Newsletter #413

This week City completed the £300,000 signing of Aussie wing-back Danny Tiatto but although this is the biggest news from the club for weeks, it has been an insignificant event for many Internet Blues, for whom the sad demise of Doug Bennett’s Blue View has been of far greater importance. However, rather than mope around sulking, the Blue community has rallied together and there are already plans afoot to resurrect BV at a new location. More on this in tonight’s edition.

We also have some details of next week’s friendlies and a Bournemouth profile from Stuart Wells, plus assorted minor titbits.

This edition marks the end of my stint at the helm of MCIVTA, so any further contributions to Ashley at the usual address please.

TORPOINT ATHLETIC FRIENDLY

According to the club secretary, Torpoint will play City on July 11th, K.O. 4.00pm. Public admitted, programmes available. Capacity 3,000 to 4,000.

NEWQUAY (14th July) DETAILS

I have found out that the kick off is at 19.30hrs, and to get to the ground you need to get on the one way system, follow it and the entrance is the next entrance after the entrance to Jewson’s (confusing because the team is also sponsored by Jewson’s!).

PRESTON (1st/2nd August) DETAILS

Having just spoken to the ticket office at PNE, I can confirm that the ‘mini-tounament’ to commemorate the opening of the ‘Bill Shankly Stand’ (no apologies to Liverpool fans it seems!) involving City, Preston, Barnsley and Tranmere will take place on the above dates.

City’s game with Preston opens the tournament at 2.00pm. Tickets are only available at the turnstiles and cost £10 (£5 concession); this enables you to see the clash of the titans between Barnsley and Tranmere, which kicks off at 4.15pm as well! City have been allocated most of the Tom Finney Stand (this is a good stand) – Barnsley fans the other bit!

Games that were described to me as (I kid you not!) the ‘Third-Fourth place play-off’ and the ‘Final’ will be played at 2.00pm and 4.15pm on the following day. Again one £10 ticket buys access to both games.

NEWS – TIATTO TO SIGN (Tuesday 7th July)

Ripped directly from the excellent Football 365 (http://www.football365.co.uk/).

Manchester City hope to complete the £300,000 signing of Australian defender Danny Tiatto in the next 24 hours. The 25-year-old, registered with Switzerland’s FC Baden, was on trial at Maine Road last year and has agreed terms after a series of long distance phone calls from Oz. City boss Joe Royle said: “I think the squad is now strong enough and perfectly capable for the Second Division.”

Strong enough and perfectly capable for the Second Division? Like last year then 🙂

OTHER NEWS

City have completed the £300,000 signing of 25-year-old Australian wing-back Danny Tiatto from Swiss side FC Baden, fighting off a challenge from Stoke City who were also keen on the player who was on loan with them last season. Tiatto has won 20 caps for the Australian Olympic team and 9 for the full Aussie squad, though he has a British passport and therefore doesn’t need a work permit. Joe Royle said: “I watched Danny a number of times last season and was very impressed. He will give us options on the left side that we’ve been lacking for some time. Danny represents excellent value at £300,000. I’m buying him as a first team player but his form will have to justify that.”

Meanwhile, City have also taken another Aussie, Danny Alsop, on trial. It’s unlikely that there will be any more signings though, especially none that were involved in the World Cup. “I believe the squad we have now got is good enough to get us promoted back to the Second Division so I won’t be signing any players from the World Cup. Once we are promoted again we will hopefully have more money and more options and then we can start dealing at a different level,” stated Joe Royle. I just hope that when he says “Second Division” he means the old Second Division!

The two new boys are currently “enjoying” pre-season training with the rest of the squad at HMS Raleigh, a Cornish naval base where raw recruits are put through a punishing fitness regime. Joe Royle said: “It is important for us to get away together as a squad and build up our fitness levels. We conceded 14 goals in the last 10 minutes of games last season and that tells its own story. I was not happy with the condition of certain players and we have been working with a fitness consultant. The players will have some instruction at a naval base to build up fitness and camaraderie. We’ll also have a couple of games against local opposition but the team will be mixed up on both occasions so there’s no point reading anything into the sides I put out.” City will give a free coaching session to youngsters in Torpoint on Saturday.

Another fixture change to report: the home game against Bournemouth has been brought forward a day to Tuesday 8th September.

Wolves are the latest club to be linked with City’s transfer-listed striker Craig Russell, a £500,000 bid reported to be in the offing. He has also been linked with Fulham and WBA this summer. Neil Brisco, released by City this summer, could be joining Port Vale where he would be reunited with former youth team team-mate Brian McGlinchey.

Former City favourite Gio Kinkladze is to appeal against the £2,500 fine he was handed following his conviction for dangerous driving in May. He will appear before a Manchester judge later this month and is expected to argue that the penalty (which also included a 12-month driving ban) was excessive, bearing in mind he admitted the offence and had no previous convictions. Given that he’s now earning upwards of £40,000 a week and that IMHO anyone racing high performance cars down public roads in poor light should have the book thrown at them, I don’t know why he’s bothering.

City Manager Joe Royle has condemned the cheats who have blighted the World Cup by faking fouls, such as the incident in the France-Croatia semi-final involving Slaven Bilic and Laurent Blanc. “Players are certainly getting better at cheating and getting players sent off. In my era there was no diving. Even one or two of the England players have cottoned on, although not to the same extent.” Strange thing is, I don’t recall him making comments like these after the Lee Bradbury incident at Middlesbrough.

There are more takeover rumours doing the rounds but as far as I can tell it’s just hearsay and there’s no reason to treat them any more seriously than we have done in the past.

City have issued an official statement regarding the delays involving the proposed Commonwealth Games stadium. It said: “We have been in negotiations with Manchester City Council for more than a year. These have been complex talks as it is critical that the requirements of the public sector and the football club are balanced in a manner suitable for all parties. While the club recognise this is an exciting if not unique opportunity it can only be moved ahead if the long-term interests of the club are properly catered for.” Chairman David added: “I would emphasise that we will go through a full consultation process with our supporters whose views will be carefully listened to before matters are finalised.” City have also said that it will be five years before they are ready to move, assuming the stadium goes ahead.

OPPOSITION PROFILE – THE CHERRIES

Bournemouth (8th September Home, 13th February Away)

Here is a brief overview of one of City’s opponents next season, A.F.C. Bournemouth. The following history has been gathered from various sources and I hope that anyone who recognises their words is cool about copyrights and stuff.

Boscombe St. Johns Lads Institute F.C., who were playing in local leagues last century evolved into Boscombe’s main football club. In 1910, Mr J.E. Cooper-Dean donated the plot where Dean Court now stands, and the ground was opened December 31st 1910. Mr Cooper-Dean now has the distinction of having a roundabout and a pub named after him just down the road from Dean Court.

In 1923 they changed their name to Bournemouth and Boscombe Athletics when they entered their first season in the Football League. Their nickname ‘The Cherries’ arrived at the same time when local press referred to their shirts as ‘cherry stripes’. Bournemouth’s first league season saw them finish one from bottom but they were re-elected.

In 1930, Dean Court saw international football when England amateurs beat Wales 5-0 and B’mouth themselves spent most of the 30’s rebuilding the team following bad results (sounds familiar!). They were just about coming out of the mire, leading up to a 10-0 win over Northampton when some bloke called Hitler decided to invade Poland.

In the first season after the war they won their first trophy, the Division 3 (South) Cup, beating Walsall 1-0 in the final. Life remained pretty stagnant for 20 years, apart from the occasional meetings with The Scummers (a not so affectionate name for Southampton) to liven things up, until in 1956/57 they had a good FA Cup run beating Wolves and Spurs before narrowly losing to the Busby Babes in the 6th round in front of a record 28,799 at Dean Court.

The rest of the 50’s and throughout the 60’s was spent nearly getting promoted or relegated but not doing either, until in 1969 they signed one of their most famous names, Ted MacDougall, and were promptly relegated to the old 4th Division. In 1970, John Bond became manager and they were promoted to the 3rd and just missed getting to the 2nd the year after. However, in 1974/75 after MacDougall was sold to the Rags for 200,000 and Bond left, Bournemouth were relegated again to the 4th.

In 1980/81 David Webb became player/manager and gained promotion within a year. His reward was to be dismissed (sounds familiar again!), to be replaced by Harry Redknapp and then Don Megson. During the early 80’s many aging pro’s stopped off at Bournemouth to sample the sea air before retiring. These included Eddie Gray, Charlie George and some p***head called Best at the end of season 82/83.

Redknapp took over again and achieved the result of Bournemouth’s history in 83/84 when they beat Manchester United 2-0 in the FA Cup 3rd round (I had tickets for that game but gave them away to attend a mate’s wedding; he’s now divorced and I’m still p**sy!).

In 1986/87 they were promoted to Division 2 as champions and in 1992/93 beat Newcastle in the first ever televised penalty shootout. Recent history is well documented but basically like other small clubs, finance is a problem and in 1997 the club went into receivership. The whole area responded to raise cash and A.F.C. Bournemouth became the first community-owned professional football team in Europe. This year they had the first visit to Wembley, losing to a golden goal in The Auto Windscreens Final.

Travelling to Bournemouth:

By train: The ground is not an unreasonable walk from Bournemouth station and is well sign-posted but if you can get off at Pokesdown station it is very close. Follow signs for Kings Park or the ground itself.

By Car: Come down A34 (Newbury) or M3. These join just before Winchester and become just the M3. Follow the M3 until it becomes the M27. Just before Ringwood M27 reduces into dual carriageway (A31). Approximately 2 miles after Ringwood at a roundabout take A338 (Bournemouth Spur Road). Follow this all the way to its end near the ground. About 1 mile before the end you will go over a large roundabout (Cooper Dean) on a flyover, so get in the left-hand lane to be ready. If you look carefully you can see the floodlights on the left by now. At the next roundabout take the second exit and follow signs to the ground, which is a few hundred yards from the roundabout. The road loops around the back of the ground, through Kings Park (last seen on telly when Leeds had a runabout in the late 80’s) to the large car park. It holds about 1,500 cars and is right next to the ground.

Bournemouth centre is not too distant (2 miles max.) and is closed to cars. Attractions (if anyone is interested in making a weekend of it) include numerous cinemas, eating places etc. within a few hundred yards from the centre. There are the gardens, which is a walk-through park, which leads to the pier and the seafront. There are some nightclubs but it’s worth getting a taxi to take you to The Zoo & The Cage (adjoining venues).

Hope this helps someone.

If anyone is reading this in the Wimborne, Colehill, Ferndown area, and is thinking of going to any City matches this season, please drop me a line.

OSC WEBSITE PLUG

I asked Peter Brophy to submit a monthly article to www.mancity.net over the coming season. Peter has kindly agreed to do this. I have always found Peter’s views very interesting and informative, especially for a man living thousands of miles away from Manchester.

You will find the first article at http://www.mancity.net/osc/opinion.htm

ANOTHER OSC WEBSITE PLUG

I have just added a chat page to the OSC site – which may be of use whilst BV is down. Feel free to use it – I will check it every night to see if there are any Supporters’ Club related questions that I can answer.

MCFC Official Supporters’ Club Web Site: http://www.mancity.net/osc/

BLUE VIEW – THE END?

The following statement from Doug Bennett (Blue View Sitemaster) appeared at the Blue View site today (Thursday)

My ISP, Enterprise, have removed the right to run programs on their homepages server, hence Blue View will no longer function.

I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened and the fateful day has now arrived.

Earlier in the year I had tried to raise funds to put Blue View on a firmer footing but save for a couple of very kind offers nothing was forthcoming. I feel this was due in part to the un-helpfulness of MCFC.

As things stand it doesn’t look like Blue View will be back, but if anyone out there can help, get in touch.

Thank you for all your support over the last two years. The popularity of the site has made all the time and effort worthwhile.

BV REMEMBERED

What more can they do to us?

Our team gets relegated every other season and now the only shining light over the last couple of years has gone out.

Doug is the best at this job and we have to get him a site so he can work the magic he has done on BV. Without BV there would be no Tribal Gatherings, no mancity.net, no International Supporters’ Club (coming soon I’m told) and I wouldn’t be going for a holiday in St Lucia early next year.

Come gather round people wherever you roam.

BV RESURRECTED? I

Since BV went down I have had loads of people asking me when it’s coming back or if I will do one myself. Seeing as Blue View is dead and looking as if it will remain that way, I have started doing Blue View Resurrected! The problem I have is that my provider (Demon) will only allow CGI scripts if you have a commercial account. Seeing as I only have a Homepage account I was wondering if some kind Blue out there has access to a server that allows you to use CGI scripts that I could use to run the CGI script for BV (or whatever it will be called) from? Also, I’m sat here desperately trying to suss out how to get the whole thing working (I got the stuff I need, I’ve just got to make it work!) so if anyone can offer technical help and/or advice it would be appreciated big time as I haven’t got a clue with all this CGI stuff!

BV RESURRECTED? II

In case no-one has told MCIVTA yet, Doug is having serious problems with enterprise.net – check the site. There is a temporary Blue View at http://www.insidetheweb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi?acct=mb74840

BV RESURRECTED? III

Colin Surrey a.k.a. The Wookie has got some of the original Blue View software and is getting it running at the following URL:

http://thor.prohosting.com/~mancity/bvbbs.shtml

It’s expected to be ready for use by the end of the weekend.

CITY MAGAZINE ERRATUM

The July issue of CITY Magazine features an article on Supporters’ Club news which includes a report about the recent London Branch Social (including a dodgy picture of myself).

However, it also includes an enormous blunder by listing as our contact someone who isn’t even a branch member!

If you want to know more about the London Blues either email myself or call our secretary, Andy Cleaver on 0181 509 2981. Further details can be found on the Official Supporters Club website at: http://www.mancity.net/

Our AGM takes place on 25 July in central London and potential new members are welcome to attend.

CELEBRITY TEAM

Life is dull between seasons so I’ve been compiling a celebrity team. I’ve gone for a 4-4-2.

                  Manning
Eddie Large, Mark E. Smith, Mark Radcliffe, Lard
         Curly off Corrie, ?, ?, ?
          Gallagher N, Gallagher L.

As you can see I’ve gone for a dominating presence in the eighteen yard box with Bernard marshalling what I believe to be a terrier-like back four. I chose the Oasis brothers up front for their great communication (well it works well for Denmark). Unfortunately I’m three players short for midfield so I was wondering if anyone has any ideas. I think Curly off Corrie is probably more of a Kinkladze-esque flair player drifting in and out of the game so what’s really needed is a ball-winner to protect him and a couple of wingers.

BEECH RELEASED AGAIN

I don’t know if you can remember but during last season I raved about a former City player (released by FC I believe) called Chris Beech. He was turning out for Cardiff and was near enough our best player. He was a defensive left-sider, with a good turn of pace, read the game well and liked getting forward – in fact he played sweeper during Cardiff’s best spell (admittedly only two games long).

Anyway, the reason for this note is that we struggled for a left sided player all last season – after releasing him, and now – when again he is unemployed (released along with 10 other players by Cardiff’s new manager) we don’t pick him up. He would relish the chance to play for City again, as he listed them as one of his favourite clubs. I really hope we don’t regret not holding onto him