Manuel Pellegrini deserves some credit

Steven, I am with you on the aspect of Hillsborough getting more tributes than other disasters. I think that is more of a reflection on how hard the Hillsborough Family Support Trust has worked to build awareness of the truth surrounding the tragedy around English football. GIven that Liverpool fans had to regularly endure the chants of "Murderers" (also in relation to Heysel I know) by fans of other clubs, that would be the reason in which the 92 football clubs were asked to observe a minute's silence. I do not know the extent in which the supporters of Rangers and Celtic, Bradford City and Lincoln City, or indeed Juventus campaigned for justice for their lost loved ones the way Liverpool fans did after Hillsborough. That is no slight on those other fans, none of whom deserved what happened to them, but more a reflection that Liverpool fans had more to fight for from their tragedy than the fans of the others. The people responsible for the disasters were all brought to justice. The events of Hillsborough is yet to see this eventuate. I would encourage using April 15 as a day to commemorate all footballing tragedies, so I am with you on that one.

Vas, that's fine and I understand the justice aspect as I already mentioned above. But why does that mean that all of the rest of us have to sit through a minute's silence for Hillsborough but none of the other tragedies? I'm presuming the silence is intended to remember the victims and not someone's pursuit of justice. In that respect, Hillsborough has been elevated to an entirely different status and I feel that the victims of the other disasters deserve the same respect, so either do it for all or for no one. Maybe they should encourage the yearly Hillsborough tribute to stand for all who have died or suffered injury at football matches in much the same way that 11th November started out as remembrance day for WW1 but is now for all who have died in conflicts. That would involve everyone rather than cause more dividing lines.

Quite a few comments that have come in since my post, so here goes. Swampy, never do I aspire for Liverpool to be a club that people need to feel forced to love. Having read the history, there is legitimate reason why Liverpool is a loathed entity for many a football fan. I personally there is far more to love, but call me a biased optimist. I hardly think Liverpool Football Club was itself responsible for the unjustified frenzy in the media that eventuated. I am certain that Brendan Rodgers would have preferred the press to be talking about something else and let him and his charges just go to work uninhibited. The regrettable thing about how the media built Liverpool up was how quick they were to tear the club down once the results against Chelsea and Palace went the way it did. As for Kenny Dalglish, I have no argument that his transfer outlay, his uncompromised defence of Suarez following the Evra comments, and his general coaching of the team was poor. But his role in reuniting a fractured club full of factions following the Hicks and Gillett ownership was crucial in rebuilding the joint. While FSG were owners in time to sack Roy Hodgson, they needed a steady hand who knew the club to truly get the place working again. For that, Liverpool fans can look past a really poor season in 2011/12 and recognise just how important a role Kenny played. As for the "circus surrounding Hillsborough", I can only say that the Ibrox disaster, the Bradford fire and indeed Heysel were all equal with Hillsborough in the terms of how human life was lost for the mere act of going to a football match. But our desire to create a "circus" is not about the fact a disaster occurred, but how the truth of what caused it occur was covered up so that the people responsible could avoid punishment. These were then replaced by lies about Liverpool fans desecrating their dead loved ones by robbing them, urinating them, and being accused of killing them (as per the views of Kelvin McKenzie and The Sun). These lies were taken as gospel all throughout the UK, and not until last year has their been any acknowledgement of what actually took place. I can guarantee you Steven, Liverpool's circus surrounding Hillsborough will always continue so long as the people who actually were responsible continue to be unpunished. The murderers who called themselves Liverpool fans were rightly brought to justice following the Heysel disaster, and may they rot. No such justice has ever occurred at Hillsborough.

I'd like to make one simple comment. Manchester City have never bought the best players. They have bought good ones sure, but they have not bought one single player who you would consider being close to the best, at the time they were acquired. Let's take a look at the squad Hart - At City from a teenager Kompany - Bought from Anderlecht for about 6 million quid DiMichelis - Bought from Atletico for a few million. Atletico got him on a free transfer a month earlier Zabaleta - Another relatively cheap purchase from Espanyol Clichy - 7 million dollar deal from Arsenal Toure - Probably the biggest player they bought. Even then he was considered superfluous at Barcelona, so while great he wasn't considered the absolute best Nasri - Good player but not great. Won't travel with France to World Cup Silva - A great player for Valencia, but barely played for Spain in 2010 before he transferred to City Fernandinho - Again good player, but hardly great Aguero - A very good player when he was bought from Atletico Negredo - A very good player from Sevilla Navas - A workhorse for Sevilla So there you have it. They bought a bunch of good players who have turned out great. They haven't done what Real Madrid have, for example, and splashed money on superstars like Ronaldo, Bale, Modric, Alonso. I would go as far to say that Arsenal bought a more established player in Ozil than City have, Chelsea bought a bigger more established player in Torres than City have, and United bought a bigger more established player in Van Persie than City have. That is not to say these players are better than City's currently, but at the time of purchase these players were all superstars. Toure was perhaps the only player who was a superstar before he arrived. The rest became superstars after they arrived. As much as they may have wanted to, they didn't buy Rooney or Bale or Messi or Ronaldo or Iniesta or Ribery or Ibrahimovic. So there is still massive credit for the coaching staff to get together a bunch of very good players to work together. To a man they have turned out to better players than their transfer fees indicated at the time (Nasri perhaps being the exception).

All fair points Swampy and you right about the Liverpool brand in Asia. ManU have obviously taken the biggest strides in that respect in the past 20 years but there is still a vast Liverpool contingent that has never gone away, the support is still huge. The other ones I find interesting in SE Asia are Spurs fans who seem to me to be far more prevailant than Arsenal fans and there are a lot of Newcastle fans too I've noticed.

I certainly don't wish ill to any supporter of any team. The word 'hate' is only used in the context of fandom. I'm no ultra. I grew up during Liverpool's golden era and missed the end of my team's last one. The reds were certainly the team to beat back then and success breeds dislike amongst opposition supporters. Liverpool were the first team to take their brand beyond Europe to Asia. I imagine they have a huge dormant support there. I remember staying near a mall in Bangkok once that had a 'sports' store that had nothing else in it bar Liverpool paraphernalia! Not surprised you got such one sided coverage! I just felt the whole thing this last month became less about Liverpool as a club but more about an underlying patriotism of an 'English club' beating the invasion of foreigners in the media. Thinly veiled as it was. Rogers numerous times being called a great English manager (I'd ask him if he thought he was English). How many times it was mentioned that Liverpool had x number of Englishman starting blah blah blah. I even saw a hypothetical table that showed table positions if they only included goals by Englishman! I think it all just undermined what a great job Pellegrini did as a first season manager. You can buy all the talent in the world but it has never guaranteed a title. Ever.

Ah ok gotcha mate. I think what did happen with regard to Liverpool towards the end of the season was something I'd attribute entirely to the media. For instance, in Singapore we were constantly forced by ESPN to sit through the Kop singing 'You'll never walk alone' with zero commentary before each and every Liverpool home game they screened. Whilst it's a wonderful tradition, it means little to non Liverpool fans and showed what appeared to be an element of favouritism. Nearly every newspaper in the UK had decided that the neutrals all wanted Liverpool to win, again everyone was being told they were supporting Liverpool whether they liked it or not, so people went the other way........... I think also (and I say this with full appreciation of what happened as I remember the day vividly) that many many people who don't follow Liverpool or are from the city have become tired with the whole circus surrounding Hillsborough every year. There have been many other tragedies such as the Ibrox disaster, the Bradford fire and of course Heysel which are not remembered in any kind of way particularly nowadays. By all means Liverpool should remember the day in anyway they so wish but Rangers play on the date of their disaster, as do Bradford and Juventus. I'm aware of the issue regarding the pursuit of justice but I think that many people now feel 'why on earth does the world have to stop' every year. People tell jokes about 9/11 but you simply cannot utter a word about Hillsborough. It was an awful day and should never be forgotten but it's also sometimes time to move on, I really hope none of that comes across as callous as that's the last thing I intend. I think any 'anti Liverpool' sentiment that was felt was a culmination of all this and I think this resides squarely with the media rather than anything to do with the fans of Liverpool. To my mind they remain THE British club as when I was growing up they were in their pomp and those 5 European Clubs shine brightly and yes, I'm bloody jealous of those!! Doesn't make me wish any ill to anyone associated with the club however.

I was referring to king kenny stint as coach before Rodgers - bad recruiting, bad coaching: just bad in general. Super player in his day. I work with numerous people from across Europe & believe me the opinion of many of my colleagues is not positive in respect to Liverpool.

Swampy, I don't think Liverpool is a hated club at all, what makes you say that? I think they have a huge amount of historic rivalries with United and Everton and I think they've had a good old fashioned ding dong with Chelsea over the past decade as a result of both clubs doing well in the Champions League as well as Mourinho and Benitez being at each other. I don't see why it's not legitimate that Dalglish is mentioned, it was a record transfer fee and we were discussing clubs spending money. In the same respect then you'd have to exclude the likes of Yaya, Aguero and David Silva who have been unqualified successes also? I don't think there's any hatred towards Liverpool whatsoever, just rivalries that as you say, are as a result of either doing well or are geographical. Try being a Chelsea fan mate, we're just luuuuuurrrrrved!

Australian/US sports leagues don’t have an even, fair draw so finishing first is not the same thing as Football. Having a finals system is no guarantee of having an exciting end to the season as well. I’ve seen plenty of boring, one sided Grand Finals in my time.

I was right with your passionate defence until you mentioned Kenny Dalgleish. He was a disaster. In the same time city have spent £640m Liverpool spent about £290m. £60m of that on Carroll and Downing. Good for 4th highest in the EPL in that time. Poor poor Liverpool. Vas, as impassioned as you are, you will not be able to alter mine and many other fans view that Liverpool is a club to be hated, not loved. This is what makes a being a supporter so much fun. If the hatred is there again from rival fans it means your club must be doing well (or is Stoke).

Vas, I wouldn't go as far as saying they bought the title back then but they did spend an awful lot of money relatively when they were in a position to do so. Kenny Dalglish was a British transfer record, Beardsley and Barnes weren't cheap and then were later signings such as Mark Wright (record fee for a defender) and Dean Saunders (another English record fee). Collymore was 8.5M in 1995, another British record at the time so they certainly weren't shy. The top clubs spend what they can, it's always been the way. I have no issue with it.

I'll tell you one change I WOULD make to the current system. Right now, it's 3 up, 3 down. I would change it to 4 up, 4 down. My reasoning as follows. You keep the sanctity of the league system whilst increasing the excitement at the bottom. Given that your relegation chances are increased I think (yes it could go the other way) that would force clubs to be more prudent planning for that eventuality. There would be far more movement between the Premiership and the Championship narrowing the gap. Also, where there are playoffs are in the Football league - which greatly divide opinion. Many think that finishing 3rd and losing out to the team that finished 7th is wrong, I kinda agree, there's something sacred about the top 3 for me. Gold, silver and bronze I guess. This way, top 3 go up automatically and then 4-8 going into the playoff and it almost becomes a complete bonus. Increases excitement towards the end of the season and the movement of teams in both leagues whilst not really bucking the system too much.

Bob, you are talking about a 100 odd years of sporting tradition that you wish to sacrifice for the sake of the Americanisation of the sport. I'm well aware that some countries enjoy play offs, finals whatever you want to call it but football is football and always been this way. As Vas says, the vast majority of football fans enjoy that first place means first place and I think if you suggested tampering with the time honoured league system, you'd have an almost unanimous 'no' from the European leagues at least. That's why they have Cup competitions running in parallel, so there is knock out football also. There are some things left that we treasure and the integrity of football leagues is one of them.

No, I'm not taking the mickey. I totally support keeping the premier status of first past the post - I just feel a finals series could add another great chapter to the season and the buildup to the finals games could be the best in the world. Swampy is right though, it would change the dynamics and I don't ever see it happening. The consolation is that there is just so much football on offer throughout the world there is always a game to look forward to that means something to someone.

Please let him be taking the mickey. Love the idea that first place actually means something, as opposed to a weasley eighth place in the NRL or AFL contributing to a possible title in only four weeks work.

Swampy, there is no question of City's merit to the title this season. Manuel Pellegrini has been a wonderful addition to the Premier League this season, and his players are far more humbler in victory than Chelsea ever could be. The table never lies. But what is a lie is your assertion that Liverpool "bought" titles in the 1980s. The club did look overseas for players, but there was never a massive discrepancy between the wages and transfer fees that Liverpool paid compared to other clubs. The club never weighted the value of overseas talent like Molby over the likes of Barnes, Sounness, Hansen, and of course Dalglish. Such a contrast in spending never occurred in the days prior to the Premier League. However, unlike other Liverpool fans, I will never claim the Premier League era being the reason why Liverpool have stumbled. Sure, other clubs have benefitted from the extra money, but so have we. But our transfer record in the Premier League era has overall been poor. That is no fault than our own. But what I will say is that fate has been incredibly kind to Manchester City, and City fans should acknowledge that as opposed to presuming their lot is all earnt. The 02 Commonwealth Games gifted them a newly built stadium for 20m quid that required very little transition from athletics ground to football ground. That alone was enough for the Abu Dhabi Group to purchase the club, but the fact they bought it from a man awaiting criminal conviction in Thaksin Shinawatra was yet another aspect that made a purchase easier for them. Since the Arabs' purchase, they have been able to invest 640m quid to buy the world's best talent on wages alone (for there was no other reason the best players would go there other than salary at that time - CL was not at the club at the time). Since then, Manchester City and Chelsea have operated on a far different playing field from the rest of the league. And they have silverware to show for it, so good on them. The romance of Liverpool winning the title extends not only to its glory years in the 70s and 80s, but also the fact that Liverpool were near extinction in 2010 at the conclusion of the Hicks/Gillett ownership. What FSG, Kenny Dalglish (so crucial at healing the wounds of that time) and Brendan Rodgers have done since then is nothing short of remarkable. The fact the club fell two points short of the highest spending team in football history demonstrates this progress, and it's far too easy to say Liverpool fluffed their lines at the last hurdle. In truth, the club punched above its weight this season, and next season can be better with a larger squad and a wonderful young manager who is building a football club from the ground up, with a wonderful youth academy, and not an overreliance on inflating the transfer market. But back to City. They truly were the best, and they deserve the win. I will not though deny people their sense of romance in wanting Liverpool to win the title, given their travails in the last 20 years (especially the last five).

Bob, I presume you're taking the mickey right?

Bravo Chris for the article. I'm a city supporter through and through and was astonished at how the media all scrambled on to the Liverpool wagon singing their praises merrily. I was born a 'while ago' and long before the premier league began Liverpool were the most hated team in England, if not Europe with a very chequered past and an arrogance developed over a particularly successful period. Liverpool were the team in the 80's that 'bought' titles - being the first team to really look to europe and beyond for squad members. Pellegrini did an amazing job, calmly guiding what must be the largest squad of humongous egos in Britain to the title. This was a team that ended last season in complete chaos - a managerless City barely even turned up to play Wigan in the FA Cup final. I questioned how he handled Joe Hart and the persistence with Demichelis, who looked past his prime at first, but on each count he was proved correct. I would certainly say we progressed in Europe as well. Beating Bayern at Allianze and making through to the ko stage was much better than the past couple of seasons. But for the typically suspect UEFA draw City may have advanced further. As a side note I wish they would make the 4th spot to the UCL the winner of the FA Cup which would give it a helluva lot more incentive to win it. Hull playing in the Europa just isn't as big a story as if they were in UCL. It might get Wenger out of his comfort zone as well.