Manchester United Banter 3

06 Oct 2026 09:39:44
I wish the Glazers had done something bad enough for the EPL to force them to sell up and move on.

06 Oct 2026 10:27:56
Don't we all?

06 Oct 2026 11:32:38
Careful what you wish for, seeing as City are likely to be booted out of the Prem before that happens might not be the best idea

(Obviously I would love the Glazers out though)

05 Oct 2026 23:35:49
Leny Yoro made his full debut for France tonight and seemingly had a very good game. Some had him down as Man of the Match.

We need to start giving him more playing time, there is a good player there, but he does need more opportunity.

He did a lot of work in the summer on improving his strength and physicality, needed for the rigours of the EPL.

We need to be moving on from Harry Maguire, he should be a squad player, not a regular starter.

Can't help but think of the quote made by Bill Shankly many, many, years ago, while giving a team talk to his Liverpool team prior to a game against us when he was lauding Best, Charlton and Law. He said to his players - and watch out for that Paddy Crerand, he's even slower than you think!. That's were we are with Harry, he's not going to get any quicker.

We have to get more pace at the back.

06 Oct 2026 00:21:34
I saw the comments iwtb for Yoro, apparently if it was not Olises two goals he would be man of the match. He was theoretically their second best performer. But to be fair to our coaches, in Premier League sometimes gets exposed, international footie is like a different sport.

I like Yoro, he is a good lad with some good attributes, but he is nowhere near a player that can start at the top level. Or he was not, as you said he did a lot of work at summer and hopefully he is ready to kickstart his career.

06 Oct 2026 00:53:49
Maguire couldn't get much slower!!

06 Oct 2026 05:09:06
Yoro just don't look cut out for EPL and when and if he does play, certainly needs an experienced CB with pace next to him problem is we not got one of them

Carrick should send City a crate of champagne all the talk been about them so Carrick had an easy ride in these few weeks.

Let's hope that please we get a result against Spurs, otherwise the heat really will come on him and rightly so.

06 Oct 2026 08:22:05
He's class, he needs to play, you get better by playing at the top level.

06 Oct 2026 10:18:01
He needs game time. He needs to play alongside a top CB. However if Martinez and MdL stay fit, they will likely be first choice wiyh Maguire as third choice.

06 Oct 2026 11:34:06
I really liked Yoro at right back during pre-season. Felt like he gave more going forward and defensively then Dalot (although admittedly the sample size was very small)

06 Oct 2026 11:40:01
Think people forget how young he is. He needs time and games and to be allowed to make mistakes. Unfortunately you make a mistake at United and you're never going to be good enough and you need selling and replacing with a shinier model.

06 Oct 2026 13:02:28
We should be playing Yoro and giving him a run of games and have faith that he can develop, whilst also accepting there may be problems along the way. Unfortunately Maguire is a solid player and will give you 6/10 in all games so the highs and lows are not there.

I thought that Yoro as a CB playing at RB was an interesting option and looked okay in the pre season, lots of teams have used this option to success and was something that I thought Carrick had tried at Boro with one full back being more attacking than the other.

Either way if we do not see what we have got with him it is likely that he will move on.

07 Oct 2026 20:49:51
Pair Yoro and De Ligt together when the latter is fit and he will be OK. If Maguire had pace he would be ideal to talk Yoro through games but he hasn't and only makes it harder for the young man.

People always bang on about other European leagues being easier to play in yet when it comes to winning the or even getting to a final of the Champions League teams from easier leagues seem to win more than our teams.

Good playing partners good defensive midfielders and good coaches /managers are what he needs. With our defence so porous even Rio or Vidic would be all at sea.

09 Oct 2026 03:18:33
Salford, I think a peak Ferdinand in our current defense would absolutely transform it, whoever you paired him with, he was arguably even more suited to modern football than his current era. I reckon Vidic would have a huge impact too alongside Martinez who has such great ability on the ball.

05 Oct 2026 23:21:56
I left England in 2006 to live in Australia, I was a season ticket holder and some of my best memories are following Utd, especially 1999.
I still loved the game, watching Ronney, Ronaldo, Keane and Scholes, too many to mention was unforgettable.

The talk in the pub was about who would be playing, what the score would, you could feel the excitement. Now it seems to be about the owners, this player pissed off, the cost to get a ticket etc.

Football has got lost and am not sure it can ever be the same. I used to get up at 2am to watch the games, now I can't even be bothered to watch the highlights.

Unfortunately this generation will never know what it is like to get up in the morning and actually go to a proper football game, where the players where the main topic and played for each other, the fans and the badge.

06 Oct 2026 00:59:04
I moved to Melbourne Oz in 2001 and am much the same as you. Was a season ticket holder for years.

Like you I used to get up but now just watch the replays. Has not got the same feel as it once had.

06 Oct 2026 06:03:53
I should say that if the game is on at a reasonable hour I stay up or get up early for the pain. The Live Chat is entertaining!

05 Oct 2026 17:53:32
Question for eds and posters, will it be possible and realistic for fans to come together and sue City? After all we have also been deprived of what we paid for die to their cheating.

05 Oct 2026 22:21:27
I think this is getting a bit silly now. City will get a severe punishment and it will in no way compensate everyone for the lost years of football they have taken from us. Clubs will sue them for money they clearly cannot afford unless the deal they do with the epl somehow deals with club compensation.

Football has a decision to make. Are you going try to end city and bankrupt them, or more likely force them into a new breakaway league quicker?

They need have a big punishment, but I don't think it is right that the club is ended. How they decide to do it will no doubt be a long drawn out process. But a league without man city in it is worse off today. We need a path back to fair play and fierce competition.

It is not city's fault we are crap. We did that to ourselves.

05 Oct 2026 22:35:04
I agree with the sentiment but I'm not sure a league without City will necessarily be worse off. There are a number of teams that would step up. Was not that long ago City were playing County!

A league without the the shadow of cheating hanging over it would be better.

I really have no idea how this will pan out but I know what I want to happen.

06 Oct 2026 05:12:13
City done irreparable damage to EPL much like Juve done to Serie A .
But let's not kid ourselves other cheating not got on. Only last season Southampton spying, plenty of noises around Referees too big money involved = dodgy dealings.

05 Oct 2026 18:39:36
Not sure, but does the fact that City have so many players on huge wages impacts FFP considering they have been found guilty of basically lying about their incomes. Or does FFP only on purchases. Will they need to sell players to reduce their wage bill?

05 Oct 2026 18:57:40
Redcon,

None of their players will be at the club if the punishment is how it should be so it won't be an issue. They would have broken FFP rules every year if they hadn't falsified their income.

06 Oct 2026 08:46:31
City broke the PSR rules. Going forward they're no longer applicable, replaced by Squad Cost Ratio, which would allow them to spend 85% of their revenues on the costs associated with putting the team on the pitch: wages, amortization, manager and coaches etc. That's probably around £500m. Without European football they might still be okay, or they may have to sell a player or two. If they're still allowed to qualify for the Champions League then they will have to comply with UEFA's SCR which is only 70%. City's reported revenues over the last couple of years have been around £700m.

Big question. Have City, which has the highest commercial revenues of all EPL clubs, been inflating their income via sham contracts since 2019. Is it possible UEFA will revisit potential breaches?

05 Oct 2026 07:39:03
{Ed's Note - OptimumShots has posted a new article entitled, Everton Scouting: Page, Porto Trio and Ebnoutalib

04 Oct 2026 21:14:21
Why anyone thinks the billionaire owners of City are going to gracefully back down and quietly accept a plea deal is beyond me.

The Arab pysche places an inordinate amount of value on not being publicly embarrassed, not losing face. That is far more important to them than any effect their actions have on the game.

05 Oct 2026 19:00:48
This is correct. And will. play a part. It is literally not illegal to lie blatantly in a court case as saving face and protecting your honour is seen as expected. There is also no punishment for doing so.

04 Oct 2026 10:14:48
Can there be a positive outcome from all of this?

I just don't see how the EPL will ever be the same again. The whole City era, right up to today has been tainted. Even if the period since has not required sham contract, the sine qua non of todays' dominant club with its massive payroll is the cheating during the period the panel has now ruled upon.

Will it reignite the European super league the rich clubs always wanted? And, if so, what will be the economic impact on the EPL?

Back in the 1970s there was a very popular book called "Small is Beautiful" by E F Schumacher. It was "a critique of industrialized Western economic policies that prioritize "bigger is better, " consumption, and endless growth over human well-being and ecological balance"

The EPL has been the antithesis of small is beautiful. It's become more and more a play thing of the global elites, transcending other national leagues in popularity. Only 3 or 4 clubs are owned by Brits. The price paid is that these people don't really give a hoot about the clubs, the fans or even the history. All they care about is money and their image. Our own club, which astonishingly, despite years of losses, has somehow managed to avoid PSR breaches, is perhaps the worst example of all. It's been systematically raped of its cash flows for the purpose of personal enrichment. That process continues to this day with money now being syphoned off for real estate speculation.

PSR was initiated not just to protect individual clubs from bankruptcy but to try to preserve some sense of fair competition within the league itself. One could make a case that this has been enormously successful, making the EPL the dominant global football entertainment simply because of its relative competitiveness from top to bottom. Now we've moved on to rules similar to UEFAs FFP squad cost ratio with as yet unknown consequences.

But, overriding all of this is the stain that City have left on the league. Whether or not they win their appeal or negotiate a punishment that appeases their wealthy autocratic owners, that stain will never be removed in the minds of us, the English people who watch football.

The economic impacts are potentially enormous, not just for City and its owners, but for the whole league, all ts clubs and fans. This changes everything. Is there really anything positive that can come out of this?

04 Oct 2026 11:17:41
I mentioned recently I just don't care as much as I used to, and tbh, I can take or leave it nowadays. You can never stop following your team, it's in your blood, but the over commercialisation of football, particularly in England has ruined the game.

The debt piled on United without any sanction, the obscene fees and salaries we see, the way Sky positions the sport is massively over the top, we have lost all sense of sport.

The City debacle may irrevocably damage the EPL. An indifferent punishment leaves their credibility shattered forever, whilst an appropriate punishment could see a slew of lawsuits, both from City and clubs who feel they were wronged.

I don't see any positive outcome here.

04 Oct 2026 13:08:47
Tour de france has had re ord viewi g figures revenue and attended by more than ever post armstrong so i don't see any long term issues for the epl if they act in the right manner.

04 Oct 2026 14:10:34
Revert back to the Football League.
End the Premier League
Restructure lower leagues in tor region leagues from League 2 down.
Vote on a British League.

05 Oct 2026 11:22:39
Ken, I hope you are right. However I am reminded of Yates's lines. :
All has changed, changed utterly,
A terrible beauty is born.

05 Oct 2026 11:35:05
I think they'll get around it by not making the punishment as harsh as everyone is making it out. The club won't be wiped into oblivion and stripped of every title and every other club in England compensated for what they may or may not have won otherwise. Huge fine, large points deduction that will prevent them winning the league this season but that's about it.

05 Oct 2026 19:03:43
We can't just point fingers at city behaviour though. Those that loaded us with debt share equal blame. Is it any wonder we are so far behind them when our collective net investment is minus £1.7 billion, when you look at interest payments alone added to city overspend. Then you get the principal sum that is now £1.1bn. So we are £2.8bn behind city, that's more than an entire Chelsea along with their first years spending.

04 Oct 2026 07:39:02
{Ed's Note - EHL2020 has posted a new article entitled, Can Rangers Replace Morelos's Tactical Impact?

03 Oct 2026 15:22:44
This whole City thing will drag on and on and on. The water is getting muddier by the day.

Systemic cheating designed to circumvent the rules to gain an unfair sporting advantage.

The punishment needs to fit the crime, and seeing as this is a historic case in it's magnitude and timescale then the punishment has to be equal to that.

For at least a decade Man City have been cheating, with more likely to come out as the current charges only account for things done up to 2018. And let's be honest, no one believes that in 2018 after nearly a decade of cheating and getting away with it they suddenly decided to stop of their own accord.

Which actually makes punishing them trickier now, as it will set a precedent. If (as expected) they are found to have continued breaking the same rules to the same extent between 2018-2026 then they will have to face the same level of punishment.

Of course they will continue to fight this, they are owners who are not used to losing, ever. To them the answer is always how much to make it go away. Yet the cleanest solution, is also an unsavoury one. A deal needs to be agreed with the Man City owners to accept their guilt, to stop fighting it, and to cooperate with further investigations fully. Yet they will not do that without getting something in return.

Of course the alternative is for the EPL to continue to go to war with them and drag this whole thing out longer and longer, to continue to drag footballs reputation through the mud, until someone runs out of money to keep fighting it.

There is no clean and clear way to end this without City's cooperation.

While personally I'd like to see them relegated back to non-league football and made to take the long way back. The reality is that there is no way City will accept that, they will keep fighting it and dragging it out. And ultimately who wins? I know who loses. The fans lose, the people employed by the club lose, football loses.

The non-negotiable should be that City get all of their titles during that period stripped. I don't think they should be redistributed, as it's too messy. Just no winners during those seasons. You cannot allow a club to cheat to win and then retain the spoils of their cheating.

Beyond that, relegation, point deductions, director bans, transfer bans, and the timeframe for any/all of these will probably need to be negotiated.

Some sort of a deal that includes City accepting responsibility, fronting up about any additional cheating beyond 2018 and a total punishment being agreed for all of it is what needs to happen.

Unfortunately, I doubt that will happen as it appears that there are too many egos involved who aren't prepared to give an inch to gain a mile.

03 Oct 2026 18:15:44
My head is just hurting thinking about it now. im actually angry, not because of the cheating but because I've paid £1000s over the years to see a fraud of a league. But its the cup games that's got me, semis of fa and league cup, lost to players that shouldn't have been on pitch. I think i'm more angry now after a week (after laughing i must admit) because the game i love watching has to me been ruined by it all.

If and its a huge if, city get off I feel that i'm done with it all. My heart sack when Burham came out with that, now its all political and its just feeling s@@t. In fact i'm not angry i'm sad at the state of affairs.

03 Oct 2026 19:54:30
Nick, I feel much the same way. It's the idea that the sporting merit has been taken away. For some young fans it's wiped out all their memories of the game, the first 10 years of their life watching football means nothing as pretty much none of the results count for anything.

This is the thing that the EPL have to understand, the decisions they make now will have lasting long term impacts on the game. Do they turn. A generation of football fans away from the game by being weak, or do they start to rebuild footballs reputation (which is in the gutter right now) by being strong.

At the same time, the only way we get to move past this is anytime soon is either by City accepting a form of punishment and choosing not to drag it on, or for the EPL (and wider football) to be so hard on City that they wipe them out of existence to bring this to an end (which isn't something I'd want to see, while they might be rivals, the fans shouldn't suffer due to the mismanagement of the owners).

If not then this will drag on and on and on and continue to drag football through the mud until it turns all fans away.

03 Oct 2026 21:48:40
As you can suspend a person from their job whilst under investigation, can't they do that whilst it drags on?
It's odd they're allowed to keep playing until a punishment or appeal is decided.


As without the initial cheating and success it brought, they'd not have the squad etc they have today.
Games they don't play, automatic 3 points to the other team. End up relegated by not getting any points.

03 Oct 2026 22:21:23
Owners removed
Point deduction now. -90
Relegated to League 2 or below
Titles stripped and reassigned
Transfer Ban
Huge Fine enough to distributed proportionally to compensate all affected.

Open top bus tour with Sir Alex and Jose.

03 Oct 2026 22:55:24
Key, the problem is that suspending them until the outcome of any appeal etc would be what happens if they are successful in that appeal?

It's not like a normal job where you get suspended and someone else picks up your slack until the outcome.

If City win the appeal and have missed half a season how does the league recompense that? What do you do about the clubs who have already played City this season? Do you take away any points they might have picked up against them? And even if you did they still had to play that game, how can it be fair to have some teams in the league play one more game than the rest.

Then you have to think about all the people employed by City, not just the players and the coaching staff, but grounds keepers, the cleaners, the catering staff, the stewards, the shop staff. Those that rely on their wages who'll effectively be made redundant in time for Christmas.

03 Oct 2026 23:04:43
Utd Road, that would be the dream, although I wouldn't want the titles and cups reassigned. They are tainted and carry little to no sporting merit. Whose to say how those seasons would have panned out without the cheating from City. It's far to reductive to just give them to the team that finished second or lost the cup final.

City probably need there to be a clean end to this as much as the rest of football. Maybe by agreeing to a deal where they accept a punishment a part of that would include an agreement from the other English clubs and players not to take up private damages claims against them.

Maybe something more like stripped of all titles won during that period, a massive fine that goes into a pot and is redistributed to the impacted clubs and players. Then a points reduction of say 40 points per season for 9 years (the period of time they cheated), effectively barring them from being able to challenge for major titles during that time, but not forcing the club into a position where they will surely go out of business and all those innocent people lose their livelihoods.

04 Oct 2026 06:04:00
Really how does anyone in this day and age think when billions and billions is involved in anything, there is not some degree of it being tainted, it's very naive and your not in the real world if that's how you think, it's just a matter of what level it goes to

All the games of so called Fergie time, was that all official or was it an over zealous ref or a looked after ref, Barca now, Real Madrid have handed over dossier on it .

If you really think that city is the one and only case, your in king of the north 1970 world.

04 Oct 2026 07:48:48
Just for the record, during Fergies period as manager, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Everton all scored more 90+ minute winners than United.

04 Oct 2026 08:36:30
It's funny the idea from Shappy that City should have to agree with a punishment. A city fan was on the radio when my wife and I were driving and said City would have to agree to any punishment. She doesn't have any interest in football but said that is such utter rubbish and started laughing, then a few days later brought it up and laughed again. It's like someone being found guilty in court and sentenced to years in prison and the judge saying would you agree, the lag says, no your honour 2 hours community service and the judge says ok.

Shappy, I don't think City will agree to anything.

There has to be a punishment decided by the league and that's it. City are not the governing body. I don't think the owners are used to not having control and it is greatly angering them, but making aggressive sweeping statements about the PL is not going to help them. We have to see justice and actually agree it should be multi season points deduction but the first season must be enough to relegate them and all the titles taken away, a dash in the records. I don't want a second hand title particularly but no club should have a recorded achievement won through cheating.

If justice is not seen to be done then I don't think the Premier League will have the same attraction ever again. I don't want to watch a tainted product.

04 Oct 2026 09:33:18
Allowing City to cooperate means compromise.

Nope. No compromise. Otherwise it leaves the door open.

04 Oct 2026 14:14:54
Red Man, I'm not saying City have to agree to the punishment for it to be handed out, what I'm saying is that with the money and power that City's owners have that the only way to have a clean end to this is a punishment they agree to.

Otherwise they will drag this on and on and on and we will still have no clear end to this in 10 years time. They will appeal, they will sue, they will continue to drag football through the mud until they get l an outcome they are happy with. The longer that takes the less give they will likely have.

This whole debacle has taken what, 7years to get to this point, do you really think City won't keep fighting for another decade or more if they feel they should.

How many more tainted seasons do we want? How much longer do you want to watch football unclear whether it has any real sporting merit before you turn away from it?

It is in everyone's best interest to come to a quick and fair solution to this. That only happens if it is something City won't appeal anymore.

04 Oct 2026 14:17:49
I don't like the physiology to reject a title earned and deserved.

I don't see why Citeh need to agree to anything.

Anyone with a brain and confidence to speak said and knew they'd cheated. Same about sports washing of a religious Nation of Oil miners and human rights abusers.

The same people who looked the other way not wanting to to rock the boat and the same people bottling it when it comes repercussions.

This mafia level corruption - Government leaders, local councils, football.

We need a backbone and appetite for maximum blood letting.

Keep digging, check QPR players finances and I'm sure you'll see that result was a fix.

04 Oct 2026 22:02:56
So essentially you want City to choose their punishment? Sorry Shappy, i personally think that just farcical. It is not a clean end, it is sweeping the problem under the carpet.

Essentially setting a precedent that it is okay to cheat because whenever you get caught you can choose your punishment based on your monetary power.

Nope. MAXIMUM impact now to show some balls or the game is gone.

04 Oct 2026 22:56:32
You can't change what's happened (teams that have played so far this season) same as the work someone has done where you say others pick up the slack.
The club would still operate but not play in the PL.
And as crappy as it is for staff etc if a company closes outside of football (for whatever reason) the staff get made redundant etc. No one wants that for them but it's what happens.
Just because you want to be able to get on with football doesn't mean they should get off easily or it should be done in a way to get them back competing.


Need to be made an example of and plenty of other teams that have missed out on things because of it and deserve their space.
So the quick and fair solution would be to remove them during the process.
If (likely) guilty anything negative (being relegated by not playing) is time served already.
If not guilty they start playing again.

05 Oct 2026 06:48:47
"that with the money and power that City's owners have that the only way to have a clean end to this is a punishment they agree to."

No, no, no.

Who are the governing body? City's owners or the Premier League.

If the PL give in to "money and power" the league is done. As an example Everton could say they were not treated equally when deducted points because they didn't have money and power. It's just not acceptable and would destroy the fabric of the league.

05 Oct 2026 18:13:30
Keefy, I'm not saying they choose their punishment, I'm saying that if they want the quickest and cleanest end to this then everyone needs to sit down and negotiate that.

Otherwise City will keep fighting this and it will never end.

Do you want to see City still competing for the title over the next decade as we get appeal after appeal, after appeal?

Or do you want a line drawn under it, a fair punishment handed out, and for football to be able to move on and just enjoy the sport?

05 Oct 2026 19:42:54
By negotiate they get what they want as a punishment. They will drag it out anyway until they get that so

NO NO NO!

I, and I suspect most people, want the EPL to show some balls and make the decision that stops this ever happening again. Not one that leaves a chink of light for anyone to pull the same stunt moving forward.

Whether we get that is of course an entirely different discussion.