Doc

Yes, sporting integrity and even-handedness seem to have been forgotten somewhere. Clearly one rule for Rangers and another for everyone else.

And Man United won the treble that year while I and 50,000 other City fans watched City scrape past Gillingham in a Division 2 play-off at the old Wembley to get promotion and claw their way back from the abyss. I bet I treasure that day more than any Chelsea result you can recall from that non-descript season. You can hate my second club all you want, that's your decision. I don't hate Chelsea but it will just make it all the sweeter when we finish above you.

By a whisker before Ambramovich bought them I grant you that. But what about the seasons before that when they were playing such great football with Zola, etc, as you intimated in your first post? That suggestion was what really riled me because it was such utter nonsense. They were nowhere near top 4 and they were spending more than anyone except Man United. If you're in a glass house don't throw stones.

Call me an old cynic, but I expect nothing to come out of this.

Too easy. I suggest you check your FACTS before you spout such nonsense. Ambramovich bought Chelsea in at the end of the 2002-2003 season. That was the first season in years that they finished in the top 4 and it was widely recognised at the time that if Chelsea hadn't nicked 4th spot from Liverpool Ken Bates stood very little chance of paying finding the £70 million plus he needed to pay back the bondholders who owned the club. Ambramovich cleared that and brought an even bigger cheque book but don;t pretend that Chelsea weren't spending big under Bates. They were another Leeds waiting to happen until Abramovich decided London was a safer place than Moscow for some of his money. PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE SEASON 2002-03 Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Manchester United 38 25 8 5 74 34 40 83 2 Arsenal 38 23 9 6 85 42 43 78 3 Newcastle United 38 21 6 11 63 48 15 69 4 Chelsea 38 19 10 9 68 38 30 67 5 Liverpool 38 18 10 10 61 41 20 64 6 Blackburn Rovers 38 16 12 10 52 43 9 60 7 Everton 38 17 8 13 48 49 −1 59 8 Southampton 38 13 13 12 43 46 −3 52 9 Manchester City 38 15 6 17 47 54 −7 51 10 Tottenham Hotspur 38 14 8 16 51 62 −11 50 11 Middlesbrough 38 13 10 15 48 44 4 49 12 Charlton Athletic 38 14 7 17 45 56 −11 49 13 Birmingham City 38 13 9 16 41 49 −8 48 14 Fulham 38 13 9 16 41 50 −9 48 15 Leeds United 38 14 5 19 58 57 1 47 16 Aston Villa 38 12 9 17 42 47 −5 45 17 Bolton Wanderers 38 10 14 14 41 51 −10 44 18 West Ham United 38 10 12 16 42 59 −17 42 19 West Bromwich Albion 38 6 8 24 29 65 −36 26 20 Sunderland 38 4 7 27 21 65 −44 19 Let's look at your "top 4" club's record in previous seasons PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE SEASON 2001-02 Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Arsenal 38 26 9 3 79 36 43 87 2 Liverpool 38 24 8 6 67 30 37 80 3 Manchester United 38 24 5 9 87 45 42 77 4 Newcastle United 38 21 8 9 74 52 22 71 5 Leeds United 38 18 12 8 53 37 16 66 6 Chelsea 38 17 13 8 66 38 28 64 7 West Ham United 38 15 8 15 48 57 −9 53 8 Aston Villa 38 12 14 12 46 47 −1 50 9 Tottenham Hotspur 38 14 8 16 49 53 −4 50 10 Blackburn Rovers 38 12 10 16 55 51 4 46 11 Southampton 38 12 9 17 46 54 −8 45 12 Middlesbrough 38 12 9 17 35 47 −12 45 13 Fulham 38 10 14 14 36 44 −8 44 14 Charlton Athletic 38 10 14 14 38 49 −11 44 15 Everton 38 11 10 17 45 57 −12 43 16 Bolton Wanderers 38 9 13 16 44 62 −18 40 17 Sunderland 38 10 10 18 29 51 −22 40 18 Ipswich Town 38 9 9 20 41 64 −23 36 19 Derby County 38 8 6 24 33 63 −30 30 20 Leicester City 38 5 13 20 30 64 −34 28 Only 23 points behind Arsenal that year. PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE SEASON 2000-01 Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Manchester United 38 24 8 6 79 31 48 80 2 Arsenal 38 20 10 8 63 38 25 70 3 Liverpool 38 20 9 9 71 39 32 69 4 Leeds United 38 20 8 10 64 43 21 68 5 Ipswich Town 38 20 6 12 57 42 15 66 6 Chelsea 38 17 10 11 68 45 23 61 7 Sunderland 38 15 12 11 46 41 5 57 8 Aston Villa 38 13 15 10 46 43 3 54 9 Charlton Athletic 38 14 10 14 50 57 −7 52 10 Southampton 38 14 10 14 40 48 −8 52 11 Newcastle United 38 14 9 15 44 50 −6 51 12 Tottenham Hotspur 38 13 10 15 47 54 −7 49 13 Leicester City 38 14 6 18 39 51 −12 48 14 Middlesbrough 38 9 15 14 44 44 0 42 15 West Ham United 38 10 12 16 45 50 −5 42 16 Everton 38 11 9 18 45 59 −14 42 17 Derby County 38 10 12 16 37 59 −22 42 18 Manchester City 38 8 10 20 41 65 −24 34 19 Coventry City 38 8 10 20 36 63 −27 34 20 Bradford City 38 5 11 22 30 70 −40 26 19 points behind Man Utd and 4 points behind a Leeds about to implode PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE SEASON 1999-2000 Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts 1 Manchester United 38 28 7 3 97 45 52 91 2 Arsenal 38 22 7 9 73 43 30 73 3 Leeds United 38 21 6 11 58 43 15 69 4 Liverpool 38 19 10 9 51 30 21 67 5 Chelsea 38 18 11 9 53 34 19 65 6 Aston Villa 38 15 13 10 46 35 11 58 7 Sunderland 38 16 10 12 57 56 1 58 8 Leicester City 38 16 7 15 55 55 0 55 9 West Ham United 38 15 10 13 52 53 −1 55 10 Tottenham Hotspur 38 15 8 15 57 49 8 53 11 Newcastle United 38 14 10 14 63 54 9 52 12 Middlesbrough 38 14 10 14 46 52 −6 52 13 Everton 38 12 14 12 59 49 10 50 14 Coventry City 38 12 8 18 47 54 −7 44 15 Southampton 38 12 8 18 45 62 −17 44 16 Derby County 38 9 11 18 44 57 −13 38 17 Bradford City 38 9 9 20 38 68 −30 36 18 Wimbledon 38 7 12 19 46 74 −28 33 19 Sheffield Wednesday 38 8 7 23 38 70 −32 31 20 Watford 38 6 6 26 35 77 −42 24 All the money Bates borrowed and spent and they never came near the top 4 let alone top of the Premiership in the previous 3 seasons before 2002-03. Don't let your hatred of City's current success or the likelihood they'll finished above your lot this year blind you to these FACTS.

What rubbish. Chelsea were days from oblivion before Ken Bates sold them to Abromovich. City have money now but they didn't for years and have the most loyal fans in England. Twice relegated in the 1990's and they still drew 30,000+ every home game at Maine Road in the old 3rd division. Opposition fans sing "Where were you when you were shit?" and we sing back "We were here when we were shit!" Whatever success City now have is testament to the love and loyalty shown by City fans in those dark days. That's real dedication and Chelsea fans can't even come close to that. City fans saved and sustained the club just as Rangers fans are sustaining our club right now. City are just paying back that debt right now.

Hope you're right mate. City all the way.

Lack of resources or lack of will to take on the club that counts so many of Scotland's political class among its supporters?

40,000 sheep supporters eh? Gosh they've keeping their heads down over the last few years haven't they.

Anybody but the Sheep for me. Go ICT!

City's win against Hull, playing with 10 men for 80 minutes was massive. It's all right having games in hand but you have to win them. So far so good for City. Let's see if they can win the others.

Can't disagree with a lot of that. We've missed a unique opportunity to bring a bunch of youth players through and have them ready for the Championship and the SPL. Sorry Ally, another mark in the ledger against your managership.

Nothing believable. The performance was rank!

A one eyed creep at that. How about using those so-called investigative skills of yours on the other lot across the city and their land deals Thomo! Now that's a real story worth telling. But I'm not holding my breath.

Finally, some good news. Sooner we get rid this incompetent shower of vultures the better.

In short, "We're fine. Everyone else is fucked." Thanks Liewell.

Cue the "Lennon to Newcastle" speculation....

I hope you're wrong mate. But I suspect Chuck still has the odd card or two to play.

Signed. Get the bastard out.

That's an understatement. He looks like another chancer aiming to enrich his mates at the expense of the club. King however is just being another "Prince across the water" at the moment. If you're serious Dave, instead of feeding titbits to the papers, tell US the supporters what you would do in a clear and unambiguous way.

Would you buy a used car from either of them?

So without the money from the CL and Europa League qualifiers they would have been even deeper in the mire. Yes, everything in the garden really is rosy.

Demichelis was rubbish last night, an accident waiting to happen. Lescott had a great game against Chelsea and looked much more solid when he came on last night. Big mistake by Pelligrini. If it had stayed at 0-1 then I would still have been hopeful. A 2-0 deficit is a really big ask but City aren't dead yet. Where there's life there's hope.

Sadly Andy, I won't be holding my breath that anyone at the top in Scotland will be willing to pass comment or judgement even if this gets to Number One.

Disgrace and shame on Celtic and everyone who buys it. If this was a song advocating martyrdom and mayhem by a bunch of Al Qaida apologists would they be supporting it (in the interests of free speech, consistency, integrity, etc)? You bet they wouldn't. Earlier this week on Radio 5 Live John Hartson was reminding everyone about his trip to Camp Bastion and they were banging on about how many Celtic supporters had wanted to see him and get him to sign stuff. The premise being that Celtic are such as massive club that the supprters are everywhere and the British Army contains a large number of them. Given that this supposedly enormous number of Celtic supporters serve in Her Majesty's armed forces (and their oath is to her, not any government of the day), one wonders what they think of this behavior by their fellow fans who don't serve but happily carry out delusions of "active service" in their own tiny minds. It would appear that the majority of Celtic fans are now happy to glorify the murder of any British soldier, even if it is one of their own who just happens to be in the way. Shame on Celtic for not condemning this. Celebrate your Irish roots, that's fine. But not this way by sticking two fingers up to everyone touched by IRA/INLA violence. More shame on the media in Scotland for their silence. If you are so cowed by Peter Liewell and his ilk that you can't speak out on something that is this wrong and this distasteful what is your purpose?