Newsletter #1349

Another week dawns, and another new signing rumoured in the form of Brazilian Elano.

Unfortunately the 100% pre-season record went on Saturday as we lost 2-0 to Charleroi; the final two friendlies this week see Shrewsbury on Wednesday and Valencia on Saturday.

Tonight we have opinion on the new kits, signings, a Why Blue from Japan and the usual requests.

Don has handed the news over to Sarah for this week, so keep those snippets coming to the regular news(at)mcivta.city-fan.org address.

OPINION: WHITE AND BLUE IS THE NEW BLACK

At the start of the summer, I wrote a missive concerning the drab and uninspiring new MCFC home strip (a.k.a. the ‘Coventry City’ strip), the new away strip being so garish and tasteless that it remains beyond comment. I asked at the time whether it really was so difficult to come up with an inspiring design for a City kit given the fair selection of colours available: sky blue, white, maroon (not purple you idiots), and finally red and black. Over the years, some clever combinations of these have been put forward, but the bottom line has always remained that there are only a few designs which will pass for ‘iconic’. I think we all know which these are.

I was delighted last week when finally and at long last, the club decide to do the right thing and come up with a decent design for an MCFC football strip, witness the new 3rd edition ‘white and sky blue summer special’ strip released only last week. Now I really like this design as it stands out as something different and hopefully it is a head turner: “… that’s the new Man City strip… cool”. Although no doubt of course and thanks to the modern corporate beast that football has now become, there will be forty clubs across Europe who are ready to launch a similar strip.

Working away from home, I attempted to the order the strip last week when I got back and was astonished to find that it has already sold out! Can someone please explain what kind of merchandising exercise this is and how the club and supporters benefit from it? Who decided that the strip was to be limited in number and why? And what number would that total be, and how was it achieved and what is a fair expectation as to how soon the kit would sell out? Why is it that as a supporter who has kept the faith and renewed my season ticket amidst all the doom and gloom surrounding the club I’m not allowed to choose to buy this kit?

A good design is a good design, and we’ve been long overdue at this club, so I’m mad enough to be pretty steaming about this at the moment.

On a more sinister level I think I’m now detecting a trend. In recent years some of the best design of City kits have been limited edition: the classic Red and Black stripe Shaun Goater Eidos special; the classic 1970’s red and black diagonal stripe re-issue Nicolas Anelka special (a.k.a. the 20 Embassy shirt!) and now finally the new white and sky blue summer special 2007 as worn by (insert name of latest MCFC icon/hero here). Why the club have set an upper limit on the number of fans who to get to wear them I still don’t exactly know. However, maybe the club actually do know what is a good, iconic strip design, and therefore in return they know what is a poor design, and it’s these latter kits they choose to sell on the mass market. Why? Because after a year these rubbish strips look dated and people are happy to put them in the bin as quickly as possible and buy yet another new design (mugs that we are). It follows then that they wouldn’t want to establish a decent, long lasting brand or style that everyone will insist on wearing regardless of what other hideous concoctions they come up with in the meantime (witness the situation with Newcastle United FC’s irreplaceable black and white stripes).

This whole situation is a pity because since the move from Maine Road, our club as a whole has been very fragmented and lacking in identity overall and a decent design of football shirt that could have become a classic brand and identify for all of us to wear should have been an imperative for the club to come up with.

OPINION: KEEP ‘EM COMING

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 12:15 on 30th July 2007.

While other web sites speculate, Wikipedia is most definite -, should I ignore teamtalk, football365, and the BBC?

On 30th July 2007 Elano officially signed a 5 year contract with Manchester City Football Club, in a deal worth £7.4 million. He will wear shirt number 16.

OPINION: DON’T FORGET THE YOUNG GUNS, SVEN

I am concerned that Sven has set about undermining our Academy.

The players he is currently buying seem to be “shoe ins” for the likes of Ireland and Johnson. He seems to be looking for a quick fix to satisfy the fans and the owner. How many of our youngsters will disappear in the pursuit of a UEFA Cup place in his first year?

OPINION: FRANK

Now that Frank has got full control of the club, I hope he is going to set about making some changes amongst those who have been running our club and alienating our fans. From the statements and his past performances, he doesn’t appear to suffer fools gladly so let’s hope he quickly gets the measure of one or two (we all know who they are). I’ll gladly help them clear their desks!

I see that BBC Five Live have a special feature tomorrow evening (Tuesday) on Frank and the “Fit and Proper Person” for a football club angle, that should be an interesting programme to get a feel for how serious the Premier League are, how serious Frank is about owning City and it not just being his latest PR stunt, and just what the current Thai regime are playing at.

Meanwhile, he is inviting us all to a free party in Albert Square on Saturday night after the Valencia friendly – a Thai “entertainer” (I hope that is above board) and food, nice one, to show this is Our City angle. More than Mr Wardle ever did! He’s playing the PR for all it’s worth, but don’t forget you’re now involved in Manchester, Frank, and you should have a go at our chips’n’gravy and a pint of Holts’ finest.

WHY BLUE

Very mixed feeling from a far eastern Japanese fan of Man City.

I have been a City fan since 1987 while I was a student of University of Manchester. No Premier League at that time. Instead, Barclays League Division 2 to which Man City belonged.

My motive to watch a City match was simple. I was living in Whalley Range and Maine Road was walking distance. One day, a Manchester-born mate at Uni asked me if I was interested in football. Those days, no professional football league existed in Japan and I had never imagined that the Japanese League (Gary Lineker played two years with Nagoya Grampus but he spent most of his time rehabilitating his old wounds) would be established within my lifetime. So, I was fascinated with English style football in 1987-89 at Maine Road.

So to speak, those were the days of one of the worst periods of English football. Disaster at Heysel and Thatcher denounced English football fans as Shame of a Nation. I felt that everybody loved to follow matches, but generally speaking, there was a common feeling that any university intellectuals shouldn’t speak out about football in general. The Hillsborough disaster only made things worse in 1989. As Japanese, I felt why those hostilities exist and step up to the physical violence and occasional fatal incidents.

My last attendance at Maine Road was a historical 5-1 win over United, the shame of Manchester. I was standing on the Kippax and well remember a pitch invasion and a restart of the match.

Ever since, I have occasionally visited Manchester and enjoyed a match at the City of Manchester Stadium. But miserably, no win I have witnessed so far. Draws with Leeds and Liverpool in 2003 and lost against Chelsea in 2005.

Hopefully I will be back this season and celebrate my first experience of a win at the stadium.

REQUEST: BLUES VIEWING IN JAMAICA (OR OTHER)

Does anybody know where I might get to see the derby match in Jamaica? It doesn’t seem to be on Fox.

Otherwise is there a group getting together in Miami or somewhere else I can get to for the weekend, Barbados; Turks; Cayman?

MCIVTA FAQ [v0708.01]

[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 Points of Blue (formerly the Fans’ Committee)?

The committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. Points of Blue appears 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] 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/.

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: