First off, the funniest part about the whole Tevez-in-exile fiasco was this.

Okay, FIFA 12. I can win all the live long day on the semi-pro setting but the professional setting is kicking my backside. Pugsley forgive me for this exercise in self-absorption but I'm calling on the B&B community for assistance. My problems on the professional setting include but are not limited to the following:

1) The other team keeps taking the ball away from my guys. Unfair, right? How come they can dribble around me and I can't dribble around them? And did I mention they keep taking the ball away from my guys?

2) Defense and taking the ball away from the other team is an issue that has nearly caused me to hurl the XBox 360 controller through the screen. I'm trying teammate defending but it's like I'm Wile E. Coyote out there. No fun.

We pause now to consider Samir Nasri's sartorial choices and the blinding of Gael Glichy.

3) How do I beat the goalie in a one-on-one situation? A friend of mine says it's easy but won't tell me because he likes to keep beating me. Did I say my friend is currently missing? I suspect foul play.

4) What is the purpose of the youth academy in career mode? What's the best way to use it? When do we get see the fruits our scouting labor and is it worth the wait?

We pause now for a video that never, ever gets old. Our Mario.

5) So I just got the game last week. Did i really do this not knowing that the game would be obsolete and that right soon? I'm hearing FIFA 13 is coming. So i figure I can trade in my copy of FIFA 12 for a cup of coffee. A small cup at that. Good times.

Consider this a FIFA 12 thread. Share your wins, your losses, your transfer stories, etc.

With Danny's permission, I might make this a weekly thing. The idea here is to post questions, polls or topics about our beloved Citizens.

This week, I'm asking any and all to post your favorite vids of what happened on May 13, year of our lord 2012. I've watched any number of them and so far, I like this one best. Post 'em if you got 'em because if you're at all like me, you've been watching some version of it every day since and will be doing so every day hence for many a moon.

UPDATE: This is the vid Alex (in comments) and I like so much.

BosnianBronco's transfer post generated the usual great conversation. It triggered a couple of questions that I hereby put forth to our growing community. I do so 'just for kicks'...

1) Who would you absolutely hate to see leave and why? You can't pick someone like Aguero, Hart, Kompany, Silva or YaYa because barring a tragedy that would make the Greeks wince, those guys aren't going anywhere.

2) Our starting eleven was pretty well established during the last month of the season and by extension, so was our bench. Where does a team of Pantilimon, Kolarov, Kolo Toure, Savic, Richards, Milner, Pizarro, De Jong, Johnson, Balotelli, and Dzeko place in the EPL?

In over 40 years of watching sports, I have never seen anything quite like that. I've got the game on DVR and it ain't ever getting erased. Thanks to Danny for lending me the keys and thanks to all of you for the comments.

UPDATE: Great comments below; I've enjoyed reading them. I especially think the experience of fulafalonga is one we can all empathize with in one way or another. Check it out in comments. Speaking for myself, it's been nearly 24 hours since the kickoff and I still can't think of anything else.

Danny has graciously allowed me to put up the game thread. You all know what's at stake and what we need to do. A win today and the numbers 44 and 1968 become just that--numbers. A draw or a loss mean things we'd all rather not think about right now. Comment away.

City team: Hart, Zabaleta, Clichy, Kompany (c), Lescott, Barry, Yaya, Silva, Nasri, Aguero, Tevez

QPR team: Kenny, Hill, Ferdinand, Onuoha, Taino, Derry, Barton, Mackie, Wright-Phillips, Zamora, Cisse.

Been awhile since we had a fan post so I thought I'd try something a little different. We've got a few regular commenters here, it's been the best season for our team in years so... yeah. Who are we? I'll start.

Home: Southern California

Occupation: High School English Teacher

Been following City since: Aguero's first game

Favorite Citizens: Aguero, Kompany, YaYa

Least Favorite: Adam Johnson, Carlos Tevez, Stefan Savic

Best Soccer Story: A summer college class, I'm the oldest guy there and I'm in goal. I was (and am) very much a novice player and some guy is screaming, "look at the grandpa in goal! Look at grandpa!" I was 40 at the time (48 now). So I'm thinking, okay, I teach my kids non-violence but I decide I'm not going to entirely practice what I preach. He's coming hard toward goal, calling out "Grandpa! Grandpa!" every few strides. He's a good player but I left goal at just the right time, scooped up the ball and at the same time put my shoulder into his solar plexus. I had never, to that point, knocked the wind out of anyone even on accident. I'm almost ashamed to admit how good it felt to do it on purpose.

'A team of ex-footballers and F1 drivers including Vitaly Petrov, Felipe Massa and Sergio Perez are undone by a UAE XI featuring Manchester City chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak.' So I guess if Aguero sprains a groin, Balotelli shoots off fireworks or Dzeko decides "screw this reliability thing, I wanna make a name for myself" and they can't go, we've got this guy. Check out the last goal. I gotta say, "A" for effort. 

I can't stop laughing. I've seen some funny fan behavior but this takes the cake for me. I hope the B&B community, especially, enjoys it. If America had more fans like this, I just might attend more sporting events. I may just have to fork over the cash for the flight from Los Angeles to Manchester. And this post has to be 75 words long at a minimum, I suppose I'll just have to keep typing until I finally get to that magical number. 

I'm in America. I don't know how reputable the Daily Mail is. But according to the DM, Tevez was depressed, apparently ate anything and everything that was in front of him and not moving and afterward checked himself into a clinic. 

For your reading pleasure: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2033426/Carlos-Tevez-suffered-eating-disorder.html

My own opinion: yes, athletes are exceedingly well paid. But I have met professional athletes who get traded and find themselves in a strange town, putting up the family in a hotel, getting to know a new organization, etc. It can cause problems. Tevez is not the first nor the last player to go through this. I would add that addictions are awful. He'll get his share of jokes at his expense but he's got sympathy from me. I wish him well. 

LIsten up.

Owning a sports team has never, ever been entirely about profit. Economists will tell you that there are two things involved with a purchase--economic benefit ($) and psychic benefit. When you buy an expensive painting, you are not doing so necessarily because of the economic benefit; you are doing so for the psychic benefit. It's what collectors do. Owning a sports team is not all that different from collecting great works of art--sometimes you say damn the expense, I want a trophy. It's why perfectly good businessmen will make horrific decisions in sport; they want a toy, they can buy the toy and the toy (*ahem* Adebayor *ahem*) turns out to be not so great. (h/t for all of this to Malcolm Gladwell's ESPN column). 

The owners of Man City are essentially saying, "damn the profits, let's win." As a fan, I'm fine with that. Other fans are screaming that we're cheating somehow, that if we win it won't be as "pure" as other teams who have won in the past. To that I say, Man City is doing to the Premier League what the big 4 have been doing for years now. For a long time, people have wondered what would happen if Man U was challenged by another team that could match the red menace's resources. We're about to find out. That our resources are coming from sheikh's who love a good toy over profit, who want the psychic benefit over the economic benefit, is not something to be criticized. The same fans who criticize City for spending oodles of money on players are spending oodles of money on red jerseys, tickets, concessions, etc. and I'm not sure these fans are getting an economic benefit for their actions. Well, of course they aren't. They are getting a psychic benefit. 

In short, that any fan can look at City and say, "Not fair! You spending too much!" is just the height of hypocrisy and ignorance. This is the Premiership. Spending money has always made the difference and always will. And if our spending for a psychic benefit is a source of your current psychic pain, all the better. 

Sincerely,

Man City Fans (EPL Champions, 2012)