citypool Posted February 27, 2019 Report Share Posted February 27, 2019 I don’t think western United will be a successful club I’ll be surprised if they get more fans to Geelong then we do. But if they are successful where does that leave us? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony999 Posted February 27, 2019 Report Share Posted February 27, 2019 2 hours ago, citypool said: I don’t think western United will be a successful club I’ll be surprised if they get more fans to Geelong then we do. But if they are successful where does that leave us? We will be back to season 3 in terms of memberships. We had so much potential and had momentum going until one individual who has single-handedly crushed all of this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted February 27, 2019 Report Share Posted February 27, 2019 36 minutes ago, Tony999 said: We will be back to season 3 in terms of memberships. We had so much potential and had momentum going until one individual who has single-handedly crushed all of this. Everything he's done has been either at the behest of, or at the very least has been condoned by, all the line managers above him, right to the top of City Football Group. Otherwise he'd have been stopped. They are all guilty, not just Joyce. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony999 Posted February 27, 2019 Report Share Posted February 27, 2019 21 minutes ago, jw1739 said: Everything he's done has been either at the behest of, or at the very least has been condoned by, all the line managers above him, right to the top of City Football Group. Otherwise he'd have been stopped. They are all guilty, not just Joyce. He'd be the main culprit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post HughJass Posted February 28, 2019 Popular Post Report Share Posted February 28, 2019 https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2019/feb/28/david-squires-on-how-it-all-came-to-this-for-melbourne-city?CMP=share_btn_tw 9 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted February 28, 2019 Report Share Posted February 28, 2019 2 hours ago, HughJass said: https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2019/feb/28/david-squires-on-how-it-all-came-to-this-for-melbourne-city?CMP=share_btn_tw Wonderful stuff from Squiresy. On the mark in every respect. Love the "Area Manager from Northern Europe." 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fensaddler Posted March 1, 2019 Report Share Posted March 1, 2019 4 hours ago, HughJass said: https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2019/feb/28/david-squires-on-how-it-all-came-to-this-for-melbourne-city?CMP=share_btn_tw It's spot on. 'What is the point of Melbourne City?' Poor Yoshi, wondering like the rest of us what he did to deserve this punishment. Loving the dig against Cahill too. But most of all the story of how a small, community club that we all liked got eaten by oil money fuelled human rights abusers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rasputin Posted March 1, 2019 Report Share Posted March 1, 2019 5 hours ago, HughJass said: https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2019/feb/28/david-squires-on-how-it-all-came-to-this-for-melbourne-city?CMP=share_btn_tw Yep this sums it up for me CFG GTFO 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shahanga Posted March 1, 2019 Report Share Posted March 1, 2019 5 hours ago, Rasputin said: Yep this sums it up for me CFG GTFO This. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
citypool Posted March 3, 2019 Report Share Posted March 3, 2019 What happens next? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haz Posted March 3, 2019 Report Share Posted March 3, 2019 Quote Melbourne City replaced the Heart with the promise of trophies, but what has been the point? By Offsiders columnist Richard Hinds Posted 43 minutes ago Full disclosure: we called our family cat Bruno. Not in honour of the singer Bruno Mars or the preposterously effete Sacha Baron Cohen character. Bruno is a nod to one of the most optimistic chapters in the A-League's chequered history when Melbourne City's brilliant Uruguayan striker Bruno Fornaroli was scoring for fun — both his and ours. Fornaroli's sublime finishing was symbolic of what the FFA hoped Melbourne City's vastly wealthy Abu Dhabi owners would bring to the A-League when they bought and instantly re-branded Melbourne Heart in 2014 (besides a truck load of cash). Selected by the City Group's vast talent identification network and implanted in its Australian franchise, Fornaroli elevated both the club and the competition. Bruno was an A-League identity. Not merely another big name import like David Villa who turned up for a few hamstring stretching appearances before relocating to the City Groups more glamorous and rewarding franchise in New York. Then there was the "state of the art" facility Melbourne City built at their Bundoora headquarters which gave the impression City Group money could buy happiness — or at least a much better lap pool than Sydney FC or Brisbane Roar. So when we called them Melbourne $ity, it wasn't a sledge. It was an attempt to embrace the one significant identifying feature and practical advantage Melbourne's second team had over cross-town rivals Victory and the rest of the competition — guaranteed financial solidarity. Back then it seemed only a matter of time before the good times rolled. Even a gormless 10-year-old could sense it. Remember that clever advertising campaign when Yoshi, the A-League Every Child, was given a tour of all the clubs before announcing he had chosen to follow — drum roll — Melbourne City? So how has that worked out for Yoshi? Just a month after his decision Yoshi celebrated City's 2016 FFA Cup victory and you were worried he might become the kind of bandwagon-jumping football-spoiled brat who followed Liverpool or Arsenal in their glory days. But yesterday as Melbourne City coughed up a 2-0 lead and drew 2-2 with league leaders Perth Glory at AAMI Park, you wondered if Yoshi was watching or on the PlayStation. Fornaroli's predicament symbolic of Melbourne City's current plight Before the game it was Fornaroli's sad, drawn-out departure that seemed most symbolic of the current Melbourne City status. The Uruguayan had emptied his locker during the week after losing a long battle of wills with manager Warren Joyce who, from the little we have been told, was not enraptured by the star striker's work habits. In justifying Fornaroli's expulsion, Joyce said: "Culture is non-negotiable." But what is Melbourne City's culture? Why does it even exist? To produce players to send up the City Group chain of command to clubs in foreign leagues or sell for a handy profit? Former Melbourne City star Aaron Mooy's $10 million transfer to Huddersfield Town recouped most of the $12 million licence fee. Assuming Melbourne City youth product Daniel Arzani recovers from a serious knee injury, his transfer might pay for the next centre of excellence or add a few lanes to the lap pool. He might even star with Manchester City. This is good for City Group business. But it is a bloodless existence for those Melbourne City fans craving long-term engagement with stars or, at least, a visible match-day benefit from these transactions. It also totally misunderstands, you might even say betrays, the initial Melbourne Heart fan base. Why does my Heart feel so bad? Without a specific geographical location or ethnic base, Heart's crowds included a large element of what you might called football purists and counter-culture types. Some of these supporters had embraced Melbourne Heart simply because it was not Melbourne Victory as a coffee snob might embrace a local coffee shop because it wasn't Starbucks. To these fans the takeover of Heart by the City Group and its politically dubious oil sheikh owners wasn't nearly as exciting as it was to the FFA which was elated to find an owner whose cheques didn't bounce like a super ball on a trampoline. (Although the FFA was perhaps less elated a couple of years later when the City Group's local representatives helped weaken its hold on the A-League.) If Heart fans were to rent their football souls and embrace the Abu Dhabi franchise model, the reward was supposed to be entertaining football and virtually guaranteed success. Thus they stroked their hipster beards and fantasised about a club that would reinvent Australian football under the brooding tutelage of a suave pony-tailed Armani-clad European coach. Instead they find themselves enduring the almost comically pragmatic style of the Englishman Joyce whose matchday wardrobe is High St leisurewear and whose tactics come straight from the Harry Redknapp relegation survival playbook. After Sunday's achingly predictable come-from-ahead draw against Glory, City's remaining redeeming feature is the A-League's generous finals systems that means the fifth placed team in a 10 team league is a notional title contender instead of suffering mid-table mediocrity as it would be in almost any other nation. That and the five goals in four games (including two against Glory) scored by Socceroo Jamie Maclaren, now the only regular reminder of $ity's powerful connections and initial promise. But such is the generosity of Australian football's championships system that if Maclaren's form continues into the play-offs we might yet be checking to see if you can change a cat's name by deed poll. Offsiders with Kelli Underwood airs on ABC TV Sundays at 10:00am. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-04/whats-the-point-of-melbourne-city-richard-hinds/10866124 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
citypool Posted March 4, 2019 Report Share Posted March 4, 2019 (edited) I’ve reading a lot about cfg seems to be getting a lot of press in the media more Edited March 4, 2019 by citypool Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted March 4, 2019 Report Share Posted March 4, 2019 59 minutes ago, citypool said: I’ve reading a lot about cfg seems to be getting a lot of press in the media more IMO quite rightly so. It was the final exit of Bruno from City that triggered it. We are the only previously-existing club in the CFG stable that has been re-branded. It's Soriano's idea, and he's persisting with it, even though the metrics show that it isn't working. Feeder club - yes. Franchise club - no. A franchise club won't work, especially in Australia. The Australian character doesn't take easily to having something rammed down its throat by outsiders. As @Shahanga has said, CFG rolled us over on red-and-white, but it did that because local management was complicit in the change; if Munn and co. had resisted as well then the outcome would have had a better chance of being different. Local management was kept on after the takeover only because Soriano knew they were weak and would roll over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
belaguttman Posted March 4, 2019 Report Share Posted March 4, 2019 12 minutes ago, jw1739 said: The Australian character doesn't take easily to having something rammed down its throat by outsiders. It's called colonialism, for some reason, we are sensitive to it here in Australia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jovan Posted March 5, 2019 Report Share Posted March 5, 2019 http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2019/03/05/city-football-group-targeting-investment-india It's pretty safe to say that by the end of the year we will drop to eighth in the CFG pecking order and won't be long before we are out of the top ten. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shahanga Posted March 5, 2019 Report Share Posted March 5, 2019 28 minutes ago, Jovan said: http://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/article/2019/03/05/city-football-group-targeting-investment-india It's pretty safe to say that by the end of the year we will drop to eighth in the CFG pecking order and won't be long before we are out of the top ten. Hopefully they’ll sell us then. (And fuck off back to whence they came) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n i k o Posted March 5, 2019 Report Share Posted March 5, 2019 3 minutes ago, Shahanga said: Hopefully they’ll sell us then. (And fuck off back to whence they came) If that happened then I'd be 100% gone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haz Posted March 5, 2019 Report Share Posted March 5, 2019 1 hour ago, n i k o said: If that happened then I'd be 100% gone. I'm in the same boat. Can live with one identity change, but another.... I think I'd be time für me to give up the HAL 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted March 5, 2019 Report Share Posted March 5, 2019 11 hours ago, haz said: I'm in the same boat. Can live with one identity change, but another.... I think I'd be time für me to give up the HAL I'm the opposite. I'd welcome CFG getting out of our picture altogether. And I reckon a return to actually being a Melbourne club for Melbourne people would be a real positive for most. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fensaddler Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 48 minutes ago, jw1739 said: I'm the opposite. I'd welcome CFG getting out of our picture altogether. And I reckon a return to actually being a Melbourne club for Melbourne people would be a real positive for most. I suspect it's a case of knowing what we then become. Is it a return to red and white and local ownership? Or do we just get acquired by the next international conglomerate and get rebranded again? There are good outcomes which feel emotionally better than where we are right now, and ones which could be a lot worse - Melbourne Evergrande anyone? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 3 minutes ago, fensaddler said: I suspect it's a case of knowing what we then become. Is it a return to red and white and local ownership? Or do we just get acquired by the next international conglomerate and get rebranded again? There are good outcomes which feel emotionally better than where we are right now, and ones which could be a lot worse - Melbourne Evergrande anyone? The other two A-League clubs owned by overseas interests - Brisbane and Newcastle - haven't been re-branded, and AFAIK there hasn't been any push to do so. Central Coast also have a significant investment both by Sheffield United and Mike Charlesworth their Chairman - not sure of the percentage though. Even within CFG it's only Melbourne Heart that has been re-branded (so far that is). I'm not against overseas ownership per se. Of course owners will have a say in how a local operation is managed - put parameters around costs and so on - but in our case the blatant micromanagement from Manchester is what hurts. I'd even be prepared to accept a permanent change to incorporate sky blue if there was decent red somewhere to acknowledge Melbourne (and not just in the badge). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayv36 Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 RB Melbourne has a nice ring to it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HughJass Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 17 minutes ago, rayv36 said: RB Melbourne has a nice ring to it Red Bull were sniffing around A-League clubs think Adelaide a year or so ago see what happens when it goes independent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 16 hours ago, haz said: I'm in the same boat. Can live with one identity change, but another.... I think I'd be time für me to give up the HAL If I bought it I’d change the kit to Argentina style and have red highlights. Name stays 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fensaddler Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 4 hours ago, jw1739 said: The other two A-League clubs owned by overseas interests - Brisbane and Newcastle - haven't been re-branded, and AFAIK there hasn't been any push to do so. Central Coast also have a significant investment both by Sheffield United and Mike Charlesworth their Chairman - not sure of the percentage though. Even within CFG it's only Melbourne Heart that has been re-branded (so far that is). I'm not against overseas ownership per se. Of course owners will have a say in how a local operation is managed - put parameters around costs and so on - but in our case the blatant micromanagement from Manchester is what hurts. I'd even be prepared to accept a permanent change to incorporate sky blue if there was decent red somewhere to acknowledge Melbourne (and not just in the badge). Absolutely. Football clubs change ownership all the time, but only rarely do they change their identity. There's been a lot of resistance in Europe to the Red Bull model of rebranding a club and quite rightly. Its not worked out great for us either. Red Bull Melbourne would have me walking straight to Western United... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
haz Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 1 hour ago, Dylan said: If I bought it I’d change the kit to Argentina style and have red highlights. Name stays Not mine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 1 hour ago, haz said: Not mine Yeah that was one of mine. Its what we should have had at the start. Couldnt think of a better way to incorporate heart into the new club Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n i k o Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 16 hours ago, haz said: Not mine But you're forgetting about 'the brand' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HughJass Posted March 6, 2019 Report Share Posted March 6, 2019 https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/ffa-back-football-victoria-s-plan-for-80-million-home-for-matildas-20190305-p511xw.html So Latrobe are bidding for it as well which includes a 5k stadium, chance for cfg to partner up and build a 15k seater and base city out of Latrobe permanently? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jovan Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 4 hours ago, HughJass said: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/ffa-back-football-victoria-s-plan-for-80-million-home-for-matildas-20190305-p511xw.html So Latrobe are bidding for it as well which includes a 5k stadium, chance for cfg to partner up and build a 15k seater and base city out of Latrobe permanently? 5k stadium is bang on perfect. Just make sure they include a sausage stand and it's a win win scenario. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 19 minutes ago, Jovan said: 5k stadium is bang on perfect. Just make sure they include a sausage stand and it's a win win scenario. 5k is a bit small. And transport to Bundoora is poor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 5 hours ago, HughJass said: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/ffa-back-football-victoria-s-plan-for-80-million-home-for-matildas-20190305-p511xw.html So Latrobe are bidding for it as well which includes a 5k stadium, chance for cfg to partner up and build a 15k seater and base city out of Latrobe permanently? One would hope they would come to the party and make it a 15-k’er. but I am biased as I am firmly of the opinion the club should start making it the club of the northern suburbs. City Terrace will be renamed to North Terrace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jovan Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 2 hours ago, Dylan said: City Terrace will be renamed to North Terrace City united north terrace supporters or maybe a catchy acronym perhaps. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
playmaker Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 23 minutes ago, Jovan said: City united north terrace supporters or maybe a catchy acronym perhaps. Too late,the acronym is taken by Victory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CityWildcat Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 That Richard Hinds article posted a couple of days ago (from where??) is the very BEST piece I have read anywhere on our current malaise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted March 7, 2019 Report Share Posted March 7, 2019 On 06/03/2019 at 4:44 PM, haz said: Nice, but unfortunately the A-League logo would spoil everything. And, surely, the heart should be on the sleeve...? 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deeming Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 My Facebook Memories from 5 years ago came up "Inside scoop - the money and development Man City will put into Melbourne Heart will be bigger than anything Australia has seen in any sport" This hasn't aged well. At the time I was told by someone high up close to the club that CFG were going to invest 10's of millions into the club. So much promise... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malloy Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 30 minutes ago, Deeming said: My Facebook Memories from 5 years ago came up "Inside scoop - the money and development Man City will put into Melbourne Heart will be bigger than anything Australia has seen in any sport" This hasn't aged well. At the time I was told by someone high up close to the club that CFG were going to invest 10's of millions into the club. So much promise... To be fair they probably aren't that far off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
citypool Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 New York City fc fans seem happy then us judging by their Facebook Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jw1739 Posted March 13, 2019 Report Share Posted March 13, 2019 3 hours ago, citypool said: New York City fc fans seem happy then us judging by their Facebook Remember that NYCFC didn't exist until CFG (80%) came along and founded the club with the New York Yankees (20%). We're the only club in the CFG stable that existed prior to being bought by CFG and then re-branded to look like a clone of Manchester City. The only one. And that, IMHO, remains the single biggest obstacle in the way of support and growth of Melbourne City. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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