Newsletter #1343

So, Sven is in and the transfer rumours are into overdrive with the kitty (anything from £30-50 million depending on which news source you believe). He has, however, made decisions on his backroom staff.

Tonight we have opinion on the MCFC board, players and the way forward together with the usual requests.

Thanks to Don for stepping into the editor’s chair last week!

OPINION: MIS-MANAGEMENT

I know that I am not the only one who feels so strongly about the way the board have treated Mr Tueart. It is an absolute travesty of justice to get rid of Denis off the board, for one he is the only member of the board to have a football brain, he also has Blue blood running through his veins. To me they (5th column) who have done the dirty deed do not want him there because Denis has the best interests of the club and the supporters at the forefront of his mind.

They have shot him in the back to pave the way with no confrontation to rip off the fans and eventually bring the club to its knees. For Denis to speak out the way he has, there has to be something seriously wrong happening at our beloved club. Denis is a true Blue and also a gentleman. There should be a campaign to re-instate Denis ASAP; while we are at it we should also get rid of the enemies within who are only interested in my and your money – they feel nothing for the traditions and supporters that are MCFC.

Whilst we are on this subject, bring back David Bernstien. I have always mistrusted the board at City, it’s gone on too long now, it goes back to the days of Swales. He may have ripped us off but at least he was a good old Blue. Getting rid of Tueart is the final straw; it’s time to act: keep Frankie and his family on, sack the rest of the board.

Bring back Mr Tueart and Mr Bernstein, our club is rotten at the core, something has got to give. A big vote of no confidence from the fans. Without the fans there would be no such thing as MCFC. Time to act and not talk!

OPINION: SAY IT AIN’T SO

Reading through MCIVTA 1342, I see the News of the World reported that Craig Bellamy is available on the cheap provided Michael Johnson is part of the deal.

What an insult to our collective intelligences that move would be! Bellamy averages about a new club every season, seemingly causing problems wherever he goes, while Michael appears to be a decent young man just starting out on his career after coming out of the Academy. Is Bellamy really captain of Wales?!

As for Nicolas Anelka, this should also be a no-go as he is another club-hopper. For every goal he scored for City he was probably caught offside about ten times.

I think that Samaras and Dickov should be allowed to stay on for another season, as they might perform better under Erikson, especially Samaras as he is still young and last season was only his first in the English Premier League.

The problem is though, by the time the takeover is complete and the transfer money becomes available, there will be precious few decent players left to buy.

OPINION: CITY, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT

What is happening at the club is a disgrace. I would rather support City in the Blue Square league than have it run by this Thai and the ex England Manager. I am one of the small shareholders who have not agreed to sell and if he reaches 90% and I have to sell up, I will cease to support a club I first followed since 1956.

To all the fans (sic) whose only interest in watching overpaid and over inflated egos in a blue shirt, good luck to you all.

OPINION: MOVING ON I

I am a Man City Fan of 37 years. Through thick and thin I have been there for my team.

I am amazed that we have attracted such a high profile manager as Sven. Over the last 20 years we have had middle of the road managers (is this the turning point?).

Time will tell, like all Man City fans across the world, we can only hope that this is our time!

Come on the City.

OPINION: MOVING ON II

Earlier today Sven E was, as expected, officially appointed manager of Manchester City.

Certainly not in the top three choices whom I would have preferred, but, what I think has no bearing whatsoever on any of the myriad of issues involved.

Having said that, the time has now finally come to put all such concerns and negative feelings aside, and for everyone to get behind the guy and trust him to do absolutely all of the right things for the club and for the fans. The way things are right now, he shall either be a fantastic asset and success, or, a dismal liability and failure. No half-measures here, so let us all hope for the former.

I am quite sure he already has several signings close to ready and waiting to come aboard. As such, let him be judged solely from what he does for Manchester City from today, onwards.

Let us hope Sven and his squad are up to the job, and all fully deserve the association with our fine club. Report card due January, 2008.

OPINION: MOVING ON III

A new era has started in the history of Manchester City FC; after weeks of speculation the takeover has finally happened.

Sales of nail clippers were down in the Manchester area as many City fans have been biting their nails these last few weeks.

Congratulations to the new owner Frank Shinawatra, and a big thank you to John Wardle and David Makin who took a big loss on their shares in the interest of MCFC to move forward.

Everything that Sven Goran Eriksson has done at club level in the past no longer means anything, and what happened with England no longer means anything, for it is a new and fresh start for Sven, the players, and everyone connected with the club.

It’s great to see Sven move into MCFC with a 110% attitude to get the job done, I feel good about the future.

I am not going to speculate on which players will come in or what we should expect, other than going into the third year I expect City to be at least a top six club, and competing with the top four who have had an enormous head start on everyone else in the Premiership, and winning a trophy at Wembley Stadium (that would be nice, many of us need reminding of how nice that was, so long ago).

The top four are not going to have it all their way in the future with clubs like Spurs, Aston Villa, and now City getting stronger to compete, I feel sure more takeovers will be made before long, and this cannot be bad if it helps bring more equity in the Premiership on the pitch, and more competition.

No team can put on more than eleven players at a time, but playing for one another with passion, and the desire to succeed, with great game plans by Sven, and thousands of City supporters to cheer the team on, can make it feel like twelve players.

The other teams will only have the eleven players (perhaps Liverpool will have the eleven and a half when playing at home).

It’s a new day, it’s a new team, support the new owner, the new team manager, and players, come on you Blues!

OPINION: WEAVER

I’m not being funny, but there’s no sentiment in football, and love Weaver as I did, it was a cheap swipe at City on the day Sven rocked up.

Testimonial Nicky? Contract? Who would and could furnish you with your own requirements whilst City a) had no manager and b) didn’t quite know what it was anymore?

Do me a favour mate, was it not City who paid you £26,000 a week whilst you didn’t handle a ball for 2 years and 3 months? Thats a healthy restimonial in my book. Again, another product of football’s greed.

Go now Nicky, and good luck but please don’t ever suggest you’ve been hard done by whilst in Manchester. In your defence I’d probably be inclined to suggest the press have twisted your comments accordingly but still…

OPINION: FACTUALLY INCORRECT

Joel Perry your article in MCIVTA 1342 is both arrogant and incorrect. If you are going to quote “facts” then get it helps to get them right.

Regarding the Fowler penalty miss, a season in the UEFA Cup would have made little difference financially but would have meant an already inadequate squad would have been further stretched and could well have made a bad season even worse.

Secondly, where do you get your “fact” that TS has cleared our debt? Every penny we owed before we still owe, apart from the fact the Wardle loans are now owed to the new company. The long-term secured loans were probably a very good deal, given the nature of the security involved. They are (at 7.57% and 7.75%) less than 2% over base at current interest rate levels and are fixed. In contrast, the new company (UKSIL) owes its own holding company just over £40 million at nearly 12%. I believe it is far more likely that the debt level will be even higher before too long.

Third, there are no guarantees that I’ve seen about the size of any transfer kitty.

People are intelligent enough to make up their own minds on whether to sell or not and it may come as a shock to you to find that not everyone shares your opinion of events and the future.

REQUEST: MCIVTA FANTASY LEAGUE

I’ve set up the fantasy league for the 07/08 season. Here is the website:
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/M/info.mc
or here:
http://fantasy.premierleague.com/

On the official Premier League site you may register your Fantasy Premier League team and compete against other managers from all over the world. You start out with £100 million and after choosing a team of 15 players you can either set up your own league with your friends or join one of the other leagues that has been created.

As usual you need to follow the easy directions and set up your team, then join the league. The league name is MCVITA CITY FANS and the league code (i.e. the code you need to input to join) this year is 4098-1847. The league administrator is Jack “Thaksin apologist” Buckley.

I’m hoping there will be more than 100 players this year when the whistle sounds on August 11th. As of Friday 6th of July there were four players which is not too bad as the league had only been open for shady business a couple of hours. So far:

Gorton St Marks (Jean-François Maille)
POM FC (Ryan Ward)
The Sventastic XI (Wayne Murrie)
Anglo-Saxon RCFC (me)

REQUEST: HISTORY OF FOOTBALL

The episode concentrating on City in my new football history series will be shown on Channel M on Monday at 7.30pm.

It will also be repeated at various times during the week. This programme will also briefly cover former League sides Stalybridge Celtic and Glossop North End.

MCIVTA FAQ [v0607.01]

[1] 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

[2] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings bu email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

[3] 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.

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

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

[5] What supporters’ clubs are there?

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mcfcosc.com/); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.reddishblues.com/CSAWebsite/CSA.htm) and “The International Supporters’ Club”.

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

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. The Fans’ Committee has been relaunched as “Points of Blue”. It has appeared on the club website as a minor entry under “Fans Zone”.

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

The Radio Manchester (née GMR) pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/sport/manchester_city/index.shtml.

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found at http://mcfc.videoloungetv.com/do/preLogin?clubSiteCode=MCFC&CMP=AFC-003.

[8] 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://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer, http://www.soccertv.com/, and http://www.livesoccertv.com/.

[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 Plus Markets Group web site http://www.plusmarketsgroup.com/ 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/.

[13] I hear there is a TV programme specifically about City?

InsideMCFC is broadcasted by ChannelM. It is available on the SkyDigital (ch.203) and NTL (ch.26) platforms as well as being transmittedtraditionally within the Manchester area (ch.39). In addition, theprogramme is available to watch via the web. More details and schedule:http://www.channelm.co.uk/features/city.html

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: