Newsletter #1435

Thanks to Mads for stepping in over the past couple of weeks!

Confirmation today that Sven has indeed left City with immediate effect and rumoured to be heading to Mexico for their national job! Rumours abounding on the next managerial candidate and continued opinion tonight on just what is going on at City.

OPINION: PLUS ÇA CHANGE I

I am getting to the stage of total disbelief of life long Blues justifying the current chairman’s previous actions whilst he was Premier of Thailand. Whether or not he is an educated, wealthy or articulate human being who is a winner is not actually important. What is important to me that our chairman as head of the government of Thailand was responsible for the execution of human beings.

The previous board, in chasing the holy grail of staying in the Premiership, sold our soul to this man. As board members they are responsible for getting our club into this mess. They knew about his past but were blinded by his money.

I am not going to stop supporting City. Of course I feel sorry for Sven; he is the most dignified, calm manager we have had for years, something we have needed. This is my club, not Frank’s.

I’m proud of my City, proud of how the players played at Middlesbrough but ashamed of the board of my club.

We the supporters will be here long after our chairman has hoofed it back to Thailand and I personally will be looking forward to the day he does, which we all know as City fans will be sooner rather than later.

OPINION: PLUS ÇA CHANGE II

Ah well here we go again.

Thanks to Sven for everything, including bringing some dignity back to our club that appears now to have gone with you.

“The King is dead, long live the King”! Whoever it may be.

OPINION: PLUS ÇA CHANGE III

So Sven has gone. Let’s move on… oh hang on a minute, it would be so not like me to be concise, to the point. Brevity is not my watch word.

So I may be in a minority but I’m ambivalent towards the Sven situation. I feel for those who marched and campaigned on his behalf because they really showed they care about City, and indeed Sven, but I fear it was misplaced.

I’m not suggesting that I have inside knowledge but I have been involved in conversations that suggest a slightly different side to the whole scenario.

1. Sven/Sven’s associates were actively touting for offers just after Christmas.
2. There are/were contractual requirements on Sven that have not been adhered to.
3. Dr Thaksin reacted as he did after being shielded from the full picture for several weeks.
4. Some non-football changes are already taking place, with more to follow.

Since the good Dr’s legal team have been let loose, the many nonsense stories about bowing, selling the team etc. have stopped, so it is highly likely they were all false.

We can safely assume that the subsequent lack of negative press in the main for the good Doc is because he hasn’t done much wrong.

May I suggest taking another look at things and let’s see if the crowds would gather and the marchers would march etc.

For the sake of balance, let’s suggest that the following happened (entering dream sequence now…):

• SGE contacts unnamed London club and offers his services, just after Xmas at the time that performances dip drastically.
• Behind the scenes some senior managers are aware of this but do nothing.
• SGE continues conversations with unnamed club/clubs/countries still without any interference from MCFC.
• The results are getting worse.
• Dr Thaksin learns of the conversations and demands an explanation.
• SGE refuses to discuss the matter and points to certain club personnel knowing and remaining silent.
• The world learns that SGE is hoping to leave the club, results are in a perilous state.
• Fans ask SGE for his commitment, he refuses to comment.
• Thaksin fires Sven with immediate effect.
• Fans back Thaksin, understanding fully the reasons why.

Hmm, now don’t get me wrong but that sounds pretty plausible.

I suppose we will never really know, and perhaps the truth lies somewhere between the suggested madness of Thaksin and the crazy loyalty of fans to SGE via the honest English press.

Whatever the truth I’m backing City to really benefit from all of this and next season be in UEFA Cup by right, not by the back door.

Here endeth the monologue.

OPINION: OPEN LETTER

Mr Shinawatra:

I appreciate that you doled out the cash to buy controlling interest at Manchester City and as such, the opinions of the people who support this team and buy the tickets are not a major concern to you. You started off on the right foot, brought in Sven Goran Eriksson, supplied him with the funds to rejuvenate our team… and guess what? Ninth place finish (compared to the previous season) and a European qualifying spot was not too shabby an effort for Eriksson’s first season – it even surpassed your own original expectations.

But obviously this wasn’t enough to feed your growing ego. You seem to think you can buy a European Cup qualifying spot. That United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal can just be pushed aside. That top management and players are just queuing up to come to Eastlands. Well sorry Frank but they are not. Considering the mess you have created in the past four weeks, no quality manager or player in their right mind would sign for City.

But go ahead, dump Sven, lose Richard Dunne, Micah Richards, Steve Ireland, Michael Johnson and Joe Hart. Bring in fat has-beens like Ronaldinho who will instantly disrupt your pay scale and cheese off everyone left in the dressing room.

So who are you going to replace Sven with? Scolari? Mancini? Rijkaard? Allardyce? MacLaren? Keith Hill? The majority of City fans don’t see anything wrong with Sven. In a very short time, he revamped City’s lineup, gave the Academy a chance, took a major risk with Joe Hart (who played for England on Sunday!), created a balance between homegrown talent and a decent blend of imports that is only a couple of players short of being an imposing team. And yes he beat the reigning Premier Champions and European Cup winners twice! For this he gets the boot?

You know something? As a City fan, I don’t care what you do. Bring in a new manager, gut the current team, bring in your own ‘superstars’, throw in a couple Thai imports for good measure. That should win a few fans at home. I will still be singing Blue Moon when next season’s team walks down the tunnel. But a year on, when everything is a mess, all our good young players have b****red off to an environment with some sanity, you, Frank ole chap, will probably take your sack of baht and haul your sorry butt back to Thailand. At that point we will be left to sift through the wreckage and rebuild what is left of our great team.

Sorry Frank but we’ve suffered through this before and we will survive. It is a shame that for a brief period of time last year, I actually thought you knew what you were doing and we could actually dare to dream that City were ready to make their presence felt in the Premier. Now I shudder to think what is ahead. Think I’ll just tune you out until August, or is that July? If this wasn’t so tragic it would almost be amusing, but it’s not.

OPINION: SHOW ME THE MONEY

It has been reported that Sven Goran Eriksson claimed a £500,000 bonus from Thaksin for getting the club into Europe. Even though City were fortunate to get into Europe through the back door via the Fair Play League.

This claim infuriated Thaksin, who eventually paid up part of the money.

Maybe this will shed some light of what has been going on behind the scenes; no wonder Frank has been upset with Sven, I guess if I was in Frank’s shoes I would be upset too.

The bottom line: Sven did not get us into Europe by winning games, it was through pure luck. Maybe this will ease the pain of Sven leaving.

OPINION: BITTER?

Robert, some supporters want refunds, I know that, and I also know the reasons why, they’ve made it clear all over the Internet. I thought that Ray Bardsley was a wind-up merchant. Did I say anything about “supporters”? No. Did I say I thought “supporters” were joking? No. That’s “supporters” Robert, plural. Don’t put words in my mouth. Don’t mischaracterize what I said. You did it again by the use of “joking”. I never said “joking” Robert, I said “wind-up”. Are “joking” and “wind-up” synonyms?

I note you began your opinion piece by inviting an inference about my mental state and you are the second person to refer to my status as an ex-pat (“distance must increase the sense of delusion”) in the last couple of issues. The first person to do this was Joel Perry who said (referring to my calling COMS and looking on City’s website), “you did go to remarkable lengths for someone who probably doesn’t attend many home games by the way – well done!” Joel, if I had replied clearly in support of Ray Bardsley and any other City fan who wanted a refund, would you have said the same thing? No, I thought not. Do one. You, Robert, the same question. Well?

Perhaps both of you gentlemen would like to explain a little further, go into this issue in greater depth (well, some depth at any rate)? Would it be unfair for me to think your point was that those who no longer go to watch City (home/away) in person are suspect? What they think must be discounted in whole or in part?

By the way Joel, I note you went to no lengths whatsoever to answer the question(s) posed by Ray Barsdley. I’m sure you replied privately.

Generally, I’m just amazed that anyone would actually admit they were too lazy/couldn’t be @rsed to learn their rights and obligations. If the issue was really about getting a refund, why didn’t you all make polite enquires to COMS, and, upon receiving your step-by-step instructions, post them here for everyone’s benefit? If the issue is so urgent, why would you waste time posting here, waiting for publication, waiting for responses and so on? Wasn’t the issue urgent? Why post then? Why post about something you have no idea, and, frankly admit it? Because the purpose was to heap scorn on City’s chairman and prove you won’t take it lying down? Bravo.

Joel, the “lengths” (your word) were not in the least “remarkable” (your word). A few mouse clicks, and a brief phone call (for a few cents), is hardly considerable effort. I’m surprised you didn’t do it yourself. Your analysis (if that’s what it was) about terms and conditions and warranties and goods and services was barely understandable. There is a difference between a good and a service Joel and warranties have nothing to do with this, neither does your opinion about what is and is not “questionable” (your word), and yes, you are, as you say, “well within your rights to demand (nice choice) a refund” but not, Joel, not “regardless of terms and conditions.” You need to read them. As it stands, what grounds do you have for receiving a refund? I said receiving one, not asking for it. I don’t care about your opinion and the rights and wrongs of this, that, or the other thing, I am asking you to read the terms and conditions, and make your case under the terms and conditions that you agreed to when you entered into the unilateral contract with Manchester City. When you referred to “manager’s discretion” you were making a joke I suppose, or was that a wind up?

Robert, you may think the chairmanship (as you put it) is atrocious, that’s your opinion. You may further think that the “atrocious” chairmanship has “created” a “vacuum at the top of the player management”. I have no idea what that means, but I am sure you are entitled to say it, you certainly repeat it, so it must mean something. Well, perhaps not, it just sounds good and footbally, like, “Sven is building foundations”.

I never said stop criticizing Thaksin, Robert. I did say I thought that the criticism is overdone, and relies on raising questions about Thaksin’s political and financial affairs in Thailand: in other words, Thaksin’s critics have such a thin case, a case which in reality is nothing more than opinion, they reach out to the past and repeat charges and allegations that have nothing to do with football, but are meant to objectify Thaksin and reduce him to a square-headed Thai despot who is kissing cousins to Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, Mugabe, Castro, Guevara, Hussein and so on.

I still do not understand what is wrong with ignoring “advisors”. Advisors give advice, they can act as sounding boards, devil’s advocates, give learned opinion, but there is nothing fundamentally wrong with ignoring them, whatever they say on any subject. In any case, I want to know who these advisors are Dr. Evil is ignoring, and what exactly has been their advice. If you don’t know, shut up. Robert, you said, “This is the second close season where the club have been unable to transact any player business due to a lack of direction from the top”. Oh. Is it? Sven must have been lying when he stated the failure to make significant signings during January was because all the best players are playing for teams involved in UEFA or the Champions’ League, and/or are trying to progress in their respective leagues to qualify for next year. Ferguson, Wenger et al are of the same opinion, and Fergie is on record (and look at his signing record) as saying that January is not the time to buy, and if you do, you’ll be paying over the odds. As to this transfer window, can you tell everyone about the transfer signings around Europe to date? Not much activity yet is there? Perhaps the Euros have something to do with this. Is this transfer window closed yet? When does it close? Don’t you know? Aren’t you jumping the gun in declaring it a failure? Bitter? Dying for City to go tits up aren’t you?

MCIVTA FAQ [v0708.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
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[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: