Newsletter #1732

We have a look at Monday night’s homecoming celebrations from Phil, Dave’s update on the fantasy league and some more good finishes for the Blues, together with cup final memories, an update on the bluemoans and a request for Lancashire Blues.

OPINION: A SPECIAL HOMECOMING

The Homecoming celebration was a wonderful evening and the club can be proud of how well it went. Before the main event we were entertained by three Manchester City bands/artists: Kid British, Supra and Badly Drawn Boy. Damon Gough in particular is adept at connecting with his audience and is always a pleasure to behold.

The whole night was well run. It was rather cold for the time of year so it had to be slick. Hugh Ferris is a superb compère/presenter and he engages his guests superbly as he always does on match days.

We were reminded of two True Blue heroes, now sadly departed, in video tributes to Malcolm Allison and Neil Young, triumphant in the 1969 final. Neil Young’s widow Carmen and her son Nick were special guests along with Malcolm Allison’s daughter. It was impossible not to be touched by them, particularly Carmen. Their loved ones will never be forgotten by us.

It was a lovely touch to have Tony Book, Francis Lee, Glyn Pardoe and Mike Summerbee bring out the FA Cup and place it on the podium on the centre of the pitch. We all did the Poznan and the Legends’ Poznan was rather special too (it’s on mcfc.co.uk), even if it did leave at least one of them hobbling! Absolutely marvellous. The four legends led the applause as our latest FA Cup Winners (won’t tire of saying that!) entered the arena in twos and threes to loud cheers on a magical night.

It was superbly fitting that 1969 Cup winning skipper Tony Book presented the Cup to Vincent Kompany and Carlos Tévez (yet another spot on idea). The players jigged with delight and did the lap of honour wearing their natty new red and black striped away shirts. Again, it is fitting that the classic colours return. It was clear that the players were enjoying the evening. Carlos Tévez wore a smile as wide as the Amazon (Buenos Aires apart, you don’t really want to be anywhere else right now Carlos? We’ll see…). Indeed it was a joyous occasion for all. If there is one criticism, we didn’t all see the Cup as it went round. Come on, boys, if you’ve got it, flaunt it!

The players clearly appreciated the support. Nigel de Jong, who is as appreciative of the fans as anyone, gave us the thumbs up as he walked round with his little girl. Naturally we reciprocated.

All that was left was a rousing round of fireworks and the reflection of a fine evening and indeed a very rewarding, if nerve-shredding season.

Thanks Sheikh Mansour, the MCFC board, all the back-room staff, Roberto Mancini and his coaches, and the players. You’re doing us proud.

P.S. Come on Barcelona on Saturday. Visca Barça!

OPINION: FANTASY FOOTBALL

So the season has finished as well for the MCIVTA Fans Fantasy League. I did ask people at the start of the season to enter into the spirit and consider banning United players from their squads: some did some didn’t.

Congratulations go to ‘Wurvy’s Wanderers’ who topped the league, although their manager did dabble in the black (or is that red?) arts (I hope you sleep easy at night). In second place was yours truly with ‘AC Minty’. Stu Parker’s ‘CityonlyteamfromManc’ were third. Paul Rawling with ‘Real Ale’ were fourth (sorry Paul, can’t do the accent over the a) and claiming the poisoned chalice of the virtual Europa Cup place were Kelvin Stephen’s ‘Kelvin’s Blues’.

In the head to head league it was a double triumph for ‘Wurvy’s Wanderers’ with ‘Kelvin’s Blues’ climbing to 2nd in this competition. ‘CitizensDownUnder’ were 3rd with ‘Wrighty’sWrongUns’ and ‘Blue Rebels’ claiming 4th and 5th respectively.

I hope those who took part had a bit of fun doing so, and if you didn’t take part then hopefully you’ll think of doing so next season. So roll on next season and potentially some different names in the City squad.

For those that like a stat or two (yes Heidi I obviously have too much time on my hands). There were 2,462,903 players globally. MCIVTA Fans league finished 5,808th out of 223,765 leagues (give yourselves a pat on the back). There were 67,515 players registered as City fans. Wurvy’s league winning score of 2168 points placed him 48th out of these. It’s nice to know there must be a lot of budding Mancini’s out there because my second placed 2075 points only managed 466th amongst the City fans.

City were the 6th best represented Premier team behind United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham respectively. Interestingly though, the six worst performing were Chelsea, City, Arsenal, West Brom, Liverpool, Arsenal. Which may go to prove that the more popular you are the more you attract people who don’t really know what they’re talking about.

See you all, and more hopefully, next season.

OPINION: WHAT A DAY

May 14th 2011 is indelibly imprinted on our memories as a very special day for us. A fine City team performance was crowned by Yaya Touré’s thumping winner and we won the FA Cup.

Manchester City won the FA Cup. Sounds great doesn’t it? At last we exorcised the ghost of Ricky Villa! Strangely enough, the move that led to our winning goal in this Cup Final, involving Silva and Balotelli, was in the same inside left channel that Villa tormented Ray Ranson and co in back in 1981.

At last that 35 year old wait is over and yes, that ’00’ years flag that we saw on the pitch at the end was an inspired idea! We’ve had a lot of footballing ‘pain’ in the intervening years and all that pent up emotion had to go somewhere. I welled up with tears of joy as the final whistle went, and the Blue behind me was the same as we shook hands. I got a massive bear hug from the bloke two seats away from me and thought he was never going to let go! What a day.

What a wonderful atmosphere it was at Wembley on Saturday, before, during and after the game. Not a hint of trouble. Just two sets of fans going to enjoy themselves. It was a nice change from the semi-final where far too many of the United fans sought to provoke, intimidate and attack City fans, who were trying to enjoy the day out (thankfully we did once we got away from them). In contrast to the semi, walking up Wembley Way on Cup Final day amongst both sets of fans was an absolute pleasure.

The atmosphere in the stadium was great. Renditions of ‘We’re not really here’, ‘Delilah’ and ‘Blue Moon’ reverberating round the stadium were unforgettable. Stoke’s loud version of ‘Swing Low Sweet chariot’, which refers to Arsène Wenger’s sour grapes reference to them as being a ‘rugby team’ was memorable too.

That might surprise some, given the fact that there has been a bit of ‘history’ between the two troublesome elements at City and Stoke (let’s face it, even in this age, every club still has its own minority of idiots), but there was not a hint of trouble at Wembley.

The Stoke fans we met were gracious in defeat and an absolute credit to their club. We had a really good chat with a couple of Stoke fans on the way down and as we were about to board the same train back one of them gave us a smile and the thumbs up. Unlike a certain other club, the Stoke fans stayed behind after the final whistle. Tony Pulis himself was dignity personified in his post-match interviews even in his disappointment. The same goes for his captain Ryan Shawcross. For what it’s worth, I hope Stoke take some consolation in the fact that their team is back in Europe after many years and enjoy it as much as we did.

I never wanted those post-match celebrations to end. Seeing the Boys in Blue parade that Cup in front of us was so special. Like in the semi, the Poznan that they did with Roberto Mancini was a moment to treasure. Roberto had his own moment holding the Cup in front of us. Wow! He’d earned that Cup too. There were so many moments to savour. We’ve put up with so much over the years, and all the grief has only made this triumph sweeter. I say it genuinely, and without a hint of being sycophantic. Thank you, Sheikh Mansour. You’ve enabled us to have the chance to have days like these.

My wife and I went for a walk around Trafalgar Square where a few Blues were starting to gather. The pubs in the West End of London were filled with fans celebrating or in Stoke’s case, drowning their sorrows. Again it was good natured stuff: “one and a half hours, and we’re still here”.

As City had won the Cup, we were able to fulfil the promise that we had made to ourselves in the weeks before the game. So we paid a visit to the Champagne Bar at St Pancras station before we boarded our train back up North (if we’d lost it would have been warm beer and whatever cider we could have got our hands on). Well, I have never tasted better (or more expensive) champagne in my life. This was as much down to its quality as the wonderful occasion. Other Blues had the same idea, though one of them bamboozled the bar man when he jokingly asked for a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale. Newcy Brown probably hasn’t made it to Minnesota! Any we chatted over our fizz and reflected on a great day for our club. It was a very happy hour!

The train journey back was a party too. We were handed a bottle of Champagne to swig from by some Blues as we looked for seats, so we sang, drank some more and somehow got acquainted with this ‘winning’ feeling. It’s fair to say that we don’t want to lose it.

Winning the FA Cup after so many years is very special indeed. This could be the start of a successful era for City and I hope we never get blasé about winning things… if we win things…

Could any subsequent triumph be as special as this? It would be great to find out.

OPINION: BLUEMOANS I

I’ll take some responsibility for Sam’s thoughts being delayed (MCIVTA 1729), due to the vagaries of GMail I somehow had Sam’s article filed away and not included in MCIVTA 1728. When I realised my mistake I apologised to Sam (and Tony, yes there was two!); I guess the lesson here is two fold:

1. We can all be wrong in hindsight
2. Heidi’s job is not as easy as it looks

I could end with a joke about sacking myself, but I’m sackless! Let’s enjoy the summer, the title of FA Cup Winners 2011 and anticipate Champions’ League football!

OPINION: BLUEMOANS II

Time will tell but unlike some of you I want to be entertained, not bored to death by people who are only there for the money and a sulk. So we won the FA Cup: excellent – I can say I was there and spent the last 10 minutes watching the clock as that’s when we give it away and what did Tévez do? Lost the ball in a position where frankly he should not; they went up the pitch and got 2 corners. All those around me had their hearts in their mouths. We won and Stoke did not turn up thankfully and to all those who wore the bright yellow shirt from the famous play-off game – thanks for the memory and I bet Tony Pulis had nightmares when he saw them.

I am not a fictional character but a real person who is not fooled by football or its employees; some of them are talented, some of them are not but all of them are lucky.

FA Cup and automatic qualification into the Champions’ League: well done Roberto Mancini, I am proud of you for delivering our first trophy for 35 years. But we had the league title in our grasp at one point and could have easily come second so you have not done the best you could have done.

Giving an opinion is not an offence and I don’t really comment too much on what others write!

REQUEST: PRESTON BASED BLUES

First of all… what a fantastic season! Many positive reasons to be proud to be Blue. Can’t wait for the new season to start, roll on August!

I am a loyal Blue who moved to Preston some 11 years ago, and one of the things I have noticed is that we have Blues scattered all over Preston but the closest Supporters’ Club is in Chorley. So I got thinking it was time we had a Preston branch; can anyone give me any advice how you start a supporters’ club?

Also, any Preston Blues interested in joining a supporters’ club please email me your details and I will keep you posted.

MCIVTA FAQ [v1011.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

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[2] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings by email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

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

http://www.mcivta.com/ 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. You can also follow on www.twitter.com/mcivta to get the latest updates.

[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?

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premier League games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://msn.foxsports.com/, http://www.soccertv.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.mcivta.com/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: