Newsletter #182

The ‘hot’ news in this issue is that we (MCIVTA) have secured a link to the club so that we can get news directly from Maine Road (see below).

The big game is coming up and everything appears to have gone quiet; will Ball play Kavelashvili or not? Will it be 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 or …? It’s also time for March Player of the Month, votes to Ken as usual.

Apologies in advance from Flixton Red who won’t be able to do a match report from the Red perspective as he can’t make it to the Swamp to watch the big screen, so all he would have to go on would be MotD (assuming it’s on).

** MCIVTA GETS OFFICIAL MCFC NEWS **

Great news, after talking with the club (MCFC) over the last two months, they have given us (MCIVTA) a direct contact at Maine Road. This will enable us to get the latest news straight from the horse’s mouth without the intervention of a journalist and will also be a means of debunking some of the newspapers’ more colourful inventions.

Stephen Bolton will be looking after things from our end and should soon be providing us with some “Official MCFC News”. If you have any questions which you would like answering then mail Stephen and he’ll try to get them answered (see below). This will be at Steve’s discretion though; it’s strictly a ‘news’ service. That means he won’t be asking questions that can easily be answered by phoning ‘Ticketline’ or some other club telephone line, nor is it a general ‘moan’ line! Naturally, Stephen will be keeping his eyes open so that he can ask pertinent questions but he’ll need help in getting to hear rumours/news etc. as soon as they appear.

Background

Some time ago several people mooted the possibility of MCIVTA becoming ‘semi-official’ or at least having some kind of relationship with the club. This was already an idea that Paul and I had pursued in Summer ’95 but without really getting to talk to the right people at the club. Early this year we were once again discussing this issue, especially in view of the increased awareness of the internet and what the club’s reaction might be if they suddenly discovered us out of the blue. We wrote to the club and after an exchange of phone calls were invited down to meet amongst others, Colin Barlow. We were able to describe what MCIVTA and the WWW site were about and also give them a little advice on where things were going internet-wise. The upshot was that Colin Barlow liked what we had to say and gave us permission to use the club crest on the WWW. We asked about getting a contact at the club and he agreed, providing that MCIVTA wasn’t scurrilous or libellous in nature.

Paul sent him several issues and he obviously didn’t find anything he didn’t like as we now have a contact. This should prove invaluable, not only in terms of ‘hot’ news but also as a means of building up a relationship with the club which will ultimately benefit both parties.

OFFICIAL MCFC NEWS

Today (Thursday) the team are training behind closed doors, possibly working on the tactics for Saturday’s game. Although Uwe is now fully recovered from his injury there is no team news available as yet.

Scott Hiley has broken his foot in three places so will be out for the rest of the season.

Rumours about City touring China in the pre-season build up were thought to be just that, rumours; however, we will soon know what is going to happen and where. Watch this space.

The correct spelling for Gio’s mate is Mikhail Kavelashvili. There have been various versions of this in the popular(?) press so here it is.

If you have any City-related questions that you would me like to ask, mail them to me and I’ll put them to the club, if appropriate; I’ll then write them up and submit them for inclusion in MCIVTA.

NEWS – INJURIES/FITNESS

Peter Beagrie has had an exploratory operation in the region of his kneecap as he has made no progress recently. This is apparently in addition to his chronic tendonitis.

John Foster has been making excellent progress and should be fit for a return to the first team after another two or three reserve games.

Uwe Rösler, who missed the Bolton game with a foot injury, has been back in training but has had a knock on his other ankle. He is still expected to be fit to play, if selected, on Saturday.

Scott Hiley has broken two or three bones in his ankle and will be in plaster for two months.

Mikhail Kavelashvili is reported to be “very fit” and there is no reason why he shouldn’t play on Saturday, if Alan Ball picks him!

RUMOUR – CHINESE TOUR

I have heard that City are planning a pre-season tour of China mid-July to early August plus the weekend before the start of the season they are hoping to play Exeter and possibly Plymouth, both away.

MARCH – PLAYER OF THE MONTH POLL

Voting for the March Player of the Month closes on April 10th. You should vote for your top 3 players, where 3 votes will go to your first choice, 2 votes to your second choice and 1 vote for your third choice. Games Covered:

Prem, Home, vs. Blackburn Rovers, 1-1, Scorer: Lomas.
Prem, Away, vs. Chelsea,          1-1, Scorer: Clough.
Prem, Home, vs. Southampton,      2-1, Scorer: Kinkladze 2.
Prem, Away, vs. West Ham United,  2-4, Scorer: Quinn 2.
Prem, Away, vs. Bolton,           1-1, Scorer: Quinn.

As the votes for Nicky Summerbee have dried up completely I thought this quote from the man himself in the Bolton programme may endear him to us a bit more:

“I was a United fan actually. I have had City fans who are friends phoning me up and giving me a lot of stick because of the way I used to take the mick when I was a Red”.

Mmm very interesting Nicky, nearly as interesting as your renaissance style interior decor. Now just stop waffling, get off your arse and start doing the business again.

ADJUSTED LEAGUE TABLE

I thought that it would be interesting to see just how bad our start to the season was. By taking the table as of 30/03/96 and subtracting the table as of 2/11/95 this excludes our terrible start and perhaps gives us a better idea of the standard of the team after Alan Ball had settled down. It makes interesting reading with City being mid-table which having watched them this season seems about right to me.

Position  Team                          Points
 1        Everton                         42
 2        Manchester United               41
 3        Tottenham Hotspur               38
 4        Aston Villa                     36
 5        Liverpool                       36
 6        Newcastle United                36
 7        Blackburn Rovers                34
 8        Arsenal                         33
 9        West Ham United                 32
10        Chelsea                         30
11        Manchester City                 29
12        Nottingham Forest               26
13        Sheffield Wednesday             24
14        Wimbledon                       23
15        Coventry City                   20
16        Leeds United                    19
17        Southampton                     19
18        Bolton Wanderers                18
19        Middlesbrough                   18
20        Queens Park Rangers             17

WIMBLEDON PUB

The pub is called the ‘Prince of Wales’ and is situated on the main roundabout 100 yards left out of Thornton Heath station, the roads on this roundabout being:

                            Woodville Road
                                  |  |
                               To Ground.
                            Pub.  |  |
                               ---------->>>>>>>
                          ________|  |__________
         Parchmore Road                  High St
                          ________    __________
                          Tesco.  |  |
                  Thornton Heath  |  |
                         Station. |  |
                             Bridgestock Rd

INDEPENDENT ELEVEN

The latest Premier XI from the Independent features another City player but omits everyone’s favourite Georgian:

                           SULLIVAN
                          (Wimbledon)
    BARDSLEY     CURLE               CHETTLE         WILSON
     (QPR)    (Man City)           (Nottm For)     (Tottenham)
KANCHELSKIS      HORNE               SELLARS         GALLACHER
(Everton)      (Everton)            (Bolton)        (Blackburn)
                SINCLAIR             SHERINGHAM
                (QPR)                (Tottenham)

The latest odds to be relegated, for those of you who like a gamble, are according to Hills the Bookmakers:

1-12 Bolton
1-6  QPR
1-3  Coventry
6-4  Southampton
3-1  MANCHESTER CITY
14-1 Wimbledon

Let’s hope they stay like that.

GIO ON NORWEGIAN TV

About Gio; There was a 5 minute report on him before the game on the TV. The only things he could say in english were; “Come on City” and “Give me the ball!” He had a female visitor from Georgia (not his mother) when the TV crew was visiting him. She said the people back in Georgia were very interested in City and how Kinkladze did. They were all proud and amazed by the attention and status he has got in England. The woman said that she couldn’t tell the people back home how popular Gio is in England; “You’ll have to see it with your own eyes to believe it”, she told the Georgians.

He will be the first City player at Wembley for quite some time when he is playing England in the WC qualifier..! I hope some of the guys on the mailing-list will go to the game to support Gio even though they are playing England. If Georgia gets to the WC (quite unlikely though), there will be two City players out there. If England qualifies (even more unlikely, sorry guys!) there’s no chance at all a City player will be playing!

GIO IN THE USA

Nice photo of Gio and a discussion of “The Goal” against Soton in last week’s Soccer America, including quoted comments from Alan Ball. Unfortunately, the cover of the previous week showed Ryan G*&^s of the Rags against City under the banner “March to the F.A. Cup” or some other such c**p. The photo showed Richard Edghill though so I can only assume it was from the fall derby. Even in America.

Damn the mad cow disease! Blues eat Red meat on Saturday!

DERBY IN THE USA

Re: Rene Gonzalez’s questions about watching the Derby in America: The match will definitely be televised on the usual satelite channel all over America. The listings were shown after last Sunday’s FA Cup semi-finals. This channel is generally only available to pubs so you’ll probably have to look for one that subscribes in your area.

Anyway, there is a Web page which lists all the pubs in the US and Canada which subscribe to the Premier League matches including phone numbers etc.

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mdwheel/us-soccer/misc/pubs2.html

Don’t forget to turn up an hour earlier than normal due to the advent of British Summer Time last Sunday. Good Luck – I’ll be in the Hidden Shamrock in Chicago – it’s a long shot but there might be another MCIVTA subscriber in this city.

[There are more! – Ashley]

THIS WEEK’S SATELLITE GAMES

This week’s games to be shown throughout the world on international satellite are *** Manchester City vs. The Rags on Saturday April 6th and Blackburn vs. Newcastle on Monday April 8th.

*** please double check kick-off times wherever you are as Britain put its clocks forward last weekend i.e. North America now 9.00am kick-off Eastern time (usually 10.00am) and 6.00am kick-off Pacific time (usually 7.00am)

WELSH TV

Just a few lines to let anyone who is like me (starved of footy on the TV and cannot aford Sky) and live anywhere that you can pick up the Welsh Channel4 on a Monday night at approx 10 pm, there is a one-hour programme (not sure of the name, but could be Saosr?) of international football. Every week there is one game from the German, the Italian, the Spanish and Portuguese leagues. On a Saturday at approx 5pm, if you can get HTV you also get a 1/2 hour local football programme. I don’t know about anyone else, but on our local TV station gets approx 5 minutes on a Saturday afternoon.

Also on BBC1 Wales you get the repeat of MotD on a Sunday afternoon at approx 3pm. This was wonderful as I could hear the Welsh commentator go mad about Kinks’ goal again.

Last but buy no means least all those how have been mad enough to put their name down for the MCIVTA footy team, please turn up!! If you don’t I will have to play more than 5 minutes and it will kill me (the dragon will be happy with the insurance money though).

OPINION – RECENT HAPPENINGS

Just a few thoughts from watching Manchester City play recently.

Firstly, Bolton itself. Paul (Howarth) was absolutely right… none of the hostelries are very inviting. I’d be interested to hear if Bolton has any entries at all in the guide to good boozers near football grounds. As for the ground… I was in the main Manchester Road stand (keeping very quiet), and it’s more 1930’s than 50’s. The area underneath the stand was like a warren for bulimic rabbits. Tiny little alleyways… and the whole thing made of wood. Bradford sprung to mind, but there’d be even less chance of getting out of Burnden.

Onto the game. Ashley was spot on. Quinn played out of his socks, but was given no support whatsoever. After a flukey early goal we should have buried them. Where are these points gonna come from? Here’s hoping for Saturday!

Finally, I think the cryptic reference Ashley referred to… “Scorch Gio” (Scorpio?), means he’s been mispending his Friday nights in the pub when he should have been watching The Fast Show. Und couple, vey funniest thing since… well anything really. It’s hard to convey: Old Ted, “I’ll get me coat”, “isn’t beating United BRILLIANT” etc. will stay in the mind for a long time. Catch the repeats when they inevitably appear. That’s an order!

MARC STEIN

For those who have recently tried and failed to contact Marc Stein, he’s now back on line after some internet provider problems.

Stein43@aol.com

RESULTS

April 3 1996

LEEDS UNITED            1-0    SOUTHAMPTON               26,077
LIVERPOOL               4-3    NEWCASTLE UNITED          40,702

April 3 1996

Team               Played   Won Drawn Lost  For  Against   Points
Manchester United     32     20    7    5     59    30        67
Newcastle United      31     20    4    7     58    32        64
Liverpool             32     18    8    6     64    30        62
Aston Villa           32     16    8    8     46    30        56
Arsenal               32     15    9    8     44    28        54
Tottenham Hotspur     32     15    9    8     43    32        54
Everton               33     14    9   10     53    38        51
Blackburn Rovers      32     14    6   12     47    39        48
Nottingham Forest     31     12   11    8     40    41        47
Chelsea               32     11   12    9     37    35        45
West Ham United       32     13    6   13     39    44        45
Leeds United          31     12    6   13     36    43        42
Middlesbrough         33     10    9   14     30    42        39
Sheffield Wednesday   32      9    8   15     43    51        35
Wimbledon             32      8    9   15     47    63        33
Manchester City       33      7   10   16     27    50        31
Southampton           32      6   10   16     29    47        28
Queens Park Rangers   33      7    6   20     31    50        27
Coventry City         32      5   12   15     38    59        27
Bolton Wanderers      33      7    5   21     36    63        26

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

MCIVTA ADDRESSES:
Contributions: mcivta@tollbar.u-net.com
Subscriptions: Adam.Houghton@sheffield.ac.uk
Club Questions: sbolton@buxtonrd.u-net.com

Thanks to Tor-Kristian, Kevin, Dave (x2), Neale, Ken, Geoff, Tony, The Mole, Paul, John & Stephen.

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: