Dan Humphreys

🎸Oasis 🎸 Stone Roses 🎸 🥊 Boxing 🥊 ⚽️You’ll Never Walk Alone⚽️

[Dan Humphreys @DanHumphreys27]

One of the worst things about this Twitter is that people see a Tweet they like and Tweet it themselves trying to take credit. The retweet button is there for a reason .. So just retweet the original one that you liked, instead of looking an absolute dickhead!

[The Anfield Wrap @TheAnfieldWrap]

'The reason Jürgen Klopp builds a team that takes 110 from 114 and wins a European Cup and World Club Cup during that time span, the reason those players focus and treat every game as though it meant everything is because they were trying to beat a team that had cheated to the tune of £900m up to the end of the 17/18 season.'

✍️ @Knox_Harrington’s column…

👉 Read here: https://t.co/jKvSJYdKSn

[James Pearce @JamesPearceLFC]

The damning verdict on Man City provides vindication for Liverpool owners FSG, who for so long argued that the rules weren’t being properly respected or enforced.
But this is no victory. How can it be when you were robbed of so much by a rival cheating?

https://t.co/q4AKnt9P5l

[Robert G @RobGutmann]

This is absolutely my bottom line feeling on the City debacle. Whatever plays out, Klopp and LFC are in every meaningful sense the British team of the last decade and in the discussion for the greatest in the history of the domestic game. Not been measurable (yet) in quantum of trophies, but it’s surely now beyond reasonable moral dispute.

Klopp’s Liverpool are arguably English football’s greatest ever side. If measured out in points totals, definitely. The 2019 team has the greatest *real* points total in history, and added a CL the same season. Then there’s the 2022 team that without City’s fraud has the second highest points total, and a domestic treble.

Football, in sanctioning city, can try to reflect all of this or not, but the ultimate truth is more evident now than ever.

[Dom✨ @footy_road]

• Went toe to toe without their squad depth or their spending

• Lost two titles by 1.1cm and one unpunished handball

• Held a winning head-to-head record

• 3 UCL finals in the same era, knocking them out along the way

• Won 3 of 4 against them in their Centurions season

• Chased a quadruple they never managed

• Won every trophy available 18 months before they did

All this while prime Manchester City were constructed by cheating and shouldn't have existed.

Pep over Klopp argument is officially dead. Klopp was robbed of a dynasty at Liverpool

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Guilty, guilty, sham and shame. How on earth can Manchester City appeal a verdict as devastating and damning as the one passed down by the independent commission investigating breaches of financial regulations? City will appeal, of course, and it’s their right under Premier League rules. They clearly will appeal, claiming the verdict is “unsafe” but they are surely simply delaying the inevitable punishment, making themselves even more unpopular, damaging their club and the game further.

For justice to truly prevail in this case, punishment has to be swift. For City to start the long journey back on the road to redemption, they have to take their medicine. These are dark days in the history of the Premier League and they are darkest at the Etihad. City's owners have to see the light, accept their guilt and begin the process of rehabilitation.

An appeal involving deny, deny, delay, delay, shreds any sporting integrity this season has. The thought of this taking years to resolve – doubtless via the High Court - feels potentially ruinous, certainly deeply damaging, for the sport. How many people will be turned off by a league stained by a constantly updated asterix, by a sport effectively run by lawyers. City have to take their medicine now.

For sporting competitions to survive and thrive, there has to be a willingness on all parties to play fair on and off the field. That may sound naive, an outdated purist principle, but it matters to many. A few engaged in the game will take short-cuts but one of the reasons why the Premier League is so followed around the world is because of the perception of its essential honesty.

Players give everything from first minute to last. Promoted teams can occasionally trouble the established order. But industrial-level cooking of the books highlighted in the independent commission’s report, effectively allowing City, regular champions, to spend more on players will shake confidence in the competition.

City’s owners have to think very carefully, not least about their own and their famous club’s reputational damage. Read the room. Read the statement. How can they possibly answer the powerful, damning language used in detailing the offences devised to circumvent FFP. Others were playing by the rules, City were bending them, the commission found. City fans can argue that FFP/PSR/SCR rules are anti-competitive, and protect the “cartel” as they see it, but City signed up to the rules.

And, then, in the words of the Premier League CEO Richard Masters, “systematically broke” those rules for “nearly a decade”. Masters deserves to feel vindicated for his quiet, firm leadership of the league in this long, tense case against such a wealthy, self-confident member.

Many of the 40 pages of findings in the "core decision" contain blow after blow to City. If the Premier League versus Manchester City were a boxing bout, the referee would have stepped in. “Sham contracts”, “misstated accounts”, “concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators”. “Egregious acts of non-cooperation”. Basically, deception writ large.

A phrase that will now pass into the annals of footballing infamy is the “Disguised Funding Scheme” whereby companies “were only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees. The remainder was funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd”. ADUG. City’s owners. The “Disguised Funding Scheme” basically overstated sponsorship income by £830.69m. A staggering amount.

This is now not about Manchester City the club, but Manchester City the ownership, including the chief executive Ferran Soriano. They have to stop embarrassing the club and the sport. They have to stop letting down their fans. City’s owners have to consider the relentless abuse coming the way of fans, players and coaching staff in games to come, starting when entering what will be a bear-pit at Anfield on October 11.

Soriano, assuming he attends, can expect a particularly uncomfortable afternoon in his seat and in the Liverpool boardroom. It’s hard to see how he keeps his job – if City’s appeal fails. Fit and proper person?

In continuing to protest their innocence, City claim they have “irrefutable evidence” to defend themselves. If so, why weren’t three independent judges persuaded? City have had long enough, employed exceptional briefs, and still lost.

Having been found guilty of doing the wrong thing, City now have to do the right thing and that is accept the inevitability of sanctions and seek some form of settlement with the Premier League. They will not, of course: too proud, too defiant, still too convinced of their innocence despite the weight of this report. They will become outcasts even without yet being cast out. That is to come.

City's owners have to acknowledge the impact their activities had on other clubs, and accept the considerable compensation claims flooding their way from other clubs they pipped to trophies, possibly even from players. If they’re sensible they will look for a settlement that includes substantial compensation, running into hundreds of millions of pounds, to aggrieved clubs who missed out on trophies, on prize money. Maybe that £830.69m should be the figure considered in any settlement. Fitting.

City's owners have to see sense. The alternative is years and fortunes spent in the courts. Nobody wins. Except the lawyers. Football loses, because the game remains on hold until City are punished.

[Neil Atkinson @Knox_Harrington]

It's worth pointing out the rules then allowed for much more uncontrolled spending than the last 3 to 5 years.

900m of cheating is absolutely mind boggling and it casts everything since the takeover into doubt. This Manchester City now is built on the foundation of that 900m.

[͏͏͏𝐉𝐚𝐲 ⌖ @cagiago_]

So within the statements released by Fabrizio it says that David Coote was paid heavily by Manchester City, Liverpool was really up against the nastiest corruption man

[1947production @1947prod]

Roberto Firmino but it's only backheels

[centrekop. @centrekop]

Raheem Sterling flagged offside despite been miles onside at the Etihad, 2013.

[The 44 ⚽️ @The_Forty_Four]

“GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF THAT COOKIE JAR”

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[G @G__Chain]

Roberto Duran ✨🥊

Some rare/unseen footage 🎞️

I could watch him spar all day 💪🏾

Absolute master in Squared circle 👑

[🎸 Rock History 🎸 @historyrock_]

Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic, and Pat Smear of Nirvana paid tribute to the late Kurt Cobain last night during their acceptance of the Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs and reminded everybody to "come as you are"

[Oasis Archives🍋 @OasisArchives]

Oasis - Live Forever (early demo)

[The Anfield Wrap @TheAnfieldWrap]

Remember this 45 minute cameo from Gerrard

[Batuka @BatukaCo]

Shop ➡️ https://t.co/XITvksJ9Zl
Tired of fixing loose sheet corners every morning? These discreet under-mattress fasteners help keep your bedding in place, so your bed stays neater with less daily effort.

[Nick @lfc_nick_]

Florian wirtz What a Goal 😳🫨

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

The former Manchester City chairman, David Bernstein, says that his old club need to be punished with more than fines if it is confirmed they were in breach of financial regulations. City’s chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak protested his club’s “innocence” again this weekend following reports that they had been found guilty of the overwhelming majority of the charges. City are expected to appeal.

There has been no indication of potential sanctions yet but these include fines, points deductions, expulsion from the Premier League and transfer bans. “I would first of all say that financial penalties will not be enough,” Bernstein told The Sunday Edition on talkSPORT. "We're talking about a club with limitless pockets – money doesn't mean very much as we saw in the last transfer window. Whether it's (a fine of) £100m, £200m, that would not be sufficient.

"Unfortunately, I say all of these things with great sorrow, I really do as a fan, I think there has to be something that will affect their league status.

"And if it was to be a points deduction, it depends on timing. Because if it was today, with the season just a few games in, and the points deduction had to be something that was terminal as far as their Premier League  status was concerned (ie leading to relegation), I worked out you'd have to have something like 80 points deducted, which would mean the club could not recover this season and would go down.

“But if this happens at the end of the season, because of the appeals and so on, it's a different kettle of fish, and then you may be talking about an automatic relegation – to which division I don't know. I think it does depend partly on the timing.” @talkSPORT

[𝙆𝙖𝙮™️ @KayLFC05_]

@BBCSport Love to see Khaldoon’s explanation for decisions like this

[Magic hat 🎩 @themagic_tophat]

For those thinking Man City will get a lenient punishment like Chelsea did, that simply won’t be the case.

The PL convinced an IC Panel that Chelsea (a) did not gain any Sporting Advantage, (b) they were no longer owned/run by the perpetrators, and (c) they were very compliant (even self-reporting).

Man City’s case is the opposite of those 3 factors.

1) They gained a monstrous sporting advantage. Hundreds upon hundreds of millions over PSR limits.

2) They are still owned / run by the people that did it.

3) They have gone to extreme lengths to avoid justice. They hid it all (only an email hack caught them - the rules could not).
They refused to comply with the investigation.
They committed perjury at CAS.

I’ll do a fuller post later tonight but the reality is the punishments will be as serious as they come.

My pinned post says it all.

[EBL @EBL2017]

99, 97, 92 points tallies.

Going toe-to-toe with a sell-to-buy policy against a sovereign state who broke all the rules and did what they wanted when they wanted to.

Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool are the greatest modern day PL team.

And he is the greatest modern day PL manager.