Ronaldo is being a pathetic big baby and we are very relieved because we can look elsewhere but Man City for a day.
Send your views to theeditor@football365.com
Know your place, Ronaldo
So Ronaldo’s had another hissy fit, this time because he was told he’d get around half an hour against Norway and then didn’t get on.
Apparently Jorge Jesus “broke his word”, so Ronaldo stormed out of the Portugal camp and then followed it up with a 2,000-word statement explaining himself.
Good lord, it’s pathetic. He’s 41 years old and, unless I’m mistaken, he’s still the captain, isn’t he?
Great leadership, Cristiano. Don’t get your own way, spit your dummy out, go home, then publish an essay about it.
And maybe, just maybe, the manager didn’t put him on because his recent form hasn’t exactly been great. There are perfectly valid footballing reasons for him not to be an automatic choice anymore.
I never thought I’d be paraphrasing Stone Cold Steve Austin’s famous 1996 King of the Ring promo in a Football365 email, but here we are: Cristiano, you ain’t got what it takes anymore.
Ant MUFC (3:16)
Ronaldo and Messi: A comparison
Funny study in contrasts last yesterday. Messi retired from internationals, with absolutely everyone in the country wishing he wouldn’t, but determined to make it an amazing occasion to honour him anyway. Teammates sobbed, Messi sobbed, he’ll be sadly missed.
Ronaldo releases a statement because he stormed out of Portugal’s training camp like a big baby – because a coach thought it was *their* job to tell *him* what to do. With about half of _his_ country wishing he’d just go away permanently. Somewhere. Anywhere.
There will be tears when he leaves too, but Ronsldo is going to be the only one crying remotely of sadness.
James, Liverpool
(Seriously though, who the hell are Benin? You couldn’t get Brazil for Messi’s last international?)
The aura of the French team
Knowing that we’re predominantly a discussion platform of the sorry state of Premier League Football (Hi Sham City), couldn’t help to point out the absolute aura that this French team has unlocked.
As I was watching the highlights, France were trailing Belgium by a goal till the 60th minute. (As a Liverpool fan it hurts to see that Barcola wasn’t able to influence the game in any regard).
Anyway, at the 59th minute, as the TV pans to the sidelines as Olise, Cherki and Da Cunha were coming on, the sudden boom in the French fans cheering was a goosebump event to behold (go watch the highlights man)
This wasn’t normal. Those didn’t sound like just fans cheering, it sounded like the magic dust of hope and belief had been scattered throughout the stands. Almost like the fans knew that NOW they WILL come back and win it.
THE FANS KNEW!
This is the kind of sh*t I witnessed last when the Avengers assembled on the screen in Endgame FFS.
Haven’t seen this much of aura in a team since the legendary Brazil team when I was a kid.
Wow.
M.Nair. MUMBAI. LFC. (Whoever let Olise slip through from the Premier League into Bayern’s hands shouldn’t work in football anymore)
Haaland to Real Madrid? Imagine the ego explosion
So… Haaland, eh? What to do with the Mecha-Viking in the post-City era…
Having read the run down of 10 clubs Haaland is most likely to shift to if City’s entire Universe evaporates, I can’t say I disagree with Real being the logical step for Haaland, especially with his cultivated career of it all and, with no disrespect to anyone, his “goals are goals at any cost” output certainly meshes better with Real’s dominance over entertainment, better than Mes Que Un Club whose fans might be a bit sniffy at ol’ Erl’s ability to stay dormant for the 88 minutes he isn’t banging a brace in but no matter the “fit” it surely then creates a knock on problem.
If Haaland were to be a target for Real, let’s be honest, there is no World where even a dominant and… ahem… “issue” free Manchester City would probably keep him but he would be arriving to a club who already has a goal cheat code on over half-a-mil a week, and neither Mbappe or Haaland are going to allow any sharing of pitch time when there are 500-career goals targets to be aimed at.
Mbappe could be convinced to play off the left – he has done on occasion (certainly more than the right where he has 45 minutes in the last 6 years according to TM) – maybe? But even if you did convince him, that then creates a Vinicius issue – another player with an ego the size of a small Eastern European country and wages the size of that country’s GDP, and who has just signed a new long term deal to keep him sweet.
You could try and play the most attacking XI in history, with a CF partnership with 700 career goals between them but a) that isn’t really practical, b) is certainly not new-manager and shiny new-King-Emporer Mourinho’s style, and c) would also require Haaland and Mbappe to “share”, and Vinicius to be less involved in the box, so arguably is the worst of all worlds.
Obviously both Mbappe and/or Vinicius could be ousted but both contracted to the end of the decade – and with both, let’s be honest, on par with Haaland in terms of both football ability and marketability, that isn’t an easy route either given there is very little prestige greater than “being a success with Los Blancos”. Would, say, Mbappe be tempted to tarnish his career by moving to the Premier League at this point in his career? I doubt it – and Vinicius even had an open door to join a Champion team who literally needed him this summer, and he chose the comfort/payment/glory of sticking.
Alls to say, Leeds Leeds Leeds, that’s where Erl should go – win a title at Leeds, get them to a Champions League final, and THAT would put him above the rest by an inescapable margin and be Box Office gold.
All the best,
Harold Erling Hooler
This Premier League weekend is made-up nonsense
May I just say that your Top 10 things . . . Is one of the best things I have read on this site in many years.
This weekend is without any doubt one of the weirdest Prem weekends as a fan ever. Manchester United and Everton fans absolutely convinced the only right thing is a Liverpool win, United v Spurs potentially a complete disaster for either manager (as a United fan we probably lose 4-0 as Spurs can’t score and we are at home), the very real prospect of the league leaders being 6 for 6 but surely (surely!) relegated and not entirely implausible that you could have both Villa and Spurs in the relegation spots come Sunday evening but knowing they might get away with it because City.
I personally feel the league should be paused until the case is resolved now. It’s a farcical situation where absolutely nothing will mean anything. What happens if Wirtz is out out for the season by a City tackle? Can a City player get MotM? What if they score goal of the season and are expelled and have their results wiped in January? Can you imagine a controversial VAR decision going for or against City? The media meltdown? We are going to be watching football WWE this weekend. Lots of fun but made up nonsense.
Dave, J Stand Barmy Army
So much more on Manchester City…
Great summary email from Lindsay in the mailbox.
But it does seem that, no matter how many emails, posts, and articles are written explaining the situation, we are going to constantly see every single kind of excuse for City’s misbehaviour, including so many saying that ‘we don’t yet know’ or ‘we haven’t seen the evidence ’, etc. When the reality is that the decision has been made. (That’s what the ex-CFO on Talk Sport was trying to say and had to be constantly reminded by Stefan Borson, lawyer and specialist in finance in football AND a City fan.)
There is an important distinction between ‘the public has not seen the complete evidentiary record’ and ‘the public doesn’t know what evidence established the case.’ The first is true. The second no longer is.
The Commission’s published Core Decision materially changes the position.
We aren’t waiting to find out whether the Premier League’s allegations were proved. That’s what publishing their decision was all about. The three independent commissioners spent 42 days hearing the case, including 34 days of witness and expert evidence, and found every category of charge proved except one part of the cooperation charges. City are appealing that decision, as they are entitled to do, but that doesn’t make the decision disappear while we wait. It doesn’t make it less of a decision or no decision.
We are also not entirely in the dark about the evidence. Football Leaks made some of the original internal emails public, and the UEFA/CAS case examined them. The Premier League investigation then went even further. A ton of documents were reviewed, 27 factual witnesses gave evidence and were cross-examined, and the Commission had thousands of pages of testimony and tens of thousands of pages of documents to review.
And we now know what the Commission concluded from that evidence.
We also know that key witnesses called by the City gave false evidence, and that some of them gave evidence they knew to be untrue. (Because they had emails that contradicted their testimony.)
So while we all haven’t seen all of the evidence, its not as if we are completely in the dark and we have to conclude there would be no point having the 3 commissioners review that much testimony, only for it all to be one big mistake on their behalf. Especially with such a damning statement regarding what they concluded.
But there is a big difference between saying ‘we haven’t seen all the evidence’ and ‘we don’t know what happened.’
The independent Commission has seen the evidence. It has heard City’s explanations, watched its witnesses being cross-examined and reached its findings.
