Newsletter #284

The main news this issue is the on-off-on transfer of Stevie Lomas to West Ham. I’m sure this one will spark quite a bit of lively discussion. Personally, I think it’s good business (fee a little low?); he may be a big-hearted player but I think he has precious little else to his game. Encouragingly, our current crop of youngsters have signed new deals (including Whitley) and several have been farmed out to lower league clubs to gain experience – moving with the times at last. Apart from this, we have an apology to Moonchester’s Mum, and a request for the history of City’s kit. This sounds like a good subject for discussion and eventually, for a definitive article to go on the WWW site; anyone fancy reseaching this, or collating what appears in MCIVTA into an article? Along these lines, we really need to get up-to-date on the WWW video and book reviews, if anyone can do a review of anything that we don’t yet have, it’d be most welcome.

Have a good Easter – Ashley

NEWS – RESERVES WIN

City fielded an experienced reserve side against Burnley at Maine Road on Tuesday night, with the MEN speculating that as many as 7 could be available for transfer before Thursday’s deadline. The Blues lined up as follows:

                 Margetson
    Crooks   Ingram  Kernaghan   Brown
    Heaney   Clough   Creaney  Beagrie
             Atkinson   Dickov (Jeff Whitley)

City took the lead early on with a Paul Dickov overhead kick and went on to dominate the first half with an impressive display of neat, passing football. Peter Beagrie scored City’s second goal and delighted the fans with one of his trademark back-flips. Just before the break City went three up when a fine move ended in an own goal by Chris Scott, under pressure from Dalian Atkinson in front of goal. The second half was a bit of a let-down from a City point of view; Burnley pulled a goal back through Ian Helliwell with the aid of some poor marking and City allowed the visitors to control the game for long spells. Jeff Whitley replaced Paul Dickov despite Dalian Atkinson clearly being exhausted and the game ran its course with little further incident. Neil Heaney and Gerry Creaney both missed good chances to score (although Creaney did hit the bar in the first half) but City’s star man for me was Peter Beagrie, who looked like the player we all knew before his injury. Final score: City 3 Burnley 1.

NEWS – TRANSFERS

GMR reports that morning (Wednesday) that West Ham are ready to bid £1.6 million for Steve Lomas and that he has flown to London from the Northern Ireland training camp for talks with them. The fee could rise to £2.5 million if West Ham avoid relegation. So far, West Ham have refused to comment on this report. Somewhat less likely sounding is a rumour of a possible £4 million offer for Lomas from Glasgow Rangers, though this wouldn’t be until the end of the season.

Stoke City are thought to be interested in signing Alan Kernaghan, with a possible £500,000 deal on the cards. Another rumour doing the rounds is that Southampton manager Graeme Souness is after Nicky Summerbee, but it seems City are ready to offer Buzzer Jnr a new 4-year contract.

City are reported to be interested in 22-year-old Cambridge United midfielder Micah Hyde, who is refusing to sign a new contract with his club at the moment. The player is valued at around £400,000.

Finally, Jeff Whitley has been promoted from the U21 squad to the full Northern Ireland squad for their forthcoming World Cup qualifiers against Portugal and Ukraine.

NEWS – HAMMERS AGREE LOMAS DEAL

By Bill Pierce, PA Sport.

West Ham have had a £2 million beat-the-deadline bid for Manchester City’s Northern Ireland midfielder Steve Lomas accepted. Lomas is now on the verge of leaving Maine Road after six years at the club, and has promised Hammers boss Harry Redknapp a decision today. City boss Frank Clark has accepted an offer of more than £2 million for the 23-year-old.

“We believe it’s a good opportunity for the lad and we’ve allowed him to speak to West Ham. In my judgement the move would be right for Steve and Manchester City. But it’s up to Steve to make the final decision. And if it doesn’t go through we will welcome him back. He’s been a very good servant for this club and has been a good player for me while I’ve been here.”

Clark insists though that if Lomas decides to go to London it would not weaken City’s chances of reaching the first division play-offs. “We are very well covered in midfield with Kevin Horlock and Ged Brannan who are very accomplished midfield players. Looking at our all round quality and numbers in our squad the move would be right for Manchester City at this particular time. You have to make these decisions as to whether it’s right for the football club and I believe it is. But it’s up to Steve now.”

West Ham boss Redknapp has already spent nearly £6 million in the last month on boosting his attack, buying John Hartson from Arsenal and Paul Kitson from Newcastle. But now he has a midfield shortage with John Moncur suspended for the next two matches, Frank Lampard sidelined for six months with a broken leg and Danny Williamson probably out for the season with an ankle injury.

Redknapp said: “We have needed a player for some time who can win the ball for us in midfield. We’ve spoken to Steve and he’s promised to let us know today if he wants to join us.”

Born in Hanover, West Germany, Lomas was spotted as a 15-year-old playing for Coleraine and signed for City after his 17th birthday in January 1991. He made his City début in September 1993 and his national début followed a year later when he was just 20.

NEWS – LOMAS TURNS DOWN HAMMERS

This morning’s Guardian (Thursday 27 March) reports that Steve Lomas has turned down a move to the Hammers. Fingers crossed that this is true, and that we do not carry on our long tradition of getting shot of true Blues.

NEWS – AND LOMAS ACCEPTS HAMMERS MOVE!

Steve Lomas has completed his move to West Ham United, the fee being £1.6 million, rising to £2 million based on appearances. Steve said that he had been happy at City but needed better personal terms to give himself some security.

City have also sent three young players out on loan to the end of the season: Michael Brown goes to Hartlepool, Sammy Harris to Altrincham and Nathan Freeman to Fulham.

NEWS – YOUNGSTERS SIGN

Four of City’s talented youngsters have signed new four-year contracts: they are Michael Brown, Jeff Whitley, Lee Crooks and Chris Greenacre. However, Brown has gone on loan to his hometown club of Hartlepool until the end of the season to gather more experience after joining City straight from school.

TRANSFER RUMOUR

According to one of the Sundays – either the Observer or the Telegraph, City have signed a South African player, by the name of, I think, Vhutalezi. Anyone know anything about this?

APOLOGIES TO MOONCHESTER’S MUM

I am obviously a part-time supporter because I didn’t realise that Moonchester was real! As such, may I take this opportunity to apologise to his mum.

CHARLTON GAME

I will be in the UK the weekend of the Charlton game. Any Mcivta-ers meeting anywhere beforehand? Names of good pubs would be welcomed. Best wishes and thanks again for the news and updates. It really means that when I finally see the Blues play next week it is not a team of strangers to me – I have a real sense of all their many quirks and characteristics.

OPINION – THE LOMAS DEAL

A cry for help, understanding, anything….

I can’t believe what I’ve just read; we have accepted a bid of £2 million for Lomas. We are not a selling club. When will we learn that selling your best young players cum-up-the-ranks is not good long-term business?

I despair.

QUESTION – STRIP HISTORY

I wonder if anybody knows the history of City’s first team colours?

I’m sure I have seen pictures of City playing in dark blue(?)/maroon shirts at Maine Road in the days of Matt Busby, Ernie Toseland and Sam Cowan. Were these their normal colours at the time?

I would be interested to know more if there are any old experts around.

WHY BLUE?

I think it was 1980 when I was captivated by the boys in blue. My Uncle used to go with his diving club friends and ended up taking me along to Maine Road. The only recollections of that game that I have are Trevor Francis chipping the ‘keeper (I think it was against Stoke?), the wooden benches in the Platt Lane Stand and being poisoned on Bombay mix by one of his friends.

The link with the Blues was strengthened with the purchase of a season ticket the following season for the North Stand. It was quite a good season with the cup run and watching some good players such as Francis, Dennis Tueart and Tommy Hutchison. I still cannot believe that he scored at both ends in the Cup Final. At this time the scum’s following in my area were beginning to put pressure on why I was not a Red; fortunately I was able to withstand the dark side of the force and remained proud and Blue.

Watching the Blues go down in ’83 didn’t help my stand, I was behind the goal at which Luton scored and it seemed to take ages for the ball to reach the bottom corner.

I remember the Charlton promotion game. 47,000 in Maine Road, it was a great game to attend for the atmosphere rather than the game itself. After a short break from watching the Blues live, I returned in the 10-1 season but I was taken shopping and missed the Huddersfield game – I was not happy.

Now with a season ticket for the Main Stand I watched the promotion season, the tension at the end was incredible. I was coming back from Holland on the ferry listening to City throw a three goal lead away against Bournemouth and then leave it until the 86th minute to score against Bradford.

I finally made it on to the Kippax in the stand’s last season, it was a relief to be out of the Main Stand after three years. While attending university for 3 years, I watched from afar as City – under the guidance of the great ginger one – went down once again. Now with my season ticket in the lower tier of the Kippax I am once again watching City trying to get promoted and I think that Frank Clark is the man for the job – look at what he has done so far, Summerbee playing well, Rösler scoring goals, a goalscoring midfielder in Horlock and a team with a bit of backbone.

I think that City’s unpredictability is probably the main reason that I am a Blue. Not many teams can be leading 2-0 with 5 minutes left and their fans fearing that they will lose. It is also that we have been able to watch some great players, Kinkladze obviously springing to mind of the current bunch.

The other main influence is the City fans themselves. It shocks me to see 30,000 fans watching City vs. Port Vale, not many clubs could do this in Division 1. One thing’s for sure – I’m City till I Die.

RESULTS

Full-time score and scorer for Tuesday, March 25 1997

PORTSMOUTH              1-0    READING                    9,248
Hall (84)

Up to and including Tuesday, March 25 1997

Team                  Played   Won Drawn Lost  For  Against   Points
Bolton Wanderers        40     24   12    4     86    48        84
Wolverhampton Wanderers 39     19    8   12     55    41        65
------------------------------------------------------------------
Barnsley                37     17   13    7     60    43        64
Sheffield United        39     17   11   11     66    47        62
Crystal Palace          37     16   11   10     68    38        59
Ipswich Town            39     15   13   11     54    47        58
------------------------------------------------------------------
Port Vale               40     14   15   11     49    47        57
Portsmouth              38     16    8   14     47    42        56
Norwich City            39     15   10   14     55    59        55
Stoke City              38     15    9   14     44    48        54
Tranmere Rovers         38     14   11   13     50    48        53
Queens Park Rangers     39     14   11   14     50    51        53
Swindon Town            39     15    7   17     51    55        52
Oxford United           39     14    8   17     54    55        50
MANCHESTER CITY         38     14    8   16     48    49        50
Reading                 38     13   11   14     48    53        50
Charlton Athletic       38     14    8   16     46    54        50
West Bromwich Albion    39     11   14   14     61    64        47
Birmingham City         37     12   11   14     42    45        47
Huddersfield Town       39     11   12   16     42    55        45
Bradford City           38      9   11   18     40    61        38
------------------------------------------------------------------
Grimsby Town            38      8   12   18     50    70        36
Oldham Athletic         37      8   11   18     38    50        35
Southend United         39      7   13   19     37    71        34

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