Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Tue May 01, 2012 9:09 pm  

City are obvious favourites now but it isn't over. United need to win both games and fingers crossed someone puts up a fight against City.
Liverpool join a heady bunch who have been beaten by Fulham at home in the Premier Lge this season. QPR, Bolton and Wigan Athletic. I was going to have a dig, but at least one of their players got on the scoresheet this week.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Tue May 01, 2012 9:21 pm  

Karlos13 wrote:

Credit to city, who have been good enought to take advantage of Utds slip ups.

Not just that, but big wins as well. After the arsenal game united had whittled the goal difference right down and it took 2 big wins from city.

say they won west brom and norwich by just 1 goal in each game the goal difference now, despite the win last night would be 1!!! and it would still be right on.

But as it is, assuming both win their remaining games united are unlikely to overturn 8 goals in 2 games.

Even the 6-1, how costly do those 3 goals in the last few minutes look now?

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Tue May 01, 2012 9:51 pm  

This being City I'm still expecting us to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.

If we do I wonder if the people (ironically none were City fans) who were claiming Mancini should be sacked, will return.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Tue May 01, 2012 10:03 pm  

citywolf wrote:

This being City I'm still expecting us to grab defeat from the jaws of victory.

If we do I wonder if the people (ironically none were City fans) who were claiming Mancini should be sacked, will return.

If you can't win the title from this position then Mancini clearly isn't up to the job.

Whether he should be sacked depends upon who they could get to replace him. If Mourinho wanted the job, and was willing to sign a contract that ties him to Citeh long term, then Mancini should be sacked even if he wins the title.

If you do screw this up, you really think that Mancini will be able to do a job next season when Citeh have screwed up so bad this year? I think there could be a Liverpool type collapse after they went close to the title. The title was there for them, they screwed it up and they never got over it. Citeh's screw up would be even worse. The only difference would be that you could try and buy your way out of the funk, but it'd be expensive.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Tue May 01, 2012 10:41 pm  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote:

If you can't win the title from this position then Mancini clearly isn't up to the job.

Whether he should be sacked depends upon who they could get to replace him. If Mourinho wanted the job, and was willing to sign a contract that ties him to Citeh long term, then Mancini should be sacked even if he wins the title.

If you do screw this up, you really think that Mancini will be able to do a job next season when Citeh have screwed up so bad this year? I think there could be a Liverpool type collapse after they went close to the title. The title was there for them, they screwed it up and they never got over it. Citeh's screw up would be even worse. The only difference would be that you could try and buy your way out of the funk, but it'd be expensive.

Can never understand why people think this is City's one chance of winning the league. If they don't do it this year they'll make sure they do next year and will go on to dominate English football and get a few leagues under their belt, with Mancini in charge. They won't just go away like the one time Liverpool did and a few other teams did of trying to win the prem!

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Tue May 01, 2012 11:50 pm  

Gandy wrote:

Can never understand why people think this is City's one chance of winning the league. If they don't do it this year they'll make sure they do next year and will go on to dominate English football and get a few leagues under their belt, with Mancini in charge. They won't just go away like the one time Liverpool did and a few other teams did of trying to win the prem!

To win the league all Citeh have to do is beat Newcastle United and QPR. Two wins, they win the title. Newcastle just got smacked by Wigan at the weekend, QPR got smacked by Chelsea.

If Citeh can't do that, if Citeh cannot win the league when United are at the poorest they've been for years, when Chelsea have virtually withdrawn from the league this year, then really you've got to question whether they ever will have what it takes to win a title.

This season they went straight out of the group stages of the CL. Surely next season they'll at least have a crack at the CL? That will make a title challenge harder. They haven't had a long CL campaign this year. They've clearly got a vastly superior squad to everyone else and have almost blown it.

Citeh could definitely screw this title race and still end up winning a few titles in the next five years. But it's just as likely that they will suffer a serious negative reaction if they cannot lift the title when it's sitting in front of them.

[John_D]

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Wed May 02, 2012 7:48 am  

A pox on anyone still making those ho-ho-hilarious gags about Hodgson's speech.


Massive day today. Nerves kicking in already, 11 hours ahead of kick-off. Fancy we need to take a lead to Field Mill on Monday if we're to go through. C'mon City.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Wed May 02, 2012 8:05 am  

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote: To win the league all Citeh have to do is beat Newcastle United and QPR. Two wins, they win the title. Newcastle just got smacked by Wigan at the weekend, QPR got smacked by Chelsea. If Citeh can't do that, if Citeh cannot win the league when United are at the poorest they've been for years, when Chelsea have virtually withdrawn from the league this year, then really you've got to question whether they ever will have what it takes to win a title. This season they went straight out of the group stages of the CL. Surely next season they'll at least have a crack at the CL? That will make a title challenge harder. They haven't had a long CL campaign this year. They've clearly got a vastly superior squad to everyone else and have almost blown it. Citeh could definitely screw this title race and still end up winning a few titles in the next five years. But it's just as likely that they will suffer a serious negative reaction if they cannot lift the title when it's sitting in front of them. From a City perspective its entirely irreleveant how good United are, other than in their ability to pick up points. City have taken maximum points off United but clearly are powerless to stop them taking points off of the rest of the league. And they've been very good at that. If United win the league they'll probably need 87 or 89 points, compared to the 79 points that their treble winning team earned. It might be argued that indicates that 1999 team were competing in a stonger league, but a look at the 1999 table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998%E2%80 ... ague_table doesnt seem to bear that out. Then, United were up against a strong Arsenal side, but apart from them? The teams just outside the top 2 seem to me to be much stronger today. And I dont remember Derby (8th), Boro (9th) and Leicester (10th) being out of the ordinary. The teams in the boottom half of the table also dont appear to be stonger than today, certainly not 8-10 points a season stronger. If United's 1999 team played their 2012 team my money would definitely be on the 1999 team. But when it comes to accumulating points, particularly converting draws into wins, the 2012 version is superior. And as far as City are concerned, that's all that counts. The challenge for City isnt to beat United at their poorest. The challenge is to secure 89 points. That's 18 points more than last season and, by any objective criteria, a tough ask. If we fall a point or two short I'll be very disappointed but it certainly wouldnt affect my optimism about the future. As for "all we have to is beat Newcastle and QPR" a trip to St James's Park for a must win game would be daunting for any team. Nobody could guarantee a win in that game.

Lord God Jose Mourinho wrote: To win the league all Citeh have to do is beat Newcastle United and QPR. Two wins, they win the title. Newcastle just got smacked by Wigan at the weekend, QPR got smacked by Chelsea. If Citeh can't do that, if Citeh cannot win the league when United are at the poorest they've been for years, when Chelsea have virtually withdrawn from the league this year, then really you've got to question whether they ever will have what it takes to win a title. This season they went straight out of the group stages of the CL. Surely next season they'll at least have a crack at the CL? That will make a title challenge harder. They haven't had a long CL campaign this year. They've clearly got a vastly superior squad to everyone else and have almost blown it. Citeh could definitely screw this title race and still end up winning a few titles in the next five years. But it's just as likely that they will suffer a serious negative reaction if they cannot lift the title when it's sitting in front of them. From a City perspective its entirely irreleveant how good United are, other than in their ability to pick up points. City have taken maximum points off United but clearly are powerless to stop them taking points off of the rest of the league. And they've been very good at that. If United win the league they'll probably need 87 or 89 points, compared to the 79 points that their treble winning team earned. It might be argued that indicates that 1999 team were competing in a stonger league, but a look at the 1999 table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1998%E2%80 ... ague_table doesnt seem to bear that out. Then, United were up against a strong Arsenal side, but apart from them? The teams just outside the top 2 seem to me to be much stronger today. And I dont remember Derby (8th), Boro (9th) and Leicester (10th) being out of the ordinary. The teams in the boottom half of the table also dont appear to be stonger than today, certainly not 8-10 points a season stronger. If United's 1999 team played their 2012 team my money would definitely be on the 1999 team. But when it comes to accumulating points, particularly converting draws into wins, the 2012 version is superior. And as far as City are concerned, that's all that counts. The challenge for City isnt to beat United at their poorest. The challenge is to secure 89 points. That's 18 points more than last season and, by any objective criteria, a tough ask. If we fall a point or two short I'll be very disappointed but it certainly wouldnt affect my optimism about the future. As for "all we have to is beat Newcastle and QPR" a trip to St James's Park for a must win game would be daunting for any team. Nobody could guarantee a win in that game.

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Wed May 02, 2012 8:16 am  

John_D wrote:

A pox on anyone still making those ho-ho-hilarious gags about Hodgson's speech.

Catalancs' favourite rag at it again?

[John_D]

Re: The Football Chat (cont) : Wed May 02, 2012 9:14 am  

Roddy B wrote:

Catalancs' favourite rag at it again?

Yes, but I was tired of it before today's papers came out. "Oh look, it's Tewwy and Wio in defence" ah ha ha ha ha ha.... Give me strength.