Newsletter #406

Well, the World Cup has kicked off and that means the entire world and its cousin are focused on France; unsurprisingly, there is no news of the Blues! We do however, have news of WorldNet 98, some World Cup predictions, info on where to drink in Marseille, and quite a few replies to the ‘Where are they now’ query. In addition we have another interesting Why Blue.

McVITEE FOOTBALL TEAM

Recruitment for the McVittee football team:

For all those who haven’t heard about Internet football before, we are McVittee FC, the internet football team for Manchester City. Fans from mailing lists all over the country are forming teams to participate during the football season, and also for tournaments held during the year.

A major tournament is being held in July (18th/19th), which is made up of 36 11-a-side teams playing a world cup style competition. There are 8 groups of between 4 and 5 teams. On the Saturday everyone plays each other in a 15-minutes each way game. The top 2 teams from each group then go through to Sunday for the knockout stages.

We formed over a month ago and are still looking for people to turn out regularly each week to train together. If you don’t want to play for the team, just turn up if you want to play football each week. This will help us to practice with near 11-a-side games.

Contact me if you want further details.

WORLDNET INFO

Folks,

Here’s some more news on the forthcoming WorldNet 98 event in Reading. If you interested in joining the team mail Dave Barker – team manager (dave@moonfish.co.uk). If you’re interested in coming along as support/drinking then let me know.

1. We have (at long last) persuaded Reading University to free up somerooms in one of their halls of residence. We have 100 single rooms withshared bathroom facilities (hopefully not shared between all 100) availablein Wantage Hall, about 2 miles from the WorldNET site. Cost is £16.80 /person / night plus VAT (which if VAT is 17.5% I reckon works out at £19.74 /night).We will handle booking centrally as they are not geared up to take a floodof single bookings. Please mail us asap if you would like rooms, statingnumbers required. We then need a 20% deposit to secure your booking.Email reservations to Alison Kingston (Alison.kingston@nmp.nokia.com), depositcheques (payable to Internet Royals FC) to Alison at 25 Sunnybank Road,Cove, Farnborough, Hants, GU14 9NU.Phone contact is 01189 262242 (ask for Martin).Please note that whilst we are happy to coordinate booking as a favour youwill be 100% responsible for paying your bill and any other expenses.
2. A number of teams have said that they will be camping at the rugby club.There is plenty of space within staggering distance of the clubhouse and ifyou bring your own tent there is no charge at all. We can provide tents at£15 / night suitable for about 5 people. This has got to be the mostcost effective option and much preferable to crashing on the club housefloor!If you are intending to camp please let us know so we can plan the space -no formal booking required.To hire a tent send a cheque for £15 / night plus a £25 returnable deposit,payable to Internet Royals FC to Alison as above. Please mark the cheque’Tent’ on the back!
3. If you plan to crash in the club house, again please let us know asap.Whilst we can fit a good number in there will be a limit for safety reasonsand we’d rather know in advance if all 800 people want to sleep on a beerstained carpet! Numbers again to Alison.Please send all accommodation requests via your team contact to avoidconfusion around numbers.
4. Families
   For some WorldNET will be the chance to escape from the kids for theweekend. Others have asked about bringing the family. There will be a bouncycastle on site all weekend (free of charge) and we can arrange a trip to alocal child friendly attraction if there is enough interest. Two options wouldbe Legoland or Wellplace Zoo. If enough people are interested we will workout some prices. Please mail me at football@southbank.i-way.co.uk.
5. AdvertisementsWe will be producing a tournament programme to be given free to allparticipants (c 800). To raise money for charity we are selling advertisingspace for 50 GBP per half page or 100 GBP per full page. If anyone wouldlike to take out an advert, or can put us in touch with a company who mightbe interested we would like to hear from you asap atfootball@southbank.i-way.co.uk

Watch out for more WorldNET info in the next few weeks.

OMENS FOR THE WORLD CUP

England should win it. Why?

1. The last time Real Madrid won the European Cup was in 1966. RealMadrid won it again just last month.
2. Has anyone noticed the pattern of World Cup winners over the last 32years, specifically:

   1966 England
   |    1970 Brazil
   |    |    1974 (West) Germany
   |    |    |    1978 Argentina
   |    |    |    |    1982 Italy
   |    |    |    1986 Argentina
   |    |    1990 Germany
   |    1994 Brazil
   1998 ???

   
   

3. I’m a complete optimist. I must be: I support City.

WORLD CUP TRIVIA

A bit of trivia for you.

In the last thirty years, and excluding Italy, the world cup finals years have been and won by as follows, and add up to 3964:

e.g Brazil	 1970
	  	 1994
	  	 3964
     Germany     1974
		 1990
		 3964
    Argentina    1978
		 1986
                 3964
 England	1966
	        1998
		3964

Strange but true, incidentally Italy won in 1982 if you multiply by 2, you reach the same answer: 3964

MARSEILLE INFO

Just a pointer for anyone coming to sunny Marseille next week – one of the most lively bars is likely to be the “Red Lion” pub in Pointe Rouge. To get there from the Stade Velodrome, you take the No 19 bus down the Prado towards “La Plage” (where’s there’s giant screens for all matches, free concerts in the evenings, beach football comps etc.). At the statue of David in front of the beach, the bus will turn left and follow the coast passing the Escale Borely, a trendy complex of bars and restaurants, then you’ll see the pub about 200m on the left. Should take you about 10/15 minutes. Hopefully the place will stay intact because there’s always a good atmosphere – a good place to celebrate victory and admire the Med. I’ll look out for City shirts – although I’ve still got to convince the barman to let me borrow the one on the wall before I get to wear one.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW I

The obvious ones:

Dennis Tueart – Director of Football at the Academy + owner of travel agents in Cheadle.
Joe Royle – Manager.
Willie Donachie – Assistant Manager.
Paul Power – Director of Youth Football at the Academy.
Joe Corrigan – Goalkeeper coach at Liverpool.
Colin Bell – Was on the dole – has he found a job yet? Found out who his mates were 25 years too late.
Francis Lee – Race horse trainer, Bog-paper magnate and former chairman of a great football club (which he flushed down the loo – just like the product he manufactures). Has numerous other business interests.
Mike Summerbee – Henchman #1 of aforesaid bog-paper magnate. Owner of elite mail order high quality and high price shirt business. Has numerous small business interests.
Colin Barlow – Henchman #2 of aforesaid bog-paper magnate. Has numerous small business interests.
Neil Young – Former milkman. Don’t know what his day job is now, but spends most of his spare time teaching kids how to play football in Bramhall/Hazel Grove.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? II

Joe Corrigan is working as a fitness advisor at the Tytherington Club in Macclesfield.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? III

Further to the “where are they now” request.

I think I might have mentioned this, but Steve Mackenzie (goal scorer in the ’81 final vs. Spurs) is just finishing his Multimedia degree at Wolverhampton Uni.

He was our in-house pundit (literally) in the opening match of Euro 96 (where he told me he was unable to comment on my out-spoken opinion of Tony Adams by hitting me with the bombshell that he is in fact his cousin). He also admits to being a Spurs fan.

P.S. If anyone is feeling a little patriotic and possibly even a little hopeful (although as City fans I’d hope we all know better than that)… there is an England/World Cup graphic that you might like to grab from our front page at www.kerb.co.uk; just right click on it and you can set it as wallpaper if you use win95. I’d suggest it as a centre display (using properties) on a white background… especially good for PC’s used by Germans, French, Scots colleagues. 🙂

WHERE ARE THEY NOW IV

Following Chris Cobb’s enquiry ‘where are they now’, here’s my attempt at answering for some the players.

Joe Corrigan – Goalkeeping coach at Liverpool (so why is David James so bad?)
Tony Book – Working for Reidy and Co. at Sunderland.
Neil Young – Used to work for a Supermarket many a moon ago. Wasn’t he brought in to act as one of the ‘corporate hospitality’ bods?

WHERE ARE THEY NOW V

A question was posed by Chris Cobb in MCIVTA about the careers of a few former City players. The following are the entries from the revised version of the book ‘Where Are They Now’ by Andy Pringle and Neil Fissler, which came out about a year ago.

I’ve not included Tony Book as he was still listed as being on the staff at Maine Road, which as we all know is not the case now. So unless you know different, Esther?

Tony Coleman – Now lives in Australia and works for the State Railways as a driver.
Neil Young – Runs his own soccer school in Wilmslow and helps coach youngsters in Cheshire schools (although I’ve a feeling he is now unemployed – sorry if I’m wrong!, I know he was a milkman at one time).
Joe Corrigan – Now lives in Cheshire, and has coached keepers at Celtic, Middlesbrough, Tranmere and Barnsley before being offered a post at Anfield as Liverpool’s first full-time goalkeeping coach (he’ll have his hands full with David James then!). Can often be seen on footie programmes sat behind Roy Evans on Liverpool’s bench.
Mike Doyle was listed as living in Ashton Under Lyne and has been a sales rep. for Slazenger for ten years.
Tommy Booth still lives in the region and works for the television rental firm, Granada.

The book has over 2,000 names in it, and if anyone wants any more (City or non-City), drop me a mail and I’ll reply direct rather than clog up MCIVTA.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW VI

Re the request for info on “where are they now, the stars of yesterday”. Even though far away I couldn’t miss one ex-player on TV last year. Now with Liverpool, there’s no need to ask any more, “Who ate all the pies?” It’s got to be that great fat bassa, not big, not even huge, but gargantuan Joe Corrigan! Put him in goal now and you’d be hard pressed to slip a hard boiled egg between the posts never mind a football.

I remember he always had a weight problem in his playing days and did brilliantly to overcome it. Now as a goalkeeping coach at Liverpool he has obviously decided he doesn’t need to fight it any more.

Many of the old City players are still around and about and if anyone wanted information on specific players I might well be able to help regarding those from the 70s and 80s. As a starter, Peter Barnes is a players’ agent (specialising in Norwegians) and Gary Owen is well into art works. Frank Carrodus I understand is also a players’ agent these days. He used to flog insurance policies. Glynn Pardoe is in the security business and Dave Connor in leisure sports. Mike Summerbee has his clothing interests still, as well as doing a nice line of patter at sports dinners, (as long as he doesn’t try to match stars like Norman Whiteside in the lager stakes these days, yet another example of a Blue being left standing or should that be staggering!). Mike Channon is suffering pretty badly (but never complains) with the residue of injuries picked up during his long and illustrious career, but still managing to be brilliantly successful in his horsebreeding and training business. Ron Healey, goalkeeping rival to Joe Corrigan in his early days, is also in the security business and long since re-domiciled in Manchester (well Wilmslow to be exact) after becoming a cult figure in Cardiff during his long stay there before being forced to retire prematurely with serious injuries. Incidentally, he was also capped for Ireland whilst at Cardiff. At the time City had a plethora of goalkeeping talent with Keith McRae also competing for the first team spot. Don’t know what happened to Keith, though I think he went into his father-in-law’s business, which might have been antiques or something like that. Anyway City could certainly do with someone like these 3 now or even their 4th string ‘keeper of those days, George Dunlop who was also later capped for Ireland!

Anyway that’s all for now. I’m off to Melbourne for a couple of weeks, working for one week, and then a holiday in Surfer’s Paradise for a few days. I can’t wait to lie back and watch some world cup fireworks. Fingers crossed for England and Scotland both, and I hope it gives Blues’ fans a chance to forget their own plight and enjoy some top quality action.

OPINION – PLAYERS AND MANAGERS

It’s hard to keep fully informed from 12,000 miles but several of us “Aussie Blues” have heard through the grapevine that Mark Hughes is available on a free transfer?

I know that this is likely to cause discomfort to some of you but I believe that Mark Hughes is just the sort of player we need at Man City next year. In my humble opinion if City had bought Hughes when he was available from Man United we would still be in the Premier Division.

Why?

1. Who cares that he is an ex-Red – didn’t we buy Brian Kidd and Sammy McIlroy?
2. Hughes is near the end of his career – is he interested in Coaching/Management in a few years?
3. Who better to show Bradbury/Goater how a decent centre forward should play?
4. He would help to attract other players – and install some confidence in the younger players.
5. The fans would love him – yes I think they would!
6. Hughes has an affinity with “Manchester City” and would understand how important it is for City get back on track.
7. I still rate him as a top class forward.
8. He would put some steel in the City line up – à la Gerry Gow.
9. Surely he would prefer paying for City rather than Bolton?

Why not? You tell me!

Joe Royle:

If City are to bounce back next year it is vital that they do it in style. Unlike recent seasons, City must get off to a good start – i.e. win the first 5 games at least.

To do this City must play attacking football; to this end we must have a couple of wingers in the team pumping the crosses into the middle for Bradbury, Goater & Hughes (if we buy, please) to bury (no pun intended).

In addition we need a decent goalkeeper as backup for the always injured Tommy Wright – Is Tony Coton available?

Whilst the defence is suspect I personally think that it’s the forwards (and midfield) that are primarily responsible for City’s demise – we just don’t score enough goals.

New players – any new players (excluding Mark Hughes) should be put on a basic wage with large bonuses as the incentive to win.

My main worry is whether Joe has the flair and talent to put City where they belong. Whilst he wasn’t in charge for long last year, in my opinion he still should have been able to keep City up. I still can’t fathom how/why he let Beardlsey go when it was obvious he wasn’t going to play Kinkladze. Regardless of whether Joe had a problem with Gio or not, surely he was a least worth a spot on the bench in the event you needed a match winner? How many games did City play against 10 men and still looked clueless – this would have been the time to give Gio a run. Oh well, we’re all clever with 20/20 hindsight.

Danny Tiatto:

For those of you who are wondering whether City should buy him, Danny Tiatto played in the Australian league until a couple of years ago. He is quick, skilful and has an ‘attitude”. I think he would be a useful addition (presumably at a cheap cost – free transfer, low wages?) to City and offer some options as an attacking left sided player.

He is twice the player of Jason van Blerk – don’t know how City came to buy him!

Does anyone have any comments re Mark Hughes – can we let Joe know how important he is!

WHY BLUE?

As a new recruit to MCIVTA I would just like to say, as first impressions go the newsletter’s brilliant – keep up the good work and here’s a short story of why I’m a Blue.

It all started when I was about 6 and had just moved from Ripon up to Hexham in Northumberland. My father had just retired as a jockey and it was my first day at school; at break time all the kids were playing FA Cup singles (remember that, everybody picks a team and it’s everyone for themselves), and since I was the ‘new kid’ everybody had first choice of the teams, so all the good ones had gone: Newcastle, Liverpool, Spurs etc. so one of the older kids said I should be Man City as they were naff.

Not thinking much of it that weekend, I was watching the football results and Man City were playing Liverpool away; I think they won 1-0 and to this day I still don’t know who scored but after begging my old man to let me stay up and watch MotD I think Joe Corrigan was hit by a coin and that is my only memory of the game.

A couple of years later, my support now cemented, my father took me to my first game against Newcastle United thinking that I would join him as a ‘TOON’ fan. City got stuffed 5-0 by Keegan and Co; that made me even more determined to stay Blue, much to the disgust of my old man.

All through school and even today at work I still get loads of flack, but generally good natured. Respect comes from the true football fans up here who haven’t jumped on the bandwagons of Newcastle and Sunderland, but as there are loads of ex-Rags who are now Mags it will be interesting to see how long they stick with Newcastle and as one true Mag friend says: “at least when City come good City fans will not have the stigma of being called a Glory Seeker.”

And that’s why I am and always will be Blue.

P.S. David Johnson in MCIVTA says he can’t think of another decent right back in the whole of England – how about Steve Watson at Newcastle, big, strong, fast and can cross a ball and is not afraid to get stuck in. Does anybody remember when City tried to sign him for £1.5 million when he was only 16?

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