Newsletter #1847

A genuine dilemma this evening! Where on earth to start?!

Champions’ League I think, as the group we were put into in today’s draw is genuinely that, a League of Champions. Specifically, the Champions of England, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands.

The shock and fear of being in the ‘Group of Death’ is balanced by the excitement and hope of being drawn in the ‘Group of Death’. Some genuinely fantastic nights await us and, hey, if we win?!

The full fixture list is in the link below and if you feel for a moment of perspective, contemplate this: our final group game away at Borussia Dortmund takes place 4 days short of the 14th anniversary of a 1-2 home defeat to Mansfield Town in the first round of the ‘old’ Associate Members’ Cup in front of our lowest ever crowd of 3,007!

http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/competitions/Draws/01/85/36/38/1853638_DOWNLOAD.pdf

What next?

Oh yes, it’s Transfer Deadline Day!

It looks like young Brian Marwood is in for a busy day with deals to be wrapped up for Scott Sinclair and Matija Nastasic plus us being linked very strongly with Maicon, Benfica’s Javi Garcia and Richard Wright (yes, Richard Wright, you know… the one we never thought was quite as good as Nicky Weaver!). Outbound activity looks likely to include the much-loved Nigel de Jong heading to AC Milan, Roque Santa Cruz to somewhere (please!) and maybe even Edin to Arsenal! Ok, I’m now sounding like an MEN journo but hey, I’m looking forward to it all unravelling, hope you are too.

P.S. We’ve also drawn Villa in the Littlewoods Coca Milk Rumbelows Cup

ARTICLE: COLD BALL… WARM BALL:

Quelle surprise… well, knock me down with a feather (Trevor). City have been given possibly the worst draw possible for the Champions’ League: Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax (would getting Juventus have made it any worse?). So that’s the Champions of Spain, Germany and Holland.

Whilst United have got Braga, Galatasaray and Cluj. Couldn’t see that one coming, could you! Yes, there’s the business of coefficients and all that but it is rather fishy, I have to say. Well, we will just have to confound this draw and prove we are Champions. With a year’s experience at that level we should be better. Now that would really put the cat amongst the pigeons.

Come on City!

ANNOUNCEMENT: PREMIER LEAGUE TROPHY AND COMMUNITY SHIELD AT REDDISH

The next meeting of Reddish branch of the Supporters’ Club is on Wednesday 12 September at Reddish Working Men’s Club, 129 Greg Street, Stockport, SK5 7LN, starting at 8.00pm (doors 7.30pm).

The Premier League Trophy and Community Shield will be there on the night and our confirmed guests for the evening are City legends Ian Bishop, Paul Lake and Alex Williams.

The meeting is open to everyone and membership is available on the night.

For more details contact Branch Secretary, Howard Burr, at:

ANNOUNCEMENT: KOTK 199

Pleased to announce that KK199 is at the printers and should be in the outlets at Aleef and Urbis by Friday afternoon. This issue is the usual A4, 48 pages and sells for £2.50.

Front cover has Mancini holding up the (Community) Shield to stave off all the arrows, jibes, snidey digs etc. from our pathetic media.

It includes all the usual regulars plus stuff on the Olympics, the media, reviews of books – Richer than God and Man City Ruined My Life (Colin Shindler’s, not mine – though there have been moments!). Previews, reviews of games, daft pundit quotes from last season, Gerry Gow testimonial, Premier League team previews, typical City, cartoons and loads more.

It can also be purchased from 25, Holdenbrook Close, Leigh, Lancs, WN7 2HL for £3.60 including P&P (cheques to King Of the Kippax). We’re hoping to also continue the Kindle version as per KK’s 196, 197 and 198, which can be obtained on Amazon.

Thanks for your support.

ARTICLE: TRANSFERS…

Tick follows tock follow tick… the transfer window gradually draws to a close and it’s not been the exciting summer that we expected.

City are abiding by Platini’s so-called Fair Play Rules – rules that take no account of the debt that a club is in. Rules that seemingly don’t pay attention to Bayern Munich giving Javi Martinez a medical, even though he hasn’t had permission to have it from Bilbao (sound reminiscent of them agreeing terms with Boateng before they had permission to talk). It’s strange how the Establishment clubs can break rules.

Whether they like the rules or not, City’s owners are playing by the rules. They have class, dignity and integrity. Clearly we have had to curb our spending and that has not necessarily been a bad thing. Spending £20 million on the injury-prone Robin van Persie would have been a risk too far, and most Blues gave out a sigh of relief when he didn’t come here, even if we’d preferred him to go to Juventus or anywhere else abroad.

Eden Hazard has looked good so far as Chelsea have made a bright start against limited opponents, but time will tell whether he can cope with the physicality of English football as winter beckons. He looked rather lightweight in the Charity Shield.

City have made good, solid signings that will hopefully stand us in good stead in the future. Having impressed in how he man-marked David Silva at the Etihad last season, Jack Rodwell is settling into a defensive midfield role for City. One day we may see the very best of him in an exciting box-to-box role, but for now, with Yaya the best in the world in that sphere, and with Nasri and Silva further forward, Jack will have to settle for a deeper role: one which he is very capable of filling.

The best signing that City made this summer was to secure Roberto Mancini for another five years. Now we would like to see David Silva sign a new deal. It has gone quiet on that front since Euro 2012, and that is a concern, with David having 2 years left on his contract. Hopefully it’s a case of Brian Marwood being too busy with securing deals to move players in and out! If you believe the papers it could be that Silva’s head has been turned by Real Madrid but that is at odds with his statement that he is happy here. David looks happy to be back and his twitter statements don’t betray any unhappiness: in fact quite opposite. Some tabloids have manufactured stories (again with no attributable quotes) that City will not pay David £200,000 a week. Whilst that is possible, with new financial constraints being placed upon us, it is more likely that City and David’s people are still negotiating.

The longer this goes on without David signing, though, the more likelihood is that David will get into the final year of his contract, leaving us with a dilemma next summer: cash in on one of our key players, let his contract run down and he leaves for free (a replacement would have to be found), or keep negotiating. Surely we don’t want to get into same situation as we are with Nigel de Jong who looks like he will be leaving on a free next summer when his current deal expires? Hopefully David will sign a new deal soon.

It is a shame that Nigel cannot agree a deal, because he is a good servant to this club, but so late in the transfer window, we surely cannot afford to sell him, as any replacement would need time to bed in. We need to keep him for this campaign. He is no trouble to anyone, there is no bitterness over his failure to agree a deal, and he is a good professional. Roberto Mancini would certainly like to keep him. Nigel is a shrewd businessman and he will get the best deal for himself, as he is well entitled to do. I just hope (probably in vain) that we have the best offer for him come next summer.

Roberto Mancini has long admired Daniele De Rossi but the Roma captain is not leaving his club. In doing so he has not “snubbed” Roberto, as some papers have put it, including The Guardian even, where standards of journalism continue to tumble. The truth is that De Rossi is reluctant to leave Rome where he faces a custody battle for his child, and in any case, he seems very happy at his club, having signed a new long term deal in February. Hardly a “snub” is it? Maybe he is going to be one of those rarities: the one club man. Fair play to him, but if he ever does become available in the near future, he is clearly a top class midfielder, and should interest us, at the right price (given his age 29).

Subject to a medical, Scott Sinclair is coming to us for £6.2 million (rising to £8 million, including add-ons) as Adam Johnson leaves (for a reputed £10 million). It is a shame that Johnno didn’t quite progress as much as we would have liked, but I’m sure he leaves for Sunderland with best wishes all round. A bit-part player he may have been, but he was good to watch on his day and he certainly didn’t leave empty handed, having an FA Cup and a Champions medal. Hopefully Scott Sinclair can make the step up that Adam didn’t quite make. Whilst there are reservations that he didn’t make it at Chelsea, that doesn’t mean that with Scott, at the age of 23, with increased experience, cannot make an impact here. Whilst Roberto Mancini doesn’t really play with wingers for much of the time, there is a chance for Scott to challenge for more of a roving role alongside David Silva and Samir Nasri. He certainly has a good goal scoring record, scoring 27 goals in Swansea’s promotion season, and his 8 League goals last season was more than respectable for a first season in the top flight.

Signing for the Champions, aiming to defend that title and playing in the Champions’ League isn’t a bad prospect is it? All the best to him at City.

Very best wishes too to Scott’s brother Martin who has been selected in the GB Cerebral Palsy Football team at the London 2012 Paralympics, and of course to all our other athletes.

I’m not overly worried that we haven’t signed a “big star”. I think the current buzzword is “marquee name” (what have big tents got to do with it?). Vincent Kompany wasn’t a big name and look how good he is. Even David Silva wasn’t a guaranteed starter for Spain, and Yaya Touré was seen as surplus to requirements at Barça. So, we may have just had a good, shrewd window if we can land a cover centre back…

Talking of which, time marches on and it looks like we are signing Nastasic from Fiorentina for £12 million plus Stefan Savic (good luck to him too – hope it works out there). He would bring left footed cover and competition for us if it happens. If…

AND FINALLY… LUCK

I was amused to see Ryan Giggs in Saturday’s paper saying that United just need a bit of luck this season.

Of course…

…if 20 years of financial dominance and season after season of getting crucial decisions from pressurised referees and persistent bias from the footballing authorities in terms of fixture scheduling, disciplinary action and financial rule-making is not enough then…

…of course you just need a bit of luck.

How did we miss that?

#siegementality #shameless #thickaspigsh1t

RESULTS AND TABLE

26 August 2012

Stoke City            0 - 0  Arsenal               27,072
Liverpool             2 - 2  Manchester City       44,942

25 August 2012

Swansea City          3 - 0  West Ham United       20,424
Aston Villa           1 - 3  Everton               36,565
Manchester United     3 - 2  Fulham                75,352
Norwich City          1 - 1  Queens Park Rangers   26,317
Southampton           0 - 2  Wigan Athletic        29,604
Tottenham Hotspur     1 - 1  West Bromwich Albion  36,166
Chelsea               2 - 0  Newcastle United      41,718

League table as at 31 August 2012

                    P  GD Pts
 1 Chelsea          3   6   9
 2 Swansea City     2   8   6
 3 Everton          2   3   6
 4 West Brom A.     2   3   4
-----------------------------
 5 Manchester City  2   1   4
-----------------------------
 6 Fulham           2   4   3
 7 Manchester Utd   2   0   3
 8 Wigan Athletic   2   0   3
 9 Newcastle Utd    2  -1   3
10 West Ham Utd     2  -2   3
11 Stoke City       2   0   2
12 Arsenal          2   0   2
13 Sunderland       1   0   1
14 Tottenham H.     2  -1   1
15 Reading          2  -2   1
16 Liverpool        2  -3   1
17 Norwich City     2  -5   1
-----------------------------
18 QPR              2  -5   1
19 Southampton      2  -3   0
20 Aston Villa      2  -3   0

MCIVTA FAQ [v1112.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Philip Alcock)         : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
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Subscriptions (Madeleine Hawkins): subscriptions@mcivta.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: