Manchester City

[Bender]

Guardian sport @guardian_sport 1m
Manchester City’s FFP fine to be shared out among Champions League clubs http://gu.com/p/4xdpd/tw

[EwarWoo]

Its the only thing that makes sense. Its still somewhat surprising however that they didn't find a way to pocket he money.

[topscorer]

Should go to charity or something like the Championship is saying they will do with QPR.

CL clubs get enough money already and the more they get only increases the wages of a very few players.

[EwarWoo]

But its supposed to be about leveling the playing field. Redistribution works to that aim.

200k may be chicken feed to us but its a massive windfall for some teams in nations with a smaller league.

[topscorer]

The only teams that make it to the CL from the smaller countries are the best. Maybe the Europa league but even then a couple of hundred k doesn't even pay a couple of days salary for a Yaya Toure.

I'd rather see it go to charity or grassroots football projects.

[Trippendicular]

But its supposed to be about leveling the playing field. Redistribution works to that aim.

200k may be chicken feed to us but its a massive windfall for some teams in nations with a smaller league.

But it also only rewards teams already in European competitions, reinforcing the gap between those teams and the rest.

[Bender]

Seems Man City have their own set of rules

[baitman]

Seems Man City have their own set of rules

i very much doubt uefa will be taking any backhanders, they are all such a bunch of honourable cunts.

[Bender]

BBC Sport @BBCSport 1m
Manuel Pellegrini says @MCFC sold Alvaro Negredo because of their FFP punishment http://bbc.in/1m0dYQy #mcfc

[Chazza]

Yaya Toure hits back at ''dirty'' Paul Scholes after Champions League criticism

The Manchester City powerhouse's defensive contribution was called into question but the big Ivorian admits he'd even play in goal if he was asked to

Yaya Toure has hit back at Paul Scholes after the former Manchester United man criticised him earlier this week.

The Manchester City midfielder's defensive contribution was called into question after a lacklustre display against Bayern Munich in the Champions League in midweek.

"The amount of time I saw opponents get in behind him in the game in Munich was quite remarkable," Scholes wrote in the Independent. "He just did not look interested.

Alongside him, Fernandinho is having to do the work of two players defensively and against Bayern that was always going to cause City problems."

But upon hearing the criticism the big Ivorian has bitten back claiming Scholes has gone from being a "good guy" to "a bit dirty".

“We never hear something about Paul Scholes when he was a player, but now he is starting to talk," he said on Football Focus.

“He was very quiet. I was hearing he is a good guy, but now he’s starting to be a bit dirty.

“But it is part of the sport because now he’s doing another job. You have to do all that.”

Our very own Kenny Dalglish was disappointed with the effort he saw from Toure in Germany on Wednesday, but the man himself insists he is fully committed to City and their cause.

"People are always criticising me. First of all it was about the money, then it is about different things and now other bad things," he added.

“For me, my commitment will always be high with this club. The way we play we play a full attacking style. If the manager said, ‘Yaya, you need to defend,’ I would defend.

“If the manager said, ‘You need to play keeper,’ I would play keeper because I will do what the manager wants me to do.

“I know how the fans love me because the fans have always been good with me. My target now is the Champions League. I want to make it for them.”

Toure has never been too far away from the headlines this summer with the extraordinary fallout from his birthday and a perceived lack of respect a heated talking point.

But Toure insists that whole unsavoury episode was blown way out of proportion.

“There was a lot of speculation about birthday cakes and rubbish like that. It was disappointing for me because a little joke is becoming serious.

"I've been in Manchester for four years now and I have never demanded a birthday cake.

“I was quite surprised about why the people react about that. How seriously they take it.

“I’m a father. I have a few kids and sometimes I miss their birthday. I don’t care about my birthday.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/yaya-toure-hits-back-dirty-4292841

[Muddled]

Actions speak louder than words, Yaya.

You lazy tit.

[McDermotX]

“I’m a father. I have a few kids and sometimes I miss their birthday. I don’t care about my birthday.”

What a brilliant exit to that piece.

[Shaggy]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ian-herbert-manchester-citys-attempts-to-defend-tour-while-ignoring-his-serious-accusation-have-revealed-a-complex-relationship-and-a-fragile-basis-for-a-team-9747479.html

Ian Herbert: Manchester City’s attempts to defend Yaya Toure while ignoring his serious accusation have revealed a complex relationship

Let’s cut through the rubbish of football quotes, which for the most part are becoming more fabricated and ridiculous with every passing week – and go back to a spring morning in a hotel room in Rome in 2010. For it is there that we get closest to the truth, where Yaya Touré and Manchester City are concerned.

City, needing world-class players to reach the big time in a hurry, wanted to buy one who had won the European Cup with Barcelona but were made to feel small time when their representative knocked on his agent Dimitry Seluk’s hotel room door. “Manchester City?” Seluk scoffed. “Why should he leave Barcelona for you?”

City were acquainted with the Wild West top end of the transfer market by then and they knew the answer, “Because we will pay him £220,000 a week,” would cut the mustard, while, “We want to go places in a hurry,” would not. They will tell you that’s how things were, in the first two years after the Abu Dhabi money rolled in. They have been rewarded for paying out those immense wages. Touré has been a big part of each big breakthrough. But the dynamic has always been the same. City have needed Touré more than he has needed them.

Which brings us to some of the rubbish that has been spoken about him – and by him – in the past few days. Manuel Pellegrini, his manager, declared on Friday that Touré’s poor start to the season had stemmed from the death in the summer of his brother, Ibrahim, “not what was said in the media, but in what he feels about it,” as Pellegrini put it. Referencing “the media” was unusual for a manager who positions himself above football tittle-tattle and it was a revealing piece of manoeuvring. Such is the desperation to keep a player earning nearly £1m a month onside that the blame for a very serious and damaging accusation made by Touré had to be turned back on to the usual foe, as Pellegrini said “ignore it”.

The accusation, let’s remind ourselves, was that at the end of last season Touré wanted to stay at his brother’s hospital bedside “for four or five days” before flying to prepare for the World Cup with Ivory Coast – “except that City did not want to grant me a few days,” as he told it to France Football. Touré flew to Abu Dhabi on City’s post-season trip instead and the ugly, unpleasant inference was that his club were more concerned about impressing owner Sheikh Mansour than allowing a man a chance to be with his dying brother at the Christie Hospital, Manchester. Except that’s not how it happened. Touré did not request compassionate leave. Had he asked for those few days off, they would have been granted without hesitation.

The true story fits with the picture of City’s player support operation I have come to know in the past few years. City have never wanted me to write about the unit and I suppose I understand that. They feel that the confidentiality of the relationship between the department and players is sacrosanct. But the lengths the club have gone to in helping make the players’ lives easier – legal advice, schools for the children, psychological support, with Paul McGee, writer of SUMO (Shut up, Move On) sometimes part of the picture – reflect a greater appreciation than most clubs have that football is only part of the story. I do not know a better club than City at trying to understand their players.

Touré’s accusation was disgraceful and untrue, in my view, and Pellegrini’s “not what was said in the media” was pathetic. At the highest level of City they have various rationalisations for what Touré said about them. That Seluk is an agent – and an influence – like no other. That the decision to make Luis Suarez, not Touré, Player of the Year hurt their man more than people know. That it’s just Touré’s way to say things and then convince himself that he never said it.

But he did say it and, to get back to the subject of football quotes, Touré was still talking rubbish on the BBC’s Football Focus at the weekend about the episode laughably known as “cakegate” – City’s apparent refusal to present him with a birthday cake this summer. “My agent made a little joke about it and people took it seriously,” Touré told the programme. “I was quite surprised about the way people and the media reacted to that.”

So let’s revisit those details, too. Seluk: “None of them shook his hand on his birthday. It’s really sick.” Touré on Twitter: “Everything Dimitri said is true. He speaks for me. I will explain after the World Cup.” It wasn’t a joke at the time, though one of his quotes raised a laugh in our house on Saturday. “I’ve been in Manchester for four years now and I have never demanded a birthday cake,” Touré told Football Focus.

I always think that a player’s willingness to embrace his new nation’s language is a fairly good gauge of how committed he is to a place. Carlos Tevez was as clueless about English when he left after seven years as when he arrived. Suarez, too. Touré doesn’t quite fall into that bracket but the impression is of a player whose mind will be elsewhere if the opportunity – Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona – were to come. He will recover from his poor start to the season. He will perform well in big games. And then, when City have only reached the Champions League quarter-finals at best, they will face the same uncertainties about him next summer. It’s a fragile basis for a team. Pellegrini can do better than blame the media for that.

Chronicle retains independent voice over Newcastle troubles

A journey into the heart of Newcastle’s estrangement from the football club within its midst revealed to me the benefits of being banned. The Evening Chronicle’s crime is to have reported a protest march against the owner Mike Ashley, but that has brought the local paper a freedom from the unwritten restrictions associated with keeping the club onside.

Pardew urges his players on against Hull and got a response as they fought back to draw 2-2 Pardew urges his players on against Hull and got a response as they fought back to draw 2-2 Getting the fans to rate the players after the desultory 4-0 defeat at Southampton was one of many pieces of invention. Genius. The new editor of football for Trinity Mirror’s North-east titles, Mal Robinson, has said talks are under way to lift the ban, but added: “We are going to retain our independent voice whether we are back on board or not.” That’s good. The Chronicle has been a reminder of the vital worth of local titles.

[Maxiedge]

They were so strong yesterday. Made Chelsea look ordinary. Kompany, Mangala, Fernandinho and Toure... the strength, build, pace, technical ability. It's brutal

We wouldn't have a chance in hell of cutting through that at the moment.

[Shaggy]

Yep their size and strength always strikes me when I see them play in the flesh, and they've only gone and added to that with Mangala (looked a bit of a beast yesterday) and Fernando.