Newsletter #1837

Just ahead of our game this evening against Uwe Rösler’s old team, Dynamo Dresden, a few notes from me having watched our first game of the season, the 0-1 defeat to Saudi side Al Hilal. Maybe this was the best result imaginable? It keeps us honest! We dominated and it was a bit of a freak result but gave us a look at a number of the ‘next’ generation, which was insightful.

It was very much a pre-season game, but I think we can form some opinions as to who may make an impact. I’ll not review those we know but will make some comment on the lesser-known names who appeared.

As there were wholesale changes at half time I’ll split my review on that basis.

The team itself was : Pantillimon (Johnason), Zabaleta (Boyata), Kolarov (Helen), Rekik (Savic), Kompany (Kolo), Johnson (Weiss), Yaya (Razak), Nir Biton (Abdelloui), Scapuzzi (George Evans 63), Tévez (Jelavic), Lopez (Bunn)

First half:

Rekik: Looked totally at ease next to Kompany and you could see why he earned 3 MoM awards out of 8 appearances for Pompey at the sharp end of last season. A Pompey friend of mine thought this 17 year old was absolute class.

Biton: This boy can actually tell you if Yaya has a bald patch he is that tall. Defensive rock though needs to improve his short passing.

Scapuzzi: Has earned a reputation as being a little petulant, Pompey releasing him but keeping Rekik being an example, but clearly has skills and can play anywhere on the pitch.

Lopez: Yup, I get the fuss about this boy. Lovely touch, plays where it hurts and could be something to get excited about. Plays in the hole and will get Bobby Johnstone fans excited.

2nd half:

Johanson: No chance on the goal, very little to do, impossible to judge.

Boyata: Looks to have developed a bit of street savvy. One senses he wouldn’t make the type of challenge that got him sent off against Arsenal again.

Helan: Micah Richards Mark II. Pace, power, enthusiasm matched with positional uncertainty! He could be one heck of a player.

Savic: Goes to ground too quickly and ultimately cost us the goal.

Weiss: I am this kid’s biggest fan but fear he may prove too peripheral for Mancini’s liking. That said, looked significantly better than Johnson.

Razak: Looks good and has clearly gained from his loan experiences. A season on the bench could kill him though so hopefully a season at a good Championship club will await.

Abdelloui: Didn’t notice him to be honest.

Evans: Speaking as a Cheadle boy myself, I’m totally impartial about him. Messi move over!

Jelavic: For a big lad some great touches. Sense he was trying too hard to make an impression and didn’t make an impact where it hurts as a result.

Filippe Mancini: Only a short time on the pitch, looked tidy.

Bunn: A real live wire and unlucky not to score the equaliser. Looks like a mini Tévez.

ARTICLE: MCIVTA REFLECTIONS

Well, as I sit here at the computer we are now exactly two months to the day on from a certain rather memorable date in our Club’s history (yikes! it’s Friday 13th, so in order to not jinx City’s fortunes and our upcoming campaign, I promise not to spend the night stood under a ladder, smashing mirrors with next door’s black cat).

I’ve obviously saved the Champions’ Edition of MCIVTA, but also the last issue before it (and truth be told, I now wish I’d still got every match report from the season – even the grim ones I could barely spare more than a cursory skim of at the time). Anyway, with his generous permission, I’d like to reprint snippets of Phil’s intro to the last issue sent whilst the season was still on-going, and add a couple of comments to it:

How will I feel cutting and pasting the final results and the League table into the document? Tears in my eyes? … But what kind of tears?!

So though I can guess how you felt and what sort of tears, if any, they were, can I also assume that many folks on the day itself shed both kinds at various points? In copious quantities?

It is simply unfathomable what has happened to the club these glorious past few years.

Agreed in full. Between City and England I had come to start thinking that football was long a mostly joyless addiction. Wow! Has that changed at least at Club level or what?

This edition of MCIVTA is one of my favourites

A wild stab in the dark now: I’m guessing you had not too dissimilar thoughts about the next one, eh? (ED – You Betchya Steve!)

I’ve found taking over the editorship of MCIVTA a real privilege, especially when you get articles out of the Blue from folk which really show their emotions of fear, excitement and, worst of all(!), hope.

Aye, there has been no shortage at all of extreme emotion. That’s the part of success I was unprepared for: instead of expecting little but taking what we could get, suddenly every two out of three matches were gut-wrenching affairs to be only enjoyed upon the final whistle. Never was this more so than that season finale itself.

Roll on Sunday; no matter what it brings, I simply cannot wait and am expecting a battle to the very last kick.

Oh you’re good, really good! It was indeed the last kick from us. Hart trapped but didn’t kick the ball. You’ll have to tell me what lotto numbers I should pick this week, mate!

Anyhow, cheers to all. I hope that thinking of that day is helping you through this dreadful summer we’re suffering (and to those in such locales as Italy, Spain or the US, moaning about too much heat – oh, if only…)!

P.S. It is a rarity indeed for me to disagree with Phil B, but I must do so most strongly on this occasion. I think Beckham has fully earned the right to play for our Olympic team. Not only that but I also think Lord Coe should start on the other wing and Boris Johnson play in goals and Sir Steve Redgrave should be on the bench, ready to come on if the pitch starts looking overly damp.

Anyhow, cheers all, I’m off for my next swig of meths now!

P.P.S. on a more sober note, I would rather have had Micah fully rested than playing in the (Pah! Spit!) Olympics.

ARTICLE: GREATEST NEWS SINCE WE WON THE PREMIER LEAGUE

City, as far as I know, have not signed a single new player as of yet for next season, but the best signing by MCFC is, without doubt in my mind, that of Roberto Mancini for five years.

Not only have City won the FA Cup and Premier League, but now it finally appears that we have stability at our club, long may Bobby Mac reign!

It looks like City are getting rid of some dead wood before any new players are signed, not that City need many, just a couple of top class players to fine tune.

Congratulations to our manager/coach!

Come on you Blues! In Mancini I trust!

ARTICLE: BBC PUNDITRY DEBATE

Following on from Phil’s posting I’d like to pick up on his general view of the quality of the MOTD pundits. I agree totally that Hansen, Lawrenson and Shearer are well past their sell-by date and also agree that MOTD has become an ‘old boys club’ for those individuals – an old boys club we’re paying their membership of.

I can easily picture them in some stuffy old private members club sat in their leather armchairs round an open fire recounting tales of their glory days and the empire. This tired and stale status quo is why decent programmes and programme-makers change their team from time to time, to bring freshness, new views and most importantly a change of faces to the studio (they do it for the commentary team so why not the presenters?).

MOTD has rested on its institutional laurels and because of its tradition and lack of a competing format, probably feels safe and untouchable (I would be interested to see how its viewing figures have trended in an era when everybody wants to watch the Premier League, attendance figures have risen and Sky subscriptions have increased).

Where I would differ from Phil is I don’t think the likes of Hansen, Lawrenson and Shearer do say anything controversial, at least deliberately. They trot out the same tired, safe, go with the flow (after all, most but City fans would agree regarding Mario) comments that they think make them insightful and interesting. They’re wrong on both counts.

I too thought it was very noticeable how much more entertaining the punditry became when the new faces like Klinsman, Vialli and Seedorf were brought in.

It’s interesting that Lineker has begun to distance himself from them. After all this ‘bring in new faces’, ‘freshen it up’ is the very ticket on which Lineker usurped Des Lynam when he set himself the goal of becoming MOTD presenter.

MOTD has also been fortunate that when there is competition, for things like tournament football, ITV continue to shoot themselves in the foot with weak presentation led by the much vilified Adrian Chiles (I can honestly say I’ve never come across a more universally disliked presenter; in fact I’ve now taken to asking everybody, when football is the debate, what they think of Chiles and can also honestly say I have never heard a complimentary comment, not even a neutral comment).

Sky took a big punt on Gary Neville and I for one threatened to cancel my Sky subscription. Hands up, he has turned into probably the best pundit on TV with his unbiased, professional, entertaining and knowledgeable views and analysis (who’d have thunk it?).

The other thing that irks me is Lawrenson and, particularly Mowbray, spend their whole commentary swapping crass and pathetic sarcastic comments and ‘witty’ one-liners. The final straw for me was when they started character assassinating Robben when he quickly left the field on the far side after being substituted against Germany.

Holland were losing to Germany at the time and I was happy to accept that Robben was just getting off the field as quickly as possible. I certainly didn’t think he deserved the negative attention he subsequently got. The game was forgotten as Lawrenson and, I think it was Mowbray, concentrated their vitriol on Robben. “Look at him making a point of walking round in front of the Dutch fans”. “Yes, he’s walking round the pitch back to the bench. Oh and he’s making sure he walks past all the photographers.” “Yes, he’s walking round the pitch back to the bench.” Then Lawrenson comes out with possibly the tiredest old cliché “There’s no I in team” – WTF? He then unbelievably surpasses this with the absolutely toe-curling “You know what TEAM stands for. Together Everyone Achieves More”. Had he been on some management team-building course that week?

Again I don’t think Lawrenson thought for one minute he was being controversial, just expressing his self-centred view, which of course everyone would agree with. A more interesting angle would have been to simply raise the debate of what people thought Robben’s motives were and let us decide. It was pathetic, trite and enough to make me do what I should have done earlier, turn the volume down.

Now there are those who will always say “Well that is an option if you don’t like it”. Unfortunately you also lose the sound of the crowd and the atmosphere of the game. A good option would be to be able to mute the commentary but retain the stadium noise (there was a live game earlier this season when there was a loss of commentary for about 20 minutes, but you could still hear the crowd; it was wonderful). I wonder if there would be changes if the BBC knew that this is what everybody chose to do? The real point is it shouldn’t be necessary.

The aim of the commentary and presentation team, whilst we don’t necessarily agree with everything they say, is surely to entertain and inform? Not be vindictive and spiteful.

As nothing is likely to change I have decided that the ‘switch off if you don’t like it’ option is the one I will take more often in future. Why should I even care what Hansen, Lawrenson and Shearer think? I’m more annoyed that I’m paying for not liking them.

I already switch off at half-time for live games and mute the analysis on MOTD. I think I’ll extend this to muted commentary of live games, when I can’t be at the match myself, and make my own noise, comments and analysis. At least I’ll agree with them.

ARTICLE: GLYN PARDOE AND KUALA LUMPUR

I met Glyn Pardoe last year at the Academy. I took my dad along (he has Parkinson’s disease). What a lovely unassuming guy Glyn Pardoe is. He made such a fuss about my dad and wanted to know all about him (no ego present). Glyn is the cousin of Alan Oakes I think!

Glyn was 15 years of age when he made his début. I asked him how he felt, and he replied “not nervous really, I just wanted to play football”. I seem to remember that he played in virtually every position on the field. Anyway, a very, very nice bloke and a true City legend!

On another note, I am going to Kuala Lumpur to watch the pre-season friendly; does anybody know of places fans will be meeting up?

ARTICLE: GOK MAN WRITES…

First of all, congratulations to David Silva on being a Euro 2012 Champion and commiserations to Mario Balotelli, Joe Hart, Joleon Lescott, James Milner and Samir Nasri.

Unless I am mistaken, it was an unprecedented tournament in that four City players scored for four different teams (Joleon, Samir, Mario and David)! Well done chaps.

Our boys will be wearing new City shirts very soon in pre-season. The new Umbro home kits have been launched and what fine shirts they are (they had been leaked on the Internet at least 6 weeks ago so didn’t come as a total surprise). The only gripe I’d have is that I’d prefer a colour badge on the home shirt, but even then the monochrome crest is smart.

Noel Gallagher is clearly standing on at least one Amp in the promotional picture for the home shirt as he is clearly not taller than Sir Vincent of Kompany. The Burgundy/Maroon away shirt evokes memories of the era of Paul Lake, David White and Andy Hinchcliffe, though of course it is a colour that has been worn intermittently in City’s history from days of yore (1934 and 1956 Cup finals). Maybe someone could fill us in with when this colour strip was first worn? (ED – One for Gary James if you see this Gary?)

Umbro have done us proud over the last four years and it is a shame that they will no longer be making our shirts from next season when parent company Nike takes over. Of course, from a financial point of view for City, the Nike deal makes sense. I just hope that we are not subjected to the sort of nonsense that Trafford get from Nike. It was a genuine “laugh out loud” moment in the office a few weeks back when I saw the Gingham table cloth effort that Nike have foisted upon our neighbours. Maybe I shouldn’t laugh too much with Nike taking over City’s shirt deal.

I hope, though, that Nike would consult with the club and in turn, the fans. Nike and the club could consult with Points of Blue about some ideas, go away and produce three designs that we as season ticket holders and members could vote on: the most popular design being the winner! It makes sense, as we do not necessarily buy any old rubbish here at City! Besides it is in City’s and our interests to produce a design that is popular.

RESPONSE: GENERAL MUSINGS

Just had to smile when reading Glyn Albuquerque’s piece ‘GENERAL MUSINGS’. I’m not having a go at you here Glyn, your views are as valid as the next man’s (I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it – Voltaire). What amused me was your critique of Balotelli and then a few lines down your liking for Mats Hummels. Is this the same Mats that Balotelli absolutely took to the cleaners when he destroyed the Germans with a world class display?

ARTICLE: THE VERDICT

My understanding of the consequences for justice and fairness of the recent trial:

The magistrate gave ‘is opinion,
As no-one were rightly to blame,
and he found Mr Terry not guilty
Of using a bad, wicked name.

At that Rio got proper angry,
“Well thank you sir kindly” said he
But we all know Terry’s a bar steward
and I’ll clog ‘im next season, you’ll see.

ARTICLE: RANGERS

Now we are over the celebrations of being Champions I have a question:

That is if the other team had won would they have had to wait another day or two for the Trophy to be presented at OT?

However, if it was going to be presented on the day to whoever won the trophy and thus would have been presented either at Sunderland or Eithad Stadium was the trophy therefore in a helicopter hovering somewhere over the Pennine range waiting for the last minute instructions whether to go East or West (ED – No a replica trophy was on standby at the Stadium of Light)?

Thinking back a few years I was apprehensive to say the least that City may have ended up in financial trouble and would have ended up outside the Premier and Football Leagues and, therefore, I think that perhaps “Rangers” are lucky that Scotland does not have the Conference and lower division set up that England has!

I think that the “Rangers” will struggle from now on as the “newco” set up in Scotland’s 3rd Division but all the same perhaps that was what was required so it sends a message to other clubs that they all should watch their financial positions or they may end up in lower Conference divisions on reforming after receiverships and liquidation proceedings!

I do feel sorry though for the “Rangers” fans but not the Scottish Football Association nor the TV organisations as they also need to be aware of the problems involved in the business world!

All this should remind people that not everyone can win as there has to be also a loser which is why I think clubs are unrealistic at times when they change their managers frequently and “institutions” can change and go away, take for instance “Kodak”!

Another question: why do sports teams have numbers on the players’ backs; surely, particularly in football, the historical reason has long passed by, now clubs have the easy means to put names on shirts?

AND FINALLY… BLUE HUMOUR

This was at the end of an article on the MCFC website following speculation in the press that Roberto was off to manage Russia, most amusing:

The Manchester Evening News claims that plans to create a ‘singing section’ at Old Trafford have been scuppered by The Poznan.

A report obtained by the M.E.N. highlights police concern that away supporters, particularly those of City, will ‘move in a similar synchronised fashion’ therefore causing the stand to ‘flex’.

It is unclear as to whether the ‘similar synchronised movement’ celebration being repeated six times exacerbated the issue.

RESULTS AND TABLE

Final League table

                    P  GD Pts
 1 Manchester City 38  64  89 *CHAMP16NS*
 2 Manchester Utd  38  56  89
 3 Arsenal         38  25  70
-----------------------------
 4 Tottenham H.    38  25  69
 5 Newcastle Utd   38   5  65
-----------------------------
 6 Chelsea         38  19  64
 7 Everton         38  10  56
 8 Liverpool       38   7  52
 9 Fulham          38  -3  52
10 West Brom A.    38  -7  47
11 Swansea City    38  -7  47
12 Norwich City    38 -14  47
13 Sunderland      38  -1  45
14 Stoke City      38 -17  45
15 Wigan Athletic  38 -20  43
16 Aston Villa     38 -16  38
17 QPR             38 -23  37
-----------------------------
18 Bolton Wndrs    38 -31  36
19 Blackburn R.    38 -30  31
20 Wolves          38 -42  25

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: