Newsletter #1371

It’s been a weekend of international fixtures, so we haven’t had to suffer the pressure of City trying to maintain their third place in the League – on the plus side though, the domestic break means the Blues have maintained their lofty position for another week! Wearing my Sky Blue spectacles for a mo, I can see that Micah Richards played a nice 1-2 with SWP, allowing our former pocket rocket to score the opening goal in England’s 3-0 win over Estonia (that’s good), while in Ireland Richard Dunne picked up a yellow card in the draw with Germany, so he’ll miss Wednesday’s fixture against Cyprus (good for club, not so good for country). Most worryingly from the Saturday games came word that Martin Petrov picked up an ankle knock in a practice match, and won’t be playing for Bulgaria midweek (possibly bad for club and country).

Fancy winning a signed copy of “Feed the Goat” by Shaun Goater? Tonight Svenn has the answers to the first part of his tricky quiz. There’s also the second part of the Goat Quiz, so why not have a go? Details of how to enter are given below, all entries should be sent to Mr. Hanssen.

Do keep your emails coming in to the usual address – this newsletter’s only as good as the contributions you put forward.

All the best, see you on Thursday,

THE MCIVTA COMPETITION – ANSWERS TO PART I

Well the competition is underway and quite a few stumbled on the opening questions, in fact only one managed to get all three answers correct. As always it’s important to read “the text” well before answering and to those who stated that Shaun Goater has played for ManU, well he was enrolled but never actually played for them. Those who have pointed this out have been accepted as correct, but you had to pick the other clubs he’s played for as well…

Here is a round-up with a list of the participants and results so far:

Q1: Which former City player got his name on T-shirts claiming that “his grandad bombed Old Trafford”?
A1: Uwe Rösler

Q2: Which English clubs have Shaun Goater played for?
A2: The correct answer is: Rotherham, Notts County, Bristol City, Manchester City, Reading, Coventry City, Southend United. Goater did not play any games for Manchester United although he was in their books as a youngster. A few have commented on this and that is accepted.

Q3: Who was the 5th Captain to lift a trophy for City at Wembley Stadium?
A3: A little more tricky this one. Since our first cup win in 1904 was actually played at the Crystal Palace, it meant that Andy Morrison was the fifth City captain to raise a trophy in triumph at Wembley when City won the 2nd Division play-off final against Gillingham in 1999.

Current standing before the final three:

1. Jeremy Poynton (3p)
2. Graham Aldred, Ged Wilson, David Ford, Guy Percival, Ernie Barrow, Kevin Hogan (2p)
8. Garry Higgins, Brendan Davis, Danny Mudd (1p)

To enter the competition just go to the web-page and register your answers: http://www.uit.no/mancity/quiz/

EXCLUSIVE MCIVTA COMPETITION – WIN SIGNED SHAUN GOATER BOOK – PART II

MCIVTA are pleased to bring you the second part of the October 2007 MCIVTA Supporters’ Quiz. The quiz will run through MCIVTA and our website http://www.uit.no/mancity/ over the next week.

The prize for the lucky winner is a signed copy of Shaun Goater’s biography “Feed the Goat”. Goater was a true City legend, who made the most out of his career after moving to a struggling City side in 1998. City were doomed to play in the third tier of English football but Goater soon became a crowd favourite and his scoring abilities saw him net 102 times in 209 games for the Blues, including 28 league goals during the 2001-02 promotion season.

To win the book you will have to answer 6 questions; three were presented in last week’s issue of MCIVTA (with deadline Thursday 4 October) and three are presented here with (extended) deadline Thursday 18 October. The participant with the most correct answers wins the competition. If more than one participant has all the answers right (or there is a tie for the winning position) a draw will be made by the jury to decide who the winner is.

To submit your answers and view the competition rules, please go to the MCFC Supporters’ Homepage at: http://www.uit.no/mancity/ and follow the instructions to enter the competition. Answers must be submitted by Thursday 11 October 2007, 12:00 BST.

QUESTION 4:
Which (if any) players did Steve Coppell sign during his few days in charge as City manager?

QUESTION 5:
Which former City striker scored a hat trick in a youth game for England against Holland, but never played for his country again despite experiencing great success at club level?

QUESTION 6:
Which former City favourite was first rejected by Arsenal where he received a letter stating: “hope you find a club whose standards are not as high as the Arsenal”?

To enter the competition just go to the web-page and register your answers: http://www.uit.no/mancity/quiz/

OPINION: TRANSFERS

Look at the words Svennis used when asked about future transfers. He says “I haven’t seen any papers so I don’t know what names are out there but I should be very surprised if some of the names that Tord, the coaches and I are discussing are in there – I don’t think so.”

So forget the ‘Currant bun’, ‘News of the screws’ and the ‘dirty mirror’.

It is all paper talk and tomorrow’s chip wrappings.

My personal opinion is that we will ‘beef’ up the midfield as we seem to have suitable numbers and quality in defence and attack but not in midfield. Should we suffer the loss of one of our 3 central midfielders I don’t think we have the replacements currently to keep the momentum going. Now that we have made this terrific start to the season I feel the target and aims of the management may have raised. We have points in the bag and we are in the position that all the ‘chasing clubs’ set their sights on. I am sure Svennis and his team will work very hard to maintain our position and build an even stronger squad to deal with the inevitable injuries and suspensions that we are certain to endure at some stage during the season.

I feel we may also bring in a new goalkeeper during the ‘window’. Isaakson has been unlucky with injuries since joining City because as far as I am aware his injury record before joining us was fine. However, he does seem to be ‘jinxed’ and even now he is fit, he just doesn’t seem to be in our plans. As a fellow Swede I am sure Svennis knows a great deal about Isaakson, so the fact he is not immediately back in the 1st team squad may be a sign his days are numbered.

I don’t think we will bring in a new striker as we have two players new to the club who haven’t had an opportunity to show their worth, Bianchi and Bojinov. I can’t imagine us bringing in a new forward before they have had a chance to prove themselves? It wouldn’t make sense as we have spent a lot of money on these two players. I suppose if Elano was injured we could change the formation, but otherwise why would you change?

Trust in Svennis and enjoy the ride! It’s a different ride this time isn’t it? A lot smoother and more comfortable than the usual City ride. As a footnote, today is the 40th anniversary of my first ever City match. It was a 1-1 draw at home to Blackpool in the League Cup. 11/10/1967, just a few days before Frannie Lee joined us. We went on to win the League that season and the next 8 years of watching City was so exciting as we were arguably the best team in England for several of those seasons and almost definetly played the best attacking, stylish football. As I said to some friends earlier today, “I hope I enjoy the next few years as much as enjoyed the first few years”.

P.S. Songs for Elano
Eelano, Eelano! Sung in the same way as Eetalia, Eetalia (Italy in case you don’t get it)

Also as there is only One Elano, why not that old favourite, “There’s only One Elano, there’s only One Elano”?

REQUEST FOR TICKETS

A long shot but I’m looking for two tickets for Chelsea away – even separate singles will do nicely but ideally two together.

Santa Claus, are you reading this?

07712 179 346 or email.

RESULTS

League table to 14 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 (Don Barrie)            : 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.

Don Barrie, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: