Skoorb
Alert Team
The legacy of the Anti-Sterling brigade lives on
The booing and the chanting of "You let your country down" directed at Raheem Sterling by certain sections of the home crowd at Turf Moor did little credit to the fans of their club and shows that there is no depth to the stupidity of some football fans. Given that the lad has done nothing wrong, that he left one club that has no connection to Burnley for another one that doesn't and that he was not the only poor performer for England at Euro 2016, their decision to jump on the bandwagon designed and built by Liverpool fans and expertly maintained by their ex-players within the media was somewhat baffling. Sterling has made good progress under Guardiola this season despite this unwarranted barrage of abuse and sadly the willingness of the Burnley fans to react to this dog whistle is disheartening in the extreme. I can only hope that when they come to play City at the Etihad he scores a hat trick and shoves their vitriol right back up where the sun doesn't shine.
City learning to win ugly
The acid test for the famed Pep Guardiola we were told was whether his fancy, new fangled coaching ideas would survive against the benchmark test of a "wet, windy afternoon at Stoke". A 1-4 scoreline was duly delivered. City endured a similar robust encounter at Selhurst Park last weekend and continued on their travels with all three points in their pocket. Against Burnley they once again faced an aerial threat and some spirited play and a baying crowd (see above) ......and once again Guardiola's men departed the pitch having secured another 'ugly' but vital away win. Remember this is where the Title Winners were defeated early in the season and Arsenal squeeked a victory at the death (90+2 mins) but it seems to be that the narrative refuses to die especially as the goals scored by Aguero were hardly things of footballing beauty. No - they were the sort of scrappy goals you score when you are up against it and which, in the final analysis, won't be remembered. Unlike the points tally which will be. Winning when you don't play well was always cited as the hallmark of champions whenever it achieved by the Stretfords but this is something which doesn't fit with the media idea of what Guardiola should be achieving.
On the contrary - he is getting his side to show improvement even if the glittering days of the early season are fading to memory. He is showing that he is learning too.
BT Sport revert to type
Last season City fans were incensed at the standard of the coverage provided by BT Sport especially during their drive to the semi final of the Champions League. Their failure to acknowledge this within publicity literature and the slanted, bitter and one eyed punditry they served up caused multiple complaints to the company and many City fans voting with their direct debits. The cancelling of their subscriptions initially seemed to have brought a change of heart this season and City fans had witnessed an attempt by the company to provide a more balanced and fair coverage of their games. Not the sort of sycophantic delivery that is expected by Stretford fans but just straightforward, unbiased and just fair commentary, summarising and punditry. Sadly they clearly couldn't keep up the effort for long and the mask slipped as their commentator Ian Darke and the comedy double act of Trevor "I hate City and everything they do" Francis and Robbie "The Hairdo" Savage delivered another slanted effort at Turf Moor. Clearly there was always likely to be a Tiny Minnow Little Burnley vs Mega Moneybags Mean Man City undercurrent - fine, we get that - but at times their talking up of the home side just served to highlight their limitations as professionals. The constant recycling of Otamendi's rash challenge on Hendricks in the City box contrasted starkly with the utter failure to repeat Matt Lowton's clattering of Nolito at the other end. Both were penalties but whilst they (especially Francis) banged on endlessly about the Burnley claim, there was hardly a mummer at Lowton's late tackle on Nolito. The first was replayed several times from various angles. The latter was re-shown once and drew no approbation from the commentators. Later in the game Sagna was caught by Boyd's training foot and Fernandinho was caught late by Tarkowski. Both players were accused of cheating by Savage whose trademark garbled barely coherent ramblings and selective eyesight ought to bar him from being involved in any football related commentary. Pick any adage you like - leopards and their spots, can't teach a dog new tricks etc....whichever way you cut it, BT Sport just can't help themselves and have reverted to type. Shame. I thought they had listened. Could be another direct debit cancellation coming.
The booing and the chanting of "You let your country down" directed at Raheem Sterling by certain sections of the home crowd at Turf Moor did little credit to the fans of their club and shows that there is no depth to the stupidity of some football fans. Given that the lad has done nothing wrong, that he left one club that has no connection to Burnley for another one that doesn't and that he was not the only poor performer for England at Euro 2016, their decision to jump on the bandwagon designed and built by Liverpool fans and expertly maintained by their ex-players within the media was somewhat baffling. Sterling has made good progress under Guardiola this season despite this unwarranted barrage of abuse and sadly the willingness of the Burnley fans to react to this dog whistle is disheartening in the extreme. I can only hope that when they come to play City at the Etihad he scores a hat trick and shoves their vitriol right back up where the sun doesn't shine.
City learning to win ugly
The acid test for the famed Pep Guardiola we were told was whether his fancy, new fangled coaching ideas would survive against the benchmark test of a "wet, windy afternoon at Stoke". A 1-4 scoreline was duly delivered. City endured a similar robust encounter at Selhurst Park last weekend and continued on their travels with all three points in their pocket. Against Burnley they once again faced an aerial threat and some spirited play and a baying crowd (see above) ......and once again Guardiola's men departed the pitch having secured another 'ugly' but vital away win. Remember this is where the Title Winners were defeated early in the season and Arsenal squeeked a victory at the death (90+2 mins) but it seems to be that the narrative refuses to die especially as the goals scored by Aguero were hardly things of footballing beauty. No - they were the sort of scrappy goals you score when you are up against it and which, in the final analysis, won't be remembered. Unlike the points tally which will be. Winning when you don't play well was always cited as the hallmark of champions whenever it achieved by the Stretfords but this is something which doesn't fit with the media idea of what Guardiola should be achieving.
On the contrary - he is getting his side to show improvement even if the glittering days of the early season are fading to memory. He is showing that he is learning too.
BT Sport revert to type
Last season City fans were incensed at the standard of the coverage provided by BT Sport especially during their drive to the semi final of the Champions League. Their failure to acknowledge this within publicity literature and the slanted, bitter and one eyed punditry they served up caused multiple complaints to the company and many City fans voting with their direct debits. The cancelling of their subscriptions initially seemed to have brought a change of heart this season and City fans had witnessed an attempt by the company to provide a more balanced and fair coverage of their games. Not the sort of sycophantic delivery that is expected by Stretford fans but just straightforward, unbiased and just fair commentary, summarising and punditry. Sadly they clearly couldn't keep up the effort for long and the mask slipped as their commentator Ian Darke and the comedy double act of Trevor "I hate City and everything they do" Francis and Robbie "The Hairdo" Savage delivered another slanted effort at Turf Moor. Clearly there was always likely to be a Tiny Minnow Little Burnley vs Mega Moneybags Mean Man City undercurrent - fine, we get that - but at times their talking up of the home side just served to highlight their limitations as professionals. The constant recycling of Otamendi's rash challenge on Hendricks in the City box contrasted starkly with the utter failure to repeat Matt Lowton's clattering of Nolito at the other end. Both were penalties but whilst they (especially Francis) banged on endlessly about the Burnley claim, there was hardly a mummer at Lowton's late tackle on Nolito. The first was replayed several times from various angles. The latter was re-shown once and drew no approbation from the commentators. Later in the game Sagna was caught by Boyd's training foot and Fernandinho was caught late by Tarkowski. Both players were accused of cheating by Savage whose trademark garbled barely coherent ramblings and selective eyesight ought to bar him from being involved in any football related commentary. Pick any adage you like - leopards and their spots, can't teach a dog new tricks etc....whichever way you cut it, BT Sport just can't help themselves and have reverted to type. Shame. I thought they had listened. Could be another direct debit cancellation coming.
