Newsletter #1018

A resounding 5-1 win over Everton saw us end the season in a style we could only dream of some weeks back, and Everton were duly awarded Wooden Spoon for the 2003/04 season. We finish 16th, and outside of the top 4 are leading goalscorers (equal with Liverpool), so it’s not all been bad.

Tonight we have match report, views on who should stay and go, the music debate continues and where to get your cheap shirts.

Thanks to Don and Chris for standing in over the last fortnight, and congratulations to (Winchester) City, playing in City-esque black & red strip, on winning the FA Vase yesterday.

MATCH REPORT: MCFC 5 EVERTON 1

The final game of a frustrating saw City finish with a flourish; the City display reminded me of some of the early season performances, whilst Everton’s capitulation was similar to the Southampton defeat in that as soon as the first goal went in Everton seemed to fold. It was difficult to say whether City were playing well or Everton were so poor but what was immediately noticeable was the lack of apprehension from the crowd and extra confidence the players showed, now relegation was no longer a threat. It was certainly nice to watch the game without having to worry about whether we needed to hold on or how other teams around us were performing, a feeling that has accompanied the majority of games since Christmas.

The first 15 minutes was relatively even, although Everton on numerous occasions seemed to have a man over on the left but they failed to punish City or even force James to make a save. The first breakthrough came from some woeful Everton defending; a deflected Anelka shot fell kindly for Wanchope who poached a typical striker’s goal to continue his impressive recent scoring run. The second goal came after a really nice one-two between Anelka and Reyna, which set Reyna away down the left flank. His cross found Anelka, whose shot was once again deflected into Wanchope’s path, who was again on hand to score an opportunistic goal (again some appalling Everton defending helped). The third goal was well worked, with Wanchope creating the opportunity by making space and playing Anelka in, Anelka then dispatching one of those effortless shots that curled into the bottom corner and the game was effectively over. This cued a mass exodus of Everton supporters from their seats but to be fair I think a fair number went for an early half time pint to drown their sorrows.

Everton started the second half much more brightly after an obvious rollicking from Moyes at half time but still had little to show from their efforts until a Rooney corner was headed in by Kevin Campbell. James was furious that his clean sheet was gone; I really hope we make him captain next season. The game then reverted to a near pedestrian pace until the last five when Sibierski was set up by Macken and then SWeeP scored a goal very reminiscent of the one against United in the final minutes.

Everton were very poor, Shrek’s lovechild Rooney was mostly disappointing, he showed some flashes of brilliance, his first touch was mostly impeccable but as the game wore on he lost interest. On this display Everton have some big problems and you wonder if Moyes and Rooney will be there next year.

James 5/10 – Didn’t have anything to do, no chance with the goal.

Sun 5/10 – Exposed on numerous times in the first half but some very timely challenges and great going forward, probably at fault for the Everton goal (he was marking Campbell and was off the pace).

Distin 5/10 – Troubled very little by Everton strike force and did what he needed to do well.

Dunne 5/10 – As per Distin, no chance to shine as Everton were so poor.

Tarnat 5/10 – This performance summed up his Tarnat’s stay with us. Woeful distribution in the first half but had some rasping shots and a well struck free kick saved by Martyn. I’ll miss his free kicks next season but won’t miss the misplaced passes. Got a great reception from the City supporters when taking a corner midway through the second half.

Reyna 6/10 – Reasonable performance from Reyna, who was playing as the left midfielder. In fact Reyna, Bos and Barton all worked really well as unit and the communication when one pulled forward and the others would drop was nice to see (why hasn’t this been the case all season!).

Bosvelt 7/10 – Best performance I’ve seen from Bosvelt. Cleaned up in midfield, covered lots of ground and dictated the pace; hopefully he’ll take this form onto next season.

Barton 6/10 – Solid performance from Barton who seems to have raised his game after coming back into the side. I get the feeling the Barton is now at the stage SWeeP was a couple of season ago; you can see the potential but he just has to improve on his consistency.

SWeeP 7/10 – Same as he has been all season, up and down the wing and took his goal supremely. I really hope he doesn’t go in the close season, he’s going to get better and better.

Anelka 6/10 – Committed and had some nice touches, took his goal well. Linked up much better with Wanchope.

Wanchope 8/10 – MoM, not just the goals but his endeavour and commitment, couple of long typical Wanchope runs, with which I was willing him to get his hat-trick. Will be interesting to see if the writing is on the wall for Fowler after Wanchope’s season run-in form.

Siberiski – Little to do but took goal well.

Jordan – Came on for last ten minutes and made a good tackle. Agree with not playing the young lads in a side that is low on confidence but why didn’t Keegan blood Jordan and Elliot today in a game that effectively meant nothing (certainly when we were 3-0 up and the £540,000 secured).

Macken – Great run to make the Sibby goal.

Crowd 9/10 – A superb atmosphere. CoMS has a great atmosphere when it gets going; hopefully this will get better even more next year as it will seem less alien to everyone now we are bedded in. Funny when the South stand sang songs for Everton and goaded the Everton supporters with “Worse support we’ve ever seen”. One minor gripe was the player presentations after the game; why do we insist playing loud music that kills the atmosphere when we are trying to salute the players? Please can someone at the club stop this?

So we can all go home, rest for summer and think what might have been, what should have been and what could have been. Obviously this result won’t mask the problems we have displayed this season but I think we need three signings in close season (assuming other players don’t depart: Anelka, Barton, SWeeP). Van Buyten is a must buy, as is an effective replacement for Tarnat. In addition I’d like us to try to get a decent left sided player that will balance SWeeP on the right and give us more options going forward (the mould of Gronkjaer or Giggs but obviously not as expensive). I really hope SWeeP doesn’t go but don’t think it will be disastrous if he does and we don’t get decent money for him! Sinclair can fill in on the right wing (his natural position and one which you’d hope he’d be more effective in) and the money could be used to purchase the signings above. As for the secret of winning at CoMS, it’s obvious: Barcelona, TNS, Villa, Bolton, United, Newcastle, Everton – the sun was shining!

OPINION: PARANIOD, MOI?

Call this paran… paranoiai… paranoia (just checked the dictionary) but did anyone else sense a mood of doom after our 5-1 demolition of Everton? I was quite upbeat that we finally seem to have a striking pair that works together. Until I heard KK, when asked the question whether SWP will be here next season, referred the question to Messrs Wardle and Mackintosh (that little K is how it appears on the club website so I presume it is correct).

Back to my paran… paranoiai… paranoia. Did that not sound like a man that was resigned (whoops) to losing him if the bid was big enough and, worse still, had already been told so? By the way, I think he also said “I have one year of my contract to run”, whereas according to the City site tonight he has two.

Anyway, the point is he sounded like a man who has had enough. Who knows, maybe the board have finally woken up and given him an ultimatum: “Either lose the exorbitant fees of non-performers, and injury prone players, like Fowler and McManaman, or sell SWP and Barton.” Which would you pick? It ruined a good day for me.

I think KK will go, which I will be sorry about. But if it means SWP will stay, I’ll take it.

By the way, for those who haven’t seen it, his goal was brilliant, and I know the secret to why he can score now.

OPINION: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Saturday saw me at my first game of the season. Life has been getting in the way recently, so to start here’s a big thanks to Alison for the tickets. First impressions weren’t based on the pint in “The Crossroads” (thankfully); nice beer but not the nicest boozer I’ve ever been in.

The stadium, as everyone else has already said, is awesome and the atmosphere was superb. I can’t see how they hope to take much on the bars though; I’d have had more chance of growing another head than getting served during the half-time break.

The game was great given that there was an “end of term” feel and the Everton players were clearly on the beach a week early. The sight of Richard Dunne heading off down the right wing with the ball at his feet brought a good few chuckles and Paulo doing his Bambi on Ice in the box is always going to confuse defenders (particularly the inept ones fielded on Saturday).

Apart from the bar at half-time and the shop before the game (the speed the queue to be served was moving meant anyone foolish enough to stay in it would have missed the first two goals), the day was excellent and a good way to finish a poor season; let’s hope they can get sorted before it all starts again in a few months’ time!

I’ll certainly be making more games next season and I’d really, really love it if they all finished 5-1 to the Blues.

OPINION: WHELAN AND DEALING

I felt compelled to write after reading that Glenn Whelan has been let go to Sheffield Wednesday, for nowt apparently! While KK expresses interest in 34-year-old, winding-down-his-career, Christian Karembeu.

My God! What is going on? Kids who have had time and money invested in them through the Academy get let go just as they’re starting to show promise, while KK goes hunting for another journeyman veteran pro who’s looking for a last pay day before packing it in. I’ve heard great reports about the young Irish lads in the reserves (Elliot, Flood, Whelan etc.); these guys have won underage international honours for Ireland, why can’t they be given a shot in the first team? It’s not like we have anything to lose!

I’d rather see some young lad who’s come out of the Academy with a hunger to prove himself and play for the jersey rather than some overpaid has-been who’s just looking to collect. What’s the point in having a great Academy (just look at SWP and Joey) if we’re just going to breed good, young players for other clubs? I’ve almost had enough of KK’s transfer dealings. When’s he going to get the message?

OPINION

My dearest friends of MCITVA, as the final game goes by, a lot of beers, songs and hurrah are beginning from our Blue Italian hearts in our pub with Sky TV on Torino!

All our troubles for those incredible games, such as the two against Leeds are finished with today clear 5-1 against the Toffeemen.

Now we wish a new summer will bring us a very good middle defender, maybe Mills? We hope it should be so, he’s a real leader and a good playmaker, just like Redondo (ex AC Milan) or Emre (ex Inter FC) or? Let us KK take the right chance about it!

And, dear Mr McIntosh, do not sell Nico to anybody! He must be our lead striker for years and years again!

In the next year I think our dear Blues would become stronger than now. Me and my friends hope Anelka & Co should have much more character than in this last troubled year. In Italian language we usually say “Avere tutti gli attributi”. Understood what I mean?

See you the next autumn at the new fantastic City of Manchester Stadium with our Italian new fans club, OK?

OPINION: ATMOSPHERE

I totally agree with Paul Matthewson about the music. I only attended 2 games this season and the atmosphere was terrible, but I did notice that when we started singing the ground really holds the noise in well.

I think the club needs to do several things but most important:

1. Create a singing section in the ground for season ticket holders toelect to sit in and leave a good percentage of the open ticket sales forseats around that area.
2. Kill the music (as Paul Matthewson suggested).

I know a lot of people that write in have mentioned the same thing, but how do we get the club to do something about this? If you ask the Chairman, you usually get the same response: “we’re looking into it”. But I would hate to see another quiet season like this one go by before they really do think they need to change it.

I’m sure it’s a huge pain in the butt for them to have to rearrange season ticket holders’ seats and probably will get a lot of complaints, but I hope they realize how important this is.

OPINION: 23 REASONS FOR KEV TO STAY

In response to the 23 reasons to dump Keegan:

1. Cox/Fazackerly – I agree something needs to change here.
2. Stuart Pearce. Pearce is obviously ambitious, and wants to progress tomanagement, and why not? It’s that very determination that many Cityfans want to see him instil into the City defence.
3. Signings this season. Admittedly poor, but up until now, the man has hada fairly good record in the transfer market.
4. Midfield – Any plans that KK had for the midfield were left in tattersby the death of Foe, Benarbia’s sudden retirement and Berkovic’s tantrums.The loss of three of your best midfielders would have disrupted the plansof any manager at any club. Good player that Berkovic was, KK has beenvindicated by his lack of appearances for Pompey.
5. Barton’s/Sinclair’s contracts – Joey’s contract was signed lastChristmas, at which point, if my memory serves me correctly, he hadn’tplayed a single first team game – and by most people’s standards, hisprogression has been outstanding since then, which is not often the case -remember Gary Mason? Sinclair has been disappointing this season, but don’tthink he is a spent force yet.
6. Defensive cover – most fans agreed at the end of last season thatSommeil looked very promising, whilst I think that Bischoff was very muchin KK’s plans for the first-team this season, but injuries scuppered that.When the transfer window came along, he got van Buyten in to address that.If he manages to keep van Buyten, and sorts something at left back, withthe addition of James, we could have a very good defence next season.
7. ‘keepers – OK, Seaman was a disaster waiting to happen, but James hasbeen fantastic, and didn’t cost all that much. Buying a ‘keeper is alwaysthe riskiest signing a club can make – look at Leighton/Tiaibi/Bosnich.
8. Spending all our money – it’s the board who ultimately spend the money.KK proved in Division 1 that he can shop for top-quality bargains. Could you namea manager who hasn’t made a bad buy at some point(Jardel/Cygan/Forlan/Figeroa)?
9. Taking tactics tips from the squad – at least he is willing to admitmistakes, and learn from them.
10. Captaincy – Yes, Distin has been a bad move, let’s hope he rectifies this.
11. Bench appearances for youth players. Barton and SWP have been regulars,and Elliott and Jordan have made the bench quite a few times. Hopefully,Elliott will get the nod over Fowler as the no. 4 striker.
12. Substitutions – what about Leeds at home for one, those substitutionswere inspired.
13. Anelka – whatever his attitude, Anelka is by far City’s best player,and dropping him could only had made things worse.
14. See next item.
15. Fowler – He does seem to have learned his lesson with Fowler, let’shope he never (dis)graces our pitch again.
16. Vuoso, Nacken, Negouia, Bischoff – All are still at the club, and couldyet play a part (although Vuoso is unlikely). Bischoff has been unluckywith injuries.
17. What makes Manchester City such a great club? Yes, the fans and thestadium, but the tradition? For 30 years now, the tradition has mainly beento change managers as often as the Swamp-dwellers change their strips, andplay dull route-one football, and where has it gotten us? Keegan has been abreath of fresh air.
18. See next item.
19. Wardle/Bernstein – can hardly be blamed on KK, and there have beenconflicting stories on which of the two wanted to emulate Ridsdale.
20. Stability – besides any other effect, instability is a massive drain onthe finances that you are so annoyed about wasting.
21. Luck – I agree, to rely on or blame luck is just foolish.
22. Smaller, more successful clubs – don’t let’s get United’s Freudianobsession with size. Also the manager is not the only reason for thesuccess of other clubs – stability has played a major rôle in Charlton’ssuccess, extremely dull football has played the major rôle in Birmingham’ssuccess, although Bolton’s fantastic manager has been a large part in theirsuccess.
23. The league table does not lie – but according to your theory it didlast year.

City fans more than any others, should know the perils of the lynch-mob mentality.

OPINION: RIP-OFF SHIRTS

Ref Paul’s comments. My son works for a well known sports shop in the Trafford area. The new City shirt retails in this shop for £30 and with his discount, I paid £25 for mine.

Apparently the new away strip is very like the new Bolton away; same pattern but white with blue rings. He’s not impressed.

OPINION: PRE-SEASON RUMOURS

Unofficial word from the Club is that the week after the Blackpool gameCity play Hull City at the KC stadium. Also the MVF tribute game will beagainst either Seville, Real Betis or Valencia. A tour of America isalso planned, which is more likely to happen as we are still in the Premiership.

[Wish they would hurry up and confirm games, Nick, it’s a tad frustrating when the other clubs are announcing where we are due to be playing without City confirming! – Ed]

REQUEST: STADIUM TOUR

Although I have managed to get to a fair few away games with my son (now a fully paid up Blue who hates the Rags with true Blue conviction) this year I have as yet not managed to get to the new stadium to watch a game. At this point I would also like to add a thanks to all the City fans that we sat with and talked to for making us feel very welcome!

I was lucky enough to get tickets to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the COMS on the 18th June and decided to kill two birds with one stone and to do the stadium tour as well if I can.

Does anyone have any opinion as to whether this is worth it or not, especially as I will be inflicting it on my Liverpool supporting wife (hehe).

[Worthwhile doing, Steve, as you get the City museum to go round too, all for £7.50 – Ed]

RESULTS

15 May 2004

Arsenal               2 - 1  Leicester City        38,419
Aston Villa           0 - 2  Manchester United     42,573
Blackburn Rovers      1 - 1  Birmingham City       26,070
Bolton Wanderers      0 - 2  Fulham                27,383
Charlton Athletic     2 - 1  Southampton           26,614
Chelsea               1 - 0  Leeds United          41,276
Liverpool             1 - 1  Newcastle United      44,172
Manchester City       5 - 1  Everton               47,284
Portsmouth            5 - 1  Middlesbrough         20,134
Wolverhampton Wndrs   0 - 2  Tottenham Hotspur     29,389

League table to 16 May 2004 inclusive

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts
 1 Arsenal         38 15  4  0 40 14 11  8  0 33 12 26 12  0  73  26  47  90
 2 Chelsea         38 12  4  3 34 13 12  3  4 33 17 24  7  7  67  30  37  79
 3 Manchester Utd  38 12  4  3 37 15 11  2  6 27 20 23  6  9  64  35  29  75
 4 Liverpool       38 10  4  5 29 15  6  8  5 26 22 16 12 10  55  37  18  60
 5 Newcastle Utd   38 11  5  3 33 14  2 12  5 19 26 13 17  8  52  40  12  56
 6 Aston Villa     38  9  6  4 24 19  6  5  8 24 25 15 11 12  48  44   4  56
 7 Charlton Ath.   38  7  6  6 29 29  7  5  7 22 22 14 11 13  51  51   0  53
 8 Bolton Wndrs    38  6  8  5 24 21  8  3  8 24 35 14 11 13  48  56  -8  53
 9 Fulham          38  9  4  6 29 21  5  6  8 23 25 14 10 14  52  46   6  52
10 Birmingham City 38  8  5  6 26 24  4  9  6 17 24 12 14 12  43  48  -5  50
11 Middlesbrough   38  8  4  7 25 23  5  5  9 19 29 13  9 16  44  52  -8  48
12 Southampton     38  8  6  5 24 17  4  5 10 20 28 12 11 15  44  45  -1  47
13 Portsmouth      38 10  4  5 35 19  2  5 12 12 35 12  9 17  47  54  -7  45
14 Tottenham H.    38  9  4  6 33 27  4  2 13 14 30 13  6 19  47  57 -10  45
15 Blackburn R.    38  5  4 10 25 31  7  4  8 26 28 12  8 18  51  59  -8  44
16 Manchester City 38  5  9  5 31 24  4  5 10 24 30  9 14 15  55  54   1  41
17 Everton         38  8  5  6 27 20  1  7 11 18 37  9 12 17  45  57 -12  39
18 Leicester City  38  3 10  6 19 28  3  5 11 29 37  6 15 17  48  65 -17  33
19 Leeds United    38  5  7  7 25 31  3  2 14 15 48  8  9 21  40  79 -39  33
20 Wolves          38  7  5  7 23 35  0  7 12 15 42  7 12 19  38  77 -39  33

MCIVTA FAQ [v0304.07]

[0] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour (Don Barrie)         : news@mcivta.city-fan.org
Subscriptions (Madeleine Hawkins): subscriptions@mcivta.city-fan.org
Technical problems (Paul)        : paul@city-fan.org
FAQ (David Warburton)            : faq@mcivta.city-fan.org

[1] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings.

[2] MCIVTA Back Issues and Manchester City Supporters’ home page

http://www.uit.no/mancity/ is the unofficial Manchester City Supporters’ home page. Created in 1994, it is the longest running of the Manchester City related web sites. Back issues of MCIVTA are also hosted on the site.

[3] What is the club’s official web site?

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/

[4] What supporters’ clubs are there?

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mancity.net/osc/); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.reddishblues.com/CSAWebsite/CSA.htm) and “The International Supporters’ Club” (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/article.asp?article=111845&Title=International+Supporters+Club&lid=Membership).

[5] Where can I find out about the fans’ committee?

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. It has its own website, http://www.mcfc-fans.com/ containing info about forthcoming meetings as well as minutes from previous gatherings.

[6] What match day broadcasts are available on the web?

The GMR pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/gmr/sport_intro.shtml.

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found at http://www.mcfctv.com/, whilst an alternate live commentary service, hosted by Yahoo, is located at http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/foot/englandprem/cal/index.html.

[7] Where can I find out if City are live on satellite TV?

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premiership games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://canadatvsoccer.tripod.com/Fixtures.htm, http://www.foxsportsworld.com/named/FSW/Index/Soccer, and http://www.soccertv.com/.

http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=1288602 also provides a guide to pubs in the USA showing football.

[8] What’s the music the teams run out to?

At the start of the 03/04 season it was actually a mix of two tracks: Starting with “O Verona” (from the film “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”) leading in to “Barber’s Adagio for Strings (Ferry Corsten remix)” by William Orbit. The first part is available on the movie soundtrack (volume 2) and the second is included on a variety of CDs such as Kiss House Nation 2000, Galaxy Hit Mix, Cream Live, Ibiza Chill and Dance Nation 4.

Currently we use a selection of different music, which seems to change each game.

[9] Do we have a Usenet newsgroup?

Yes we do: uk.sport.football.clubs.man-city is our home on usenet. If you are not familiar with usenet, a basic explanation is available here: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213262,00.html

[10] Do any squad members have their own web pages?

There are a number available and direct links can be found at http://www.uit.no/mancity/players/

[11] Can I buy shares in the club?

Yes you can: Shares in Manchester City PLC are traded on OFEX. The latest prices can be on found the OFEX web site http://www.ofex.com/ (registration required) or in the business section of the Manchester Evening News.

[12] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth analysis try http://www.mcfcstats.com/.

[13] Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Damian Quinn, Stephen Webb, Roger Haigh, Martin Price, and Adrian Howarth for the Satellite TV info.

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.

Heidi Pickup, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: