Newsletter #105

Sod’s Law swung into action once again last week with City announcing a big signing barely nanoseconds after MCIVTA went out. OK, maybe not nanoseconds but it must have been pretty soon afterwards as it was already on Ceefax by the time I arrived home. This means that I’ve had to sacrifice length (still have a Why Blue) in order to get the news out. Apologies on that score but I guess the news is worth hearing!

City have made a major signing though how major, only time will tell, Beagrie is rumoured to be on his way and conversely, Big Niall may be staying! I guess all this movement is hardly surprising as there’s bound to be a period when the new manager assesses the current squad, attempts to sell those surplus to requirements and brings in his own men. The speed with which the Kinkladze (are we going to call him ‘Kinky George’?) signing was announced can only mean that the decision was taken before Ball’s arrival though it appears to meet with Ball’s approval.

I’m off to England on holiday this Friday and Paul Howarth has kindly agreed to take over MCIVTA for three weeks (he might be smiling now but……!). This means that we don’t need a name change as we can stick with MCIVTA (A = Ancoats!). So, any new subscribers and all submissions for MCIVTA should be sent, as of Friday, 21st July 95 to Paul Howarth (paul@wg.icl.co.uk).

NEWS – CITY SIGN GEORGIAN!

Does anyoneone know anything about Georgi Kinkladze? Has anyone heard of him? Anyway he’s supposed to have signed for about £2 million with Alan Ball quoted as saying “City will again be one of English soccer’s major clubs.” Let’s hope so.

NEWS – MAJOR SIGNING

Barely hours after being officially installed as City manager, Alan Ball made his first major signing, 21-year-old Georgian international midfielder Georgiou Kinkladze, who apparently has the unfortunate nickname of “Kinky” in his home country. He was part of a championship-winning Dynamo Tblisi side last season and will cost City £2,000,000. He doesn’t yet have a work permit but this is unlikely to be a problem and should take about 3 weeks to obtain.

Although Kinkladze will be regarded as Alan Ball’s first signing for City, the decision to sign him was almost certainly made by Francis Lee, who had been informed about the player by one of City’s European contacts about 6 months ago. Lee has since seen him play three times and was very impressed, so he sent Colin Bell and Jimmy Frizzell out to watch him and they were equally excited. As a result, Lee contacted the Tblisi President Merad Jordania who agreed to give City the first option on him should they decide to sell.

Since then, Kinkladze has turned in more impressive performances for Tblisi and the Georgian national side, including a European Championships qualifer against Wales in which he scored with a beautiful chip over Neville Southall. Tblisi apparently had enquiries from a number of top European sides (AC Milan and Barcelona were mentioned, plus apparently an English side not too far away from Maine Road). However, Jordania kept to his word and gave City first refusal, which will hopefully be a very good move for the club. The Tblisi president flew into Manchester on Thursday with Kinkladze to finalise the transfer and sort out details of a three-year contract. Jordania claimed that Kinkladze was “the best footballer ever produced by our country and is potentially the best player ever to come to England from any of the countries in the Eastern bloc.” If he turns out to be as good as Andrei Kanchelskis, we’ll have a bargain IMO.

Kinkladze doesn’t yet speak any English, but through an interpreter he said “I want to show how high the standard of football is in Georgia and make the people back home proud of me.”

NEWS – SOFT TOUCH FROM BALLY

The Norwegian newsagency reported on Saturday that Ball has signed Georgian midfielder Georgij Kinkladse from Dinamo Tblisi. Price: £2 million. Quoting Ball: “A wonderful player with excellent skills. Some say he’s the best East European player around.”

OK. City are shopping in bargainia. Mind you, Kanchelskis, who I at present time very much like, is the only successful East European around. As skilful as Kinkladze (Kinky) may be, he’s probably more pushable than Dino. By the way, Georgia trashing Wales is not an argument. So did Norway. In Cardiff. Show some self respect. You don’t pay that amount of money for a unknown Georgian international. You’d be daft. After all, world-star Dumitrescu cost £2.5 million. Go Dutch if you have to shop abroad. Don’t be Kinky.

NEWS – BEAGRIE ON HIS WAY?

GMR reported this morning (Monday) that City have opened negotiations with Celtic for the sale of Peter Beagrie at around £1.5 million. Beagrie is believed to be keen on the move as he supported the Bhoys as a youngster.

Niall Quinn is hoping to have a discussion with Alan Ball over his future later this week. Quinn wants to stay at City. It turns out that his move to Sporting Lisbon didn’t go through not because City wouldn’t pay the £300,000 due to Quinn if he was transferred to a foreign club (his contract specified that it was the buying club’s responsibility to pay this, and Lisbon had agreed to it), but because Lisbon found that they could get two Brazilians for the same price!

COMMENT

What do people think of City buying this 21 year old Georgian, Georgiou Kinkladze for £2 million? I’d hate to hear the fans try and cheer that name: there’s only one Georgiou Kin……… 😉 (I think he’ll come plain and simple George!) I suppose with him being only 21 there’s plenty of time for him to adapt to the English game. I’ve only seen Georgia play twice and that was against Wales, they absolutely slaughtered Wales in Georgia and they all looked pretty gifted and talented, so maybe we’ll have a real talented player at the Academy.

Once again though we’re left wondering who’s actually bought this player. City announced the signing on either Friday or Saturday (not sure ‘cos I ws on holiday when I saw the news) which was only a couple of days after AB officially took over. However it looks like the deal was all down to Franny as he said he’d been watching him for 6 months; excuse me since when do chairmen set up deals to buy players – surely that’s the manager’s job to assess the player’s potential? (another whinge)

WHY BLUE?

My love for football started at about 5 or 6 years of age when my mother, yes my mother!, let me stay up late one Saturday night to watch Match Of The Day. That night she explained the brief ideas and rules of football to me and from then on I was hooked. At this particular time my uncle held a Kippax season ticket and also used to attend all the City reserve matches at Maine Road. As you can imagine he was a keen City fan and couldn’t wait to take his younger nephew to a City game. I was undecided at the time as my best friend was a Dirty Red and he was trying to persuade me that the best place to go was Old Trafford. I eventually agreed for my Uncle to take me to City and ever since have hated everything connected with the Rags and have been an avid City fan.

My first match was in the 79/80 season against Bristol City and was viewed from the Main Stand. We won the game 3-1, a result that was to see Bristol City relegated that season (I think). From then on, it was decided that I could be taken to one game a season as a special birthday treat (my mum didn’t think I was old enough to be attending more regularly). I also had to be taken in the Main Stand as it was thought to be safer to watch matches from the seats rather than in the Kippax. I seemed to be a bit of a lucky omen for City for the first few games because the first defeat I saw was in the 85/86 season against Arsenal (0-1).

From the 87/88 season I started attending games at the Academy on a fairly regular basis and at last took up my place on the Kippax terraces. In that season I was lucky enough to witness the 10-1 massacre of the Chessboards(!) as well as some other well-polished performances from the Blues. In the 88/89 season I went to my first away match up at Boothferry Park where we lost to Hull City and although I was disappointed because we deserved to win, I enjoyed the altogether different atmosphere of the away game and had to get more of it! The 88/89 season was obviously remembered as a promotion campaign and although I saw the 3-3 with Bournemouth, I couldn’t get a ticket for the decider at Bradford. Instead I was stuck at Wembley watching Macclesfield Town and had to settle for radio commentary.

The 89/90 season saw my most memorable match, which I think was a 5-1 win against some team from Stretford! I also remember Clive Allen’s superb injury time winner at Chelsea and the memorable ‘live TV’ performance at Aston Villa with Reidy scoring the winner. Season 90/91 was a good one for City with Quinn and Whitey banging in the goals and TC putting in some solid goalkeeping performances. Quinn’s hat-trick at Palace, scoring a goal with each foot and one with his head, was a joy to behold.

The atmosphere and result of the first home game of the 91/92 season, against Liverpool, was brilliant and I remember coming away from that game on a tremendous buzz. Even better was beating Crystal Palace the Saturday after and going top of the league, oh the memories!!! Later on in the season I remember the unbelievable goal that Whitey scored in the 4-0 defeat of Luton and I saw my first competitive Derby at Old Trafford. Roger Haigh (hello and thanks mate!) couldn’t make the rearranged fixture and sold me his ticket. Pointon chopping down the spotty teenager and Curle’s cooly taken penalty – brilliant, “Ten men, you couldn’t beat ten men” etc. etc..

The 92/93 highlights for me were a period when we beat Everton away 3-1, stuffed Leeds 4-0 (for the 2nd successive season) and then came back from 2-0 down to beat Coventry 3-2. There was also the unsavoury incident against Tottenham which overshadowed one of the best goals I’ve ever seen at Maine Road.

For the last two seasons I haven’t been able to attend as many matches as I’d have liked as I’ve been topping the savings account up for my forthcoming house purchase and marriage! Even still, I seem to have got my lucky omen back that I had when I first started watching the Blues. In the last 14 matches I’ve attended, we have won 7 and drawn 7, so if anyone wants to buy me a season ticket for 95/96 then you’re quite welcome!

REQUEST – DISCUSSION LIST

Hi to all..

With the start of the new season starting, I would like to try and chat to other clubs’ supporters, about the different aspects of the game and matches during the season. Can anyone tell me of a list open to all supporters of all clubs?

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

Thanks to Rob, Paul (x2), James, Gorm, The Mole & 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: