Newsletter #421
This issue has a match report (encouraging) from the Tranmere game and news of Chris Greenacre, Andy Dibble, David Morley and Chris Beech. Other news is that Scott Hiley has gone to Southampton and I for one wish him luck, as he had precious little at Maine Road, despite looking to be one of the best left wing backs we’ve had for some time; I’m not sure of the fee, but believe it was a ‘free’. Another player has gone on loan, this time the Jarrow Arrow (Craig Russell) on three months’ loan to Tranmere, and… just when you thought we’d found somewhere to unload all our excess baggage, you’ll be ecstatic to find out that The Mighty Ged is returning to Maine Rd, as he was not able to agree personal terms on the £350,000 deal – brilliant, I think not! City have also signed the promising Aussie striker Danny Allsop for £10,000.
Nick Leeson is reported to be suffering from cancer and this issue has a request for information for an article on Mr Leeson, being written for the Daily Express. Other pieces include an interview (appeared in the MUEN) with David Bernstein, a list of ready-made excuses for the forthcoming fixtures and lots of opinion.
This week, the FA published their own list (their opinion at any rate) of the all-time Top 100 footballers to have played in the UK. City greats included Bell, Doherty, Trautmann and Swift, whilst others who have appeared for City, but not as their main club were: Law and Trevor Francis.
Anyone fancy doing a Why Blue? and don’t forgot, match reports wanted!
Next game, Blackpool at home, Saturday 8th August 1998MATCH REPORT – ‘LIVE’
TRANMERE ROVERS vs. MANCHESTER CITY, Final, Bill Shankley Shield
Sunday 2nd August 1998
Call me optimistic, call me mad but in my humble opinion City will have a successful season. After reading Ian McIntosh’s article in MCIVTA 420, many of the readers of MCIVTA may get the impression that City already look like a team that are struggling this season (a week before the season starts) – not the case.
On Sunday, myself and my 8-year-old son travelled from Oxford to Preston to watch the final of the Bill Shankley Shield. On a warm, sunny day the pre-match entertainment was the 3rd/4th playoff game between Barnsley & Preston. Barnsley won the game 1-0, in a truly awful game (Hendrie getting the winner in the 2nd half). We watched the game, as Preston are an average 2nd Division team and would give us some idea of what lies ahead – basically not a lot.
Anyway, on to the main event – City lined up as follows.
Weaver
Tskhadadze Wiekens Vaughan
Jim Whitley Pollock Mason Edghill
Dickov
Bradbury Goater
The first half was played at an almost pedestrian pace – as most friendlies are. City went one down to some fairly awful defending – left their centre half a free header from a set piece, which gave Weaver no chance. At the end of the first half City equalised – a good run down the right wing by Bradbury followed by a dangerous low cross, which was turned in to his own net by the Tranmere centre half, under pressure from Goater.
The second half was completely different in comparison – City upped the tempo and their performance by 100%. They created chance after chance, driven on by the inspirational Pollock (voted player of the tournament). Dickov was running them ragged and Bradbury was gaining in confidence proving more and more of a menace with some useful runs. The chances created were too numerous to remember but Edghill spurned the best chance over the crossbar, from 12 yards with only the ‘keeper to beat, after another flowing City move.
At last the second goal came, a through ball to Bradbury left him one on one with the goalie – as Bradbury went around the goalie, the goalie’s outstretched hand knocked the ball away from Bradbury, into the path of the oncoming Goater, who side-footed it in from 5 yards. 5 minutes later as City continued to press for the third and decisive goal, Dickov was slightly late in a challenge on their centre half. Up jumped their centre half, who promptly headbutted Dickov and was sent off. This brought some nastiness into the game, at which point Royle took the decision to take Dickov off to prevent any further trouble. Two minutes later it was 2-2, a long ball pumped in to the box caught Weaver and Tskhadadze napping – in popped one of their players who looped a header over the stranded Weaver.
The game then seemed to die a death and penalties followed. Pollock scored, Bradbury’s weak penalty was saved to the ‘keeper’s left, Mason’s also weak penalty was saved to the ‘keeper’s right. Weaver then made a tremendous one-handed save from their fourth penalty, Vaughan scored but Weaver couldn’t stop their fifth – so we lost 4-2 on penalties.
Player Ratings:
Weaver 6 – looks a keeper full of potential. A great shot stopper but his inexperience showed for their second goal. Improvement required in commanding his box and dealing with the high ball.
Tskhadadze 6 – looked very good with the ball at his feet and won some commanding headers. Seemed to lose concentration on both their goals, as he took up a poor position on them both.
Wiekens 6 – again looked very good with the ball at his feet. Doesn’t seem to have the aerial presence to cope with the high ball.
Vaughan 8 – very solid performance with a sweet left foot. Surely booked his place for Blackpool and by far the best performance I have seen from him.
Jim Whitley 6 – linked up play well down the right flank, although he tended to drift in and out of the game.
Mason 6 – first time I had seen him in action. Seemed nervous at the start but got more and more into the game. With more experience could turn in to a useful player.
Pollock 9 – Man of the Match. Awesome display from the captain who continued to drive City on. A couple of useful shots and his will to win will be so important this season. He will be the main man for the season ahead.
Dickov 8 – what can you say about the guy, always gives a 100% in every game. If Royle hadn’t have taken him off, we would definitely have won the game. My tip for our top goal scorer.
Edghill 7 – played on the left out of position. Well suited by the wing-back rôle and contributed to a lot of City’s better moves. Finishing needs to improve as chances will be coming his way this season.
Goater 6 – I’m still not convinced that he will score 25 goals as he claims – I hope he does as we need 50 goals from our front men this season. Didn’t look mobile and would like to see him win more in the air.
Bradbury 7 – still lacks the goal-scoring confidence although his all round performance and contribution was as good as I’ve seen from him. Made both goals and is definitely good enough to take us back up – give the guy a chance!
Overall – best team out of the four on display. The most encouraging aspect was that we look like we can score from any position. I believe we and Fulham will stroll the division this year; shame we went down as I feel we would have more than held our own in Division 1 this year. I believe this year we will regroup and come back bigger, better and stronger. Only cause for concern – we must deal with high balls and crosses better (Shelia can’t come back soon enough).
The fans – we are the best, and outnumbered all the Barnsley, Tranmere and Preston fans put together by at least 2:1.
Finally, let’s all get behind the lads and start to begin the revival.
CTID, Darren Edwards (Dedwards@rmplc.net)NEWS – ANDY DIBBLE
Andy Dibble has resurrected his career (if you can call it that) with Altrincham. Dibble, who had a disastrous spell on loan with Middlesbrough last season, conceding nine goals in two games, has signed a two-year contract with the Unibond League side. He had been training with Stockport County since leaving Middlesbrough. He will combine his playing career with coaching in local schools, so prepare for an influx of crap young alcoholic goalkeepers from the Altrincham area in the next 5-10 years.
TMNEWS – MORLEY AND GREENACRE UP FOR SALE
The great JR has decided to place both Chris Greenacre and David Morley on the transfer list; they’ll be available for a small fee, quote: “They are well down the pecking order at the moment and should realistically be playing first-team football somewhere.” (quote from MuEN).
Mmm, where should I start? Isn’t this the same Chris Greenacre who turned down Cardiff last season to come back the Academy and fight for a place (and to be perfectly honest why isn’t he playing ahead of some “player”?); that’s a nice reward to show a little bit of loyalty to the club. As for Morley, from the one game versus Bury, he was the best player on the park, outshone all the regular players, surely a prospect? Mind you from reports from Ayr he didn’t cover himself in glory. However, as they are both 20 aren’t these the players JR (or whoever the next manager is ;-))) ) should be moulding for the future, not some late 20’s has been?
Martin Ford (mford@fs1.li.umist.ac.uk)NEWS – CHRIS BEECH
Even though I’m an ardent Rotherham United supporter I follow City’s fortunes with interest. One of my best mates is a City sufferer and forwards MCIVTA to me at work for my general perusal. Whilst reading MCIVTA 413 I noticed a plea from Tomos (I think) made on Chris Beech’s behalf, for a return by Chris to Maine Road. Well I’m afraid you’re too late… he was released along with most of the Cardiff 1st team squad, very soon after the season had finished, and much to our manager Ronnie Moore’s surprise he became available on a free (he had been ‘tracking’ him for most of last season and would have expected to have paid money for him).
He quickly made Chris an offer and being flattered by this close attention, Beechy signed for the Millers. I’ve now seen him 3 times pre-season and I have to agree with Tomos, he’s an impressive player, who if he maintains these initial standards will prove to be a success during what we hope will be a victorious promotion campaign. I saw him on Saturday against Bury, and was touched by an emotional meeting with Bury’s John Foster in the centre circle pre kick-off (Foster’s only contribution was to get one in the nuts half way through the 1st half). I’ll keep my eye on him during the season and hope you do the same with Shaun Goater (see my article in a forthcoming ‘Bert Trautmann’s Helmet’).
CTNTOTTS (City till Noisey takes off the thumb screws) Stephen Exley (stexley@globalnet.co.uk)MR BERNSTEIN
The Manchester Evening News on August 3rd, had a double-page spread interview and facts re: David Bernstein.
He was born in 1943, has supported City since 1954, is a qualified Chartered Accountant, has been joint M.D. of Pentland Group (shoe group amongst other things), is a non-exec director of Black’s Leisure (camping gear etc.) and took over as Chairman of fashion chain French Connection (FCUK) in 1995.
He states that he is living out a dream every day of the week. He is relishing the challenge and is bringing a calm sense of authority to the job, shaping the club in his own image and treating it as “a very special sort of business”. He claims to understand how the fans feel, his dream is to see us back in the Premiership.
He spends 2 days per week in Manchester travelling from London, keeps in regular contact with Joe Royle but leaves football decisions solely to Royle. He states that we cannot afford to stay in Division 2 for too long but is quite relaxed about the situation as he feels that the right things are being done, but not being complacent about promotion. “I hope supporters will be patient but I could quite easily understand if the patience is limited. The fans do expect us to perform in this division and we must not let them down.”
In a different piece, he quotes stability and unity as his mantras. He wants to professionalise the club, changing aspects of the culture. He will not make rash promises, but does not envisage problems with Royle and Donachie, there is not a large amount of money available to them. No new capital has been raised but he claims to have cut costs by £3.5 million per annum, mainly by cutting playing staff.
In the last piece, he states that he has banished the fifth column who were in the club, a letter has gone to all staff demanding a higher standard of conduct, the club’s culture is now beginning to change. No more details are given.
Finally he says: “Still, I am not sensitive about criticism and I will always listen to the views of supporters – particularly if it is constructive.”
Thus to add my own views may I ask him to consider, just as a starter:
- the ticket office.
- the club’s public relations profile; is Chris Bird’s agency really what is needed?
- the standard, price and insult of catering in the Main Stand (even Blackburn was superb by comparison about 3 years ago).
I can think of many other problems of a non-football nature but do not want to bore people. However, having dealt with the catering staff on one matter in the close season, one of the senior stadia catering managers did say that the commercial function was run and I quote “like a corner shop.”
If anyone else is interested in this area and wants to comment I would be fascinated to read the comments.
Brian Leigh (B.Leigh@mmu.ac.uk)ODDS AND SODS
By Noel Bayley (editor of Bert Trautmann’s Helmet)
This gave me a bit of a giggle in this week’s local rag, the Bury Journal: Headlined ‘Nightmare Trip’, it seems Bury FC’s players were hit by an “Amazing sequence of events” on their way to Millmoor to play Rotherham last Saturday afternoon. They arrived 53 minutes late for the game and manager Neil Warnock said: “The bus wouldn’t start when we were due to set off to our Scarborough hotel at 12 o’clock then just when we’d ordered six or seven taxis someone arrived to sort it out. At ten past ten we managed to get going but a door flew open at the side and we had to stop. Then minutes later the temperature gauge went through the roof and we had to stop to take on gallons more water. Two miles further on, another door opened on the side then we got stuck behind a tractor on the inside lane of the A1 on what must be one of the busiest Saturdays of the year – we did well to arrive at the time we did.” Perhaps they travelled with Ellen Smith’s – a local coach firm with whom me and a mate travelled to Ostend a few years ago, but not before the coach had to have running repairs with an Elastoplast and a rubber band en route to Sheerness. I kid you not.
One person who decided against travelling, much to Alex Ferguson’s chagrin was Patrick Kluivert and who can blame him? The usually affable Ferguson went off his head, stating that Kluivert doesn’t realise how big the Rags are. Personally, I think I’d rather play in front of 100,000 real fans than a piffling 55,000 daytrippers every other week, whilst reflecting on the fact that the San Siro has played host to several key World Cup games in the last decade rather than a handful of Euro 96 games, Songs Of Praise, rugger events and God knows what else. However, given Kluivert’s colourful history (driving through a red light and killing someone in Amsterdam, not to mention the rape allegations that have been pinned on him more recently), I’d have thought he was an ideal candidate for the Rags. While they haven’t exactly had a killer on their books before, it’s been a while since they had any alleged rapists, flashers or kung-fu fighters playing for them!
I was moved to mention the lady who penned the ‘Why Blue?’ in the last MCIVTA. She may only have supported City for a year or so, but fans like these are worth ten of Simple Simon’s ilk who wrote a pathetic diatribe in the one before last. If nothing else, we can rest assured that Simon will miss City before City miss him… if he really is a City fan, that is! What’s more Simon, the Blackpool game’s virtually sold out.
By the way, the new issue of Bert – No. 19 – Viagra Special (It’s going to be a long, hard season but it’s the only way we’re going to get up) is out at all the usual places and it includes an in-depth interview with Willie Donachie. Subscriptions are £10 (inland) and £12.50 (overseas) for seven issues in case you were wondering. Oh, you weren’t. Alright then.
Noel Bayley (noelbayley@compuserve.com)FIXTURE LIST – OFFICIAL, AND THE EXCUSES
In a blatant bid to steal someone else’s idea from last season we have compiled a City excuses list for the new season:
August
Sat 8 Blackpool (H)
Tommy Wright in goal… another great start to the season.
Wed 12 Notts County, Worthington Cup 1st Round 1st leg (A)
Well they cruised Division 3 didn’t they?
Sat 15 Fulham (A)
Overwrought by their high-class signings and the statue of Diana in the goal.
Sat 22 Wrexham (H)
Too much noise on the ‘bring your sheep, oops sorry, partner open day’.
Wed 26 Notts County, Worthington Cup 1st Round 2nd Leg (H)
Second game against them this month, they have us sussed. At least now we can concentrate of getting out of Division 2.
Sat 29 Notts County (A)
Third game against them in a month. They’ve got us well sussed.
Mon 31 Walsall (H)
It’s nice to see how the other half live, isn’t it?
September
Sat 5 Millwall (A)
They had some right scary fans, they did.
Wed 9 Bournemouth (H)
Long trip that. They were utterly exhausted but they put on a fine display of passing and movement that flummoxed the City defence.
Sat 12 Macclesfield Town (A)
Silky smooth attack for a non-league side.
Wed 16 Worthington Cup 2nd Round 1st Leg
This trophy is small beer anyway.
Sat 19 Chesterfield (H)
Six feet of autumn leaves cuts Derbyshire off from the rest of the world. Match postponed.
Wed 23 Worthington Cup 2nd Round 2nd Leg
Well, if it’s not good enough for the likes of Man United…
Sat 26 Northampton Town (A)
What a load of old cobblers?
October
Sat 3 Burnley (H)
Developing a good solid young side these Lancastrians.
Sat 10 Preston North End (H)
They used to be a massive club and they have won the FA Cup.
Wed 14 Worthington Cup 3rd Round
Like as if!
Sat 17 Wigan Athletic (A)
Yes 3 points!
Tue 20 Lincoln City (A)
Remember the CC Cup a couple of seasons ago?
Sat 24 Reading (H)
Another no score bore. Supporters’ Club end of season party next Saturday.
Sat 31 Colchester United (H)
Their fans get lost in London under the impression that Maine Road is not far from Old Trafford.
November
Sat 7 Oldham Athletic (A)
Why did we appoint Joe Royle?
Tue 10 Wycombe Wanderers (A)
The Scum fans’ local team did them proud.
Sat 14 F.A. Cup 1st Round
Versus Tooting and Mitchum Reserve Orange Peelers. A doddle!
Wed 18 Worthington Cup 4th Round
Ha flaming ha!
Sat 21 Gillingham (H)
The rumours start that City are looking for a new manager.
Sat 28 Luton Town (A)
Do they still run that home fans only scheme?
December
Sat 5 F.A. Cup 2nd Round
Versus another poxy non-League outfit.
Wed 9 Auto Windscreens N1
A run-out for the reserves.
Sat 12 Bristol Rovers (H)
Shaun Goater hat trick! City lose 4-3.
Sat 19 York City (A)
The Grand Old Duke of York he had 11 men.
Sat 26 Wrexham (A)
The goalmouth was covered in sheep droppings.
Mon 28 Stoke City (H)
Ha ha another 3 points (best season for a while).
January
Sat 2 Notts County (H) or F.A. Cup 3rd Round
Either way, we’re still screwed.
Wed 6 Worthington Cup 5th Round or Auto Windscreens N2
Another night off for the City players.
Sat 9 Blackpool (A)
The players couldn’t resist the toffee apples, candyfloss and a quick go on a donkey (I wish they’d stop picking on Tony Vaughan).
Sat 16 Fulham (H)
They really have spent well haven’t they?
Sat 23 Walsall (A) or F.A. Cup 4th Round
So we have to negotiate the lovely M6 traffic to Walsall, do we?
Sat 30 Stoke City (A)
Well it looks better without any seats/glass/bricks.
February
Sat 6 Millwall (H)
Didn’t fancy bumping into those nutters again.
Wed 10 Auto W/S NQ/F
City enjoy a well earned rest from the rigours of Division 2.
Sat 13 Bournemouth (A) or F.A. Cup 5th Round
Well the Scum or Bournemouth it is then.
Wed 17 Worthington Cup Semi 1 or Auto W/S NS/F
Time to reflect on what could have been.
Sat 20 Macclesfield (H) or Sun 21 Worthington Cup Semi 2
That old Sodje plays well.
Sat 27 Chesterfield (A)
Six feet of snow overnight cuts Derbyshire off from rest of world.
March
Sat 6 Northampton (H) or F.A. Cup 6th Round
The cobblers tied our boots together.
Tue 9 Burnley (A)
Battle of the poor neighbours sees Burnley rub it in as they have more money than we do.
Sat 13 Oldham Athletic (H)
A hard fought local derby sees a rare Oldham victory. Joe Royle sacked.
Wed 17 Auto W/S NF 1
A rare midweek break for the City faithful.
Sat 20 Colchester United (A)
Still searching for a new manager but we are close to “bringing on board a world class manager with plenty of first team and international playing experience”
Wed 24 Auto W/S NF 2
Sat 27 Reading (A)
Got swept away boating on the Thames.
Sun 28 Worthington Cup Final
City players sit back and watch Middlesbrough lose again.
April
Sat 3 Wigan Athletic (H) or Sun 4 F.A. Cup Semi
Let’s face it, it’s going to be Wigan at home.
Mon 5 Preston NE (A)
We got nosebleeds from being up so far up north.
Sat 10 Lincoln City (H)
Another IMPressive performance by the visitors.
Wed 14 Luton Town (H)
What on earth is David Pleat doing here? If he dances on the pitch again…
Sat 17 Gillingham (A) or Sun 18 Auto W/S Final
Nigel Clough takes over as manager.
Sat 24 Wycombe (H)
How would the ‘local’ scum fans know where Manchester is?
May
Sat 1 Bristol Rovers (A)
Mugged by a gang of pirates.
Sat 8 York City (H)
Last home game of the season and don’t they look tired?
Wed 12 Play Off Semi 1
What with 7 points all season… you must be joking!
Sat 15 F.A. Cup Final
City board announce Nigel Clough resigned and we will be looking for a new manager. City receive CV from Christian Gross.
Sun 16 Play Off Semi 2
City players deserve a long rest.
Sun 23 Play Off Final
City players spend their long rest looking for a new club.
AMAZING!
I can’t get over how stupid we all must be (I thought it was just a small minority). I have just (4/8/98) telephoned the ticket office to book some tickets for the Blackpool game this Saturday. I thought that I would leave it late as clearly no-one would want to go and see a game against Blackpool in the 2nd Division and I would have the pick of any seat in the house!
I should have known – 26,000 tickets sold so far and going quickly. Only single seats left in the North and Kippax stands and limited access to the Platt Lane and Main stands. Better get on the phone quickly if you want to see the opening demolition in this promotion winning season!
As a side note, I don’t know if it has been mentioned before, but I am pleased to see that Scott Hiley has been given a chance with a Premiership team (Southampton). Hiley has had a rough ride wherever he has been and it will be good to see him get a break for a change.
Joel Adams (PPFSLTD@compuserve.com)SKY SPORTS TELETEXT
Just to let you know City still have their own page on Sky Sports teletext. It is page 244 but I am not too sure how often it is updated. As of Tuesday morning they still had Saturday’s match vs. Preston report.
Roy Friend (r.friend@nhc.com)BOOKIES’ ODDS
Paid a visit to Done Bookmakers (paid out on the Rags then had to pay out for the real champions) to have a look at the odds. This is what they say;
9/4 City to win Div 2 (Blue hot favourites)
8/1 City to score 100 goals and get 100 points (very low odds)
500/1 City to be relegated (put your money on)
The odds for Saturday are:
City to win 1/2 (that is City expected to win 1 or 2 nil)
Draw 13/5
Blackpool 5/1
Away team given one goal start:
City 5/4
Draw 5/2
Blackpool 6/4
So City expected to win. But they were expected to get promotion last year and the year before so we’ll see.
See you on Saturday.
CTID, Peter Astbury a.k.a. Newton Blue (p.astbury@which.net)OPINION – LOADS O’THINGS!
Here some views of recent MCIVTA comments:
Simon – Criticism. Sorry folks, why are you all berating the guy? Why can’t we all see the light? The club is once more taking the p**s and yet 14,000 d*ckh*ads still go out and buy a season ticket for this coming season – our worst position in history. And before you start on me I bought my season ticket in March before the outcome was final – so yes I’m one of those d*ckh*ads! What’s a matter, the truth hurts, well ‘fraid so folks, we’re in the s**t and maybe it’s about time we all realised. As for me, why do I keep coming back year in year out, well I honestly couldn’t tell you. A few years ago I was on the verge of giving up but now I’m just a masochist who’ll be at Maine Road ’til I die (and that frightens me, 10, 20, 30 years of nothing). If Simon’s a genuine Blue, I can understand why he’s left the fold. I was nearly there, at least he’s got the power to stick to his convictions. If he’s from anywhere else, then he’s done a great job of winding us all up and considering we’ve all got the great sense of humour it’s taken a lot.
Some of the replies worry me; if we were a business and being £13 million in debt with no signs of paying it off, we would be liquidated, no company could survive for that long. As for the 20k City attract, they’re just about keeping the club afloat. C’mon, Simon’s pointing out the faults in the club and these are the reasons he’s gone, just think though; if this continues much longer then the trickle will become a stream and the life-blood of the club will be slowly stripped away. Blackpool, Burnley and possibly Preston should show you how far a club can slip when there’s no investment and the fans give up!
Clough vs. Dickov. Interesting arguments, maybe Nige should be given a game or two to see if he’s pulled his finger out, if not then he shouldn’t be seen again. Maybe 3rd Division football may make him shine!
Lee Badbuy still seems to be suffering from lack of confidence; surely he now has the ideal manager to help him through his problems? Royle was a class act as a striker and he’s supposed to be a good man manager, so why can’t he coach our biggest transfer outlay through into a goalden patch (sorry for that awful pun). Royle should be teaching him a trick or two to get his act together. Badbuy needs someone to teach him how to play in the box and how to even be in the box.
Kits… again we’ve come across the problem of demand outstripping supply. Maybe City should have learned from last season’s problem (sizes, long-sleeved, etc.) so why are the fans faced with more delays? If City sold 140+k of shirts last season why are Kappa only supplying 1% of that total to the club?
Friendlies – why couldn’t they have just opened the doors and make them pay on the day? Was there any real need for the ticket office to be opened?
Someone pointed out about giving kiddies cheaper tickets. County have done that and it’s beginning to pay dividends, OK so that might not be the best example following their rise. However, the idea is good, we’ve got to do something to encourage the kids to come through the gates and become City fans; they’re the future fans. Parents can only do so much to make sure their kids grow up in the “correct” way. Considering the Red hoardes are doing reasonably well (oh alright they didn’t win anything last season 🙂 ) it’s easy to lure the impressionable young kids into the dark side. We’ve got to fight back as best we can.
Well that’s all folks.
Martin Ford (mford@fs1.li.umist.ac.uk)OPINION – A REPLY
In reply to my last posting, I noticed that a chap called “Huff Berens” replied with some ridiculous comments about Manchester City, so I thought I would put Huff right on this, so that the rest of us City fans are not mislead by a breed of Blues that has emerged of recent time, who seem happy that we are now a Division 2 club going nowhere!
FACT :- Huff suggested that this season I buy a Man U shirt – Well done Huff, more great advice from a well-informed blue. SAD.
FACT :- Huff said I was being hard on Bernstein when I blamed the boardroom for the shambles. Well Huff, first of all I was not referring to Bernstein in particular, the boardroom has been a disgrace since FHL bolloxed it up. However, since you mentioned Bernstein, I will tell you that I am very unhappy with him being Chairman. Could someone please tell me how many companies they know that are in severe trouble but their Chairman lives 200 miles away in London and visits two days a week? This company (Man City plc) needs a chairman living inside that office, working 365 days a year, 24 hours a day to sort this mess out. But I suppose you will disagree with that as well Huff!
FACT :- I said that things will only get worse, but Huff then said I must have a crystal ball to know this. Enough said.
FACT :- Huff actually admitted that he will give until Xmas to write the players and Joe off – What a fan you are!
FACT :- Apparently, because I have not renewed my season ticket, it will now be in better hands. Humm, actually Huff you’re right on this one, because it will still be in the hands of the ticket office, and not as you said in your dream that someone will be watching Premier League football with it! Ha.
FACT :- Because I am very unhappy with City, according to Huff I am not a man. Very relevant comment!
FACT :- Huff told me not to support the Blues anymore, what do you think?
Now, can I please put a few questions to us City fans:
Q. How many of us are happy about City’s plight over recent years (Huff is happy)?
Q. How many of us blame the boardroom for these problems (Huff does not)?
Q. How many of us are happy that our Chairman lives in London and works for us 2 days a week?
Q. How many of us are seeing any sign of improvement even now we are Division 2?
Q. How long do you think it will be until City are back in the Premier (be honest)?
The reason I have not renewed my season ticket is because I don’t want to watch City play York, Macc Town etc, I want to see them play Liverpool and Arsenal but until the boardroom gets sorted out that will not happen. And still even though we are at rock bottom, nothing is getting better. After 10 games into the season, you will see what I mean. I will still go to some of the games, but York City on a wet Wednesday does not do it for me and I am sorry if that means I am letting my team down.
However, people like Huff said he was looking forward to watching City play Preston, well I am sorry but it’s not for me. Get the boardroom sorted out, then I will invest my money in this club but not a minute sooner. Any board that sanctions the release of £3 million on an unproven tank driver, when it is your last £3 million wants sacking. No ifs, no buts, get them out and fast.
Oh, and Huff, I have had many letters agreeing with me, and you are the only person that moaned. And despite what you say I will still be a City fan always, but Division 2 does not warrant a season ticket OK.
CTID of course, but times are very desperate, Simon (simon@orlando.u-net.com)OPINION – GIO’S GONE!
OK, so there’s plenty of talk about being optimistic for the coming season, plenty of talk of doom as well. But I’m also pretty disturbed at the amount of talk about our once dearly beloved Kinkladze. The fact is the player has gone and we need to move on now. The debating as to his worth and ability must stop, all talk about the player should end and we should be focusing on the sqaud we have now. Yes, it’s good to hear he’s doing well at his new club but that’s no longer relevant, we need to look to the future as the past has gone!
So, let’s get on with the talk of the new season, the new hope, the new players?; well, let’s look to the future anyway!
CITD! Phill Healey (phill@lineone.net)OPINION – OH YES!
from the Guardian:
> THE RUMOUR MILL > > Manchester City midfielder Ged Brannan might flee sinking City and return > to Tranmere after only 16 months.
Oh boy… do dreams come true? After seeing this today, I’m very close to saying “Yes”!
Let’s allow young Gerard to panic everytime he receives the ball back at Tranmere!
Patrick Hawley (phawley@envision.com)REQUEST – NICK LEESON
My name is Greg Swift, I am a senior reporter with the Daily Express newspaper.
You have probably heard abou the terribly sad news about Nick Leeson and his cancer problems. I am aware that he is a keen Man City fan and wondered if you had ever liaised with him or knew someone who had who would be willing to contribute to an article that I am putting together on Nick.
If you can help, please call me on 0171 922 7080 or 0836 349 742
Thanks for your help, Greg Swift (Greg.Swift@express.co.uk)BLUE HUMOUR
A man goes to Bristol airport and eventually goes into the departure lounge to wait for the call for his flight home. The place is a mess. All around him are overturned tables, smashed windows, upturned chairs, broken flight monitors and crowd control barriers littering the floor. ‘Christ, what happened here?’ he asks one of the ground crew. ‘Oh yeah’, he replies ‘Bloody hopeless it was, we had the Manchester City squad in here this morning filming the new Nike ad.’
CTID, Darren Edwards (dewards@rmplc.net)WWW MANCHESTER CITY SUPPORTERS’ HOME PAGE:
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The Editorial team of mcivta.com consist of several people. Typically news and information that is provided by a third part will be distributed by the "Editor". Phil Alcock is the current Editor in Chief of the MCIVTA newsletter.