Newsletter #1855

The ‘corner’ turned? Well with regards to the kind of U-turns we have had to do in the past, this season’s early form has been nothing worse than an adverse camber but, nonetheless, great to see us grab 3 points against an on-form Fulham.

A good spread of articles this evening, with on-going debate around young Silva.

Do enjoy and let’s see what Wednesday night brings. An absolutely key game for us it feels like.

ARTICLE: The Long View

I listened to the Villa (Capital One) game on GMR as I wasn’t in the rudest of health and got a match report from daughter Chloe and her boyfriend Dave when they got back, sopping wet, last Tuesday night. Ian ‘Cheesy’ Cheeseman is a great City fan and a great reporter but, between him and Nigel Gleghorn, I thought our season was over! Phil’s reaction surprised me a little too (shocking? disgraceful?), mind you, I didn’t sit in the rain for 2 hours to watch us get beat by the ‘mighty’ Villa.

I know it’s difficult to see the long view sometimes. Just spent a morning talking with Dad and Brother about City’s start. Who needs a kick in the arse? Mancini’s tactics? Balotelli, genius or liability?

Dad and Brother are both ‘typical City’ types and expect us to balls it up, even when we don’t and I’m one of those Blues who can see nothing but Blue skies.

I’ve been looking at the Academy plans on City’s website: amazing. I think our owners have a truly unique view of club management and it’s exciting, so I told them “don’t worry”. Don’t worry about one result, don’t worry about the Capital One Cup, don’t even worry about Champions’ League or Premier League, just enjoy the ride. I posted on my FB page the night before the Madrid game a video of a goal scored by The Goat against Gillingham just 10 years ago and tagged it with “this is our history, 2002 Gillingham away, tonight Madrid. Nothing changes, only the names are different”.

Let’s not get carried away. Let’s not become trophy obsessed. Let’s not forget the rainy nights watching 1-1 draws against Chesterfield. I have seen City fans getting upset because we didn’t win in the Bernabeu (I’m happy that Joe Hart wasn’t happy though, but that was for a different reason: letting goal leads slip twice on a night that would have become historic, I want players to be upset with mistakes).

All you true City fans I’m sure you have your own stories and memories of when it was truly awful… but did we wring our hands and weep profusely?

A friend of mine, no acquaintance, no ex-colleague was a season ticket holder at Molyneux; he invited me to sit with him in the “Billy Quiet” stand for a City-Wolves game, early 90’s (I’ve tried to expunge it from memory). It rained all night, I got soaked. I got landed with a £30 bar bill (for a bunch of fairly unfriendly gloating Wolves fans), which was a lot of money back then and City got taken apart 4-1. I couldn’t have felt worse. I go back there in my mind whenever we have a setback.

The long view is – we have fabulous owners, who are a great business as well as football fans. We have a great manager who has a second-to-none understanding of the psychology of football players and is a wonderful tactician (time will bear me out on this… I hope). We have an amazing stadium, the best fans and we have legends on the pitch in front of our eyes (Mr Gleghorn!) – Yaya Touré, Kompany, Silva, Hart, Agüero et al.

Maybe it comes with age? I’m fat, bald and old, my de Jong replica shirt is stretched across my ample gut as I wait for commentary to begin on GMR from Craven Cottage. I’m convinced we will win today, 3-0, but if we don’t I’ll remember the day I watched us get trounced 4-0 at home (Maine Road) by Wimbledon (might have been 4-1, it was traumatic afternoon and I went to The Briton’s Protection after and saw some experimental theatre with my 4 pints of Boddingtons [when it was still a real beer] so memory is a little groggy)… and it won’t be so bad, so behave all you lippy kids, settle back, being a City fan you need to see the long view.

P.S. – I realise that Phil B was talking about ‘some of the experienced professionals’ when he used “shocking and disgraceful” don’t want to take his comments out of context. Also he’s the daddy… when it comes to comment on MCIVTA.

Oh and great work and many thanks to Phil A and everyone who compiles and contributes to MCIVTA. (Ed – my pleasure)

ARTICLE: KING OF THE KIPPAX 200

Congratulations to Dave and Sue Wallace and everyone at King of The Kippax on the remarkable achievement of 200 issues. I love reading KOTK as much as ever (Burf and Ged remain long standing favourites) and it is a testament to Dave and Sue, particularly, that they have produced such a high quality publication for so long. I still remember buying my first KOTK at Maine Road, which Dave had smeared tomato sauce all over back in days of yore, and it is somewhere safely ensconced in a box in our loft. I think I’ll have to open up that box and have a read.

Thanks so much to them and everyone at KOTK for all the enjoyment they have given us over the years, and I look forward to reading issue 200.

ARTICLE: SILVA I

My comments are regarding David Silva and his performance against Arsenal.

I thought he had a fine game, worked very hard and contributed much to City’s cause. I cannot understand the negative views of Steve Oatway.

Where is he coming from?

Arsenal played well and deserved their point, but City showed many positives and signs of improvement.

If we hadn’t, they would have tonked us. David has had some quiet games but Arsenal showed him on the way back to his old self.

Keep it up David.

ARTICLE: SILVA II

“I never felt more like singing the Blues,
When City win, United lose…”

For City to win at Fulham was a very good result and no mean feat as Fulham are a very good team at home. I didn’t get to Craven Cottage (getting to an away game at the moment is rare for us) but the reports I received (thanks for the text updates to my mate Stevey Ford) were that it was all City and the possession stats back this up. It was great to see Sergio Agüero back to his sharpest with that finish and Edin Dzeko is making it harder for Mancini to leave him out. What a finish that was for the winner. David Silva played very well by all accounts and I am very pleased for him. He is getting some unfair criticism in recent months, which is not warranted.

I read Steve Oatway’s comments about my rating of David Silva in the Arsenal match with interest. Whilst I appreciate Steve reading my piece and thank him for reading my report and taking the time to write in, I don’t agree with him.

Whilst David Silva didn’t hit the heights of last season before Christmas, I don’t think he had as bad as game as Steve says. He worked hard in defence (as ever), put the corner for Joleon’s goal right on his head, and in my opinion, his passing was not as bad as Steve suggests. On at least a couple of occasions when his through balls were intercepted, it took good defending by the likes of Per Mertesacker particularly to read and intercept. Credit to Arsenal for that, rather than brickbats for Silva for me. In any case, most of Silva’s passes were fine.

Silva works so hard in a game, especially defensively, which is an integral part of a midfielder’s job, and his other passes were fine, so all round, in a game where Arsenal had a lot of the ball, he did very well to help his full back thwart them. On balance he deserved the 7 for me.

Still, it’s all about opinions and wouldn’t it be boring if we always agreed? Anyway, I’m just a City fan with an opinion who happens to love writing and I welcome other people doing match reports. I love reading them.

We have been spoiled where David Silva is concerned.

He was brilliant before Christmas last year. He played a lot of games last season when he was kicked from pillar to post with little protection from referees, and eventually his form suffered a little, but when he wasn’t at his best, he still worked hard and managed to be a team player.

Adam Johnson couldn’t be trusted to do the defensive side of the game so Silva probably played more games than he should have with his injured ankle. Whilst he had some below par games in the Spring last season, he maintained an acceptable level of performance because of his solid work ethic. Roberto Mancini eventually gave him a rest and he came back and played well enough in the last few games of our Championship winning season.

“Championship winning season”: I rather like the sound of that. Let’s win another, and another, and another…

Come on City!

OFFER: SUNDERLAND TICKETS

Please can you post this on the next email (if it goes out before Saturday).

2 spare tickets for Sunderland game – if interested email me.

AND FINALLY…

I recently moved into the neighbourhood near Haas Park in Chicago, where City announced back in May that it would be funding construction of a new football pitch.

I have been using the park’s fitness centre for the past few weeks, so I was delighted to see a new banner on the park’s headquarters proclaiming City’s involvement in the project, which is well underway for completion in the next couple of weeks.

With this new development, I enquired with the park staff about the status of the field opening, and learned that there is a grand opening scheduled for Oct. 11, and that the field must be ready by that date because club officials will be in town that day only for the ceremony, which will also include all the local politicians, plus ambassadors from the UAE embassy, etc. Armed with this information, I emailed Gary Hopkins, City Soccer in the Community’s international man, who welcomed me to notify Chicago supporters of this opportunity to connect with the club here in the Midwest. Here is an invitation that has been circulated to local residents:

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=k6eadnhab&v=001KY-bJ3gW3XctXX_WeHa_p9atYy7QuILmDfqyeZIhJ1_knw6GCDnMlS55QOT1OGGUNoAVdZITR70_2zSeKhfy_rDxgepI44RLT5w1R2Qqr_LmuQuVGvBKAUBANlTXWhWiqoam_nhXE40%3D

Mr Hopkins also said he will be in town from Oct. 5 as the event draws closer, and I will try to connect with him as the day draws near. Will report if there are any more details.

RESULTS AND TABLE

1 October 2012

Queens Park Rangers   1 - 2  West Ham United       17,363

30 September 2012

Aston Villa           1 - 1  West Bromwich Albion  34,489

29 September 2012

Arsenal               1 - 2  Chelsea               60,101
Everton               3 - 1  Southampton           37,922
Fulham                1 - 2  Manchester City       25,698
Norwich City          2 - 5  Liverpool             26,831
Reading               2 - 2  Newcastle United      24,097
Stoke City            2 - 0  Swansea City          27,330
Sunderland            1 - 0  Wigan Athletic        37,742
Manchester United     2 - 3  Tottenham Hotspur     75,566

League table as at 2 October 2012

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

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: