I like Arsenal. Which is to say that I like to watch the actual sport, not constant 60 yard hail mary attempts and brutal pressing, and I like to see a team built, not bought. :)

Seriously though, on City, it’s kind of like deciding to be a Yankees fan if they had no history but just the $300M payroll. If I were choosing a team to follow I don’t think I’d want to have to root for a team that just went out with blank checks and started offering guys who were under contract double their salaries to come to a new team made up purely of mercenaries. It’s like Chelski earlier this decade except worse. Micah Richards is cool, but the rest of them are just mercenaries who would have never gone there if their wages weren’t literally double what anyone else would pay them. I’m not saying that if I were a player I wouldn’t go to work there, just that I wouldn’t choose that as the team to root for. As far as the organization, ask Kaka what he found out about that. And last, Mark Hughes is a doofus.

Also, sort of like someone would have said about the Cowboys (because of Terrell Owens) for the last few years, I really don’t know how anyone could root for Adebayor. I know I didn’t when he was at Arsenal. He is a sleezeball. I didn’t like the timing of him leaving because they wanted to challenge for the title this year, but I certainly wasn’t sad to see his act gone.

Yeah he’s actually a trillionaire: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansour_bin_Zayed_Al_Nahyan

He’s been on a mission to make them one of the big teams and has just tried to buy anything out there that looks like a good fantasy piece. Kaka was supposed to be a done deal last year until he backed out, reportedly after getting a feel for the fact that it was really kind of a small time organization with just a huge influx of money. He went after every big name and came out with just Robinho (not a bad consolation prize though), then set out buying up EPL stars this summer. Hughes replaced most of the starting lineup with these guys by literally paying around 170% to double what these guys’ established transfer value was and then instituting sort of a standard "double your wages" policy that is what I think finally got them Adebayor and Lescott. The whole Lescott episode was the sorriest one from my pov. They just wouldn’t leave it alone, even after the season had started, and they completely screwed up Everton in the process.

Angelos is fair, and Hicks when he first bought the Rangers isn’t a terrible example either, except that it’s just to a much higher degree than either of those two went to. Money is very literally no object for the Sheikh, and it’s the only reason they’re making any of the moves they are.

It had a lot to do with Arsene Wenger. Rivals will obviously tell a different story, but I find him to be a fascinating figure, and he is one of the unique guys in coaching/management in the last century to me. He has money but won’t spend it, because he’s committed (many think way too much so) to a building project that he’s been working on for a few years. He has a good eye for talent, and he demands a very attractive style of play.

When I started watching EPL, I didn’t really know what was going on and mostly paid attention to names that I recognized, like Wayne Rooney, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Thierry Henry and other big international stars like that. Henry was a lot of fun to watch and I watched some Arsenal games, learned more about Wenger and the team. Anyone who knows me and knows that sport could easily guess what club I’d be drawn to. I’m just surprised that more casual soccer fans (with no prior connections) who enjoy the player development side of the game and would presumably be drawn to the skill and offensively oriented style don’t wind up following them, at least while Wenger’s still there. It’s different for folks who have followed it their whole lives, because Arsenal as an entity used to be completely different, boring, very English, etc.

I’ve learned several Spurs taunts already too.

Bellamy is now a proud member of the ugliest strike force trio in the world, with Tevez and Adebayor leading the way. They need RSC out there just so people can stand to look at someone.

I find it a bit confusing about why the MC official site wouldn’t list every game they play at their ‘fixtures’ link. I guess this is why I need to lurk the MC fan forum everyday so I can keep up with what’s around the corner and not miss a game.

BTW, how does a team qualify for the Champions League? Is it based on its position in the standings?

Robinho – yeah, the press is just trying to raise conflict. I’ve been amazed about how sensationalized the English EPL press is. Hughes will just say something like, “It’s good to see Santa Cruz make his debut and we look forward to big things from him.” and the press will write 15 breathless articles about Hughes’ fervant belief in RSC as a lynchpin for the team’s success, blah blah blah.

You guys bag on the City defense but their goals against is pretty decent considering 4 came in one game against the top team ManU. Is it just a historical given about the City defense that they suck or something? I do see how tho’, with Bellamy, Robinho and Petrov on wings, you really are only defending with 6 men most often. [BTW, from what I’m learning, Bellamy’s recent run of play is possibly the best of his career, so it seems I might have just fallen in love with a spike on his graph.]

Y’all squawk about the money infusion artificially raising City’s threat, but it makes for an interesting watch for a noob like me. So many new decent players to blend together in search of a consistent, successful brand of play. The EPL is kinda like F1 racing tho, in that if you lag behind by having a bad month there really isn’t any passing to be found later considering the quality of teams at the top. Pressure’s on to win win win and not lose pace with the thoroughbreds. But I’m so new I’m kinda of still a fan of every team still, just putting the emphasis on City just for the heck of it.

It’s win-win for me no matter who wins. Except for Arsenal. They suck and I hate them.