Man City can ‘shop at Harrods’ every day; Arsenal and Liverpool cannot
It’s not that Liverpool and Arsenal could not afford the same players as Man City; it’s that they cannot afford to make mistakes.
Plus, we have views on Man Utd, Arsenal and more. Now go and watch the Champions League and mail us at theeditor@football365.com
Money buys you more room to make mistakes
It is fair to point out that other clubs have rich owners and spend money like Matthew, ITFC has done. But he has gone too far by downplaying the advantage that a club has when they have/are willing to spend more than any other club, or when a club has essentially limitless funding. Clubs in this situation can afford to make mistakes in the transfer market while those trying to keep up with them need to aspire to get nearly everything perfect.
I am trying to describe this in vague terms because Manchester City is not the only club in this situation. This also describes what is experienced in Germany with Bayern Munich, it happened in France with Lyon back in the day even before PSG was taken over, it’s what Atletico go through when they try to compete with Real and Barcelona, or Italian clubs competing with Juventus.
The exact numbers vary from case to case but the scenario is consistent. Less-rich clubs can compete with more-rich clubs, they can even compete with infinitely-rich clubs, they can even succeed in winning occasional titles. But it is silly and wrong to say “well they all have more money than God” and ignore the significant advantages that the richest clubs have, or to pretend that other clubs could have hired Guardiola if only the idea had occurred to them (likewise Haaland).
To be specific about City, to their credit they have been very good in the transfer market and they have not made many mistakes since the Guardiola era began. (Although who knows if Guardiola would have survived long into his second season if he had gone to another PL club, signed Stones Sané Jesus Gundogan Bravo and Nolito for 200m EUR in his first transfer window, and had these signings not exactly hit the ground running for him to various extents/for various reasons). But not necessarily using the margin of error they had is different from not having the margin of error to begin with.
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva. Switzerland
…I would agree that there are no players at City that their rivals could not afford to buy but surely the issue is how many of those costly players could their rivals afford. Rice and VVD needed to work out as star buys where as Grealish had an initial year on rotation and is now back on occasional gigs. If he is a flop it doesn’t matter as Doku is next up City take the hit and move on. City as a Sovereign Wealth fund is very well run and they hire the best because they can afford to. Everyone can shop at Harrods but most of us can only justify it for special occasions.
Ted Bythesea
If you buy from the rich man, don’t complain when he gets richer
There’s this guy, newish in town, and, for the most part, isn’t really perceived as any kind of threat, but you’ve heard rumours; police involvement maybe?
Over the years, he has grown his wealth, but you still interact with him despite some louder voices discussing the police, and how is he is getting richer.
You have bought things from him, some of them expensive things (sometimes helping you out, and increasing his wealth), and he has bought things from you, so it’s all good, despite the fact you are unsure how he got those things, and the cries of a police investigation keep getting louder do not deter you or your neighbours from possibly buying ill-gotten goods; sure he’s getting richer because of you, but who cares? If the police do eventually get involved you can hold your hands up and declare your innocence (despite you now chiming in with the calls of ‘dodgy’).
In this regard, you really are part of the problem; you helped a rich man get richer, bought goods that he shouldn’t have had, and occasionally benefited from them. But you can’t keep doing this whilst suggesting he has been up to no good, even though you really don’t know, but you are convinced by the rhetoric that he has been, and is guilty.
It’s not just you though – everyone has been buying from him, and much further afield. Do you know why? Because at the end of the day no one cares so long as they get what they want. Sure, he now has the biggest house, and the fastest car, and you know you have contributed to that.
But, again, you don’t care. Your extended family keep telling you that there is something not right with him, despite not being able to prove it, but look at all those dissenting voices! They must be right? Maybe, maybe not, but you still keep buying and selling to him.
Mike D (currently on a train)
Are Man City the most decorated Premier League team ever?
So, as the dust settles on the anarchy of last Sunday, the madness that left three teams separated by two points at the top of the league only a week after… three teams were separated by two points at the top of the league, I find myself pondering this City side.
As the comments flew in the aftermath, I noted one individual in the ether stating that Arsenal had the most settled squad in the Premier League and it got me to thinking. No they don’t, but also, is the current City squad the literal most decorated Premier League side of all time?
In terms of active first teamers, for City alone:
Ederson, De Bruyne, Foden, Walker, Stones and Bernardo Silva have five titles apiece
Rodri, Ake and Ruben Dias have three (all 9 of these first rows having won the impressive 3 in a row from 2021-2024)
Grealish has two now
With Haaland, Akanji and Alvarez languishing on just last years title
Add in the additional trophies that those individuals have won, both for City and beyond, (in the case of the first 6, up to and including a Champions League, two FA Cups and four League Cups for City alone) and the fact the summer’s addition of Kovacic brings four Champions Leagues and a La Liga. I just can’t think of a legitimately more shiny, spangley squad to grace the Premier League.
The closest I can think is United 02/03, with 6 or 7 of the peak 90’s United still in the squad all with 7 titles a piece plus the FA Cups and Champions League that came with it, but outside of that core group of Keane, Scholes, Nevilles Phil and Gary, Beckham and Giggs, everyone else of the first teamers only had a handful of major trophies each in 02/03.
Not even sure how you’d confirm or check it, but this has been my TED talk, thanks for stopping by.
Harold Edmonton Hooler Esq
PS. Can Villa or Spurs please mount a challenge next year? That’d sort my dwindling football romance right out
It’s Bright Young Things time
The best part of the season. I always enjoy the footie most post Spring equinox and remembering Euro 96 following a last day title win, brings me cheer that after tonight’s show down ‘tiroteo’ between two of the brightest young players Foden and Bellingham, there is quite some list of England players for this summer’s jaunt up to Duetchland. ( wasn’t such a good outcome at Italia ‘80 with Forest and Liverpool the best two sides in Europe but never mind).
In no particular order we have :- Gordon, Palmer, T.A.A., Mainoo, Rice, Stones, Bellingham, Saka, Foden, then Ben White, Elliot, Eze, Maddison & Curtis Jones on the outside.
With Kyle Walker and Harry Kane as ‘wise old heads’ perhaps with Trippier at left back, that is 17 players all having good or very good seasons . Injuries not withstanding.
These 17 do not even include long term injuries to Reece James and Nick Pope.
The future’s bright, the future is not orange it’s white .
Peter. ( surely Graham Potter is salivating at coaching that lot ) Andalucia
P.S. Hannibal crossed the Alps on elephants, we’ll cross the channel with white elephants named Hendo & Slabhead.
READ: The Traditional England Clamour is already galloping away with Cole Palmer to ruin the summer
Sancho and Sabitzer making a point with Dortmund
Having just watched the Dortmund vs Atletico Madrid highlights, first of all wow what a game, I shouldn’t have watched the Barca vs PSG game yesterday, it was a good game but this game seemed more lively and unpredictable. Great goals by both sides, and surprised Simeone’s side let in 4 goals on the night, but Dortmund at home are still elite and could actually make the final given they are playing PSG in the semi finals now.
But how ironic is it that Sancho is now in the semi finals of the Champions League after leaving United on loan and telling Ten Haag to royally f*** off and rightly so given the amount of shit he chats in press conferences.
And happy for Sabitzer too, I saw him play live a couple of times last season for United and thought this player is not only composed & disciplined but had great feet too, provided a great assist and goal yesterday too. Once again the question is, why didn’t United sign him last year after impressing? I believe they could have signed him for pretty cheap too, but instead the club went for Amrabat on loan, who has been unfortunately been very disappointing.
In a way I actually hope Sancho and Dortmund win the Champions League because it would show that United are truly pathetic in dealing with certain players and situations. He can kiss that Champions League medal in front of Ten Haag and some of the players too, and hopefully once the season is over Ten Haag will leave and get the chop.
Yes, there are certain things that wasn’t his fault, the delay in the takeover and some players just not showing up in some games plus the overall disorganisation of the club and board as well as the constant politics an media backlash, but he isn’t taking enough responsibility as the manager overall, at the end of the day its a bloody big job.
At least when Mourinho was at United he won two trophies, finished 2nd and brought some form of credibility & identity to the team. All Ten Haag has done is win the League Cup (Practically a trophy no one really cares about), but has also managed to lose 6-3 & 7-0 to City & Liverpool respectfully, and most players haven’t improved under him and actually retracted in form.
I know this thread title is about Dortmund and some of the players in the team, but given United could actually finish outside the Top 7-8 this year, Ten Haag has truly done a shite job since March 2023 last year, only 2-3 youngsters have improved under him, and the midfield is bloody shocking too. Just very unsure how a midfield of Eriksen, Casemiro & Fernandes last year could become so disorientated and imbalanced since last year, its like f***ing basketball rather than football.
Rami
Why do Spurs fans hate Liverpool?
Why are Spurs fans like Fred (Klopp the ‘Lucky General’ is overrated), London so bitter about Liverpool. Does it stem from us crushing their hopes, dreams and souls in Madrid 2019? How anyone can call a manager who has lost two titles by a point and two Champions League finals to two teams built by financial dopers at home and abroad LUCKY is beyond me.
Jo (tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all – one league cup in 33 years aside) Kent
Stewie is back again…
Thoroughly enjoyed seeing Arsenal fans predictably revert to whining about “fossil fuel money” in the now-annual desperate search for excuses! 🤣
Citeh are a machine but it might help, you know…if Arteta wasn’t hell-bent on helping Citeh out with their FFP issues by handing Pep over £80m for the shite he’d forgotten in his attic (Zinchenko and Jesus!) then perhaps you know, they’d have more of a point? It’s ridiculous to bitch about the money Citeh has, as your very club is helping them out by paying them a king’s ransom to get rid of their dross.
There’s another point somewhere about “fossil fuel money” failing to explain how a club that spent £200m over summer can only take 1 point from 6 against Fulham, lose at home to Moyes’ West Ham and fail to beat a vulnerable Spurs team, at home? But perhaps that’s too controversial. Anyways. As I watched Farca defend to a standard that would make Burnley blush, I watched one of Barca’s brainless “defenders” lunge in with two feet on a PSG player that was heading away from goal. In the annals of rank stupidity and incompetence, Cancelo’s brainwave was right up there.
Then it dawned on me…I’ve read several recent stories about a certain club/manager wanting to sign Cancelo from Citeh.
That club and manager?
Arsenal and Mikel Arteta! 🫣
Gonna be WILD if Arteta hands Pep yet another fat cheque to sign another Citeh court jester to keep Zinchenko and Jesus company lol. That £65m Arteta handed Chelsea also came in handy for that Cole Palmer chap too though didn’t it? Arteta is doing better work than Christian Aid with such generosity!
Oh one final question because I’m genuinely curious: LA Gooner in his epic rant about the Fake Saka “penalty” (🙄) said opposition fans were trying to denigrate Arteta’s “achievements”. And yesterday another Gooner wrote in claiming Arteta has “taken Arsenal to new heights”.
Out of curiosity, exactly what *are* these “achievements” and heights? I’m only asking because as I’ve stated before, Arteta’s ceiling so far has been a bottled season where he finished runner-up, on *less* points than Pochettino’s Spurs choke-side runners up. And Pochettino spent far less getting there. So please, what are these “heights”? 🤔
Stewie Griffin (rooting for Dortmund to win it from here. I wonder how their 41 year-old manager with little top-level experience has made it to a CL Semi in his debut season of management? He was literally their former assistant, and before that he was West Ham’s assistant! Alonso breaking records in his first job, in a European semi. Arteta is far from special, but standards are low at Arsenal FC)
READ: Arsenal have a crisistunity but they must approach Bayern like West Ham away
And here’s Stewie’s dad
I was wondering if there was any way the powers-that-be could add a search feature to the mailbox archive? Specifically I would love the ability to search all the times Stewie has written into the mailbox over the years.
I remember all the arguments about how Poch, and then Conte, (both now not exactly setting the managerial world alight,) were going to expose the Arsenal myths and lies, about how Emery was was out of his depth but working with trash (Auba, Ozil, Mustafi etc…which Arteta promptly had the balls to move on), about how Arteta would never be able to compete with such luminaries as Klopp and Pep because he just wasn’t at their level, (I think even Stewie would have to admit he is ‘competing,) but I would love the ability to easily find all his other badly aged arguments throughout the years.
Personally, I’m pretty sure he’s a Spurs fan, as I’m not sure anyone else would care as much about Arsenals failings over the years whilst always claiming that Spurs were about to expose them.
But what really gets my goat is that he is like f365s David Icke, he’s mainly talking sense, and then he goes off on some crazy tangent which makes it really hard to agree with him. Apparently a manager (Emery) with roughly 10 years more experience than Arteta being more “streetwise” is a shock and a manager with roughly 15 years more experience (Klopp) winning the CL before Arteta had even managed his first professional game means Mikel is a fraud and just not very good.
If Stewie think Jesus has been wasteful and we could do with an upgrade, I agree.
If Stewie doesn’t think Jesus was an upgrade on what we had and brought us up a level when we bought him, I disagree.
If Stewie thinks Havertz can do better and needs to up his game next season to be amongst the elite, I agree.
If Stewie doesn’t think that Havertz is having his best season in English football in his first season under Arteta, the facts would disagree.
If Stewie think we have mentally and technically underperformed in certain key games, I couldn’t say he is wrong.
If Stewie doesn’t think Arsenal are performing the best they have for years, again, facts would tend to disagree.
If Stewie thinks Arteta is still learning as a manager, and has some way to go to be considered world class, coming to the end of his fourth full season as head coach/manager, I agree.
If Stewie thinks Arteta is going to go another ten years as a manager having never won more than a French Super Cup and Ligue one with PSG, (Poch), I personally think he may be wrong.
So yeah, I think it would be great if you could add some kind of search feature that let me see all the other bits of sense and nonsense that Stewie has spouted over the years, if nothing else I have a few days off coming up and could do with a giggle.
Brian Griffin
Enough of the conclusions please
Yesterdays mailbox had two sets of 16 conclusions. That’s 32 conclusions I had to scroll past. Let’s keep it concise folks.
Mailbox > Spurs Performance > Spurs Mushroom shirt.
Simon S, Cheshire
Newcastle and their progress
‘Let’s not pretend this European campaign is anything other than a disaster. No other English team with Newcastle’s resources would get this kind of press for finishing bottom of their Champions League group. But Newcastle? So brave, so magical’ – Football365 following Newcastle’s exit from the Champions League.
Two from their group are now in the semi finals of the Champions League and the other is in the quarter finals of the Europa League. Considering we were a 98th minute penalty away from knocking PSG out with a team including 17 year Lewis Miley and Lascelles I don’t think it’s a disaster. We’re now in with a shout of European Football again and a Spursy Spursness away from a chance of back to back Champions League football.
I guess click-baitery depends on reactionary news stories but it could be solid progress.
Philip Boyd
How long is six seconds?
Every so often a rule in football gets so ignored it drives me crazy.
Kicking the ball away was one. They have corrected that pretty quickly just by booking everyone. Problem fixed.
Timewasting at restarts. Is definitely getting better with the influx of bookings.
The current one that drives me bananas – goalkeepers possession. The rule states the goalkeeper can hold onto the ball for 6 seconds once in control. Maybe this is irrational. But it boils my blood. It is such an easy win for the refs. Just start booking goalkeepers and giving indirect free kicks. It’s the last acceptable form of time wasting and I can’t see why.
Having stopped ballboys from providing the ball back quickly you’d wonder whether it is actually in their interest to speed the game up.
Rational/irrational, I don’t know. I know I’m often ready to throw the remote through the tv when they hold on to the ball for 10, 12,15 seconds with impunity….
Barry