Newsletter #83

Relief! We’re going to be playing Premiership footie next season after all, something which looked distinctly unlikely before the Liverpool game. Apparently season ticket sales are at record levels so it looks like us faithful Blues are, well, going to be faithful once again and that was before survival was guaranteed! How about the club rewarding our faith in the close season by signing a talented player and unloading some of the less than impressive members of the current squad (who are they?)? Unfortunately, to buy someone like Draper, Le Tissier or Gascoigne, Frannie is going to have to find 4-5 million from somewhere. Hopefully we can get a discussion about this going after Sunday.

So far I’ve had very little response on the T-shirt front. Please mail me with your preference even if you might have already mentioned it to me when we first put them on the WWW.

Lastly, don’t forget that we are going to meet up at ‘The Old Abbey’ before the QPR game for a chat and a pint. The match kicks off at 4.00pm so people will probably start arriving at 1.00 – 1.30pm. Have fun!

Next game Queens Park Rangers at home, Sunday 14th April 1995.

NEWS – DINO

It seems that Dino has a good chance of staying in Manchester. Our new coach, Karl-Heinz Koerbel (a former Eintracht player) mentioned that he doesn’t intend to get Gaudi back.

This is backed up by his signing of Markus Schupp from Bayern Munich. He plays the same rôle as Gaudi, an offensive midfielder. With Dino’s return, the midfield would be overequipped.

If City want to buy Dino, I think they have a good chance now.

Eintracht want Yeboah back; our Manager Hoelzenbain watched the match Leeds – Crystal Palace where Yeboah scored again twice.

NEWS – TC UPDATE

I spoke with TC’s family about 8:00PM (England time) on Tuesday eve. the 9th) and am pleased to report and concur with Jim Walsh’s note in MCIVTA 82 — TC is doing much better and is hoping to be released from hospital by the 13th. I took it upon myself to send best wishes on behalf of all newsletter subscribers. Will keep you informed as I hear!!

TEAM NEWS

Sorry, but as usual with a Sunday game the Evening News doesn’t give the whole team news on a Friday. The only news available is over who’s likely to be out of action. The bad news is that Beagrie will miss the game, because he will have undergone surgery for a double hernia. Also doubtful is Rösler with a medial ligament strain, but a decision on him will only be taken after a fitness test! So with Premier survival guaranteed, why should City even consider Uwe? I know he’s the fans’ favourite but surely knee problems are best left to mend!!

Also, it’s been reported that the Kippax has been sold out (for exclusive use by Blues) and there are only 1700 tickets left for other parts of the ground. Wouldn’t it be good to see the stadium full again!

RÖSLER SPECULATION

There was a report in the Municher TZ newspaper stating that 1860 Munich enquired if Uwe would be available to talk to them about a transfer to Munich.

The request was short and prompt, two letters, first one beginning with N.

It carried on to mention that the 1860 president said that “we really had no chance whatsoever but asking costs nothing.” He went onto say that Uwe seems to like it so much in England that there’s no way that he can be lured away.

I support 1860 here in Munich; I even am a member and have a season ticket, but come on 1860 grab a life, your talking about class here.

RÖSLER’S FITNESS PROBLEMS

If Rösler was supposedly injured then how come last Thursday evening he walked past me at the Manchester airport international departure lounge??? He looked fit as a butcher’s dog to me. In fact he positively danced along in a pair of very dodgy bermuda shorts and a naff T-shirt. Thank God a sense of style isnt a pre-requisite for a footballer… Very suspicious.

BIT TOO FAR?

Sorry I won’t be able to get along for a couple before the QPR game, it’s just that I’m short of about 1000 quid for the fare… I’ll have to make do with some “Lion Red” cans and the radio. 1ZB in Auckland take the Radio 5 feed on Saturday/Sunday mornings. Don’t forget: Have one/four/five for me!

STATESIDE BLUES

TC’s brother-in-law will be in Cleveland Ohio between June 16 and July 29 (at which time he returns to train and fly with RAF!). Should the opportunity present itself for any stateside subscribers to be in the area, passing thru or otherwise, I know we can arrange the time to lift a glass or two or ten and a chat. He will be bringing some match programmes and hometown footy “stuff” for our viewing pleasure!! Feel free to E-mail and we will see what is possible!!

OPINION – FOREST & WALSH

With regard to Saturday, if that ball fully crossed the line I`ll eat my shorts but a blind ref is a blind ref and there`s not much use crying over spilt milk. Anyway, it turned out alright regardless as we`re safe at last and Premiership football will once again grace Maine Road next season (as it should). With a bit of luck everyone will relax a bit now on the pitch and give QPR a good stuffing on Saturday to end the season in style but it`s beginning to look like the amount of goals will depend heavily on Uwe’s fitness. Am I being more than a tad controversial in saying that maybe we should see the back of Paul Walsh this Summer? Although his work rate is tremendous, the fact remains he has a habit of joining clubs and scoring heavily in the first six months or so making himself a crowd hero and then never scoring again or a least only once in a “blue moon” if you pardon the pun (dare I say a bit like “the Scum`s” choccy(?!) McClair!) I hope I`m wrong but should we really wait to find out?

OPINION – VARIOUS

A couple of brief points for your consideration:

1. Did you know that the referee, Danson, who decided to give theRags a penalty despite the absence of any appeals on Wednesday has agrandfather who has lived in Sale all his life (fact) and who(allegedly) supports MUFC. The conspiracy theory grows!!
2. I am all in favour of Kernaghan’s (re)discovery of good form, butwhy for the Forest goal did he decide to watch the ball roll towardsthe goal and then hit the post before deciding he had better slide inthere and attempt to clear the ball? A sharper defender would havefollowed the ball in as a matter of course.
3. The answer to 2 may be the fact that he’s overtired given hisstarring role in BBC2’s “Fist of Fun” (I couldn’t find a lookalikessection on the Web page). The close links between slapstick humourand City’s defence have, after all, been apparent for years.

EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS’ MEDALS I

How about Sammy McIlroy or Martin O’Neill??

EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS’ MEDALS II

Did Martin O’Neill spend some time with us? And did he win a European Cup medal with Forest? That was the only one we could come up with at home.

EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS’ MEDALS III

I can think of three players who were at Forest: Ian Bowyer, Trevor Francis and Martin O’Neill. One for the rags, Kiddo, and one for Liverpool, Mick Robinson. That’s five, Stan Bowles and Colin Barrett were with Forest in the two seasons when they won the cup, were they subs for those games, because subs also got medals? As Roger Haigh mentioned Ken McNaught, that’s eight.

But what about Steve Heighway; had he left Liverpool before they won their first cup? John Gidman is another name that comes to mind. Oh well back to the record books again!

EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS’ MEDALS IV

I’m pretty sure Gidman wasn’t playing for Villa in their European final – he was Atkinson’s first signing for United. There’s no mention of European glory in his entry in City’s post-war A-Z.

Trevor Francis played in Forest’s win over Malmö (scoring the winner of course) but not against Hamburg. Ian Bowyer played in both finals. Martin O’Neill played in the one against Hamburg.

EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS’ MEDALS – ( sort of ) ANSWER

Q. Name 8 players who have won European Cup winner medals and have played for Manchester City?

A. The official answer I was given was the following list, although the question-setter did admit that he had found it hard to regenerate the answer and that this list had a couple of dubious names on it, e.g. Billy McNeill who only managed City:

• Brian Kidd
• Frank Carrodus
• Trevor Francis
• Steve McMahon
• Ian Bowyer
• Denis Law
• Billy McNeill
• Martin O’Neill

Regarding: Steve McMahon – my guess is that he did not win a medal.

Also Roger Haigh came up with:

• David Johnson
• Mick Robinson

Roger was correct to suggest that Denis Law did not play in the final. We had a debate here whether he may have actually received a medal or not but it was inconclusive.

Here’s a few more suggestions we came up with but we’re not sure:

• Denya
• McNaught
• Colin Barrett
• Ranadijk

RESULTS & LEAGUE TABLE

May  8, 1995   Blackburn       - Newcastle        1 - 0
May  9, 1995   Ipswich         - Everton          0 - 1
               Leeds           - Crystal_Palace   3 - 1
               Tottenham       - Coventry         1 - 3
May 10, 1995   Manchester_U    - Southampton      2 - 1
               West_Ham        - Liverpool        3 - 0

Total May 10, 1995

 1. Blackburn       41    27   8   6    79  -  37    89
 2. Manchester_U    41    26   9   6    76  -  27    87
 3. Nottingham      41    22  10   9    70  -  41    76
 4. Leeds           41    20  12   9    58  -  37    72
 5. Liverpool       41    20  11  10    63  -  36    71
 6. Newcastle       41    19  12  10    64  -  45    69
 7. Tottenham       41    16  13  12    65  -  57    61
 8. Queen's_PR      41    16   9  16    58  -  57    57
 9. Wimbledon       41    15  10  16    46  -  63    55
10. Southampton     41    12  17  12    59  -  61    53
11. Arsenal         41    13  12  16    51  -  47    51
12. Chelsea         41    12  15  14    48  -  54    51
13. West_Ham        41    13  10  18    43  -  47    49
14. Everton         41    11  16  14    44  -  51    49
15. Manchester_C    41    12  13  16    51  -  61    49
16. Coventry        41    12  13  16    44  -  62    49
17. Sheffield_W     41    12  12  17    45  -  56    48
18. Aston_Villa     41    11  14  16    50  -  55    47
-------------------------------------------------------
19. Crystal_Palace  41    11  12  18    32  -  46    45
20. Norwich         41    10  12  19    36  -  53    42
21. Leicester       41     6  10  25    43  -  78    28
22. Ipswich         41     7   6  28    35  -  89    27

WWW MANCHESTER CITY SUPPORTERS’ HOME PAGE:
http://www.uit.no/mancity/

Thanks to Svenn, Jerry, Mike, Bill (x2), Jeremy, Colin, Paul, Michael, Robert, Dan, Hambis & Martin.

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.

Editor: