly, where the money comes from, get off your high horses, if your club keeps taking BeIN money, or is sponsored by Emirates etc then pottle kettle black.
Luke MCFC

Woke up this morning feeling fine
Dear Chippy, Thank you for asking how I feel. That’s very kind of you. To be honest, I am a little tired both physically, having travelled half the length of the country to see my beloved city, and emotionally having witnessed one of the best performances on a football pitch I will ever see.

The day started a bit star struck as we bumped into Noel Gallagher on the train up. I then managed to meet up with my dad for a swift half before the game and then sat with old school friends during the game, including my best mate in the world.

It was a truly magical experience and one that I remember for the rest of my life. Football brings people together and spending time with loved ones in such circumstances is very special indeed. The football was pretty special too, as was the atmosphere in the stadium.

I managed to bring two flags home for my beautiful daughters from the game and I cannot wait for them to finish school today so we can watch the match together this evening.

Thanks again for asking how I feel. I am feeling very lucky and very happy.

Yours truly,
Rosie Poppins

Bitter reds
I wonder how many of the mailbox following city’s win over Madrid were bitter United fans terrified of city doing the treble and rendering United achievement a rose tinted memory which only they think about ?

I also wonder how many of those United fans regret cheering city on against us over the last few years as they ran “anyone but Liverpool ” campaigns while cheering on their wealthy neighbours ?

Hollow is the word most used to describe citys achievements (by bitter United fans) so how then do we describe the achievements of a club which had massively greater wealth than all the other clubs during its period of success? United cherry picked the best players from other clubs using their financial power; cantona, Keane, cole, Yorke, Rio – all key components of United success all obtained via flexing financial muscle which itself was gained via cynical aggressive expansion and exploitation of foreign markets. Turning their athletes into show ponies for the cynical ploy of raising cash for the fat cats in charge.

Even the famed 90s academy would never have happened without massive wealth investment into it.

Money is the reason you succeeded. Same as city. Take the money away and the success goes with it.

What you all seem to be glossing over is that money is no help unless it’s spent well and those assets used effectively. Fergie was the right manager, (mostly) spending on the right players at the right time in the right system coached the right way. That’s also why you succeed (and why you’ve failed ever since).

That’s the same as pep and city. Jose and Chelsea (actually any manager and Chelsea) klopp and Liverpool, Wenger and arsenal – the right manager, at the right time, spending the right amount of money on the right players coached the right way in the right system.

If you can’t even admit city are doing that then you’re nothing more than bitter jealous rival fans. So critical you are of the financial methods of city yet you’re all cheering for a state backed take over so you can shoot your own accounts full of oil infused cash. I wonder if you’re taken over by a rich oil state will you then accept citys achievements mean something – or will you categorise your own future success as hollow too?
Lee

Read more: Big Weekend: Forest v Arsenal, Man City, Patrick Bamford, Sean Dyche, play-offs

Specialists in failure
I gotta say it was beautifully predictable to see Arsenal fans write in to prove my point so superbly! Arsenal NEVER fail. You see, becoming the only team to fail to win the league from such a dominant position, is nothing to do with the weak mentality that pervades the club. No, it’s Citeh’s oil money! The minute Citeh thrashed Madrid, sure as night follows day, Arsenal fans were always going to demonstrate the loser mentality that reasons away failure, by pointing to the failure of others! “Look at how Madrid got spanked!”.

Sure. If it makes you feel better. Of course as another mailboxer pointed out, Klopp never had oil money and broke the 90-point barrier twice, on one occasion amassing enough points to win the league in any other PL season. Klopp won a league and a CL. No oil money, no excuses, just strong recruitment and crucially, a mentality from the fans that demands success. Arsenal will Never, ever get anywhere because a large swathes of their fans are Specialists in Failure! Never looking inward, forever blaming Citeh.

I’ll repeat: Guardiola is a sensational manager, their football recruitment team is peerless and they play superb football. You end up looking a bit silly tbh, when you see a special talent like Alvarez killing it at just £15m, whilst Arsenal’s £51 Citeh squad player is still trying to hit a cow’s arse with a banjo!

Still, yes I’m Piers Morgan bitches! 😂😂😂
Stewie Griffin (Arsenal fans are VERY touchy eh! “We didn’t bottle it”. Yet you’ve sent in 167 mails explaining it away lol)

…Maybe I’m over estimating Arsenal’s importance here (I definitely am) but if City join their Manchester neighbours in completing the Treble, isn’t it strange that in both 99 and this year, the closest competitor to both sides was Arsenal? So, either we’ve been incredibly unlucky to be denied two league titles by teams making history, or it’s all our fault they are Treble winners?
Ben, AFC (a little from column A, a little from column B, I suspect)

Separating the team from the club
That was quite the show.

I don’t think the quality of the football was ever questioned or disparaged, just the source of the ability to constantly purchase the parts required to sustain and even evolve it.

Despite my bitterness, and I am happy to own up to that, I have to say the football itself was incredible at times, as it often is, and I do understand that the fans themselves can’t help who owns their club.

The squad will have earned their treble, it is a collection of great footballers with a coach who keeps infuriating me with his abilities at clubs directly rivalling my beloved club. (yes, Barca is in La Liga, but can I show you 2 Champions Leagues lost to dominant Barca performances, coached by Pep, which could have ended going to United and our revered Sir Alex instead, and you surely get the point.)

I can imagine it is a great feeling for the City fans, particularly the true ones, having waited a while, and now living out EA Sports FIFA career mode like dreams with their team.

I do hope that our players on the day at least seriously compete, I understand that this City team make that hard for even great teams, but forgive a United fan for hoping that United at least make a stand against City equaling our achievement that we the fans hold dear.

We really don’t want to see our Reds submit meekly to a 6-3 type of result, to say the least, so here’s to hoping it’s a classic and a thriller for the neutrals, while we bite our nails.
Manc from SA (Wondering if we will be any different soon, one thing I know is that It won’t be the success we have enjoyed, that built on the back of building the club and the brand over decades, involving triumph and tragedy and good fortune and much more, so it won’t be for all of us I know, but nothing is decided yet.)

Reap what you sow
Football is broken? Well maybe at the top level. Although it is actually incredibly financially successful and we are still all talking about it. And further down the pyramid the sport is still played and followed for all the right reasons.

But my real point, if football is broken, it wasn’t broken by Man City. It was broken by the G14 clubs in the early 2000s. The organisation formed by Europe’s ‘big’ clubs (Man U, Liverpool and Arsenal from England, unofficially backed by Chelsea) to ensure that football was all about them. They used lawsuits and the threat of a European super league to force football’s governing bodies to accept their every demand. They attacked international football. They demanded more TV money, more prize money and turned the Champions League into their own cash cow where England would of course have exactly four beneficiaries.

They created a false sporting environment where nobody else could compete. They would have all the money, all the best players and everybody else could suck it. The result was a Premier League that became totally sterile. The same 4 clubs topped the league every season. Every other club knew they were excluded from competing for trophies while the same 4 clubs played their mini league. The success of those clubs in that period was not achieved on sporting merit. It was achieved by lawyers, accountants and blackmail.

This was also the period these clubs gained their new generation of ‘plastic’ fans who believed they were signing up for permanent glory. It was meant to be a permanent takeover. The G14 clubs expected to own football and they very almost did.

The one flaw in their plan was that creating a sporting environment where success was guaranteed was always going to attract the wrong type of owners. We got Gillett, the Glazers and the oligarchs. Then the nation states.

The Man City takeover was a consequence of the environment created by the G14. And as much as we may hate it, the reality is that without Man City the Premier League would be a sterile bore dominated by the same 4 clubs. We have had a miracle from Leicester and a surprising intrusion by Spurs, but really It was Man City that broke their stranglehold.

So yes, to a certain extent football is broken. It should not be like this. But it is too late to be outraged now. The outrage should have happened 20 years ago when the G14 ended any pretence at a maintaining a level playing field.

And for the fans of the G14 clubs who are so horrified by the success of Man City. Get off your high horses. It was your clubs that broke football.
Jim (THFC)

Trent and introspection
I gather most football fans when watching a match not involving their own side inevitably think of their own side– perhaps during passages of play, perhaps throughout. As I watched John stones pushing up acting the de facto 10 during certain parts of their first half vs Madrid, i thought two things. First, simply, that if he were watching somewhere, Chris Wilder was likely pleased with what he saw. 2nd, I thought of the broader “genius” of managers hybrid-ing players to take up positions and influence games in ways not part of the remit of their traditional roles, and in ways that might make proper football men (or women, as it were) go all huffy. This isn’t to say Stones was overly pronounced stepping out of centre half sweeping a dozen slide rule passes or hollywood balls, just that managers as renowned as Pep and overlooked as Wilder (to name but two( have tinkered and invented and played proverbial jazz for ages now and it’s really nothing new. It just has to work in that particular system, the blanket has to shift btwn covering toes and neck and all that.

And so it is that I came to think about our own TAA, and all that’s been made of his transition to Newfangled Fullback Who Takes Up Midfield Positions In Attack. Well, I like it. I like what’s been done. But if theres any shard of introspective capacity in this player he will hopefully, critically understand that when the groovy jazz is being played, when you improvise and stray off that sheet music, there’s still an underlying tune or melody that holds it together otherwise it’s a hot jumbled mess. Kyle walker was brilliant shackling Vinicius and perhaps (perhaps !) if we had started Milner (or gomez even) in last yrs final we wouldn’t have been cut wide open in the singular play that decided the game. Not to mention Trent brought absolutely nothing that day

But how tiresome it is to hit the mailbag with a belated TAA moan the day after City resoundling demolish demons in Europe and sit now on precipice. So i won’t ramble, but I simply want to say this: Trent, if you watched last night, if you have any introspective bone in your body, who knows, if one of your mates, your mum, anyone in your circles happens to read this and passes it on for you to see (not entirely inconceivable if you think about it), maybe we cut past both crazy extremes of singling you out for defensive criticism and overly praising you for creative nous and land somewhere in a healthier middle, but either way your takeaway should be to your positional remit first and foremost. Corner taken quickly won us a 6th european cup; Vini jr strolling in at the far post confiscated the 7th. Likewise, opening the prem season away to Fulham last summer letting someone arrive to crash in a header like an nba dunk poster starts an entire campaign off on a weak foot, and sends an early shockwave to wobble the collective. Lately, to me at least, you embody football as butterfly effect. Just as I hoped omission from Gareth’s world cup plans last yr didn’t bring you low, equally I hope now all the positive plaudits about your turn in midfield don’t go straight to your head . If you’re still in the right back role a season on, pls for the lvoe of all that is good remember your defensive remit! There’s a healthy shout you could be the best in your position ever if you were just an above-average defender (and maybe added one more each of the two big ones already in your cabinet)
Eric, Los Angeles CA (oh, the barnet could use a tidy refresh too my guy)