Newsletter #1776

Well another bumper issue today with reminiscences, comment, articles and humour.

Despite the disappointment of only getting 5 goals away from home on Wednesday this was tempered by the fact we ‘beat’ our 3 goals in 237 seconds against United by 7 seconds! Seriously, another incredible performance from the boys against a Wolves team who actually played well and I’m sure will present a stiff challenge in the league game tomorrow.

So, on with the show…

ARTICLE: DERBY DAY MASSACRE

Still recovering from one of the finest displays I have seen by City in my lifetime. Magnificent, and a long time coming. It occurred to me that what was being played out was similar to the poor little bullied kid in the playground, finally turning on his attackers, and beating the s**t out of them. The response of neutrals, who have given us so much stick over our new-found riches (all their clubs would, of course, have turned Sheikh Mansour away, wouldn’t they?) seems to confirm that – it felt as if we had made the whole country happy!

It was very nice last night as well, coming away from dinner with friends to find we’d stuck in another five past poor old Mick McCarthy’s Wolves. I can’t imagine they are looking forward to Saturday.

My regards to Heidi for all her excellent work on MCIVTA over the years. I signed up in its very early days, and was involved for a while in the production, as it were, along with Heidi, Ashley Birch and Paul Howarth (apologies to anyone I have missed out). Indeed, one of work machines was used to handle the mailing list and email out MCIVTA for a while. Our HQ was in Toronto, and I can recall one of their network guys getting in touch with me and saying – “We’ve detected some rather unusual activity on one of your machines every few nights”. I explained – happily, we knew each other and had worked together, so he didn’t mind turning a blind eye to it. Salut to all of us who used to meet at the Tabak before going on to Maine Road (quite often, to hold our heads in our hands for 90 minutes – Bristol Rovers anyone?!).

Life and events have meant I haven’t seen City for too long. The wonders of the Internet mean I get to watch almost all of our games live. I am right behind the new owners, and Roberto, who is just fantastic and clearly made of steel. He may display this in a different manner to that bloke over the road, but I am clear that he is hard as nails, and I trust we will keep him as long as we can.

Finally, David Silva. What an utter joy to watch the man is. As supporters of other clubs say as well.

Forza Roberto. Forza Super Mario. Forza City. Take that, Fergie!

ARTICLE: TWO GOOD OMENS… THEN SIX OF THE BEST

Ok, so how many times have you watched the 6-1?

I’d confess to watching the highlights a few times, not to mention the last few minutes when we laid waste to the United goal.

I look back and I marvel at the skills on display from the City players, the jubilant City fans, the vast empty spaces around Owed Trafford and the vacant expressions of those Rags who stayed on. It’s almost surreal, and I still can’t believe our good fortune that Sheikh Mansour has chosen us, appointed a fantastic manager (one of the best in our history) and bought so many brilliant players.

Our boys went there and gave the Rags the biggest hiding/bloody nose in years. We didn’t just beat them, we thrashed, trounced, bamboozled, hammered, sorted, crushed ’em… I could go on. Wow! I’m totally in awe of that performance.

I love the fact that the club has quickly got some merchandise out. Why not? Let’s celebrate such a historic victory and let the club make some money out of it. I rather fancy one of those smart “016-1” T-shirts and hope there are still some left when I get to The Etihad on Saturday. If not I’d happily purchase one of those “The Joy of Six” shirts! Does that sound like an advert? I make no apology for that!

As the Editor and I were discussing this week, watching City play sublime football make all those defeats at York and Lincoln not to mention that dreadful 0-1 defeat at home to Bury (when the City fan ripped his season ticket up on the pitch in a game where neither team managed a shot on target, Bury’s goal going in from a corner off Paul Beesley’s backside) all the more worth it. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world would we! Those dark days certainly make you appreciate what we have now.

I had two good omens last weekend. On Saturday we were listening to The Pierces’ “Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge” album and one track I heard – “Turn on Billie” – had the lyric:

“We’ll paint the town blue
Cause baby, red is so passé”

My wife and I looked at each other when we heard that and were thinking the same thing. Manchester certainly has been painted Blue!

The second omen came on Sunday lunchtime when I was in the supermarket. Spotting my City shirt, a complete stranger told me we’d win 3-1. The man, who turned out to be a Chesterfield fan, asked me if I thought we’d win, and I told him that I don’t predict City’s results out of superstition. Anyway he wished us luck, I returned the goodwill to his team (their manager John Sheridan is a Blue by the way) and we were on our separate ways. When the score line was 3-1 (after all, we weren’t going to score any more were we!), I wondered if should seek out the fella (let’s call him the North Derbyshire Nostradamus) and get next week’s lottery numbers, then the Boys in Blue went and scored at will.

Superstitions? Omens? Load of old rubbish aren’t they…

I’m so looking forward to Saturday and seeing David Silva work his magic; seeing Vinny rock solid at the back; Micah’s marauding runs, Jimmy Milner’s energy and industry; Agüero’s cunning and cool finishing. Can’t wait.

But as City fan of almost 31 years standing I still say, don’t disappoint boys!

ARTICLE: MCIVTA TAKES CREDIT!

Just had to add to what was the best ever MCIVTA issue ever!

6-1, then a 5-2 – still smiling.

Has this anything to do with the new editor?

21 goals since he took over!

ARTICLE: THANK YOU CITY

On 23rd October 1990 my first child, a girl, was born. Her sister was born on the same day three years later. As an exiled Mancunian who was brought up on the Kippax I started taking my daughter to Maine Road as often as I could even though we live a bit down the road in Kent.

The years roll on and they were brought up properly, as Blues, and the eldest is now studying in Manchester. And so it came to pass that on the day that my daughters turned 21 and 18 we had a family get together and listened to the commentary of the Blues’ trip to the Salford midden.

To quote Noel Gallagher earlier this week: “Carlsberg don’t do weekends but if they did…”

Thanks City (and Heidi and MCIVTA while I’m at it).

ARTICLE: WHAT HAVE WE DONE?

Despite the pure poetry of hearing Ferguson admit it was the worst day of his career, I found his response alarmingly decent. If the most obnoxious man in football can become gracious in defeat, perhaps the rabid horde that cling to the bandwagon may become sports fans. It is all too unsettling to contemplate what a repeat performance in May will have on the fabric of space-time.

Further music to my ears was the Rags whistling, unsuccessfully begging the ref to put an end to Fergie time before they suffered more. What sweet justice that last goal was!

ARTICLE: TOO GOOD TO BE BLUE

I have been a subscriber for 15 years and, while I may be a keen reader, I have never dared to contribute… until now. The emphatic victory against the Rags has brought me out of my closet!

I live in New Zealand and all I have been hearing for the last week is “rugby this”, “all-blacks that”. Since England were knocked out of the rugby I’m kind of pleased for the Kiwis that they won the world cup, especially since it was against the French. But I’m sorry; winning by one point is not what I would call a “rugby margin”. So how ironic it was that just a few hours later Manchester City beat the Reds with what could actually be described as a rugby margin!

Oh happy day!

ARTICLE: THANK YOU ROBERTO

Went to a Steely Dan-Steve Winwood concert Sunday afternoon just south of Brisbane; been a fan of both for years. It was at a big winery so you can imagine the car park was packed and I thought I am not getting stuck in traffic when the concert finished.

Four songs in to Steely Dan I had to make a decision leave now or risk missing some of the game; no contest, I left for the Gold Coast.

I would like to thank a Mr Mancini for making that night a night I will always remember. The wife is a nurse so she got in just on kick-off time and when the goals started flowing in we were laughing and dancing around the lounge room; I think we woke the neighbours up, it was well after midnight. God knows what they thought we were up to!

Thank you to all the players, they were fantastic. David Silva you are a wizard; any coach who coaches young guys the game should sit them down and watch a tape of Silva in action, a true 90 minute footballer.

Well I have been wearing an assortment of City T shirts for the last few days around the Gold Coast and lapping it up.

Be back in Manchester in February 2012 for some games.

ARTICLE: TÉVEZ I

I am inclined to disagree with Martin Hunt’s comments about Carlos Tévez in MCIVTA 1774. If you read this morning’s ESPN Soccernet you will see the article about Tévez wanting to sue Mancini. It says that the club has written to the PFA for ratification of his fine specifying 5 contractual obligations that Tévez has breached by his actions at Munich. The case against him looks pretty watertight and I doubt if he will succeed in an appeal or in his bid to sue Mancini.

So it does not look like a case of lowering the charges to “refusing to warm up” or “principles going out the window” as Martin states. To my mind the point here is that it looks like Tévez is going to do his best to make an absolute nuisance of himself until he leaves the club.

This will be a drain on Mancini’s efforts to keep City on course for their first league title since 1968 and I think that it would have better for the board to have sold him to Corinthians for that bargain price and rid themselves of the problem once and for all time and never mind what the rest of the footballing world thinks! In today’s terms a loss of ten million quid is not much of a loss anyway.

ARTICLE: TÉVEZ II

I have to say I am very impressed with how City are dealing with Tévez. They have taken their time to gather the evidence and are rightly punishing Tévez. The four week fine and the two week suspension (which is now over) is the very least that he deserves in my opinion. It’s a pity that City have been forced by the PFA to halve the fine. How can the PFA represent Tévez and set the maximum punishment (i.e. a fine of two weeks’ wages)? Surely there is a conflict of interest where the PFA are concerned?

By refusing to warm up, Tévez was refusing to prepare to play. The manager cannot put people onto the pitch who refuse to warm up. Tévez denies refusing to play but who believes him? PFA Chief Exec Gordon Taylor apparently. More fool him. Tévez claimed he had been misinterpreted in his post-match interview (which he initiated). Again, who believes Tévez?

Now “sources close to” Tévez are saying that he is thinking of suing Roberto Mancini for defamation of character. How? If anyone has been defaming anyone it is Carlos Tévez. He has defamed himself with his actions.

It’s all such a shame because he was a key player in us getting 3rd place and therefore Champions’ League football. Great player, but his ridiculous behaviour has been appalling. We were prepared to forgive that because he gave his all on the pitch. His behaviour in Munich changed all that.

I’m so pleased that the club is backing Roberto Mancini unequivocally and holding out for the market value on Tévez. Let him rot, training on his own. Like the vast majority, I never want to see him play for Manchester City ever again.

RECOMMENDATION: LONDON VIEWING

Just a note to endorse the recommendation in MCIVTA on watching City in London. I was in London for the weekend and was concerned about where to watch the derby in United’s heartland. So I went along to the City Pride, Farringdon Lane, near Farringdon tube. It felt like the equivalent of watching the game in the Osborne.

The only non-Mancunian accents belonged to a small group of United fans who had bizarrely chosen that pub to watch the match. It was standing room only, the atmosphere and singing were second to none. A tremendous and passionate roar met each goal (except one). There was the usual hugging and high-fiving of complete strangers etc.

All in all, a great occasion, made better by watching with another mad City old friend I had not seen for ages. We’re both 57, and acted 40 years younger. Wound down and came back to earth in the Seven Stars, Holborn. It will stay long in the memory.

REQUEST: QPR TICKETS

Desperately seeking ticket for QPR. Please email <simonjhope(at)hotmail.com> if you can help.

REQUEST: VIENNA BLUES AND AZ ALKMAAR PARALLELS

I will be in Vienna on the 2nd of November. Are there any Vienna Blues and does anyone know of a good sports bar there to watch the Villarreal game?

I will be in Vienna to watch AZ Alkmaar play in the Europa League against FC Austria. The world is a little weird at the moment for City, who I have watched since the early sixties until I moved to Holland in 1979; I watched the Spurs final all alone minding someone’s house in Rotterdam; very lonesome.

As City disappeared from the TV, radio and printed media I had to get an Internet connection with the excuse that we had to get into tele-banking and there I discovered MCIVTA. Thank you all for a brilliant City newsletter.

After moving to Alkmaar in 1984 I started watching the local team AZ67. It was just like being at City. Relegation, no money, they even dropped the 67 in 1992 to avoid celebrating 25 years as a club. Then AZ got their own version of a sheikh, a Dutch banker and with a ten year plan we won the title in 2009; a bit late – whatever. He went bankrupt in 2010 and all the big earners had to go to keep the team alive. Now we are top of the league by 4 points and City by 5 points; are the gods driving us crazy before they destroy us?

The football experts on Dutch TV are just as bad as in England; after the 6-1 they were moaning over how much money we had spent etc. One of them even brought up Denis Law’s back heel goal and asked himself how a club hero could do that: was it professionalism or betrayal?! He didn’t know that Denis had already played for City before and thought that the goal had relegated United. I have sent an Email to correct these misconceptions.

I hope to hear from someone in Vienna.

AND FINALLY…

Best joke I’ve heard: On a scale of 1-6, how humiliated are United fans? What a result… is this the best start to season ever?

To restore some confidence back into Man. Utd. after their Sunday shelling by City, Alex Ferguson decided to introduce a new training exercise to his team. He obtained eight beer barrels from Robinson’s Brewery and set the barrels down the length of the training ground – instructing his players to simply dribble round the beer barrels and shoot at the empty net. Having set the exercise into motion, Ferguson left the pitch to make a phone call when he was abruptly interrupted by Rio Ferdinand who burst into Ferguson’s office and yelled out… “You’d better get back out there boss, the barrels are up 3-0!”

All the Man. Utd. players look pretty upset. Except Rooney. He can’t count to 6. He just looks confused.

I have just brought a new DVD about Carlos Tévez. The damn thing won’t play.

What’s David de Gea’s favourite colour?
Indigo!

RESULTS AND TABLE

League table to 26 October 2011 inclusive

                            HOME         AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L   F   A  GD Pts
 1 Manchester City  9  4  0  0 13  1  4  1  0 20  6  8  1  0  33   7  26  25
 2 Manchester Utd   9  4  0  1 17  9  2  2  0  9  3  6  2  1  26  12  14  20
 3 Chelsea          9  4  0  0 12  4  2  1  2  8  6  6  1  2  20  10  10  19
 4 Newcastle Utd    9  3  2  0  8  4  2  2  0  4  2  5  4  0  12   6   6  19
 5 Tottenham H.     8  2  0  1  7  6  3  1  1  8  7  5  1  2  15  13   2  16
 6 Liverpool        9  2  3  0  8  5  2  0  2  4  5  4  3  2  12  10   2  15
 7 Arsenal          9  4  0  1  9  4  0  1  3  6 14  4  1  4  15  18  -3  13
 8 Norwich City     9  2  1  1  6  4  1  2  2  5  8  3  3  3  11  12  -1  12
 9 Stoke City       9  2  2  0  4  1  1  1  3  3 10  3  3  3   7  11  -4  12
10 QPR              9  1  3  1  3  6  2  0  2  4  8  3  3  3   7  14  -7  12
11 Aston Villa      9  2  2  1  7  4  0  3  1  4  7  2 5   2  11  11   0  11
12 West Brom A.     9  1  1  2  3  3  2  1  2  6  8  3  2  4   9  11  -2  11
13 Everton          8  1  1  2  5  6  2  0  2  5  6  3  1  4  10  12  -2  10
14 Sunderland       9  1  1  2  7  5  1  2  2  5  5  2  3  4  12  10   2   9
15 Swansea City     9  2  2  0  5  0  0  1  4  4 14  2  3  4   9  14  -5   9
16 Wolves           9  1  1  3  5  9  1  1  2  3  5  2  2  5   8  14  -6   8
17 Fulham           9  1  3  1 10  6  0  1  3  1  6  1  4  4  11  12  -1   7
18 Bolton Wndrs     9  0  0  5  4 17  2  0  2  8  7  2  0  7  12  24 -12   6
19 Wigan Athletic   9  1  1  2  5  6  0  1  4  1  9  1  2  6   6  15  -9   5
20 Blackburn R.     9  1  0  4  6 12  0  2  2  4  8  1  2  6  10  20 -10   5

MCIVTA FAQ [v1112.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Philip Alcock)         : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour                      : 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 by email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

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

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://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/manchester/.

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

http://www.satfootball.com/ provides a listing of Premier League games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. A useful site for North American viewers is http://msn.foxsports.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://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/Usenet

[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] Do any squad members have their own Twitter accounts?

A list of genuine player accounts is maintained at http://twitter.com/#!/MCFC/players

[12] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth historical 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.

Philip Alcock, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: