Newsletter #92

No action on the manager front and it even appears that Niall’s and Dino’s transfers are not completed! We have another Why Blue and some news and opinions but we still need more opinions on the fullbacks for the WWW; any takers?

‘City of Glass’ who run the Virtual Manchester web site recently offered us a page to use as we thought fit to tell the world about MCFC (free of charge). Paul has done the hard work and put together a page which details the club’s history (briefly) followed by info (addresses and telephone numbers etc.) and finally links to those brilliant people at MCIVTA and the MCFC Supporters’ WWW home page 8-)). The URL for anyone interested is: http://www.manchester.com/sport/mancity.htm

NEWS – FRANCIS JOINS THE QUEUE!

In a report today (1/6/95) in the Daily Star, it was said that Trevor Francis has joined the queue for the job vacancy at Maine Road. He has now joined the short list of over 200 applicants!!!!!! Surely if we have that many people interested it can’t be that difficult to find a manager big enough to be able to cope with the ups and downs of a club like City? Personally I’d like to see Rioch in the driver’s seat, which could happen as he was released by Bolton after their promotion.

NEWS – MANAGEMENT ANNOUNCEMENT

Lee has now apparently said that an announcement regarding City’s new manager will be made next week as opposed to this week as was the intention.

Looks as if things are not going according to plan 8-(

NEWS – GAUDINO I

Maurizio Gaudino is unlikely to face a jail sentence in Germany, despite being charged with fraud. The belief in Germany is that Manchester City’s loan star would face a fine or be given a warning for his alleged involvement in an insurance fiddle involving luxury cars if found guilty. However, nobody in Gaudino’s home country can imagine that the midfielder would be handed a stretch in jail.

NEWS – GAUDINO II

According to German newspapers, the main charge of racketeering against Dino has been dropped. There remains however, a charge of defrauding the insurance company of DM 200,000 with three fraudulant claims. Provided that he behaves himself between now and the trial, it is highly likely that he’ll get a big fine and not be sent to prison.

NEWS – MANAGER NOT BASSETT

Good news! Our new manager is not going to be Dave “Harry” Bassett. He’s just signed a one year extension to his contract at Sheffield United.

Phew!!!

NEWS – VARIOUS

Bobby Robson is wanted by Arsenal as general manager; they’ve offered the 62-year old a 2 million pounds deal for 5 years, with Stewart Houston staying on as coach. Porto are expected to block the move as they want him to honour his contract.

Sky Sports City Player of the Year poll:

Uwe Rosler  84%
Paul Walsh   9%
Keith Curle  2%
Others       5%

SV Waldhof Mannheim are reputed to have offered 2m for Gaudino, but Dino says he wants to stay at City. The maximum penalty for his alleged crime is 5 years BTW.

According to some newspaper reports, the Quinn move is on hold until after the Republic of Ireland matches next week, with some Premiership clubs apparently showing interest and Quinn reported to have said that things had happened too quickly. Lisbon insist that the deal has been completed.

NEWS – ROBSON TO HIGHBURY?

I’ve just read this morning in ‘The Star’ (not mine honestly, it was a friend’s) that Bobby Robson is going to be the next manager of Arsenal. And no matter what contract Porto offer him he has set his mind on going to Arsenal. If this is true then this rules out Brice Rioch for the Arsenal job, so hope remains.

KIDD FOR MANAGER?

While attending the Wythenshawe and District Sunday League presentation evening last Thursday at Quaffers nightclub, I got talking to Lee Sharpe who sponsors a club (A.F.C. Sharpe). He offered to buy me and my team mates a drink but, explaining that I couldn’t possibly accept as I was a Blue, I politely refused. With this, he completely ignored me and produced a huge roll of bank notes and bought a round costing about £50.

Anyway, enough of this name dropping. I asked him what he felt about playing for United at which point he stunned me and my mates (some United fans) by claiming, `They pay my wages, nothing more.’ He then continued to praise City fans for their loyalty and humour, and said that they were far nicer to him than United fans in public. But the most shocking thing he said was when I asked him who he thought should be our next manager; he replied that Brian Kidd had his heart set on the job and he personally felt Francis Lee would get him.

I personally am inclined to believe him if only because he seemed like such a good bloke (and bought me a pint after I had refused one).

NEW FANCLUB!

“Two David Bradburys!
There’s only two David Bradburys,
Two David Braaaadburys,
There’s only two David Braaaadburys..!” (Repeat to fade)

CLARIFICATION ON TRANSFERS

As a post-script to Mark Hampson’s article in MCIVTA 91, you (Ashley) asked tor clarification of the situation with transfers of out of contract players. I think what you said is basically true, i.e. if the clubs can’t agree a price, it goes to a tribunal, who almost invariably decide on a fee about halfway between the two clubs’ valuations. It has been suggested that they should decide on one or the other of the valuations instead of deciding a value themselves; this would lead to much more realistic valuations being made by clubs.

However, the situation may all change as a result of the Bosnan case. Jean-Marc Bosnan is a (not particularly good) Belgian player whose contract with Liege came to an end. In England, if the club offered him less than his current wage he would be entitled to a free transfer; instead, he was offered one quarter of his salary while his transfer fee was set at four times the one for which he’d joined Liege. All above board in Belgium.

His subsequent attempts to join a French club were blocked by Liege. So now he’s going to the European Court of Justice to try to overturn the club’s right to treat him differently from any other worker in the EC, which means that he and all players may have complete freedom of movement at the end of their contracts, with no transfer fee payable.

The Belgian FA and even UEFA are also defendants. At the same time, his lawyers may also shoot to pieces the rules relating to maximum numbers of foreign players competing in national leagues and European competitions.

This may all seem quite laudable, but the implications for small clubs could be catastrophic. Most of them survive by selling players on for big transfer fees; if a free transfer were available at the end of a contract, the big, successful clubs would be able to pick and choose their players with ease and most of the other clubs would go bankrupt. Hopefully Liege will settle their differences with Bosnan before the case comes to court, for all of our sakes.

Case details taken from issue 100 of When Saturday Comes.

OPINION MANAGER, TRANSFERS

Though living in Norway you still get an opinion of the team from the occasional Sky match. Given City’s statistics on Sky no wonder I’ve been a pretty sad City supporter for the last couple of years (though the arrival of Frannie boosted me up for a while).

I can’t say I’m to sorry that BH had to go. I know he’s a nice guy, the players seem to like him and so on, but you can’t but question his tactical skills and ability to organize the team. Playing 4-4-2 or even 4-2-4 with 2 wide flanks not helping the central midfield picking up players/runs from deep, central positions no wonder teams like ManU run us down. Therefore I think we need a manager who knows how to organize a flat back four; BH couldn’t and I’m not to sure about Keith Curle either (he seems to be off position too often). We all know George Graham knows all about this, but then again we don’t want to be ‘boring City’ do we? Still I think he could be our man: he’s a winner and I definitly can do without the occational 5-2s and 3-3s (not to mention the 0-5 and 0-3) for a few more 1-0s and 2-0s.

What worries me though is the rumour that Garry Flitcroft wants to leave City (source: MCIVTA) and that maybe the club will let him go. City cannot afford to let players like Flipper slip away. With a better midtfield around him (both in numbers and working ability) I hope he will grow to be the creative player we all want, not having to do all the hard work himself. So obviously I’m a bit worried over the fact that Frannie seems to have OK’d the transfer of Gaudinho if he at same time even considers selling Flipper. I too would like to express my gratitude to Niall Quinn for his time at City. City saved his carreer and he’s worked very hard to pay us back, which I think he’s done a number of times. It’s a pity we can’t keep him anymore.

WHY BLUE?

I was born in March 1968 – the year City last lifted the League Championship – to a family of 12 (!!). My father is a chauffeur, driving the car of the an Englishman from Tenterdon Kent, who was the Managing Director of Bousted Co. (South East Asia) with the parent company being Bousted plc in London. I grew up in a kampong (local word for small village) which was at the paremeter of a large wealthy English settlement in Singapore. Therefore I, like all other kampong-boys, made friends with the English kids around the area. They usually have their own English League teams to support, and so do all the kampong-boys.

Being the youngest in the family, I have 5 elder brothers who are ardent followers of the English league and naturally, we have our teams to support. One of my brothers supports Spurs, one Everton, one Leeds and two Liverpool. So every Saturday we have our weekly diet of BBC World Service’s “Saturday Special” with host Paddy Feeny and Sundays are always ‘Big-League-Soccer’ days. At the tender age of 7 I finally demanded to have my own team.

I did not want to support any teams that my brothers supported and at that time, I kind of hated an English boy down the road who was snobbish (unlike the others) and very unfriendly. No prizes for guessing which team he supported – the scum!! Since City were their neighbours and bitter rivals, I chose to support City. My brothers gave me their blessing and on my 8th birthday, my eldest brother bought me a locally made and cheap City shirt. I became a real City supporter that day, I thought. Then, in April that year (1976) City went on to beat Newcastle to win the League Cup. I was wearing my City shirt that night (10 pm Singapore time) listening to the Live coverage on BBC. I was delighted when the final whistle was blown, sending me into a small celebration until I was too tired and fell asleep, still in the City shirt.

From that year on I have only missed 4 City Team photos printed annually in the Shoot soccer ‘zine.

Through good and bad times I have stuck with City. The yo-yo years in the 80s were especially tough. It was very difficult to get any kind of news regarding the teams in the lower divisions until towards the end of the season. I, like most other City fans, can’t forget the final match of the season against Luton, Hutchinson’s “double” at Wembley in 1981, the thrilling replay when the two Argentinians – Ricky Villa and Ardiles – put paid to City’s dream and the 5-0 drubbing at OT this year. On a more positive note, there was the 5-1 win over the Scum and the most memorable player I know, Dennis Tueart. He is my all time great, along with Corrigan, et al.

But City has disappointed me frequently of late. The almost-annual changing of Managers has not helped. Then along came Horton. He truly transformed the team into a more interesting one to watch but sadly he failed in many other departments, like man-management and tactics. Let us all hope that things can only get better after the arrival of Rioch (please) or whoever it may be, to take over the hot seat at Maine Road.

FULL BACK OPINION

Andy Hill

Has been a good servant and a real bargain buy. I’ve never seen him have abad game but he just isn’t good enough if we wish to win a trophy or two.Would be a good player to have in reserve, but not in the first team.

Terry Phelan

Has exceptional pace and would be a world class full back if he learned toplay in his position. For Ireland he plays very well, for us he is far toooften caught out of position. Some support from midfield and a morereluctant attitude to forward runs would lead to a very good player. Shouldbe kept.

Richard Edghill

A very good prospect. Can play at either side of the defence. He should bekept and offered a very good long term contract. He has good pace, is notcaught out of position too often and is useful going forward. Should be inthe team.

Ian Brightwell

What is his natural position? He has played well as a stop-gap in thecentre of defence, at full-back and in midfield. Perhaps a naturalmidfielder but is a very good player to have in your squad.

I have never seen Rae Ingram play so cannot comment on him.

WWW MANCHESTER CITY SUPPORTERS’ HOME PAGE:
http://www.uit.no/mancity/

Thanks to Nizam, Macca, David (x3), Paul, Chris, James, Brynjulv, The Mole, & Lee.

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.

Editor: