Scholes and Rio

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2775474/Paul-Scholes-blasts-Manchester-City-fans-failing-create-Champions-League-atmosphere-says-don-t-realise-lucky.html

They have a point to a certain degree, but what are the club doing about the prices of tickets - posting an advert on the website saying "tickets still available"...at the same price!

If the game like this isn't sold out within a week of them going on sale, the chances are they are never going to be sold out.

Rio can fuck off with his Twitter shit...hope the City fans gave him some shit back!!

The atmosphere really was hit and miss last night. At times it was great, but that was only when we were in the ascendency and playing half decent. I think once the tempo slowed down and we backed off Roma allowing them some ball time, it seemed to make everyone abit frustrated and nervous....it just quietened everyone right down.

There's certainly some substance to what Scholes said, but we really do need to get the place full first. The prices are too high and the attendance last night showed that.....Citys lowest crowd for a CL game apparently.
Why don't they have all tickets for the next game against CSKA at £15 (Seasoncard holders obviously have 1st dibs) and just pack the place to the rafters.

Rio....no interest in anything he has to say.

I think £15 is way lower than the top brass will go. I think £25 is reasonable and a tenner for kids. We really do need the place bursting at the seams.

We do, and we need it full of people who support the club and not the day-trippers.  Last night, I saw hundreds of people with half and half scarves, fishing out their camera phones to take selfies and spending the match texting.  And they all pitch up ten minutes AFTER the game has kicked off, so I end up missing stuff because my way is blocked by all these prawn munchers.  Not to mention the groups with free tickets, taking up space behind a goal, all papping on with some accent or other, and wondering who this Manchester City is...

Finally, a little balance from Ian Ladyman:

Paul Scholes and Rio Ferdinand slammed the Etihad atmosphere... do they remember Old Trafford's 'prawn sandwich brigade' and United selling cut-price tickets to kids?


On a relatively bad night for Manchester City in the Champions League against AS Roma on Tuesday, it didn’t take long for old rivals to get busy.
Speaking on TV, former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes accused City supporters of failing to create the ‘special atmosphere’ he remembers from European nights at Old Trafford, while his former team-mate Rio Ferdinand tweeted provocatively about empty seats while watching the game at home.
‘Expanding the stadium for what, for who?’ Ferdinand asked pithily. 


Tuesday’s game — a 1-1 draw — was a big one for City, given that they had lost their opening fixture in Munich. It was odd to see a smattering of empty seats at the Etihad Stadium, just as it is odd that the club’s Champions League attendances are moving gently in the wrong direction. Nevertheless, perhaps Scholes and Ferdinand have short memories. Both enjoyed their share of big nights in the Champions League at Old Trafford but there were numerous European occasions over the past decade when United sold cut-price tickets to schools at the last minute in a bid to fill the ground.
There were others, too, when the Old Trafford atmosphere was as flat as the M1. Scholes in particular will remember United captain Roy Keane’s famous rant after a 1-0 win over Dynamo Kiev took Sir Alex Ferguson’s team through the group stages back in 2000. ‘At home the fans have a few drinks and probably the prawn sandwiches and they don’t realise what’s going on out on the pitch,’ said Keane. ‘I don’t think some of the people who come to Old Trafford can spell football, never mind understand it.’ 


So famous are those quotes that they have their own Wikipedia page. Equally interesting is that Keane’s comments came only a few months after his manager had asked United’s supporters for more noise.
United fans will argue that they had already scaled the heights in the Champions League back then; that it was hard to get up for run-of-the-mill group games so soon after the drama of their 1999 Final win.
City do not have that excuse. This is only their fourth season in the competition and they are yet to progress beyond the last 16. Had you offered many of their rank-and-file the chance to watch games like Tuesday night's 10 years ago, they would have swum the length of the Ship Canal to get there.
In a city like Manchester, however, there are always financial issues to consider. Andy Savage, who runs the website MCFCForum.com, said: ‘Ferdinand is living in his own bubble. Some people are living hand to mouth and he’s criticising them for not filling the stadium. 


‘He was an absolute disgrace on Twitter, as was Scholes on ITV. They are multi-millionaires.’
City’s owners have only targeted the last eight this time and don’t expect Manuel Pellegrini to win the competition just yet. One view is that City fans prefer to watch Barclays Premier League football as it is a competition they feel they can win. Whatever the case, the club themselves remain sanguine about attendance levels and point out that they don’t make the purchase of Champions League tickets compulsory for those with season tickets, as United and Arsenal do. 


They know their fan base is considerably smaller than United’s but the Etihad sells out for every game in the League and research tells them that enough games are over-subscribed to make a 6,000-seat stadium expansion — already under way — worthwhile.
At times, when the Etihad is less than full, it can seem a rather over-ambitious project. However, City do have a waiting list of 7,500 for season tickets and deposits have already been paid on every one of the new seats for next season.
As ever, City remain sure of themselves and their visions. All they need to do now is put right some of the problems that continue to affect them on the field on European nights. Outplayed in losing 1-0 in Munich, City spent much of Tuesday’s game on the back foot once more and, despite captain Vincent Kompany’s attempts to claim otherwise, Pellegrini has a real issue with the poor form of Yaya Toure in the centre of his midfield. 


Once again on Tuesday it was the failure of Toure and his central partner Fernandinho to assume control that allowed Roma to move forward on to Pellegrini’s back four.
‘He’s done so much for this club, he’s always played brilliantly,’ said Kompany of Toure. ‘For me he is always an important player,. When he does well the team does well. He has set the standards very high for himself. To say he’s not at his best, I don’t agree. It’s so early in the season to call something like this, things will improve.’
Kompany’s loyalty is admirable but it’s undeniable that City improved on Tuesday once Frank Lampard replaced Eden Dzeko, allowing Toure to push up behind forward Sergio Aguero. It surely can’t be long before Pellegrini does this routinely in Europe.
For the time being, City’s critics will perhaps revel in their perceived struggles, both on and off the field in Europe. City do, however, have one rather obvious card to play when their neighbours start to dig at them about Champions League matters.
At least they are in the competition.

Maybe Vinny should send this to Scholes and Rio?