City in the headlines

[CaNNaVo93]

2 hours ago, HeartOfCity said:

Looks so much better! Send this to the big wigs at city.

Closest thing would be at a FRG meeting since City "Voice" doesn't really give us one unless they hold another live chat 

[HeartOfCity]

55 minutes ago, CaNNaVo93 said:

Closest thing would be at a FRG meeting since City "Voice" doesn't really give us one unless they hold another live chat 

City Voice boils my blood 😠

[playmaker]

4 minutes ago, HeartOfCity said:

City Voice boils my blood 😠

City Voice is a fkn joke. What is its purpose?

[haz]

Proberly in the wrong thread

 

[belaguttman]

Say after me, "Pass me the ball, I need to sink it on the goal"

[Deeming]

19 hours ago, Mr MO said:

Hence why Melbourne City should fear clubs like South Melbourne entering the league, I'm pretty sure there will be a shift in supporters solely alone to get the club feeling back.

I've always supported Heart and believe it or not but also Manchester City, even I have lost the club feel with this Melbourne City franchise. 

Absolutely, if there was a new Victorian club in the next few years our supporter base will cop a massive hit.

[haz]

2 hours ago, haz said:

Proberly in the wrong thread

 

 

[Tony999]

3 hours ago, Deeming said:

Absolutely, if there was a new Victorian club in the next few years our supporter base will cop a massive hit.

So would Victory's. They have more Greek's than City

[jw1739]

3 hours ago, Deeming said:

Absolutely, if there was a new Victorian club in the next few years our supporter base will cop a massive hit.

TBH not convinced of that at all. IMO Heart and City fans who have dropped off the "sky-blue train" would be wary of jumping on board another club too quickly. The current frustration with City is of course mainly with City itself, but IMO it is also with FFA and the League in general for trying to micro-manage everything and throwing up road-blocks to City's aspirations. Those who would move to a new club for ethnic reasons might do so more readily, but I'm not convinced about others.

[Mr MO]

32 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

TBH not convinced of that at all. IMO Heart and City fans who have dropped off the "sky-blue train" would be wary of jumping on board another club too quickly. The current frustration with City is of course mainly with City itself, but IMO it is also with FFA and the League in general for trying to micro-manage everything and throwing up road-blocks to City's aspirations. Those who would move to a new club for ethnic reasons might do so more readily, but I'm not convinced about others.

Don't forget about the supporters who were hoping on significant improvements on the pitch.

We might loose the ethnic old Heart and new City ethnic supporters.

What about the fans who miss being part of a real football club? The ones who are fed up with the mysterious CFG? The ones who sacrificed success on the field for City plastics and ran out of patience.

Many on this forum said it before me, they don't love the club anymore but either hang around hoping for quick success or because there aren't any other teams to support because Victory isn't an option.

[kingofhearts]

I swear to god this forum is the biggest pack of whingers sometimes

[Mr MO]

26 minutes ago, kingofhearts said:

I swear to god this forum is the biggest pack of whingers sometimes

Haha, being critical and sharing opinions on a forum isn't always whinging, you know damn that well that the forum is very quiet when everything is hallelujah!!!!!

There are no exciting rumors to get wet about either!

[Deeming]

1 hour ago, kingofhearts said:

I swear to god this forum is the biggest pack of whingers sometimes

Have a whinge why don't ya?

[jw1739]

2 hours ago, Mr MO said:

Don't forget about the supporters who were hoping on significant improvements on the pitch.

We might loose the ethnic old Heart and new City ethnic supporters.

What about the fans who miss being part of a real football club? The ones who are fed up with the mysterious CFG? The ones who sacrificed success on the field for City plastics and ran out of patience.

Many on this forum said it before me, they don't love the club anymore but either hang around hoping for quick success or because there aren't any other teams to support because Victory isn't an option.

I understand what you're saying. But despite all the frustrations with CFG and City, and I share all of them with you believe me, my experience with football is that is is very hard for the true supporter to forsake his or her club for another. For most it is impossible, because it is akin to betrayal and treason. And both our memberships and attendances are at an all-time high despite the seemingly broken promises, the boring football and lack of goals and overall lack of success.

[Mr MO]

1 hour ago, jw1739 said:

I understand what you're saying. But despite all the frustrations with CFG and City, and I share all of them with you believe me, my experience with football is that is is very hard for the true supporter to forsake his or her club for another. For most it is impossible, because it is akin to betrayal and treason. And both our memberships and attendances are at an all-time high despite the seemingly broken promises, the boring football and lack of goals and overall lack of success.

Yup agree JW!

Would you think the attendances and memberships would be as record high if there was another A league team in Melbourne? One with a true football feel. I was only trying to say that this very dangerous for our relatively new fan base.

Back to the topic again haha.

[haz]

2 hours ago, haz said:

Money can’t buy a winning culture for Melbourne City

By RAY GATT

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/sport/football/money-cant-buy-a-winning-culture-for-melbourne-city/news-story/0ae1b7d908be03c23a72bece67dd15f0

 

They are the richest club in ­Australia, backed by arguably the most powerful and influential ­soccer organisation in the world. When you are part of the City Football Group, as A-League club Melbourne City are, you want for nothing, from the exceptional training facilities to access to all sorts of sophisticated training and medical equipment. Nothing but the best for the best.

Eye-watering wages and infrastructure aside, it’s easy to see why top quality players are drawn to clubs such as Manchester City, New York City, Melbourne City and Yokohama F Marinos, who are all part of the UAE-funded CFG family that is spreading its tentacles around the soccer world.

But while money can buy success, it does not necessarily guarantee everything will be smooth sailing in the professional sporting environment.

And, as they stand now, Melbourne City, the club that was rebranded in January 2014 after CFG bought an 80 per cent stake in Melbourne Heart before taking full control 12 months later, are badly in need of sorting out an issue that, if left to fester, can badly damage a club.

Given the people behind it, the $12 million acquisition of the club was seen as a pivotal moment for the A-League.

The challenge had been laid down to the other clubs, especially Melbourne Victory.

Despite two finals appearances (2014-15 and 2015-16), City have yet to win a championship, but broke through for their first senior men’s trophy in defeating Sydney FC 1-0 in the FFA Cup final late last year.

Since then, however, City have struggled, losing coach John van’t Schip (for personal reasons) and winning just two games in their past 10 matches. The latest setback came in the bitter and controversial loss to Victory in the Melbourne Derby last Saturday night.

This was the flashpoint for City. The defeat brought out the worst in their playing group and it is just part of a litany of troubling incidents and reactions that have plagued the club this season and have put not just the players, but the management in some unwanted spotlight. No doubt the football side of things can be fixed up, eventually. But the culture issue might be harder to resolve.

The lowlight of the Derby confrontation was Dean Bouzanis ­racially abusing Victory’s Besart Berisha by calling him an “f---ing gypsy’’.

The goalkeeper paid a heavy price for the slur. Football Fed­eration Australia’s independent Disciplinary and Ethics committee on Thursday night banned him for five weeks.

However, the Bouzanis matter is not an isolated one. Consider the following:

• Accusations of diving involving Neil Killkenny, Fernando Brandan and captain Bruno Fornaroli (a situation, it has to be said, that is not peculiar to City).

• Fornaroli saying “and f--- off” at the end of his FFA Cup victory speech in November.

• City players often surrounding the referee after decisions go against them (again, not peculiar to City).

• Bouzanis charging out of his box to verbally abuse John Aloisi on the Brisbane Roar bench and Paul Okon on the Mariners bench.

• Kilkenny’s and Ivan Franjic’s narky post-match television interviews following games against Perth and Victory.

• Tim Cahill being sent off for dissent while waiting to get on the field as a substitute late in the Derby.

• Five City players receiving their fifth yellow card of the season in the same game (last Saturday’s Derby), including Fornaroli, who was booked in the 94th minute.

• Allegations two players almost came to blows at training last week.

