Newsletter #1369

Heidi is having a well deserved break, so this week’s editions will come from me and next week’s will be sent out by Don.

Another win for us at home yesterday against Middlesbrough, and two more goals from the maestro, Elano. It is a joy to watch them play this season after recent years.

A very short edition this Monday. A request for New York viewing of the Chelsea game on the 27th and Alex’s September review.

Please keep your articles coming to the usual address.

SEPTEMBER MONTHLY ROUND-UP

I’ll try to avoid the Blackburn result as much as I can but yes as long ago as it seems, September did start with a disappointing loss against Hughes’ infamously ‘difficult’ side. But from there, City regained that wonderful home form that is making us real contenders for a European spot this year. 1-0 against Villa, thanks to brilliant midfield play, Michael Johnson and the Mancunian version of Ronaldinho. Yes, I am aware that Elano may come from the sunny skies of Sao Paulo but I think that if we’re going to spend eight million pounds on a player we can claim he’s as Blue as the rest of us.

Optimism surrounded the Fulham game and it isn’t often that three goals away from home won’t provide three points (unless you’re Reading travelling to Fratton Park).

Three-all seemed to be a fair result and to see the ever creative Martin Petrov finally open his account with a brace was more than satisfying. Fulham kept fighting and in all fairness a share of the points seemed a just result. Fans left Craven Cottage contemplating the points we would take from the next three games, which were all to be played at COMS.

The first of these three was Newcastle United, and my, oh my, did we play. I have to say I’m only seventeen but the crispness of the passing and the movement all over the pitch from defence to attack was outstanding and the best I’ve ever seen in my few years. Obviously I’m not old enough to remember the glory days of City but never have I seen the Blues play as a unit in such a brilliant football fashion. Mpenza carried on his good run of form and Petrov scored again. Oh yes, there was also that goal from Elano. Enough said. To top it all, for the first time in two years the Citizens came from a goal down to win a game. That’s right – two years. Sven the saviour seems to be coming to mind.

Georgios ‘feed the Greek and he will score’ Samaras popped up in the dying seconds of the Norwich game to put us through to the Carling Cup fourth round and Blue fans will be reasonably pleased to be travelling down to Bolton for a Halloween clash that could see us through to the quarter finals.

One complaint I have to express – what is going on with these Carling Cup attendances? 21,000 was the official attendance for the game that most people are claiming is our best chance of a trophy. If we’re hitting an average of 43,000 for the league then why the cup sees a crowd of less than half is ridiculous in my eyes. We are quite happy to moan when we’re not winning but, in a year that it is all going right and we have a genuine chance of winning the Carling Cup, our crowd size is embarrassing. If you’re under 16 then a ticket is only £5, and now for students the price is £5 if you can produce your student card. Let’s bump these crowds up and produce a united front. Even Leeds of all teams are packing out every week so if that isn’t incentive enough to turn up then the jibes from Trafford Dock red socks fans should be.

September’s star performer: Elano. A touch of Brazilian class has never hurt any team but Elano is the missing link. He’s getting the best out of Michael Johnson and looks fantastic every time he touches the ball. Seems to have played some part in every goal this month and that bullet against the Toon couldn’t have been any better. Didi Hamann also deserves a mention.

September’s best moment: Easy. Elano’s goal.

KING ELANO

Sven bought Elano for £8 million; he has got to be the best bargain ever for a Premier League player.

Think of it this way: £5.3 million for Joey Barton, then plus £2.7 million for Elano – what a bargain for City.

Elano is ten times better a player than Joey Barton. Joey, who always thought the name on the back of his shirt was more important than the name on the front of his shirt, Manchester City FC.

Another brilliant performance from Elano versus Middlesbrough, with two great goals, one from another brilliant free kick, great skills and exciting to watch.

The team played together as a team, passing the ball around with confidence, and everyone in the team deserves praise for their efforts and skills.

Sven is talking about bringing in more players in January with Tord Grip and his other scouts watching many players.

I don’t think that Sven will be looking at who needs replacing in this present team, but more as to strengthen the squad.

I don’t like the rotation of players, we only have to look at Liverpool this season and see what it does to a team.

My feelings are that Sven is not the kind of manager that would rotate players in his team, but more to use players for tactical reasons against different teams, and in certain situations.

It will not surprise me if City sign Peter Crouch from Liverpool, who now doesn’t even find himself on the bench. Crouch would give the team the option of height in some games as a tactical move.

Sven knows Crouch from his days as England manager, so is no stranger to knowing his talents.

I’m disappointed to hear that there is a hold up in Micah signing a new contract because he wants a get out clause; sounds so much like a Mr Joey “Swine” Barton kind of thing. I like Micah and I sure hope he changes his mind for he is a big part of the new revolution at MCFC. Come on Micah, the future is Blue and at City. If there is a clause, make it £50 million.

Come on you Blues!

NEW YORK CITY VIEWING REQUEST

I am going to be up in New York City during the weekend of the 26th of October at a friend’s stag do. I believe that there is a City Supporters’ Club up there and I was hoping that somebody could let me know where they will be watching the City vs. Chelsea game on the 27th.

I think I met up with a number of the lads up there some years ago by accident. It was just after an England game in midweek and I was supposed to be meeting some other friends in Nevada Smiths, a well known Rag bar at the time. I sat there and waited for them when I was confronted by someone who asked “are you a City fan”. “Yes” I replied waiting for the usual tripe but the response was “so are we, come and have a beer”. As the evening panned out we had a few drinks, got thrown out for singing “who the f#ck are man un@#ed” and then went on a bit of a pub crawl, I think – it was bit blurry at the time.

A reunion would be great!

RESULTS

7 October 2007

Arsenal               3 - 2  Sunderland            60,098
Blackburn Rovers      2 - 1  Birmingham City       19,316
Bolton Wanderers      0 - 1  Chelsea               20,059
Fulham                0 - 2  Portsmouth            20,774
Liverpool             2 - 2  Tottenham Hotspur     43,986
Manchester City       3 - 1  Middlesbrough         40,438
Newcastle United      3 - 2  Everton               50,152
Reading               1 - 0  Derby County          23,091

6 October 2007

Aston Villa           1 - 0  West Ham United       40,842
Manchester United     4 - 0  Wigan Athletic        75,300

League table to 07 October 2007 inclusive

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts
 1 Arsenal          8  5  0  0 14  4  2  1  0  5  2  7  1  0  19   6  13  22
 2 Manchester Utd   9  4  1  0  8  0  2  1  1  3  2  6  2  1  11   2   9  20
 3 Manchester City  9  5  0  0  9  2  1  1  2  5  5  6  1  2  14   7   7  19
 4 Liverpool        8  1  3  0  9  3  3  1  0  5  1  4  4  0  14   4  10  16
 5 Portsmouth       9  2  2  0 11  6  2  1  2  6  6  4  3  2  17  12   5  15
 6 Blackburn R.     8  2  1  1  4  3  2  2  0  5  3  4  3  1   9   6   3  15
 7 Chelsea          9  2  2  0  4  2  2  1  2  4  6  4  3  2   8   8   0  15
 8 Aston Villa      8  4  0  1  8  3  0  2  1  4  5  4  2  2  12   8   4  14
 9 Newcastle Utd    8  3  1  0  7  3  1  1  2  6  7  4  2  2  13  10   3  14
10 Everton          9  2  1  1  5  3  2  0  3  7  8  4  1  4  12  11   1  13
11 West Ham United  8  1  1  2  4  4  2  0  2  5  4  3  1  4   9   8   1  10
12 Reading          9  3  0  2  5  6  0  1  3  5 12  3  1  5  10  18  -8  10
13 Birmingham City  9  1  1  2  3  4  1  1  3  5  8  2  2  5   8  12  -4   8
14 Wigan Athletic   9  2  1  1  5  2  0  1  4  3 10  2  2  5   8  12  -4   8
15 Middlesbrough    9  1  2  1  7  6  1  0  4  3 10  2  2  5  10  16  -6   8
16 Sunderland       9  2  0  2  4  5  0  2  3  6 11  2  2  5  10  16  -6   8
17 Tottenham H.     9  1  1  2 10 10  0  3  2  6  8  1  4  4  16  18  -2   7
18 Fulham           9  1  2  2  9 11  0  2  2  3  5  1  4  4  12  16  -4   7
19 Bolton Wndrs     9  1  1  3  6  7  0  1  3  3  7  1  2  6   9  14  -5   5
20 Derby County     9  1  2  1  5  5  0  0  5  0 17  1  2  6   5  22 -17   5

MCIVTA FAQ [v0708.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Madeleine Hawkins)     : 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.

Madeleine Hawkins, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: