Newsletter #178

Big, big news in this issue: Kavelashvili will be playing against Bolton and Garry Flitcroft won’t, he’ll be playing for Blackburn! There’s already quite a bit of opinion on this in this issue but I’m sure there’s lots more to come. There appear to be two camps, those that think the management is mad and those that think it’s a good deal for us as a club, and importantly, for Garry personally; he’s been stalled at Maine Road for quite a few years now and a move could see him come on again.

There’s the usual excellent contribution from the Platt Lane Correspondent, some articles on Lakey and a eulogy from the Telegraph on Gio…

NEWS – INJURED PLAYERS

Peter Beagrie, out of the side since the October derby at Old Trafford with tendonitis, has been casting doubt on his future at Maine Road. “I’d love to stay at Maine Road but I’m not convinced the manager includes me in his plans for next season. I will be back playing next season and I will be fitter and hungrier than ever – but if I’m honest I’m not sure who I’ll be playing for”, said the 30-year-old winger. With recent signing Martin Phillips and the even younger Aled Rowlands challenging for the same left-wing spot, Beagrie could well be right.

Another long-term injury victim, John Foster, out for most of the season with a shoulder injury, is now back in training but is not expected to play again this season.

NEWS – KAVELASHVILI GETS WORK PERMIT

With the backing of PFA chairman Gordon Taylor, City have now been granted a work permit for Georgian striker Mikhail Kavelashvili, a £1.4 million buy from Russian champions Spartak Vladikavkaz. He could make his début in the vital relegation battle with Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park on 30 March.

It’s likely that City will want to offload Niall Quinn in a bid to cut the club’s wage bill but former City boss Peter Reid has ruled out a bid from his new club, Sunderland. “There are one or two of my former players I would like to sign but Niall is not one of them. I have no plans to sign him, none at all. The recent speculation is totally unfounded,” said Reid. I bet he can’t afford him anyway.

NEWS – WORK PERMIT FOR KAVELASHVILI

Ceefax reports this morning that the work permit for our new Georgian star, Mikhail Kavelashvili, has come through. We’re paying up to £1.4m to Spartak Vladikavkaz for him and he’ll be in line for a début against Bolton on Saturday 30th March. Frannie Lee was quoted as saying “He’s a very good player, very quick and a proven goalscorer.”

This news, added to the defeats of Southampton and Bolton last night, should bring joy to the hearts of all Blues, with the possible exception of Uwe who will have to start playing and stop moaning and diving. It may well signal the departure of Niall Quinn who has reportedly been told that he does not figure in AB’s plans regardless of whether we stay up or go down. He may well rejoin Peter Reid at Sunderland for £1m, although this seems a bit cheap to me.

NEWS – FLIPPER TO MOVE?

Rumour has it (and it’s only a rumour mind) that Blackburn Rovers have officially offered around £4,000,000 for Garry Flitcroft and that City are seriously considering it. The rumours of Quinn’s move hit the Manchester Evening News tonight (March 18); it seems the favourites to sign him are Sunderland at £1,500,000. A sad day…

BTW on Brooking’s comments about the Saints being cheated out of an equaliser on Saturday. If a player, especially an attacking player, isn’t interfering with play, then he shouldn’t be on the park.

I was in Block F at the foot of the Main Stand and unsighted by a hopping Grobbelaar who wouldn’t stay in the dug-out!! I hadn’t seen the flag go up; to say I was relieved is putting it mildly.

NEWS – FLIPPER ON HIS WAY

City have confirmed that they have accepted a £3.2 million cash bid from Blackburn Rovers for Garry Flitcroft. He will have a medical today.

With Flitcroft being City’s biggest asset apart from Gio and with the impressive form shown by Michael Brown, Steve Lomas, Nigel Clough and Kinkladze recently, now is probably the best time to sell IMHO.

NEWS – LIVERPOOL GAME

Regarding the change of date of the last match of the season at home to Liverpool that was mentioned in MCIVTA 177; ours is not the only fixture that has been moved – all of the Premier League games scheduled for that weekend will be played at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday 5th May. The same thing was done last season. It allows Sky to show one or more matches live without giving any team the advantage of knowing exactly what they need to do to clinch the title, avoid relegation etc. Of course, with us still in danger of relegation and Liverpool still in with a chance of the title, our game is a prime candidate to be screened anyway. Given our record against Liverpool so far this season, there should be a few goals…

P.S. I thought one of the match reports for Saturday’s game might have been subtitled “Or `Why Martin should renew his season ticket’ by Georgi Kinkladze.”

POINTERS FROM PLATT LANE (FROM YOUR TRAINING GROUND CORRESPONDENT)

Relaxation Training

After Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Soton the first team squad didn’t arrive at the training ground until 11 a.m. Monday morning. They then went off to the Galleon Hotel/Leisure Centre in East Didsbury for swimming and saunas. Tony Book told me that the lads were in need of relaxation after the game. After our somewhat over-relaxed second half performance that statement sounded rather hollow. Quite a number of supporters were waiting to congratulate Gio on his superb performance but only those who waited around for twenty minutes actually saw him. Most of the supporters had gone by the time he turned up and Tony Book seemed none too pleased at having to have waited.

Quinn

Paul Hince of the MEN has recently stated that he believes Quinn will be on his way soon as he is the highest paid player on the books at £6,000 pounds per week. It was interesting in the light of this that Quinn did not go for relaxation but stayed behind and trained with the reserves. As we have now got Kavelashvili’s work permit this could well be true. In the past both Coton and Phelan started training with the reserves some time before moving on.

Kavelashvili

His club record, I believe, is 21 goals from 14 games – enough said. I watched him when he was at the training ground for his trial and he certainly looked very sharp indeed. An absolute bargain at £1.4 million pounds and on the basis that the two Georgians will have each other for company they should both be more inclined to stay long term.

Ball has been waxing lyrical this week about Kavelashvili’s skills and says that he is better than Gio.

In Training

Tuesday morning the lads were back to proper training with half an hour warm up followed by a full training match. Immel was on brilliant form with many superb reaction saves. Buster had a superb game showing lots of skills that, IMHO, should be put to use on the pitch, if only Ball would select him. Uwe was full of effort and hard work but unfortunately even in training he seems unable to work out where the goalposts are. A bit of a niggle went on between Symons and Brown. The latter was tending to be over-enthusiastic with his tackles and was in danger of crippling someone. Mazzarelli is a clone of Giggs, looks a good prospect for right sided midfield. Brightwell, our longest serving player, looked very sharp. Curle took a knock on the ankle and had to go off for treatment.

Gio

What would you think Gio would do in his spare time in a strange country? Apparently he spends much of his spare time at Chairman Lee’s place playing snooker and watching videos.

THIS SEASON’S TRANSFER BALANCE

Paul and I were wondering just how this season’s transfers comings and goings looked on paper. The full list of transfers this season (from the FAQ) is:

In                          Out
------------------------    ---------------------
Gardiner          £0.00m    Finney         £0.00m
Kinkladze         £2.00m    Quigley        £0.00m
Symons            £1.80m    Burridge       £0.00m
Immel             £0.40m    Mike           £0.06m *
Creaney           £0.90m    Simpson        £0.50m
Phillips          £0.50m    Griffiths      £0.40m
Clough            £1.50m    Hill           £0.15m
Frontzeck         £0.35m    Walsh          £0.50m
Mazzarelli        £1.00m ?  Phelan         £0.75m
Kavelashvili      £1.40m    Vonk           £0.35m
                            Brightwell     £0.03m
                            Coton          £0.50m
                            Lake           £0.00m %
                            Flitcroft      £3.20m
                            Taggart        £0.70m +
                            Coleman        £0.20m +
                  ------                   ------
Totals:           £9.85m                   £7.34m

?

Wild guess at the fee. Either side can pull out of the deal at the end of the season.

*

City will get 25% of any sell-on fee from Stockport for Adie Mike.

%

Not sure if City will get any insurance money from Lake’s retirement.

+

City received sell-on fees from the sales of Gerry Taggart and Chris Coleman.

So, even after the sale of Flitcroft there’s a deficit of £2.5 million; I doubt that there will have been much change in the overall wage bill as Clough, Kinkladze and Symons will all be high earners.

LAKE INTERVIEW

I bought ‘Goal’ magazine the other day and found an excellent interview with Lakey. It makes interesting reading really and is somewhat embarrassing to think we treated one of our own so badly. Here are the main points of interest.

Lake refers to the injury as a subjective, distant event, almost as if it did not directly affect him. “I’d had my best pre-season in years and I was flying. At the start of the pre-season I was looking at a place on the bench. By the end of the pre-season, I had not only got into the team, but I was captain. I was really enjoying my football and felt confident – and that is when it happened.” ‘It’ happened against Aston Villa on Sept 5th, 1990. “I’ve got a tape of it and I’ve watched it a few times,” says Lake. “The ball got chipped up to Cascarino, he miscontrolled it and it ran about five yards away, so I hooked it away from him towards Mark Brennan who was in front of me. he played it across the pitch. I looked to follow it and jogged in that direction. I just twisted and heard a kind of crunch in the back of my knee. Straight away I knew it was really serious.”

He then goes on to tell of all the false hopes and useless treatments and all the heartbreak that we remember. The interesting point about the article is the lack of help from City (or Swales really)…

“When Peter Reid said he wanted me looked at by this guy in the States I went in to see the chairman, Peter Swales. I’d had a go at him in a Sunday paper, saying that when you’re injured some people regard you as a piece of meat. He told me he wasn’t happy with what I’d said, so I asked him to explain how John Salako at Palace – which is not a tenth the size of this club – went to the States straight away for the operation. I also tried to explain to him that I’d need someone to come with me because after the operation I wouldn’t be able to open doors or go to the toilet without help. He told me to get a porter.”

“I was going to pay for my fiancee to come with me but when the lads heard about it they said to use the money from the players pool – every club has one. It was a brilliant gesture. Eammon Salmon eventually came out with me but for only four days – I was there for 14. The return ticket wasn’t first class though, and I needed the leg room because I was supposed to keep my leg straight all the way. For nine and a half hours I had it bent like this (he assumes the position, his right leg bent at an acute angle). We had to change at London, but when I tried to get up I couldn’t walk – even with crutches. I had to use a wheelchair.”

The article is well worth reading in full and comes with a mightily depressing picture of Paul sat in the City dressing room under Gio’s shirt. It is well worth buying or borrowing. It is the one with Stuart Pearce on the front.

GEORGIAN INVITES BEST COMPARISON

By Bryan Butler, Daily Telegraph, 20/3/96

It took just a jiffy, one among a hundred or so scored in English League football over the weekend, but the memory of that goal at Maine Road is not going to fade. The scorer, an artful dodger with a choirboy’s face, wafted through Southampton’s bullish defence like a breeze before teasing the ball over a bemused ‘keeper and into the net. Such bravaura, such audacity. The only regret is that this hero is a Georgi from Georgia rather than, say, a George from Geordieland. Kinkladze is the name of course, a little merlin in the employment of Manchester City — and there was more than a hint of reverence as well as exultation in the crowd’s salute to his goal.

There is, more’s the pity, no way of measuring talent. There is no kind of barometer which, placed under a player’s tongue will put a figure on his technique, dexterity and versatility. His relationship with the ball, his vision of the patterns and the rhythms of the game, his ability to improvise and — the mortar which holds everything together — his resolution. But, if there were, my bet is Kinkladze would top the list in English football — above Eric Cantona, Alan Shearer, Ryan Giggs, Robbie Fowler, Dennis Bergkamp and, yes, Ruud Gullit at the age of 33. The young Gullit? Not so sure. All have components that might improve Kinkladze. Shearer’s single-mindedness, perhaps, Fowler’s prescience, Cantona’s cunning or the strength of Gullit’s personality. Point for point, however, Kinkladze has the virtuosity and the brio to make the most vivid mark of all on any game in which he plays. He takes one’s mind back to another Georgie, the Best, in fact, who was also on a higher plateau than his contemporaries. He was, within the context of the simple game of football, an honest-to-goodness genius. Matt Busby said that Best was gifted with more ability than he had seen in any other player — and unique in the number of his gifts. I would pick Best before Kinkladze, but the fact that the two invite comparison is tribute in itself to City’s current star of stars.

And he may yet have more to show us. Kinkladze, like Best, is a player of style as well as infinite surprises. He is a crowd pleaser as well as a match winner — and his ability has nothing to do with coaching. He does things beyond the ken of any FA Centre of Excellence. He is a team man too, who brings others into the game, offers options and makes space by obliging defenders to follow him. But, above all, he dribbles and scores, the two most exciting elements in the game. No useful analysis is possible of the 40-yard run which took him through the Southampton defence. They looked as if they were trying to clobber a shadow. Kinkladze’s finish was also exquisite: an inviting hesitation and then, as Dave Beasant plunged, a delicately weighted chip over the big chap’s body. That was his second goal. The first, right man in the right place, had been a simple tap-in. No flourish, no hesitation.

He is possibly the first City player that United, across the way, have had reason to envy for a quarter of a century;. It will be interesting to see what United make of him in the Manchester derby at Maine Road in just over a fortnight’s time. Kinkladze will not score goals like last Saturday’s every week, but the promise is always there, and at Upton Park this Saturday he will be West Ham’s problem. He may even give an East Londoner a chance to re-run the old story about Stanley Matthews “Kick ‘im,” bellowed the supporter of an opposing team as Matthews waltzed past a defender. “Kill ‘im,” as Matthews floated past another. And, turning to the crowd behind him, as the great man rounded yet another and laid on a goal: “Didn’t I tell you? He’s a right ****** marvel.”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

I’m an exile living in Burnley who rarely gets to see a game because I’m a mature student and skint. However, I’m not writing this to moan about it. I could moan about being one of the lucky ones who saw City’s pre-season match at Turf Moor. Shame our present team wasn’t assembled then… Still, if we think we’ve got problems, I reckon Inchy Heath will have a few more headaches than Mr Ball at the end of this season. Anyway, I was wondering the other day, I know that half of the 60’s and 70’s team work for City, but what about the rest? Come on folks, tell us, what are the likes of Glyn Pardoe, Neil Young, Stan Horne etc. doing now? I’d love to hear.

P.S. nice one Magpies, that’l wipe a few smiles off certain smug fans’ faces.

SCORE AT THE TOP?

Would it be possible on match reports to put the score at the top of the header as sometimes I (and I presume others :-)) do not have all the time we would like to read these reports.

Does anyone else have an opinion on this? The original reason it’s at the bottom is to increase suspense for those that don’t know the score but the editorial often negates this anyway.

WONDERWALL – RAG VERSION

Those who watched Saturday’s Match of the Day may well have heard “our tune” Wonderwall being sung at Loftus Road. I have managed to find out what the Reds were singing…

Uwe threw his boots away
When the scousers knocked the Blues for six.
What’s more, he didn’t even score
And returned to find his car on bricks.

None of the board has any money
For players to stop the Blues from going down.

Each week the manager will squeak
That the crisis will be sorted out.
It’s not fair, the trophy room is bare
While United’s room is hammered out.

None of the board has any money
For players to stop the Blues from going down.

And all the fans that watch the match are whining
‘Cos City never make a decent signing.

There are many teams that they
Would like to score against.
But they don’t know how…

City, you are so ******,
And with Alan Ball, you’re going to win **** all!

And to think they’re always saying they don’t care about City 😉 Anyway, I thought it was quite funny although I think even the most rabid Red would admit that the bit about never making a decent signing isn’t true. What would they give for Gio I wonder?

Also got this from several other people. It appeared last week and you have to wonder whether the Rags were primed to sing it, taking into account their well-known inability to come up with anything remotely witty.

OPINION – FLIPPER

I’ve just seen the report in this morning’s Sun that City have agreed a price of £4 million with Blackburn Rovers for Garry Flitcroft? If this is true, we must seriously question the mental state of our manager. Has he gone mad?

OPINION FROM THE SOUTH

I can hold back no longer – I’ve sat and grinned, grimaced and growled at most of these messages over the season (since I joined the list) – even at Flixton Red’s superbly objective comments (!), (after all living in Somerset means I’m only an armchair fan most of the time) – but feel that now’s the time to grind.

Point (1) Disappointment is all a part of Being Blue

I can understand people getting disillusioned with the way things are but there’s no way we are going down – sorry I just refuse to accept that with 7 matches and 21 points left to play for (specially since Sheff Wed’s favour last night) we should resign ourselves to the unthinkable. Even if on the last Saturday of the afternoon, we are 9 points adrift of Coventry at 3rd from bottom, I will refuse to believe it (after all Ron Atkinson could get indicted on a Coke smuggling charge and Whelan would get impounded by the customs for being bought on laundered money – Swindon all over again and we deservedly escape the Endsleigh noose).

So just stop this negative crap right now ‘cos there’s plenty of people around who’ll can do that for us (Flixton Git, sorry Red for one).

Point (2) How to answer back the Ragettes

I’m getting some real grief from some Ragettes at my place of work – now Bob in the postroom I can handle, even Simon the building manager I can tell to take a hike – but how the hell do you argue the toss with Leza the Italian babe when she says “Why do you support City, they’re s***e?” – It’s hard taking grief from someone who makes supermodels look plain – I gave this girl a lift to work on several rain-busting occasions but would’ve rolled her outa the door on a sharp bend, if I’d known her idols were them. I just got an e-mail from her this morning ranting on about Eric bloody Cantona’s claim to PFA stardom – she ain’t even heard of Georgi!

I thought it would be easier since I moved to Taunton from Yorkshire (hell on earth near the Leeds mob) a few years ago but they’re all over the bloody place down ‘ere – they even opened a Rags shop – bloody Taunton I ask you!

PS – seems like we found £1.5 million to buy Georgi’s mate after all – and reports are he’s got a work permit and should start against Bolton.

PPS – It’s almost – no hell it is worth going down, just to win on the 6th and shatter the Evil Empire’s dream of getting their grubby mitts on the championship – we should don black’n white scarves and boost the Geordies’ number at the Swamp in a few weeks time methinks…

OPINION – THE HARD DONE BY LINESMAN

Watson got himself sent off because of it. The press said it was controversial. Trevor Brooking (on Match of the Day) said it was inconsistent. This is of course the offside decision (phew!) which gave us a much-needed win instead of the dreaded injury time draw.

The comparison was made with the QPR goal against the Rags where Barker (I think) was offside when the ball was passed for the goal. Here the linesman could clearly see that the ball was not aimed at the offside player running back, but to the opposite side (from where the pass was made) for Dichio running through.

In the disallowed Southampton version, the cross from the right was aimed directly at the offside Neilson (hence the linesman’s flag) and it would be impossible for him to know when the pass was made that the ball was going to land 10 yards or so short of the offside player. A good decision.

In my view if you are on the pitch you are interfering with play and until this is accepted universally there will always be controversy.

Here’s to more favourable decisions…

OPINION – A GOAL TO BETTER RICKY VILLA’S

Let’s hope that now after Saturday’s goal television programmes will avoid reliving the nightmare of the ’81 cup final replay; thanks Gio.

To reply to Gareth’s point in MCIVTA 177, I agree that it would be excellent if they brought Rush to Maine Road to link up with Gio and Co. Speaking of Liverpool players, what about buying Ruddock while we are there? I’m sure he does not enjoy being Liverpool’s fifth choice centre-half behind Babb, Scales, Wright and Harkness. He is someone who City need, Keith Curle unfortunately is not going to be around forever.

However all this talk of Liverpool players does not mean that City once again become a Merseyside old boys team but we cannot overlook quality players wherever they come from. This is one of the reasons why we do not win the Derby matches; we do well in the first half but then the class/quality button is pressed at half time and we end up losing. The club has got to get rid of the dead wood, trim itself down and go for quality and not quantity.

P.S. Any City fans in Cyprus, where are you?
P.P.S. Just recently got the internet, the link is fantastic.

OPINION – SHOCK HORROR!

My mum told me this morning that Blackburn were going to sigh Flitcroft. Just paper talk I presumed, and slipped quietly back to bed. However, Piccadilly Gold carried a report at 8.30 saying the same thing, and at 10.00am on Piccadilly Key 103 my worst fears were confirmed – Franny had accepted a bid of £3.2 million.

As I’m at Manchester University, Maine Road and Platt lane are only a few minutes away. However I did not have the guts to go down there and plead with anyone who would listen for Flitters to stay. Perhaps it wouldn’t do much good anyway…

Why oh why are we selling one of the best midfielders in the country? Flitcroft, Lomas and Kinky ran the midfield against United in October, and I wonder if we would still be in the FA Cup if Garry had played against United? I had the misfortune (and stupidity?) to accept a ticket to watch United and Arsenal on Wednesday, and Arsenal were pushing for Europe, though you would not have guessed. United outplayed them, far more convincingly than they did against us in any of our defeats, even the 5-0. What I am trying to say is that we are not too far behind being a reasonable side. We have (or had) a young midfield, a back four looking reasonable (Hiley, Curle, Symons and Summerbee), Cloughie and Uwe look to play together well and we are promised this Georgian guy (you all know who he is; I’m not attempting to spell it) maybe to complete the jigsaw.

Perhaps we are after money – but why? Crowds are up (what would they be like if we were winning things?), and big earners like Phelan and Coton have gone, with Quinny soon to join them. Get rid of Creaney and Dibble and we could trim the squad further. We need success, and will not get it by selling the best English player we have had for ages. He may not be the new Colin Bell – but Ryan Giggs isn’t George Best but rhe Rags would never flog him.

That’s all for now.

OPINION – FLITCROFT & THINGS GENERALLY

Why oh why are we selling Flitcroft? Okay he’s not had the best of seasons but who has (Kinky, Symons and Immel excepted)? This is a future England international who is still only 23. If we were going to get rid of a few players then the likes of Brightwell and Kernaghan should go, not Flitcroft. Blackburn are a better side than us and if they want him then there must be a reason for it. IMHO it is because they think beyond the next few months.

Onto other matters though. On the pitch, things are looking more promising. It looks as though around 38 points will be enough to stay up. From our last 7 games I don’t think that getting 10 points (putting us on 40) is unrealistic. However, knowing City …

The hot player in the Premiership at the moment has got to be our Kinky. Everyone is just raving about him. This worries me. What if a top continental side comes in and offers £6 million plus for him? The Flitcroft transfer shows we are willing to sell and it is not unreasonable for Kinky to be tempted to move to AC Milan or Barcelona.

However, we are still a young team and look promising everwhere except up-front. I don’t know how good ‘Gio’s mate’ is but we are in dire need of a striker. Look at all the top clubs and you’ll find a class striker or even a pair of strikers. Does anyone know of a promising young striker in the lower divisions?

On MCITVA in general, there was talk of becoming an official supporters’ club a while back. Personally I don’t agree with the idea. However, what about asking the club to give us copies of all press releases and maybe getting access to players for interviews? I would think that most people would jump at the chance to interview a player, and as nobody would have time to do this on a regular basis, perhaps the job could be ‘passed round’. Just a thought.

Here’s to Kinky walking through AC Milan’s defence in the European Cup Final in 98 !!!! (we can but dream)

OPINION – GARY IN £4M FLIT TO ROVERS

Anyway, I thought I would let you have my comments on the flipflop transfer. When I first moved up north and started watching City on a full time basis, a young lad called Garry Flitcroft was just breaking into the team. We used to enthuse about superb first half performances and not mention him in the second half (as my city watching friend used to say, “brilliant first half but he disappeared up his own arse in the second”), hence flip-flop. So if it is true and he is going to Rovers for £4 million, then good luck to him. I don’t think it will be a complete disaster, just as long as we spend the money on a decent player, and not some old pile of s***e to plug the gap for a few months. The Sun said “his deparature will come as a shock to many City fans”; I don’t think so! £4 million is a lot of money to cash in on a former U21 player that came up through the youth system. I just hope it is £4 million and Rovers don’t try to rip us off with instalments and payment per appearences.

When is the MCIVTA football session? I emailed Rob but have not heard anything (we have just changed over to a new server at the University so I am not sure wether the Emails are getting out). Have we fixed a date for the session and more importantly which pub afterwards?

A question for people with inside info on Oasis; is the concert at Loch Lomond still going ahead and if so when, and also is it true that they are going to play some concerts at Knebworth in the Summer?

P.S. I still think we will stay up.

OPINION – SATELLITE NEWS & FLIPPER’S DEPARTURE

This week’s live Premier games on international satellite are Arsenal vs. Newcastle on Sat 23rd and the Rags vs. Spurs on Sun 24th.

So Flipper’s gone. He was a really nice lad to talk to, very approachable with no ego at all. I guess the next few weeks and months will seem strange to him as he’s been with City since his early teens I believe, people forget he’s only 23. I think his lack of goals really hurt him; if he could have got 8-10 goals a season his confidence and City’s positions would have been a lot higher. I guess AB and Franny spotted the demise of his game and cashed in quickly while the money was good. Is Flipper going to fade into the lower leagues or obscurity like other young City hopefuls Redmond, White, Moulden etc? Maybe a new club and a fresh start is just the kick up the arse his game needed?

IMO Clough has to finish off the season in midfield with Gio obviously alongside him. I guess Brown will also play, although he seems one for the future and Lomas on the other side. I know Lomas has improved lately but IMO he isn’t good enough in the long run. I’d like to see a Mark Draper style player in the midfield but a player of his calibre would obviously cost millions. Maybe Franny has another cheap Georgian up his sleeve? I don’t personally care if we have 11 foreigners as long as they’re as good as Gio and we’re winning!

I know one thing about Garry Flitcroft, he was a battler and gave 100%. He ran his heart out for the blue shirt of City, good luck to him at Blackburn.

OPINION – RECENT MCIVTA STUFF

Ramblings …

Do we know (Nizam?) if Nick Leeson (scourge of latter day capitalism) is getting his MCIVTAs?

I enjoyed Mike Maddox’s article on his end of the season computer modelling – maybe what we need is massively parallelled Kinkladzes :-))

RESULTS

Monday, March 18 1996

NEWCASTLE UNITED        3-0    WEST HAM UNITED           36,331

Tuesday, March 19 1996

ASTON VILLA             0-0    MIDDLESBROUGH             23,933

Wednesday, March 20 1996

BOLTON WANDERERS        2-3    TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR         17,829
MANCHESTER UNITED       1-0    ARSENAL                   50,028
SOUTHAMPTON             0-1    SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY       13,216

Wed 20 Mar

Team                Played   Won Drawn Lost  For  Against   Points
Newcastle United      29     20    4    5     55    26        64
Manchester United     31     19    7    5     58    30        64
Liverpool             30     17    8    5     60    26        59
Aston Villa           32     16    8    8     46    30        56
Tottenham Hotspur     30     14    9    7     40    30        51
Arsenal               31     14    9    8     42    28        51
Everton               31     13    9    9     48    34        48
Blackburn Rovers      31     14    6   11     47    36        48
Chelsea               31     11   11    9     36    34        44
Nottingham Forest     29     11   11    7     39    40        44
West Ham United       31     12    6   13     35    42        42
Leeds United          29     11    6   12     35    42        39
Middlesbrough         32      9    9   14     29    42        36
Sheffield Wednesday   31      9    8   14     42    49        35
Manchester City       31      7    9   15     24    45        30
Coventry City         30      5   12   13     37    55        27
Wimbledon             30      6    9   15     42    61        27
Southampton           29      5   10   14     28    43        25
Queens Park Rangers   31      6    5   20     27    49        23
Bolton Wanderers      31      6    4   21     33    61        22

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http://www.uit.no/mancity/

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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: