Newsletter #1839

Our first meaningful pre-season friendly brought an encouraging 2-0 win over the Gooners in a rain-sodden former-Olympic Bird’s Nest stadium in Beijing.

First half goals from Zaba (41 minutes) and Yaya (44) gave us an unassailable lead and Joe Hart kept his 3rd consecutive clean sheet. For the record the team was: Pantilimon, Savic, Kolarov, Kompany (Boyata 57), Kolo, Zabaleta, Yaya (Johnson 78), Razak (Suarez 88), Biton, Tévez, Agüero (Lopes 90). George Evans also came on but not sure at what point or who for, anyone?

Around the game was the great news of young Vinnie committing to the club for the next 6 years, which is fantastic and sends out such a message of stability to prospective new arrivals. On a more worrying note, signs of growing discontent from Mancini in relation to our lack of signings and departures from the club. Hopefully, Mr Marwood has some tricks up his sleeve in the weeks remaining of the transfer window!

Enjoy the issue.

ARTICLE: THE HISTORY MAKERS

It might not be Christmas but it does feel like it is with all the good news that is coming out of City right now. News that Roberto Mancini has signed a new five year contract is like music to City ears. How wonderful it is that we have secured our legendary manager who has delivered our first trophy in 35 years and first Championship in 44. It is better still that the club has shown significant faith in him to give him an extended contract to allow him the opportunity to really dominate on the domestic front and have a good run at winning the Champions’ League.

With the huge financial outlay from Sheikh Mansour, not to mention the excellent organisation of the club, Roberto Mancini has transformed the mentality within the club. The players are now winners. They never know when they are beaten and for that he deserves rich credit. Every point must be fought for. Every game is treated as “must win”. Anyone can spend money but spending it wisely and using every player available to be successful is another thing. Roberto has certainly delivered in the transfer market and made great use of the players he inherited too. He has blended them together them together to be Champions.

The football that Mancini and his players have served up is not only winning football but great to watch. City’s short passing game is reminiscent of Barcelona and Spain. I know, I can hardly believe I am saying that, but it is true. Watching City is a real delight. What a contrast it is from the dark days of our slide to the 3rd Division and later than that, the mind numbing days of the latter part of Stuart Pearce’s reign when I used to dread going to matches.

Now look what we have (and please forgive me for stating the obvious). Two trophies in the cabinet: that glorious FA Cup win and now a well-merited League title. We are about to embark on our second year of Champions’ League football.

Winning football matches at this level is not easy. Teams often try to stop you, making it very difficult to break them down. Mancini has shown great flexibility in his ability to think on his feet, making tactical adjustments where necessary. Mancini and his assistants have had to work very hard to change tactics to give us another threat and they have delivered. Of course every manager makes mistakes and some games are lost, but Mancini makes very few errors.

Roberto has much to prove in Europe, and wouldn’t it be great if he could surpass himself here? I’m delighted that he will be given a good chance to make City better and to try to win the Champions’ League. The first priority is to win the League again, and Roberto Mancini with four Championships to his name: three with Inter and of course, ours!). The man has made history wherever he has been.

Talking of history, I’d like to bring to your attention an excellent, comprehensive compilation of City history by Ric Turner and Gary James on the Bluemoon forum. It has details of all City’s matches going back to 1892, with various ways to search it (by season, opponent and competition). We can find details of every player who has kicked a ball for City, every manager that has managed us and every Chairman that has chaired a Boardroom. If that’s not enough for you, there are details of the kits City have played in, a thought-provoking “50 greatest City players” section and much, much more. Thanks very much to Ric and Gary for their hard work in compiling it. It’s clearly been a labour of love. I have already found it useful in my writing.

http://forums.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=260780&sid=0a876b5153e39016f37dc65d5ac2bd2d

I’d also like to recommend to you Paul Lake’s book, “I’m not really here”, which is due out in paperback on 2nd August. If you haven’t already read the hardback, I can tell you that it is a brilliant book that details Paul’s life thus far, and it truly is a cracking read. That FA Youth Cup Winning team of 1986 and derby 5-1 winners of 1989 are very special to many of us and Paul is up there with any player that I have seen for City. This book brings that era to life vividly. This superb book also brings home the sadness and challenges that he has faced. It is truly moving and is a must for every City fan.

ARTICLE: TWO BALD MEN FIGHTING OVER A COMB

I was speaking to a Man U fan today at our business for breakfast meeting.

I said: “I don’t want RVP to come to Manchester…”

He said: “Go on, finish the sentence, you mean City…”

“Honestly I don’t want RVP at City or United. I think we are at the stage where he is not top priority at either club but neither want him to join the other Manchester (Gtr) team. I hope he does the decent thing, respect Arsenal, wave goodbye and go to Juventus. I think the Premier League has seen the best of him. Arsenal don’t want any more p*** take about being a feeder club, neither do they want a barnstorming season for either Manchester club.”

Plus a lecture from Bacon Chops on City’s spending, that’s a bit like Nick Griffin lecturing on race relations…

C’mon!

ANNOUNCEMENT: KOTK 198

Pleased, as always to announce, that King Of The Kippax, City fanzine, number 198, the Champions issue, should be finally out this weekend and in the outlet at Aleef on Friday afternoon.

It’s a bumper 56 page issue as you can imagine with a colour front and back cover and is priced at £3. The front cover has a gold theme, coincidentally as per the recent MCIVTA issue. We’ve got City fan Becky Cantrill (Dad writes the City World article) celebrating on the pitch after our stroll to victory vs. QPR. The caption is “and when I looked, the moon had turned to gold!” – a line from Blue Moon which we never reach as we don’t get past the first verse usually! But I still enjoy singing it.

There’s tons of stuff in this issue including the QPR match, Richer than God book review, Euros, Colin Shindler book comments, Power Shift, rags float, and all the usual regulars.

It can also be bought direct from (cheques to) King Of The Kippax, 25, Holdenbrook Close, Leigh, Lancs, WN7 2HL.

ANNOUNCEMENT: PETER BLAKEY

Just a quick line following something I saw in last night’s MEN.

There was a funeral announcement for Peter Blakey, the former City physio. He sadly passed away on July 19th aged 82 years. The funeral at Burnley crematorium July 31st at 1:40pm.

ANNOUNCEMENT: SO SAD

How very sad it is to hear of the death of Claudio Reyna’s son, Jack, from cancer, at the tender age of 13. I cannot imagine how it must be for Claudio and Danielle Reyna and their three other children. Our thoughts are with the Reyna family.

AND FINALLY… SEARCHING FOR CHUCK

My name is Neil Chatterton, the Recruitment Officer for the HMS Decoy Association. During my time on HMS Decoy during 1967-70 a great friend of mine was in the same Mess. Now comes the tricky bit, he was called “Chuck” Berry (we all had our nicknames, mine was Chatts for obvious reasons), we sailed together for the best part of 5 years before parting company in 1970 to go our separate ways within the Royal Navy.

“Chuck” was a great Man City supporter and I hope that this will bring a result in finding him. We hold a reunion for the ex HMS Decoy Ships Company every year, it’s our 26th next year! If any of your members can contact “Chuck”, it would be great.

Thanking you in advance for any information that you may hold.

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
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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/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: