City up to their tricks again?

£6m for Larios and £10m for Edozie from Southampton?

65 minutes of first team football between them.

Plus £12m for Lavia, missed that one. £28m on kids. Almost makes Bozo and his cronies seem legit.

And other! Bazunu for £15m. They’re taking the piss in plain sight.

City gonna City. £#%&! 'em.


It's clear to everyone now that they'll continue to get away with this, the sponsorship funds manipulation, ffp etc. Hopefully the right people will continue to highlight it (that german newspaper ) but no point in getting wound up about it.


Their trophies count for shit to anyone outside that pit, they're an irrelevance in that regard.

Given that they batter teams most weeks, the polite applause that ripples round the emptyhad when they score is utterly embarassing. We just have to hope we sort ourselves out to at least give them some kind of challenge.

The whole thing is a farce but they have enough money and influence to ensure they'll never be held to account.

Originally Posted by 92ToBury

£6m for Larios and £10m for Edozie from Southampton?

65 minutes of first team football between them.

Plus £12m for Lavia, missed that one. £28m on kids. Almost makes Bozo and his cronies seem legit.

And other! Bazunu for £15m. They’re taking the piss in plain sight.

Southampton coach used to be a youth coach at city didn't he? Or someone involved in buying players at Southampton was anyway, or so I overheard on the radio the other day.

Ex-city youth coach, don't think I'd be employing one of them

City claim to have recouped £250m this year (Jan & summer windows) which is more than Utd have done in over 5 years

Love a good moan about city as much as the next man, but are these deals any different to selling Garner for 15m? Thought a couple of them Southampton players looked good against us.

Originally Posted by Marvel7

Love a good moan about city as much as the next man, but are these deals any different to selling Garner for 15m? Thought a couple of them Southampton players looked good against us.

Hoovering up Europe’s promising kids by paying their families millions, giving them bogus jobs, private education and ‘housing’ so they can stock pile and farm kids for accoutning profit write offs. Perfectly ethical.

Originally Posted by guerreiro

Hoovering up Europe’s promising kids by paying their families millions, giving them bogus jobs, private education and ‘housing’ so they can stock pile and farm kids for accoutning profit write offs. Perfectly ethical.

It's what the top clubs tend to do, and not just with European kids. It's a case of our monkeys not knowing the 'game'

Originally Posted by guerreiro

Hoovering up Europe’s promising kids by paying their families millions, giving them bogus jobs, private education and ‘housing’ so they can stock pile and farm kids for accoutning profit write offs. Perfectly ethical.

Really don't want to get into a conversation where I'm the one defending City, but the OP weren't talking about all that, just questioning the prices relatively unknown, inexperienced players were being sold for. Just pointed out we sold Garner for 15m with about half hours first team experience, and some of our fans on here thought we made a bad sale.

Also, buying players families houses and given parents jobs has been going on forever, if you believe his version of events its why we lost out on Paul Gascoigne.

Like I say, I like to moan about City and their corruption as much as the next person, but some of the stuff they and Chelsea do, we should have been doing the same, just like Bayern in Germany, we were the biggest, the best, most supported, most profitable, most successful team in the country, we should have been bully boys taking what we want.

Originally Posted by Marvel7

Really don't want to get into a conversation where I'm the one defending City, but the OP weren't talking about all that, just questioning the prices relatively unknown, inexperienced players were being sold for. Just pointed out we sold Garner for 15m with about half hours first team experience, and some of our fans on here thought we made a bad sale.

Also, buying players families houses and given parents jobs has been going on forever, if you believe his version of events its why we lost out on Paul Gascoigne.

Like I say, I like to moan about City and their corruption as much as the next person, but some of the stuff they and Chelsea do, we should have been doing the same, just like Bayern in Germany, we were the biggest, the best, most supported, most profitable, most successful team in the country, we should have been bully boys taking what we want.

You can't compare our situation to Bayern. The money in the premier league now is astronomical. It's hard to be 'bully boys' when you have jack walker's millions to contend with, then newcastle breaking the world record for shearer, then after that we had the abramovich era before the middle east moved in....

Originally Posted by Sparky***

You can't compare our situation to Bayern. The money in the premier league now is astronomical. It's hard to be 'bully boys' when you have jack walker's millions to contend with, then newcastle breaking the world record for shearer, then after that we had the abramovich era before the middle east moved in....

But he is right about what 'Big' clubs do, a very talented lad will attract a lot of attention and money, houses, education, jobs for Mom and Dad and whatnot, but utd have never done it and they miss out because of it.

We took Andy Cole out of Newcastle's pocket when he was at the top of his game, we just weren't hovering the young talent in the way we should have been.

Originally Posted by TripDownMiseryLane

But he is right about what 'Big' clubs do, a very talented lad will attract a lot of attention and money, houses, education, jobs for Mom and Dad and whatnot, but utd have never done it and they miss out because of it.

Could have sworn there was a story about Ferguson giving Giggs mom a washing machine or something

Originally Posted by TripDownMiseryLane

It's what the top clubs tend to do, and not just with European kids. It's a case of our monkeys not knowing the 'game'

Chelsea started the ‘farming kids game’ for profits and City have taken it up as they can write off sales against FFP. Not “top clubs”, dirty horrible unethical scumbags.

Originally Posted by guerreiro

Chelsea started the ‘farming kids game’ for profits and City have taken it up as they can write off sales against FFP. Not “top clubs”, dirty horrible unethical scumbags.

Not sure where you get that from, lad who could become a diamond player is worth investing in. I don't think there is anything unethical about it.

Originally Posted by Marvel7

Love a good moan about city as much as the next man, but are these deals any different to selling Garner for 15m? Thought a couple of them Southampton players looked good against us.

Bert alert!!!

Yes, Garner has had a successful loan spells at Watford and Forest as well as played for the first team a couple of times. These are four lads, three of whom haven't been anywhere near the first team.

Originally Posted by TripDownMiseryLane

Not sure where you get that from, lad who could become a diamond player is worth investing in. I don't think there is anything unethical about it.

Well, it’s nice you’re putting up a staunch fight for City and Uber capitalism.

Nothing unethical about an oil club hoovering up kids, denying local clubs of talent, so they distort the market.

Originally Posted by 92ToBury

Bert alert!!!

Yes, Garner has had a successful loan spells at Watford and Forest as well as played for the first team a couple of times. These are four lads, three of whom haven't been anywhere near the first team.

Sorry, are we not allowed to actually have an opinion on this site?

I'll do better to try and fit in.... yeah they're £#%&!ing cheating selling promising young players like that.

Them players may have never had first team experience, but Southampton deemed them good enough to go straight into their first team. You would think maybe a Premier league club would have scouts and stuff, and might have watched these players in youth cups and U21's etc, then by doing that they could form an opinion that the young players have some talent, then they could think 'City rarely give youngsters a chance, maybe we can get these relatively cheap now, then maybe we can sell them for huge profits like Dortmund did with Sancho'! Or something like that I don't know.

Seriously someone has been using this site for about 9 years now, makes one comment that doesn't reach top redness and you call them a Bert, you absolute muppet.

Originally Posted by Marvel7

Sorry, are we not allowed to actually have an opinion on this site?

I'll do better to try and fit in.... yeah they're £#%&!ing cheating selling promising young players like that.

Seriously someone has been using this site for about 9 years now, makes one comment that doesn't reach top redness and you call them a Bert, you absolute muppet.

Bloody Southern Reds coming on here making sensible points…

https://youtu.be/9EHT6rNpABA

The problem is that the players are farmed from clubs so early by the richer clubs, so the clubs bringing the kids through initially aren’t getting the benefit of producing young players, either by way of a period in the first team or by getting a good fee for them. Chelsea and city can chuck a few quid at 16 year old, pay and hold onto them for 5 years then bin them out for a huge profit without ever thinking about them getting a chance in their team, it’s purely a money making exercise and one that is hugely detrimental for the rest of the pyramid, even to the point that clauses are put int contracts once they’ve sold the players on that means they still profit from the player in terms of a sell on clause or control where the player can and can’t go. City group have 5 clubs, and so many players that they’re essentially controlling masses of smaller clubs with their actions, preventing some from prospering and others from profiting. It’s shit.

Originally Posted by dunk

The problem is that the players are farmed from clubs so early by the richer clubs, so the clubs bringing the kids through initially aren’t getting the benefit of producing young players, either by way of a period in the first team or by getting a good fee for them. Chelsea and city can chuck a few quid at 16 year old, pay and hold onto them for 5 years then bin them out for a huge profit without ever thinking about them getting a chance in their team, it’s purely a money making exercise and one that is hugely detrimental for the rest of the pyramid, even to the point that clauses are put int contracts once they’ve sold the players on that means they still profit from the player in terms of a sell on clause or control where the player can and can’t go. City group have 5 clubs, and so many players that they’re essentially controlling masses of smaller clubs with their actions, preventing some from prospering and others from profiting. It’s shit.

I agree with all that, except I don't think it's actually that profitable overall (except maybe on an accountancy sheet), with the sheer number of players they are paying, houses and jobs and whatnot for the parents, scouts etc etc, and for everyone they sell for a few million there a probably 20 odd that leave with no return.

But it is bad for grass roots football, lower level football. There is only one way to stop it, and that is to put a limit on the number of players that can be on a clubs books at each different level.

Apparently Chelsea tried to buy one of these kids for £50m on deadline day