City Player Reaction Yesterday

SER19

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Did anybody else get the sense that they didn't really care? They'd just lost a cup final against their massively unfancied rivals, for a chance to win a double-double, and from the final whistle onwards, to collecting medals, to some of the post match tunnel cam and interviews, they all seemed to have the demeanor of guys who have just lost some pre-season Audi Cup final or something. It was so so strange, I didnt get any sense of palpable disappointment.

The easy explanation is that winning a lot will make it harder to motivate, but I think the penny has dropped with most of them that nobody in the broader football world has any respect for their success. They won 4 titles in a row last week, and frankly, United winning the cup was a far bigger story with more emotive responses from United fans and rival fans. They seem to just be passengers in their own irrelevance now. I, among plenty others, genuinely cant remember who scored for them last week as they did 4 in a row. Or last season. I know there was a year where liverpool thought they might win it versus wolves and rodri scored for city, but other than that they have just blended into one vanilla yoghurt of success.

It certainly looks like a shot in the arm is needed (more financial cheating perhaps?) but interesting timing as if Guardiola is stepping away in a year, who will take over that transition
 
Nobody really gives a feck what they do. Commentators can bum them all they like….no fans actually care for their titles
 
Of course they don’t care, they probably saw the emotion from young players that really love their club and were overcome on the day, and couldn’t process it.

It’s all about the money if you go there, their “celebrations” when they win anything tells you how much it matters. It’s not real.
 
They’re deffo confused by the genuine passion and joy.
 
They're an insignificant club. Anyone in football knows their success comes with a massive asterisk. None of their players grew up dreaming of playing for Man City - any allure of joining City is to play for Pep and earn big money to an offshore account. It honestly means nothing to them.
 
SER19 said:
It certainly looks like a shot in the arm is needed (more financial cheating perhaps?) but interesting timing as if Guardiola is stepping away in a year, who will take over that transition
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I imagine when Kompany is sacked by Bayern at Christmas he'll take a few months off then rock up as Pep's replacement next summer.
 
They obviously put everything both physically and emotionally into their league campaign. They went out and got absolutely hammered afterward like their season was over.
 
SER19 said:
Did anybody else get the sense that they didn't really care? They'd just lost a cup final against their massively unfancied rivals, for a chance to win a double-double, and from the final whistle onwards, to collecting medals, to some of the post match tunnel cam and interviews, they all seemed to have the demeanor of guys who have just lost some pre-season Audi Cup final or something. It was so so strange, I didnt get any sense of palpable disappointment.

The easy explanation is that winning a lot will make it harder to motivate, but I think the penny has dropped with most of them that nobody in the broader football world has any respect for their success. They won 4 titles in a row last week, and frankly, United winning the cup was a far bigger story with more emotive responses from United fans and rival fans. They seem to just be passengers in their own irrelevance now. I, among plenty others, genuinely cant remember who scored for them last week as they did 4 in a row. Or last season. I know there was a year where liverpool thought they might win it versus wolves and rodri scored for city, but other than that they have just blended into one vanilla yoghurt of success.

It certainly looks like a shot in the arm is needed (more financial cheating perhaps?) but interesting timing as if Guardiola is stepping away in a year, who will take over that transition
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Maybe they're able to put things in perspective, and losing an FA Cup isn't the end of the world (they've won a PL), and they're thinking about their short breaks before international football?

I'm going with the easy explanation. Occam's razor and all
 
I was thinking the same.

I even caught a shot of Foden when it was 2-0 and he just oozed apathy. I found it quite strange and it slowly became apparent that that feeling of apathy existed among the lot of them.
 
Aye, we're all experts in exactly how fed up players losing games should look by now, and that wasn't it at all.

To be fair to them, they haven't had as much practice.
 
Maybe they don’t value the FA Cup as much as other trophies? They were pretty distraught after losing in the CL quarters.
 
I didn't get that impression tbh. Pep looked furious and Walker seemed very disappointed in his post match presser and was asked if it was odd that they were parading the title the day after (today). Then again Ake basically said it is what it is do maybe you are right. Them winning the treble (hate saying that) and 4 titles in a row simply makes it easier to lose an FA cup final that it would for us, given how poor we have been all season.
 
Emotionless robotic fake club they have turned into, even more in the last few years.
Even when they win they hardly properly celebrate and their fans’ reaction is equally embarrassing. For example when they scored against Spurs a couple of weeks ago - league winning goal and it hardly mattered to them.
Also the shocking atmosphere and turn out in their big CL games before they finally won it. Like some of the biggest games in their club’s history and it felt like some friendly.
Hell even their treble parade was a nothing story. Same as them winning the treble, was forgotten a few minutes later.
 
They have won a lot the last few years. Of course you can feel a bit desensitized.
 
Its incedible that they just lost a major cup final to their biggest rivals but were laughing while collecting their losers medals, it shows they really dont care

 
They just won a record 4th Premier League title in a row and are coming off of a historical treble. A lost FA cup final isn't something to get too fussed about in light of that. Not everyone is Ronaldo.
 
They are fake. Plus the club is clearly fairly disconnected from the fanbase and its own history

For example:
Its incedible that they just lost a major cup final to their biggest rivals
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See, this is definitely true historically and for their fans. But for the club in its current incarnation, for the players? I'm not even sure they see United as rivals at this point, let alone biggest. In much the same way United fans didn't think much of the City rivalry 25 years ago

As for them not caring: it's the FA Cup. They have like 2 english players on the team, the rest - the entire club really - is foreign. They didn't look like they cared because they didn't. They just won the PL
 
Only English players care about the oldest national cup competition in the world. You heard it hear first guys.

Real wouldn’t even care if a poor Atlético bent them over in the cup final, as long as the league was won.
 
Telsim said:
They just won a record 4th Premier League title in a row and are coming off of a historical treble. A lost FA cup final isn't something to get too fussed about in light of that. Not everyone is Ronaldo.
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Poor standards if so.

Wouldn’t wash with Sir Alex
 
adexkola said:
Maybe they're able to put things in perspective, and losing an FA Cup isn't the end of the world (they've won a PL), and they're thinking about their short breaks before international football?

I'm going with the easy explanation. Occam's razor and all
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Occam’s Razor refers to the simplest explanation often being the correct one. Their PL “celebrations” were shite too.

There are 115 pieces of evidence that there is a much simpler and more eloquent explanation. Occam’s Razor points to that one being the simplest, with overwhelming evidence.
 
duffer said:
They had 3. Man United also had 3.
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They're not a fake club though. They also didn't just win their 4th PL in a row, a year after a treble, and 6th in 7 years...
 
Telsim said:
They just won a record 4th Premier League title in a row and are coming off of a historical treble. A lost FA cup final isn't something to get too fussed about in light of that. Not everyone is Ronaldo.
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Im sorry but the FA Cup is the oldest and best domestic cup competition in the world so I refuse to believe that losing in the final to your biggest rivals isnt something to be fussed about.
 
Powderfinger said:
They obviously put everything both physically and emotionally into their league campaign. They went out and got absolutely hammered afterward like their season was over.
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Pep has said that didn't happen and they were not effected by the celebration. Have you got any proof of this?
 
predator said:
I didn't get that impression tbh. Pep looked furious and Walker seemed very disappointed in his post match presser and was asked if it was odd that they were parading the title the day after (today). Then again Ake basically said it is what it is do maybe you are right. Them winning the treble (hate saying that) and 4 titles in a row simply makes it easier to lose an FA cup final that it would for us, given how poor we have been all season.
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Yep Walker was absolutely rattled, going mad when someone didn't sprint off when subbed.
Even though there was a 2nd sub to come after, and everyone knows time is added anyway.
 
giorno said:
In much the same way United fans didn't think much of the City rivalry 25 years ago
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I disagree with this. Maybe foreign United fans didn't think too much of them before they won the lottery but United fans from Manchester always thought a lot of the rivalry. Personally, they have always been number one for me ahead of Liverpool regardless of how good/bad they were, and it was the same for pretty much everyone I knew because the area had a decent amount of City fans so you lived the rivalry.

I know Scholes always preferred beating them over Liverpool, too.
 
Their players were quite cool after the defeat. I guess if you just did the treble last season and won the league 4th time in a row, losing a domestic cup isn’t going to destroy you.
 
DomesticTadpole said:
Noticed how Haaland just bounced down the stairs after getting his medal with a big grin on his face.Very strange.
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Football is in a very strange place right now. Hopefully the powers that be recognise that if they don't root out some of the most blatant cheaters, that this kind of milquetoast shite will become the norm.
 
Nah they just had a bad day at the office. It happens even for them, they are human after all.

Pep was certainly fuming.
 
Mrs Rado and I did actually comment on how it seemed odd that the City players weren’t immediately removing their losers medals. Feels like 99/100 times players will rip them off immediately after walking away.
 
Maluco said:
Only English players care about the oldest national cup competition in the world. You heard it hear first guys.

Real wouldn’t even care if a poor Atlético bent them over in the cup final, as long as the league was won.
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Well yeah. We really wouldn't, beyond the initial embarassment. Annoying, but meh. Got an actual trophy to celebrate. Of course, CdR is not the FA Cup :)

And yeah, players at a club that is now collecting PL medals like candy are unlikely to particularly care about the FA Cup, doubly so when they didn't even grow up with it
 
giorno said:
In much the same way United fans didn't think much of the City rivalry 25 years ago
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25 years ago City were in League One giving away tickeys to their matches for free because they couldnt sell them and needing late goals to scrape through the playoff final against Gillingham so were completely irrelevant to us.
 
RedRocket9908 said:
Its incedible that they just lost a major cup final to their biggest rivals but were laughing while collecting their losers medals, it shows they really dont care

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I remember Keano talking about the some of the lads post 99 treble and saying some of them were saying “that’s it, I don’t care if I don’t win anything else now, we’ve done everything” and Keano said well yeah, there’s next season now.

Fergie also moved a bunch of players on after 99. Ambition and desire are huge in football.
 
I see what people are saying about desensitised and recent level of success may mean the cup is easier to take losing. But Im just not buying it - theres no need to go to such an extreme as saying they wouldn't be 'destroyed' by the loss, but they genuinely seemed so casual. Even when trailing by 1 with 7 minutes added, they cant exactly claim to have thrown the kitchen sink. On the day, regardless, you would just expect so much more in that atmosphere, a derby. There wasn't even a tackle in anger.

Guardiola will always take losing badly, but my sense is that it must be so dispiriting as a player to play for a club nobody cares about. Lets not forget that for a semi final against chelsea, in this same competition, they had to cover swathes of empty seats with flags. No wonder they don't care, they don't even have a fanbase that does. Guardiola deserves credit for motivating them to the degree he has, I think any replacement will struggle.

Silva, de Bruyne, Walker, Ederson and likely Haaland will all need replacing in couple of years around Guardiola leaving. They better make sure their recruitment stays so effective, though grealish, nunes, phillips are signs of some real errors of judgement.
 
OverratedOpinion said:
Pep has said that didn't happen and they were not effected by the celebration. Have you got any proof of this?
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I've heard some crazy things in my time -- bill clinton not having sexual relations with that woman, bernie madoff insisting he was running a perfectly legitimate business enterprise, that wooden horse not being full of angry vengeful soldiers -- but insisting Pep Guardiola isn't capable of talking absolute bullshit any time he opens his mouth might just take the proverbial biscuit.

might not have happened, true
 
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