And remember, even from the UEFA ‘trial’, it was clear they had a lucky escape. The time dating was a 2-1 decision by the CAS arbiters, who chose to date from the time of contract rather than the time of payment – as the latter would have meant those charges would not have been stale dated otherwise.
It would appear Mike is still in the Denial stage of grief, although from what we’ve seen from a lot of City fans, the Delusion stage.
Paul McDevitt
…Aw, come off it, West Brom fan Mark. Do you sincerely believe City are innocent of all wrongdoing? Does anyone? I hear the word ‘gullible’ has been removed from the dictionary.
It’s been self-evident what they’ve been doing ever since they were bought out by Abu Dhabi. The only mystery is how it’s taken this long to get their day of reckoning, because make no mistake, this era of fraudulent Man City dominance has been a murky chapter of English football, in a particularly murky period of human history, as civilisation drifts inexorably towards self-annihilation. But I digress.
In the meantime, all the shitmunchers like us can do is merely speculate as to what the scale of the punishment should be, just for fun. Because City sure as shit ain’t “innocent”.
Personally, I feel the only sensible punishment would be an immediate 114 point deduction, guaranteeing relegation. Then next season, they begin the Championship on however many minus points they ended the Premier League on, thereby “working off” the points deduction like a stony broke restaurant diner having to do the washing-up to settle the bill. They might drop as far as League 1, they might not, but an immediate promotion would surely be off the cards.
That, plus an enforced sale, for £1. To Mike Ashley. Though I’m not sure Geordies would wish that particular fate on even Sunderland…
Lee (they probably would wish that particular fate on Sunderland)
…I’ve spent an unhealthy amount of time writing into this mailbox about City, PSR, Liverpool and the increasingly ridiculous idea that anybody questioning Manchester City’s finances was simply bitter, jealous, or part of some mysterious ‘red cartel’.
So, I suppose I should say something now the chickens are finally coming home to roost, but strangely, I actually feel sorry for most City fans.
Not the lunatics on social media. Not the ones who’ve spent years shouting ‘115’ like it was a badge of honour or telling everyone City have always been massive and their commercial growth was perfectly normal because apparently kids in Singapore suddenly started demanding Etihad sponsorship deals.
I mean the proper City fans.
The ones who remember Maine Road, Gillingham, relegations, inflatable bananas and years of being battered by most. They didn’t prepare the accounts. They didn’t negotiate sponsorship arrangements. They supported their football club, just as I’d still support Liverpool if something horrible came out about them tomorrow. – Although I have insisted in the years gone by that id sack the whole thing off if we gto took over by Shiekh whatshisface, so I’d probably insist on myself sticking to this position.
One City fan in the mailbox recently put that rather well. His City isn’t the ownership; it’s the Kippax, the songs, the people beside him and those memories. I completely understand that.
But sympathy doesn’t mean pretending the last 15 years of absolute nonsense didn’t happen.
Because some self-awareness now would be lovely.
For years we were told City had simply become MASSIVE. Huge revenues. Commercial powerhouse. Best-run club in world football. Bigger sponsorships. Global appeal. All completely organic, obviously.
Question it? Jealous.
Mention City’s ownership? Racist.
Ask how their commercial income had apparently accelerated past clubs with vastly larger established global fanbases? Red cartel.
Mention the charges? Premier League conspiracy.
Well, an independent commission (in case you missed it) has now found City guilty of serious financial breaches. City are appealing that decision and obviously have every right to do so, so we’ll see where that ultimately ends.
But surely, we can finally retire the idea that everyone asking questions for the last decade was simply terrified of little old City becoming a big club.
And here’s the strange thing: City didn’t need all the nonsense as they became a phenomenal football team.
Pep Guardiola is one of the greatest managers I’ve ever seen. De Bruyne was magnificent. Aguero was magnificent. Some of the football they played was ridiculous.
City fans experienced moments they’ll remember for the rest of their lives and no commission can take those memories out of their heads. But it does change the context around the era.
And if we’re reassessing the last decade, perhaps we need to reassess Liverpool as well.
Because I’m increasingly convinced Liverpool should be regarded as the team of the decade.
And before City fans start throwing things at their laptops, I don’t mean Liverpool should now be handed a load of trophies in the post, as honestly, I don’t want them.
What are we supposed to do? Wheel a Premier League trophy into Anfield eight years later and organise an open-top bus on Tuesday afternoon?
You can’t recreate those moments, you can’t recreate the final day, the pub, hugging strangers, the parade or the feeling of actually winning it.
Leave the history books to the authorities.
What I do think needs changing is how we regard what Liverpool achieved while competing against City.
Particularly Jurgen Klopp.
Because what that mad German built looks more remarkable with every passing year and he didn’t arrive at the finished article. He arrived at Liverpool when we were nowhere near the best side in England and built one.
Players were improved. Players were developed. Players were sold and the money reinvested ,as Coutinho effectively became Alisson and Van Dijk.
Salah arrived as a very good Roma winger and Chelsea reject) and became one of the greatest players Liverpool have ever had.
Robertson came from relegated Hull. Wijnaldum came from relegated Newcastle. Mane came from Southampton. Trent came through the academy. Firmino became the strangest and most brilliant centre-forward imaginable.
And that team went directly at Guardiola’s City as they got 97 points and finished second.
NINETY-SEVEN!!!
One defeat all season. (to whom may I ask?)
Normally that is one of the greatest league seasons English football has ever seen.
Liverpool’s response wasn’t to complain that they couldn’t compete – they came back and got 99.
They won the Champions League. They won the Premier League. FA Cup. League Cup. Club World Cup. Super Cup. Three Champions League finals under Klopp.
And perhaps most importantly, Liverpool built something that survived him, as Klopp left and Arne Slot won the league with the team and culture he’d inherited.
So when people talk about the defining English team of this era, why shouldn’t it be Liverpool?
City accumulated (bought with someone else’s money?) more domestic trophies. That’s undeniable.
But Liverpool built their success while increasing genuine revenues, developing players, selling incredibly well, improving Anfield, improving the training ground and operating within the financial restrictions everybody else had agreed to.
If City’s advantage is ultimately confirmed to have been artificially created, Klopp’s Liverpool shouldn’t be remembered merely as the brave side who occasionally interrupted the City dynasty.
Maybe Liverpool were the dynasty that never quite got the trophy count their football deserved and maybe Klopp is the person who deserves the most recognition from all of this.
Because 97 points against THAT City looks rather different now, which brings me to the bit where I have to admit I got something wrong.
Slot.
I did defend him in this mailbox, and I don’t regret doing so, as he deserved defending.
He took over from Klopp, wasn’t backed in his first summer and won Liverpool’s 20th league title. That is an enormous achievement and nobody gets to rewrite it because of what happened afterwards.
But by the end, it wasn’t working and I still think Liverpool made two huge mistakes in that rebuild.
Luis Diaz should never have been sold.
And, yes, I’m saying it: Darwin Nunez should never have been sold either – I know!
Darwin could drive you absolutely insane. He could look like the most dangerous striker in Europe for ten minutes and then finish a one-on-one like he’d never seen a football before.
But he gave Liverpool something.
Chaos. Pace. Aggression. Running in behind. Physicality. Diaz gave you that relentlessly.
Liverpool ripped an enormous amount of energy and unpredictability out of a title-winning attack at the same time, then spent an absolute fortune rebuilding it.
And this is where the transfer-spend argument needs some context too.
Yes, Liverpool spent huge money, nobody sensible denies it.
But look at the players that we let go as well. Salah, Diaz, Nunez, Quansah, Doak, Elliott, Kelleher, Morton, Trent and others. This wasn’t Manchester City-style owner money being dumped on top of an existing squad. Liverpool were turning over a huge part of the team they’d already built.
And somewhere in all of that Slot lost what had made Liverpool horrible to play against, but –
The football became too slow. Too safe. Too predictable. Too much control for the sake of control. The press disappeared. The movement disappeared.
And some of Slot’s comments started irritating me because I was increasingly hearing explanations for why something supposedly worked when I’d just watched 90 minutes of it clearly not working.
Eventually the title-winning side stopped looking like Liverpool, that’s why I’m enjoying Iraola.
I’m not declaring another dynasty after five minutes. I’ve supported Liverpool for far too long to be that stupid.
But I like what he’s trying to do.
Press. Run. Attack. Change positions. Move players around.
If something isn’t working, change it.
If Frimpong isn’t the right player for that particular game, he doesn’t play just because he’s Jeremie Frimpong.
There seems to be an aggression returning as Liverpool look like they want to make opponents uncomfortable again rather than simply control them.
And while we’re talking about the future…
Jeremy Jacquet. Good grief. He’s 21. TWENTY-ONE.
I know we have a terrible habit at Liverpool of watching a young player have six good games and immediately deciding he’s the reincarnation of whichever legend played his position.
So I’m trying not to do it. But come on.
Quick, aggressive, composed, physically enormous, comfortable defending one-on-one and seemingly completely unfazed by playing for Liverpool.
There is some centre-half in there.
Perhaps that’s actually the perfect place to finish.
Because after everything that’s happened with City, football really doesn’t need to be as complicated as we’ve made it.
Find brilliant young players like Jacquet. Develop your academy. Improve players. Recruit well. Sell well – although preferably don’t sell Luis Diaz next time.
Build your stadium. Grow your revenues.
Get your coaching right.
And eventually you become bigger.
That’s what Liverpool did, and it took years. (twice!) – that’s the point.
So I genuinely don’t hate City supporters and I don’t want their memories taken away from them, and if anything, I feel sorry for the proper ones.
Their owners have put them in this position.
But perhaps the City fans who’ve spent years laughing at everybody else, shouting about revenues, mocking Liverpool’s net spend and insisting their club had simply become organically enormous could finally show a little humility.
Because Liverpool weren’t jealous of Manchester City. Liverpool were competing with them.
And despite everything we now know, Klopp got unbelievably close to beating them at their own game anyway.
Perhaps we’ve spent the last decade calling Manchester City a dynasty when the most impressive achievement of the whole era was happening 35 miles down the road.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Maybe they were the team of the decade after all.
Lee – formerly of Blue – LFC, stranded in Salford
No sympathy for Enzo
I’ve got to disagree with Will Ford’s take on the difficult position that City have apparently put him into. Apologies if I’ve missed his sarcasm but I read the piece twice and found very little snark, just a seemingly earnest defense of Maresca which I found nonsensical. Let’s look at the timeline of Maresca’s managerial career at the Etihad:
-His first role within the Man City structure came when he joined in Summer 2020 to manage their U23s (after a couple of stray assistant roles). This was after the Football Leaks/Der Spiegel story, UEFA’s investigation, CAS rejecting their appeal, and a transfer ban, and all the rest.
-He went off to Parma for a bit in 2021, then returned to the Etihad in June 2022. This was after the second round of reports from Der Spiegel telling us all that the Premier League has been investigating Man City for a number of years.
-He went off to Leicester and Chelsea for a few years, then returned to the Etihad this summer. By the time he took the top role as manager the PL investigation had been an ongoing issue/open topic of discussion for several years.
Maresca would have to be willfully ignorant to not understand what he was getting into at Man City. It’s certainly not a secret that they were found guilty of bending the financial rules previously, and the widespread assumption was that this PL investigation would find them guilty on at least some of the 115 charges. Not to mention the fact that the club apparently had a good idea what verdict was coming, so it’s certainly possible that they indicated as much to Maresca before he officially signed on.
I sort of understand the argument that Soriano or someone higher up should be the first to address the media (it’s unusual for a prematch presser, though these are unusual circumstances). But spare me the idea that Poor Maresca got caught up in the middle of something that he couldn’t have seen coming/or that he Doesn’t Deserve to be the public facing figurehead if/when the walls come tumbling down. He signed a contract from known cheaters, and surely is paid handsomely for the job (certainly in light of his short track record as an actual PL manager). He knew this was a possibility, so he knew the risks, and he still chose to look the other way and take their grubby millions.
He may not be as bad as the higher-ups or his predecessor who were involved during the period under investigation, or the coaches and players who accepted off the books salary arrangements. But by taking this job with this club at the point in time that he did, Maresca made his own bed and certainly deserves whatever comes next.
Danny, LFC NY
Somebody is new to the Mailbox
Excuse me are you just trying to farm engagement?
City have been found guilty of fraud on an industrial scale for a decade. That cheating has truly manipulated how the PL is today and your take is everybody’s cheating to some degree!
What an amazing defence and you’re the editor!
Best regards,
Richard Phillips
