The rules need a serious shake up......the world of football is going slowly but surely to hell in a hand cart. "Nothing makes 'em holler like the almighty $".
City Group buying Girona has been a long time in the making. Pep's brother being involved is...interesting. Perhaps this means that part of Pep's payment at City is a stake in the City Group.
Interesting that Pep was a big supporter of Qatar 2020, and Qatar and UAE are no well getting along at the moment. Not sure how much that matters/impacts the western-facing business arms of those countries.
I'm torn on this. The Pozzo family and their network have done some really impressive things through some of the best scouting the the world, particularly in South America, making shrewd signings, and improving the players they sign--good management of football clubs. As a result they've had an Udinese team punching above their weight, and arguably the same with Grenada (now sold on) and Watford.
City group have taken a team with a pretty big local supporter base and made them successful, and invested a lot of money in the local area of Manchester.
On the other hand, as Arsene Wenger would say, it's financial doping, and more importantly this is blatant monopolistic behavior. But I sort of come down on this the way I do most things in the modern game: we can't put the genie back in the bottle in terms of billionaire owners short of serious Financial Fair Play regulations and making it a UEFA rule that fans must be formally represented and consulted with on decision making for their clubs.
Quick note I intentionally left Red Bull out because they're a manufacturer of shit drinks who also own football clubs, plus the way they do branding, some of the controversy around Leipzig, etc.
Agree SD no surprise, pre season friendly and 5 /6 City players in the team already. But combined City & Guardiola only have a minority of the club.
Good point. Yeah Maffeo and Garcia are there and they're meant to be two of the most promising for City in their age group. Plus Marlos Moreno (what a lovely name "Marlos" is) and the Brazillian kid they just signed are meant to have bright futures.
And hey, in a lot of ways having players on loan at a network club getting first team experience and improving a connected team makes sense. In a selfish way it makes more sense than, say, sending Harry Lennon to Gillingham or Dillon Phillips to Cheltenham, or even Jay DaSilva here because you can coordinate coaching and styles of play, as well as possibly how much time the young players get.
City Group buying Girona has been a long time in the making. Pep's brother being involved is...interesting. Perhaps this means that part of Pep's payment at City is a stake in the City Group.
Interesting that Pep was a big supporter of Qatar 2020, and Qatar and UAE are no well getting along at the moment. Not sure how much that matters/impacts the western-facing business arms of those countries.
I'm torn on this. The Pozzo family and their network have done some really impressive things through some of the best scouting the the world, particularly in South America, making shrewd signings, and improving the players they sign--good management of football clubs. As a result they've had an Udinese team punching above their weight, and arguably the same with Grenada (now sold on) and Watford.
City group have taken a team with a pretty big local supporter base and made them successful, and invested a lot of money in the local area of Manchester.
On the other hand, as Arsene Wenger would say, it's financial doping, and more importantly this is blatant monopolistic behavior. But I sort of come down on this the way I do most things in the modern game: we can't put the genie back in the bottle in terms of billionaire owners short of serious Financial Fair Play regulations and making it a UEFA rule that fans must be formally represented and consulted with on decision making for their clubs.
Quick note I intentionally left Red Bull out because they're a manufacturer of shit drinks who also own football clubs, plus the way they do branding, some of the controversy around Leipzig, etc.
I assume Pep's support for Qatar 2020 was linked to Qatar Airway's sponsorship of Barcelona for many seasons. I imagine he's much more sceptical now!
City Group buying Girona has been a long time in the making. Pep's brother being involved is...interesting. Perhaps this means that part of Pep's payment at City is a stake in the City Group.
Interesting that Pep was a big supporter of Qatar 2020, and Qatar and UAE are no well getting along at the moment. Not sure how much that matters/impacts the western-facing business arms of those countries.
I'm torn on this. The Pozzo family and their network have done some really impressive things through some of the best scouting the the world, particularly in South America, making shrewd signings, and improving the players they sign--good management of football clubs. As a result they've had an Udinese team punching above their weight, and arguably the same with Grenada (now sold on) and Watford.
City group have taken a team with a pretty big local supporter base and made them successful, and invested a lot of money in the local area of Manchester.
On the other hand, as Arsene Wenger would say, it's financial doping, and more importantly this is blatant monopolistic behavior. But I sort of come down on this the way I do most things in the modern game: we can't put the genie back in the bottle in terms of billionaire owners short of serious Financial Fair Play regulations and making it a UEFA rule that fans must be formally represented and consulted with on decision making for their clubs.
Quick note I intentionally left Red Bull out because they're a manufacturer of shit drinks who also own football clubs, plus the way they do branding, some of the controversy around Leipzig, etc.
I assume Pep's support for Qatar 2020 was linked to Qatar Airway's sponsorship of Barcelona for many seasons. I imagine he's much more sceptical now!
I wonder if there is anyone outside of Qatar who didn't have a financial stake of some sort of Qatar hosting the World Cup that actually believes them hosting it is a good/correct idea.
Still, it's nice to see Arab states embracing football for what it is truly about. Money and corruption, something Arab states have in abundance.
City Group buying Girona has been a long time in the making. Pep's brother being involved is...interesting. Perhaps this means that part of Pep's payment at City is a stake in the City Group.
Interesting that Pep was a big supporter of Qatar 2020, and Qatar and UAE are no well getting along at the moment. Not sure how much that matters/impacts the western-facing business arms of those countries.
I'm torn on this. The Pozzo family and their network have done some really impressive things through some of the best scouting the the world, particularly in South America, making shrewd signings, and improving the players they sign--good management of football clubs. As a result they've had an Udinese team punching above their weight, and arguably the same with Grenada (now sold on) and Watford.
City group have taken a team with a pretty big local supporter base and made them successful, and invested a lot of money in the local area of Manchester.
On the other hand, as Arsene Wenger would say, it's financial doping, and more importantly this is blatant monopolistic behavior. But I sort of come down on this the way I do most things in the modern game: we can't put the genie back in the bottle in terms of billionaire owners short of serious Financial Fair Play regulations and making it a UEFA rule that fans must be formally represented and consulted with on decision making for their clubs.
Quick note I intentionally left Red Bull out because they're a manufacturer of shit drinks who also own football clubs, plus the way they do branding, some of the controversy around Leipzig, etc.
I assume Pep's support for Qatar 2020 was linked to Qatar Airway's sponsorship of Barcelona for many seasons. I imagine he's much more sceptical now!
I wonder if there is anyone outside of Qatar who didn't have a financial stake of some sort of Qatar hosting the World Cup that actually believes them hosting it is a good/correct idea.
Still, it's nice to see Arab states embracing football for what it is truly about. Money and corruption, something Arab states have in abundance.
Would never see anything like that going on in this country.
Comments
"Nothing makes 'em holler like the almighty $".
Interesting that Pep was a big supporter of Qatar 2020, and Qatar and UAE are no well getting along at the moment. Not sure how much that matters/impacts the western-facing business arms of those countries.
I'm torn on this. The Pozzo family and their network have done some really impressive things through some of the best scouting the the world, particularly in South America, making shrewd signings, and improving the players they sign--good management of football clubs. As a result they've had an Udinese team punching above their weight, and arguably the same with Grenada (now sold on) and Watford.
City group have taken a team with a pretty big local supporter base and made them successful, and invested a lot of money in the local area of Manchester.
On the other hand, as Arsene Wenger would say, it's financial doping, and more importantly this is blatant monopolistic behavior. But I sort of come down on this the way I do most things in the modern game: we can't put the genie back in the bottle in terms of billionaire owners short of serious Financial Fair Play regulations and making it a UEFA rule that fans must be formally represented and consulted with on decision making for their clubs.
Quick note I intentionally left Red Bull out because they're a manufacturer of shit drinks who also own football clubs, plus the way they do branding, some of the controversy around Leipzig, etc.
Agree SD no surprise, pre season friendly and 5 /6 City players in the team already. But combined City & Guardiola only have a minority of the club.
And hey, in a lot of ways having players on loan at a network club getting first team experience and improving a connected team makes sense. In a selfish way it makes more sense than, say, sending Harry Lennon to Gillingham or Dillon Phillips to Cheltenham, or even Jay DaSilva here because you can coordinate coaching and styles of play, as well as possibly how much time the young players get.
Still, it's nice to see Arab states embracing football for what it is truly about. Money and corruption, something Arab states have in abundance.