Barclays Premier League - 2013/14

[Pete Evo]

As a neutral seeing Chelsea and Man City both win was the best outcome for the title race. If I'm being honest though, I don't think the world is quite ready for Liverpool to win the league again.

Credit to Mourinho for the win but jesus christ his style of play is beyond boring. Honestly, I have no idea how Chelsea can attract fans. My local Sunday pub team plays more entertaining football!!

[Shales]

As a neutral seeing Chelsea and Man City both win was the best outcome for the title race. If I'm being honest though, I don't think the world is quite ready for Liverpool to win the league again.

Credit to Mourinho for the win but jesus christ his style of play is beyond boring. Honestly, I have no idea how Chelsea can attract fans. My local Sunday pub team plays more entertaining football!!

As we know, it's a results business at the end of day. Again, full credit to Mourinho, he had to pull out a win and done what he needed to do. I am not defending him but I remember him going to City and going "toe to toe" with them and coming away with a result. I guess it's not all bad. I bet current chelsea fans don't mind these park the bus tactics. They are back in with a shout of the title. I doubt they'd swap this with Scolari's team a few years ago. He tried the attractive stuff. But yeah, Chelsea probably aren't attracting more fans right now.

If Arsenal win tonight (I can't see anything else) it would pretty much end Everton's season. So that could make City's trip to Goodison a little easier. Crazy end to the season, at both ends of the table.

[Seabass]

Great win for you guys last night. Missed the first 20 minutes but from what I saw it was totally comfortable for Arsenal. Hardly a surprising result though given Newcastle's form of late. Wouldn't be surprised if Pardew is the next manager to go. One you lose the fans, which is what I think has happened, it's very hard to make things good again.

[Shales]

Great win for you guys last night. Missed the first 20 minutes but from what I saw it was totally comfortable for Arsenal. Hardly a surprising result though given Newcastle's form of late. Wouldn't be surprised if Pardew is the next manager to go. One you lose the fans, which is what I think has happened, it's very hard to make things good again.

Newcastle were very poor though, they were already on their summer holiday, but a win is a win. Arsenal didn't really get out of 3rd gear but didn't need to. I felt we could of got 5 or 6 if we stepped up another gear. Perhaps maybe Giroud would have got another if he another 3 chances ; )

So a win Sunday (hoping to go to) and that's 4th place settled.

It's going to be a tough summer for Arsenal. We need to strenghten and replace players which is annoying. We don't normally do tranfers very efficiently and it will be even worse with a WC this summer.

We need;

Striker - this is the obvious one. If Giroud goes then we need 2.
Midfield - I feel we need a better DM. Arteta aint up to it anymore. Need a beast!
Right back - Sagna looks like he's going (pls don't go to City). I'd love him to stay it's what we need. If he goes we need to replace him with quality. I like Jenkinson as he's a proper Arsenal fan but he's not good enough to be the starting right back for Arsenal.
CB - Tommy V is probably going. So that's another player we need to replace. And maybe perhaps another CB? You always need 4 senior CBs and I don't really see any youngsters knocking on the door.

So that's just what we are crying out for. There will always be talk of Draxler again. We are not crying out for him but how can we turn him down if he's availible.

So basically I don't think we have enough money to get all these players. A striker will cost us 20mil minimum. We want real quality not some cheap 10mil striker that will take a year to settle in. F##k that. I don't see us taking in a huge sum for Tommy V. We seem to sell our players cheap. We will probably accept 10-12m

[Shales]

Wow, so Liverpool blow a 3-0 nil lead with 11 mins to go!

I didn't see the game. I forgot it was on. I only caught the final 3 mins of commentary on my phone. I saw the equalisier on Sky Sports News and I have to say, what was the Liverpool defence doing? When Gayle recieved the ball from the flick on, he had about 3-4 yards of space. Liverpools defence crumbled like a cadburys flake. Basically handed the title to City now. With City playing West Ham and Villa at home. Strange things have happened this season but I can't see City not winning both them games.

So Liverpool now know what it's like to give away a 3-0 lead. A reverse of the Champs League final in Istanbul. Where Milan clearly t0ssed each other off at half time.

[Pete Evo]

Manchester City are set to be fined £50m and will have to contest next season's Champions League with a squad size limited to 21 players, after being found guilty of breaching UEFA's financial fair play rules.

Sky sources understand the fine will be payable over three years although City are reportedly contesting the sanctions.

And with City deciding to appeal, the case will now be handed to a panel whose non-negotiable decision will be final.

Full confirmation of the fine and conditions imposed is expected by the end of the week or early next week.

The risk of not agreeing with this decision is that the club could face even stiffer penalties from the CFCB's (UEFA's club financial control board) adjudicatory panel.

The reduction in the size of their Champions League squad however, from 25 to 21, will hit the club hardest, with City having to ensure that there are still eight locally-trained players in their squad.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news ... les-breach

If this all goes through, it'll be interesting to see how they get on with a 21 man squad (including 8 homegrown players). Mansour probably has the £50m down the side of his sofa, although I bet Scott Sinclair, Gareth Barry and Joleon Lescott will be looking forward to next season!

[Shales]

Manchester City are set to be fined £50m and will have to contest next season's Champions League with a squad size limited to 21 players, after being found guilty of breaching UEFA's financial fair play rules.

Sky sources understand the fine will be payable over three years although City are reportedly contesting the sanctions.

And with City deciding to appeal, the case will now be handed to a panel whose non-negotiable decision will be final.

Full confirmation of the fine and conditions imposed is expected by the end of the week or early next week.

The risk of not agreeing with this decision is that the club could face even stiffer penalties from the CFCB's (UEFA's club financial control board) adjudicatory panel.

The reduction in the size of their Champions League squad however, from 25 to 21, will hit the club hardest, with City having to ensure that there are still eight locally-trained players in their squad.

http://www1.skysports.com/football/news ... les-breach

If this all goes through, it'll be interesting to see how they get on with a 21 man squad (including 8 homegrown players). Mansour probably has the £50m down the side of his sofa, although I bet Scott Sinclair, Gareth Barry and Joleon Lescott will be looking forward to next season!

Yeah the 50mil won't be an issue. Especially over 3 seasons. The reduced squad is the killer though. Unless City and "buy" their way through this appeal ; )

Watch City now go after English players in the summer. Lallana probably, plus others. and watch them spend about 100mil doing it.

So out of the 8 homegrown, do 2 or 3 have to have been brought up through the youth acadamy?? I'm sure that's the rules in Football Manager. (and City won't be able to use the "go on holiday" trick to bypass this when it's time to submit their squad)

[Mike]

So if this 21-player limit sticks for Man City, based on the example squad I've posted below, at least 2 players (in this case Jovetic and Pantilimon) wouldn't be able to play for them in next season's Champions League:

Homegrown (8):
Hart
Richards
Lescott
Milner
Rodwell
Clichy (credit to Arsenal )
Wright
Boyata

Extras (13):
Kompany
Zabaleta
Nasri
Negredo
Dzeko
Kolarov
Garcia
Navas
Aguero
Silva
Fernandinho
Demichelis
Yaya Toure

U21:
Nastasic
Marcos Lopes

In other words, long gone are the days of simple and straightforward transfer windows!

[Shales]

So they can still enter a reasonable squad then. They just won't be able to clear out some of the players that I am sure they were planning on.

I would have much prefered for them to be removed from the champs league, but this potentially is good punishment. They still have to enter and play through the games with a small squad which will hammer the fitness of their core players. If they were totally out of the champs league then you'd expect them to storm the Premier League.

[Seabass]

I was on the BBC website yesterday (link here) and they said that the number could even drop to 18.

Imagine if Pantilimon, Jovetic, Garcia, Navas and Negredo missing out. I know they're being paid a lot but the players who would be dropped for the UCL would be mega pissed. This could cause some massive internal problems for their squad.

[Shales]

This could cause some massive internal problems for their squad.

Good I hope Nasri misses out

[Pete Evo]

So that's then! Man City beating Villa 4-0 tonight, now they just need to avoid defeat against West Ham on Sunday and the title is theirs. Who'd have thought it? *sarcastic voice*

[Shales]

At least La Liga should hopefully provide a blockbuster finale between Atletico and Barca. Madrid blew their chances with that 1-1 last night.

That's a proper decider. Top 2 playing each other on to decide the title. Reminds me of Anfield 89 ; )