Newsletter #95

All quiet at the moment, absolutely no news as regards a potential manager. Some people are naturally worried by this but to look on the positive side (eternally optimistic, but then again, isn’t that what being a City fan is about?), at least the club appear not to be rushing into a signing just for the sake of signing someone.

This issue also includes a review of Don Revie’s autobiography which naturally tells the story of the Revie Plan. If any of our older subscribers remember 54/55 and the excitement the plan caused then perhaps they’d care to put some of their impressions down in writing to give us all an inkling of what it was really like to watch the plan in action and the general reception it got.

NEWS – KIDD I

Francis Lee and Martin Edwards have both denied that City have made a formal approach to United regarding Brian Kidd. Lee said “I have made no formal approach, none at all”, whilst Edwards said “I know absolutely nothing about any approach from Manchester City for Kidd.”

NEWS – KIDD II

Just read last night (Thursday) on Ceefax on BBC that Lee and Martin Edwards both attended some league chairmans’ meeting in London and both denied that any approach had been made to ManU over Kidd (Lee) or that any approach would be entertained (Edwards). This stringent denial from both sides probably means in chairman-speak that Kidd is on his way to Maine Road even as we speak.

KIDDO – NOT ON BOOKER SHORTLIST!

When I was at school the widely held belief was that Kiddo couldn’t write his own name, and Wilf McGuinness had to help him read the Beano. Maybe apocryphal, but maybe he’d fit in well!

OPINION – LACK OF ACTION!

From recent MCIVTAs there seems to be some worry about the transfer market. Granted we haven’t been linked with any big names, but we haven’t yet got a manager (I think!). Therefore the sports press do not include us in the gossip that they make up on a boring Friday afternoon. I’m sure that if BH was still manager we would have been in the running for Romario, Gullit, Gascoigne, Baggio etc. etc. according to the press.

To continue in this vein I would like to point out that just because we haven’t got a rich sugar daddy who can afford to pay 6 million for an aged striker who is no better than Rösler (who cost less than a tenth of the price), doesn’t make us any less ambitious. City would gain more by ploughing money into the youth development programme to produce the stars of the future rather than buying the stars of yesterday. This doesn’t mean I don’t want City to sign good players, but hopefully we won’t get caught in the trap of paying silly money for average players as we did in the Reid era.

Finally I’d like to add my thoughts on the managerial front. Is there a possibility that BH’s heir apparent has finally decided not to take the job and this could possibly be why the transfers of Quinn and Gaudino are on “hold” just in case Lee’s second choice wants to keep Quinn and let Gaudino go?

OPINION – TRANSFERS

I agree for the most part with what Adam has to say (above) regarding transfers. The recent trend is very worrying and City would do well to stay away from it. Warren Barton is an OK player but certainly no better than a lot of other defenders in the Premier League; you have to ask just how much of a rôle media hype has played in bumping up the valuations of certain players? After all, we’ve been hearing that Warren Barton and Dean Holdsworth would be auctioned off for practically two thirds of the season now and how they’ll readily be snapped up by bigger clubs. These players are just average, how can they be worth so much? Has the press convinced us (and Keegan) that players of this calibre are really worth this much money? As for Ferdinand, 6m, have they gone crazy? IMHO he’s better than Cole and probably Collymore as well but he’s 28 for God’s sake! This means that Newcastle are likely to get 4 years maximum out of him as a top line striker and that’s being optimistic; it doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that he’ll cost them at least 1m a year in depreciation and his wages will not be insignificant either! God only knows what Collywobble will go for (