Newsletter #1915

One tournament entered, one trophy won!

Let’s hope the ratio holds throughout the season!

OK, the competition may get stiffer but, even so, not a bad start after the disappointments of the South Africa trip.

On the downside, a worrying injury to Nastasic: let’s hope it doesn’t disrupt his season. It’s at least given the papers something to speculate about ahead of the Audi Cup in Munich. Nigel’s AC Milan are first up, though not sure if he is playing?

P.S. I’ve removed last season’s League table – got sick of looking at it!

CITY ON TV IN THE U.S.

I am a U.S. based City supporter of long standing (66 years of age, Manchester born, part of the so-called brain drain in the ’70’s – brain long since drained!).

In the U.S. in recent years we have been blessed by the growth of Fox Soccer Channel to cover most of the Premier League, FA Cup and European games. They have, over the years done a superb job. They basically used the feeds from Sky with British commentators. Now though they have lost the franchise to NBC who will show the games. They do not yet fill me with good feelings over their capability (I hope I’m wrong).

1. They use a U.S. commentator Arlo White. He had a couple of run outs on Foxlast season and frankly he wasn’t very good. He was paired with Ian Wright(who is barely intelligible and his “expert” comments are delivered in halfcompleted sentences). White would ask Wright questions like “What do you meanby ‘Man-On’?” and “When you say Ashley Young is a diver, what do you mean?”
2. NBC hasn’t shown any pre-season games at all! Are they hoping for thebest on the day – or are they supremely arrogant in supposing that Whitenow understands football parlance and is fully up to speed to comment ona game he clearly does not understand?
3. There is fear here that NBC will show many of the games on tape delay soas not to clash with college football games on Saturdays and NFL on Sundays.
4. Fox Soccer is disappearing after losing out to NBC and IMHO that is agreat shame.

I’m hoping for the best and fearing the worst.

As Arlo White might ask: “Why isn’t the ball pointed at both ends like a proper football?”

P.S. I have confused Arlo White with Gus Johnson (who actually did the Fox commentary) – it’s easy to confuse White with a Johnson… the names being so similar. The comments I made about their knowledge of the English game still stand.

BERT’S TESTIMONIAL MEMORIES

Not much I can say about our late German friend that has not already been said, here and elsewhere. I was at that testimonial match in April 1964 in the Kippax; I cannot remember the score or much about it.

However, I do recall that Maurice Setters, that hard man of the United half backs, was playing in Bert’s team. At some point I recall his collecting the ball on the halfway line, turning towards Bert and chipping the ball back to him over his head and into the goal. Did I imagine this or does anybody else of the 47,000 plus crowd remember this? I had the feeling at the time that this was done deliberately by Setters (I don’t recall him scoring many goals) so that he could say he had scored against one of the best! The crowd loved it anyway.

MEMORIES OF BERT

Superb e-newsletter with truly moving and informative articles. Many, many thanks and well done for the contributions. George and Bert would be very proud. Makes you glad to be a Blue.

I remember seeing Bert play as a nipper. Late-60’s if memory serves, so I would have been about 10 years old.

It was at Prestwich Heys and I recall it was for a testimonial game. Uncle George was the Prestwich Heys Manager, so I can only assume that Bert had agreed to play because of his relationship with George. I remember standing next to the goalpost and chatting to Bert. I probably drove him daft.

Long long time ago.

Thanks again lads.

MUSICAL SUGGESTION

How about using John Philip Sousa’s “Stars and Stripe” marching tune with these lyrics:

“We are supporters of Man City, Pellegrini is our King,
Vince Kompany is our captain,
Jesus Navas is the wizard on the wing.”

Short, snappy, catchy with a wonderful Riff: “Da, Da, Da, Da, Da, Da, Da, Da, Da” etc.

Late sixties City fans will remember its usage with Joe Mercer, Johnny Crossan and Buzzer’s names being utilised.

I found myself singing this in the shower this morning. Only three weeks to go.

THE REMAKING OF MANCHESTER CITY

The remaking of Manchester City – Grantland: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9499111/the-remaking-manchester-city

AND FINALLY… MIDWEEK – BERT TRAUTMANN

Hi there,

Just to let you know that the episode of Midweek that Pat Knowles referred to was first broadcast on 10th April 2010 and is still available on the BBC website.

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: