Kid in the Riot

Tbf doubling down is very 2024.

A little taster from journalist Nick Harris. Man City have threatened him with injunctions and legal action for reporting their misdemeanours. Nick Harris@sportingintel Lots of commentary in past 36hrs about why PL charges under PSR rules against EFC and NFFC appear to be being expedited, while Man City's 115 charges (from an investigation dating back to 2018) linger, TBD on a now-agreed but not public timetable 1/n Everton (for a second time) and Forest have been charged for "simple" failures to balance their books around the "acceptable" losses of £105m over a 3-year ruling period. 2/n Whereas Man City's 115 charges effectively amount to accusations they were conducting financial fraud on a grand scale over a long period, and hoodwinking not just the PL but UEFA, and not co-operating. 3/n We know from Football Leaks and other sources that the City hierarchy's view has long been they'd “rather spend £30m on the 50 best lawyers” and sue Uefa “for the next ten years” than accept a punishment. THIS is plutocracy. 4/n They HAVE spent millions on lawyers. The've used every legal avenue possible to stall the process. When I was an MoS reporter in 2021 we used an external QC to gain access to "open justice" and attend court as City tried to stymie the PL's investigation. 5/n If Man City's supposed mountain of irrefutable evidence of their innocence is ready to go, then bring it on and get it sorted. For the benefit of everyone. 6/n They could have cooperated almost SIX years ago when the PL first started investigating them, and they didn't. That's their prerogative. It's not great on the optics but they don't care about optics. 7/n There is also a massive (MASSIVE) political element to this case. Sheikh Mansour is the deputy PM of a significant political ally of the United Kingdom. Imagine if he and his club were shamed by multiple guilty verdicts. Unprecedented and unpalatable. 8/n I'll be submitting further FOIs to try to establish the extent of British government involvement in the PL vs City case, but others so far have been fruitless. The stakes are SO much higher than whether a football club broke some football rules. 9/n Some (some) City fans go to extremes to convince themselves there's no case against City. Despite having been fined 90m euros (later reduced to "only" 30m) for major breaches of financial rules, and dishonesty, and non-cooperation. Before 115 PL charges. 10/n I've reported on City my whole working life. I knew, and know, people inside the club at all levels. I've been Khaldoon's guest in their directors' suite (albeit before I called them out). I have multiple sources who told me what really happened. 11/n Man City's hierarchy realised around 2010 that they needed "accelerated investment' before UEFA's FFP came into force. Their solution was cooking the books. That was evident from their 2014 punishment onwards. It's all been in plain sight. 12/12 Goodnight. X

Ah, Claire Young. You can tell we're in a GE year. Surely there won't be the required interest in this anyway given Yate is full of gasheads, gypsies, and shops that still have pick n mix?

I certainly wouldn't write him off long term, but he's been a poor/pointless signing for us, which I think is the main point being made. I was a bit miffed that Man City's "academy player of the year" ended up at a bottom half Belgian league club. That did sort of suggest his career was heading in the wrong direction, and it looks like he won't be turning his career around here, or indeed at Westerlo.

Three league wins from four. Decent. We only managed that twice under Nige in 2.5 years. Manning has done it twice already (the other three wins on the bounce back in Dec) in less than 5 months. Might be irrelevant, might suggest Manning isn't a complete fraud afterall. We shall see.

How's their last 10 games looking form wise? They had a mid-season blip but are well over it now.

Well their level is definitely top 3, as they won't finish lower than that, which ain't too shabby. And I'd wager if they do miss out it'll be on a historically very high points total. 93/94/95 pts? Mental. It's not all about spreadsheets and xG.

They're top of the division after FORTY games. Hell of a run of luck. Almost like there's more intangible aspects to successful football teams...

Behave yourself. And that goes for everyone else saying Ipswich are "lucky". McKenna has taken charge of 125 games now for Ipswich, winning 73, drawing 33, and losing just 19. 19 defeats in 125 games. That is absolutely absurd. And to top it off they play some of the most exciting football in the division. They have a bunch of average/good players for this level and are greater than the sum of their parts - that's called great coaching and management. If they go up automatically then it's a quite magnificent achievement to do a double promotion against parachute payments clubs in this era. I understand the Ashton issue but for the good of football I'd rather have them promoted than any of the clubs relegated last season.

Cheeky, you. I was about to like that post until I read the last five words! Back to L1 for the janners please!

Correct.

That feels like a reasonable punishment. Should they face a punishment that relegates them from the Prem then the EFL don't have to accept them. Fine to have that opinion. However Man City agreed with the rules, voted for them, and then broke them continuously. That's deceitful and destroys the integrity and fairness of the game.

In terms of where the money came from, yes. And to be fair Chelsea were (eventually) sanctioned for that. Regards breaking financial rules though, City have (allegedly) taken it to another level.

Man City's demise can't come quick enough. Assuming they're guilty of even a fraction of the financial doping charges they're accused of, then when the verdict eventually comes, it will be one of the biggest scandals in European football for many years. And they'll be a big fat asterisk next to Pep and their achievements over the past 10 years.

Just over the border in Cornwall and it's pissing it down. Safe journey to all City fans heading down.

I'd be surprised if they want the owners to go, given the history. But not surprised by the other two given they had the title sown up by January and are now on a horrendous run, fuelled in part by an alleged falling out between players and head coach. Plus, all season fans haven't been enamored with the style of play.

I'll be coming back from south Cornwall Monday so tempted with Willand. Still a way to go I think before they can start talking about the play offs.

Horrible fans Evesham so very happy BMF won. An Evesham fan attacked BMF players a couple of years ago. Players responded and had to do police interviews. Ridiculous. The FA are throwing a load of money at the Cornish teams to "level up". They want a Cornish team in the National League. But Mousehole are big beneficiaries, getting loads of money thrown at them.

Unlucky da cherry and shites

Good to hear you've learnt how to control the little fella.

Exactly that. Taunton just need bodies atm. And they're not the only ones. Was chatting to a BMF player the other day and he said they're desperate for a player or two for the run-in.

Scott's son Jay signs for Taunton!

You mean like the right wing media fanning the flames of culture war non-issues like Nike designing a cross in different colours, whilst in the same week it being announced that the UK now has 12 million people in absolute poverty including 3.6 million children? You have to hand it to them, tragically it works....

Yes. And I strongly suspect things like this are just the tip of the iceberg.

Such a dreadful article though. They've just aggregated a load of TripAdvisor scores. To my knowledge Dave can't even cook paella there at the moment as he doesn't have an extraction system. Plus there's the small issue that the opening hours are "spontaneous" shall we say!