UEFA Champions League 2023/24 Season

[Zoomic]

I also believe that Newcastle can't be a title contender. That is too much for them now. They don't have a qualified squad to make it there. I remember how Chelsea managed to win the Champions League title with Tuchel although their squad quality was worse than teams like Real Madrid, Manchester City.

However Newcastle's squad quality isn't as good as Chelsea's firstly. Secondly they don't have as much experience as Chelsea in this tournament. They aren't as big as them in short. They don't have a mentality that is as strong as Tuchel's Chelsea either now.

Considering all of this the biggest achievement they can get is to qualify for next round in my opinion.

UEFA Champions League is here and there's quite numbers of elite clubs that have good chances of winning it. I've my won favorites, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich. Other clubs would only compete but they will not be able to match the level up energy with these clubs mentioned. We can't compared the situation of Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel, he has solid plans for the club. We shouldn't be having this conversation about Newcastle United winning the UEFA Champions League, it's an impossible mission. We know the competitive teams that would push harder for the league.

I do not have much to say about the situation of Newcastle now because it is pitiful the condition that they found themselves. That condition does not fit new people to the Champions League. There is already imbalance in the  squad and they are already struggling in the Premier League. This squad cannot fight effectively in the group of death that Newcastle found themselves.
I can only vouch for Newcastle by January, if they will be able to land a few quality players.

[topbitcoin]

I do not have much to say about the situation of Newcastle now because it is pitiful the condition that they found themselves. That condition does not fit new people to the Champions League. There is already imbalance in the  squad and they are already struggling in the Premier League. This squad cannot fight effectively in the group of death that Newcastle found themselves.
I can only vouch for Newcastle by January, if they will be able to land a few quality players.

I don't really agree with this.
Indeed, their condition in domestic competitions, especially with 3 consecutive defeats at the moment, is quite different from their performance last season and this is indeed a bit difficult for them because the early season performance in domestic is not going too well especially with the condition of the group which is indeed the most difficult group this season in the Champions League, but when talking about domestic performance, it may not be a reference either. Even if it is in this case their performance needs to change because this also returns to the mentality that must be disturbed but on the other hand, when comparing domestic competitions and the Champions League I don't think this will be possible especially we haven't seen how their debut in the match because the Champions League is still not played.

Concerns are definitely there for them apart from the current debutants after so long not being in the Champions League, they are also in a tough group but even so judging from the start they can't do much either I don't think this is too true because there could be a surprise from Newcastle because their chance is also still there.

[Altryist]

I do not have much to say about the situation of Newcastle now because it is pitiful the condition that they found themselves. That condition does not fit new people to the Champions League. There is already imbalance in the  squad and they are already struggling in the Premier League. This squad cannot fight effectively in the group of death that Newcastle found themselves.
I can only vouch for Newcastle by January, if they will be able to land a few quality players.

This situation needs to be corrected not by new players, but by working with the team. Newcastle, as we saw it at the end of last season, was a team that could compete equally with the top clubs in Europe. And in friendly matches in preparation for the new season, they also played very well, even the opening match against a very strong Aston Villa was more than impressive, perhaps even such a big victory allowed the Newcastle players to relax. There is nothing surprising in the defeats to City and Liverpool, these are very strong teams and Newcastle lost to them by only one goal, which is not very critical, the defeat to Brighton does not look very logical, but I think it is too early to talk about a crisis in Newcastle, although its position In the Premier League they made it very difficult.

[Ayers]

I don't think one of the goals for Newcastle this year is the UCL championship. They will want to go to the best place they can this year. Bayern and City are really the favorite teams. Real Madrid, on the other hand, may have problems in the UCL due to the problem of missing players in the forward area. Their chances are slimmer than the two teams with Harry Kane and Haaland. It will definitely be an exciting season, we will wait and watch the winner together.

With Newcastle United, if they can go to a first knock out phase, it is a great success for them. Even before the group drawing results are out, I don't believe Newcastle United have ever dreamed more than a first knock out phase. They have to consider this first season in Champions League as a great chance to have real lessons and experience in Champions League.

With the group they fell in, they will face with biggest clubs and it is chance they won't have from friendly matches. Even they can set up friendly matches with those big clubs, they are different than real matches in Champions League.

I don’t think it is actually a realistic idea for them to go for the Champions League trophy. They should concentrate on the English Premier League. The sad thing is that they have started the English Premier League season pretty badly. They will have to improve quickly. I don’t want to say that they do not have any chance to win the Champions League. But to be honest it is the truth. They will barely have any chance against the best of the best clubs from all around the world. The main target for them should be to finish in the Champions League sport, in the first four positions again in the English Premier League.

[Strongkored]

I don’t think it is actually a realistic idea for them to go for the Champions League trophy. They should concentrate on the English Premier League. The sad thing is that they have started the English Premier League season pretty badly. They will have to improve quickly. I don’t want to say that they do not have any chance to win the Champions League. But to be honest it is the truth. They will barely have any chance against the best of the best clubs from all around the world. The main target for them should be to finish in the Champions League sport, in the first four positions again in the English Premier League.

I agree with you, targeting the Champions League trophy seems too excessive for Newcastle, not because they are considered an average team in this tournament but because this is the most difficult competition which several big clubs take a long time to conquer.
It's better for Newcastle to play well in this competition and forget about trophies because that will make them very stressed. The good thing for Newcastle is that they can qualify from the group phase because when they can qualify it means that two teams who are used to this tournament will be eliminated more This start is even a difficult task for Newcastle although not impossible.
Newcastle and Arsenal are the teams from the English Premier League whose performances are most anticipated because they are both quite good locally but this is not a tournament they play in often so their achievements will be very interesting to look forward to.

[Docnaster]

I don’t think it is actually a realistic idea for them to go for the Champions League trophy. They should concentrate on the English Premier League. The sad thing is that they have started the English Premier League season pretty badly. They will have to improve quickly. I don’t want to say that they do not have any chance to win the Champions League. But to be honest it is the truth. They will barely have any chance against the best of the best clubs from all around the world. The main target for them should be to finish in the Champions League sport, in the first four positions again in the English Premier League.

I agree with you, targeting the Champions League trophy seems too excessive for Newcastle, not because they are considered an average team in this tournament but because this is the most difficult competition which several big clubs take a long time to conquer.
It's better for Newcastle to play well in this competition and forget about trophies because that will make them very stressed. The good thing for Newcastle is that they can qualify from the group phase because when they can qualify it means that two teams who are used to this tournament will be eliminated more This start is even a difficult task for Newcastle although not impossible.
Newcastle and Arsenal are the teams from the English Premier League whose performances are most anticipated because they are both quite good locally but this is not a tournament they play in often so their achievements will be very interesting to look forward to.

Newcastle has really improved in their performances since the take takeover by their current owners and were able to show their improvement by finishing in the top four of the English Premier League last season and qualify to play in the UEFA Champions League competition this season.
Their improvement since in the last two seasons is very commendable.  Now that they'll be playing in the European Cup for the first time in almost 20 years, I don't think their priority will be to finish the season as the winners of the competition because though it's not impossible, but it'll be extremely difficult for them to achieve such feat. So I think they'll want to have a good season in the UCL and and concentrate more in the English Premier League.

[swogerino]

I don’t think it is actually a realistic idea for them to go for the Champions League trophy. They should concentrate on the English Premier League. The sad thing is that they have started the English Premier League season pretty badly. They will have to improve quickly. I don’t want to say that they do not have any chance to win the Champions League. But to be honest it is the truth. They will barely have any chance against the best of the best clubs from all around the world. The main target for them should be to finish in the Champions League sport, in the first four positions again in the English Premier League.

I agree with you, targeting the Champions League trophy seems too excessive for Newcastle, not because they are considered an average team in this tournament but because this is the most difficult competition which several big clubs take a long time to conquer.
It's better for Newcastle to play well in this competition and forget about trophies because that will make them very stressed. The good thing for Newcastle is that they can qualify from the group phase because when they can qualify it means that two teams who are used to this tournament will be eliminated more This start is even a difficult task for Newcastle although not impossible.
Newcastle and Arsenal are the teams from the English Premier League whose performances are most anticipated because they are both quite good locally but this is not a tournament they play in often so their achievements will be very interesting to look forward to.

Newcastle has not been doing that great in the Premier League and that is a clear indication that asking to fight for the trophy for them is not something to be asked about.I would be very happy if they manage to go 1/16 or even if they pass the group stage which they should do as a bare minimum.

Luckily we start next week a new season which will not be interrupted by that World Cup on November which for me made not that much sense and as such we will be seeing a normal season and we will have a clear indication of how good teams are in this upcoming week in the match day one.

[naira]

Based on their performance in the Premier League, Arsenal is the most favored team in Group B. Arsenal performed extraordinary in their last match when they destroyed Manchester United, they managed to break into Manchester United's goal three times which proved that the sharpness of their front line could still be relied on. Comparing the opponents Arsenal face in Group B will give them the opportunity to finish as Group Champions, while the runner up will probably be Sevilla based on their experience on the European stage.

Being in group B ensures there are no obstacles whatsoever and Arsenal and Sevilla clearly dominate. But football is always unpredictable, even though Arsenal performed extraordinarily in the Premier League, they also need to improve their mentality for the UCL competition which is clearly competitive compared to their respective leagues. Let's say Arsenal and Sevilla qualify, while the real competition only begins when strong clubs face Arsenal for example Bayern Munich, Napoli, or Madrid. So in essence, Arsenal enjoyed the start of the season in the UCL because after that there was no time to ensure confidence that it would be easy to beat tougher opponents.

Maguire and Evans are too slow and they will be dead points in Manchester United defense system when facing with young and very speedy attacking players of Bayern Munich. Hope that Manchester United will not use both central defenders in the match.

Given how poorly Harry Maguire is performing for the team, I'm confident that Manchester United won't use either of their central defenders despite the losses he has caused them. In the Premier League, whenever he has played, the team has either lose or draw; now that we're talking about the Champions League, how can we expect the team to use Harry Maguire? If care is not taken, the team will continue to lose games this season if they don't move him to another club. However, with the majority of their players injured, I believe the team won't make any errors and won't lose any games. It's time for Maguire to depart from the team; West Ham should have continued to pursue his signing because Manchester United won't be able to see this much longer.

Don't say that, because the proof is that Erik Ten Hag still plays Maguire in the match against Arsenal. This means that, whether United fans like it or not, please support Maguire wholeheartedly and pray that he can play even better. BTW, there are a few rumors that Erik Ten Hag will entrust Maguire as a sticker because Hojlund, Sancho and Antony will obviously be absent. If the rumors are true, I will be very happy and want to see how Maguire collaborates with Rashford and Garnacho to definitely have a sharper attack. 

[rendravolt]

Group H may already be certain that Barcelona will be the group winners if they don't suffer the same fate as last season. However, the other three teams such as Porto, Shakstar, Antwerp are dark horse teams which could become a nightmare for Barcelona at any time. We certainly already know that what is shown in the domestic league is very good but sometimes it is not the same as what is done in the Champions League and Barcelona did that last season. Despite all that, I will still favor Barcelona of course and the runners up will probably be Porto or Shaktar.

[Davian144]

I agree with what you say, that Newcastle certainly will not have a tough goal of becoming UCL champions this season. Just by entering the UCL zone, they are already grateful. But I don't think they will stop in the group phase, really looking forward to the surprise in group F.

Many people are waiting for an extraordinary surprise from Group F because there are really great teams there, even though one team like Newcastle does not have a target to become champions in the Champions League this season because Newcastle is still a newcomer to the Champions League this season. However, I'm sure there will be a surprise from group F because Newcastle themselves will bring out their full strength in the group stage this time.

I see Real Madrid lacking in the front line this season. But for some reason, if you play in the UCL, Real Madrid has stronger DNA.

This is because the Real Madrid team has won so many titles that they always have a stronger mentality when playing in the Champions League, even though when they see Real Madrid playing in the domestic league it is very different from their game in the Champions League.

[fzkto]

Group H may already be certain that Barcelona will be the group winners if they don't suffer the same fate as last season. However, the other three teams such as Porto, Shakstar, Antwerp are dark horse teams which could become a nightmare for Barcelona at any time. We certainly already know that what is shown in the domestic league is very good but sometimes it is not the same as what is done in the Champions League and Barcelona did that last season. Despite all that, I will still favor Barcelona of course and the runners up will probably be Porto or Shaktar.

I can't remember which season, but Shakhtar beat Real Madrid in an away match. Maybe the same thing will happen to Barcelona. Although they could probably be in first place. I think it will be Barcelona or Porto. These two clubs are stronger than Shakhtar and Antwerp in my opinion.

[slapper]

Whoever makes it out of this group into the knockout phase is arguably a good team. I don't mean through luck, because with the strength of the 4 teams that will meet each other, it will certainly be difficult for them to beat each other and it could be that at the end there will be a calculation of goal productivity to determine which team qualifies for the next round.
True, Newcastle are relatively new to being a big contender in the Champions League, but we have seen the significant development they have shown in recent seasons, especially in the last season where they can compete convincingly in the top 4.

Yes, that was last season, but the beginning of this championship showed that not everything was all right with them. Perhaps these opening defeats will be a cold shower for Newcastle and they will be able to improve their performance further, because at the moment they do not look as good as they did before. Their group is also very difficult, RSG, Dortmund and Milan, each of these teams can qualify for the playoffs, let's see if Newcastle can be a worthy competitor for them.

Newcastle definitely looks like one of those teams that would not be easy to beat them normally and they may have some sort of situation going around right now but I honestly believe that with the type of money the owner has, if the owner decides to spend a lot of money on the club, they could be the new City as well. They could spend as high as a billion dollars and nothing would happen to the owner, they would be able to do that and they would not be even spending 1% of their money to do that.

This is why I believe that Newcastle will get better and better, they may have started not that great so far but I believe that it is going to happen and we are going to see them do a lot better in the near future for sure.

Newcastle's progress has been closely monitored, and I agree that if they obtain the money, they might rise in the football league. Giving money isn't the sole option, though. Without a plan, many teams squander a lot of money. Despite their recent struggles, they must get the appropriate players. For your reasons, Eddie Howe is a terrific coach. I don't think Newcastle can improve immediately without additional experience

[Jody.Drummer]

Group H may already be certain that Barcelona will be the group winners if they don't suffer the same fate as last season. However, the other three teams such as Porto, Shakstar, Antwerp are dark horse teams which could become a nightmare for Barcelona at any time. We certainly already know that what is shown in the domestic league is very good but sometimes it is not the same as what is done in the Champions League and Barcelona did that last season. Despite all that, I will still favor Barcelona of course and the runners up will probably be Porto or Shaktar.

I can't remember which season, but Shakhtar beat Real Madrid in an away match. Maybe the same thing will happen to Barcelona. Although they could probably be in first place. I think it will be Barcelona or Porto. These two clubs are stronger than Shakhtar and Antwerp in my opinion.

I would rather say they are the biggest favorites than say they will win the group. Because something unexpected could happen to them even though in terms of the composition of players and strength they are the strongest team in this group. This is the Champions League and surely all clubs will race to show the best of their game. Barcelona have also not been fully stable, maybe they won La Liga last season and when they were in the Champions League, even the Europa League they were also eliminated. This season we also haven't seen their performance when dealing with clubs outside La Liga and in strength is certainly different from clubs in La Liga. They must be careful with the 3 clubs in this group.

[klidex]

Whoever makes it out of this group into the knockout phase is arguably a good team. I don't mean through luck, because with the strength of the 4 teams that will meet each other, it will certainly be difficult for them to beat each other and it could be that at the end there will be a calculation of goal productivity to determine which team qualifies for the next round.
True, Newcastle are relatively new to being a big contender in the Champions League, but we have seen the significant development they have shown in recent seasons, especially in the last season where they can compete convincingly in the top 4.

Yes, that was last season, but the beginning of this championship showed that not everything was all right with them. Perhaps these opening defeats will be a cold shower for Newcastle and they will be able to improve their performance further, because at the moment they do not look as good as they did before. Their group is also very difficult, RSG, Dortmund and Milan, each of these teams can qualify for the playoffs, let's see if Newcastle can be a worthy competitor for them.

Newcastle definitely looks like one of those teams that would not be easy to beat them normally and they may have some sort of situation going around right now but I honestly believe that with the type of money the owner has, if the owner decides to spend a lot of money on the club, they could be the new City as well. They could spend as high as a billion dollars and nothing would happen to the owner, they would be able to do that and they would not be even spending 1% of their money to do that.

This is why I believe that Newcastle will get better and better, they may have started not that great so far but I believe that it is going to happen and we are going to see them do a lot better in the near future for sure.

Newcastle's progress has been closely monitored, and I agree that if they obtain the money, they might rise in the football league. Giving money isn't the sole option, though. Without a plan, many teams squander a lot of money. Despite their recent struggles, they must get the appropriate players. For your reasons, Eddie Howe is a terrific coach. I don't think Newcastle can improve immediately without additional experience

Financial issues are an important factor in a club because with large finances a clubs is able to get higher quality player's like other big clubs and if Newcastle can get players who have extraordinary reliability then it is the coach's job to build strong cooperation between the players. because of the creation of this strong collaboration, a club is able to improve the quality of its play even though it only uses ordinary players without high quality players.
Currently, Newcastle performance still looks stable which can give us confidence that there is hope to compete with clubs in the same group as it, even though some would say it is impossible, but I will not ignore the goodness of this club.
However, nothing can provide guarantees, only hope and enthusiasm can give great confidence to Newcastle.

[$anounimus$]

Newcastle has really improved in their performances since the take takeover by their current owners and were able to show their improvement by finishing in the top four of the English Premier League last season and qualify to play in the UEFA Champions League competition this season.
Their improvement since in the last two seasons is very commendable.  Now that they'll be playing in the European Cup for the first time in almost 20 years, I don't think their priority will be to finish the season as the winners of the competition because though it's not impossible, but it'll be extremely difficult for them to achieve such feat. So I think they'll want to have a good season in the UCL and and concentrate more in the English Premier League.

Newcastle has managed to show something extraordinary last season at EPL so they have the right to enter the Champions League, of course this is a very phenomenal achievement for them. But I do not know the long -term targets expected by management the Magpies should have now been taken over by Saudi Arabian investors not to do a big breakthrough in the transfer window. With opportunities, they should be able to enter European elite competition, they shop for several star players to create competitiveness with other giant teams in Europe. I always ask why they don't do that even though they have a strong enough financial.

The incorporation of Newcastle to the "Hell" group will certainly make the opportunity to qualify for the knockout phase very thin even I predicted that this British representative would also be difficult to finish in third to win the playoff rations to the Europa League.

[Razmirraz]

Newcastle's progress has been closely monitored, and I agree that if they obtain the money, they might rise in the football league. Giving money isn't the sole option, though. Without a plan, many teams squander a lot of money. Despite their recent struggles, they must get the appropriate players. For your reasons, Eddie Howe is a terrific coach. I don't think Newcastle can improve immediately without additional experience

Eddie Howe really needs additional experienced players to make his team able to compete with the favorite teams in the Champions League. Eddie Howe has proven his quality as a coach who is suitable to handle Newcastle, last season he made a big contribution by helping Newcastle qualify for the Champions League. Money is the most important weapon in bringing in experienced players. The new owner who acquired Newcastle has abundant money, management must make a plan to make Newcastle a club that excels in domestic competitions and the Champions League.

[shogun47]

Newcastle's progress has been closely monitored, and I agree that if they obtain the money, they might rise in the football league. Giving money isn't the sole option, though. Without a plan, many teams squander a lot of money. Despite their recent struggles, they must get the appropriate players. For your reasons, Eddie Howe is a terrific coach. I don't think Newcastle can improve immediately without additional experience

Eddie Howe really needs additional experienced players to make his team able to compete with the favorite teams in the Champions League. Eddie Howe has proven his quality as a coach who is suitable to handle Newcastle, last season he made a big contribution by helping Newcastle qualify for the Champions League. Money is the most important weapon in bringing in experienced players. The new owner who acquired Newcastle has abundant money, management must make a plan to make Newcastle a club that excels in domestic competitions and the Champions League.

That was a decision made by Newcastle officals that I didn't fully understand. Money shouldn't have been a problem for them and they qualified for the Champions League and I really thought that they would use the opportunity and sign some players that would guaranteed strengthen the squad and also bring some experience to the table for a team that has not yet played in the Champions League in this formation. I think it would have been a better decision to add two or three players to raise competition within the team but to also add to the experience to be prepared for the Champions League games.

[JeffBrad12]

I also believe that Newcastle can't be a title contender. That is too much for them now. They don't have a qualified squad to make it there. I remember how Chelsea managed to win the Champions League title with Tuchel although their squad quality was worse than teams like Real Madrid, Manchester City.

However Newcastle's squad quality isn't as good as Chelsea's firstly. Secondly they don't have as much experience as Chelsea in this tournament. They aren't as big as them in short. They don't have a mentality that is as strong as Tuchel's Chelsea either now.

Considering all of this the biggest achievement they can get is to qualify for next round in my opinion.

UEFA Champions League is here and there's quite numbers of elite clubs that have good chances of winning it. I've my won favorites, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich. Other clubs would only compete but they will not be able to match the level up energy with these clubs mentioned. We can't compared the situation of Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel, he has solid plans for the club. We shouldn't be having this conversation about Newcastle United winning the UEFA Champions League, it's an impossible mission. We know the competitive teams that would push harder for the league.

I do not have much to say about the situation of Newcastle now because it is pitiful the condition that they found themselves. That condition does not fit new people to the Champions League. There is already imbalance in the  squad and they are already struggling in the Premier League. This squad cannot fight effectively in the group of death that Newcastle found themselves.
I can only vouch for Newcastle by January, if they will be able to land a few quality players.

The major problem was not in newcastle but eddie howe was always doing blunders in EPL that made his club lost. There have been some players who were not capable enough in replacing some important players like tonalli and gordon.
Eddie howe is still having a chance in winning this group as long as newcastle will always try to use its main squad. Newcastle is always having a horrible performance once some players already subsituted to go off from the field.
The newcastle is still having a chance of qualifying for the play off stage. Howe's team played so badly in EPL but it doesn't mean newcastle will repeat the same performance in UCL.
Howe may put all of his focus to qualify for play off stage soon.

[KTChampions]

All this is logical, but if you look at history, it is no less logical that once every 20 years something unusual happens, like Leicester’s championship (in the Premier League) or Porto’s victory in the Champions League. Exactly 20 years have passed since this event and who knows, maybe it’s time for another “miracle” to come true. If the draw is the same as last year (in one part there are favorites and in the other outsiders) then the chance of some underdog to take the title will increase.

Well, let's keep our fingers crossed and see the club that would serve as a medium for the miracle you  said to occur, we might suprisingly see Newcastle United that's been underperforming in the EPL win the Champions League  trophy lol, UEFA Champions League is not a competition you could easily predict the winner from the beginning but there are some clubs im looking out for andc they're good performance has been consistente for the past two seasons.
 Clubs like Realmadrid, City, Bayern Munich, Napoli and Intermilan, i have a feeling that one of these clubs might end up winning the league this season but im not sure of which but amongst all these clubs mentioned my two most favourites are Realmadrid or Manchester City and if you notice the performance of those clubs in the various league and so brilliant so far that's why my expectations from them in the UEFA Champions League is high.

I wonder how you can love Real and City at the same time? For me, these clubs are at different poles, I love one and hate the other 
As for Newcastle, it won't be the perfect underdog that will win the Champions League (the Premier League is doing too well lately haha), but it's still better than the old set we've seen for the last 20 years.
In fact, PSG looks dangerous. I don’t like this club, just like City, but this season they have an even team that, paradoxically, will have better chances than last year’s “star” one with pensioners in the lineup.

[viananda2525]

Newcastle's progress has been closely monitored, and I agree that if they obtain the money, they might rise in the football league. Giving money isn't the sole option, though. Without a plan, many teams squander a lot of money. Despite their recent struggles, they must get the appropriate players. For your reasons, Eddie Howe is a terrific coach. I don't think Newcastle can improve immediately without additional experience

Eddie Howe really needs additional experienced players to make his team able to compete with the favorite teams in the Champions League. Eddie Howe has proven his quality as a coach who is suitable to handle Newcastle, last season he made a big contribution by helping Newcastle qualify for the Champions League. Money is the most important weapon in bringing in experienced players. The new owner who acquired Newcastle has abundant money, management must make a plan to make Newcastle a club that excels in domestic competitions and the Champions League.

I am really very pessimistic about Newcastle's chances of qualifying for the round of 16 or the Europa League playoffs. The squad owned by The Magpies is not at all worthy of competing highly in the Champions League. Yes, I also thought that Eddy Howe would make a breakthrough in the transfer window but in fact only Sandro Tonali has the capacity to play at European level. I really don't understand what Newcastle management was thinking, I thought they would follow in Manchester City's footsteps at that time.