Breaking recent habits, I’m actually there on Sunday, Darren.

Might see you there?

Edit

.....and I’m really looking forward to it. Notwithstanding our lack of craft and passing in mf, we have some exciting players. I really like our current bunch of youngsters and I think that under Arteta, they all now have a game plan. Confidence is high.

City banned from uefa comps for 2 years. On the face of it that means 5th place will get champions league next season.

Huge news. Bound to appeal it

What a joke that VAR is ..Wolves have just had a goal disallowed for a bloke's foot being about 5mm offside .

No Pete. I don’t have a life sized statue of Aaron in my lounge.

Think Colossus of Rhodes in my front garden and you’d be nearer the mark.

Btw it’s Ramsey.

Nice article. Keep going Reiss!
Good to know how engaged Arteta is with the team.

I have not yet bought into the Arteta hype. I think I have seen us play well for 2 half games Man U and Chelsea.

The games coming up for us:
Newcastle h, Olympicios X 2, Everton h,Westham h,Portsmouth, Brighton, Brighton, Southampton, Norwich h, Wolves.

IMO he no longer has the excuse that he hasn't had time to work with his squad. Arteta has had time to access the squad, work on his game plan and make decisions about players etc - what is reasonable to expect from these games. I don't think it is too much to ask for solid wins until Wolves.

I will be interested to see if he really does chose players who are performing or if he goes for safety first policy and sticks with the old guard.

I would add in Bournemouth in the cup where we were excellent in the first half.
I agree with you that he needs to start getting wins now. A very inviting run of fixtures to do so

Man City have an amazing youth team, regularly winning the youth cup etc but hardly any of them make it anywhere near the first team. Even Foden, who is so talented struggled for minutes. I wonder if Arteta might go back and try to persuade some of those young players to move to Arsenal with the greater promise of first team football?

I suspect Man City will appeal this ban and that any ban will not come into force until the outcome of any appeal, which with the lawyers they have will probably see the ban lifted or significantly reduced. I doubt that any appeal and subsequent court hearings etc will be concluded by the start of next season anyway so it may well be that 5th place this season does not give CL qualification next season because City cannot be kicked out until any appeal is concluded. Having said that I think Chelsea's transfer ban remained in place despite an ongoing appeal. I'm not sure what the PL will do in this situation.

If the appeal is lost and a substantial breach of Financial Fair Play Rules is proven then does that mean that City's PL titles and cup wins etc are taken away? If not then why not.......they will have cheated to win them after all?

You expect this Arsenal team to win nine matches in a row?!

It is far too early to judge Arteta. He is quite clearly changing things and so far he has improved us in some areas. He has a long way to go though and we shouldn't forget the state of the team when he took over.

Morning Soc,

City have already announced that they are appealing it. They effectively said they were expecting it. I've no idea how long the appeal will take and I think you make a good point in terms of the uncertainty of what will happen if it is not concluded by season's end.

If UEFA upheld it and then City won the appeal but had missed out on qualification you could see an absolutely huge compensation heading their way. And would they then have to deal with the ramifications of a replacement team participating in a competition they should not have qualified for.

I don't believe it is right for the 5th place team to qualify and I'm not sure UEFA will do that.

Hi Dec,

I've read two contrasting articles about the City ban today, one saying they cheated and deserve everything they get and another saying that FFP is just a mechanism dreamt up by the elite clubs to maintain their elite status.

I can kind of see both sides.

If City attempted to circumnavigate the rules then of course they deserve to be banned, on the other hand is FFP really a mechanism to level the playing field or just to stop smaller clubs being able to compete with the top clubs financially?.

If Norwich, for example, were taken over by a megarich consortium who wanted to take them to the top, should they really be stifled by spending rules providing the money does not come from dubious sources and they do not incur any debt?

I think it's an interesting dilemma.

Morning Soc.

The main protagonists in bringing this complaint were Barca and Madrid. They just want their power to remain unabated. Hypocritical IMO seeing as Madrid were essentially bailed out of financial trouble by the Spanish Government not so long ago.

I'm all for the upholding of the FFP principal as long as it's consistant and applied evenly across all teams. It would appear it's not yet.

As we all know, everything changed with Abramovic. I would have been completely behind FFP for a long time but at this stage I don't really care anymore.

FFP is not about fairness. Its stated purpose is to prevent clubs from putting themselves in a perilous financial position as Leeds once did. Man City don't fall into that category.

It isn't about the integrity of the sport and realistically there is very little integrity left in football anyway.
It's just all about money.

So let me ask, which games do you think it will be okay to fail to win. Is a draw at Norwich okay? These are all winnable games I would think. What follows after these is a difficult run. We need to build some momentum. If you tell people it is okay to fail, then there is no impetus for change. I would like to know what you and others believe is an acceptable return.

Absolute 100 % effort every game, every player, every time.

Hi Dec,

Hence my point that if an investor wishes to invest in a football club and imposes no debt on the club in doing so , nor uses monet from dubious sources then then why shouldn't he be allowed to.

Let's not pretend that if some rich consortium bought Kroenke out and started splashing the cash with no debts being imposed on the club then we wouldn't love it.

It does feel a bit like City are being punished for daring to challenge the elite. They have actually invested lots in the infrastructure at City so its not like they are hurting the club.

As you point out, there is no integrity left in football these days it's just all about money.

I feel sorry for some of these small clubs who see academy prospects who they have invested time and money in being snatched away by PL clubs for a pittance, lured by the riches and glamour of the PL. Millionaires before they've even kicked a ball for the club.

Afternoon Socrates

I agree with you that the FFP provision for financial sustainability has morphed into a mechanism for protecting rich clubs and misses the point completely.

However, if City did what they are accused of, don't you think they have basically committed fraud and deserve the two-year ban?

Anyone else hate this break. Feels like nothing is happening with only 2 games.

plus evidence that issues, such as defensive chaos, are being addressed.
So, so far so good. Baby steps!

I am baffled that Man City should be singled out when there are extreme examples such as PSG.

Except of course that PSG’s chairman is on the UEFA executive committee.

All corrupt as hell.

While possibly true it is no defense in law to say that everyone else is doing too.

I wasn’t meaning to suggest it as a defence. I was simply wondering why there aren’t other cases.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... l-chelsea/


As I said the other day I’d blow our entire summer budget on him.

.. on the city stuff

When I saw it I welcomed the ban but isn’t it just typical that if it wasn’t for the German media publishing that information this wouldn’t have come to light. The English media and premier league had no intention of pursuing and just turned a blind eye.

If the premier league now do a copycat ban and dock them points several years after this has occurred then they are the biggest hypocrites of all time and gutless twats

Are they going to strip them of their titles too due to the excessive sponsorship contract from Qatar now too ?

The ship has sailed already hasn’t it.

This season is ranking with 2008 and 2003 with me for different reasons than the other two which were frustrating for different reasons. This season is not just Arsenal frustrating me but Liverpool's run which is depressing.

This is their second time being caught. Was it just 6 years ago they were caught previously and have not bothered to try and improve behaviour. Incredibly arrogant attitude towards UEFA as well didn't help their cause.

"Acceptable return " Gaz ? .... we don't get relegated ........ which seemed highly likely with Emery / Ljungberg in charge .

You seem to struggle to realise apart from Klopp's mob streaking away into the sunset , the Premier League is very competitive .
Man Uted have lost at home to Wolves , Norwich , Burnley
Man City who are light years in front of us in financial clout have lost at Norwich and Newcastle

From those halcyon Bergkamp , Pires , Henry , Fabregas , van Persie days we have lost our mojo completely , the likes of Norwich , Southampton , Brighton , Wolves no longer tremble in their boots when the Arsenal team coach rolls into town .

You rattle of a succession of ' little teams ' we supposedly should beat easily if we turned the clock back fifteen years , but nothing is guaranteed and warming up for a grizzle about Arteta should we fail to beat a couple of them is not grasping the nettle

.......because we are at the moment " a little team " .

As a footnote I've got to say I've gone off Ljungberg , liked him as a player but as a manager I see him as a smiling clucking ineffective meally mouth .

I'm watching a football program where they are discussing Man City and one of them is sounding the death knell about City. No way. They have way too much money to be down for too long. Pep may not be there in 2 years, some players may leave and it will be hard to attract some without CL football but they are probably the richest club in the world. They will always be competitive at the top with the resources they have.

...and they may even have it reduced on appeal.

If Norwich can manage a draw I'll be happy.

Assuming Liverpool finish out the season with possibly no more than 2 or 3 matches with dropped points, it must be considered the best season ever by a team surely. I'm hearing pundits debate and while I am no English football historian by any stretch, i'd have to think must be.

I envision the problem for Liverpool is maintaining hunger after they have won the league officially. Presumably they will be in 2 other competitions and it will be harder to get up mentally for league matches.

Gotta give it to Liverpool. The league was won before the new year if we are honest. They are now in a frame of mind a draw isn't good enough and if I were a fly on the wall in their changing room, I'm willing to guess that they are still upset at the one draw they have and believe to their core they should have all wins.

This mindset may come back to haunt them. I can envision them drawing 0-0 or 1-1 very late in the game and instead of shutting up shop they push for the winner and get countered.

Kudos must be given to Norwich to keep them from scoring till the 78th minute. Far better than the vast majority of sides this season. Goes to show you, you can't count any side out. Even bottom of the table.

I am afraid I am a dying breed. (some will say thank God for that). I expect if a player earns 200k per week that he will perform better than a player who earns 30k per week. So if for instance our team has a player on 200k per week (lets call him A), a player on 320k per week (O)+ another forward on say 150k(L) = a new bloke on say 120k (P - I have no idea of his wages) + a 100K (X) +++, then I have an exoectation that they will beat a team where the wage may be around 500-600k for the whole team including reserves. So you could say I have expectations people will perform.

If you tell the team we are not good enough then they will perform to your expectation. If you empower people and inspire them to achieve the good ones will do just that. Whether Arteta can do that is the question.

As for the statement that the Premier League is very competitive other than for Liverpool. Well then that means it is not competitive. Aust 1 NZ 0. I will use the underarm, perfectly legitimate delivery later.

No - They only tried harder not getting caught.

Just assume this story has an credence at all
https://www.espn.co.uk/football/soccer- ... m-sterling

RM to pay up to 180mil for Sterling. Then please explain how that club is ever within the FFP rules. The TV rights in Spain are a lot less and they have been bailed out a number of times. Many years ago they were rumoured to owe 500mil. Ticket prices are less in Spain. They have numerous high earners.

I am not having sympathy for City, what I want is consistency. City are an easy target - they are not one of the chosen ones. We are in the same boat.

I wonder if this has legs. Tierney to Leicester

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football ... upamecano/

Might explain the purchase of the Southampton bloke.

a dying breed alright , full blown Alzheimers , dementia , lupis you name it .

Taking Liverpool out of the equation ; any team can beat any other team that means the rest of the league is competitive .....

You have expectations a team assembled for fifteen million will beat one of 500k ...Liverpool v Wimbledon , Arsenal v Walsall , Leeds v Sunderland , Norwich v Man City , Man U v Burnley , Arsenal v York City

... how many examples do you want ...underarm all you like ...................... Australia 0 NZ 2

I have no sympathy whatsoever for Man City. The whole ‘project’ is loathsome.

What really annoys me is that other similar situations seem to be condoned for no apparent good reason. PSG are the most extreme example but such as Real Madrid are right up there too.

All I will say for City is that every time they’ve won the league, it means Manchester United, Tottenham, Liverpool and Chelsea haven’t. I dislike those four much more than City, so for me there have been benefits to their financial doping.

Sadly they haven’t been keeping up with Liverpool this season.