Newsletter #880

An excellent 2-1 win over Leeds last Saturday moves us to 9th in the table. The Goat was duly fed and a lovely strike from Saint Shaun put us 1-0 up. Second half saw a sure contender for “goal of the season” from Jensen, who has obviously been saving himself to silence his detractors. Unfortunately this sublime action still only gave us our allotted 90 seconds of ITV coverage.

Match reports tonight thanks to Sharon, and Gavin with the reserves’ midweek victory. The reserves are due in action against Newcastle on Tuesday night at Hyde.

Also plenty of opinion including some interesting news on Klose (now rumoured to be looking at Trafford), Goater, Sun and wake-up calls and the usual requests.

The breaking news within the last hour is that we have agreed a fee in the region of £7 million for Fowler, with personal terms to be agreed. This is all to be confirmed by the Club but is the lead story on most of the sports bulletins.

EDITORIAL NOTICE

Steve Bolton has kindly agreed to step in and edit Thursday’s edition (881) so please keep the articles coming in to the usual address:

editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

MATCH REPORT: MCFC 2 LEEDS UNITED 1

City 2 Dirty Leeds 1

It’s a real adventure going to Maine Road these days – we never know which team will turn up and play for us! After watching the abject performance against Liverpool in the Cup the week before I thought we may just be able to play well enough to scrape a draw against Leeds but I wasn’t particularly hopeful. I was at Elland Road the first day of the season and Leeds turned us over easily that day – with their recent resurgence in good results (although not performances by all accounts) anything could have happened on Saturday. Dunnymonster and Howey were both fit to return so City lined up with Shmikes in goal (obviously, he wouldn’t be playing right wing now would he?), Jensen, Dunne, Dustbin, Howey, Sun, Horlock, Foe, Eyal, Anelka and Goater. Leeds had Kewell and Fatboy Viduka up front. That man needs to go on a Dunny Diet, he’s almost as “solid” (i.e. fat!) as Jeff Winter.

City started off with virtually the early possession but couldn’t really do much to make it count. We had a couple of corners (in front of the North Stand by the way for those who are interested) but didn’t look like producing much from them. Robinson’s a great ‘keeper so there’s not much point just punting hopeful balls into the box and hoping for defensive mistakes, they just don’t happen. The corners we did take weren’t up to much anyway – why is it that every team against us looks dangerous at corners and we just look like we’re killing time until we can have a “proper” attack again? For Leeds the only player who looked as if they were capable of creating anything was Alan Smith. Kewell was trying hard-ish – but spent most of his time getting caught offisde, and Viduka’s too fat to keep up with the rest of his teammates so wasn’t going to do much. Given the fact that we’d had about 80% of the possession it wasn’t too surprising that the best chance of the first half hour fell to Leeds – Shmikes got his hand to a (apparently) deflected shot from (apparently) Kewell to stop a certain goal. This at last made City remember that the intention was to outscore the opposition. A ball through from the defence reached Berkovic who skipped his way through the midfield (megged Danny Mills on the way, nice :)) before putting a ball through to Goater on the edge of the box. Goater put up his candidate for “Slowest Shot of the Season” by just toe poking it goalwards – because our Shaun is such a class striker (and don’t you dare ever say a word against him in my hearing) it passed the despairing Robinson into the bottom right hand corner of the net. Perfect placement, nice one Shaun.

Leeds really should have equalised only a few minutes later, and despite having seen it since on TV I still don’t know how it wasn’t a goal. Wilcox crossed the ball over from the right towards Kewell, who was standing in a perfect position in the box about 5 yards out of the goal. Just as I closed my eyes in despair not wanting to see the ball being picked out of the net by our Shmikes, the earth shook. Was it another Manchester earthquake? No. it was Richard Dunne, running out of the penalty area with the ball. Eh? How did that happen? From the TV coverage it looks as if the ball almost bounced off Kewell’s foot to Dunne. Weird but hey, I’m not complaining. Kewell got booked as the teams left the field for half time, I’ve no idea what on earth he could have been complaining about as the ref was so much on their side it was embarrassing.

Half time was great. Normally the half time shoot outs – whether penalties against Moonchester or the old kick for cash thing or the current one of kids trying to kick the ball through a hoop for a Playstation – are a bit dull to be honest, but not this day. The fun started when the first couple of Leeds youngsters decided it was more fun to try to kick the ball at Moonchester’s head hard enough to knock his ears off. Not so good for Moonchester I admit, but funny all the same. The excitement however really got going when more than one of this week’s kiddiwinks actually managed to kick the ball through the hoop! So we had a shoot off! Wow, this was really getting the crowd going. Even more so when the shoot off went into the second round of sudden death! It was like Euro 96 all over again. This time though the good guys won – the City youngster outkicked his Leeds opponent (bet it’s not often that that happens ha ha) and won the Playstation, celebrating in suitably modest style by waving gratefully (sort of) at the Leeds fans to acknowledge their generous (!) support. If you were in the bar you missed a treat. Could the second half live up to such excitement?

Maybe, maybe not, but what it did produce after only five minutes was one of the best volleyed goals I’ve ever seen. Anelka collected the ball on the half way line and ran up the right touch line. Jensen – yes that Jensen – was unmarked on the left hand corner of the penalty area and was spotted by Anelka, who put across an inch perfect cross directly onto the outside of Jensen’s left boot. It swerved from there past Robinson and into the right hand side of the net, and frankly it wouldn’t have mattered if there had been 11 Paul Robinsons in the goal, there was no way that would have been saved. It was superb – he hit it at 68.1mph (according to my handy shotometer, OK then according to Sky Sports the next morning) and it was completely unstoppable. There’s a lovely photo in the Sunday papers of Berkovic worshipping Jensen’s left boot – yes it really was that good. Every time he got the ball in the next ten minutes the whole ground was screaming “SHOOT!” at him. Closely followed by the chants of “Who the effing heck are you?” from the Kippax – well it wasn’t the Jensen we’ve been watching for most of the rest of the season!

I had been ruminating at half time on how at least Leeds weren’t as dirty or physical or whatever you want to call it without Bowyer. I should have realised that wouldn’t last. Once they went two-nil down they really did revert to type, and a nasty type that is. Every challenge was just that bit harder than it needed to be, and every decision the ref made was argued with just that but more than was completely necessary. It was nice then when the ref booked Danny Mills for dissent and marched the free kick 10 (well 8) yards closer the goal. Horlock’s trusty left foot, which must have been feeling left out what with all the adoration that was being directed at Jensen’s, duly stepped up and unleashed a cracking free kick, which somehow Robinson just managed to tip over the bar. The resultant corner was wasted though, as usual. Not long after that Jensen almost did it again. It was from almost the same spot on the left hand corner of the area as well, but this being an easier chance than the previous one he couldn’t quite get the aim right to take it past Robinson. How on earth Seaman keeps his place in the England team in front of Robinson I’ve no idea, the man’s an awesome ‘keeper and has been for some time. You couldn’t blame him for having let in either Goater’s or Jensen’s goals and he didn’t make a mistake all match. No way would he let a free kick float over his head into the net…

Smith had been taken off for Leeds by this time, and Bakke and Johnson soon followed. That Milner lad doesn’t look too bad – a better prospect than the over rated Rooney and at least he won’t get booked in every game. Fowler came on for Johnson to a good reception from the crowd. Now I’m really not sure about whether signing Fowler would be a good thing. I can’t imagine he’ll be as influential as Anelka has been so why pay him that amount of money? With Macken approaching fitness should we not be giving him a chance to show whether he can produce anything in the Prem? Ah well, please Robbie if you do come prove me wrong… Big Shaun and Eyal both went off for City to standing ovations, to be replaced by little Shaun and Ali B.

So that was it right, a comfortable 2-0 win that was well deserved over a frankly average Leeds team? Er well no. This is City remember, there’s always time for something to go wrong. The fourth official had just announced that there would be 2 minutes of stoppage time when the ever generous folks on the pitch decided to reward Kewell for his sulky hands-on-hips-when-anything-goes-wrong stance by letting him score. He sprang the offside trap – well it had only taken him 90 minutes to work out how to do that, suppose it wasn’t all bad – and put what looked like quite a weak shot past Shmikes into the net. As there was still a good 90 seconds remaining from that goal until the ref finally blew his whistle there was plenty of time for us all to panic – 2-0 up with 2 minutes to go, were we going to mess this up completely? Thankfully Leeds just weren’t good enough (or interested enough?) so we hung on for the three points. Only two more wins needed and we’ll stay up!

The atmosphere on Saturday was great by the way. I’m sure it’s a circular thing – the team plays better so the crowd get behind them so the team gets even better – but after the complete lack of noise at a couple of the recent games even when we’ve won (Aston Villa at home, yawn) it was nice to hear. Can’t imagine we’ll get much at Newcastle next week but who knows? We could even be safe from relegation by the end of January!

MATCH REPORT: SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY RESERVES 1 MCFC RESERVES 3

Algerian Hillsborough Hijack

City’s reserve team saw the New Year in with 3 points, and a great début performance by our new loanee Djamel Belmadi from Algeria, on a bitterly cold night across the Pennines in Sheffield. A goal after 29 seconds of the start of the second half, another in the 54th minute and a third in 62nd overturned the slender lead that Wednesday amazingly took into the break.

The opening minutes saw Nicky Weaver, making his return to the reserves after a long lay-off injury to the knee, was kept the busier of the two ‘keepers, as most of the City team seemed half asleep. In fact the way he performed in the opening half an hour will give great encouragement to City fans, as Schmeichel needs pushing for his place as we are regularly seeing weaknesses in his play. Indeed, Weaver pulled off three great saves during this time. However, I have to question his position for the free kick 28 yards out. The award was given after Shuker had made a ridiculous short back pass to Paul Ritchie, who was booked after being left no choice but to bring down his opponent. Weaver then stood far too far to the right of the net and Owen Morrison was easily able to curl the ball over the wall and find the bottom left hand of the net. Weaver had simply left too much ground to make up to save the less than powerful shot.

This woke most of City’s players up and they started to play with Joey Barton and Belmadi, who had both been working hard since the kick-off. Indeed we should have drawn level four minutes later when a strong, surging run by Willo Flood who slipped the ball to Shuker was able to cross to Jon Macken but he steered his shot wide of the post from four yards out. This was to be the scenario for the remainder of the half as chance after chance was carved out by City but were let down by poor finishing by Jon Macken, and our Barn Door specialist Darren Huckerby. So as we hurried back inside away from the cold at half time to get a well earned coffee, the thoughts on our minds were: was it going to be one of those nights where nothing seems to go right?

No sooner had we sat down we were able to warm our hands by clapping a well worked goal after 29 seconds from Sheffield’s kick off. This was the first time I have ever seen a City side score within a minute of a kick off; I’ve seen a few against us in that time frame but never for us, so I was a bit gobsmacked to say the least. Anyway, the goal: Barton’s persistent tackling of three players in a row finally gave him the ball and he threaded Macken in, off to the right and he ran into the box and dragged his cross back to just outside the box, where Belmadi was able to sweetly volley the ball into the bottom right hand of the net.

City again, like at the end of the first half, were camped in Sheffield’s half as they piled the pressure on in search of a winning goal. Although Weaver was brought into action in the 50th minute, for most of the half he was left trying to think up ways of keeping warm whilst being so inactive. As Joey Barton was performing heroics in the centre of the park, this was allowing our new midfield Algerian maestro to weave his magic. It came in the 54th minute when a lovely back heel to Shuker on the edge of Sheffield’s area allowed the pass to Huckerby who ran into the box and crossed into the area. The ball took a double deflection and fell kindly to Shuker who beat the onrushing ‘keeper from four yards out.

Minutes later, Belmadi lifted the ball over the static Sheffield defence right to the feet of Macken but he was unable to capitalise on this wonderful bit of vision. Belmadi’s skill was made to count though two minutes later when a strong run down the left and the Algerian’s ability to outfox defenders gave him a couple of yards to deliver a pinpoint cross for Vuoso to head home.

Paul Ritchie was unlucky not to find the net as earlier he had seen his header cleared off the line and then when he had stayed up after a corner Joey found him in acres of space only to see Sheffield’s young South African ‘keeper, Paul Evans, pull off a terrific save. Immediately after that Macken was substituted after completing 68 minutes, 23 more than was originally envisaged. Those 68 minutes were disappointing though. I will say although knowing Macken quite well, I’ve never been a fan of his as a player and he did very little to change this opinion unfortunately. But I’m not going to pass judgement until he has completed at least three full 90 minutes.

The game saw no more clear-cut chances fall to City but they still dominated possession and controlled the game. Another first for the game was to see Vuoso complete 90 minutes away from Hyde. His second half display was much more encouraging as he got to grips with playing wide right and made a couple of timely tackles as Willo was left exposed after making runs up the field. The real plus of the night though was the emergence of our new Algerian and shows now that we have good cover for Berkovic should he be injured, as I feel Benarbia is not up to the work rate needed in the Premiership if he plays as the lone playmaker.

Weaver: Has to be marked down for the goal – otherwise impressive. 7
Flood: Played in fits and starts – but overall quite good. 7
Jordan: Steady play, now he has turned down a permanent move to Cambridge. 7
Barton (Capt): Awesome display, just eclipsed by our new Algerian. 9
Bischoff: Yet to show his promised potential. 7
Ritchie: Worked well at both ends, did more than enough to get a move away. 8
Huckerby: Does everything right but score. 6.5
Belmadi: Scores one and sets one up and was everywhere – just Superb. MoM. 9
Vuoso: Improved greatly in the second half and a good header. 7.5
Macken (68): Disappointing return to action. 6
Shuker: Worked well without ever really impressing although a timely goal. 7.5

Subs:
Whelan (68): Fitted into midfield nicely and worked well. 7
Not Used: Murphy, Paisley, Browne, Croft.

SWFC: Evans, Wilson, Wood, Stevenson, Maddix, Foster, McMahon, J Shaw, M Shaw, Knight (Greenwood 81), Morrison (Needham 66).

Att: 140.

OPINION: VARIOUS MUSINGS

Various thoughts I’ve been kicking around. If, or hopefully when, we get Fowler I’d be hard pressed to come up with a better duo in the Premiership than Anelka and Fowler. Certainly I’d take them over United’s two, Newcastle’s two (Bellamy’s got too short of a fuse), Liverpool’s two (Owen and who? Heskey don’t rate), Leeds (Smith isn’t even being played in the correct place), Southampton and ‘Boro both have one decent striker but not two. Even Arsenal have Henry but keep trying to find the correct partner.

Funny thing is, after seeing the Spurs vs. Everton match today I have to say we really missed an opportunity when Robbie Keane was let go by Leeds. Anelka and Keane would have been beyond superb. But I’d settle for Anelka and Fowler. Suppose this means we now have the Elk, the Duck and the Goat.

Speaking of Everton, I did have to smile when Brian McBride knocked in a goal on his début after 10 minutes. Been saying for what seems like years that McBride has the skills to play in the Premiership. Memo to Kev: Chris Armas, Clint Mathis and Landon Donovan…

Anyone else have a sneaking suspicion that West Ham can pull off the impossible and escape relegation? The quality there with Bowyer joining is unreal. A midfield of Bowyer, Carrick, Cole and Sinclair. Kanoute and Defore up front and Di Canio due back in a month. Calamity James isn’t that bad. So it’s either the defence or Roeder’s tactics or both. West Brom and Sunderland are toast and going down, but I’d give that lot a decent chance of overhauling Big Sam and gaining three more points that Bolton the rest of the way. Although I’d be sad to see Big Sam drop a division.

Saw Vuoso’s blast of City and Keegan in the papers and have to say that City and Keegan are probably at fault here. It is clear that the young lad’s expectations were not set correctly and for that I blame those that did the deal – on both sides. The kid is young, in a foreign country, has been brought over for a decent price, and yet isn’t getting into games. At what point was he told, “you’re one for the future, but you won’t play in the first team this year.” I doubt he was because if he had been I doubt he would have signed but instead looked to first team football elsewhere.

I still don’t believe Keegan will get us into the top 6, but I’d be more than happy if he did. Certainly Everton seem to be sliding back down after their great run. However, Moyes will make them a force over the next few years. Can you imagine the talent from Europe that is going to want to come to City and play for Keegan if we somehow manage to sneak into Europe?

OPINION: MIRO KLOSE, FUSSBALLGOTT

The rumours of Miro Klose being linked with City are naturally very exciting for people like myself who support City and Miro’s recent club 1. FC Kaiserslautern, so I am very happy to answer Ernie’s request and to put my thoughts in.

As a Kaiserslautern season ticket holder and a “Premiere” subscriber (they cover every Bundesliga match live for 20 quid a month subscription – still a lot but at least you know your team will be on TV every week). I have been able to watch nearly all of Miro’s performances since he came through the ranks as a professional some three years ago, and he was and is a pleasure to watch! First he was used in midfield, but then in his “natural” striking position, scoring 9 goals in season 2000/01 for FCK, and 16 in 2001/02 which is a very good rate in the Bundesliga, close to the top scorers of the league. Plus another two goals in the UEFA Cup.

He has been capped for Germany 24 times and scored 14 goals (other statistics say 19 / 13, but I suppose these are the latest figures)!

Well, this season he only had 3 goals in 16 matches. I think this is due to FCK’s recent crisis: They are deep in the relegation zone, 6 points adrift from the 15th spot which is needed to stay in the Bundesliga. And I suppose this is Miro’s problem: He loves the club, he is an FCK fan and has stood in the “Westkurve” (Kaiserslautern’s North Stand) before he was handed the chance to play for the club, and so he simply tries too much and runs about everywhere on the pitch instead of concentrating on his job in front of the goal.

So, yes, he is a great player and I still rate him as a bargain for the rumoured £5 million. Not so long ago there were rumours of AS Roma willing to pay £20 million (30 million Euro) for him.

And I can assure you (although I have no statistics here): He knows how to use his feet for scoring, too! In fact, I was very surprised that he headed all of his World Cup goals, because his strength is his quickness and so he scored a lot of his goals in quick attacks, running towards the goal, beating a defender and the goalie. Quite Anelkaesque, if you know what I mean. The other strength, obviously, is his heading in the box.

So he is quite a flexible player. I just wonder if he is not too similar to Anelka. Either they would get in each other’s way or they would be a great duo!

I just try to imagine the last 20 minutes of the FA Cup match (let’s not mention the rest); with Anelka and Klose up front Liverpool could not have concentrated on the Elk with three men around him like they did, it would have been less clear how City would attack, from the wings, with Klose heading, or through the middle with two quick strikers to put through!

As far as goal instinct is concerned, I still rate the Goat higher than Anelka and Klose, higher than anyone, in fact (well, the last bit is due to my sky blue glasses, I admit). At least he is there where the ball comes to, even if he misses a few chances. Other strikers just do not miss so many opportunities because they do not have the instinct to be at the right place to get a chance to miss.

Back to Miro: Another plus of him is his physical strength. No serious injuries so far, he has survived situations with some bruises where others (like Fowler) would have been sidelined for half a year.

And he is just a great character, still very modest, still driving around in an A3 (comparable to a VW Golf or Vauxhall Astra). If you want to know more about him, he has a home page: http://www.miroslavklose.de/. Unfortunately it is only written in German, but you could leave a little welcome message in his guest book if you want to persuade him to come to Manchester (“Interaktiv” “Gästebuch”).

So, yes, if Keegan insists on buying a striker he should go for Klose. But as much as I would love to see Miro play for City, I still think City could do well without him and should stop throwing money about. Just feed the Goat properly! Just one headable cross is too little, for Goater or for Klose!

Ah, one last thought: I read on FCK’s official page that they had been interested in Jensen, yes, our Jensen, in spring 2002. I thought that very odd because he was already playing for City then, but maybe they got the date mixed up. Anyway, FCK needs a left back and they might still be interested in Jensen, so a deal involving a swap might be possible provided that City gets some cover, for example Reisinger…

OPINION: FEED THE GOAT

As transfer market rumours are all around us, the Goat gets fed and scores a brilliant goal!

The Goat is truly a City player, his heart is with the club and he does not want to leave. He is certainly a player that we can recall and he will do a job for us. There is talk that Preston and Wolves are interested in our Goat at the end of the season, but the Goat wants to play in the new stadium. I feel that if the Goat gets transferred it should not be until he has that magic game in the new stadium. He deserves that game in the new stadium before he goes, then we can all give our thanks to a great City player.

Another brilliant goal was by Niclas Jensen. The team are really getting their act together now and the future is starting to look good again.

[Agreed Ernie, let’s Save our Goat – Ed]

OPINION: ALL ENGLAND EURO WINNERS

I liked Perry Fenwick’s piece in OSM on supporting West Ham. Great to see he stayed close to his roots and didn’t make the transition to Chelsea to hobnob with the celebrities, luvvies and Tory adulterers. However, I must correct him on one point. West Ham were not the last team to win a European Trophy (Cup Winners’ Cup) with an all English team.

Five years later Manchester City with won the same cup with an all English side: Joe Corrigan; Tony Book, Glyn Pardoe; Mike Doyle (Ian Bowyer), George Heslop, Alan Oakes; Colin Bell, Francis Lee, Neil Young, Tony Towers – beating Gornik Zabrze 2-1 at Prater Stadium, Vienna.

OPINION: TIME FOR A REALITY CHECK?

Reading in the last issue that Kevin Keegan wants to “ease the burden” on players by reducing the number of games they play between Christmas and New Year makes me want to throw up. Keegan isn’t the only one to enter this whinefest, of course. The myth of hardship is being perpetuated by managers, commentators and, of course, the delicate souls in football boots themselves.

What we are dealing with here is the old adage that if you repeat something often enough people will start to believe it. But what are we talking about exactly? Young men, in the prime of fitness, playing six 90-minute games of football over a four week period. Football, we have to assume, is the game they love. And for each of those four weeks they are being paid more than most of us get paid in a year.

“The players have done a lot of travelling and spent a lot of time on coaches,” laments Keegan. Poor things. The manager, who is clearly in need of a major reality check himself, should divert the players’ coach to a pit head, a building site, a dreary insurance office, a hospital emergency ward or a senior citizens home and let these hard done-by young men get a look at the work most people do for 40 or 50 hours a week, not just a few hours a month. These working stiffs are the same people who fill the football stands, buy the overpriced merchandise football clubs peddle, buy TV licences or pay-TV… In other words, the people who pay to keep these grossly overpaid, whining, too often under-performing footballers in the luxury they think they deserve.

So to Keegan, and the rest of them, I say: Give me a break, imagine what it would be like if you had a real job, and call me when you’ve won the Championship (or, in the immortal, more colourful words of Clint Eastwood’s Outlaw Jose Wales: “Don’t p**s on my back and tell me it’s raining”).

OPINION: MATCH ATMOSPHERE

This point is now probably moot given that there will be no more cup games at Maine Road. But, I think the fact that the North Stand was given over to The Kop last Sunday had a lot to do with the performance of the crowd and hence the performance of the team. Sitting in the Main Stand, which has about as much atmosphere as a burst balloon, it is clear to me that The North Stand has taken over from the Kippax as the source of most of the crowd noise. They are the instigators of whatever atmosphere we are going to get and usually it is pretty good. I have been very tempted to move over there in the past, but Bob and I have such a great view of the game, and the goings on in the Directors’ box that it would be tough to make the move. So giving the North Stand over to the scousers last Sunday was the first step in what was the eventual capitulation that took place on the field. I think Michael Brown’s mates on Wednesday night gave us a real insight as to how poor our performance (crowd and team) really was. [The Kippax did themselves proud on Saturday though – Ed].

So this leads me to wonder where the source of chanting and general crowd noise will be when we move to the new stadium? I assume that given that they seem to be moving us, block by block, into the new layout that the responsibility will again be with the Northern end of the Stadium. Maybe we should take the oath now and all commit to making a lot more noise in future.

OPINION: PLAYERS IN SONG LYRICS

Possibly a line of discussion that won’t go much further, but how many instances are there of City players being immortalised in song? I’d be surprised if anyone can beat this one.

While listening to Blak Twang’s ‘Kik Off’ album whilst doing some work, my attention was suddenly grabbed. I listened to the line again and here it is:

King size boots kick in your face like Eyal Berkovic
I speak the truth, I don’t care if you’re feeling dirt you b**ch.

Nice! For those who are interested, the album came out last year and our favourite Israeli features on track 3: On Line, about 2 minutes in. I assume that the line refers to the time when John Hartson kicked him at West Ham.

I await news of a bluegrass track that makes use of Alfons Groenendijk…

P.S. I wish I’d had more guts on Saturday and tried to get started a chant of “You’re just a small town in Kippax!”

OPINION: SUN JIHAI

We have had two Chinese homestays, one a 19 year old girl, not interested in sport, but raves about Sun Jihai (and Tom Cruise). She told us his posters were everywhere in Beijing. She is home for holidays at present, but when I emailed her to tell her that he had scored a few games back and we had won, she replied that she could kiss the whole team.

The other homestay is middle aged and speaks little English, but has a 20 year old friend who interprets for her. The interpreter’s eyes lit up when I mentioned Sun Jihai and she knew of his time at “Palace Crystal”. She also knew all about the Everton player Li Tie.

Surely there must be a way for us to benefit from his stardom other than flogging a few shirts. Hosting a Chinese team to farewell Maine Road, or to kick off the new ground?

A few agile minds must be able to conjure up something.

OPINION: THE GEIST INDEX IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE GEIST

Or in this case, the Projected Performance Index (PPI). I’ve assigned the Geist Index to Dexter Information Services and they plan to keep the PPI flowing each week.

REQUEST: MELBOURNE BLUES FOR DERBY

The City vs. United match will be shown on Foxtel at the relatively early hour of 11:30pm on Sunday, 9th February 2003. All Melbourne Blues are invited to:

The Keeper’s Arms, Corner Queensberry and Peel Streets, North Melbourne. Tel: 9329-7081

to hopefully see a double over the Rags.

REQUEST: NEWCASTLE TRANSPORT / TICKETS

Has anyone got 2 spare places available for a lift upto Newcastle on Saturday? We are willing to pay for travel. our usual lift has let us down. if anyone is able to help, please call David on (07736) 035984. As soon as possible please. If not I will have 2 tickets for sale at face value. I want to get this sorted by wednesday at the latest. Thanks.

REQUEST: NEWCASTLE TICKETS AVAILABLE

Anyone requiring two tickets in the City end for the Newcastle match please contact me direct. Tel. (07789) 435999 or email.

REQUEST: WEST BROMWICH ALBION TICKETS

Has anyone got two spare tickets for the West Brom game? Please call (0207) 089 1220 / (07712) 676943 or email.

REQUEST: BIRMINGHAM TICKETS

Here’s an abject grovel for some tickets for the March 16 Birmingham game. Two of us Stateside ex-pat Blues are hoping to make a final pilgrimage to the Maine Road mecca, and March 16 is looking like our last-gasp chance. Two tickets would be good, 6 would be terrific (to accommodate our UK-based cohorts), and anywhere from 3 to 5 would be somewhere in between.

REQUEST: AUSTRALIAN NEWS ON ENGLISH FOOTBALL

Andrew, from reading your section in the last newsletter, one would get the impression that you can just about see every City game over here in Australia. You forgot to mention that if you don’t have the money to pay for Foxtel etc., then you only get to see the game sometimes on SBS.

I don’t think it is a garden of roses like you painted in your message, Andrew; if it was then how come we didn’t get to see the FA Cup over here in Australia? Is there something you know that the rest of us don’t?

As regards ‘Australians don’t know that there are 4 divisions in the UK’ – well of course they don’t if they are not told, and I certainly have not heard anything from you telling me this so I can also pass it on to Australians to learn. Actually I don’t even know where you live nor have I ever heard of you either the same as Martin in the last newsletter here, I have never heard of either of you, yet you seem to be talking on behalf of all Australians over here, which is up there with the fairies.

Please share your ideas and knowledge with me so I can pass it on to the others over here who obviously don’t know as much as you do. I don’t want to see any MCFC supporters hurt over here in Australia, so please Andrew do share your knowledge with me so I can pass it on to other UK supporters who live over here and they will know as much as you do then. We also have Australian people over here who would like to know as well, so your co-operation would be very much appreciated, after all this is Australia calling.

RESULTS

Recent results from 2 January 2003 to 12 January 2003 inclusive.

12 January 2003

Tottenham Hotspur     4 - 3  Everton               36,070
Birmingham City       0 - 4  Arsenal               29,505

11 January 2003

Bolton Wanderers      0 - 0  Fulham                25,156
Chelsea               4 - 1  Charlton Athletic     37,284
Liverpool             1 - 1  Aston Villa           43,210
Manchester City       2 - 1  Leeds United          34,884
Middlesbrough         2 - 2  Southampton           27,443
Sunderland            0 - 0  Blackburn Rovers      36,529
West Bromwich Albion  1 - 3  Manchester United     27,129
West Ham United       2 - 2  Newcastle United      35,048

League table to 12 January 2003 inclusive.

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts
 1 Arsenal         23 10  1  1 28 11  5  3  3 21 13 15  4  4  49  24  25  49
 2 Manchester Utd  23 10  1  1 23  7  3  4  4 15 16 13  5  5  38  23  15  44
 3 Chelsea         23  7  3  1 23  7  4  5  3 17 14 11  8  4  40  21  19  41
 4 Newcastle Utd   22 10  0  1 21  7  2  3  6 16 24 12  3  7  37  31   6  39
 5 Southampton     23  7  5  0 18  8  2  4  5  9 14  9  9  5  27  22   5  36
 6 Everton         23  6  4  1 16 11  4  2  6 12 17 10  6  7  28  28   0  36
 7 Liverpool       23  5  6  1 17  9  4  2  5 14 14  9  8  6  31  23   8  35
 8 Tottenham H.    23  7  3  1 21 14  3  2  7 13 20 10  5  8  34  34   0  35
 9 Manchester City 23  6  1  4 18 16  4  3  5 14 16 10  4  9  32  32   0  34
10 Blackburn R.    23  5  4  3 17 13  3  5  3 12 12  8  9  6  29  25   4  33
11 Middlesbrough   23  7  5  0 23 11  1  1  9  4 12  8  6  9  27  23   4  30
12 Leeds United    23  4  1  6 13 14  5  2  5 18 15  9  3 11  31  29   2  30
13 Aston Villa     23  8  1  3 18  8  0  4  7  4 16  8  5 10  22  24  -2  29
14 Charlton Ath.   22  4  2  4 13 14  4  3  5 12 15  8  5  9  25  29  -4  29
15 Birmingham City 23  3  4  4 11 14  3  3  6  8 17  6  7 10  19  31 -12  25
16 Fulham          22  5  2  4 13 10  1  4  6 10 17  6  6 10  23  27  -4  24
17 Bolton Wndrs    22  2  6  3 13 16  2  2  7 10 21  4  8 10  23  37 -14  20
18 Sunderland      23  3  2  6  7 13  1  5  6  8 19  4  7 12  15  32 -17  19
19 West Ham United 22  0  6  6 11 18  3  2  5 12 22  3  8 11  23  40 -17  17
20 West Brom A.    22  3  3  5 10 15  1  1  9  7 20  4  4 14  17  35 -18  16

MCIVTA FAQ [v0203.06]

[0] How do I contact MCIVTA?

 Articles (Steve Bolton)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

 News/rumour (Don Barrie)         : 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

[1] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally Monday and Thursday evenings.

[2] MCIVTA Back Issues and Manchester City Supporters’ home page

http://www.uit.no/mancity/ 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.

[3] What is the club’s official web site?

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/

[4] What supporters’ clubs are there?

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mancity.net/osc/index.html); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.callnetuk.com/home/sef/) and “The International Supporters’ Club” (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/extra/fanzone/isc.asp)

[5] Where can I find out about the fans’ committee?

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. It has its own website, http://www.mcfc-fans.com/ containing info about forthcoming meetings as well as minutes from previous gatherings.

[6] Where can I find information about our new stadium?

The latest information regarding the progress of our new home can be found at www.mcfc.co.uk/article.asp?article=111916&Title=Introduction&lid=New+Stadium

[7] What match day broadcasts are available on the web?

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found here: http://www.mcfc.co.uk/comment.asp. An alternate live commentary service, hosted by Yahoo, is located at: http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/foot/audio/live/schedule/index.html.

[8] What’s the music the teams run out to?

The music we run out to at Maine Road is “Nightmare” by Brainbug and is available on the Positiva label.

[9] Acknowledgements

Thanks go to John Arnold for providing the information regarding match day music and to Ian Bell for pointing out the alternate live match commentary service.

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, heidi@mcivta.freeserve.co.uk

Editor: