Newsletter #1377

Many thanks to Don and Mads for stepping into the breech at short notice and covering over recent weeks – sterling work!

Tonight we have opinion on potential new signings, a song for the little dynamo, news on the Maine Road roof and the usual requests.

Sunderland visit tonight; this is going out before kick-off, so hopefully another good home result and continuing our record against the Mackems in the top flight. A win sees us back up to third place.

Finally, this one goes out for my lovely dad and those taking care of him at Lincoln Hospital.

OPINION: ALVES

Various “Cloggies” have approached me and congratulated me on City’s acquisition of Alves from Heerenveen. Seems the deal is that he will join us when the January transfer window opens! Samaras is supposed to be something of a makeweight in the deal.

However, I have found no mention on the official City or BBC News websites? Does anybody know what’s going on?

The man is a perfect point man and goal thief. He scored the record number of 7 (yes, seven) goals in one game recently. The idea of him teaming up with his countryman, Elano, is mouthwatering.

Greetings from Holland.

OPINION: SWP

I had to smile when I saw the quote in MCIVTA 1376 from Sven as to why he hadn’t taken Sweep to the World Cup: “he simply had not played enough first team games for Chelsea” or words to that effect.

So he took Walcott instead!

OPINION: ELANO SONG

I’ve been sent the lyrics to what I think is the best Elano song, someone in the South Stand must have penned it because that’s where it was heard at the Brum game. It’s to the tune of the chorus in Abba’s ‘Fernando’:

There is something in the air tonight
It’s Blue and white
Elano

He is shining there for you and me
For Man City
Elano

That’s top chanting.

OPINION: A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY

Re the Maine Road main stand roof: “the grandstand has a barrel vault system using glass-reinforced polyester composite”.

The roof was bought by a farmer in Chelford and is used as pigsties. Presumably he bid more than the Stretfordians. You can see it from the Knutsford/Macclesfield road or on Google earth at 53°27’02″N and 2°30’36″W (I know that sounds like I need to get out more but it’s a bit slow at work this morning).

OPINION: ANOTHER COCK-UP?

Can anybody guess what the missing letters are: For F***’s Sake?

Well the above to City. Why?

I got an e-mail today telling me of various things going on and available at City. One of the ‘things’ of interest is a new screensaver to download for free.

And what superb action pictures does it feature? Only action shots from the 6-0 drubbing at Chelsea!

Only City could do this. I thought that things were improving at the club under new ownership but maybe not.

I refer to the second line, once more, of this rant.

Dear City, any chance of a screensaver featuring action shots from a recent win rather than our heaviest defeat for many years?

OPINION: FAR FLUNG BRANCHES

Great to read the article from Amoabil K Peter in last Thursday’s McV. He has done a fantastic job of setting up a supporters’ branch in Ghana and also forming a junior football team that go under the name of Manchester City Babies. All of this helps promote the name of our club world wide. There is also a supporters’ branch in Sierra Leone run by a fantastic guy called Armani Sheku Kamara. The Sierra Leone branch have many members and also operate 2 football teams that also go under the name of Manchester City FC. The senior team operate in the second tier of the national league over there and have progressed to the 2nd round of the FA Cup this year. Last season the junior team reached the final of the FA Youth Cup before losing to Liverpool FC on penalties in a replay. The Sierra Leone branch have received great backing from the CSA branch in the USA led by another fantastic guy called George Cuddy. They have also had good support from Howard Burr and the Reddish branch, Phil Holme and the Portadown branch plus others including our branch in Phuket.

These MCFC CSA supporters’ branches and names will seem anonymous to most but they represent all that is good about many Manchester City supporters both home and abroad. I suppose the point of this posting is advertise the goodwill of City supporters world wide and that all McV readers have the opportunity to promote our club by either setting up a supporters’ branch and if you are willing start a football team and call it Manchester City, it can be done. There maybe also an opportunity for McV readers to support some of our far flung branches in the poorer parts of the world but more about that in the future. Meanwhile, may I offer my good wishes to Heidi and her team at McV and all readers and contributors.

REQUEST: MCFC STATS

Can I just remind MCIVTA readers that the MCFCstats blog now contains match statistics for every game this season. To celebrate our blog now appearing on the Newsnow feeds for Manchester City, I will also be posting a “statistical preview” in the run up to each of City’s games. The Sunderland preview http://blog.mcfcstats.com/?p=35 was our first ever feed to appear on Newsnow last Saturday evening, and this will be followed by one for the Portsmouth match.

If anybody wishes to email me with their reports and observations from the live matches they have been to, I will do my best to post them on the blog with your name credited (not your email address). I would welcome any feedback about content of the blog, and ideas that could be added.

Regularly visiting our blog via the Newsnow link will keep the blog on their website and in the public forum, so thanks in advance if you are able to click onto our previews and post match stats.

The MCFCSTATS website is of course still updated after each match. I will send the link to the new MCFCstats website that is currently under construction. Again Ash and I would welcome feedback on it.

The link to Newsnow is http://www.newsnow.co.uk/newsfeed/?name=Manchester+City

REQUEST: REDDISH BLUES

Reddish Blues’ next meeting is on Wednesday 14 November at The Ash Hotel, Manchester Road, Stockport starting at 8.00pm (doors 7.00pm) and our confirmed guests for the evening are City legends Ian Brightwell and Paul Lake.

As always everyone is welcome. Admission (which includes a free raffle) is free to branch members on production of a current membership card and for non-members it’s £2 for adults and £1 for juniors. You’re advised to get there early as we’re expecting a full house. For more details visit our website at http://www.reddishblues.com/ or contact Secretary Howard Burr on 0161 292 2525.

RESULTS

4 November 2007

West Ham United       1 - 1  Bolton Wanderers      33,867

3 November 2007

Arsenal               2 - 2  Manchester United     60,161
Aston Villa           2 - 0  Derby County          47,938
Everton               3 - 1  Birmingham City       35,155
Fulham                3 - 1  Reading               22,086
Middlesbrough         1 - 1  Tottenham Hotspur     25,625
Newcastle United      1 - 4  Portsmouth            51,490
Wigan Athletic        0 - 2  Chelsea               19,011
Blackburn Rovers      0 - 0  Liverpool             30,033

League table to 04 November 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         11  6  1  0 18  6  2  2  0  6  3  8  3  0  24   9  15  27
 2 Manchester Utd  12  5  1  0 12  1  3  2  1  9  5  8  3  1  21   6  15  27
 3 Chelsea         12  3  2  0 10  2  4  1  2  8  6  7  3  2  18   8  10  24
 4 Portsmouth      12  2  3  0 11  6  4  1  2 12  7  6  4  2  23  13  10  22
 5 Blackburn R.    11  3  2  1  8  5  3  2  0  7  4  6  4  1  15   9   6  22
 6 Manchester City 11  6  0  0 10  2  1  1  3  5 11  7  1  3  15  13   2  22
 7 Liverpool       11  1  4  0 10  4  4  2  0  7  2  5  6  0  17   6  11  21
 8 Everton         12  3  1  2  9  6  3  0  3  9  8  6  1  5  18  14   4  19
 9 Aston Villa     11  5  0  2 11  7  0  3  1  5  6  5  3  3  16  13   3  18
10 Newcastle Utd   11  4  1  1 11  8  1  1  3  7  9  5  2  4  18  17   1  17
11 West Ham United 11  2  2  2  8  6  2  1  2  5  4  4  3  4  13  10   3  15
12 Reading         12  4  0  2  7  7  0  1  5  8 19  4  1  7  15  26 -11  13
13 Fulham          12  2  3  2 12 12  0  3  2  4  6  2  6  4  16  18  -2  12
14 Birmingham City 12  2  1  2  6  6  1  1  5  6 12  3  2  7  12  18  -6  11
15 Sunderland      11  2  1  2  5  6  0  2  4  7 14  2  3  6  12  20  -8   9
16 Middlesbrough   12  1  3  2  8  9  1  0  5  4 14  2  3  7  12  23 -11   9
17 Tottenham H.    12  1  1  3 11 12  0  4  3  8 12  1  5  6  19  24  -5   8
18 Wigan Athletic  12  2  1  3  5  6  0  1  5  5 13  2  2  8  10  19  -9   8
19 Bolton Wndrs    12  1  2  3  7  8  0  2  4  4 10  1  4  7  11  18  -7   7
20 Derby County    12  1  2  2  5  7  0  1  6  0 19  1  3  8   5  26 -21   6

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: