Newsletter #1336

Tonight’s main news is that the last incumbent of the revered number 8 shirt has left the building for a rumoured £5.8 million. A convenient £300,000 above his release clause, which might just equate to the loyalty bonus he and his erstwhile agent were claiming.

So, another player down and still no manager in place at CoMS. No news on the takeover either, other than the Thai bidder’s assets being frozen in his home country and supposedly overseas although his advisor views nothing untoward here and is quoted in the Thai media with details of the takeover bid, amount, timescale and fundings. Is there not a takeover code in place?

News round up tonight then on the bid process, managerial search, player departures and ex Blues’ news.

Plenty of opinion on the takeover saga, state of the club and other. But the fixtures are out, so we have something to look forward to 😉

NEWS SUMMARY

Thaksin Times

Frozen Assets: Another week has gone by and still no sign of a buyer for the club. Indeed the prospects of a purchaser taking the reins has diminished with news that bank accounts belonging to Thailand’s billionaire former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, had been frozen. His lawyer said the new move was politically motivated and that the ex-Prime Minister would challenge it. “It is a political decision that is legally baseless,” Noppadol Pattama told Reuters. “The aim is to prevent the ex-PM and his wife from running their own normal lives.” He was confident that the deal for City would still go through. “The negotiations are underway, in line with English law. The result is likely to be good, and the negotiations should not take a long time,” he was quoted as saying. “Of course this is going to affect the Manchester City bid, but it is not off. Some things may have to be restructured.” (Thanks Mark Redgrave). Thaksin’s lawyers hope to prove that his funds were obtained legally, but City’s patience would appear to be running out, however. Despite putting out the following bland statement: “The board and its advisers are in discussion with Dr Shinawatra’s advisers to confim the implications of these developments,” there were rumours that City had given Shinawatra a 48-hour deadline to table a formal bid for the club. This was denied by the club in the M.E.N, although it did suggest that John Wardle wanted to “ensure that their next manager can compete in the transfer market – regardless of whether Thaksin Shinawatra’s takeover goes through.” A transfer kitty of £30 million was suggested by some of the more excitable tabloids. BBC Radio suggested on Wednesday that there was a meeting taking place that day in London between the club and Shinawatra’s representatives to establish if a bid was ever going to be forthcoming – well writing this piece 24 later, all is still quiet on this front.

Juande My Prince Will Come… … but not this week, perhaps. Sevilla coach Juande Ramos became the red hot favourite for the City hotseat – the Daily Mirror claimed that agents acting on behalf of Ramos contacted City officials about the job, which has not been filled almost four weeks after Stuart Pearce was sacked. City are said to have spoken with representatives of Thaksin Shinawatra and passed on news of the Ramos interest. Although he is set for new contract talks with Seville, it is understood he would welcome the chance to prove himself with City, with whom he could earn twice as much. But as the speculation mounted, Ramos’ agent was strictly non-committal when asked about his client’s intentions. “We have had no contact from Manchester City and we have not contacted them either – he is happy at Sevilla,” Alvaro Torres told BBC Five Live. “But it’s impossible to know what will happen tomorrow.” He added: “He likes English football and would like to manage in England one day.”

Dutch Threesome: Next we had a trio of Dutch candidates to consider, according to the press. Co Adriaanse’s name keeps cropping up, and he does have the advantage (in terms of paying compensation) of not being employed at the moment. Adriaanse earned his reputation working at AZ Alkmaar in Holland, before taking on Porto in Portugal, and resigned as manager of FC Metalurh Donetsk in May with four games to play in the Ukrainan Premier League. Another prospective manager, Dutchman Guus Hiddink, has ruled himself out of the post at Eastlands. The former PSV Eindhoven coach is currently the national boss of Russia and says he has no intention of quitting his current rôle at the moment. “I’m very happy working in Russia. We are in transition – working with the infrastructure, modernising the stadiums and the youth systems,” Hiddink told the BBC. “As long as I feel in Russia ambition from their side, if they’re going to invest in the future, then I’m staying.” Next came a wild rumour that Ronald Koeman had been spotted in Manchester – the odds on Koeman being the next boss tumbled after he’d allegedly been seen at the COMS, then at the Lowry Hotel. That speculation soon abated however, and Koeman shrunk back into the pack.

Domestic Bliss: Just in case you thought City might be getting too continental in their ambitions, a couple of bread and butter British names got mentioned for the job this week. The Daily Mail said City had identified former Fulham boss Chris Coleman as a possible candidate. Well that was a new name, but the next one isn’t – Sparky Marky Hughes, ex-Red and currently Blackburn boss, got mentioned again in local circles this week. Quite why Hughes, who’s often seen as Sir Redface’s successor at the Swamp, would consider a move to East Manchester, remains unclear.

What’s the Story? (There’s No Glory): You always know when City are facing a bad time – the national media start sniggering, and we end up with coverage of the Blues in the most unlikely places. BBC Radio 5’s showbiz correspondent Colin Patterson interviewed Noel Gallagher and asked him to share his views On City with the nation. Good old Noel didn’t disappoint, and even made a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that he and Mike Pickering (of M People fame) could mount a hostile bid for the club. Shame on the national newspaper that failed to spot the gag and ran the idea as a genuine story, by the way – do they remove their sense of humour when they start work at the Daily Mail I wonder? Anyway, back to the interview with Noel. “I’m loving it,” the Oasis man said. “This takeover is never going to happen now, because the government has had his bank accounts frozen. It’s pure Man City. The fixture list comes out on Thursday, we haven’t got a manager, we’ve only got half a team and we haven’t sold any season tickets. It’s brilliant. I’m thinking of mounting a hostile takeover – me and Mike Pickering. I reckon we could scrape together about £400,000 in cash. I reckon we would get it for that.” Which manager would you want to see at City? “In the dugout, I would like to have seen Sam Allardyce, but he went to Newcastle. It depends who’s available now. It would be good if they got a foreign coach. But it all depends on the takeover. If there’s no takeover, we’ll get a Mickey Mouse manager like Neil Warnock.” Gallagher defended Joey Barton as well. “He’s a good lad, Joey. He’s a friend of mine. He gets a bad rap. But when you meet him, he’s a really nice lad. It’s good for him that he’s moving to Newcastle. But I’m sad to see him go because he’s our best player. I was sad to lose Sylvain Distin. He was another of our best players. At least we haven’t lost Richard Dunne yet but he’ll be out of the door soon.” One can only shudder at that thought, Mr.G…

Transfer News and Gossip

What Price Loyalty? The answer is three hundred grand. You couldn’t make it up, could you? Joey Barton’s proposed transfer to Newcastle was delayed by his demands for a £300,000 “loyalty payment” from City. But tonight City’s website announced that Barton had finally signed for the Toon for £5.8 million. The England international had agreed in principle to join Newcastle in a five-year deal worth £60,000-a-week last week, having requested permission to speak to Newcastle when they triggered the £5.5 million release clause in his City contract. Barton claimed he was entitled to this sum because he didn’t ask for a transfer, thus he was due his loyalty bonus. The battle of words then began. A ‘City source’ was quoted as saying that such a payment “goes beyond the pale when he has exercised his right to speak to other clubs and is on the cusp of a contract said to be worth £16 million.” His prospective new boss then weighed in. Sam Allardyce had a go at City, saying: “They are out of order. This is a private matter, a confidential issue that should not have been made public. I’m flabbergasted and want the situation resolved. I am just trying as Newcastle manager to secure a player of this kind and quality and the deal has been held up. I cannot understand it because City didn’t pay anything for this player as he came through the youth system and are selling him for over £5 million. It’s not really for me to comment. All I know is that this is a matter for Joey to sort out and I hope it is resolved as it has stopped him putting pen to paper.” City didn’t take kindly to these comments, and next we had Paul Tyrell going on the record and saying “It is disappointing that Sam Allardyce has chosen to make these claims public. At no time have we divulged the details of Joey’s contract.” Tyrrell added: “Sadly this is now in the public domain through no fault of Manchester City.” The Professional Footballers’ Association is now intervening in the wrangle. “I’ve spoken to City’s chief executive Alistair Mackintosh, Joey and his agent and I intend talking to Sam,” said PFA official Mick McGuire. “We’re looking for an amicable conclusion,” he added. So I guess we know who paid Barton the extra £300,000, then eh?

Joe Must Go: Two people who knew Barton while they were at City gave us some interesting background info this week. First Antoine Sibierski told Barton to join Newcastle United. Now with Wigan Athletic, Sibierski revealed to the Evening Chronicle: “It came as no surprise when he contacted me this week and asked me whether I thought going to Newcastle United was the right move for him. I told him ‘Joey, you must sign for Newcastle United’. And that this was too good an opportunity for him to miss. I was only there for a short time, but I found it to be a great club with great supporters. And I told Joey that he could win some things with them in the next few seasons. So this is a good deal for Joey but it is also a good deal for Newcastle as he is a fantastic player. I know that certain things have happened, but I think that when Joey does arrive at Newcastle they will find that he has matured a lot.” Meanwhile, Stuart Pearce said that if he’d still been at the club, Barton would have been shown the door. He told Radio Five Live: “If I was in charge, I’d have done the same on the ground that I don’t think the dressing room would have accepted him anymore.”

Other Bits’n’Bobs: City, Sunderland, Everton and West Ham have all been alerted to the possibility of signing Bolton’s Kevin Nolan. Nolan could be allowed to move to give new manager Sammy Lee some transfer money to make the squad his own. Quite who would give the go ahead to a move by City remains to be seen of course. Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood has joined the race to sign City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel. The 20-year-old is also wanted by Falkirk, where he spent the second half of the 2006-07 campaign on loan. The Dons are in the market for a new shot-stopper after Jamie Langfield was made available for sale. Aberdeen’s director of football Willie Miller said: “We haven’t received offers for Langfield or any of our players. Unless that changes we’ll be going with Derek Soutar, Greg Kelly and Langfield as our ‘keepers next season.” Elsewhere, Leicester City are said to be chasing winger Trevor Sinclair. The former England international is out of contract at City.

Ex-Blues’ News

Shakin’ Sheron: Mike Sheron has been appointed as Bury’s new youth team manager. Sheron, who had been in charge of Bury’s centre of excellence at Gigg Lane, replaces Chris Beech in the rôle. Beech resigned following a successful stint in charge of the Shakers’ youth side, which saw five players given first-team débuts last season. Sheron, 35, started work for Bury after a playing career began which began at City in 1991 and which also included spells at Norwich,Barnsley, Stoke and QPR. (Thanks Matt Thomas)

Flood’s in Scotland: Cardiff midfielder Willo Flood has joined SPL outfit Dundee United on a season-long loan but Bluebirds’ Boss Dave Jones still has high hopes for him. The former City man, 22, played 25 times in the Championship last season and will continue his education north of the border at Tannadice. United boss Craig Levein told the club’s website: “His style of play suits the SPL and will make him a firm favourite with our supporters. I was aware that a number of other clubs were interested in taking him and am pleased that Cardiff City see this move as an opportunity for the player to improve his game. Most of all however, I’m delighted because I see him as an important player for us next season.” Flood left our City for around £200,000 in August 2006.

General News

Hammer Blow: The fixtures for the Premiership season 2007-2008 came out today. Whoop de do. The season no one’s looking forward to starts on Saturday, 11 August, with a visit to West Ham United (or Sheffield United, if Sean Bean has his way with his beloved Blades and gets them reinstated). The first home game of the season takes place on Wednesday, 15 August when newly promoted Derby County visit the COMS. The following weekend, 18 August, and City face the earliest league derby I can remember, with a visit from our neighbours from Trafford. We face the return fixture on Saturday, 23 February. City’s push for a UEFA Cup place (I thought I’d try optimism for a change) finishes with the final three fixtures of the season – Fulham at home, Liverpool away and Newcastle at home. The final fixture will take place on Sunday 11 May, kick-off 3.00pm. All the fixtures except the last day’s game may be subject to change of course, so watch this space for further details.

Nothing Changes: On Tuesday, Stuart Pearce’s team played out a disappointing 0-0 draw, and lost a prime opportunity to win the game by missing a late penalty. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it. This isn’t a late report from some of last season’s City stalemates, but a summary of England’s tame start to the Euro Under-21’s tournament in Holland. Nedum Onuoha played through the full 90 minutes of the draw with the Czech Republic, while Joe Hart warmed the bench. Reading’s Leroy Lita played the Vassell role as penalty misser. SP came up with a novel excuse for the miss – it was a ‘collective miss’. He said “Lita is brimming with confidence, and rightly so. He stood up, he wanted to take the penalty and we collectively missed. We had opportunities before that to seal the game. We expected exactly what we got from them and we didn’t play well enough to win the game, those are the facts.”

OPINION: TO HELL IN A HANDCART

Less than two months to the kick off of the new season. No new manager, no money, key players leaving, no one coming in, season ticket holders disappearing. Things have been bad before but I can’t remember a more hopeless landscape going into a new season.

We don’t need a new owner, we need Houdini!

Obviously James and Cole had a sense of what was happening last season. And now with Distin and Barton gone, Micah Richards almost certainly going too, I fear for the new campaign. Our only hope is to forget about this Thailand geezer and dodgy coin, invest the new TV money in a reputable manager and spend some money on a couple of key forwards. I reckon that even with the loss of Distin we have the talent to pull off six or seven 1-0 wins and a couple of 0-0 draws – but surely we are not going to have teams in the division as bad as Watford and Charlton.

Being on the verge of suicide is part and parcel of being a City supporter.

OPINION: DOES IT REALLY MATTER?

Even though I am frustrated with the lengthy delay in relation to the Club’s takeover, I, unlike some people who have written in MCIVTA 1335, don’t care too much who comes in, as long as we have sufficient funds to enable us to move onwards and upwards in the “so called” best Football league in the world a.k.a. the Premiership. Is Malcolm Hough really serious in wanting our Club to play in the lower leagues because he wants us to use “home grown talent first, and if they aren’t good enough then we go down. When they are good enough, we come back up but at least we can identify with them.” Lay off the wacky baccy please, the Premiership is the only division our great club should be in, I have had enough woes following the club in the old 2nd and 1st Division and it wasn’t great. I don’t think there is a City follower, who has not dreamt of us playing Champions’ League football, amongst all the elite clubs of Europe. We will never have a hope of getting to the promised land purely on home grown talent, what we need is investment and lots of it, that’s the name of the game – look at little Portsmouth – splashing the cash to move on upwards. If you don’t purchase quality, you will always end up in the 3rd tier of the Premiership.

Look at Chelsea, Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona, AC Milan etc., are they investing in home grown talent? No! they are scouring the world for the best players, they don’t stand still if they want to progress, and be the best. Last season was more about ensuring we did not get relegated; I appreciate that we could have done better, but due to financial constraints we could not strengthen our team to everyone’s liking, whilst still relying on several journeyman pros.

As for understanding the history of the Club, let me tell you now, any Investor has one of 2 reasons for buying a Club: a) they just have a passion about the club, or b) it’s an investment (very little sentiment, whether the likes of you or me care whether they understand the Club’s history or even speak english). The past is where it should be: “in the past”, and can be reminisced whenver you want to, but we must think of the present and the future of our Club and only money, lots of it, can make us better. Does anyone really care how Abramovich made his fortune, then turned Chelsea’s fortune around? He might fall out of love with Chelsea and move on, but he bought success, and guess what? People like wallowing in success, even the hard nut old time Chelsea supporters love winning titles and trophies, irrespective of how much they cost. As City supporters, we have been starved of success for a very long time. Many supporters would love us to do it the hard way, build the reserves and the youth team, let them break into the 1st team and then go on to win things – realistic, I don’t think so, not in the Premiership. Perhaps this can be done in the lower leagues.

Look at West Ham, Portsmouth and Newcastle, don’t you think the Chairman/Owner’s money will buy better players and make them a stronger team? Why is Distin at Portsmouth?

People question the ex Thai Prime Minister’s human rights abuse (it was the treatment towards drug users etc.), one only has to see the crime and all the problems caused by drugs in our inner cities, to appreciate what an evil it is, before we can start to pass judgement. He has made his millions and if he wants to risk spending his fortune on City I have no qualms about it. Buying fooball clubs is a very risky business, look what happened to Goldberg at Crystal Palace, lost his fortune on his beloved team. Whoever happens to buy into City I wish them the best; if they can turn us around and make us a better, stronger club, with enough resources, to support the new Manager, then hallelujah.

City are at a crossroads – we either get taken over by someone with a lot of dosh or else we carry on and make the best of what we got, and more than likely go down.

I really feel that our current Board are doing what’s in the best interest of the club, hence the long delay and there just might be more than one option, even though the Thai option looks the most likely winner. In a month’s time, I am sure we will all be concentrating on new signings etc. and our current pessimism will be replaced by “can’t wait for the season to start”.

OPINION: NEVER THOUGHT IT WOULD COME TO THIS

So if the newspapers are to be believed, Wardle, Makin and the rest of the clueless senior management team have just heard the penny drop. The ex Thai PM hasn’t got the money! Well their’s a humungous surprise! And now we are interviewing… wait for it… Chris Coleman!

Whilst I’m sure Chris Coleman is a decent, honest and regular guy, to my knowledge he is relatively inexperienced regarding managing in the Premiership. Has never remotely got close to winning a single trophy and was summarily sacked last season as the relegation battle warmed up and began to get serious. His employer didn’t believe he had the skill, experience, abilities and characteristics to keep them up and help them survive. Well that’s a perfect CV to come and manage our excuse and joke of a football club! But hey, that’s OK – Wardle has stated there is a £20 million kitty to bring in new players. So here we go again. Another rookie manager who has the gravitas and reputation to attract no one of relevance except players out of work looking for a contract, Bosmans looking for a pay day and a raft of overseas players who when you learn we have signed them you have to google them to see who they are!

Does anyone within (and also outside) MCFC genuinely and sincerely believe that Chris Coleman and a £20 million transfer fund will improve anything? The only tangible shred of consolation I can take from this is that we are not (yet) interviewing Graham Souness of God forbid, Peter Reid!

However, as all the loyal City fans know, this situation is not unexpected, it has not come as any form of surprise whatsoever to any of us. Yet again it was highly predictable. We have seen the script written before with endings like this. Why should or did anyone believe that this would end any different from all of the other previous débâcles?

And oh… I’m not even going to mention a £300 grand ‘loyalty clause’ in the contract of one Mr Joseph Barton; the running of our club honestly and truly beggars belief.

OPINION: TIMEWASTERS

Surely, the time has now come to put this apparent time-wasting Thai takeover affair away once and for all? This nonsense has dragged on far too long and the club needs to move forward in all respects. Funding, a manager and new players, in that order.

We’ve missed out on my personal choices of Allardyce and Ranieri – if he’d come, a very good bet would, for me, be Hughes. Besides which, a British manager would be somewhat of a novelty these days – I’m mightily sick of the foreigners saturating our game, on our soil, whether at the playing or managerial level.

What a pathetic little tramp Barton is. It is a ludicrous comment on the game in that he now seeks a “loyalty” bonus payment from the club.

Unfortunately, the British game continues to go to hell.

OPINION: DOWNWARD SPIRAL I

Why am I not surprised that this close season is turning into such a complete f-up!? Because this is merely the extension of a trend that this club has been going down over the last 4-5 years, and in fact most of the last 30 years that I have been a supporter. The only period that I felt confident this club was going in the right direction was under the chairmanship of David Bernstein when the club had been standing on the edge of the abyss in Division 2 (as it then was). He introduced some apparent stability and brought a lot of common sense to the way the club conducted itself. Since he lost the battle with Keegan and the rest of the Board, City have entered yet another period of inglorious decline, of which this spring / summer’s events are the culmination. My real concern is that this may not be the low-point, it actually feels worse now than relegation to Division 2!

I don’t know whether I want Shinawatra’s dodgy millions, what I want is some stability in this Club and I am bloody sure Shinawatra won’t bring that. Why don’t the board just get on with life, accept that the club are guaranteed £30 million from Sky and get on with rebuilding the club (yet again)?

This club seems to be permanently run by people who attract those with c**p money (remember the First Advice sponsorship); why do they not conduct adequate due diligence in the first place?

I didn’t attend a single home game last season and the way things are going I probably never will again. I want the club back that I enjoyed supporting until 2-3 years ago, it has been systematically depleted and allowed to wither under Wardle and Macintosh. I don’t know in whose interest the club is being run, because it certainly isn’t the supporters. A club without fans doesn’t sound great to me.

OPINION: DOWNWARD SPIRAL II

Walk with the Devil and you’re going to get burnt.

It’s about time the board woke up, give this so-called investor the boot and get on with playing football.

We have no manager, assistant manager, two of our better players have gone, contracts frozen. Good grief, how do some of the board run their own companies? It makes me wonder who’s got City at heart? Certainly not the ‘frozen funds’ Thai. What did Ray Ranson do to tick the board off so much? At least he was a footballer, knows what football is, knows what Manchester City is? Or should that be was?

It’s about time the board came out of their ivory towers and looked at the damage they are causing to this great club. I’m not even a Pom but I grew up supporting City when all my mates jumped on the United bandwagon. Forty years later, it makes you want to jump ship.

Nah, only kidding! Stay Blue.

OPINION: DOWNWARD SPIRAL III

Well we will see now about the mythical interested Americans – bet they are just that – common practise to keep main bidder (shinadrainpipe) on their toes.

Why does everything go t*ts up at City? Is cups for cock ups going to be updated? Can we not entice Slobodan Milosevic or Emperor Bokassa to put some shekels in?

It was Sven Uren in fact Erikson / Ramos and now it’s Paul Simpson / Graeme Souness; I can feel the surge to increase those season ticket holders as we speak.

I note Pearce is now saying the U21s is full time – the Board were right!

OPINION: BRING BACK STABILITY

If Danny Speller (MCIVTA 1335) starts a David Bernstein back at City petition, I for one would sign it. Giving him the big E was one of the many c*%k ups made by the club. I really fear for next season. I’m so glad I gave up my season ticket/card when I read about what is happening at City along with the thug Barton telling us we need to pay him to go! Football is no longer a game that I understand.

OPINION: THE ONLY WAY IS UP?

After weeks of speculations and delays in announcements from MCFC about any takeover, the truth has come out. It appears that Thaksin Shinawatra’s lawyers were playing for time, in the hope that the bank in Thailand would take the freeze off the Thai’s assets.

The Thai ex-Prime minister even made remarks to try to win people over in Thailand that his takeover of MCFC would help the children of Thailand (typical politician) blah, blah, blah!

The allegations by the Thai government are very serious in the dealings made by Thaksin and his family members. In one report from a Thai newspaper I read, it said that if found guilty Thaksin could face up to 15 years in jail. Again, as I said before, these are all allegations and no one has been found guilty of anything.

We must also remember that the government in power in Thailand are the opposition to Thaksin’s party, which was Thai Rak Thai party (Thais Love Thais). Thaksin and the Thai Rak Thai party has been banned from politics for five years because of election fraud.

I can understand Martin Hunt and Malcolm Hough saying that they don’t really care about being in the top four if MCFC has to join the clubs being controlled by people outside football etc. I respect their opinions but I do want to be challenging the top four clubs, but also by the club being owned by the right people.

The Premiership is a business but we all think of it only as a sport; that’s what it used to be. Everyone should expect some business people owning some clubs; let’s hope that we will have someone in the future who loves football. At least John Wardle doesn’t just love football, he loves City!

John Wardle wants the best for MCFC, but he has his limits and can only take the club so far, unless we get some luck with a new manager. God only knows we deserve some luck.

I will be the first to admit that I, like many other City supporters, wanted a takeover so the club could move forward to try being a top club again, and to win trophies again. But from Thaksin’s attempts to take over MCFC I think that everyone has learned something (that is if everyone wants to honest with themselves).

Now I think that John Wardle has got to be strong and sort out his boardroom and take control of things. Some changes have got to be made in his board room; he needs a stronger team around him.

Bring in a decent team manager and give the manager the backing he needs to bring in the right players.

The club can get strong again, and the value of MCFC will go up and be more attractive to prospective buyers in the future, and hopefully the right buyers.

We must never give up the thought of being a top four team, even if right now that prospect looks so far away.

In the meantime all I can do is say “Come on you Blues!”

OPINION: VESTED INTEREST?

When you’re desperate for the money then you will try to deal with anyone and anything. Running a football club is not for those with a few million like our current leaders, you need a lot of millions. The Chairman is holding out for the best deal for him and not the club. Don’t ever be fooled by a businessman: he is in it purely for the money.

What a joke. If you go to buy most things these days then you need some sort of proof that the money is available; did nobody think to check?

We could be playing Morecambe very shortly.

OPINION: YCMIU

John O’Connor reckoned Psycho was unjustifiably sacked and we were only one striker off challenging those above us; is he having a Giraffe or what! I don’t know whether John goes to the match but the dross we watched last season was as bad as I can remember, and that includes Ball and Clark, and that’s saying something. The defensive tactics meant we were watching a team where the manager was happy if we did not concede; this of course meant we did not create anything either. I cannot recall enjoying a match, and certainly after the first few home games, looking forward to the game either.

Why did I bother? You might ask, because I am a beggar for punishment, and just hoped that things would improve, which they never did. Pearce had this habit of singing the praises of the forwards, if one of them did something mad like scoring, and then promptly dropping them the next match. The main problem, which Psycho failed to understand, was that it did not matter who we had up front, for a striker to score you have to create chances, especially from wide positions, which is where our forwards seemed to spend most of their time. So Psycho deserved the sack, and if you want proof, he’s playing one up front with the under 21’s, so next season would have been more of the same, but this time with definite relegation.

So as far as being on striker short, in my opinion we were two wide men short. I believe that if we had given the forwards, as bad as most of them are, decent crosses, we would have scored more goals and this would have seen us move up to about half way. I also believe that a decent manager, with the same players, would have done better last season and we might have seen the odd entertaining game.

As for the takeover, I have never understood this prostituting the club around the world; I mean the bottom club get nearly £29 million this season coming. I know many have complained about the way football, and in particular “The Premiership” is going, it seems no matter how much money comes into the game the clubs, managers and players want more. I know others have discussed that City have a substantial shortfall from last season, but surely we could afford to give any new manager say £25 million of the at least £29 million we will get this season, and then judge how we are doing for the January transfer window.

So come on John, get a decent manager sorted and give him substantial funds, which are being rumoured anyway, and get us all happy for our hols, so we can come back sunned and ready for entertaining football from our beloved Blues.

Well here’s hoping.

OPINION: WHAT LIES AHEAD

Let’s enter the Eurovision Song Contest; at least null points doesn’t get you relegated.

Oh, while we’re rudderless let’s flog all our promising Academy players, reserves and makers of pies.

Gizza go, mista. I can do that.

CTID. Be careful what you wish for.

OPINION: MOVING ON

I was a bit surprised at the comments of John O Connor in the last issue (MCIVTA 1335). I find it hard to believe that John thinks that all that we needed was one striker and all our problems would be solved. John blames the fans and the board for getting rid of Stuart Pearce. The truth is that the last two seasons under Stuart have seen City become one of the ugliest teams in English football. I have been supporting the Blues since 1970 and I became totally disillusioned as a fan, and I know from talking to, and reading the comments of other fans that they felt the same way. I wanted Stuart Pearce to become manager and to be a success, and so did many other City fans but it didn’t work out, and I am sorry for that, but we have to move on now. I hope now that John Wardle and the board can find us a new manager worthy of managing one of the biggest and best clubs in Europe, and I think we can forget about Frank Shinawatra, it looks like he is going to be restricted financially for the foreseeable future.

OPINION: SHOW ME THE MONEY I

So Joey ‘It’s not about money, it’s about medals’ Barton, we finally see your true colours.

Let’s not forget it was Joey and his agent who wanted the £5.5 million release clause in your contract, and the minute £5.5 million was bid the club was duty bound to advise Joey that a bid had been made.

Greedy Joey had the choice to either turn down the chance to talk or go and talk, so he asked for the transfer the minute he chose to go and talk and now he has the nerve to ask for a loyalty bonus from the club before completing his move.

Hang on a minute there Joey – Loyalty, what about the loyalty the club showed you when you dragged our club’s name through the mud with the Jamie Tandy and Thailand incidents. Joey was lucky he still had a career. If anyone deserves a loyalty payment it’s the club – they stood by him when many would have washed their hands of him and sacked him.

So come on Messrs Wardle and MacIntosh, stand firm on this one and don’t let that greedy little so and so get Jack from our club.

OPINION: SHOW ME THE MONEY II

Good riddance to you Barton, you showed your true colours by attempting to squeeze some money out of the club before you left. I for one am glad to see you gone, and when compared to most of the good midfielders in the Premiership you were way down the list in terms of ability.

OPINION: HOW OLD?

I’ve just watched the under 21 game against Italy and wondered if anyone can tell me why a number of the players are over 21. I thought it was a mistake first of all but each player that was captioned seemed to be 21 or over.

Two players that really took the eye for England were Leighton Baines and Ashley Young. I watched Lita and Nugent closely and although they both scored I can’t see either of them becoming top class strikers. Rossi came on for Italy in the second half and played behind the front man for them and looks a decent player but I can’t see him being good enough for United’s team.

One thing that was of note was that at half time Italy made a couple of substitutions and changed their shape; they then took control of the game but England didn’t change at all and were overrun in midfield. Some of the England players looked dead on their feet but still no changes for Stuart until the last 10 minutes when he brought Kieran Richardson on to play centre midfield(?).

Onouha played as the left hand sided centre back and did ok.

OPINION: HEARTFUL APOLOGIES

Apologies to Hibs fans – I meant to write Hearts were made a laughing stock by their Lithuanian owner, Hibs, of course have John Collins…

Meanwhile, the rôle model for taking over a club and disastrously filling it with foreigners was none other than Nick Anelka’s brother at Raith Rovers.

MCIVTA FAQ [v0607.01]

[1] 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

[2] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings bu email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

[3] 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.

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

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

[5] What supporters’ clubs are there?

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mcfcosc.com/); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.reddishblues.com/CSAWebsite/CSA.htm) and “The International Supporters’ Club”.

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

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. The Fans’ Committee has been relaunched as “Points of Blue”. It has appeared on the club website as a minor entry under “Fans Zone”.

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

The Radio Manchester (née GMR) pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/sport/manchester_city/index.shtml.

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found at http://mcfc.videoloungetv.com/do/preLogin?clubSiteCode=MCFC&CMP=AFC-003.

[8] 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://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer, 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 Plus Markets Group web site http://www.plusmarketsgroup.com/ 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] I hear there is a TV programme specifically about City?

InsideMCFC is broadcasted by ChannelM. It is available on the SkyDigital (ch.203) and NTL (ch.26) platforms as well as being transmittedtraditionally within the Manchester area (ch.39). In addition, theprogramme is available to watch via the web. More details and schedule:http://www.channelm.co.uk/features/city.html

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: