Newsletter #1142

Barton’s fine, Vassell’s arrival and Cole’s first goal all feature in Sarah’s news round-up tonight, along with latest rumours on signings and a rather bizarre plot by some City fans to set up their own club.

We have match reports from Thailand thanks to Peter, and Stalyvegas from Gavin. The debate continues on the latest signings, Mike sticks his neck out on the predictions and we have answers to the England striker question posed last issue.

Thanks also to David for the new season’s FAQ.

NEWS SUMMARY

Psycho Still Smiling: In a week that would have seen lesser managers reviewing their options, Stuart Pearce returned from Thailand determined to highlight the positives to come out of the trip: the Blues drew both their matches, losing the first on a penalty shoot-out before winning the second, but the boss is pleased with the squad’s performances over the course of the Asia Trophy games. And although off the field, SP has had to cope with the departure of SWP and Barton’s brawling, he has also seen his first signing open his City account. SP maintains, “It has been a very positive week in spite of the one incident, and I’ve given established players the chance to get some game minutes under their belts. Ben Thatcher and Trevor Sinclair both performed really well, and also it’s given the opportunity for some of the younger players to play on the bigger stage. Micah Richards played really well; he played in two different positions and showed his versatility.”

Hat-trick Hero: Micah Richards’ hat-trick led City’s reserves to a 4-3 win over Stalybridge. Steve Wigley’s men were 2-0 up early on thanks to a Richards double, the first a header from Willo Flood’s corner, quickly followed by his second, a well taken goal after a free kick swung in by Paul Collins. Karl Bermingham’s strike made it 3-0 and put the seal on an impressive first half performance following good work by Ishmael Miller. City added a fourth just on the hour mark as the big frontman volleyed home his third from another Flood set piece. The manager then brought off Ricards, Flood and Bermingham to give a run out to Academy lads, Michael Johnson and Kelvin Etuhu as well as a young trialist. This roused the hosts into a spirited fightback. A somewhat dubious penalty decision gave Celtic hope as they made it 4-2 and 4-3 shortly after. And in a tense finish, City had Kasper Schmeichel to thank as he produced a great save at the death.

A Tale of two Cities: A group of Manchester City supporters are exploring the possibility of forming their own breakaway club called Fans Football Club City, which would play in the non-league pyramid next year. Phill Gatenby, secretary of City’s Supporters’ Association, is backing the plan as he claims the game has become too commercial at the top level and too costly for families. “I have been disillusioned with the game as a whole because of its rampant commercialism. It has got to the point where, although I have not stopped watching City, I have been watching non-league teams. Then I thought ‘Why not own our own team?’.” Gatenby denies they are copying FC United who have entered a team into the North West Counties League after being disillusioned by the arrival of Malcolm Glazer at Manchester United. He added: “This is not a protest as such. The game has moved on so much that the traditional fans’ base has been eroded. We are being squeezed out and having to pay more. I have two kids and going to a game can cost me £50-60 At a semi-pro level you could get in for £10, which has far more appeal.”

City Move Forward With Vassell: City have completed the signing of England striker Darius Vassell for £2 million from Aston Villa. The 25-year old striker flew home from Villa’s pre-season tour of Sweden to agree personal terms on the four year contract, which will see him become one of City’s highest paid players. The acquisition of the pacey forward comes hot on the heels of the arrival of Andrew Cole from Fulham and adds much needed experience to the young squad. Vassell, who has 22 international caps to his name, has played for Villa since signing for them as a teenager and made his début appearance for them as an 18-year-old in 1998. However, he is keen to start his career with City, saying that he felt “the time was right for a fresh start and that once a big club like City came along, there was really only one decision to make.”

City’s Hopes of Pancrate go Flat: Manchester City’s prospects of signing Fabrice Pancrate as a possible replacement for SWP appear to be receding, or is it that the winger, who Pearce tried to bring to the club on loan, is now felt to be too expensive at £2 million? Whatever the reason, the negotiations have stalled. Moreover, Auxerre, who originally had expressed an interest, could take advantage of the stalemate. It is also rumoured that City could be interested in another PSG winger – Bernard Mendy, valued at £1.5 million, as a direct replacement for SWP.

Look Who’s Back (possibly)… Apparently Newcastle United have been urged to keep trying to bring Nicolas Anelka to St James’ Park – by their former boss Kevin Keegan. However, Fenerbache are desperately trying to hang on to their French international even though United have upped their bid to £6 million, which would see the Turkish club make a profit of £2 million on the player. Moreover, KK is also linked with a return to St James’ Park amid speculation of a possible takeover at Newcastle United. Two consortiums were reported to be interested in the club yesterday morning – pushing its value up from £65 million to £75.6 million. One of the consortiumc, led by a cash-rich entrepreneur, wants Keegan to return to the club to play a senior rôle in a “bid to bring trophies back to St James’ Park.”

Reading Between the Lines: It would seem that Reading were never going to play the Goat, because of a £50,000 appearance fee that would be due once he played his 50th match. With a year left on his contract, Shaun Goater was told that he didn’t feature in Steve Coppell’s future plans and so he has left the club “by mutual consent.”

Danny Heads Home: Former City striker, Danny Allsopp, has returned home to play in the new Australia A-League with Melbourne Victory.

Summerbee on trial in Scotland: Former City winger, Nicky Summerbee, who has recently left Bradford, is to have trials with Motherwell when he returns from holiday in Dubai. However, it is unlikely that he will be available before the SPL kicks off on Saturday, and it is also understood that several other English clubs could be interested in the player.

Barton Pays Penalty for Outburst: Midfielder Joey Barton, who was sent home from the club’s pre-season tour to Thailand in disgrace, has been fined 8 weeks’ wages for gross misconduct. Barton became involved in an altercation with a 15-year-old Everton fan at the team’s hotel in the early hours of Friday morning after the City players returned from an evening at a Thai restaurant. Barton is believed to have reacted to comments made by the 15-year-old before team-mate Richard Dunne stepped in as peace maker, prompting Barton to round on his club captain and both players had to be pulled apart. Returning home, Barton apologised for the trouble saying “I apologise to everyone I’ve offended, especially my team-mates, my manager and all the club’s fans. There was no fight between me and Richard but there was, however, a verbal exchange with a group of supporters. I was struck by a supporter, which I reacted badly to, but I stress that I didn’t throw a punch at the supporter or Richard. I have let everyone down. I regret the incident but it was not the mass brawl that some people have made it out to be.” Barton will now undertake a programme of rehabilitation (anger management) to prevent incidents of this kind re-occurring.

Cole’s Goal… To Silence Sceptics: Andy Cole has vowed to silence the Manchester City sceptics who have questioned his summer switch to Eastlands. Many fans voiced their opposition to Stuart Pearce’s decision to snap up the former Manchester United striker from Fulham. However, Cole made an immediate impact at his new club when scoring on his début against Everton in the FA Premier League Asia Trophy in Bangkok and prompted Pearce to hail the 32-year-old as the potential bargain of the summer. “It’s not easy and I’m not expecting to win them over in the first few games, but I’ll give it 100%; whatever club I’ve been at I’ve always done that,” Cole said.

City Yet to See Sinclair at His Best: After a nightmare last season, Trevor Sinclair is keen to reassure the Blue faithful that the best is yet to come. Having been sidelined for the majority of last year with a cruciate knee ligament problem, the former England international who has worked hard to make a return to competitive football appeared in both games on their tour of Thailand last week (and actually looked quite impressive!). “The City fans have definitely not seen the best of me,” said the former £2.5 million signing from West Ham. Talking about his new regime, he adds “The harder you work the luckier you get. I hope I will get a bit of luck, my confidence will get higher and I can start putting in some great performances again.”

The Man in the Middle: Antoine Sibierski is hoping to get an extended run in the heart of City’s midfield, the position he prefers, though he is willing to play (and indeed has played) in many others. He was required to play on the left, in the centre of midfield and also as a striker towards the end of last season, but these moves coincided with the unbeaten run that gave City a heartening end to the season.

MATCH REPORT: SCFC 3 MCFC RESERVES 4

City Hold Out Celtic Comeback

City’s young reserves’ second pre-season match was held at Bower Fold, the home of Nationwide Conference North Stalybridge Celtic FC. All of City’s starting eleven being teenagers made it a good test for them after a humiliating defeat to Hyde nearly two weeks ago. City took a deserved three nil lead into the half time break with goals from Micah Richards and Karl Bermingham, and a disputed third that could have been an own goal or possibly Micah’s. Five minutes after the break, City got their fourth with a fine strike from Micah. Stalybridge came back with three goals in the final twenty minutes to make it a tense finish.

City started the game playing down the heavily sloped pitch and seemed to adjust to the bounce on the dry surface quite well. As early as the fifth minute, Ishmael Miller chased a long ball and lobbed the ‘keeper but the defender was able to scramble back and clear the ball off the line and behind for a corner. The resulting corner was whipped in by Willo Flood and well finished from a fine header by Micah into the far corner.

City were doing all the pressing and it was no surprise that they doubled their lead on twenty minutes when Miller made a run on the left and his shot was blocked but cannoned into the path of Bermingham, who fired low past the ‘keeper for City’s second goal, and not the third that MCFC.co.uk claim it to be.

City’s third came three minutes later when Miller was fouled on the right edge of the area and Paul Collins sent a well weighted free kick in towards the far post. Micah reacted quickly and rose to meet the ball, but the defender might have beaten Micah to the ball to head past the ‘keeper.

Stalybridge finished the half off well by putting City under more pressure and forcing Micah to clear off our own line after Kasper Schmeichel had fumbled a cross straight to Steve Smith, who fired directly on goal.

City came out well after the break and again asserted their dominance on the game. So it was from a set piece five minutes into the half that the dominance was converted into another goal. The second of successive corners was delivered by Flood to the edge of the area and Micah rifled the ball into the net to give City a four-nil lead.

City then replaced Micah on after sixty minutes for American trialist Brandon Moncrief and Michael Johnson for Flood. This seemed to disrupt City’s shape and invited more pressure from Celtic. It was not long before they pulled a goal back thanks to new signing Chris Price. He was able to turn and shoot on the spin with the ball going in off the bar, giving Kasper no chance of saving it.

Then a decisive moment in the match; the referee adjudged that the ball had hit our captain, Danny Warrender, in the arm in the penalty area. Up stepped Lee Mulvaney to score his first ever goal for the Celtic. This gave Celtic real belief and forced City to defend even deeper.

Within ten minutes, as the game went into the final five minutes, Mulvaney doubled his Celtic goal tally and scored their third of the evening by sending a rasping twenty-five yard drive into the bottom corner of the net.

City, as the score shows, were able to cling on to their slender lead, but once the older, more experienced players were excluded from play, there were obvious signs that some of these players need to work harder on their game if they are to progress.

Celtic: Pettinger, Smith, Barnard, Keeling, Haran (capt.), Wharton, Smith, Price, Ellington, Turvey, Prince.
Subs: Black, Caldecott, Murcott, Sykes, Eastwood, Mulvaney, Cornelly, Jackson, Buxton.

City: Schmeichel, Warrender (capt.), Collins, N D’Laryea, Richards (Moncreif 65), J D’Laryea, Bennett, Flood (Johnson 65), Miller, Bermingham (Murphy 71), Laird (Etuhu 67).
Subs: Matthewson.

Att: 38

MATCH REPORT ‘LIVE’: MCFC 1 EVERTON 1

Saturday saw our second game of the FA Premier League Asia Trophy against Everton, a play-off of the two losers from the previous round.

Once again plenty of Blues milling around and in my biased opinion there were more of us than there were Everton supporters. Unfortunately, unlike the first game when I was surrounded by Blues and had a very humorous night, this time I was sat amongst a mainly Thai crowd – though there was a silver lining in that there were plenty of Thai lovelies all around.

It had been drizzling all day though it held off on the night so the conditions were more welcoming.

As in the previous game, we had the better of the first half but not the second half. Everton started with pretty much a full strength team as we did, barring Sommeil in for Richard Dunne (foot in a cast), and Micah Richards (in for bad boy Joey Barton).

The starting XI: 4-4-2: James; back 4 of Jihai Sun, Distin, Sommeil, Thatcher; midfield of Sinclair, Richards, Flood, Musampa – a very young middle pairing; up front Bermingham and Cole.

Our best moments came when Cole, Sinclair and Musampa linked up with Sinclair looking very busy, and indeed we scored a sweet goal after great work by Sinclair who put over an early cross to Cole who was the only one moving when the ball came across. Nice one Andy!

Second half saw the mass substitutions of Mills for Sun, Bischoff for Sommeil, Jordan for Musampa (yes, he played wide left), Croft for Sinclair, BWP for Cole and later Ireland came on for Bermingham and we reverted to a 4-5-1. Can’t remember seeing Reyna there but I was a way off from City’s bench so he may have been there.

Distin gave a penalty away by jumping with both hands in the air. After Beattie slotted home (James guessed correctly, as he did with all the penalties on the night). There was a drink stop where we were entertained by James and Distin having a heated argument that went on for many minutes; they looked to be close to squaring up to each other and I’m sure that Stuart Pearce in close up on the behind-the-goal screen was seen to mutter “f**k me…”.

Sommeil nearly injured himself badly after losing the ball and going in kamikaze style on Kilbane and cropping himself. In a real game I have no doubt he would have been sent off.

There were some nice moments late in the second half when the young guns of BWP, Croft, Flood, Richards and Ireland joined up with some nice moves – best one was started on the halfway line by Micah Richards who played a series of one twos and was marginally offside on arriving in the box to put his shot the wrong side of the post.

The game inevitably went to penalties. We went first and it was very encouraging to see BWP step us to take the first after missing so badly the other night. Our penalties were all top class and converted by BWP, Mills (blasted), Thatcher (blasted) and Flood. For Everton, Weir’s was saved brilliantly by James down to his right, Ferguson converted, Bent’s weakly struck penalty to the left was easily saved by James.

Plusses from the game: James looked on form, Richards showed over the two games that he can play centre-back or holding rôle in midfield, Flood had a good game in the centre of the park, Sinclair looked fit and busy, Cole looked an improvement on anything we had last season bar Fowler.

Worries from the game: centre backs didn’t work together, Sommeil looks like 4th choice or lower, no creativity in the middle – it all has to come down the flanks, Jordan and Thatcher pairing – what?

OPINION: FORECASTS

David James – England’s No. 1.
Nedum Onuoha – Best attacking and defending option, will only get better. D Mills is cover to swap pace for grit.
Richard Dunne – Richard Dunne is a football genius (TM) Captain.
Sylvain Distin – Avoid the kung fu clearances and dreadful zonal marking. Would like to see him get up the wing more often… hysterical.
Ben Thatcher – Better than Jordan. Jordan alright but needs work. Was alarmingly undone by pace last term.
Joey Barton – Despite being nice enough to sign my lucky Spurs FA Cup ticket at Oasis Saturday night (“no Joey, not the one where you got elbowed, the one where you got sent off precipitating the biggest comeback since Lazarus”… “Oh…”), Barton really is a liability. Despite this, we won’t get as good as him in the Bosvelt rôle (remind me why we sold him?) in the market so keep him until he gets too bad then sell him to Birmingham for sprouts. Sun/Jihai/Sun (delete as applicable) should be, could be some sort of solution but normally plays wider. I know who I’d rather go for a drink with!
Kizito Musampa – Goals from midfield. Hmmm. Cow’s @rse versus banjo training should be complete by now, and the space shuttle garage is empty at the moment so he could use that for target practice.
Lee Croft – Looks like Rocket from Soccer AM wearing eyeliner. He is out of the shadow (small/huge) of SWP, and Flood is simply not big enough yet, so it’s time to deliver on promise.
Antoine Sibierski – Top of the diamond. Can score on his own and should be able to join the attack and go past the man with the ball (Fowler) giving more options.
Robbie Fowler – Pace gone, goalscoring instincts intact and his passing and flicks and surprise balls through need a quick recipient, both intellectually and pace wise (see below). Top last season, will only get better if he continues to play like Sheringham/Benarbia and bring those around him into the game. If only he and Anelka could have settled their differences. Fowler’s brain onto the Elk’s finishing, not bad.
Darius Vassell – Not the best but not the worst and will be playing his socks off every week to get into Sven’s plans.
Cole – If I give him a chance then he will do a McManaman on me and be rubbish so I will hate him from the off then hope that this delivers a dozen or so goals.
BWP – Needs to get the shredded wheat/pies down him and stay injury free and we’ll see.
Sinclair – Make or break. Watching the DVD from 2 seasons ago, he figured more than I remember in good things.

Month           Cumulative      Actual
August          7                7
September       10               3
October         17               7
November        21               4
December        31              10
January         35               4
February        40               5
March           47               7
April           63              16
May             66               3

HA      Team                    WDL     Pts
H       WBA                     W       3
A       Birmingham City         L       0
A       Sunderland              D       1
H       Portsmouth              W       3
A       Manchester United       L       0
H       Bolton Wanderers        W       3
A       Newcastle United        L       0
H       Everton                 L       0
H       West Ham United         W       3
A       Arsenal                 D       1
H       Aston Villa             W       3
A       Fulham                  L       0
H       Blackburn Rovers        W       3
H       Liverpool               D       1
A       Charlton Athletic       W       3
A       WBA                     W       3
H       Birmingham City         D       1
A       Wigan Athletic          W       3
H       Chelsea                 L       0
A       Middlesbrough           L       0
H       Tottenham Hotspur       D       1
H       Manchester United       L       0
A       Bolton Wanderers        W       3
H       Newcastle United        D       1
A       Everton                 D       1
H       Charlton Athletic       W       3
A       Liverpool               L       0
H       Sunderland              W       3
A       Portsmouth              D       1
H       Wigan Athletic          W       3
A       Chelsea                 L       0
H       Middlesbrough           W       3
A       Tottenham Hotspur       W       3
A       West Ham United         W       3
H       Arsenal                 D       1
A       Aston Villa             W       3
H       Fulham                  W       3
A       Blackburn Rovers        W       3
                                       66

OPINION: STRIKE FORCE DELTA

Cole in, Vassell in; I feel it could have been a lot worse had we signed some of the donkeys we have been linked with for much, much more money (Benni McCarthy £6 million etc.). But these deals have taken some time to sort out and I believe we need more reinforcements yet. We seem to forget we have lost some midfielders who played regular parts last season. There is obviously SWP but also Bosvelt, McManamam (ok I’m pushing it), and if justice is done probably Barton.

Let’s face it, we can’t rely on Sinclair and for me the jury is out on Flood who looks a bit lightweight and without the balance of SWP. So far we have only secured the extension to Musampa’s loan. Ok, Lee Croft should see more action next year, which I am looking forward to, but I do believe we need an addition with experience in this area. I will wait now for the inevitable groans of derision heading my way over the Pennines but I think Lee Bowyer could well add that dimension. I live in Leeds and therefore saw as close as anyone that for his faults this lad can be class. His form was just hitting the right note before he chose to, er, hit his team mate (let’s face it Dyer has one of those slap-able faces).

He in my opinion could add the required dimension, and all for around £2 million. What are the alternatives? Phil Neville anyone?!

OPINION: STRIKE FORCE TRIO

Just a quick follow-up to Rick Eagles’ quiz of naming a side with three England strikers in it (MCIVTA 1141): Well we’ve had the obvious: “Marsh, Lee, and Summerbee”, and then the less obvious: “Tueart, Francis and Reeves” and the not so straightforward: “Revie, Broadis and Meadows” and “Austin, Roberts and Johnson”. Of course this is dependant on wide-players being accepted as forwards (like Vassell obviously is).

And we actually once had a squad with 5 England forwards in it when “Barnes, Tueart, Channon, Royle and Kidd” were all playing for City, although the five of them never got the chance to play together during the same game. If you also include Corrigan, Watson, Doyle and Bell to that side then you’ll almost have a complete England line-up.

And all but Kidd were actually capped while playing for City.

OPINION: HOW MANY LIONS?

Is it me, or are City trying to recreate the England World Cup squad of 2002?

David James, Danny Mills, Trevor Sinclair, Robbie Fowler, Darius Vassell, Andy Cole, Steve McManaman and David Seaman have passed through recently. On the plus side, we should be bidding for Joe Cole soon although Emile Heskey is still plodding around out there!

OPINION: SINGING CAPS ON

What’s all this with people mocking Mr Cole for wanting to call himself Andrew? Personally, I much prefer the re-incarnation.

Andy Cole used to play for United, Andrew Cole now plays for City.

Maybe we could make the lad feel more comfortable with his new monicker by singing “Andy Cole was a w****r, was a w****r!” closely followed by “We love you Andrew, we do!”

On second thoughts, let’s not. He might not stick around long enough to listen to the second bit!

In response to Rick Eagles’ appeal for a song to make Darius Vassell feel at home, I propose chanting his name to the tune of “Twenty-nine years and we’re still here!”

It’s a happy, jolly tune and the syllables fit swimmingly so long as you pronounce his first name (Dar-eye-us) properly.

Sorry I couldn’t come up with anything more inspired!

OPINION: PERCEPTIONS

Just thought I’d add my say to the SWP and Barton debates. Starting with SWP, the problem I have with the way the club handled it was that they rejected the £20 million bid and said, “No, no, we’ve got a value for him and Chelsea are going to have to match it.” Considering he still had three years to go on his contract, we didn’t exactly hold out for much more. Lyon have done the opposite, and the rumours of how much Chelsea will have to part with for Essien are slowly rising.

I’m sad that the English league now is dominated by three teams, and that when a club outside of those three gets a good young player coming through, they get bought up. On that regard all clubs are ‘selling clubs’ no matter how they market themselves, and there is no chance that a club could build a team around its own home-grown players.

For that reason I also don’t think Barton should be shown the door. I think there would be a number of clubs willing to pay for him, and I think we would regret selling him. He is no worse than other young players of recent years, and he gives his all for the club. He’s a promising young player who needs to curb his behaviour maybe, but he also has to learn that now people know about him, he is there to be provoked, both on and off the field.

That’s what will be interesting to see: how he reacts.

OPINION: SHREWD TRANSFERS

Looks like Stuart Pearce has started his career as manager in the transfer market with some shrewd signings.

Andrew Cole as a free with 50% pay cut, looks like a very good squad player to poach some goals.

Darius Vassell for £2 million could prove to be a very good buy; after passing his medical at MCFC his ankle injury has healed so now he has to keep fit. Maybe he just needed that change of club to get going again and start scoring goals; his lack of goals in the last 2 seasons did make me have some doubts at first.

If any person can help get Darius back on form it’s Stuart Pearce; he has proved this towards the end of last season when he took over and transformed the players into giving 110% for him and the club.

Let’s welcome them both to our favourite football club, and maybe if Darius can hit form then he can be back in the England World Cup squad. Good luck!

There is a rumour that Stuart Pearce has been giving Robbie Fowler some raw meat, to get that real growl out of Growler right from the kick off to the new season. We now have a trio of strikers that have worn the shirt with three lions.

Come on City!

OPINION: BARTON’S MISDEMEANOR

Fine Barton big time – and this time make it stick. The time for ‘deferred failure’ is over. If he wasn’t a young, overpaid footballing thug on and off the field, in ‘civvies’, he would already have been subject to a couple of ASBOs or tucked up in clink with a manic lifer shirtlifter as company, for several months.

The second thing to do is put him on the transfer list – with a price tag of a derisory £1 million. Nobody would come for him. That should sober up the little yob and his ‘agents’. And if ‘WI – GAN’ snap him up? So what? We’re £1.5 million better off and they’ve got the problem. Just the attractive personality they would need to beef up that attendance.

Why doesn’t SP go (with serious money) for Ashton? Or Johnson? We have no height up front – apart from Sibierski, who usually arrives in the box as late as the Americans in a World War!

Guaranteed, City top of the Premier (at the calendar end of August). Don’t all rush to the bookies and bash the odds! I need new tyres!

OPINION: SWEEP SALE & MORE

I must comment on James Nash’s views in MCIVTA 1140 on the sales of Shaun Wright-Phillips; he was spot on. City are a big club but in the 2nd tier within the Premiership. As fans and supporters, we must look at these sales as being part of the football merry go round, and just be glad that we were able to cash in by having a “cash rich giant” like Chelsea around. Not too long ago, football transfers were at an all time low, so £21 million is a figure we should be well happy with, and good luck to SWP, better players than him have moved on to pastures new… e.g. Rooney.

On another note, I watched the full match City vs. Bolton in Thailand, on TV, and was appalled at the poor football we played in the 2nd half. I thought Mills, Sun Jihai, De Laryea were all rubbish, either they could not keep possession or couldn’t make a simple pass (bring in Benarbia as a football coach). As for the defence, was there one in the last 20 minutes? I thought all the penalties bar BWP were well taken, so it was a shame we didn’t make the final, we could have come back with a trophy and boosted our confidence too.

I would also like to comment on Barton, stupid man with anger problems, who needs therapy of some kind, but still priceless to City, as I feel we are a better team with him in midfield, so please SP keep him!

I know we will end up with Vassell and I hope his worst days are behind him, but I was hoping for either Robbie Keane (always seems to score against us) or Milan Baros, they both make things happen.

I would also urge SP to make a bid for Damien Francis (Norwich); thought he was a brilliant attacking midfielder in the matches against us, always seemed a threat. I am sure a bid of £2 million will be enough, and he will bring size and muscle to our midfield (similar to Foe).

REQUEST: BRISTOL TRANSPORT

Two seats needed from Bristol or nearby up to COMS for the opening game. We all know how much privatisation has improved public transport, so it’s with no surprise that there are no coaches back to Bristol bar a nine hour ride starting at midnight, with a four hour stopover in the jewel of the midlands, Brummagem, nor that the cheapest train fare is a snip at £46.

Happy to share fuel costs.

REQUEST: SUNDERLAND TICKET

Ticket required for Sunderland away. Call Gary on 07798 527774

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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://www.foxsportsworld.com/named/FSW/Index/Soccer, http://www.soccertv.com/, and http://www.livesoccertv.com/.

[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] Where can I find a list of City-related websites?

Try Wookie’s Lair: http://www.wookieslair.com/modules.php?name=Web_Links

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: