Newsletter #1849

No games this weekend for the Blues but our international representatives were in action. James Milner put in a good display and scored a well-placed 18-yarder in England’s romp in Moldova. Big Joe and Big Joleon also played though, to be fair, had a fairly comfortable time of it. Danny Sturridge remained on the bench.

Vinnie K was on the score sheet in Wales in a 2-0 win and, looking at their line-up, the Belgians do look a very strong outfit. If you remember the supreme Daniel van Buyten, he no longer starts for them!

The performance of the night though was an Edin Dzeko’s hat-trick in an 8-1 victory for Bosnia, admittedly against low-ranked Liechtenstein.

Former Blue Glenn Whelan was involved in a dramatic climax to Eire’s game in Kazakhstan as goals in the 89th and 90th minutes secured 3 points for the men in green. Another former Blue, Jerome Boateng, spent the night on the bench for Germany as did Gael Clichy for France, as well as Chris Killen for New Zealand.

Further afield, Felipe Caicedo came on as a second half substitute for Ecuador and ended up bagging the winner from the penalty spot. Similarly Georgie Samaras came off the bench for Greece in a 2-1 win in Latvia, surprisingly though he didn’t score(!), with Gelson Fernandes making a late appearance in a 2-0 Swiss win in Slovenia.

Finally, Vedrun Corluka got 80 minutes under his belt as Croatia defeated Macedonia by a goal to nil.

An interesting article today from Phil B. The points he raises about FFP are strong ones and it’s surprising the media debate hasn’t drawn in this element more.

Finally, no comment about the youngster Courtney Mappen-Walter following his arrest for dangerous driving in the tragic incident on Bury New Road. What do we know about him?

ARTICLE: RETURNING KIWI

Heading over at long last with the wife to see City first hand in a few weeks’ time. Hopefully my season ticket holding mate can get us tickets to Dortmund/Sunderland/Swansea games, fingers crossed.

Last time I was there 10 years ago we were playing Grimsby at Maine Road! So, if City fans see a chap standing there in a black shirt and beanie adorned with silver ferns, looking in awe of his surroundings, that’s probably me realising being thousands of miles from home is really worth it!

Oh and really pleased we passed on RVP – to me it stands for Ridiculously Vain Prat!

Tip for fans re a song to sing at games and I guess up till now it was apt for City – go on iTunes, search “The Exponents” (famous NZ band) and look for “Why Does Love Do This To Me” – the catchy chorus is sung at a lot of rugby and one day cricket internationals over here but football fans would do it better in my view!! You break it out, we do things the hard way…

ARTICLE: CITY, FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT AGAINST UNITED’S “FAIR PLAY” HYPOCRISY

The smell of fear is in danger of overpowering the smell of sticky brown stuff over in Trafford as United try to push through proposals to further limit City and Chelsea’s spending, under the guise of “Fair Play”. United want clubs to break-even under the new rules, and some clubs are succoured by this plan, including Wigan’s Dave Whelan who trumpeted his support before Thursday’s meeting of Premier League Clubs. It remains to be seen whether United’s proposal gets the 14 Premier League club votes needed to push their proposals through.

The motivation of United, Liverpool and Arsenal is to make sure that the clubs with the biggest income, i.e. United and Liverpool and Arsenal, can spend the most on wages and transfer fees. It’s all about recreating their cosy cartel, and thus killing the dreams of other clubs. By reducing competition, they protect their own interests. It was ok for United, Arsenal and Liverpool to be spending money that everyone else could only dream about, but now, they self-righteously and hypocritically want to restrict anyone who threatens their cosy little club.

After years of ramping up transfer fees and wages and enjoying the position of being the wealthiest clubs, spending the most money of all (their current position is based on a massive spend by Ferguson early on in his reign at Old Trafford), these big bullies are trying to curb everyone else’s spending. It should be noted that no one was trying to change the rules and bleating about the spending of United, Arsenal and Liverpool when they were top dogs. The rest of us just got on with it as we tried to keep our heads above water, and occasionally we’d hit our heads on the glass ceiling that the traditional “Big Four”, or in the 80s, “Big Five” had created.

Interestingly, like Platini’s so-called Fair Play Rules (also inspired by the likes of United and other traditional bully boys of Europe like Bayern), these so-called Fair Play proposals take no account of debt.

The real problem is debt, not spending per se. There is nothing wrong with one man or a group of individuals putting their money into a football club, as long as they are not ladening it with debt à la Portsmouth, our neighbours and Leeds. Sheikh Mansour has given his money to spend on Manchester City and has not loaded our club with any debt. Don’t get me wrong, I have every sympathy with the plight of Portsmouth fans, and yes, believe it or not, Leeds fans when they went bust. Had Pompey’s various owners or Peter Ridsdale given their own money (if they indeed had it) rather than loaned or borrowed it beyond their clubs’ means, they wouldn’t have had a problem. Loyal supporters of United have every right to feel outrage at what the Glazers have done. It is completely wrong that United are being allowed to set the agenda here.

If we are going to stop everyone else spending more than they earn, then United must be stopped from spending money on new players until their £450 million plus debt is paid off. If we really want to restrict spending then everyone should have the same ceiling of expenditure on wages and transfers, and it should not hand an advantage to United, Arsenal or Liverpool because they sell more tat and make more income as a result.

If United’s proposals come to fruition, it will be ok for United to spend someone else’s money and not ok for Sheikh Mansour to spend his own money. How can that be right?

All we have ever wanted is to be able to compete with the top clubs. Why should other clubs, say an Everton, Forest, Villa, Leeds or Sheffield Wednesday or even a club from the lower leagues not have a chance to compete with the top sides? United, with the support of Liverpool are Arsenal, are effectively proposing barring previous European Champions Cup Winners Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, from ever having a chance of playing in the competition again. How can that be right?

What United are proposing is a restraint of trade. City and other clubs must challenge this (apparently Chelsea, Everton, Fulham, Newcastle, Spurs and West Brom are not in favour of United’s proposals). If we have to go to court we should do so, but the first thing to do is to lobby other clubs and convince them, if that is needed, that United’s proposals are anti-competitive and bad for football as a whole.

ARTICLE: NEW SONG FOR THE DERBY

We have thought of a new song for the derby (apologies if already thought of). You sing it to the lines of “Where’s your mama gone” etc.

And it goes:

“Where’s your gold badge gone, where’s your gold badge gone?
where’s your gold badge gone, where’s your gold badge gone?
far, far away” (or not far away)

Let’s sing it at the derby?

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 the address below.

REQUEST: STOKE TICKET WANTED

Dear worldwide Blues,

I am in Madrid 14-19/09/12 and hoping my season ticket holding pals will get me a ticket for the Bernabeu.

Does any MCIVTA devourer out there know where I can watch Stoke vs. City in some bar in Madrid? Blue forever in the Tenerife sun.

REQUEST: MADRID TICKET OFFERED

I have one spare ticket for Real Madrid away as I now find I cannot make it.

Can you please ask the readers if anyone is interested in a ticket.

AND FINALLY… THANKS

Through McV, I would just like to thank Phil Banerjee for all his writings about his visits to the games, and all his information; keep up the good work City fan, you make it interesting.

RESULTS AND TABLE

2 September 2012

Liverpool            0 - 2 Arsenal             44,932
Newcastle United     1 - 1 Aston Villa         48,245
Southampton          2 - 3 Manchester United   31,609

1 September 2012

West Ham United      3 - 0 Fulham              33,458
Swansea City         2 - 2 Sunderland          20,350
Tottenham Hotspur    1 - 1 Norwich City        36,142
West Bromwich Albion 2 - 0 Everton             25,383
Wigan Athletic       2 - 2 Stoke City          16,247
Manchester City      3 - 1 Queens Park Rangers

League table as at 4 September 2012

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

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: