"The strangest moment of Saturday’s FA Cup final came in the seconds after Manchester City’s sixth goal, when the camera cut from the mob of celebrating City players to Pep Guardiola, who was slumped on the bench with his head in his hands.Early diskuterar Peps vilja att göra något eget, efter att ha lyckats i två traditionsklubbar i form av FC Bayern och FC Barcelona, men att taktiken på ett sätt slagit tillbaka på honom eftersom få människor gillar eller ens respekterar oljepengarnas parveny. Early gör också en slående jämförelse med tidigare slösaktiga oligark-klubbar:
Pep looked less like a happy football coach watching his side make history and more like an anguished scientist whose prototype civil defence robot has just run amok at a trade show, slaughtering several bystanders. It looked as though he understood that the very scale of the victory had begun to devalue it, that City were now in the territory of negative marginal returns, that the reaction to this turkey shoot would go beyond appreciation and congratulation, towards accusation and perhaps even condemnation.
And so it proved. The Cup-winning manager’s post-match press conference is usually laudatory, but Pep’s ended with a journalist asking whether he, like his predecessor Roberto Mancini, had ever received any extra payments from City’s ownership group on top of his regular salary.
Guardiola looked about as angry as anyone has seen him since he arrived in England. “Do you know the question you’re asking me?” he hissed. “If I ever received money for another situation, right now, today? Honestly, do you think I deserve to have this type of question happen – what happened with Roberto I don’t know, the day we won the treble – if I received money from other situations? Oh my God. Are you accusing me of receiving money?”
You could say he did not dignify the question with a denial. This was not supposed to be happening. For Pep, the whole point of moving to City was to prove that he could succeed at a club that seemed to lack the advantages of the established giants."
"At Wembley, City brought on three substitutes – Kevin de Bruyne, Leroy Sané and John Stones – each of whom would have been the best player in Watford’s team. There’s no magic or mystery about why their squad is so strong. They have a net transfer spend of more than £1.2 billion over the 11 seasons since the 2008 takeover. That’s almost 50 per cent more than their closest rival over that period – the Qatar-funded PSG – and half a billion pounds more than the team in third place, Manchester United.Jonathan Wilson låter också uppgiven och skräder inte orden i sin matchrapport från FA cup-finalen:
Football has not seen anything like this before. The closest comparison is with Chelsea after the 2003 Abramovich takeover, but their spending was nowhere near as sustained or comprehensive. Yes, in the 11 seasons from 2003-4 to 2014-15 Chelsea were football’s biggest spenders, but their net outlay of £751 million was only 10 per cent more than City’s in the same period, even though City spent very little between 2003 and 2007. Chelsea’s net spend in those 11 seasons was 64 per cent of the total combined net outlay of Real Madrid and Barcelona, whereas City’s since 2008 is more than Real Madrid’s and Barcelona’s put together."
"There is no point pretending any more. Watford may have finished 11th in the Premier League but they were 48 points adrift of the champions. City and Watford are not playing the same game any more. /.../
Football is broken. /../
There have always been big clubs before, rich clubs, but never clubs whose status at the top of the game is so systemically secure. In 67 Premier League games this season one side had 70% possession or more; 15 years ago there was one. That is one in six games that are not in any meaningful sense a contest. Yes, no empire lasts for ever. Yes, City may falter. And, yes, there is something a little unfair that City’s very excellence is what makes these concerns so pressing. If anything, Clive, they have used their resources too well.
But Saturday was miserable, the traditional showpiece of the English season reduced to a grim parade, devoid of any drama, there to satisfy the propaganda wing of a faraway regime. /.../
It is desperately sad to say it but if the future is more mismatches like Saturday’s, or the sort of coronation procession that so many leagues have now become, maybe the least bad solution is just to let them go, let them have their super league."
Ken Early, "City's domination has been bought -- and they're paying the price", Irish Times.
Miguel Delaney, "Human rights abuses, questionable sponsors and Trump: how geopolitics are becoming the worrying root of football", Independent 3 mars 2018
Miguel Delaney, "FA Cup final result: Man City flex their muscle to leave helpless Watford trailing in their wake", Independent 19 maj 2019
Miguel Delaney, "Man City: Why a diminished treble leaves fans with greater questions ahead of the FA Cup final", Independent 18 maj 2019
Jonathan Wilson, "Manchester City's sky blue smashing of Watford proves football is broken", Guardian 19 maj 2019
