Newsletter #1838

Well our first ‘big’ pre-season game approaches as we head towards what might already be classed as a ‘showdown’ with the ever more upset Arsène and Arsenal (sans van Persie). It’s good we are supporting our feeder club with a friendly don’t you think!

That said, I sense RvP may be head for someone else other than us. Losing him to Eastlands would be a little too unpalatable to them one senses.

A lovely edition this evening and the launch of this season’s Fantasy League. Thanks, as ever, to Dave K for taking the lead with this and do enjoy yourselves with it. Definitely going to make my début in it this season.

Interesting articles, heartfelt requests abound, finished off nicely by a lovely ‘And Finally’ about Arthur Mann and our surprising synergies with Heart of Midlothian!

As ever, enjoy.

ARTICLE: NEW FANTASY LEAGUE SEASON

It’s that time already. Registration for the 2012/13 season is now underway at: http://fantasy.premierleague.com/

You will need to register, which does involve going through several pages of accepting or declining stuff to be sent. Once done, you can register and select your team and ask to join private leagues from the drop-down. It will ask you for a code. If you would like to join the MCIVTA classic league, the code number is 91824-29288. If you want to join the MCIVTA Head-To-Head league, the code is 91824-29304.

Of course you are welcome to join both. You can register the same team with both leagues so there is no extra work to do during the season.

Once, again I ask you to look to your hearts and your consciences and make your squads United-free. As I’ve said before I don’t really have the time to police it, but if the worst happens and we drop points in the Premier League to the Swamp-dwellers I may just purge the League and kick out anybody who dabbles in the dark arts. You have been warned (ED – Sounds fair enough to me!).

I look forward to seeing your teams online. Good luck.

ARTICLE: JOEY BARTON DOPPELGANGER

I’m sure that Coronation Street fans like myself have noticed that the returning character of Michelle’s son, Ryan, is now being played by a new actor. Can’t say I like that kind of meddling but that’s got nowt to do with City so I’ll move on to the fact that, after him being a previously bland part of the programme, he has returned as very much a “bad lad” with a stinky attitude.

Hmmmm, given all of that, is it coincidence or not that said new actor looks very much like a certain Joey Barton? Hmmmm, I rather think not!

ARTICLE: CLASS

Just catching up on the last MCIVTA and wanted to compliment Jack Millington on quoting Voltaire. I can’t see you finding that in Red Issue 🙂

ARTICLE: AUSTRIAN CAMPAIGN

I was there for the Besiktas game and I’m sure many more followed it from afar, so I won’t bore everyone with details of the game. It was easy for me and a mate to drive down from Munich (my base) and mingle with the large Turkish following (5% of Bavaria’s population is of Turkish origin so no surprise there).

What I had not allowed for was, when securing tickets on-line, that I would be allocated with the Turkish contingent. I was the sole (obvious) City fan in that section as my mate refused to adorn himself with the colours (coming from Oldham). The game was a stroll and Tévez looked overweight still, but my mate and I were very impressed with Vinny’s composure and if I may say attention to instruction (I swear that he could hear me shout “Go for it Vinny” as he hesitated and shot: well all the Turks heard me and looked at me as one).

We stayed overnight in Seefeld but failed to see the team. We found the hotel and could see why City were based there (a beauty). We went round next morning and I caught up with 2 guys with “Umbro” printed on tops and assumed they were City staff (too old to play) and got into conversation, only to discover they were from a visiting German team (Werder).

Anyway, they knew all about City and the fact that they would be playing at Wolfsburg on the way back from the Far East before the season starts (which was news to me). Anyway, a thoroughly good experience, but a pity the team did not make more fuss over the travelling fans (not me of course as I was heading for a Weissbier).

Ready for the next encounter!

FOR THE RECORD I: CITY 0 DYNAMO DRESDEN 0

Lineup: Pantillimon (Johansen 73), Savic (Mancini 85), Kolarov (Helan 73), Kompany (Rekik 67), Kolo (Boyata 85), Zabaleta (Abdelloui), Yaya (Razak 70), Nir Biton (Evans 85), Lopez (Weiss 61), Tévez (Scapuzzi 73), Agüero (Jelavic HT (Bunn 85))

FOR THE RECORD II: CITY 2 BESIKTAS 0

Lineup: Pantillimon, Zabaleta (Rekik 69), Kolorov (Helan 89), Kompany (Savic 58), Kolo (Boyata 88), Lopez (Weiss HT), Yaya (Evans 75), Razak, Johnson (Mancini 89), Tévez (Scapuzzi 64), Agüero (Jelavic 69)

City recorded their first goals and first win on their Austrian tour. A few changes were made, most notably with Johnson on the left and 16 year old Lopez raiding on the right. Agüero calmly slotted us in front on 43 minutes with a cool left foot shot from 18 yards. Kompany then added a sublime second on 55, charging the length of the field to pick up a through ball from Johnson and slotting home. A very good Beckenbauer impersonation!

However, in the 64th minute Johnson undid his good work. Having brought the ball away from a corner and with Agüero peeling to the left on a diversion to leave Tévez with a clear run on goal. Johnson aims for Agüero and puts the ball out for throw in. Tévez was disbelieving.

That said, it was our liveliest performance by far. Almost too lively on occasion, especially when Cheadle-born George Evans scythed down canny Fernandes in the 77th minute. It was nice to see Kolarov run 30 yards to defend the youngster though.

MoM was Razak, who looked very accomplished in midfield.

ARTICLE: GOING FOR GOLD

What an amazing sporting week it’s been with Bradley Wiggins being the first British person to win the Tour de France. What a brilliant achievement, and hopefully he can go on and win Gold again at the Olympics.

In this special Olympic week I’d like to wish all our Olympians all the very best for London 2012, particularly our own Micah Richards, and Jessica Ennis. It would be a fitting reward for Micah, who has scandalously been overlooked for a squad place with England for far too long. Bringing any sort of medal home would be an amazing achievement for British footballers. Very best of luck to him.

I wouldn’t have known Jessica Ennis was going to be such an amazing athlete when she worked at the gym that I attended in Sheffield, because she is so modest and unassuming, and it was a while before she even mentioned that she was an athlete. Clearly she has developed into a top athlete and I hope she can win the Gold in London.

Very best of luck to her, and to all our athletes.

REQUEST: GERRY GOW TESTIMONIAL

My son and I are going to the forthcoming Gerry Gow testimonial at Ashton Gate (28th July). My son is especially looking forward to seeing his City hero Shaun Goater play and I am looking forward to seeing one of my City heroes, Peter Barnes.

I was wondering if anyone knows of a pub where City supporters are meeting before the game?

REQUEST: CITY IN MALAYSIA

Effective planning means my business-related travels can accommodate a lay-over in Kuala Lumpur for the City match on 30 July. I’d like to hear from City fans planning to attend the match.

Where are you meeting up before kick-off for a beer or two?

REQUEST: CITY QPR RECORDING

I have a request to make to my fellow MCIVTA readers. I was wondering if anyone had a recording from the Sky coverage of the last day game against QPR?

Sadly due to lack of Sky at home I was unable to record the game and simply ‘enjoyed’ the game down at the local, which was great (in the end) but not something I can return to and saviour.

Obviously, I’m ready and willing to cover all costs of producing a DVD-R and postage and anything else involved, but I would really like to keep the game for posterity, fully accompanied with Martin Tyler’s unmissable ‘Agüeroooooooooooooooo’ commentary.

Would be really grateful if someone can help me out.

AND FINALLY… ARTHUR MANN

I have been an avid reader for a few years now and often thought about contributing in some small way to show my gratitude for keeping me in the City ‘loop’ especially in previous years when related info was much harder to come by.

Anyway, the mention of Arthur Mann in MCIVTA 1836 inspired me to eventually pen something you may just find interesting.

As a very young Heart of Midlothian fan, Mann was the first Hearts player I idolised. With us he was a stylish attacking left back and I remember the Daily Express at the time had a prototype ‘dream team’ and his weekly score kept him well ahead of the more fashionable players of the old firm.

To say I was devastated when he was transferred, albeit for a then British record for a full back, is an understatement but being young I quickly bounced back and moved on to the likes of Drew Busby and Donald Ford at Tynecastle.

However, I also started to look out for any fleeting mentions of how AM was getting on at Manchester City, which was pretty rare and apart from the odd TV highlights it was confined to keeping up with results and saving some City home programmes, where at least his appearances were listed.

Gradually, I started to find out more and more about this ‘Manchester City’ who by then had huge similarities with Hearts (well in my eyes anyway). Both had maroon kits, won the cup in 1956, had underachieved for years and were dominated by their city rivals but, despite this, had fantastic, loyal, hard core fans. Most of my schoolmates were Manure or Liverpool not they would say because they were gloryhunters but because of the strong Scottish connections at both clubs (Spurs too because of Dave Mackay) but slowly I managed, in part thanks to Dennis Law, to ‘convert’ a few pals.

The next obvious step was to actually watch City in the flesh, so we started going to any friendlies up in Scotland, meeting up with any City fans we could and having a good banter with them.

Eventually we began travelling down to Maine Road and vividly remember standing on the Kippax agog at the fact that 6 foot 6 skinheads were standing with pints of beer! My second most vivid memory was of the multi-culturalness of the crowd, something not seen in Scotland then or even now.

Anyway, we were hooked, often driving down and often sleeping in the car as we could not afford a hotel. I remember coming down for a Spurs(?) game, it was the two Argentina fellas’ début seasons, skiving into the Ramones at Belle Vue then kipping in a Hillman Minx in a car park outside Smarties discotheque!

Fast forward and I still get to occasional City games both home and away, domestic and in Europe, from the sublime to the ridiculous… Luton and Schalke anyone? Mostly, the frequency depends greatly on how HMFC are doing on the grand roller-coaster of having a mad Lithuanian dictator as owner but a couple of cups and decent tilts at the OF kept interest pricked. Watching City winning the FA Cup at Wembley in a bar in central Edinburgh – pretty amazing.

Or so I thought… until May this year when the unthinkable, not even at the furthest reaches of my fevered imagination, happened. Yes, City scraped the narrowest, jammiest (ED – I’d disagree it was jammy) League title ever at the expense of United and a mere 6 days later saw Hearts pulp, pummel, punish and pee all over Hibernian 5-1 in the Scottish cup final at Hampden Park.

I cried when Hey Jude was played at the League winning party and blubbered like a baby when it was also played at Hampden less than a week later! This was easily the best week of my life and can never ever be bettered.

Arthur Mann RIP I thank you!

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: