Don’t be fooled by obnoxious Ten Hag, Man Utd did not deserve to beat Arsenal and settled for a draw…

The Mailbox has plenty to say about Erik ten Hag, Manchester United, Arsenal and Kai Havertz after the Gunners’ 3-1 victory in the Premier League on Sunday.

Send your views in to theeditor@football365.com…

 

Unbelievable Hag
So the master embarrassed Sancho when he started by sending him to train alone telling him and us that he’s not fit. Fine tell him he’s not fit but deal with it in house and train him in house. Now, apparently his training this week was not good enough to even be on the bench. All is fine but again deal with it in house and not in the press. What a way to boost confidence.

Players, I believe can be told they’re not up to standard 1 to 1 and be coached on how to improve, but that is twice now that he’s pulled Sancho up in public. That’s terrible man management which is essential as a manager in any job.

I’m no Sancho fan, I think he’s been awful since he joined, but again, that isn’t all on Sancho. In reality, none of Utd players are rubbish, we all say they are but they are elite footballers, there is just a large scale of eliteness, many of Utds are just average eliteness.

Maybe Hag, as he isn’t fit to be called Eric at Utd, should have a long hard look in the mirror and his coaches and their techniques.

Don’t let the Arsenal performance fool you, as I’m sure a lot will be saying we were unlucky and played well. We were still lacking in ideas, didn’t really create anything and were quite happy to settle for a draw as Fernandes stated in his interview.

Arsenal were there for the taking, even though they were the better side, but only because we are so happy to sit back, hit on the break and get lucky, which was a Jose and Ole tactic yes?

We didn’t put them under any sustained, threatening pressure because we don’t know how to, despite all Hag has requested and got in money, we still can’t buy a goal difference.

When you look at Saka, Martineli, Rice and Odegaard and compare to our Antony, Rashford, Casimiro and Fernandes we are miles behind in talent. It was a joy watching those players and it’s like a suffering watching Utd amble around void of ideas.

But, I’m actually gonna start to lay off on the players a little. I generally do not think many of them are good enough for us to challenge, that isn’t necessarily their fault. The buck is now firmly with that obnoxious clown of a manager.

Maybe there is a system, maybe there is tactics and a training program to suit, but maybe, just maybe, his so called tactics just don’t work? They definitely don’t make sense. Maybe it’s him who needs to change because there is a massive difference between managing in the Dutch league to managing in the Premier League.

Just ask Donny how much harder it is to play in, or maybe his undroppable love child Antony who has been appalling since he signed, way worse than Sancho. Maybe he should ask Martinez, who is looking a shadow of his former self. His one trick of taking a man out isn’t gonna work long term.

Ten Hag will throw anyone under the bus to give us the illusion he knows what he’s doing. He did it to Ronaldo who saw right through him, he’s made Maguire a nervous wreck who yes isn’t good enough but it’s his job as manager to fix that so he doesn’t look like a rabbit in headlights. All the players look unfit, and in all fairness none of them look happy or know what’s being asked of them.

Compare that to Arsenal who yes, are not perfect but they don’t half play some wonderful fluid football. Something Hag promised us but half a billion later and we still play like Ole is at the wheel.

And his excuses after the game, always looking to blame the refs or a player/s for not following the plan.  What f##king plan! He had more money than anyone else at Ajax with the best facilities playing against farmers. He did well in one season in the CL in a season bloody Spurs got to the final. He’s stolls in thinking he’s the second coming of Pep.

He’s with the big boys now and he’s utterly useless.
Hugo

 

Ten Hag is making same Ole error
That Jadon Sancho has not been playing his best football is not in question but he is, for all intents and purposes, better than Antony. Antony does not dribble, cannot run past defenders or cross. He always slows down the attack, cuts in and passes the ball back.

Sancho dribbles, outruns defenders and crosses. The fuss about Sancho is all orchestrated by Erik ten Hag so he can field his beloved but unproductive Antony.

Just watch Rashford’s frustration each time an attack is on and Antony foils it by slowing down the game and passing backwards. Needless to say that the more Sancho is fielded, the quicker he will pick up his game.

It will soon become imperative for Ten Hag to ditch Antony and field Sancho on the right wing, but we would have lost a number of games by then.
Professor (Dr) David Achanfuo Yeboah

 

Hugo = Stewie
United have surely hit rock bottom now – we’ve got our very own Stewie Griffin clone in the mailbox (yes, I’m talking about you Hugo).

So we’re now suddenly a joke of a club after 3 games of the new season because Mount hasn’t matched your expectations after *checks notes* TWO appearances? I’m sorry Hugo but United became a joke of a club in 2013 when we signed Fellaini for more than his release clause. Or was it when we signed Paul Pogba for a record fee having lost him on a free a couple of years prior? He was rubbish/injured so we lost him on a free again.

I agree that maybe we didn’t need to sign a keeper. But it’s not Henderson I’d have replaced De Gea with. He’s overrated, not particularly good with his feet and didn’t want to be at the club anyway. Maybe we could have gone in for Raya but why? United literally showed no interest in him and it was clear early doors that Erik wanted Onana.

Most people seem to think Onana will prove to be good business and United acted relatively decisively. Wanted the player, got the player. Also was always going to be more expensive as Raya was in the last year of his deal and Onana at the end of his first. The only real blot is how we dismissed De Gea.

On the left backs, sure we could have kept one of Williams or Fernandez. In the case of Williams I’ve seen enough to know that he isn’t good enough to be a United player (no laughing at the back) and he went out on loan before Shaw got injured anyway.

With Fernandez, I saw enough pre season to see that he isn’t ready and is definitely best served with a season long loan getting regular football elsewhere. Had he stayed and taken the pressure of that left back role immediately, he would have fans like you telling him he’s rubbish and the club is finished after one game. That’ll probably happen to Reguilon anyway but at least it won’t wreck a promising player’s confidence.

We do have cover for Varane, it’s just that as you’ve highlighted that’s Lindelof and Maguire. Lindelof’s ok, and Erik seems to like him. He certainly did a good job in Varane’s absence last year.

Maguire is, as every one knows, an issue. Erik doesn’t like him, the fans don’t like him and it doesn’t even look like the players like him. But Harry does like his lucrative contract given to him by the previous management. So he’s an issue we can’t really do anything about except not play him.

I think Evans has been signed more to do with his professionalism and presence around the club than as a genuine option. I don’t expect him to play many games unless we’re in a real injury crisis though it might be interesting to see whether he gets the nod over Maguire. Might be the extra push out the door Harry needs which will make Evans a rather astute signing! I’m sure Erik would rather have signed a new top quality centre back but we’re paying for our past mistakes on this one and the money wasn’t there.

That Erik doesn’t know who his right back is more down to the form of AWB than anything else. I’m sure he’d rather have Dalot’s forward play but AWB has been in good form and Dalot’s not getting a look in. I don’t necessarily see this as a problem. The only problem for me is that you can’t combine their attributes.

I don’t think everyone is going mad over Amrabat. I think everyone is thinking he’s going to do a half decent job and we all see a player who was desperate to come to the club and play for the manager. So much so that we’ve actually been able to sign him and stick within FFP. Think United have played that one well to be honest. And if he’s rubbish, no obligation to buy on our part.

Oh Hugo, that is the hottest of hot takes on Ronaldo. I don’t think Ronaldo got pissed off because Antony couldn’t cross to him. I think Erik pissed on his chips in the summer when he wouldn’t sell him, and then again by benching him when he was rubbish. And rubbish he was last season.

Poor little Ronaldo, so upset he was that he had to cry on his mate Piers’ shoulder. Disrespected indeed. Yep Wout wasn’t particularly brilliant in front of goal. But he was free (or at least extremely cheap), fit (unlike Martial) and wanted to play for the club (unlike Ronaldo). I’d rather have eleven Weghorsts than one Ronaldo. Post Real Madrid Ronaldo anyway.

Now I agree, United should have signed more than one striker this summer. But I refuse to have a go at Hojlund for being injured (he’s now fit) and United spending lots of money on him. Give the lad time. And how many senior goals did Ronaldo and Rooney score in the seasons before they signed for United? In fact, how many did Ronaldo score when he was Hojlund’s age?

No arguments with Martial and I agree Rashford is poor through the middle. Probably why we signed Hojlund. You’ll be pleased to see we’ve kept Joe Hugill at the club so you can tell him he’s crap when the other three are inevitably injured.

Agree Antony doesn’t do enough going forward yet. But he does do everything else the manager tells him and you can notice a loss of balance when he doesn’t play. Garnacho a spice boy? After two games of the season? Are footballers not allowed to enjoy their summer holidays now? Are you the Daily Mail?

Erik absolutely did not stress that he was in charge of everything. He has a say in signings but he’s in no way in charge of it. There’s a lot of flux at the club at the moment so I wouldn’t be surprised if he had more input than usual but he’s not running everything. And is the side that finished third in the league last season that much worse than everyone else? Well you’re not going to know after three games. Has Erik made us better than we were? Two finals, one trophy and a third placed finish vs the dross that came before says almost certainly.

I’m not happy about the way that United go about our transfer business generally but in almost all respects we are paying for the mistakes of previous management (I’ll give you Antony though, that’s not looking like good business). I do think we need someone quality in charge of transfers. There is also, I think it’s fair to say, quite a bit of turmoil at the club with the Greenwood saga and the takeover and continued protests at the Glazers. God knows how that affects the playing squad.

So whilst a growing number of our keyboard warrior fan base are calling for Ten Hag to go (De Zerbi the next big thing?) there’s absolutely no guarantee that any change of manager is going to improve this squad of players. Many other managers have tried and failed. And actually, Ten Hag has improved several players, Rashford and AWB to name but two.

There are legitimate criticisms of Ten Hag, and I have written with many of my own in the past. But I don’t think United can be fixed instantly and if you think they can then you’re living in cloud cuckoo land. There are too many structural issues that are either slowly being addressed or can only be addressed by a change of ownership. And that includes the stadium, the women’s team etc.

But I suspect Hugo knows all that. I suspect Hugo is little more than a troll and I kindly invite them to go and support (if that’s what they call it) any other club.
Ash (De Zerbi though?) Metcalfe

 

Coward, really?
Can somebody get Matt Stead a ladder to get off that might high horse he clambered onto in his 16 conclusions?

I’m no United fan, but Erik Ten Hag isn’t a coward for being right about 3 things.  The offside (like all offsides that close) comes down to which frame the VAR decide to freeze (1 earlier and he’s onside), the foul of Hojland was a foul – Gabriel makes no attempt to play the ball and moves directly away from the ball to barge him, and it was a clear and obvious foul for Rice’s goal.

Ten Hag seemed less keen to point out the Havertz penalty incident was essentially identical to the rashford one against forest, but total honesty is probably too much to ask for.

VAR remains a good idea that is implemented quite horrendously, but that doesn’t seem to be Ten Hag’s fault.
Phil, London

16 Conclusions on Arsenal 3-1 Manchester United: Rice, Ten Hag cowardice, Havertz, Hojlund, Onana

 

90+ what?!
Just call it a 100 min game and be done with it, who cares about player health anyway.
Gaurav MUFC Amsterdam

 

How?
How do you spend so much money and end up with Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans on the pitch?
Aidan, Lfc (Programmed to hate Utd, but wanted them to get a draw because they fought well despite the above)

 

…Anthony Martial has been at United since 2015.

Rasmus Hojland showed more enthusiasm, energy, desire and pride in 30 minutes than AM has ever shown.

A sorry state of affairs.
Plato – MUFC

 

…Football eh, from thinking you’ve undeservedly lost a game in the last couple of minutes to then winning it in the 96th minute.  Good on Gabriel making sure he thrust his arms backwards to avoid the annoyance of a sleeve playing Garnacho onside.  Ten Hags rant that the ‘wrong angle’ was used is either a poor deflection tactic from his teams insipid display or he clearly doesn’t understand how var works for offsides and is no better than the idiots online who use microsoft paint to draw their own wobbly line to prove offsides!

One of the few good things to come out of var is that offsides are now fair for every team, yes someone has to stop a frame at the moment the ball is kicked and judge the body part furthest forward but the technology does give a black or white answer.

That game was always going to be awful for the loser, more questions about their stuttering start to the season and 2 weeks to dwell on it during the international break.

Declan Rice was superb, deserved his goal and clear man of the match in a huge game, that’s what you pay the big money for.  He’s stepped up to this level superbly for Arsenal. Arsenal are not hitting the strides they did early last year, some of that is Arteta’s tinkering to try to give us more than 1 way to play, part is definitely trying to integrate Havertz (Vieira deserves a start now), and part is not having two of the most game-changing signings from last year in Zinchenko and Jesus.

Hojlund looked handy in his cameo and will surely make Man U a better team and get more from Rashford and other runners off him. However, having to resort to playing Maguire and Jonny Evans as your finishing CB shows how poor the club has been in the transfer market.

I think it is good for the rest of the non-rich clubs to see a rich club suffering for a poor buy (Maguire) that they can’t shift on. Too often the very rich can sweep a transfer mistake under the carpet and just go and buy a new £80m player and repeat this until they get one that works.

Now we have the dreaded international break, just when we’ve all got back in to the swing of things in the league.
Rich, AFC

 

The Havertz problem
I’ve written a few times now about Havertz being a bit pants. Didn’t do it at Chelsea and I’m sure he won’t do it at Arsenal. But, having paid a ridiculous £65m for him, what do Arsenal do now?

If he’s dropped (which he should be) then it’ll ruin his seemingly already low confidence and make an already bad situation worse. He’ll be a £65m piece of dead-wood. No chance of getting much money back for him should he be sold on. He’ll be tainted goods.

If he plays, then Arsenal are effectively playing with 10 men. Not ideal to say the least! You can’t just leave him in the side though. It’s going to cost us more than a misplaced pass did yesterday.

Not sure who decided it would be a good move for Arsenal but they messed this one up. It’s the non-acceptance of the mistake that’s keeping Havertz in the team.

Vieira or Smith-Rowe would be a better fit right now.
Stu – Gunner in France (still, I can’t really talk. I turned the TV off when Utd scored their ‘2nd’ goal and took the dog out. I missed all the good stuff. That’ll teach me!!!)

 

Fellow Arsenal ‘fans’
Sorry, I’ve just witnessed a gritty, skilful, dertermed performance against the Auld Enemy which was encouraging and satisfying. Still our fans whinge though! Why?

Oh, of course Harvertz was playing. Watch the game whingers. Yes, he missed a sitter as did ‘golden boy’ Saka. He also gave away a loose pass that resulted in a goal for the opposition as did ‘golden boy’ Saka did last week. His work off the ball is second to none. Follow the game, not the media and get off that boring bandwagon.

I don’t think we’ve been beaten this season and today was the first game we looked like the team from last season…but still the whingers will whinge…get a life. IMO I think Arsenal should have had a penalty but was bloody relieved with that offside decision!
Chris, Croydon

 

Zinchenko is worthless defensively
I began writing the following email at halftime:

‘It’s halftime at the Emirates – no idea how this is gonna end probably a draw. But what’s obvious is that Zinhenko cannot be relied upon in the LB position. If we’re going to force teams to play on the counter he does not have the athleticism or tactical awareness. See his non-attempt to close down Rashford for the goal. I mean what is he doing there’s literally nothing else to do and he’s staring at the play.

‘We’ve seen this a million times from him already and I’m sure this is why Pep got fed up with him. I remarked to some friends of mine just yesterday “Arteta is 2 years behind Pep while watching him in real time.”

‘We also have a gaping hole in left central midfield where apparently Kai Havertz is supposed to be. Zinchenko probably can’t score but he’d keep the possession and triangles ticking over on that side. Right now that side is clearly not functioning properly – Martinelli is being confounded by Kai taking up space while ultimately doing nothing.

‘We would have definitely needed another defender to maintain this – and we should have just kept Tierney and adapted a strategy around his obvious skills which would have given us even another way to play – something Arteta loves talking about but clearly didn’t see it this way.

‘Arteta’s squad deployment is making his mistakes from the summer…’

Then the second half started and I forgot.

But the result really changes nothing I was trying to say 1. Zinchenko cannot defend 2. Kai is currently worthless and totally ruining Martinelli’s game 3. We should have kept Tierney – even as just a closer where we could have him plug into defense while Tomiyasu goes to the right to do the whole inverted thing (not as good as Zinny but not bad and Zinny needs to get the f*** off the field for defensive purposes when any big or decent team is chasing a goal against us – he’s a walking liability in these scenarios) 4. Again, Kai is really, really not working right now and Arteta is actively making us a worse side by insisting on starting him.

Which brings me to where I left off. I’ve made my thoughts clear about Kai – and I previously questioned how much we paid for Declan. He is getting wildly overrated at the moment to the point that some outlets are referring to him as Arsenal’s “most important player”. This is complete bogus mainly because it misses the fact that we are worse than last season.

And he just got here – which isn’t to say it’s his fault, it’s just to say that alone elucidates the fact that he is not our most important player. If he were more important than anyone who was here last year we would be at least as good despite our clear struggles bedding in Kai. It’s not like he’s turned us into a defensive stalwart – we still keep getting hit on the counter and overall we look much the same as last season. And that’s his calling card.

There’s no point in even having to assess whether or not he’s made us better offensively as we are much worse but it is hard to say right now with Kai completely f***ing everything up including the ability to properly analyze the squad. Hopefully, Arteta will bench him soon and we can find out and I think we will.

I’ve never considered Declan Rice to have the passing ability or ability to operate in tight-ish spaces to be a truly elite CDM. Again, never watched much of him with West Ham (actually have probably seen him in more England games) but those sorts of things you notice right off the bat with great players in that part of the pitch.

I don’t want to sound overly negative – I see what he brings to a team – but to me his ceiling is key midfield rotation player on a truly elite team. It’s not something you spend even close to £105 million on – his skillset really should not be that expensive.

If published I’m sure this will get lots of responses about how great Declan is. And your opinion is great. It really is. But three games in and people have already declared this a major success. He’s been fine – like I expected – and theoretically worth adding to the squad. But if what he’s doing is what you expect for that kind of money then you either have rose-tinted glasses or you don’t ask for a lot.
MAW, LA Gooner (£170 million “enhancements” should produce immediately noticeable benefits.)

 

Defending the indefensable
I’m sorry Abulazeez but I don’t think a lot of your defences of Chelsea transfers bear much fruit.

1. Reduce squad size – Chelsea have a 31 man squad.
2. Reduce wage bill – Some expensive wages have gone, but Fernández and Caicedo are both on £300,000 a week. Malang Saar is on £100,000 (yes he’s still in the squad)
3. Get a competent partner for Enzo Fernández and rebuild midfield. – Only time will tell with Caicedo, Lavia and Ugochukwu (all 3 are defensive midfielders) but the quality of Kante, Kovacic and Mount hasn’t been anywhere near replaced.
4. Get a competent striker. – Not sure I need to say anything to dispute this do I?
5. Get a competent goalkeeper. – Sanchez really isn’t a ‘strong’ upgrade on Kepa.

The strategy of buying exclusively young players may be a strategy, but it doesn’t mean it’s a good one. The squad has little balance, creativity or experience.

The one thing Chelsea have had over the last 20 years is players who knew how to win. It could take years to mould this squad into a winning one. The club don’t have that time. You can’t spend £1billion and not at least finish in the top 4 let alone win something.

Not just to save sporting face but for pure business reasons, the club need money coming in. FFP WILL catch up with the club eventually if it hasn’t already.
Will (Boehly and Clearlake are killing the club.)

 

Net spend and the Chelsea nightmare
Net spend is a funny old thing, and has some relevance to it. For it to be a thing of praise, it should depend on what kind of club you support. The biggest clubs shouldn’t be hoping for great net spend, although it can help, see Man City/Real. For me though, teams who do it well should be “stepping stone” clubs, like Brighton/Dortmund, and top European feeder clubs, like Benfica/Ajax.

Liverpool are a sad indictment as they should be neither of these, yet their fans praise the owners for trying to make them one. I’ve read them say they do a great job and what should people expect. I think the answer should be that befitting of Englands second most successful club, not something akin to Brighton and Ajax.

Which brings me steadily to Chelsea. What a clusterf*ck if I have ever saw one. They’re in for a horrible year imo. Todd bought the European champions, a team basically missing a striker that could use a touch of youth, and destroyed it, completely.

They are two years in, over £1B in transfers fees and somehow, a worse team, still missing a striker, and ironically, could use a touch of experience. Football transfers are trending towards youth, as they’re better long term investments, but the key word there is investments.

Brighton, Benfica, Ajax, Dortmund are all big teams that can offer great opportunities to youth, and in return they get sizable sell on fees to the talent they help develop, key word develop. The only sustainable thing in this model is that it repeats. Just like Liverpool, Chelsea should not be this type of club.

Any player of football manager will know that you can indeed buy up all of the wonder kids and develop them into world beaters while winning everything, but we also know that’s not how things work in reality. Not every player develops as expected, and a lot of them need guidance from seasoned pros and stable teams, not much of which you’ll find at Chelsea.

The long contracts make sense from a FFP standpoint, but little from a sporting one. If their young talents do well, they’ll expect wage increases, and if they do badly, they can stick around at that premium. If they don’t get a wage increase, you have an unhappy player unlikely to hit peak performances.

They’ve rested their goal duties on a 21 yo striker who before the year 2023, had scored a grand total of 2 league goals. Backing him up is the talented, but untested and injured, Broja. Their defense is still lead by a 38yo soon to be 39(Holy sh*t he really doesn’t get the praise he should for being such a spring chicken).

Before sense fully jumped out the window, their midfield needed a back up for Kante and maybe an extra pair of legs. They’ve got that and more, but lost everything that was good about it in the first place. Caciedo should come good, but it’s going to take a lot more than a good game or two. As the leagues most expensive player, he’ll have heaps of pressure, and rightfully so. Don’t believe me? Two words – Paul Pogba (Enjoy).

As Saturday proved, when sh*t has hit the fan, who will Chelsea players turn to in their hour of need? I can’t say, and not many others can either, at least without a tinge of hope. Chelsea may well be the first club to make major investments to become a worse team.

Liverpool have made some good investments this summer, but have left their two biggest problems coming into the window still glaringly obvious and in need, that being a good defensive midfielder and center back. Their last three windows or so have seen some good purchases at good prices, but not what they’ve needed necessarily. They got Gakpo when they needed a midfielder, they got three attacking midfielders when they needed a defensive one, and they got one defensive downgrade where they needed two upgrades.

Maybe I’m completely wrong and this is the modern football strategy, but there is potential that two American owners have opted for the Return On Investment approach to running a football club, and as a United fans who’ve been there and is still doing it, it doesn’t lead to much success.
Calvino (Let’s go United!)

 

Bizarre love triangles
We are only a few games away from that arid plain with the odd tumbleweed or desert rose that is also known as an international break.

So I am getting in early to canvass England fans thoughts on how to get the best out of our midfield riches. If it is done right then there is every chance that we can beat France or Spain in Duetchland and actually lift a trophy (58 years on).

Top drawer talent first:- Rice, Bellingham, Saka and Kane have to play. I am wondering whether Rice and Bellingham ought to play behind Foden as a formidable force for top opponents to deal with.

Is Grealish really the best option out wide left? There’s a player at Spurs who may play himself into being an automatic starter there.

Can young Levi Colwill or someone else get to the levels to oust slabhead and take the birth next to Stones? Or a back 3 with Ben White or a.n. other? Is Tomori an outside shout?

Kyle Walker and Pickford will both get picked until Gareth walks off into the sunset, the same probably goes for Shaw. Trent & Curtis might get some minutes too. Is Rico ready? What do mailboxers reckon?

Finally, are we to suppose that Potter and his crew are plotting an England takeover from their Caribbean yacht whilst sipping Cristal and laughing at everyone’s hairs going grey?
Peter (fondly remembering the United Arsenal battles on big screens in raucous, great, London pubs) Andalucia.

 

…The weeks roll on, the signings roll in, the procession through English and European football continues.

The hundred plus breaches of financial fair play are not acted on, the dubious decisions continue, the lucky draws in cup competitions.

Not saying City are a corrupt club but do we need to have the corruption discussion at this point for the good of the game?

The usual tribalists will be out banging their drums (helpfully) but is it time to take an objective look at what City are doing to the integrity of the game we all love.

There is nothing we can do when even the governing bodies appear toothless in the face of the wealth of a nation. What do you do when you’re utterly powerless, how do you cope?

Denial is a useful, age old defence employed in the face of unmanageable problems. City are now an unmanageable problem for the rest of the league and for football.

I know it’s not clever and it’s not grown up but can we just pretend they don’t exist?

Imagine a world without City, a premier league without them, how wonderful would that be?

Last years brilliant and unexpected Arsenal team would be league champions and not also rans. Mourinho would’ve enjoyed a triumphant return to English football and delivered United their post fergie title which now could be years in the waiting. Klopp would have the three title his radical work at Liverpool deserved. Hell even Brendan Rodgers would have a title to his name and maybe Liverpool would never have signed Balotelli.

For these reasons alone I personally am founding a new premier league. I call it the Real Premier League. It is the premier league minus City for the reasons stated above.

I will now be celebrating all second place finishes to City by any club as outright victories and I am disregarding all past City league and cup wins as invalid. I think I am entirely justified logically, ethically, morally and in the name of football to do this.

I feel hopeful and enthusiastic again. Football is saved for me alone but anyone who wishes to join the RPL of my imagination is willing to join me.

Old school Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs top of the table titanic battles await for those willing to make the leap of imagination with me. Relive the glory days of English football before it’s corruption by oil money. Who knows maybe even Everton won’t get relegated over here.
Dave RPL