Credit to the club for getting on the front foot and apologising the next day for Bouzanis’s outburst and to Cahill, who also issued a public apology for his behaviour.

But clearly, it is not a good rap sheet and the lack of discipline must be a great concern to City ­officials, who are working hard to make the club a big player in the tough Melbourne sports market.

To be fair, the CFG have been in charge for less than three years. While soccer-wise, there has also been success via the women’s and national youth teams, it takes time for a club to find its soul and to build a good culture off the field.

City, in their new guise, have not been around as long as their counterparts Melbourne Victory, a club that is ferocious in protecting its brand and who relentlessly strive for perfection on and off the field.

In the wake of the events of this season, there are valuable lessons to learn for City’s senior group and they need only to look in their own backyard at their women’s and youth teams for some ­guidance.

The NYL side won the title last week and the women’s side will play Perth Glory in the W-League final tomorrow.

City’s women’s player-coach Jess Fishlock is a shining example of the sort of culture that can make a club great.

The Welsh international was felled from behind by a cowardly attack in a game last week, but simply got up, shook her head and played on as if nothing happened.

Fishlock has heart and knows about culture.

Maybe City need to go back to where it started and rediscover some heart.

 

Interesting to read about "Two players almost coming to blows"

It was probaly Brattan and Brandán fighting over whose hair is better.

Edited February 10, 2017 by haz

[jw1739]

17 minutes ago, haz said:

Interesting to read about "Two players almost coming to blows"

It was probaly Brattan and Brandán fighting over whose hair is better.

Well, I'm not sure who actually wrote the article, and while I'm not convinced that Kevin Muscat should be in the category "perfection on and off the field" (see also Adrian Zahra) or that some of the other "charges" could not also be levelled at other clubs and individuals, I don't think there's too much doubt that there are some serious management issues to be addressed in the club. They've certainly been recognised by various posters to this Forum. We are in danger of not making the finals now, and with the squad that we have that was unthinkable earlier in the season.

[mjake1234]

11 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Well, I'm not sure who actually wrote the article, and while I'm not convinced that Kevin Muscat should be in the category "perfection on and off the field" (see also Adrian Zahra) or that some of the other "charges" could not also be levelled at other clubs and individuals, I don't think there's too much doubt that there are some serious management issues to be addressed in the club. They've certainly been recognised by various posters to this Forum. We are in danger of not making the finals now, and with the squad that we have that was unthinkable earlier in the season.

This article is spot on. There is no doubt that there is a culture problem at City. We have great facilities and for the last two years (given the restrictions of a salary capped league) pretty good squads. Yet it never feels cohesive and the club has never developed the "family feel, all together" culture it could so easily have.

This is something that comes from above. If you have an involved, concerned and committed heirachy it just follows. Fans as well as players have interest and a desire to perform and go the extra mile. It's no wonder the team look like a disorganised rabble and we cannot attract attendances. Time for a big clean out.

[belaguttman]

I couldn't agree more with the article and whoever wrote it. Heart was struggling with being a small team, City is struggling with being a big team. We really need a coach that can manage players and group process more than we need someone to manage the on-field decisions, get a good assistant to do that.

 

The contrast between the mens and womens teams couldn't be greater.

Edited February 10, 2017 by belaguttman

[SF33]

48 minutes ago, jw1739 said:

Well, I'm not sure who actually wrote the article, and while I'm not convinced that Kevin Muscat should be in the category "perfection on and off the field" (see also Adrian Zahra) or that some of the other "charges" could not also be levelled at other clubs and individuals, I don't think there's too much doubt that there are some serious management issues to be addressed in the club. They've certainly been recognised by various posters to this Forum. We are in danger of not making the finals now, and with the squad that we have that was unthinkable earlier in the season.

It a horrendous article, but anything that puts the blowtorch on this club is a positive, as far as I'm concerned.

[Jovan]

What a croc!

Must have been written by some Victory sycophant. To say Victory relentlessly strive for perfection. Every club every business every person with half a brain strives for perfection. 

Ok we have failed to live up to expectations and have performed badly in the last 3 months but to imply that bringing back "heart" is nothing more than kicking a man when he's down.

 

[belaguttman]

The visit0rs do have a winning culture in their mens team, we don't

[Dylan]

10 minutes ago, Jovan said:

What a croc!

Must have been written by some Victory sycophant. To say Victory relentlessly strive for perfection. Every club every business every person with half a brain strives for perfection. 

Ok we have failed to live up to expectations and have performed badly in the last 3 months but to imply that bringing back "heart" is nothing more than kicking a man when he's down.

 

Ray Gatt has never been a particular fan of ours since the CFG take over. Cant remember when we were Heart but he is picking pretty dubious reasons to why we dont have this so called 'winning culture'. Was never raised at the start of the season by anyone around FFA cup time. In fact these are just lazy excuses that old guys always come up with when some thing issnt going right. Ie: they mis-behave, they need discipline, back in my day blah blah blah.

To say Victory are a dream off the field is laughable, they rent their facilities and share them with 4 other clubs and got that contract cause they happened to exist at the time and they treat their womens team like absolute garbage

Here is a lazy counterpoint. He is anglo, he supports anglo teams and probably hates anything that issnt anglo or Australian.

 

Edited February 10, 2017 by Dylan

[Jovan]

4 minutes ago, Dylan said:

Ray Gatt has never been a particular fan of ours since the CFG take over. Cant remember when we were Heart but he is picking pretty dubious reasons to why we dont have this so called 'winning culture'. Was never raised at the start of the season by anyone around FFA cup time. In fact these are just lazy excuses that old guys always come up with when some thing issnt going right. Ie: they mis-behave, they need discipline, back in my day blah blah blah.

To say Victory are a dream off the field is laughable, they rent their facilities and share them with 4 other clubs and got that contract cause they happened to exist at the time and they treat their womens team like absolute garbage

Here is a lazy counterpoint. He is anglo, he supports anglo teams and probably hates anything that issnt anglo or Australian.

 

Thanks didn't know it was Gatt. Less pissed off now. Can't expect anything else from such a twit.

[SF33]

My main issue with it is that three quarters of the "matters" that he brings up are genuine nothing incidents, that would be lucky to get a sentence in a post match write-up. It reeks of a journalist desperately struggling to reach a word limit.

Victory does have a constant pressure to perform that our players simply don't seem to feel (see the Bruce Kamau article on the A-League site for evidence). Someone needs to light a fire under these pricks and I don't really care how they do it. 

[Dylan]

1 minute ago, SF33 said:

My main issue with it is that three quarters of the "matters" that he brings up are genuine nothing incidents, that would be lucky to get a sentence in a post match write-up. It reeks of a journalist desperately struggling to reach a word limit.

Victory does have a constant pressure to perform that our players simply don't seem to feel (see the Bruce Kamau article on the A-League site for evidence). Someone needs to light a fire under these pricks and I don't really care how they do it. 

Victory have a manager that is very good at motivation and that goes a long way in a pretty unsophisticated league tactically and skills wise. 

[SF33]

Just now, Dylan said:

Victory have a manager that is very good at motivation and that goes a long way in a pretty unsophisticated league tactically and skills wise. 

To be honest, it burns me that the poor results don't appear to hurt the players (in general, there's some notable exceptions) as much as the supporters.

[Dylan]

9 minutes ago, SF33 said:

To be honest, it burns me that the poor results don't appear to hurt the players (in general, there's some notable exceptions) as much as the supporters.

None of us know that and its just an easy excuse us fans point to (like the article) oh and people actually taking post match press conferences seriously . 

Edited February 10, 2017 by Dylan

[Jovan]

12 minutes ago, SF33 said:

To be honest, it burns me that the poor results don't appear to hurt the players (in general, there's some notable exceptions) as much as the supporters.

Not sure.

Most of the recent yellows and reds are out of frustration. Not winning and playing how you want is super frustrating. So to me it shows its burning most. 

I really don't think the players or coaches don't bleed for a win. The problem is the playing style and structure. And that lies squarley at the feet of the coaches and management and not the players. 

Edited February 10, 2017 by Jovan

[xXCiTyZeNXx]

Whats wrong with diving. Is it not part of the game. They seem to go on about city diving but how about bobo, berisha and castro and others. Look at the professional players in Europe, they all dive including defenders as well. Its part of the game

[playmaker]

Disagree. I think the players are burning after every loss. The only one towing the 'we need to get better at what we are doing' line with lack of emotion is our managers.

We need to overhaul the off field leadership, nothing more, nothing less

[jw1739]

2 minutes ago, Jovan said:

Not sure.

Most of the recent yellows and reds are out of frustration. Not winning and playing how you want is super frustrating. So to me it shows its burning most. 

I really don't think the players or coaches don't bleed for a win. The problem is the playing style and structure. And that lies squarley at the feet of the coaches and management and not the players. 

None of us can be sure, that's true. All we can do is observe and ask ourselves "does what I see convince me that the club bleeds for its supporters?" If the coaches and management really do bleed for a win and the problem is the playing style and structure then why not change it? They haven't done so so far, and that's why I am not convinced.

[haz]

Sorry guys the article is by Ray Gatt, I've edited it in now

@Jovan

@jw1739

@belaguttman

[belaguttman]

Every point Gatt writes about can be explained away in isolation but of you look at them as a whole in context of our performance they really illustrate the cultural issues in the men's team. The womens team is arguably under more pressure with greater expectations as defending champions and the contrast couldn't be greater

[mattyh001]

17 minutes ago, belaguttman said:

Every point Gatt writes about can be explained away in isolation but of you look at them as a whole in context of our performance they really illustrate the cultural issues in the men's team. The womens team is arguably under more pressure with greater expectations as defending champions and the contrast couldn't be greater

Agree somewhat.

I think part of the culture issue comes down to the fact that our biggest three or four voices in the dressing room are very gritty players, win at all costs bar doing a Kevin Muscat and ending a guy's career by snapping his leg.

However while there have been a couple of cringe worthy moments, all of this seems to be coming at a time when our club is down so non city fans wanna stick the boots in.  People out there see us as a tall poppy so they have this massive chip on their shoulders - something very common here in Australia. Those same people forget we have a salary cap that covers close to 90% of our players and the Cahill effect has been a huge benefit for all clubs and the league, despite no other club stumping up the cash to actually bring him here

As a result, things look a lot worse when the results aren't there because negative aspects get a greater emphasis (which does have an element of fairness because things must improve) while your typical Aussie fan doesn't appreciate the finer aspects of what makes players like Brandan such fan favorites / good players for the club 

[HEARTinator]

55 minutes ago, belaguttman said:

Every point Gatt writes about can be explained away in isolation but of you look at them as a whole in context of our performance they really illustrate the cultural issues in the men's team. The womens team is arguably under more pressure with greater expectations as defending champions and the contrast couldn't be greater

This. The issues are not recent, they didn't start when Valkanis took over from JVS. We are paying the price for extending JVS' contract when we should have made a clean break and recruited a proven gaffer.

[Jestr]

2 hours ago, HEARTinator said:

This. The issues are not recent, they didn't start when Valkanis took over from JVS. We are paying the price for extending JVS' contract when we should have made a clean break and recruited a proven gaffer.

New manager must appoint his new coaching leadership team as a key priority. 

If valkanis and the rest of the current puppets are left as assistants, he will have tough, uphill battle to change the culture and get this team back on track. 

All that presuming cfg clowns are not the ones steering/dictating all the rules.

"around here we tell you how to do things, you just execute it"

changes are desperately needed!!

[haz]

 

[kingofhearts]

5 hours ago, haz said:

 

What a bunch of cunts

[jw1739]

10 hours ago, kingofhearts said:

What a bunch of cunts

Pretty weak stuff really, but I suppose it's all about marketing the club to a particular demographic.

How about an up-date on Fernando Brandan?