@BenSmith94@haribaldijones After the All Blacks series vs the Boks, my view now is who is the AB's 3rd or 4th T/H...All starts up front when it becomes serious rugby.
• 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
AN OPEN LETTER TO FSG: WE OWE YOU AN APOLOGY. 🔴💔
To John W. Henry and the Fenway Sports Group management,
For years, we doubted you. We questioned your ambition, we threw around the hashtag #FSGOUT every transfer window, and we dragged your name through the mud every single time a rival club dropped £100m+ like it was loose pocket change.
We called you stingy. We called you bankers instead of football men. We accused you of lack of vision.
We were wrong. Dead wrong.
We were completely blinded by the flash and noise of clubs like Manchester City. We watched them hoard talent, break transfer record after transfer record, and stack titles while we sat back feeling left behind.
We demanded that you "match their energy" and throw caution to the wind.
What we failed to see—what our impatience hid from us—was the truth: they were cheating, and you were protecting us.
While others were twisting rules and inflating revenues, you were holding the line for integrity, sustainability, and decency in football. You chose to build a club that survives on honour rather than artificial wealth. You took the heavy hits, the internet abuse, and the fan outrage just to ensure Liverpool Football Club would never face financial ruin or public disgrace.
You weren't keeping us back. You were guarding the soul of our football club.
To FSG: Thank you for refusing to break the rules just to give us temporary high moments. Thank you for protecting the institution we love.
YNWA. 🔴
Manchester City owners’ damaging strategy of appeal, deny and delay will inflict untold damage on countless people. It will inflict damage on this season’s Premier League which is effectively on hold with an unpunished City still involved. It inflicts further damage on the reputation of the world’s most popular sports league. It casts a cloud over the league for seasons to come, for as long as they drag the sport through the courts which they could do.
City owners’ refusal to accept responsibility in the face of overwhelming evidence against them further hardens anger towards the club. The strategy inflicts further damage on a 146-year-old club whose reputation was made by the honest endeavour and thrilling football of that outstanding team of the late 60s and 70s. The actions of City’s current owners risk trashing a historic club’s reputation.
Appeal, deny, delay inflicts further turmoil on the lives of their supporters. City fans’ innate defiance may waver when getting called cheat relentlessly. City fans didn’t cheat. Their club owners did with “sham contracts”, according to the findings of a long, forensic review by an independent commission. But it is City fans facing the consequences of their owners’ book-cookery – in the stands, on the streets, at work. A storm of scorn.
Do City owners also not think of their head coach, Enzo Maresca, and how every press conference will be an inquisition? Every player interview? Every arrival at an away stadium?
Do they not think of all the vital work done by City in the Community, the club’s charitable wing currently trying to celebrate 40 years of helping disadvantaged local people, and how their conduct impacts that?
Appeal, deny, delay damages Abu Dhabi’s own reputation. Do they actually care about football? About pressure on innocent, hard-working staff? About integrity? City’s owners have done plenty of good in East Manchester but that work now seems tainted.
Do they not care about the millions of people in this country who love football. Some may now, because of sham contracts and appeal, deny, delay, simply turn away from the national sport?
Do the owners worry about the UAE’s image? The behaviour of City’s owners is now a diplomatic issue between the UK and the UAE. And good luck to our new ambassador to the UAE, Geraldine McCafferty, who took up the position last month and will need all her diplomatic skills acquired in Sarajevo, Bogota and Beijing.
If they had a shred of responsibility, City owners would call off the lawyers, accept the independent commission’s findings, take the punishment and seek some settlement with the Premier League over compensation to other clubs. Appeal, deny, delay helps nobody.