Newsletter #871

An easy and deserved 3-0 (Foe, Sun and Goater) win over a poor, struggling Sunderland tonight sees us move up to 12th spot with 23 points. Are they still glad they got rid of Reid?

Tonight we have opinion, requests and a bit of Blue humour. Match reports to follow Thursday.

Other news is our FA Cup draw with Liverpool announced for Sunday 5 January (unsurprisingly) on TV.

OPINION: SPENDING POWERS

Much as we love KK I’m glad someone else looks after the money as I feel that his grasp of numbers sometimes goes awry. To quote from MCIVTA 870:

‘I can’t see any reason for it. As a manager you have to guess who’s going to get injured which is impossible. You can over-strengthen areas where you think you might be weak. Some clubs are overstaffed, some clubs are hoping and praying certain players don’t get injured, and the clubs that need money desperately in the Nationwide League – we can’t go and help them even if we wanted to. It favours the top clubs because they already have the biggest staffs. Imagine any other club being able to cope with the injuries Manchester United have had with six or seven players out. Imagine that happening to Charlton or West Brom.’

Can someone remind me how many players we presently have on our books compared with, say MUFC, and why we will need even more signings in January?

Ultimately it will be the salary bill that will cause the demise of clubs and I am fearful that we have yet to really get to grips with this at City.

OPINION: SONGS FOR CITY

Some great songs there, though I think that the “should’ve gone Christmas robbin'” was actually vs. Everton at Maine Road (W 5-0) two seasons ago.

How about:

vs. Arsenal (L 4:0)
from City to the Arsenal (who were absolutely silent – probably in awe at the great performance from Arsenal):
“Shall we sing a song for you?”
followed by these songs:
“What’s it like to be outclassed?”
“Can we score a goal for you?”
“You’re sh*t and you know you are”
“Can we play you every week?”
When Vieira came on second half:
“Who the F’in hell are you?”
When Thierry Henry came on:
“Who the F’in hell are you?”

vs. Chelsea at MR
Chelsea fans:
“Goin’ down, Goin’ down, Goin’ down”
City fans:
“So are we, So are we, So are we”

Arsenal vs. City (Highbury)
“George Graham is a p*ff… he wears make-up”

Decided to stop for now, though I have to say the “belly’s gonna get you” really made me laugh.

OPINION: CITYCARD SUSPENSION

In MCIVTA 870, Graeme Nicholson slated MCFC for suspending the CityCard scheme on 31st December 2002. He points out that the club have publicly stated that the CityCard applications will be suspended at the end of December and reckoned that this was so there can be a late glut of applications which would a) bring in some extra income and b) it would make it more difficult for “long standing” cardholders to attend games. I personally think that this is a rather cynical view and would raise the following points:

Firstly, with regard to cashing in on a glut of late applications, as the cost of a CityCard is only