Newsletter #428

I received many contributions before the deadline but no ‘live’ match report in this issue. Kevin Hopkins sent in a match view but I received it in a long straight line without end. The mailer can only read to a certain column only, resulting in the sentences being truncated. He has promised to reformat the piece and re-send it to Ashley.

Thanks to Paul Howarth, we have a news roundup covering the last couple of weeks. This is by no means the only response to the last issue; a notable one coming from Simon. I mentioned in the last issue that “unless we get a violent disagreement from the readers, no further contribution on the above issue will be published on this list. Let’s bury the hatchet and move on to cheering the team to greater heights.” Simon quoted this nicely but was incensed nevertheless, claiming that he has been banned from the list! Where he got that, I do not know, my response follows nonetheless.

Peter Brophy came across an interesting article which is herewith featured. We also have an update on TG2, a latest on the squad, some statistics on Division 2 which should give us a good idea of what is needed to survive and excel in this league, and a Why Blue.

As this will be the last issue that I edit, please send all contributions from today to Ashley at the usual address (see end of mail for details). I have enjoyed the editorship immensely but as I am also working and preparing for my journey to Manchester, often I was caught with too little time to do the editorials. I apologise for the lack of entertainment and news there and for the late arrival of some issues. I will be in Manchester on Monday (7th September) and will be in the Kippax Upper the day after when City entertain Bournemouth. See you all soon.

NEWS – MILLWALL GAME MOVED

I haven’t seen this mentioned yet. According to Ceefax the other day it’s been moved to Tuesday 29th September due to international commitments.

NEWS ROUNDUP

In response to Nizam’s plea for news, here’s a review of City news over the last two weeks or so. It certainly hasn’t been quiet…

Probably the most significant events have been outgoing transfers – Martin “Buster” Phillips to Portsmouth (£100,000), Paul Beesley to Port Vale (free), Scott Hiley to Southampton (free) and Dave Morley to Southend United (£10,000). City have also agreed a fee of £100,000 with Southend for Barry Conlon, but the young striker has asked for more time to consider the move. Conlon, still only 19, was selected this week in the Republic of Ireland under-21 squad to face Croatia next Friday. Meanwhile, Kevin Horlock and Jim Whitley have been called into the full Northern Ireland squad for their European Championship qualifier with Turkey in Istanbul on September 5th. Tommy Wright has been named in the stand-by squad and Jeff Whitley is included in the under-21 squad. City’s game at Millwall scheduled for that date has now been put back to Tuesday, September 29th, but the home game against Walsall on Wednesday 2nd September will go ahead as planned, despite the fact that the Irish contingent will be unavailable.

Somebody not on the move is Kakhaber “Peepo” Tskhadadze, who was taken off the transfer list before picking up his knee ligament injury in the game at Fulham.

There haven’t been any incoming transfers recently, but there has been some speculation. The Blues have been linked with 23-year-old Scottish striker Derek Adams who has scored 51 goals in two seasons for Scottish Third Division side Ross County, though the player had an unsuccessful period at Burnley when he was younger. Joe Royle said: “We have received a glowing report from our Scottish scout about Adams. The next step will be for Willie Donachie and myself to have a look at the lad in action ourselves.” The likely fee would be in the region of £100,000, though the Blues could face competition from Sunderland, Huddersfield Town, Carlisle United and Greenock Morton.

City did make a £100,000 bid for Southampton central defender Ken Monkou last week but the 33-year-old turned it down, saying: “I am an established Premiership player and would not want to drop out of it. That’s why I turned down Manchester City. Once you are out of the top league it is very difficult to come back.” With the emergence of Nick Fenton and the imminent return to fitness of Richard Jobson, shortly (maybe within a month) to be followed by Murtaz Shelia, it seems City probably won’t need another defender now anyway.

Another player on the comeback trail is Ian Bishop, who is not, as reported in MCIVTA earlier this month, transfer-listed. He’s had an operation on his nose and has also had problems with his knee ligaments. “It’s been unfortunate for Ian who didn’t do that well at the end of last season when he joined us and therefore he’s been anxious to prove a few things. He’s had to be patient but he will have a big part to play in our season,” said Joe Royle. Bishop may have trouble ousting Gary Mason from the first team though; City’s assistant manager Willie Donachie has alerted Scottish coach Craig Brown to the form of the 18-year-old from Edinburgh. “Willie has had a word with Craig Brown about Gary. The kid is a great prospect and a player that Scotland should keep an eye on,” said Joe Royle.

Manchester City Council are due to unveil details of the proposed 50,000 seater Millennium stadium on Wednesday. City are reported to have reached an agreement in principle to leave Maine Road and move into the new venue but the club will consult the fans first, holding a series of forums to outline the proposals to supporters. The council have sorted out funding with the Government, and Chris Smith, the Minister for Culture, Media and Sport will be present at next week’s launch at the Manchester Town Hall. City officials are also likely to be present.

On the subject of smaller grounds, City have abandoned plans to show the Macclesfield game in two weeks time on a big screen at Maine Road. The club wanted to beam the game from the Moss Rose live on Saturday, September 12th, but that idea has now been scrapped. There is no television gantry at Macclesfield and hiring a crane would apparently be too expensive. City’s 1,200 allocation of tickets sold out in two hours last week (as did the even smaller allocation of tickets for the Northampton game when they went on sale this weekend). City are still hoping to show further away games on a big screen at Maine Road.

City have been drawn against Derby County in the Second Round of the Worthington Cup, a tough test against a Premiership side and probably a new ground for most of the travelling Blues. The First Leg will be at Pride Park, probably on Wednesday, September 16th, with the Second Leg at Maine Road a week later, probably Wednesday, September 23rd. City vs. Derby is arguably the tie of the round, with the possible exception of the London derby of Queens Park Rangers vs. Charlton Athletic.

City’s second reserve game of the season produced a much more satisfactory result than the first one, a hat trick from City’s Australian striker Danny Allsopp helping the Blues to an emphatic 4-1 victory at Port Vale. The other scorer was Southend-bound David Morley.

Finally, a few reflections on Saturday’s last-gasp draw at Notts County. The City camp are still fuming about the penalty (apparently for a handball by Kevin Horlock) that gave the home side the lead in the 71st minute and led to the sending-off of captain Jamie Pollock. Pollock could be in trouble with the Football Association as a result of his post-match comments about the referee: “Kevin Horlock was telling me to have a go at the referee but I said I can’t because he’d send me off. I waited until everything had calmed down and then went up to the referee and asked if I could speak to him and he said yes. My exact words to him are that I thought it was a holocaust of a decision and in my eyes I don’t believe I should have been sent off. I never swore at him. I believe the referee wanted to book me from the start of the game. I know I’ve had a few bookings in the past and if I deserve it I’ll hold my hands up. I hadn’t had one booking this season and didn’t deserve one against Notts County but now I’ve ended up with two. Even the first booking was ludicrous. I’m not angry, I’m amazed. I feel cheated and the referee has completely cheated me and I’m going to have to miss a game or two because of a disgraceful referee. I’ve been sent off once before and I took a look at myself after that but this was incredible. If it wasn’t so serious it’s laughable that a referee can make such stupid decisions,” said Pollock. For what it’s worth, I tend to agree with him – the first booking was for what looked like a completely unintentional and innocuous coming-together with a Notts player, and if indeed Pollock didn’t say any more that he claims he did (not so sure about that), the second booking was just as ridiculous. Joe Royle said: “I didn’t think it was penalty but it’s not my opinion that counts. We’ll wait for the full referee’s report. The lads were incensed and were adamant it wasn’t a penalty.”

In the end, City were lucky to get away with a point (Goater’s equaliser coming in the fifth minute of injury time) despite having looked slightly the better side overall. This was in spite of poor performances from several players, particularly the wing-backs Edghill and Jim Whitley. Goater missed three good chances just before the break (though one was a good save and another a brilliant tackle) and didn’t seem alert throughout, but was in the right place at the right time at the end of the second half to redeem himself. Joe Royle said it had been “a bad day at the office” but was “very pleased with the way the fitness and spirit showed through.”

AN UNCANNY RESEMBLANCE

In the last couple of weeks, as you may have seen on your news bulletins, life has become fairly interesting in Moscow, the city where I now live. Despite the economic crisis and political uncertainty, so far, at least, there’s no sign of any public disorder. However, I’ve been instructed rather disturbingly by the firm I work for to book a ticket home so that if things turn nasty, I can leave. I have a friend who’s due to arrive on Thursday to stay with me for a week, and normally I’d be rather worried about welcoming a visitor from England in these circumstances. However, this lad’s been watching City for twenty years, so I have no qualms whatsoever about his arrival. You see, if the Russian Federation weren’t a country at all but an English football club, it would be Manchester City.

I’ve known for a long time that my enthusiasm for City and my willingness to come and work in Russia were actually manifestations of the same character trait – a desire for experiences which transcend the ordinary, or, if you prefer, being a masochistic nutter. It’s hard to describe Russia for people who’ve never lived here. I doubt I’ll do better than I did in an earlier MCIVTA piece, when I wrote that foreigners consider England an eccentric country, but Russia should be sectioned under the Mental Health Act. At my previous firm, I worked with an English girl and the two of us used to joke that our whole lives in Russia were being staged for that television programme where Jeremy Beadle sets people up in ludicrous situations and plays the footage back to about ten million viewers.

At times, you can almost hear his voice-overs. When, as almost always happens, you’re met by unbelievably woeful customer service, he’ll be chortling in that peculiarly irritating way of his, “This is me dressed as the world’s most unhelpful waiter. I’m going to tell Peter and his girlfriend that they can’t eat here tonight even though there are only four people in the entire restaurant.” On those frequent occasions when you encounter stultifying bureaucratic intransigence, he’ll be there too – “This is me disguised as a ticket seller at the railway station. I’m going to tell Peter after he’s queued for an hour to buy his ticket that he actually needs to be in a different queue because he’s a foreigner.” And when your Russian acquaintances come up with ideas based on surreal flights of fancy, he’ll be saying, “This is me pretending to be a Russian with a great money-making scheme. I’m going to say I’ll blackmail an English ballerina performing in St. Petersburg by threatening to cause her untold shame when I throw birch twigs on the stage [a traditional Russian gesture of disapproval] during her performance unless she pays me five thousand dollars.” I’m sure you can see the parallel with City, as the involvement of Jeremy Beadle is in fact the most rational explanation for some of the events at Maine Road in the last few years – “This is me posing as the manager of Portsmouth Football Club. I’m going to tell Frank Clark we want three and a half million pounds for Lee Bradbury.”

There’s that rather tired sign which is sometimes seen at various workplaces – “you don’t have to be mad to work here but it helps”. I think you actually do have to be slightly mad both to support City and to want to live in Russia. I’m not saying for a minute that we should all be carted off to mental institutions because we can’t function in society; for example, I work as a lawyer for a big international law firm so for most of the time, I have to pretend to be a sane and normal person. However, the point is this: I went to a very academic school, attended a very traditional university and am in a very orthodox profession. I’m not knocking the educational institutions I attended or my job, but for me, life in those contexts somehow lacks colour or drama. That colour and drama is provided by where I live, by my support for the team which, despite my geographical isolation, consumes an unnatural proportion of my leisure time and by a personal life which could best be described as turbulent (but which is beyond the scope of this piece). I have long suspected that most committed City fans, whatever their own personal reasons, are people who are seeking out an emotional outlet where predictability is never a possibility. It is precisely this kind of mentality which anyone wanting to come to Russia has to develop.

I never cease to be amazed at the time and energy potential investors spend investigating Russia. In fact, there is a very simple, cheap and effective way to come to an understanding of this place – it would cost about three hundred quid and take nine months. It is, of course, a season ticket at Maine Road. You see, the similarity goes far beyond the fact that both City and Russia seem crazy enough to have been invented for the benefit of a spoof TV show. There are all kinds of other striking allegories, too, going far beyond the fact that both have managed to get themselves into disastrous and largely self-inflicted messes. Consider the following:

History

City have always had a propensity for crisis. As Ardwick, we managed to go bust within two years of joining the Football League, and after the club was re-formed, we managed within little more than a decade to be involved in a bribery and illegal payments scandal as a result of which the club had to sell all its best players for a pittance. Most ended up with our local rivals, who duly won the league twice with the nucleus of our team. Since then, we’ve had relegations, cup humiliations, boardroom battles and managerial upheaval on a fairly regular basis. Russia has likewise always been prone to disorder and chaos. There’s a period of Russian history known as the “Time of Troubles” – it was in the seventeenth century when there were problems over succession to the throne. This title has always surprised me, as it could refer to most of the last thousand years here. They’ve had regular invasions by the likes of Genghis Khan, Napoleon and Hitler, bitter struggles for power, civil war, famine, revolutions and economic crisis.

Under-Achievement

All the disasters are made much worse by the knowledge that things really shouldn’t be that way. City have a fan base which, had the club managed to harness it properly should have … well, let’s say should have seen us not rubbing shoulders with Chesterfield or Northampton. Russia has absolutely staggering deposits of natural resources, and had it been able to exploit them properly, it wouldn’t … well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be facing economic meltdown.

Style of Management / Government

Both City and Russia seem to have been led for long periods by larger-than-life figures. At Maine Road, we had Peter Swales, with his Cuban heels and ludicrous haircut, in charge for twenty years, followed by the triumphalism of Franics Lee’s return. The manager’s chair has been occupied by the likes of Allison and Bond. In fact, the Russians probably outdo us here, with the likes of Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Stalin. Indeed, while most of our failed chairmen or managers have simply been guilty of poor judgement, the sanity of some of Russia’s rulers really has to be questioned. Our last manager, for instance, earned the sobriquet “Mad Frank”, but if Ivan the Terrible had taken charge of the City team, it’s doubtful he’d have confined himself to buying Ged Brannan or playing Craig Russell at left-back. Boris Yeltsin’s arbitrary style could also have made him a suitable candidate for the City chairmanship, as shown by the recent re-appointment as Prime Minister of Viktor Chernomyrdin (which translates as “Victor Black Face”), whom he sacked five months ago and whose previous stint in the post was of slightly dubious merit. As an aside, it isn’t unusual for Russian political figures to have entertaining names. For instance, the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, is “George Puddle” in English. However, there’s no requirement either to have a silly name or for it to be appropriate, no doubt much to the President’s relief as he’d have to go under the rather cumbersome moniker “Boris Doddery-clueless-old-git”.

The Old Regime and the Reform Process

Russians call the period under Leonid Brezhnev’s rule the time of “stagnation” and the failure to undertake any kind of reform of the Soviet Union’s creaking economic edifice had serious repercussions. Admittedly, Peter Swales wasn’t trying to build a huge stockpile of nuclear weapons in Moss Side and didn’t go round buying himself huge fleets of luxury cars or awarding himself more medals than he could pin on his coat. He is, nevertheless, City’s Brezhnev. He was blithely oblivious to off-the-field developments in football in the 1990s or to the requirements of the Taylor Report. He signed away on long-term contracts virtually all of the club’s commercial possibilities. Despite the fact that we had a smaller turnover than Norwich (and that we would have tremendous difficulty increasing our income owing to his commercial ineptitude), he created huge debts by spending more in net terms on players in his last two years than the Rags, Arsenal, Liverpool or Newcastle. He increased those debts further to build a stand holding 5,000 fans (when Leeds built a 17,000-seater stand for the same money), ignoring the fact that we were legally obliged to reconstruct the Kippax, which accounted for half our capacity. The irony, of course, is that a lot of very misguided City fans look at the league positions at the end of the Swales era and assume he was correct all along. In the same way, Russians look back to the Brezhnev era and think that, whatever might have been wrong, at least they had job security and didn’t need to worry whether they’d have enough money to put food on the table. These views, emphatically, are mistaken. Both Gorbachev in Russia and Francis Lee at Maine Road took over disasters waiting to happen. Admittedly, both made a number of serious errors without which the respective situations of Russia and Manchester City today might be very different and both can quite properly be fiercely criticised. However, those who fail to stop an impending catastrophe are, in my view, far less to blame than those who, gloriously unencumbered by any vestige of competence, created the conditions for it in the first place.

Reactions of the Fans / Populace

Both City and Russia now find themselves in situation where they were badly run for a long time, the people who arrived to put things right botched the job and things have got worse than anyone probably ever imagined they could. In Russia, this has bred an attitude of hardy resilience amongst the people, just as City fans have, I think, now become almost immune to each fresh setback. This is largely why I don’t expect to have to use my ticket home. A couple of hundred thousand people might gather outside the government buildings at the White House, but this is the Russian equivalent of a couple of thousand on the Maine Road forecourt chanting “sack the board”. I wouldn’t refrain from attending City matches because demonstrations outside the Main Stand made me fear for my personal safety, and I don’t expect any manifestation of public anger here to have me rushing for that BA flight to London.

The Immediate Priority

To complete the analogy, the task facing both City and Russia now is to make sure they’ve hit rock bottom and that things improve from now on. To be honest, I rate City’s chances as the higher. David Bernstein seems to me to have a much better grasp of the issues he has to deal with than DCOG, while Joe Royle’s track record is better than Black Face’s. There’s also no doubt that the collapse of the Russian currency and the probable demise of the entire banking sector is a more serious blow to Russia’s hopes of rebuilding than draws with Wrexham and Notts County are to ours. Actually, Russia is further on in the reform process than we are – Gorbachev arrived on the scene in 1985, while Francis Lee didn’t appear until 1994. Both ended up leaving, largely discredited in the eyes of many Russians and City fans respectively. At Maine Road, it’s still too early to judge the post-Lee order. However, in post-Gorbachev Russia, it’s fairly obvious that the transition to a market economy has been managed catastrophically. The current meltdown in Russia is probably the equivalent of the kind of disaster which would beset City if Bernstein and Royle fail to deliver.

Turning Back the Tide of Fate

I’ll leave the final word to Black Face. He’s well-known for unfortunate malapropisms, but he once came out with a statement which has entered the Russian lexicon because it summed up perfectly how things here almost seem fated to go wrong, no matter what anyone does. “I wanted everything to turn out for the best,” he lamented wearily, “but it’s turned out like it always does in Russia.” Adapt the phrase for City and think of how many of our chairman and managers it could serve as an epitaph. We, too, often seem fated to lurch into fresh failures whatever steps we try to take against them. The task for the current incumbents at Maine Road is to battle against this apparent inevitability of fate and stop Manchester City from remaining the Russia of English football.

SIMON’S REACTION – AND A REPLY

I cannot believe what I have just read. You have just banned me from MCIVTA in your last edition. You wrote as follows :- Unless we get a violent disagreement from the readers, no further contribution on the above issue will be published on this list. Let’s bury the hatchet and move on to cheering the team to greater heights. [Ed]

What, are you telling me that you only print what you wanna read, and not opinion? OK here goes :-

City are great, City are the best, let’s all cheer them cause Nizam says so!

Well all I can say is don’t bother sending me your pathetic diatribe of a news letter, because it’s full of the s**t that you wanna read and the s**t Noel Bayley writes. You should rename it MCITNWTRA (Man City Info That Nizam Wants To Read About).

P.S. Bring Back Ashley, and until you do, don’t send me your edited s***e anymore. CTID and let’s hope the t***ers that brought this club down give way to real people with real views.

ED’S RESPONSE

If you have read the above closely enough, you would have realised that nowhere in the sentence did I say that you have been banned from MCIVTA. Please do not put words in my mouth. It is the issue that is being put under the spotlight, not you! If you have been on the list long enough you would have seen, on numerous occasions, that the editor (Ashley or whoever) make mentions that a certain issue be put to rest; unless we have a violent objection to the proposal. In this occasion, I received a number of mails from readers who mentioned that they have “seen one too many” articles on this issue and wish to see the issue be “amicably closed”, hence the proposal in the last issue.

Well, I see yours as a “violent” objection, therefore I will feature it in this next issue and be re-opened for discussion… no worries.

If I only wish to print what I want to read, I would not have asked for the readers’ opinion on the matter and would have closed all correspondence on the matter on my own accord. Please read carefully. I mentioned “unless we have a violent objection from readers”, for a reason.

SIMON’S BACK

After my recent articles on “FACTS ON CITY”, I have been persuaded out of retirement on this subject by one or twenty people. Even Noel Bayley said that I had “Prematurely” ended my postings to MCIVTA! So some more views…

Perhaps the real reason is people get bored of reading the s***e written about how wonderful City are, when the truth is that the entire Club is a complete Joke. Anybody want to argue with that fact?

I have suffered a lot of criticism on MCIVTA, some people had a small point, others talked complete garbage and some cannot even read properly. For example, the person who “claimed” to be a Man City insider can’t read (a perfect quality for a member of City’s staff). I quite clearly stated that it was FHL that called all his staff “Fat Cats” on his first week in charge, yet “insider man” did not quite manage to work that one out in plain English.

A number of people said that blaming the board is bollox! Correct me if I am wrong but who runs this club? Errrmm oh yes, it’s the board! Ok then, answer me this statement…

Please state one good fact about the way that Man City is run (in as many words as you want).

I was sat on the train to London on Friday afternoon thinking that we will be lucky if get a draw against Fulham tonight, and guess what, we got completely humiliated by a third league team (again).

Fulham 3 City 0 – what happen to this great club, the club that stuffed the Rags 5-1 not that long ago.

Anyone wanna post some sensible comments please!

OPINION – KEN MONKOU

Why, why, why are City continue to pursue highly-paid stars who are on their last legs? Surely there are cheaper, more promising centre-halves than Ken Monkou to choose from? I think he has been a good solid Premiership player over a number of years, but in case no-one has noticed, City are a skint 3rd Division side who need to build for the future. Surely Fulham or a team of their ilk would be more suited to that sort of player? There again who am I to comment, I spent £2m on one G. Festa for my fantasy team.

STATISTICS

You may recall that in an earlier edition I did a stat return as to the number of points needed to achieve certain targets.

Well I refined the process a little by going over the final league tables from previous years but this proved problematic as there has been such a wide variance in the number of points needed, i.e.;

     achieved          best          worst
     champions         102           84
     runner-up         102           78
     play-off place     76           67
     relegation         52           42

As you can see, quite a gap, so I’ve simply taken an average, which works out as:

     champions 90 points so = 1.96 points per game
     runners-up 85            1.85
     play-off place           1.59
     relegation               1.04

What I’ll do is to adjust the figures after 11, 22, 33 games which should give us an idea of the targets that are likely.

Working on the above figures you can see that 5 points from 4 games, gives us an average of 1.25 points per game. At that rate we will finish out of the relegation zone but below the play-off places so we need to improve.

In September we are due to play six League games:
Home: Walsall, Bournemouth, Chesterfield.
Away: Millwall, Macclesfield, Northampton.

UPDATE ON THE TRIBAL GATHERING II

Ideally, we would have all the places in the lounge taken up by Blue Viewers, McVittees etc. City fans that come from Australia, Norway, Canada etc. and from Manchester that are involved on the Internet.

However, when City fans, that are not on the Net, get to know of this weekend and places in the lounge, they want to join in the action. I have had to let about 5/6 know about it this week, and they want tickets.

What I am saying here is if you are interested, send me your money now, I’d hate to tell somebody like that that are on the Net we have no more tickets left, because City fans that don’t visit these websites have snapped them up. It happened last year to a small extent.

Same applies to the Friday evening bash Clive is sorting out. That will have to be promoted very soon and we can only get 100 in the Oasis suite.

Cheques should be made out to me (Bob Young) and sent to me at the address on www.mancity.net/bob

On another subject, I’m sure I have unlimited email addresses on the domain name mancity.net. If anybody fancies using it e.g. Clive@mancity.net, I’m sure it can be forwarded onto your own email address. Let me know in an email if you are interested.

STRETFORD & URMSTON BLUES IN BANDIT COUNTRY

Next meeting for the Blues in the area is 10 September 1998 – 7.30pm start. Venue; Stretford Trades & Labour Club – Chester Road / Sydney Street. Guests (to be confirmed) include; Denis Tueart and Bernard Halford.

For details contact;
Stretford & Urmston Centenary Supporters’ Association
243 Moorside Road
Urmston
Manchester
M41 5SH

Tel; 0161-746-7638, Email: MCFCStretU@aol.com

CENTENARY SUPPORTERS’ ASSOCIATION – NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING

The next committee meeting is on Monday 14 September 1998 – 8.00pm start. The meeting is the first of the season and as usual is open to all CSA memebers, Executive members and so on. Venue – Red Lion pub, Rochdale Road, Higher Blackley, Manchester

Details from;
Clive Hamilton – CSA Secreatry
c/o 243 Moorside Road,
Urmston,
Manchester
M41 5SH

Tel; 0161 746 7638, Email; MCFCSuppAs@aol.com

SUBSCRIBERS’ LIST – A RESPONSE

I feel left out of your survey of MCIVTA subscribers. You list all the other states in Australia but leave out Tasmania. I first watched City in 1955 and was a regular visitoor to Maine Road upto 1963 when I moved away from Manchester. For the 31 years I have been in Australia I have followed their fortunes (and misfortunes). Names like Joe Hayes, Jack Dyson, Bert Trautmann, Dave Wagstaffe, Colin Barlow and that larger than life Irishman Billy McAdam; all bring great memories back.

Please re-publish your subcriber list if only to say Tasmania 1

SQUAD UPDATE

Latest changes to squad

Ged Brannan on loan to Norwich
Kakhaber Tskhadadze taken off transfer list
Scott Hiley free transfer to Southampton
Martin Phillips sold for £100,000 to Portsmouth

Tommy Wright

Nick Weaver

Michael Brown

Gerard Wiekens

Tony Vaughan

Richard Edghill

Anthony Fenton

Nick Fenton

Murtaz Shelia

Richard Jobson

Danny Tiatto

Kakhaber Tskhadadze

David Morley              Transfer Listed

Paul Beesley              Transfer Listed

Kevin Horlock

Jamie Pollock

Lee Crooks

Gary Mason

Jeff Whitley

Jim Whitley

Michael Brown

Nigel Clough              Transfer Listed

Neil Heaney               Transfer Listed

Ian Bishop                Transfer Listed

Ged Brannan               Loaned to Norwich

Paul Dickov

Lee Bradbury

Barry Conlon

Shaun Goater

Alan Bailey

Danny Allsop

Chris Greenacre           Transfer Listed

Ray Kelly                 Transfer Listed

Mikhail Kavalashvili      Loaned to Grasshoppers Z