Newsletter #241

We have a match report and 2 match views. There is also news of a new Georgian signing, plenty of opinion and a good Why Blue.

Latest news is that Coppell has signed the Palace midfielder, 25-year-old Simon Rodger on a month’s loan; he’ll go straight into the team for tomorrow night’s game.

This one reaches 1101.

MATCH REPORT ‘LIVE’

MANCHESTER CITY vs. WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS, Sunday 27th October 1996.

Not quite a sell-out, probably because of the peculiar kick-off time and the fact that it was ‘live’ on Sky. There were two changes to the City line-up: it was back to a flat back four with Frontzeck in for Brightwell and Whitley for McGoldrick (midfield). Apparently both players are injured and didn’t train on Friday.

A minute’s silence preceded kick-off for City’s recently deceased director Gerald Doyle, the Guatemalan tragedy and of course, Matthew Harding. City started off as they were destined to play the whole match – on the attack. Within a minute Rösler turned on the touchline and crossed in for Lomas to miss a virtually open goal, side-footing just wide; the challenge by the defender may just have had a bit to do with this.

Wolves strung together a few attacks but these were mainly aimed at the marked Bull. In fact, Wolves didn’t have a single attempt on the Blues’ goal during the entire first 45 minutes. We were robbed of a sensational goal when an absolute steamer from Whitley from all of 30 yards beat the goalie only to crash back off the post and across the goal with no one to slot it in. Buzzer also had a good effort just wide when he neatly turned in the area. Kinky was doing his stuff, humiliating the defender with a series of dummies. How we didn’t score is beyond me.

We expected more in the 2nd half but it started scappily. After a while though, City once more returned to the earlier flowing football. Wolves had no idea what to do and just resorted to booting the ball aimlessly out of defence, a tactic recently on show to poor effect at Maine Road, as we all know. There was a period of several minutes which were spent almost entirely in the Wolves penalty area, the succession of blocked shots and attempted clearances was almost comical. City had what seems a good penalty shout turned down when Kinky appeared to be tripped in the area. A goal was also turned down after a corner was headed home, apparently for impeding the goalie?

The travesty occurred with about 12 minutes to go; a hopeful punt upfield from the Wolves left back was either horribly misjudged by Symons or, he slipped whilst attempting to head it to safety. Whatever, this left Bull one on one (no cover) with Dibble who he easily beat with a low drive into the corner. In fact, he’d just missed with a dipping shot 5 minutes earlier. City piled on the pressure and had another penalty turned down when a Wolves defender appeared to block a goal-bound shout with his arm. Kave and Ingram came on for Whitley and Frontzeck but it was too late.

We ended up with nothing from a game we totally dominated; Wolves looked almost clueless at times as City ran circles round them and mopped up what attacks they could string together. Hand on heart, this should have been 4-0! So, we can at least be heartened by this display, Wolves are apparenly one of the best teams and at times, they were made to look like they were 2 leagues below us.

To add injury to insult, the Sky idiots awarded the MotM to Bull, who spent most of the match gesticulating at his midfield who consistently failed to come up with anything more than a punt upfield. Lomas would have had my vote, he was excellent, running everywhere, calling and surging forward, we’ll miss him. In fact Buzzer looks to be coming out the other side!

We’ll have to put this one down to experience, if we play the same at Southend, I shan’t complain. Just let us see Kave instead of Rösler for once.

Final score: 0-1

MATCH VIEW I

Having not seen a game for nearly a year, live or on TV, I was somewhat excited last night to find out that the introduction of cable to Australia would mean I could see City. My friend who had the cable installed was not so thrilled. Apart from hating football, the prospect of me in his lounge room at midnight on a Sunday, shouting and screaming was not an attractive prospect.

After having read so many bad reviews lately, I was impressed with the commitment level shown by nearly all the players. City were actually dispossessing people in midfield, and applying constant pressure. Dickov looked impressive and a real pain to opposing defences. Whitley will no doubt mature into a good player, and there were some reasonable performances from a few others. City were unlucky to lose this, although some may say that the lack of finishing has nothing to do with luck. However, if Wolves are good enough to be 4th in the league, we really should be climbing up there.

On the bad side, I was a little unsure as to whether Clough was on the field most of the time. Maybe I missed a backroom performance, but he doesn’t seem to be making any real contributions. Rösler has obviously completely lost it, it is time for him to be on the subs’ bench, or elsewhere if he feels the need.

On the really ugly side, I now understand the anti-Frontzeck cries. He was slow, missed the ball, fluffed his passes, and had no idea going forward. More importantly, he was sadly lacking in his coverage at the back. Symons may have lost Bull on two important occasions, but that is always going to happen, and he should never have been one-on-one in the first place. Is it me, or has the phrase “We really need a good left-back” been floating round for an eternity? My only dilemma now is the installation of cable. In Oz the Premier League and First Division are on separate networks, so where should my investment lie? I suppose at least if I go for the Premier, and we don’t go up, I can watch Schmeichel letting in a lot of goals for fun!

MATCH VIEW II

I can’t believe City didn’t win this let alone lose, but I suppose you have to expect this sort of performance from them. The referee was poor, making several bizarre and bad decisions, more often than not against City. I can’t really write reports so I’ll rate the players instead:

Dibble – played well again, no chance with goal but didn’t have many other saves to make. Looked competent. 6
Frontzeck – I was worried when I saw him run out but he played quite well when going forward except that he can’t beat his man as he lacks pace. Always drifts inside when defending (thinks he’s playing left side of 3 man defence?). 6
Summerbee – better but can’t beat his man. Either he is lazy or he has an unfortunate running style. 6
Symons – uncomfortable against the old pro Bull. His slip led to goal. Not very inspiring example as captain this game. 5
Wassall – unsure what to do as Wolves only played one up front. Unremarkable. 6
Clough – I thought he did bugger all again. Played too deep and can’t run fast enough to get forward to join attacks. IMO I never thought we should have bought him and he clearly doesn’t have a rôle in the team with Gio there as he’s not a tackler. 4
Kinkladze – anonymous in first half, most of the time I couldn’t work out where he was. Better in second but needs players to ‘open up’ for him as he said in that interview in the previous MCIVTA. I’m sure he was brought down for a penalty and so were my friends in the Wolves fans’ area behind the incident.
Lomas – worked very, very hard, unlucky in first minute. Passing lacking but he does try. 7
Whitley – I think he was excellent. Worked hard, looked good, fantastic shot so unlucky with in first half. Not afraid to shoot, unlucky to be subbed off (unless tiring). 8
Dickov – again battled for everything, won several balls he shouldn’t have through sheer persistence. Passing lacking at times. 7
Rösler – slow, several times didn’t look up to pass when in trouble, fell over too much – did he always do this? 5/6
Ingram – you’re 1-0 down, not long to go, you swap your left full-backs. Why? Frontzeck didn’t look injured and Kav should have come on. Did nothing.
Kavelashvili – brought on way too late. Should have replaced Clough/Rösler before 3 minutes to go. Didn’t have a chance to do anything.

Wolves defended well in numbers and tried to break quickly. City defended in numbers and didn’t understand what the word ‘break’ meant. They did understand ‘hoof it high to Dickov against three big defenders’ though.

Corners – better from City as compared to last week i.e. didn’t all go straight at ‘keeper. Is it just me who thinks we’ll never score from a corner but the opposition could score from virtually every one?

Throw ins – no-one on the City side moves to give the thrower options.

Performances like this against less organised defences would win. Pace in the team is required and a striker who will score often – why not give Kav a chance? A left winger should be tried as well – Phillips?

Who is the new Georgian? A Gio replacement? Crowd – my friends in the Wolves end asked me afterwards why it was so quiet. I said it was much louder than at the Norwich game to which they said it must have been worse than a morgue. They also said we didn’t seem to have many chants for individual players which I think is true. We used to but all those players have gone. Anyway I remain more optimistic than after the Norwich game and I hope Whitley turns into a real star.

MATCH VIEW III

Wolves had a plan. Sit back and hit us on the break. Although successful on Sunday, this kind of tactic gets you nowhere in the long run. As most people will have seen this on Sky, I won’t go on about the details of the game apart from the observation that Lomas had his 2nd stinker on the trot, Rösler was back to his old inneffectual self and Gio never got into it.

I had a perfect view of the Kinkladze ‘penalty’ and so did the ref. He spoiled his own good performance by bottling what was a blatant pen. The scoreboard promised for the ‘open’ corners in the last programme has already gone up, but in the corner of Umbro and Main stands (eh!). I could have sworn my ticket was for the family stand, but I must have missed the sign which said ‘Neanderthal Man only’ on my way in, as a large group of ‘fans’ decided not to watch the match but to stand up and bait the Wolves fans for the duration of the game – thanks lads and while I’m in moaning mode, why do we have stewards if they don’t/won’t do anything? Could I also risk strangulation by suggesting that I think Moonchester is a good idea. Just watch him/it (is it Frank Sidebottom?) and you will see what I mean.

NEWS – COPPELL TARGETS ANOTHER GEORGIAN

Reported on Sky Text Friday 25th Oct. 1996

City manager Steve Coppell is hoping to increase his Georgian contingent at Maine Road to three with the signing of defender Kakhaber Tskhadadze.

Coppell’s rearguard strength has been depleted due to injuries and the new boss is keen to recruit the Georgian captain from German club Frankfurt. He will join compatriots Georgiou Kinkladze and Mikhail Kavelashvili.

“He’s tall, strong and powerful in the air,” said Coppell. “He’s only 28 and still has plenty of football in him.”

Also:

Ipswich Town have signed striker Gerry Creaney from Manchester City on a month’s loan. The former Scotland under-21 forward is added to George Burley’s squad for Saturday’s home clash with Tranmere. Creaney began his career with Celtic in 1987 and stayed with the Glasgow giants before joining Portsmouth midway through the 1993/94 season. The 26-year-old moved to Maine Road in a £1.5 million deal in September 1995.

NEWS – CITY SIGN GEORGIAN CAPTAIN

Just read in the paper that Eintracht Frankfurt (Bundesliga 2) sold their Georgian defender/sweeper Kachaber Zchadadse to Man City for £200,000 pounds. A lot of money for someone who recently didn’t even make the first team regularly (IMO). But I hope he will prove me wrong. He is supposed to make his last appearance for Frankfurt on Monday vs. Berlin.

NEWS – SIGNINGS

City have agreed a £350,000 deal with Eintracht Frankfurt for their 28-year-old sweeper, Kakhaber Tskhadadze, who is the captain of the Georgian national side. The deal is subject to a work permit being obtained, but it is expected to be completed in time for him to make his début at Southend on Tuesday. Steve Coppell was quoted as saying “I believe defenders only really mature at his age and I think the best of him has yet to come.” City were linked with Tskhadadze in April (when Francis Lee described him as a “world class player”) but at that time several clubs were reported to be interested in him and nothing came of City’s interest.

Meanwhile, Gerry Creaney has gone on a month’s loan to Ipswich Town.

NEWS – OXFORD GAME

City’s next home game against Oxford United looks certain to be put back until Wednesday 13th November (7:45pm kick-off), and our new Georgian signing is unlikely to be able to play for us for a couple of weeks whilst his work permit is sorted out.

NEWS – LATEST TRANSFER DEALINGS

City have brought in 25-year-old Crystal Palace midfielder Simon Rodger on a month’s loan as cover for Steve Lomas whilst he serves his 3-match suspension which starts against Southend on Tuesday night. The other games Lomas will miss are Saturday’s game at Swindon and the home game against Oxford which is now to be played on Wednesday 13th November. Lomas is likely to get a game during this period though as he has been called up into the Northern Ireland squad for their game in Germany on 9th November.

Also missing the visit to Southend will be Ian Brightwell and Eddie McGoldrick, both of whom suffered thigh strains in training on Friday which kept the pair out of the defeat against Wolves.

According to the MEN, Kakhaber Tskhadadze (described as a “giant defender”) will play his last game for Eintracht Frankfurt tonight before flying to Manchester to join City. The clubs have agreed a deal and personal terms have also been settled, which just leaves the work permit and visa to be sorted. If the time it took to sort out the red tape for Kinkladze and Kavelashvili is anything to go by, don’t expect to see our third Georgian playing for a few weeks yet.

Finally, Francis Lee denied that discussions with Chester boss Mark Guterman were still in progress. “Our last talks were a month ago”, he said.

PLAYER OF THE MONTH – SEPTEMBER

There were 13 sets of votes for September, and the result was:

1st  Eddie McGoldrick  24 votes (40%)
2nd  Paul Dickov       11 votes (18%)
3rd  Kit Symons        10 votes (17%)
4th  Gio Kinkladze      8 votes (13%)
     Others             7 votes (12%)

Other players to receive votes: Rösler, Clough, Lomas.

The accuracy League Table for predictions is as follows:

League Table    Played  Points
Paul Monaghan    2       13
Tony Coatsworth  1       6
Christine Haynes 1       6
Paul Howarth     2       6
Gary Sowerby     1       4
John Bellairs    1       4
Ian Welch        1       4
Alan Fraser      1       4
Andreas Larsson  1       2
Per Paulson      1       2
H.Sheridan       2       2
Gary Sowerby jnr 1       1
Ashley Birch     1       0
Connon           1       0

SOUTHEND GAME

If there are any Blues going to the Southend game and are travelling by train from London, the nearest station, for those who don’t know, is Prittlewell (the stop before Southend Victoria) on the line out of London Liverpool St. Journey is about 50 mins, with trains every 10 mins or so. Is anyone planning to meet in a pub either at Liverpool St or near the ground?

Similarly anyone going by train from the London direction to the Swindon game? Or know of any meeting points?

HARDING THANKS

I would like to say a thank-you to all the 30+ fans who sent me their names to forward to the Chelsea newsletter. I have sent theirs and my condolences to them, I would also like to thank all those who let me forward their feelings too.

Thanks once again to all and if anyone else wants to send anything further they can send it to me or if they wish send it to Ian Wakeman (ianw@cogs.susx.ac.uk), this being the Chelsea newsletter moderator, thanks.

OPINION – BALL ON SKY

Did anyone see Alan Ball on Sky commenting on the City match:-

• Frontzeck’s positional play is terrible
• Summerbee didn’t work hard enough
• The strikers are weak and need to start scoring
• Rösler spends all his time on the ground

Weren’t we saying this all last year? Let’s face it, it was the attack that let us down – they couldn’t score in a brothel. I agreed with the comments about Kinky: he needs to release the ball earlier.

City played well but we lack the killer punch; why don’t we play Kave instead of Rösler, give the guy a chance!

OPINION – TOO MUCH STYLE?

When Nottingham Forest went down, people said that they were too good to go down. This was even said about us for a while (though I don’t know why). However, the season that Forest were down they played us in the Coca Cola Cup (we lost 1-2 in a replay) and their whole game was based on solid defending, a midfield that worked hard and a fast, strong striker with a great shot (Collymore). This same type of game was also evident when they drew 3-3 with us in the Premiership. Contrast this method of playing with their previous teams (where Clough was prominent). Perhaps Frank Clark decided that in order to get out of Division One you need to defend well (i.e. no mistakes) and get the ball upfield to someone who can finish. Well, who saw the Wolves game? While we played lovely football (to a relative point) they just defended well and clinically finished their only chance.

Perhaps City need to be more direct. Clough is a square passing liability and needs to be replaced with a battler. Perhaps playing Brightwell in midfield would work. Some pace up front would be nice (Bruce Dyer from Crystal Palace would suit me). If we are going to play with wing backs then the two people in this rôle need to work very hard (look at McAteer and Bjornebye at Liverpool) – in other words get rid of Frontzeck and tell Summerbee to work harder and spend less time cultivating his Oasis type pretty boy hair cut. Come on City, I can’t stand another season in this division.

OPINION – CHANGES

Steve Coppell should get rid of Frontzeck – he just isn’t up to it here in the UK. Clough – his distribution is awful. Summerbee – he’s lost his will to take anyone on and go past them. Rösler – he look’s like he’s practising for the German Olympic diving team.

We need a good ‘keeper who will come off his line and command his area. Michael Oakes from Aston Villa isn’t playing now Bosnich is back in the squad.

Symons is a good player but not captain material (yet).

Is it just me that thinks like this …?

OPINION – THE SQUAD

After attending the midweek game against Reading and watching the match on Sunday against Wolves I felt that I had to get a few things off my chest. I didn’t get to the Norwich game so these views/comments etc. may not apply to that game, although it wouldn’t surprise me if they do.

First things first; we have got to get our defence sorted out. Let’s bring in a defensive coach to sort things out, because the schoolboy defensive errors that we keep on making are really p**sing me off. We need two classy, committed, hard men-type full backs as Summerbee doesn’t know if he’s a full back or a winger (this also applies to Frontzeck against Wolves). Time and time again they both drifted forward, left City exposed at the back and lo and behold we were hit on the break. It was actually possible to see this click with Wolves and they started attacking City’s right defensive flank, into the wide open spaces that Summerbee had left behind him. It was only a matter of time before they hit us on the break and left Symons cruelly exposed. Admittedly Symo made an error, but there were no supporting defenders. Frontzeck incidentally is crap. He gives the ball away, is slow (almost pedestrian) and is a liability (always likely to be dismissed for late challenges etc.). Please get rid of him (preferably to another Notionwide side).

Next, lets dump Dibble and Immel and get in a good solid young ‘keeper. Dibble panics every time the ball is passed back to him and looks really stiff and wooden. His kicking is s***e and he will cost us a lot of goals the longer we stick with him. We’ve all seen how valuable Schmeichel has been to the Rag Bone Men (with the exception of the last couple of games ha ha), so let’s get a class keeper (IMHO we should be prepared to spend more on a ‘keeper than any other player on the park). What has happened to the great goalkeeping tradition at City (e.g. Swift, Trautmann, Corrigan, Coton etc.)?

McGoldrick looks useful and may forge a reasonable partnership with Symons in the heart of the defence; and I’m glad we’ve signed him. Wassall incidentally doesn’t look to be up to speed, but may fill a short term gap.

In midfield we have got to offload Clough (preferably to the knackers yard). He looks unfit (he was blowing hard after about 20 minutes at Reading) and is a shadow of his former self. Lomas is brilliant – what an inspiration; if anything comes out of the nightmare that has been City this season it is the coming of age of Stevie Lomas. Kinkladze is a gemstone, but gemstones need looking after and City don’t give him the support and options on the park.

At times it seems that City only have 9 or 10 men out there, and this usually means that they just ain’t running and supporting each other. So often Lomas and McGoldrick have been the only players who have looked up for it (except Kinky after he was booked at Reading). But why is it that they only get fired up after refereeing injustices etc.? (the officials were awful against Wolves and Reading). Phil Neal certainly bawled them out at Reading and I was impressed that he dragged them over to applaud the City faithful at the death, but we really do need a Mr Motivator in the dressing room (maybe one of these business motivational types to hypnotise them all etc.).

Up front, let’s play with two out and out wingers (not attacking full-backs) and let’s bring in Kevelashvili, instead of bringing him on a few minutes from the end. Rösler ploughs a lone furrow and looks to be less sharp than he was (although I’m still a fan), but I would like to see him and Keva as a dual strike force, with maybe Dickov (surely a poor man’s Paul Walsh?) playing behind them. Dickov’s a real battler, but I would play him deeper; largely because he just doesn’t have the height/physique and presence to be an out and out forward.

On a more general note, the team need to be more commited, run their hearts out and be prepared to die for the club. On too many occasions, players are not putting in challenges and look half hearted and demoralised. The only way to get out of the Nearlydied League is to grit your teeth and get stuck in… unless of course you have got real class. City have to match these teams physically, and in workrate and commitment. We may be a better side than the likes of Reading and Wolves etc. but we’ve got to prove it.

All of the above is bloody obvious and every stupid armchair football pundit in the country could make the same points… so why are we not getting it right? Hopefully Coppell has made the same observations and will act quickly (cash willing). If he doesn’t we may have another relegation battle on our hands, because City are playing naïve kids stuff football and unless they wake up quick I don’t know where the next points are coming from; because if we can’t take point(s) from average/s***e teams like Wolves at home (so much for the Sky pundits’ comments about `fortress Maine Road’), then we might as well pack up now.

OPINION – UNITED’S RECENT DEFENSIVE PROBLEMS

When Ferguson changed the kit last year after the Reds’ 3-1 (I think) defeat at Southampton, he got his excuse wrong. It wasn’t the grey shirts that were the problem – it was those red and white stripes on the home team. Tricky bleeders, perfect camouflage on a bright afternoon. First thing you know, they sneak up behind you and bang, you’re losing 6-3. Someone should write to the FA and complain. Well done Southampton for giving me the biggest smile of an otherwise disappointing weekend.

OPINION – THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER

So we lost to Wolves. From all accounts it seems that the victory went to the wrong side. How many times this season or last could we say that? It seems to me that the combination of Steve Coppell and Phil Neal has been effective at motivating the players to the extent that they are now consistently more competitive than they were. This is a tremendous start. Anyone who thought that their presence would make everything alright was being a little unrealistic, but the way this duo has started their career at Maine Road fills me with optimism for the future. The irony here is that players who have consistently under performed over the last two years are now looking more like the talent they were thought to be some time ago. I know that some players still haven’t got all their act together yet – success is contagious, it will come. What pleases me is the fact that the team is making chances. I have always believed that if you make the chances eventually you will score goals.

I don’t get to see the team play too often (living in the US) but the two games I saw this season (Charlton and Barnsley) were totally unmemorable except to say that I have never seen a collection of professional athletes looking so disorganized and dispirited. Back then (6 weeks ago) they weren’t even making chances. The midfield was totally ineffective at communicating with the strikers and all of them looked as if they wished they were somewhere else. Coppell seems to have revived them from this self defeating approach. When it finally does all come together, the team will surprise a few people. It is interesting to read in the Electronic Times and Telegraph (it is absolutely great to have access to these papers through the web) that there has been a change in emotion regarding Gio – apparently he is not to be treated as an endangered species and protected at all costs. It seems that Coppell recognizes that although he is a very talented player, he must effectively contribute all of the time. He has a tendency to drift into and out of games, to the team’s detriment. I for one am glad that he is being challenged by the Coppell regime.

I suspect that we will see new players coming in, but I do not believe that new blood is an urgent priority. With the impending return of Beagrie, Edghill, Foster and Hiley we should become more stable at the full back and wing positions. City’s greatest (not the only) weakness has been the lack of width on the flanks. True full backs and an effective left winger will wreak havoc in this sorry league we are in.

REQUEST – WONDERBALL

Can anyone help me the lyrics to ‘Wonderball’, the only bit I can remember is the lines about Gio’s runs being winding and the goals he scores being blinding. Would anyone be able to provide me with entire song?

Thanks. Keep the faith, put the Rags in their place 🙂

REQUEST – RADIO COVERAGE

Another request for any info. on radio coverage. Living in Dubai the only UK league games we get to see are on Orbit’s ESPN sports channel; they give us live coverage of Saturday’s, Sunday’s and Monday night’s Premier games. That was OK last year!

This year it’s the Internet and your mailing list, which I agree with Phil Taylor is invaluable.

I too would welcome the answers to PT’s questions.

1. Do Man City games whether midweek or Saturday get broadcast live on radio?
2. Are there any Realaudio sites in the UK that broadcast Football?

WHY BLUE?

I was born and bred in Sunderland, but have lived in East Yorkshire for most of the last 18 years, apart from the 3 years I spent at Leeds University. I could never remember exactly when I got interested in City, but have a vague recollection of it being in my primary school days. With hindsight I reckon it coincided with the purple patch at the end of the 60’s / early 70’s when City actually won things, so I suppose I was something of a bandwagon jumper at the time, though you can forgive an 8-year-old that much! However, I guess I forgot to jump off the bandwagon thereafter, and though I tell myself football’s not that important, I still can’t help feeling happy or p**sed off depending on how the results go. As one of the famous Gallaghers said (sort of), you’d never tell an Alien new to Earth to support City, as it would be too much like hard work!

Being a City supporter as a teenager in the North East wasn’t an easy option. Almost all my mates were Sunderland supporters, and whilst they didn’t have much to crow about, they could at least get to Roker Park easily. I have a confession to make – I’ve only ever made it to Maine Road once in all these years, but have been to away games wherever the opportunity has arisen – Newcastle, Sunderland, Hull, Leeds. That one occasion was predictably for a game against Sunderland (went with my Dad) … the FA Cup 5th Round game in 1973! My life was hell for weeks after the replay, and I cursed Allison for winding up the Sunderland team beforehand.

Until earlier this year, I had the misfortune to have ‘fairweather Rags’ for neighbours (replica kit, bedroom wallpaper, you name it it was there) – I gather their allegiance grew out of a holiday meeting with Mike Phelan’s parents!? The new neighbour’s a Middlesbrough supporter so as an exiled Mackem I can take the p**s a bit (though Ravanelli looks a good buy) – the one thing that seems to unite Newcastle and Sunderland supporters is contempt for Boro’!

With the passage of time, I can now take genuine interest in my home town (now a city, but I still think of it as a town) team’s progress (certainly more to get interested in than Hull City, but I even wish the Tigers well). Work and domestic commitments mean I’m never going to be as commited as some of the contributors to these newsletters, but will continue to ‘armchair and teletext’ support and enjoy the MCVITA debates and reports nevertheless.

With that in mind, I’d like to say that I too believe Steve Coppell deserves the benefit of the doubt, but we’ll need to be patient. Just having the same manager for more than one season would be a step forward. Looks like we’ll all have to look forward to life after Kinky, judging by recent press speculation and the tone of the Russian interview in MCIVTA 239, but at least the fee should be some compensation provided it’s used carefully. The current squad has too much of a feel of having just happened rather than being part of a master plan (back to managerial stability I suppose!). And I’d love to beat the Rags again – that 5-1 win seems too much of a distant memory!

Anyway, I’ll shut up for now. Keep the news coming. Geoff Donkin, Beverley, East Yorkshire, England

RED HUMOUR I

Q.

What do Peter Schmeichel and Michael Jackson have in common?

A.

They both wear gloves for no apparent reason.

Man U are planning to diversify into movies; their first venture will be the sequel to the Steve Martin film, “The Man with Two Brains” – it will be called “The Man with No Brains”, and will star Roy Keane :-))

RED HUMOUR II

Latest news from the Swamp indicates that the Rags are extremely unhappy with the size of the blue stripes on their seventh reserve team strip. A spokesman for the team, a Mr. Liam Excuse said: “The distance between the blue and white stripes was too small. As a result, it created an optical illusion which made all our players appear to be playing in grey!”

Liam continued that as the 6-3 result had resulted in a sharp fall in the share price, remedial action was required in the form of a new strip. This new strip will have a greater distance between the blue stripes and will have bar-codes on the back, instead of numbers, to speed its passage through congested check-outs.

When asked to comment on the affair, a spokesman for The Academy said “What else do they expect if they want to play in Blue!”

RED HUMOUR III

United fan – what time is it?
City fan – it`s 11 past Schmeichel…

NUFC 5-0 Scum
Soton 6-3 Scum

RED HUMOUR IV

What’s Peter Schmeichel’s favourite colour?
In-de-go, Ho Ho.

What’s the difference between Schmeichel and a taxi driver?
A taxi driver will only let four in. Ho Ho Ho.

And an old one: Taggart is going to sign a plumber, he’s got that many leaks.

RESULTS

Full-time score for Sunday, October 27 1996

MANCHESTER CITY         0-1    WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS

Full-time scores for Saturday, October 26 1996

BIRMINGHAM CITY         2-3    NORWICH CITY
CHARLTON ATHLETIC       2-0    OXFORD UNITED
CRYSTAL PALACE          3-0    GRIMSBY TOWN
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN       0-1    PORT VALE
IPSWICH TOWN            0-2    TRANMERE ROVERS
OLDHAM ATHLETIC         0-0    SOUTHEND UNITED
READING                 2-0    SWINDON TOWN
SHEFFIELD UNITED        1-1    QUEENS PARK RANGERS
STOKE CITY              3-1    PORTSMOUTH
WEST BROMWICH ALBION    0-0    BRADFORD CITY

Full-time score for Friday, October 25 1996

BARNSLEY                2-2    BOLTON WANDERERS

Up to and including Sunday, October 27 1996

Team                  Played   Won  Drawn Lost     For Against   Points
Bolton Wanderers        14      9     4     1      33    19        31
Norwich City            14      9     3     2      23    11        30
Crystal Palace          14      6     6     2      29    12        24
Wolverhampton Wanderers 15      7     3     5      19    14        24
Barnsley                13      6     5     2      21    14        23
Tranmere Rovers         15      6     4     5      20    17        22
Stoke City              13      6     4     3      20    21        22
Sheffield United        12      6     3     3      24    13        21
Queens Park Rangers     15      5     6     4      19    19        21
Swindon Town            14      6     2     6      20    16        20
Port Vale               15      4     7     4      12    16        19
Huddersfield Town       13      5     3     5      17    19        18
Reading                 14      5     3     6      17    23        18
West Bromwich Albion    13      3     7     3      15    16        16
Birmingham City         12      4     4     4      14    13        16
Oxford United           14      4     4     6      13    11        16
MANCHESTER CITY         13      5     1     7      13    17        16
Southend United         15      3     7     5      13    23        16
Ipswich Town            14      3     6     5      18    20        15
Portsmouth              15      4     3     8      15    23        15
Charlton Athletic       12      4     2     6      12    16        14
Grimsby Town            15      3     4     8      16    29        13
Bradford City           15      3     4     8      11    22        13
Oldham Athletic         15      1     5     9      13    23         8

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

MCIVTA ADDRESSES:
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Subscriptions: Adam – Adam.Houghton@sheffield.ac.uk
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Thanks to Geoff, Robbie, Thomas, Simon, Jack, The Mole, Paul, Peter, Jeremy, Tony, Richard, Liam, Glen, Steve, Nigel, Stephen, Murray& Ken.

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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: