Newsletter #984

A lacklustre performance on Saturday in which the points and spoils were shared with Blackburn. A farewell to Seaman, James’ début, a few changes to our squad, some dubious decisions by the officials and some foul play by the opposition. A typical game involving teams struggling to get a result at the moment. We’re therefore still in 15th place on 23 points.

We have Garry’s match day trip, opinion on the squad and tactics, a bit of humour and the usual requests.

Spurs are the visitors on Sunday for our televised FA Cup game, when we will be looking to settle a few old scores. Meanwhile, the reserves are in action tomorrow (Tuesday) night at Hyde against Bury in the Manchester Senior Cup.

MATCH VIEW/DAY: MCFC 1 BLACKBURN ROVERS 1

Long ago, not so far away I timidly approached the inner sanctum that is Son & Heir’s bedroom, knocked as loudly as I dared and did that kind of just stick your nose round the door-just-in-case entry thing. “Hi Son,”. I covertly ascertained that the desktop pic of Carmen Electra was at least not illegal this time although the music destroying the pogoing speakers probably was. Tearing his eyes from the all-day simulated coitus that is MTV Base I steeled myself for an effort in interpretation of teengrunt.

“What do YOU want?” “Well, I was wondering what you would like for your birthday seeing as it’s soon” “Wanna go Maine Road” “What for it’ll be a building site by now <fnar fnar>” “F!@k off yer know warra mean, wanna go see City” “Are you sure, I mean you could pull your fingernails out or poke yourself in the eye with a sharp stick instead?” “yeah… whatever.” Ah well, at least I got some passable English for once.

The Blackburn game happened to be just before the date in question. Booked flights to Liverpool, there and back same day, up at 5.30am, airport for 6.45, plane an hour later and 30 minutes later, hello John Lennon International. Come home on 19.50, have to be back to JLI for 18.50 so should be OK. Book hire car, no probs. Tell you what, might as well book a hospitality package as well. Ring up City and book a Social package; you get a ticket each, a reserved table and food (from 12.30 onwards) in the Social Club and reserved car parking. ‘Ave it! Going well enough. Ring me mam and ask her to get full english on for the morning, she’s only about 40 minutes away from Liverpool, because we’re coming over for the match. “You’re not going to drive there are you?” “Yes mam, got car parking an’ all that:-))” “Well you best ‘ave a word with Colin ‘coz he goes every week and sez it’s a nightmare and with your sense of direction you’ll never get back to the airport on time.” Very fair point. “Oh sod it, can you book us a cab there and back, if we use someone local they’ll be able to tell us where we can be picked up after the match, back to you, pudding, chips and gravy off to Liverpool, job’s a good ‘un and no chance of getting lost:-))” “Righto, I’ll get on to the firm that runs me to bingo when it’s raining.” “Thanks mam.” Make note to tell the missus to sort the re-mortgage out.

Cycling to Maine Road, shoving the bike in someone’s yard for a charge of four bob and cycling home after was an awful lot simpler, but how times change:-))

Bit pigging cold on the day, thick ice on the car but make it to airport making sedate progress in the absence of gritting wagons. Must be dear that grit, the way they’re reluctant to use it. Check-in and clear security without the need for a medical examination and we’re off into the crisp, clear and sparkly sky. Until Liverpool where it’s foggy, not everywhere, just the runway area. Over the Wirral is so clear you could touch it but the runway visibility is only 300 metres and we need 500. “So ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to circle for a while because the weather people say that it will improve.” It did too, two hours later. Round and round we went for two hours. I thought the woman behind me was knitting, turned round to see how she was getting on but ended up admiring a by now very worn looking rosary. “Ladies and gentlemen, the fog has lifted a bit so the captain is going to try an approach and see if he can land. Please fasten your seat belts etc.” “How much for that rosary luv?” The BA flight that left 30 minutes before us had to go back after 2 hours so I suppose we were lucky. Got upgraded to a Mondeo, hooray, finally worked out how to stop the bl**dy immobiliser and screaming alarm and waited for the ice to melt from the screen. Funny how nobody even glanced at us while War 3 was going off courtesy of Henry Ford. Still OK for time tho’, belt down M62 (gritted – must be cheaper over here), ‘phone mam who’s convinced we’re dead and hasn’t started cooking just in case, downgrade full English to egg and bacon bap. Mam so relieved to see us fully functional but has nearly killed herself by smoking most of a full pack whilst we’ve been memorising Liverpool from the air.

Taxi arrives, we taz off. We sail past the left-hander signposted “Sportcity” but I reckon he’s got “The Knowledge” and knows a “short cut”. When we hit Moss Side I ask him if he was cabbing when Commonwealth Games were on and work the conversation round to the fact that that’s where City play now. “Oh Christ, I wish you’d said mate” We U-turn just short of Maine Road and enter Grand Turismo version of Maine Road to Eastlands but get there in time anyway. Going well then. Cab drops us in a bus stop opposite the ground-ish and says he’ll pick us up there after the match. I speculate that there will probably be road closures after full-time so we then establish that he honestly doesn’t know what to tell us and suggests we start walking towards City Centre and call the office when we get to somewhere like a pub or something so he can come and get us. Sorted then. “See you later, mate.” Do cabbies do irony?

Blag our way past keepers of the main entrance and pick up hospitality pack. Loads of people looking very posh around so we scuttle off.

Son & Heir has left his “well-warm” parka at me mam’s ’cause he’s “well-hard” and wants to get on telly wearing the adverts for First Advice. Explain this unlikely in the 20 seconds ITV usually devote to us but there’s no telling them is there? He’s soon shivering like Lassie OD’d on syrup of figs so it’s into the City shop for a warm and signature practice on a Visa slip for another First Advice advert on the back of a coat.

Show pass to keeper of the Social Club entrance and in for some food and drink. Quite nice really. Got shown to our own table, drinks ordered sharpish. Starters were hors d’oeuvres or hot gazpacho soup (sic) followed by main choices of trout, lamb, beef or veggie cannelloni, all served buffet style except the veggie option, which is special from the kitchen. Drinks, puds and coffee extra. “Would you like to start a tab or pay cash, sir?” I was amazed at the number of people employed and busy. The food was very good but not really a 15 year old’s cup of tea so he had Fosters instead.

Right then, just after 2 o’clock and we’re off to the turnstile. The credit card size tickets are a new one on me but we pretended we knew what to do ‘coz we watched a few people go in first. Son rubs his card over the magic square, turnstile goes beep and he’s in. Daddy does the rubbing thing and nowt, not a sausage, b****r all. Appeal to keeper of the turnstile who summons man with computery box thing. Ticket gets placed on screen and screen says “Item not bought”. Man with box says I will have to go to ticket office to get ticket verified. Can see queue from entrance A2, is like cold war bread queue, bl**dy miles long. Suggest that joke is a good one. Not amused. Explain that just picked up tickets from front of house and that son’s ticket worked perfectly well and this validating thing seemed inappropriate given the circumstances. Man with box stands his ground. Further appeal to keeper of the turnstile ’cause son’s inside and can’t get out ’cause ticket only works one time. Begin to explain the day so far and keeper takes pity when eyes change colour and body goes green and shirt starts splitting. Keeper enlists passing man with magic pass who listens to story and reunites dad and son very courteously. Top man!

There’s nothing to add about the stadium as it is as impressive as everyone sez. Seats were in tier 1 and I guess there isn’t a poor seat in the ground. Tremendous. The pitch looks magnificent, is it me or is the bounce higher than normal? Does that mesh thingy in the grass affect the bounce?

I’m sure the match will be covered well elsewhere so little to say of that except that the linesman with the bright green flag appeared to make several scandalous decisions although admittedly we were not best placed to judge. The ref. allowed Blackburn some evil tackling and the game was poorer for that. City were ponderous for a lot of the match. Predictable, lethargic, little apparent effort for each other. Our opponents must love the way we let them get back and into shape before the attack starts. Many attacks start and finish with SunJee belting the ball from his deepish wide setup because there’s no-one coming short to link. SWP as sub was too late to make the impact he deserves. Anelka was denied what looked like a nailed-on pen from where we were.

Post-match we came out of the ground and headed to the front of ground, turned right towards Ancoats and City Centre and walked for about 20 minutes, which brought us to the junction of Pollard St and Great Ancoats St where there’s a little car park outside a Sanderson Fabrics and Discount Golf Centre so we were able to call in and rendezvous with the taxi. That seemed to be about the first place anyone could reasonably expect to get to us that we found. Anyone know of anywhere better? Anyone able to say how long it takes to walk back to Piccadilly? There’s the possibility of picking up the tram from there.

Rest of the trip was wonderfully uneventful. A couple of Ladies of the Night were parading in one place we passed; well I suppose they were Ladies of the Tea-time given the hour. They must have been cold tho:-))

Home at 21.45 with beer well earned. Gone in sixty seconds so that was 5 minutes used up:-))

So a grand day out. Well not quite a grand but a bit more expensive than queuing to pay cash at the Kippax turnstiles. “Dad?” “Yes Son?” “That was a great day, thanks very much.” <Dad collapses> “Can we go to an away game next?” <stays collapsed>.

OPINION: CRISIS OR CITYITIS?

I wrote my previous contribution just after the derby, and I remember defending Keegan. I’m still convinced he’s always meant well for the club, but now I can’t help asking myself this question. Is this a crisis or simply Manchester City? Were we really good at the beginning of the season, or just lucky to meet teams who hadn’t found their feet yet?

I have seen these games this season, from the terraces: TNS, Lokeren home, Charlton away and Fulham. The best performance was definitely against Charlton, we looked so better than them and then… just look at the table. The other games weren’t as good, but I always left the ground with a feeling of potential improvement, had the defence been better.

Our midfield started off really well I reckon, then something went wrong. I read bad comments on Sinclair and McManaman especially. Either they’re not motivated, or they’re too old for the game, because we can’t really discuss their skills. Signing “mature players” has always been Keegan’s policy at City. But it’s always a risk. Here in Italy there’s a campaign for Roberto Baggio, aged 37, to be brought to Portugal. But these are exceptions I’m afraid. Tarnat was good I remember, he earned City a few of the few points we have, but I read he hasn’t been himself after his injury. Bosvelt has apparently joined City as a season ticket holder, but again, maybe he’s not convincing in training. And what about Seaman, that says it all I think. Too old to finish the season (and I confess to being happy he’s not in goal any more, he cost us points let’s admit it). Reyna is another “experienced” player, and according to the contributions I read here, he’s the only good signing of the “clan of the elderly”.

I agree with the stability concept. Changing manager would be a massive change. I don’t want a new manager if Keegan can keep us up. Avoiding the drop has sadly become our target this season. But here I have another question: can he? We can’t risk going down. If we understand we are, then let’s change the pilot, simply because it’s too expensive and impossible to change the plane (just to complete a safe landing, that is).

I’m firmly convinced that 50 million pounds haven’t been spent well, because Tarnat (at least this year), Distin, Sommeil (how much?) Sun and Dunne make a First Division defence (surely a good one, but nothing more), and the “mature midfielders” have turned out to be too mature, or shall we say rotten. Here I blame Keegan: with that some of money he really could have built a fantastic side. Still, I understand his human side, and his desire to become the man able to transform City into a big club. But maybe too quickly.

Finally, I want to say who I’d like to see in case Keegan goes. Roy Hodgson. He did well in Italy at Inter (not an easy place, so… he’s used to it) and for Switzerland.

OPINION: LAY OFF KK

I have to say I’m becoming mightily hacked off with the anti-Keegan brigade! No I don’t agree with you all and I haven’t bothered to email any of you to let you know either.

The best thing about City in recent years has been its supporters, wherever they come from or live – so if you live in Oz or anywhere else and you’re a Blue, then great.

Having said that haven’t we been down the “let’s sack the manager” road before or have some of you missed the bl**dy merry go round that we seemingly enjoy every 3 years if we’re lucky?

No win in 14 games and we’re still only 9 points (yes only) off a top six place! Harry Redknapp hit the nail on the head: below the top three there is nothing between the rest of the Premier League and on any day any team can produce a result. Let’s face it, we’re pretty much as bad as the rest so what are you expecting and where are you expecting us to finish at just past the half way stage of the season?

We have been as unlucky as we have been poor at times but that is synonymous with a run of this nature. I am as disappointed as anyone about the recent run of form and my early season optimism has all but diminished in what is turning out to be a disappointing season. I say disappointing because Keegan has done what so many previous City managers have failed to do – he’s raised all of our expectations. Take Joe Royle, never quite got us established in the Premier League but I didn’t think he’d done a bad job, rather that we lacked the funds or perhaps Joe couldn’t handle the big name players. Last season was a great achievement for the club’s first season back and we have all expected to build on that this season. Who is to say we still won’t but I would settle for mid-table or mediocrity or even a bottom half finish for this season as long as we don’t go down – it’s not so long ago that we would have considered that a success! Thank God some of the contributors to McV don’t have a say in the running of the club because changing the manager in a bad run won’t achieve anything and if I hear bring back Goater or we shouldn’t have let Berkovic go one more time I’ll $%@*!

Nobody loved Goater more than me. In fact when many of you lot were slagging him off in his early City career I believed in him as an honest and true professional. However, to suggest that he would have scored a hatful of goals this season is taking things to the extreme. I loved Berkovic for his ability and skill but remember he has hardly kicked a ball since the derby at OT in February 2003. Why, ’cause he’s injury prone – I guarantee he will not have an unbroken run in the side at Portsmouth for this very reason. How many games did he turn when things weren’t going right? Errr, none! In fact if he was playing he was often substituted in those situations or if he himself was a sub he rarely influenced the side enough to turn the game in our favour.

None of you know what happened behind the scenes between him and Keegan. Keegan is a great man-manager – look how he has handled Dunney for starters! Berkovic is very talented but also is a very erratic personality. He spat the dummy with 2 years left on his contract when we wouldn’t add a further two years to what has been an injury interrupted career with City and some of you have the audacity to slag off the Sinclair deal! What’s the blinking difference apart from the fact that Sinclair has yet to set the world on fire (but that’s for another discussion)? I can’t blame Keegan for being annoyed with him over the whole thing – don’t forget he was forced to buy another midfielder because he wanted to be placed on the transfer list and Keegan has maintained his dignity throughout all of this.

At the time of writing Berkovic is still slagging him off, which I think is pretty sad and we have just ended our “run” with a terrific win over Leicester. Nice to hear the vociferous away support shouting Keegan’s name in unison and hopefully this will be the turning point of the season but we will have to see.

Whatever happens, changing the manager when there are few quality replacements available is not the answer – Spurs and Leeds are shining examples of that.

Hail King Kev!

OPINION: CALLING KK

Yoooooo Hoooooooo Mr. Keeeeeeeeeeeeeegannnnnnn. Two words. Landon Donovan.

OPINION: DRAWING IT ALL

City must be everyone’s banker draw on their football coupons. The game against Blackburn turned out to be a scrappy affair and to be honest looked like two teams struggling, and their positions in the league confirmed that.

Blackburn played with a wall of defence that City kept trying to break down; it was very rare to see a midfield player have a shot on goal to keep the defence off guard. Anelkastar scored a brilliant free kick to put City ahead, only to see our defence mess up five minutes later to let Filtcroft score against his old club. Sibierski was our most active player and was unlucky not to score when his shot was deflected against a post; the ball rebounded in front of Sinclair who lashed out at the ball only to see it go off in a complete different direction than the goal. David James had little to do, he made one brilliant save when he came out and dived at the feet of a Blackburn player, and could not be faulted for Blackburn’s goal.

If you asked me why City did not win this one, it was not enough shots on goal. In 90 minutes of play we only had two shots on goal; that’s not good enough. We should have won this game, but a draw was a fair result. We have got to start taking some shots on goal from around the penalty area, instead of trying to break down walls.

I hope that Fowler and Reyna are fit for the next game.

Come on you Blues!

BLUE HUMOUR

The Rags PLC in association with their sponsors Vodafone are to launch a new mobile phone: ‘The Rio’. It’s big. It’s ugly. It’s got no memory.

And it takes three months to charge it.

REQUEST: ARSENAL TICKET

Does anyone have a spare ticket for the Arsenal match? I would appreciate it a lot if anyone could help me out here!! Call or email +47 982 32913.

REQUEST: SALE OF FANZINE COLLECTION

First off, before I describe the contents of this sale and my conditions, I’d like to thank Dave and Sue Wallace, Noel Bayley and Leanne and Bill Borrows and all their writers for the hours of delight their musings have given me.

But the time has come to admit that I only still own my fanzines because of what my dad calls ‘joy of ownership’, which is no longer reason enough for me. I’ve got my first ever programme from Crystal Palace August 1979 and my A5 Tribute to The Kippax zine, my ticket stubs, and that’ll do me fine. Can you tell this is a slightly emotional moment?

If anyone wants to take these ‘zines to a good home, I’m now preparing to liberate the editions listed below. I will sell batches of less than 30 editions by mail only as it’s too busy a life to meet up or make arrangements for personal callers for less.

I’d rather sell these as a wholesale job lot and anyone who wants to do this will get the best price of all. Prices are reasonable and perhaps negotiable. Any other questions, please contact me. By email or call 07712 179 346.

BLUEPRINT
6, 7, 10 (two copies), 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27. Most are in MINT or NM condition. 26 has a major footprint problem but 26 and 27 both have the poster that was given away intact and good condition.

KING OF THE KIPPAX
3, 10, 16, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 28, 29 (two copies), 31, 32, 37 (colour 1969 FAC winners poster still intact), 39, 40, 43, 44 and all until issue 95.

BERT TRAUTMANN’S HELMET
2 (Lake cover), 2 (Rösler cover, two copies), 5, 6, 7, 8 (two copies), 9, 10, 11 (A5 Kinkladze cover summer special), 12, 12a, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28 (two copies), 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39, 43, 44.

ELECTRIC BLUE
2, 9, 12, 20, 21, 27, 31, 33.

THIS CHARMING FAN
Standing Ovation – A Tribute To The Kippax. Special edition summer 1994.

RODNEY RODNEY (ok, not a MCFC zine but still very good).
1,3,4,5,6.

REQUEST: BRUSSELS BLUES’ VIEWING

I’ve just relocated to Brussels and would be pleased to hear from any Blues in the area. It would be good to meet up for matches etc. and partake of some of the local beers!

Also, if anyone has a copy of the ISC magazine, could you please send me an email address for the Belgian contact?

Thanks!

REQUEST: MILAN BLUES’ VIEWING

I’ll be in Milan over the weekend of the 6th and 7th of March – hoping to get to the Milan vs. Sampdoria game at the “Eastlands of Italy” – a.k.a. San Siro.

Hopefully we’ll be on TV that weekend in the FA Cup 6th Round. Can any Blues recommend a bar to watch the game in… and/or any good bars in Milan in general?

Thanks in advance.

RESULTS

18 January 2004

Aston Villa           0 - 2  Arsenal               39,380
Chelsea               0 - 0  Birmingham City       41,073

17 January 2004

Wolverhampton Wndrs   1 - 0  Manchester United     29,396
Bolton Wanderers      1 - 0  Portsmouth            26,558
Everton               0 - 1  Charlton Athletic     36,322
Manchester City       1 - 1  Blackburn Rovers      47,090
Middlesbrough         3 - 3  Leicester City        27,125
Southampton           2 - 1  Leeds United          31,976
Tottenham Hotspur     2 - 1  Liverpool             36,104

League table to 18 January 2004 inclusive

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts
 1 Arsenal         22  8  2  0 20  7  7  5  0 22  7 15  7  0  42  14  28  52
 2 Manchester Utd  22  8  2  1 24  7  8  0  3 16  8 16  2  4  40  15  25  50
 3 Chelsea         22  7  2  2 20  8  7  2  2 20  9 14  4  4  40  17  23  46
 4 Charlton Ath.   22  4  3  3 15 14  6  4  2 16  9 10  7  5  31  23   8  37
 5 Liverpool       21  5  1  4 16 12  4  4  3 15 11  9  5  7  31  23   8  32
 6 Fulham          21  6  2  3 18 12  3  2  5 15 17  9  4  8  33  29   4  31
 7 Newcastle Utd   21  5  3  3 15  6  2  6  2 12 16  7  9  5  27  22   5  30
 8 Southampton     22  6  2  4 13  8  2  4  4  8 10  8  6  8  21  18   3  30
 9 Birmingham City 21  4  3  3 10 13  4  3  4  9 12  8  6  7  19  25  -6  30
10 Bolton Wndrs    22  3  6  2 12  9  4  2  5 14 24  7  8  7  26  33  -7  29
11 Tottenham H.    22  6  1  5 20 16  2  2  6  6 15  8  3 11  26  31  -5  27
12 Aston Villa     22  6  3  2 15 10  1  3  7  6 17  7  6  9  21  27  -6  27
13 Middlesbrough   21  3  4  5 11 15  3  3  3  9 11  6  7  8  20  26  -6  25
14 Everton         22  5  4  3 16 11  1  2  7  9 18  6  6 10  25  29  -4  24
15 Manchester City 22  2  6  3 17 15  3  2  6 14 18  5  8  9  31  33  -2  23
16 Blackburn R.    22  3  1  6 16 19  3  4  5 16 17  6  5 11  32  36  -4  23
17 Portsmouth      22  6  0  4 22 12  0  4  8  3 21  6  4 12  25  33  -8  22
18 Leicester City  22  2  5  4 13 17  2  3  6 18 21  4  8 10  31  38  -7  20
19 Wolves          21  4  4  2 13 17  0  2  9  6 26  4  6 11  19  43 -24  18
20 Leeds United    22  2  4  5  9 16  2  1  8 10 28  4  5 13  19  44 -25  17

MCIVTA FAQ [v0304.06]

[0] MCIVTA Addresses

 Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : 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 6pm, 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/); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.reddishblues.com/CSAWebsite/CSA.htm) and “The International Supporters’ Club” (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/article.asp?article=111845&Title=International+Supporters+Club&lid=Membership).

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

The GMR pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/gmr/sport_intro.shtml.

Live match commentaries and archives of games, reports and interviews can be found at http://www.mcfctv.com/, whilst an alternate live commentary service, hosted by Yahoo, is located at http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/foot/englandprem/cal/index.html.

[7] Where can I find out if City are live on satellite TV?

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premiership games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://canadatvsoccer.tripod.com/Fixtures.htm, http://www.foxsportsworld.com/named/FSW/Index/Soccer, and http://www.soccertv.com/.

http://www.foxsportsworld.com/content/view?contentId=1288602 also provides a guide to pubs in the USA showing football.

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

It’s actually a mix of two tracks. It starts with “O Verona” (from the motion picture “William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet”) and leads in to “Barber’s Adagio for Strings (Ferry Corsten remix)” by William Orbit. The first part is available on the movie soundtrack (volume 2) and the second is included on a variety of CDs such as Kiss House Nation 2000, Galaxy Hit Mix, Cream Live, Ibiza Chill and Dance Nation 4.

[9] Do we have a Usenet newsgroup?

Yes we do: uk.sport.football.clubs.man-city is our home on usenet. If you are not familiar with usenet, a basic explanation is available here: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,289893,sid9_gci213262,00.html

[10] Do any squad members have their own web pages?

There are a number available and direct links can be found at http://www.uit.no/mancity/players/

[11] Can I buy shares in the club?

Yes you can: Shares in Manchester City PLC are traded on OFEX. The latest prices can be on found the OFEX web site http://www.ofex.com/ (registration required) or in the business section of the Manchester Evening News.

[12] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth analysis try http://www.mcfcstats.com/ or http://www.citystat.net/.

[13] Acknowledgements

Thanks go to Damian Quinn, Stephen Webb, Roger Haigh, Martin Price, and Adrian Howarth for the Satellite TV info.

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, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: