Newsletter #986

Back to White Hart Lane for a replay against Tottenham on 4th February following a 1-1 draw in which we, once again, failed to capitalise on the chances we had. The 5th round draw has thrown up an away tie at Manchester United for ourselves or Spurs.

Tonight we have some match views, opinion on players departed and current, and a few requests.

Apologies if your article has gone missing, but my email is playing up once again.

MATCH VIEW (TV) I: MCFC 1 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1

It is becoming increasingly difficult to write match reports that differ from the previous reports – the games follow an inverted Perry Mason type script – City well on top and in control but you just know that despite the dominance, victory will be snatched from us.

City players have developed missing chances into an art form. I remember reading a McV report some time ago where someone said they had become a Robbie Fowler fan after seeing him repeatedly volley a ball against the crossbar from outside the penalty area – perhaps he’s introduced this skill to the rest of the team. No single player could be singled out for being worse than the others at missing; everyone seems to be affected. Fortunately Spurs, particularly Postiga, seemed to be trying to outdo City in easy misses.

So City were well on top for the first half and the game should have been settled by then, but it was only 1-0. Spurs get a goal courtesy of our young ‘keeper and some lack of attention to marking at corners. Not surprisingly given their current results, City flagged at this point and for about 25 minutes Spurs were on top.

Then SWeeP was introduced and City regained control and continued to add to the manual of unlikely misses. In the end, like so many recent games, City play the opposition off the park for 65 minutes and only come away with a draw. It can’t go on – can it?

MATCH VIEW (TV) II: MCFC 1 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1

Manchester City started the game versus Spurs with fire and the desire to win, the call from Claudio Reyna being to play with a killer instinct. Trouble was City did not come out in the second half with the same attitude.

Two big mistakes cost City this game; our young ‘keeper Kevin Ellegaard misjudged a corner with a basic mistake. A couple of weeks ago I wrote that this league is no place for a young ‘keeper to learn his trade; some might say this is the best way for him to learn. I disagree, we are in no position to do this with another experienced ‘keeper on the bench. There is no question that Ellegaard will be a very good ‘keeper in the future.

The other big mistake was towards the end of the game when Reyna put Macken through; if he had squared the ball to the unmarked Anelka it would have been the match winner, instead he decided to have a go himself and missed.

Michael Brown was playing against his old club; he was with us for five years, during which time we had eight managers. When I hear some supporters calling for Kevin Keegan’s head, I always think of those times and wonder is it a wise thing to change managers at this stage of the season? Some of KK’s team selections and substitutions have to be questioned. Some results have truly been unlucky against City, but it’s the glaring mistakes that hurt us, and such basic ones.

I was saddened when David Bernstein left; I also supported Joe Royle. When John Wardle took over I was never over the moon about it. I decided he needs time to prove himself, he clearly has City at heart, but the club is heading for trouble. We need a striker; how about Viduka from Leeds? And a central defender, but we’ve no cash; unless they can sell players, or John Wardle helps, time will run out.

I have backed Kevin Keegan from day one, and will continue to do that.

The game was live on TV so I guess many fans stayed at home or in their local pub to watch the game for only 28,840 were at the stadium, almost 20,000 were missing. Clearly City have got to produce the results for the supporters or the club will be in big trouble; the club needs to pay its way, relegation would be a disaster. I feel strongly that relegation won’t happen.

We desperately need that elusive win in the league to gain confidence. The first thing that should be done is give the captaincy to Claudio Reyna who has had experience as captain of USA national side with success; he shouted to other players before Spurs game to play with that killer instinct, he will drive other players, meanwhile Distin can concentrate on the defence.

After the replay of the Spurs game, the winner will go to OT in the fifth round; a big game awaits. If only we can make the most of those chances.

OPINION: TARNAT OR JENSEN?

In the summer King Kev let Niclas Jensen go, which I admit was a bit of a shock. He quickly replaced him by a bringing in Michael Tarnat; I was quite enthused because I heard quite a lot of good things about the former German international. I certainly don’t think Tarnat is a bad player but when I watch him the one question that sticks out to me is ‘What has he brought us that Niclas Jensen didn’t have?’ Ok a good shot but let’s be honest, more blaze over or hit the wall than actually go in. If we would’ve brought in Roberto Carlos than I could understand but we’ve replaced Jensen with a guy 6 years his senior who is not better than him. And Nicolas could take throw-ins as well.

OPINION: GOAL SCORER WANTED

I think we all need to start singing “Need the Goat and he will score”.

Wouldn’t it be great if Keegan got him back on loan and he single-handedly saved our season? I would pay an extra £100 if The Goat was to start at the derby! Would you?

Even if it was only another £10 each then we could afford to buy him back!

OPINION: CLEAR OUT

How good to hear that KK is deciding to get rid of the players he has just brought here. Are these the same players he convinced the board to buy? Someone better tell him that we will need them in Division 1.

What sort of a manager instructs the coach to leave and then goes back himself? If you are going to leave players behind then leave them. KK you have totally lost the plot. Whilst we are drawing, the others are getting the odd win, the points for the win make a big difference.

OPINION: RETIREMENTS

I do not know much about how insurance cover for footballers works, but I just had a thought about the retirement of David Seaman.

The thought is that should a player be forced to retire through injury, there might be a claim on an insurance policy. Whereas if a player announced his retirement at the end of a particular season, and actually retired at that time, there would be no claim.

Of course, I am not suggesting that anything underhand has transpired, I am just an old cynic.

REQUEST: EMAIL PROBLEMS

Does anyone have a name@mancity.net email account and had pretty sinister emails recently? I have had a couple of pretty worrying emails recently, quite unlike the usual spam you’d get.

Has anyone had anything similar?

REQUEST: MILTON KEYNES BLUES

Milton Keynes OSC will be holding their first meeting of the year on Thursday, January 29th. The venue will be Great Brickhill Cricket Club, starting at 8pm. If you would like directions to the venue, or any information about the Milton Keynes branch please contact me.

REQUST: REDDISH BLUES

The next meeting of the Reddish Branch of the Centenary Supporters’ Association will be on Wednesday 18th February at The Ash Hotel, Manchester Road, Stockport starting at 8.00pm (doors 7.00pm)

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Our confirmed guests for the evening are Mike Doyle and Dave Clayton. Copies of Mike’s new book “Blue Blood” will be available on the night. We are expecting a full house and advise people to get there early as we may well have to close the doors.

Admission, which includes a free raffle, is just £1 for CSA Members, £2 others and all kids are free. As always everyone is welcome.

RESULTS

League table to 25 January 2004 inclusive

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts
 1 Arsenal         22  8  2  0 20  7  7  5  0 22  7 15  7  0  42  14  28  52
 2 Manchester Utd  22  8  2  1 24  7  8  0  3 16  8 16  2  4  40  15  25  50
 3 Chelsea         22  7  2  2 20  8  7  2  2 20  9 14  4  4  40  17  23  46
 4 Charlton Ath.   22  4  3  3 15 14  6  4  2 16  9 10  7  5  31  23   8  37
 5 Liverpool       22  5  1  4 16 12  4  5  3 16 12  9  6  7  32  24   8  33
 6 Newcastle Utd   22  6  3  3 18  7  2  6  2 12 16  8  9  5  30  23   7  33
 7 Fulham          22  6  2  3 18 12  3  2  6 16 20  9  4  9  34  32   2  31
 8 Southampton     22  6  2  4 13  8  2  4  4  8 10  8  6  8  21  18   3  30
 9 Birmingham City 21  4  3  3 10 13  4  3  4  9 12  8  6  7  19  25  -6  30
10 Bolton Wndrs    22  3  6  2 12  9  4  2  5 14 24  7  8  7  26  33  -7  29
11 Tottenham H.    22  6  1  5 20 16  2  2  6  6 15  8  3 11  26  31  -5  27
12 Aston Villa     22  6  3  2 15 10  1  3  7  6 17  7  6  9  21  27  -6  27
13 Middlesbrough   21  3  4  5 11 15  3  3  3  9 11  6  7  8  20  26  -6  25
14 Everton         22  5  4  3 16 11  1  2  7  9 18  6  6 10  25  29  -4  24
15 Manchester City 22  2  6  3 17 15  3  2  6 14 18  5  8  9  31  33  -2  23
16 Blackburn R.    22  3  1  6 16 19  3  4  5 16 17  6  5 11  32  36  -4  23
17 Portsmouth      22  6  0  4 22 12  0  4  8  3 21  6  4 12  25  33  -8  22
18 Leicester City  22  2  5  4 13 17  2  3  6 18 21  4  8 10  31  38  -7  20
19 Wolves          22  4  5  2 14 18  0  2  9  6 26  4  7 11  20  44 -24  19
20 Leeds United    22  2  4  5  9 16  2  1  8 10 28  4  5 13  19  44 -25  17

MCIVTA FAQ [v0304.06]

[0] MCIVTA Addresses

 Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

 News/rumour (Don Barrie)         : news@mcivta.city-fan.org

 Subscriptions (Madeleine Hawkins): subscriptions@mcivta.city-fan.org

 Technical problems (Paul)        : paul@city-fan.org

 FAQ (David Warburton)            : faq@mcivta.city-fan.org

[1] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings.

[2] MCIVTA Back Issues and Manchester City Supporters’ home page

http://www.uit.no/mancity/ is the unofficial Manchester City Supporters’ home page. Created in 1994, it is the longest running of the Manchester City related web sites. Back issues of MCIVTA are also hosted on the site.

[3] What is the club’s official web site?

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/

[4] What supporters’ clubs are there?

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mancity.net/osc/); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.reddishblues.com/CSAWebsite/CSA.htm) and “The International Supporters’ Club” (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/article.asp?article=111845&Title=International+Supporters+Club&lid=Membership).

[5] Where can I find out about the fans’ committee?

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. It has its own website, http://www.mcfc-fans.com/ containing info about forthcoming meetings as well as minutes from previous gatherings.

[6] What match day broadcasts are available on the web?

The GMR pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/gmr/sport_intro.shtml.

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found at http://www.mcfctv.com/, whilst an alternate live commentary service, hosted by Yahoo, is located at http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/foot/englandprem/cal/index.html.

[7] Where can I find out if City are live on satellite TV?

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premiership games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://canadatvsoccer.tripod.com/Fixtures.htm, http://www.foxsportsworld.com/named/FSW/Index/Soccer, and http://www.soccertv.com/.

http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=1288602 also provides a guide to pubs in the USA showing football.

[8] What’s the music the teams run out to?

It’s actually a mix of two tracks. It starts with “O Verona” (from the motion picture “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”) and leads in to “Barber’s Adagio for Strings (Ferry Corsten remix)” by William Orbit. The first part is available on the movie soundtrack (volume 2) and the second is included on a variety of CDs such as Kiss House Nation 2000, Galaxy Hit Mix, Cream Live, Ibiza Chill and Dance Nation 4.

[9] Do we have a Usenet newsgroup?

Yes we do: uk.sport.football.clubs.man-city is our home on usenet. If you are not familiar with usenet, a basic explanation is available here: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213262,00.html

[10] Do any squad members have their own web pages?

There are a number available and direct links can be found at http://www.uit.no/mancity/players/

[11] Can I buy shares in the club?

Yes you can: Shares in Manchester City PLC are traded on OFEX. The latest prices can be on found the OFEX web site http://www.ofex.com/ (registration required) or in the business section of the Manchester Evening News.

[12] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth analysis try http://www.mcfcstats.com/ or http://www.citystat.net/.

[13] Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Damian Quinn, Stephen Webb, Roger Haigh, Martin Price, and Adrian Howarth for the Satellite TV info.

DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in MCIVTA are entirely those of the subscribersand there is no intention to represent these opinions as being thoseof Manchester City Football Club, nor of any of the companies anduniversities by whom the subscribers are employed. It is not inany way whatsoever connected to the club or any other relatedorganisation and is simply a group of supporters using this mediumas a means of disseminating news and exchanging opinions.

Heidi Pickup, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: