Newsletter #1712

After the FA Cup match last weekend, and with the Europa Cup tonight, we have a look in this issue at fixture congestion, burnout and the upcoming game together with the usual requests.

Next up back to the league with a visit to Stamford Bridge.

OPINION: FIXTURE CONGESTION

I’m not wanting to tempt fate here but I’ve noticed something that will almost undoubtedly add a bit of intrigue and buzz to the end of the season if we should beat United. And before anyone shouts at me, I do think this time, after three derbies that they won at the death last season, the wasted opportunity at Eastlands and the feeling we should have got something at OT, I think our squad will simply go out there and there’ll be a ‘won’t get fooled again’ approach. And anyway, who would bother to get out of bed on any derby day morning if we didn’t think we could beat them?

So, if we do win, take note that our last two scheduled Premier League games are against: Stoke and Bolton. So if we did reach the FAC Final, we’re looking at a probable night match against Stoke at home at some point presumably directly after. After last season when their fans were absolutely disgusting in their behaviour on the way down towards the station, which I had to endure in my car as they paraded past trying to provoke every single driver, literally sitting targets, it’d give me no greater pleasure than to be able to parade the cup at that home game.

Interestingly, if we lose to United and Stoke beat Bolton, then City and Bolton will both be at a loose end on the weekend of the FAC Final so I’m starting to wonder to myself if that would be pulled back a week and we’d then play Stoke the week after, in other words, a direct swap. But not as interesting. And then just to add another twist, we’re now going to be rescheduled for what again will almost definitely be a night match against Tottenham.

I recently posted on here about my own personal bugbear about the 1981 FAC Final. I think this season’s finale, if there is any truth in the theory that there is a Blue Moon rising, will allow us to get past United, give Spurs a bit of ‘thanks’ for a few of our scrapes with them and then I hope we can utterly and categorically humiliate Stoke. A hat-trick of hoodoos to bludgeon to death.

MATCH VIEW: MCFC 1 RFC 0

We got through to the semi-final of the FA Cup after dominating the game versus Reading, but we only scored one goal after about seventeen attempts, and then it was a defender Micah who scored a brilliant goal. City have some great strikers, and now is the time to put those shooting boots on, for every game for the rest of the season!

Roberto continues to go on about a game every 3 days, that his players are getting tired; now is the time to change training habits. Sure, I agree to keeping the players fit, but not tired for the next game. After the trip home from the game against Dynamo in Ukraine and arriving at 5am it is very understandable that the players were jaded with jet lag, but they still played a very good game. How about the day before a game having light training and more on set pieces?

I have always been the one to shout for the team to “attack, attack” but I will defiantly go along with any decision Mancini makes versus The Evil Empire; a 1-0 win in an ugly game will suit me, though of course I always will prefer an exciting attacking game and whip the Devils!

The club is improving on the pitch with Roberto Mancini and Brian Kidd his Assistant, and other coaching personnel. Off the field Gary Cooke the CEO works hard to improve the Club’s image at home and abroad, with several projects happening, and others in the works for the future. The Club’s Ambassador Mike ‘Buzzer’ Summerbee has been in jail all for a good cause to raise money for a charity to help a local Manchester Hospital; one thousand pounds sterling had to be raised or keep Buzzer in jail. Of course some people sent in money to try to keep Buzzer in jail but they were not serious; money raised was well over the one thousand mark and Buzzer was released from jail in time to be in attendance to see City beat Reading.

There’s another very important game this Thursday against Dynamo Kyiv: we must first of all overcome being 2-0 down at half time – this time the grass will favour Super Mario.

Come on you Blues!

OPINION: ARSENAL AND CITY TOP THE KNACKERED LEAGUE

Jaded, tired, fatigued and heavy- legged. No, not words used to describe 50 year old Paul Scholes, but those referring to recent Arsenal and Man City performances. Justified?

Cue understandable howls of derision right across the Blue Moon when anybody with a proper job considers multi-millionaire footballing athletes being talked about in that context, let alone actually daring to complain that they are in need of a quick lie down themselves.

In Laandaarn Taarn, after The Arsenal were defeated early this year by Ipswich Town, currently beleaguered Gunners’ boss Arsène Wenger referred to fatigue and a January fixture pile up. Manuel Almunia pointed to fatigue taking its toll in Arsenal’s Champions’ League defeat by Barcelona.

In Manchester, Roberto Mancini has repeatedly bemoaned ‘playing a match every three days’ to excuse his side’s apparent slow down in tempo, which has bordered on the abjectly lethargic. Not only that, resurgent City powerhouse Micah Richards got in on the act this week describing City’s players as looking ‘a bit leggy’ in the FA Cup win over Reading. He’s not the first Citizen this season to do so.

Numerous pundits and learned scribes, utterly frustrated by City’s failure to implode on all fronts by mid-March have leapt upon City’s seeming malaise in preference to dissing Crawley Town conquerors ‘Man U’ and their catalogue of season-long close scrapes. Of course, City fans have become used to that, but do the players and the dapper City gaffer have a point? Are Arsenal’s concerns also legitimate?

In 2009 City’s then UEFA Cup campaign eventually piled in at Hamburg. Leslie Hughes remarked at the time that City were looking a spent force. Perhaps with reason, as The Blues lost 8 out of 13 league games that followed a Thursday night European clash.

So, is there a case for a mid-season Winter break that many people in English football call for each season, or would that compound the problem?

On the continent last weekend Paris Saint Germain have groaned over the length of their season, having crammed 46 competitive games into either side of their own Winter feet up.

VMC has got the calculator out and publishes the first ‘Knackered League’, which totals the amount of competitive League and Cup games played by Premier League Clubs to date with their league positions alongside.

The Knackered League 2010-2011

League and Cup Fixtures up to and including 15th March 2011

Arsenal       48 Games - 2nd position
CITY          47       - 3rd
Liverpool     44       - 6th
The Rags      44*      - 1st
Tottenham     41       - 5th
Chelsea       40*      - 4th
Birmingham    39       - 17th
West Ham      39       - 18th
Stoke         37       - 12th
Aston Villa   37       - 13th
Wigan         36       - 20th
Bolton        36       - 7th
Wolverhampton 35       - 19th
Everton       35       - 9th
West Brom     34       - 16th
Newcastle     33       - 10th
Fulham        34       - 11th
Blackburn     33       - 14th
Sunderland    32       - 8th
Blackpool     31       - 15th

* Includes Community Shield knockabout

What are your views on this hot water bottle topic? What do you make of the table? Should the players get early nights or give over being mard-arsed and get on with it? Is it now impossible for a top English side to pull off doubles and trebles, let alone quadruple trophy hauls?

REQUEST: WEMBLEY TICKET

Despite living in Ireland for the last 15 years (originally from Wythenshawe, Manchester) I still manage to get to a few games with my daughter as we make many sacrifices so we can afford it. We were at the Reading match and will be there for the Kiev return at Eastlands this week.

But, as I’m sure you can guess, we know there is little if any chance of us getting FA Cup semi tickets through the regular channels.

Please, if anyone has two that they can’t use and would like to sell them to 2 lifetime fans (my first match was in 1972) then please keep us in mind. I can’t bear to watch the match in one of the pubs here in Ireland as I always seem to be surrounded by Rags who couldn’t find Manchester on a map if their lives depended on it.

Anyway, thanks MCIVTA for keeping me up to date and entertaining me for many years.

REQUEST: WEMBLEY TICKET

I know this is a very long shot, but if you don’t ask you don’t get…

Due to personal reasons I had to give up my season ticket a few years back, and have only renewed it for my son (to go with my brother) for the last 2 seasons. However, this season I have been to every Europa and FA Cup game at home with my son and my daughter, but due to the lack of points on mine and my daughter’s membership I doubt we will have enough to get tickets for the semi-final.

So if you are unable to attend the semi-final and you have 2 or 3 membership numbers with enough loyalty points… can you please please email me?

REQUEST: WEMBLEY TICKET

I need just one Wembley ticket for my wife. I can get tickets for myself and my son. Please help as I will just get a load of earache until mid-April if she can’t go.

Can collect of course. Call 07711 087276 or email.

RESULTS AND TABLE

League table to 16 March 2011 inclusive

                            HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L   F   A  GD Pts
 1 Manchester Utd  29 13  1  0 39  9  4  8  3 24 21 17  9  3  63  30  33  60
 2 Arsenal         28 10  2  3 30 12  7  4  2 27 15 17  6  5  57  27  30  57
 3 Manchester City 29  9  4  2 23 11  6  4  4 22 14 15  8  6  45  25  20  53
 4 Chelsea         28  9  2  2 26  9  6  4  5 25 15 15  6  7  51  24  27  51
 5 Tottenham H.    28  7  5  1 19 10  6  4  5 22 24 13  9  6  41  34   7  48
 6 Liverpool       29  9  4  2 26 12  3  2  9 13 24 12  6 11  39  36   3  42
 7 Bolton Wndrs    29  8  5  2 28 19  2  5  7 14 21 10 10  9  42  40   2  40
 8 Sunderland      29  6  5  3 18 14  3  6  6 15 21  9 11  9  33  35  -2  38
 9 Everton         29  5  6  3 22 19  3  7  5 16 19  8 13  8  38  38   0  37
10 Newcastle Utd   29  4  6  5 32 22  5  3  6 12 19  9  9 11  44  41   3  36
11 Fulham          29  6  6  3 20 16  1  8  5 12 15  7 14  8  32  31   1  35
12 Stoke City      29  7  3  4 20 15  3  1 11 12 23 10  4 15  32  38  -6  34
13 Aston Villa     29  6  5  3 22 16  2  4  9 15 34  8  9 12  37  50 -13  33
14 Blackburn R.    29  6  4  4 17 11  3  1 11 20 38  9  5 15  37  49 -12  32
15 Blackpool       29  4  3  7 23 27  5  2  8 20 31  9  5 15  43  58 -15  32
16 West Brom A.    29  5  5  4 22 23  3  3  9 17 31  8  8 13  39  54 -15  32
17 Birmingham City 28  4  7  4 14 18  2  6  5 13 21  6 13  9  27  39 -12  31
18 West Ham United 29  5  4  6 20 21  2  6  6 16 28  7 10 12  36  49 -13  31
19 Wolves          29  7  3  5 24 22  1  2 11 10 27  8  5 16  34  49 -15  29
20 Wigan Athletic  29  3  6  6 16 30  2  6  6 11 20  5 12 12  27  50 -23  27

MCIVTA FAQ [v1011.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour (Alex Rowen)         : 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

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://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/tv_and_radio/.

[8] Where can I find out if City are live on satellite TV?

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premier League games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://msn.foxsports.com/, http://www.soccertv.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://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213262,00.html

[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] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth 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.

Heidi Pickup, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: