Newsletter #1693

The main topic of discussion tonight is the Tevez story, with his apparent request to leave the club down to a myriad of reasons depending upon which sources you read. Anyway it’s discussed here and let’s hope he has a change of mind as the little man has been terrific for us since signing and as Phil says won’t be treated better any place else.

There’s also news on the Leicester cup game from Alex.

OPINION: WINS, TEVEZ AND LIFE

I watched extended highlights of our match against West Ham on Sky, and was delighted with the victory, especially as it was without our talisman Tevez. Knowing we were now in the rarefied atmosphere of the top 2 (albeit because the others still have games in hand), left me feeling elated and looking forward to us building on this performance.

I wanted to air some points noted from the match yesterday. I was surprised Mancini opted for Jo up front, when we had the likes of Adam Johnson, SWP and Santa Cruz on the bench. In my opinion, Jo probably is a lovely lad, trains hard, listens to the manager, doesn’t sulk etc., but sadly, he is just not good enough (I really hope he makes me eat my words!). He lacks so much that a top striker needs in the Premier League: he is average in the air, lacks a turn of speed, is not as tenacious as Tevez, and does not have the skill to beat the last defender and go past him, and finally, does not score often enough! As for Balotelli, on yesterday’s viewing, he was absolutely p**s poor and was lucky to be on the pitch as long as he was. For a big strapping guy, he gets knocked over way too easily (a bit like Heskey) and then is constantly moaning and scowling! Hopefully, time and loads more matches will iron out these defects and get him to smile a bit more… he just does not know how lucky he is to be paid a handsome amount of money each week for kicking a ball around and yet he never appears to be happy. He should work down a mine for a week or go and live in Africa for a month; maybe that will make him humble! Does he really do any more than Adebayor? I do appreciate that we have bought “potential”!

What really impressed me yesterday is that City now have a core of very good, accomplished footballers, with the likes of Hart, Kompany, Touré, Barry, Zabaleta, de Jong, Silva and Tevez; these guys roll up their sleeves and produce an above average performance more often than not. So we have 8 really good footballers, and if we can get another 3 to 5 players to buy into this, then we definitely will be title contenders. We have a lot of big money signings who just have not lived up to the billing, and should be shipped out.

Well, after a great win yesterday came the bombshell on the back pages of the News of the World today, which got me thinking “Is this paper talk?” but when I went on the MCFC website, this was confirmed. Now, I don’t think you will get any City supporter criticising Tevez, especially because of his efforts and goals in a sky blue shirt, but, it has been very obvious to everyone, that whenever he is substituted, he throws his toys out of the pram. He might be our best player and top scorer, but that side of him does not endear him to anyone. It’s downright disrespect to the manager. Would he ever consider doing that to Maradona or Mourinho? I really, really hope he stays, but handing in a written transfer request shows just how serious this is.

The other point I want to make is that whenever a “big name” player wants to leave (e.g. Rooney), the Club rewards treachery with “a new, much, much bigger contract”! Why not just sell the whingeing player (e.g. Spurs with Berbatov), and get rid of a “bad apple” once and for all. Look what’s happened to Adebayor? Had he been scoring a few more goals and trying harder, he just might have been treated differently. There is no “I in team”, and both Tevez and Balotelli need to be taken down a rung or two. If Tevez wants to leave for family reasons, that’s a different issue altogether, but if he does not see eye to eye with the manager over substitutions… well, then it’s a slippery slope he is heading for. As I said before, I really don’t want Tevez to leave but he needs to show respect to everyone: the Manager, his team-mates, the owners, the fans!

Worst case scenario, if Tevez leaves, gets sold, retires etc. the player I would like us to go for, is Luis Suarez from Ajax (similar player to Tevez), who is a decent goal scorer. Should Adebayor and Santa Cruz move on, then we need a quality centre forward who can hold the ball up and bring other players into the game, and score a few too Drogba-esque! Maybe the tall Spanish centre forward, Llorente? We need to bring in players who have a passion and desire to play and do well in a City shirt, and not a whingeing so and so!

When we had a couple of draws and looked very negative, I was calling for Mancini’s head (how bl**dy silly was I?), but now, I am fully behind Mancini, and I hope the owners and the club, give him their full backing. There is never a dull moment following City, and I do hope that now we are on the brink of glory, we don’t go into internal meltdown, and throw it all away.

Come on City!

OPINION: TEVEZ I

I sympathise with Carlo Tevez regarding his family problems but the timing for putting in his request for a transfer will hurt the club; it will take a very good player to replace him.

MCFC say they will not let him leave until the summer; if Tevez cools down and continues to play as well as he has been until then, and helps the club win some silverware, at least I think most City supporters will then be forgiving. What is confusing about all this is that Carlos Tevez not only claims it is about his two children, but that some top City executives are to blame. Who pee’d Tevez off?

At least he is not blaming Roberto Mancini his manager, but has said he does no longer like going into work, and money does not influence him, but his agent has been trying to get Tevez a new five year contract with more money.

City still have a good squad, and if Mario settles we shall still have a good striker. The bottom line we do not want to lose Carlos Tevez; his work rate rubs off onto other players, and he is our top goal scorer.

Somehow I hope that things can be resolved but Tevez claims it is already too late – some executive has already said something to upset him. I question that but we do not know what goes on; why would a top executive want to hurt our best player? At the end of the day “No one player is City”, but this player helps a lot.

I would not be surprised if Real Madrid or Barça have something to do with this. Tevez does not speak very good English but can speak Spanish; his family could live in Spain with similar conditions as his Argentina.

Come on you Blues!

OPINION: TEVEZ II

The wandering nomad’s feet are itching and he is making for the door. Has there ever been a journeyman with as much ability as Carlos Tevez? Most players move around at least twice nowadays, but when I say ‘journeyman’, I’m talking regular serial movers; the ones that move every two years for another payday. Of course, these players are no strangers to Manchester City. Back in the late 80s, Maine Road was part of the Imre Varadi (as in ‘Imre Banana’) whistle stop tour that took in Letchworth, Sheffield United, Everton, Newcastle, Sheffield Wednesday, West Brom, Manchester City, Sheffield Wednesday (again), Leeds, Luton, Oxford, Rotherham, Mansfield, Boston, Scunthorpe and Matlock Town for the complete record. Varadi moved around roughly every two years at the height of his moderately successful career and one would imagine that he did well in signing on fees. Some players do that. It pays. You will not be surprised to know that Varadi is now an agent! I digress…

Carlos Tevez is perhaps the best player that I have seen in a sky blue shirt in 30 years, and that includes the wonderfully talented Nicolas Anelka, Ali Benarbia, Eyal Berkovic, Trevor Francis, Paul Lake and Georgiou Kinkladze. I would like to continue watching Tevez in sky blue, but not at any cost.

Despite all his wonderful commitment, energy and skill on the pitch Carlos Tevez’ behaviour has been nothing short of disgraceful in all this. He has been very well treated by Manchester City Football Club and loved by the fans. He has been given special dispensation on more than one occasion to go home to Argentina to visit his children who live with their mother (Tevez’s estranged wife). He has repaid that adoration, five star treatment and respect by handing in a transfer request. I’ve not even mentioned that he is the highest paid player in our history on £286,000 a week after tax. Apparently that’s not good enough for him either, and he wants at least £300,000 a week.

I’m not going to excuse him and point the finger at his agent Kia Joorabchian. Joorabchian may well be egging Tevez on for a move, possibly to a Spanish speaking country with Real Madrid the hot favourites (he would fit the not-so-special-one’s pressing game). The point is that it does not take any great intellect to say ‘no’ to an agent. The only person who is responsible for this situation is Carlos Tevez. I don’t believe that the timing of this transfer request is coincidental with the transfer window being on the horizon, especially with a smarting Real Madrid wanting to add to the squad after their inglorious, but highly delightful 5-0 thrashing by Barcelona.

MCFC are spot on to reject his transfer request. We need to have a top class striker if we are to pursue the top four, and possibly even a Championship that is very much up for grabs. Whilst we shouldn’t be keeping ‘unhappy’ players, but I am deeply sceptical as to how ‘unhappy’ Carlos Tevez is. Homesick yes, greedy, yes but ‘unhappy’, I am far from convinced. No one forced him to pledge his undying loyalty on video to City a couple of weeks ago. No one forced him to ask his agent to look for an improved and, yes, extended contract. Club policy is to negotiate contracts for existing players at the end of the season, so we should not be pandering to him. What signal would that send out to the other players? Team spirit is vitally important to any successful squad, so why should we jeopardise that? This sticky situation can in fact bring our squad together.

MCFC are absolutely right to hold him to his contract for this season at least and refuse to negotiate on his already extraordinary high contract, which makes him the highest paid player in Europe. I hope that we stay strong on this, and that action is taken against any breach of contract.

The more we find out, the more this issue seems to be, surprise, surprise, about money and greed on Tevez’s part. His ridiculous statement that he has no problem with Mancini, Sheikh Mansour and the City fans but his relationship with ‘certain executives’ (presumably he means Garry Cook and Brian Marwood) is ‘beyond repair’ is preposterous. It all smacks of a very selfish, spoiled child who has not got his own way. Besides, relationships with executives should not be relevant, especially when agents do the negotiating.

If he has got personal problems, Tevez would do well to reflect that it is not our fault that he is estranged from his girlfriend, and that his family are no longer in the North West of England. It is not our fault that his girlfriend felt she had been cheated on. It is not our fault that he signed a 5 year contract at Manchester City. Sometimes these footballers need to take a bit of responsibility for their own actions. Is that too much to ask?

MCFC are absolutely right to continue to be sensitive to Tevez’s personal problems, i.e. his homesickness. That is the only way to be, and the same treatment goes for all employees of the club. In any case, talking of homesickness, maybe Tevez might have felt better if he’d bothered to learn English properly and made more of an effort with his team mates and in the local community. He’d do well to look at the example of his fellow countryman, Pablo Zabaleta who has been a model professional and perfect example of how to embrace another country’s culture and has gladly spent his own time visiting cancer patients. If only Tevez had even a tenth of Zabaleta’s generosity of spirit.

Carlos Tevez will not be treated any better anywhere else in the world than he is at Manchester City. No sane person can imagine that Real Madrid would be quite so understanding. After all, they have not been known for their tolerance since well before they were the darlings of the Fascist Franco. It’s a shame that Tevez doesn’t see that they won’t be keen on those little sojourns to Buenos Aires. It’s not too late for the penny to drop though. For his sake and for ours, let’s hope that he realises what a good thing he is onto at City.

Tevez should knuckle down and get on with doing what he is best at for the rest of this season at least. At the very least, he owes us that. If he will not give us his full commitment on the pitch, then City should hang onto him until we receive an offer that satisfies the club: I’m talking a minimum of £50 million, and the club may wish to ask for more. We’d be well within our rights to do so, especially if Real Madrid have tapped him up.

We will need to buy a replacement, and that does not mean taking Real Madrid’s cast-offs. Gonzalo Higuain’s finishing leaves a lot to be desired and he is best left at the Bernabeu. We need bring in two top class strikers in January. Edin Dzeko has been on our radar for some time, and maybe now is the time to move for him, but again, not at any cost.

City need to stay strong on and off the pitch. We must not cave in to Tevez’s unreasonable behaviour by pandering to his obscene greed. Appoint Vincent Kompany captain and make Nigel de Jong his deputy. That is not meant as a slight on Kolo Touré, who is having a fine season, but more of a recognition of Vinny’s and Nige’s more vocal qualities. The players who played so well at West Ham have proved they can win games without Tevez to go into 2nd place. It’s time to pull together and redouble our efforts. This can make us stronger as a unit and bind us together even better. After all, no one player is bigger than our beloved Manchester City.

Stay strong City.

REQUEST: NEIL YOUNG APPEAL UPDATE

The club have produced 3,000 black and red scarves for the FA Cup game at Leicester. Fans who buy tickets for this game will be given a voucher with an offer to collect a black and red scarf from the City Store. Fans are invited to make a donation to the Neil Young Appeal on collecting the scarves. All money raised will be split 50/50 between Neil Young and the Cancer Unit at Wythenshawe Hospital where Neil is receiving treatment. May I suggest a minimum donation of £5.00 for each scarf.

Subject to how well this offer is received the club will consider producing more scarves for sale to all supporters with the money going to the Neil Young Appeal.

A Paypal button is also being set up, which will be accessible through the club website to enable all to donate to the Neil Young Appeal. More details will be provided once the Paypal button is ready for use.

Neil Young and his Appeal deserves your support, please give it freely.

RESULTS AND TABLE

13 December 2010

Manchester United     1 - 0  Arsenal               75,227

12 December 2010

Bolton Wanderers      2 - 1  Blackburn Rovers      24,471
Wolverhampton Wndrs   1 - 0  Birmingham City       25,150
Tottenham Hotspur     1 - 1  Chelsea               35,787

11 December 2010

Aston Villa           2 - 1  West Bromwich Albion  36,745
Everton               0 - 0  Wigan Athletic        32,853
Fulham                0 - 0  Sunderland            24,462
Stoke City            0 - 1  Blackpool             26,879
West Ham United       1 - 3  Manchester City       32,813
Newcastle United      3 - 1  Liverpool             50,137

League table to 15 December 2010 inclusive

                            HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L   F   A  GD Pts
 1 Manchester Utd  16  8  1  0 25  6  1  6  0 11 10  9  7  0  36  16  20  34
 2 Arsenal         17  5  0  3 19 10  5  2  2 15  9 10  2  5  34  19  15  32
 3 Manchester City 17  4  3  1  8  5  5  2  2 16  8  9  5  3  24  13  11  32
 4 Chelsea         17  6  1  1 18  4  3  3  3 13  8  9  4  4  31  12  19  31
 5 Tottenham H.    17  4  4  1 14  9  3  2  3 11 13  7  6  4  25  22   3  27
 6 Bolton Wndrs    17  4  4  1 19 12  2  4  2 11 12  6  8  3  30  24   6  26
 7 Sunderland      17  4  4  0 10  5  1  5  3 10 13  5  9  3  20  18   2  24
 8 Newcastle Utd   17  3  3  3 19 11  3  1  4  8 15  6  4  7  27  26   1  22
 9 Liverpool       17  5  2  1 15  6  1  2  6  6 16  6  4  7  21  22  -1  22
10 Blackpool       16  2  2  2 11 11  4  2  4 13 18  6  4  6  24  29  -5  22
11 West Brom A.    17  4  2  2 11 10  2  2  5 13 19  6  4  7  24  29  -5  22
12 Stoke City      17  4  2  3 12 10  2  1  5  9 12  6  3  8  21  22  -1  21
13 Blackburn R.    17  4  2  2 11  6  2  1  6 11 21  6  3  8  22  27  -5  21
14 Aston Villa     17  4  4  1 14 10  1  1  6  5 18  5  5  7  19  28  -9  20
15 Everton         17  2  4  3 10 12  1  5  2  8  8  3  9  5  18  20  -2  18
16 Birmingham City 17  3  4  1  8  6  0  5  4  9 14  3  9  5  17  20  -3  18
17 Fulham          17  2  5  2 10 11  0  5  3  6  9  2 10  5  16  20  -4  16
18 Wigan Athletic  17  2  4  3  8 17  1  3  4  5 11  3  7  7  13  28 -15  16
19 Wolves          17  4  2  3 13 13  0  1  7  5 17  4  3 10  18  30 -12  15
20 West Ham United 17  2  3  4 11 15  0  3  5  4 15  2  6  9  15  30 -15  12

MCIVTA FAQ [v1011.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

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[2] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

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[3] MCIVTA Back Issues and Manchester City Supporters’ home page

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[4] What is the club’s official web site?

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/ and the official club Twitter page at www.twitter.com/mcfc. The club also has a facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/mcfcofficial

[5] What supporters’ clubs are there?

The Official Supporters’ Club and the Centenary Supporters’ Association have merged to become the Manchester City Supporters’ Club (http://www.mcfcsupportersclub.com/). The club also recognise the Manchester City Disabled Supporters’ Association (http://www.mcdsa.co.uk/).

[6] Where can I find out about Points of Blue?

The committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. Points of Blue appears on the club website under the “Fans” heading (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Fans).

[7] What match day broadcasts are available on the web?

Live match commentary can be found on the club website. The Radio Manchester pre- and post-match phone-in is available on the web at http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/tv_and_radio/.

[8] Where can I find out if City are live on satellite TV?

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[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?

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[11] Where can I find match statistics?

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Editor: