Newsletter #1156

Don’s news round-up contains all the reaction, and feather spitting from the red faced side of Manchester, to the derby, success for our youth team in Italy and news on the loans and ex-managers spotted out and about.

We also have match stats for the derby, a report on the continuing unbeaten run for the reserves, opinion on the cashflow and general satisfaction at all things Blue.

City legend Bert Trautmann is in Manchester this weekend and will be doing a couple of signing sessions of his updated biography, details further down.

The Trotters visit on Sunday after their European exploits in a game that is featured on the foreign satellite stations.

NEWS SUMMARY

General News

He’s the Best: He ended last season as the final Manager of the Month, and waddya know? Stuart Pearce has won the first award of this term, and is the Barclays Manager of the Month for August. The Awards Panel paid the following tribute to Psycho: “Stuart Pearce’s side have certainly carried on where they left off at the end of last season. Having narrowly missed out on a UEFA Cup spot, City have made a great start to the new campaign. The in-form Andy Cole and Darius Vassell look like they’re building a strike partnership that will score lots of goals.” Pearce commented that “The award reflects totally on how the team have done. We have been behind in two of the games we have won and shown great character. When I took over I didn’t like the attitude ‘if it can go wrong it will go wrong at this club’ because it breeds negativity. We work hard for each other and while this award is an honour, no one individual at this club is more important than any other.”

Grounds for a Good Read? Thanks to Peter Carlisle for bringing to our attention an article in the Bolton Evening News, which highlights the labour of love performed by Radcliffe-based City fan Dave Burton. Dave has written a tome on “The Grounds of Manchester City”. According to the piece, the book reveals that City have played at seven grounds in total, that the only previous ground not built on is the Gorton Park site (now a public park), and that the “Mighty” Red’s highest home attendance was achieved whilst ground-sharing with City in the 1940’s. The book is published Arima, and costs £9.99.

He’ll be Back: SP thinks David James will win back his England place. England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson dropped James, 35, who admitted he had not prepared for his second half appearance against Denmark last month, when he conceded four goals. But Pearce insisted: “David has never let me down and he has a chance of getting back into the England squad. He has responded to the situation positively and his attitude around the training ground has been top-notch. As I said to him before, if you’re going to be left out of the England squad, it’s better to happen a year before the World Cup than a month before because then he would have no chance.”

Held in Reserve: The top two in the Premiership Reserve League met on Tuesday night, and a 1-1 draw meant that Aston Villa failed to catch up on the leaders City. Ishmael Miller gave the Blues the lead on 20 minutes, but Villa’s skipper Lee Hendrie smashed the equaliser just after half time. City: De Vlieger; Warrender, Sun (Collins 58), Onouha, Sommeil; Croft, Ireland, Hussein, J. D’Laryea; Miller, Sibierski. Unused subs: Richards, Schmeichel, Laird, N. D’Laryea.

Sturridge Stars, and Causes a Stir: We bring news of a triumph for the under-16’s – the Boys in Blue have won a youth tournament in Italy, with Daniel Sturridge top scoring in the competition with an impressive nine goals in five games. Teams from Italy, Britain and Sweden took part, with City beating Atalanta from the host country 1-0 in the final. Academy director Jim Cassell said: “We’re delighted to win the tournament because that speaks volumes for the lads and how well they’ve played. It also speaks volumes because we’re playing teams in a tournament like Atalanta, who are the best producers of young players in Italy. To Daniel’s credit, he came straight off England duty and wanted go there, Danny loves being with his own age group as well as progressing through the Club to train with the older lads. It’s a great compliment to the other lads that they did so well to support him.”

Ex-Blues’ News

Keegan’s Come Out: The Times reported a sighting of the Lesser Spotted Keegan this week. As the Thunderer testified, “Inside the Armadillo-shaped Sage music centre in Gateshead, Keegan spoke with characteristic effervescence at a sports management conference.” Keegan was asked for his views on the latest in a long line of Geordie saviours, one Michael Owen, who joined the Toon Army from Real Madrid recently. How would Owen find the good burghers of Newcastle? “You might see the worst game of football in the world, but you’ll feel like it was the best,” he said. “I think that Michael Owen will find this out as well – that if you think you have seen passion and that you’ve seen it all, this place we are in at the moment takes it to another level,” Keegan opined. I’m happy to be corrected, but I think that this is the first time since leaving City that KK has made a public appearance – or one that was reported, at least.

Buzzing Round Birkenhead: Clearly the return to former club Swindon Town didn’t work out for Nicky Summerbee, as Tranmere are set to open contract talks with the former City winger. Summerbee has impressed Tranmere boss Brian Little after spending a week on trial at Prenton Park. “I’m quite interested in Nicky provided he falls into the wage structure. We’ll certainly take it on a step and we’ll see if there’s any mileage in it this week.” If that move doesn’t work out, where next for the wandering Summerbee Jr? It could be Scotland, as Dundee manager Alan Kernaghan, a former team mate of Summerbee’s at City (what a great team that was!), revealed he’s interested in taking the player. Kernaghan said: “I’m waiting to hear from him about how things are working out at Tranmere. If he wants to come up here, I’ll see if I can sort something out with the chairman.”

Reid’s No Pilgrim: Peter Reid has played down speculation linking him with the vacant manager’s job at Plymouth Argyle. City’s one-time coach and manager has been out of the game since parting company with Coventry at the start of the year and has been mentioned as a replacement for Bobby Williamson, who was sacked last week by the Pilgrims. “At this moment in time, it’s not really what I’m looking for,” said Reid, believed to be on Argyle’s shortlist. “It’s a fantastic club with a fantastic fanbase and I think, if they can give a manager two or three years to build something, then you’d have to look at it.”

GT Race: Now here’s a mouth-watering prospect for next season. Not. Should Championship leaders Sheffield United, lead by their charming manager Neil Warnock, achieved promotion in May, the Blades could have Gareth Taylor leading their attack. I bet Dunnie and Distin are already having sleepless nights… It’s being reported that Taylor could be set for a return to Bramall Lane. Currently at Nottingham Forest, the 32-year-old could be joining the Blades in a loan deal. City signed Taylor from the Sheffield club back in 1998.

Euro Night for Nico: During the Champions’ League round-up on Sky Sports News on Tuesday night, methinks I spotted a familiar mercurial Frenchman. Milan began their European campaign with a 3-1 defeat of Fenerbahce, featuring Nicolas Anelka, still playing for the Turkish side despite the usual “Anelka is unhappy” stories floating about in the summer. After going behind early on to last season’s beaten finalists, Anelka’s burst into the Milan box was only stopped by a lunge from Gattuso. English ref Mike Riley awarded a penalty, which was duly despatched by Fener’s Alex. It took two late goals to secure victory for the Italians. Nico also failed to convert a chance when through on goal – plus ça change, as they say round here.

Reactions and Comments

Theatre of the Ridiculous: Joey Barton scored a second half equaliser to earn City a point from a 1-1 draw against the dark Side at Old Trafford on Saturday. Barton prodded the ball over the line from close range to cancel out Ruud van Nistelrooy’s goal for United on the stroke of half time. And City might have had all three points in the last seconds of injury time, only to be denied when Edwin van der Saar produced a stunning save to tip over Andy Cole’s fierce drive. As well as gaining a point, City also attracted the ire of football’s reddest knight, Sir Alex Ferguson. Apparently City have turned the Theatre of Dreams into the Theatre of the Ridiculous. “It was a ridiculous scoreline,” observed the old curmudgeon. “They pulled everyone to the edge of their box, just as they did last season and looked for the scraps. They ended up scoring with their first shot. It is very frustrating but that is football. It has happened before and it will happen again. You just have to accept it.” Most noble, Alex, and I suppose it’s better than trying to justify why your team failed to win! A swift rejoinder from our gaffer soon followed: “I love ridiculous scorelines,” he smiled. “If Sir Alex thinks we were defensive that is a fantastic compliment because he knows best. You name me a side that is not defensive when it comes here. United will not get so few chances in a match again this season and we did not deserve to lose.”

I’m Sorry I Do Have a Clue: Was Psycho pleased with a draw? “In some ways yes, in other ways no. We’d gone in with a game plan, and I thought to the letter we achieved that, and we were very disappointed to go into half time one down. I don’t think we deserved that. There’s resilience in this dressing room. At half time I told them, ‘let this be a smoke screen that we are one-nil down, you have achieved everything you set out to do bar the last kick of the first half.’ To be honest with you, I thought we were very unfortunate not to win it at the end. I thought it was in,” he admitted. “The script was written for Andy to go back to Old Trafford and score the winner and barring a world class save it would have happened. I was ready to storm the pitch but thankfully I managed to get back into the dug-out instead. Irrespective of results, I am so pleased with the spirit in the camp and the willingness of the players to trust each other,” said Pearce. “I see a steely determination in the dressing room and maybe there is more of an understanding about what we want from the players. Normally, the last thing I say after every team meeting is ‘does everyone understand the job they have to do?’. So far, no-one has said ‘I don’t have a clue'”

Midfield Musings: Pearce paid the following tribute to the goalscorer Joey Barton: “I have seen a level of maturity in Joey that wasn’t there a month ago,” said Pearce. “What happened in Thailand was a big wake-up call in some ways because not too long ago Joey wanted to take on everybody and fight the world. You can never win like that. But he has asked for help, which is not easy, and I am proud of him for that. He has worked extremely hard and I had a chat with him on Tuesday just to give him a pat on the back and say well done.” Joey’s midfield partner, Claudio Reyna, felt that City had passed their first major test of the season. “Saturday was 90 minutes when people would judge whether we were the real deal,” he stated. “I think we are. There is no doubt we have taken another big step as a team. After our great start, we had to see what we were made of and going to Old Trafford was a big challenge. It is a great confidence boost to get a point there – now we have to use the result to kick on again.” Pearce described Reyna as ‘a colossus’, who responded by saying that “The manager’s talk at half-time was very positive and that is the feeling we have throughout the side. We didn’t change our game plan, we didn’t go chasing the ball and it frustrated United because they started to give the ball away and we were able to hit them on the counter and create some dangerous situations. Even though they had a lot more possession we felt it was a fair result.”

Squad News

Bermingham: Karl Bermingham is hoping that his performances on loan for Burnley can earn him a new contract. Bermingham has been loaned to The Clarets to gain experience following an impressive pre-season. The Republic of Ireland Under-21 star wants to prove to SP that he can make it in The Premiership in the long term. “If I can play regularly for the reserves and – please God – score regularly, that would be a great achievement,” said Bermingham. “I’m in the last year of my contract so my biggest aim is to win a new deal and everything after that is a bonus, really. Burnley will be a great experience for me and something I couldn’t turn down. Lee Croft went away and returned with a spring in his step and if that happened to me, I’d be delighted. I just want to impress the new manager and win a new contract and if going out on loan helps me achieve that, then I’m all for it.” Meanwhile there’s been little whispers in some of the newspapers that Coventry boss Micky Adams would like to sign Willo Flood on a permanent basis. The Irishman is currently on a three month loan in the West Midlands.

Mills Thrills: SP has expressed his pleasure at the return to form of Danny Mills. Rather hilariously, Psycho had claimed in a radio interview that Mills’ improved performances were down to giving the full back “a full lobotomy”, although he gave a more credible, if less funny, explanation on the club website this week. “Credit to Danny, he’s rolled his sleeves up in pre-season. He, on merit, deserves the right-back position,” Pearce said. “I took him off in the home game against Portsmouth because I deemed it was a tactical situation. He came to see me about that on the Monday just to clarify exactly why I had done it, but I’m always very open-minded with the players and I encourage them to come and see me to ask questions. I’m asking them to do a job for me, so I need them to be clear in their own heads why decisions are made at times. He’s said, ‘I want to be in this football team, my performances have got be good enough to keep me in there.'”

Stu’s In Sync with Sinc: Trevor Sinclair has gone a long way to proving his fitness by starting all five games this season. He seems to be putting the lie to last season’s rumours that the wide man’s knee injury might finish his career. Sinclair paid tribute this week to the man who supported him throughout his rehabilitation, namely Stuart Pearce. “Stuart didn’t seem to care what people thought,” Sinclair told the Daily Mail. “This is what he has brought to management; I am not surprised at him being successful so far. But perhaps I have been surprised by his awareness. As soon as he took over as caretaker last season he would come and see me in the gym and ask me how I was doing. I was still a long way from being back and the fact that he had time for players who could not help him get the job full time was very telling. He was obviously looking forward to the future. When I was injured I could see all the ways that Stuart was motivating the other players and the techniques he was using. I just wanted to be a part of it.”

MATCH REPORT: MCFC RESERVES 1 AVFC RESERVES 1

City lined up against a very strong Villa side in this early season top of the table clash at MiniCoMS (unlike the first team then, where we still haven’t played anyone of note this season!). Boys against men on paper, but a good end-to-end match ensued, line-ups below. Villa sported a bright yellow strip, which for a moment left us wondering whether they had borrowed our third kit. Obviously yellow is the new black for football.

The inevitable Ireland-Croft attack happened early on, but Taylor caught the lob from Croft. Villa then had the first real chance of the game as Bakke threatened but de Vlieger was imperious in the City goal tonight. Another City try resulted from Miller, in for the injured BWP, who drove the ball from the edge of the area and Taylor tipped it over the bar for a corner. 50pence then had an attempt, but drove his shot straight at the Villa ‘keeper.

Twenty minutes in, we then had some trademark City reserve play as Hussain passed to Croft, who ran down the right flank to the edge of the box, crossed to Sibierski on the left of the area who tapped the ball on to the threatening presence of Miller for him to send the ball straight past the ‘keeper from 6 yards. 1-0.

Villa then pressed forward as, in an exact replay of the Wigan game a couple of weeks back, Hussain tracked back to tackle Samuel in the City box and all 8 stone of him felled the advancing Samuel for the ref to blow and award a penalty. Hussain’s going to have to watch this, or he will regularly be caught out. Moore stepped up to the spot, and fired the ball at de Vlieger who blocked, and as Moore hit the rebound de Vlieger made another fine save.

City back on the attack as Ireland passed through to Miller, whose shot was blocked by Cahill.

Half time: 1-0 to City and looking good. No changes to either team during the break, but Villa were obviously smarting and came on the attack immediately. On 50 minutes their perseverance paid off as Hendrie struck a sweet ball from an acute angle to the left of the area, 20 yards across and into the top right of the City net. Now this is the bit I like about reserve games, because you can appreciate when the opposition plays well without being rounded on by home fans. 1-1.

A couple of substitutions as Sun was replaced by Collins, and Bakke went off for Villa. Berger managed to have a shot on goal, but de Vlieger stood firm for City. Time for another trademark piece as Croft ran down the right from the Villa half, passed to Ireland who shot just over the goal, and again as he made another run, crossed to Miller who headed wide. Agony, but good City dominance and stickability.

A slight error in the City defence lead to Eric (so bad they named me twice) Djemba Djemba advancing on an open goal, but he did his best and missed completely. The final action of the game saw another great move from City as Hussain, Ireland and Croft combined in threatening fashion but inexplicably not one of them would shoot.

Honours even and City remain unbeaten this season under Wigley and top of the table.

MotM: de Vlieger

City: de Vlieger, Warrender, Sun (Collins), Ireland, Onuoha, Sommeil, Croft, Sibierski, Miller, J D’Laryea, Hussain.

Villa: Taylor, de la Cruz, Samuel, Cahill, Green, Djemba-Djemba, Hendrie, Bakke, Moore, Whittingham, Berger.

MATCH STATS: MUFC 1 MCFC 1

Sat 10 September 2005
FA Premiership
Manchester United 1 Manchester City 1
Old Trafford
Sat Sep 10th 2005, Kick-off 15:00
Attendance: 67,839
Weather: Dry and dull.

Team changes: Distin replaces Onuoha in starting line-up. Fowler and Weaver back on the bench.

Line-up: James, Mills (Sun, 72), Dunne, Distin, Thatcher, Sinclair, Barton, Reyna, Musampa (Sibierski, 72), Cole, Vassell (Fowler, 84).
Unused subs: Weaver, Onuoha.

Goal times: (45) 0-1 van Nistelrooy; (75) 1-1 Barton.

Bookings: Cole (6), Thatcher (32), Reyna (45), Mills (58). Sent off: None.
Referee: S. Bennett (3). He and his linesmen forgot the offside rule on a number of occasions. Bennett was to blame for so many City players getting booked. Substandard.

Stat points: 13th League game unbeaten – City extend their longest unbeaten run in the Premiership, and best League run since 1977. Remaining undefeated at home to Bolton will match any unbeaten League run since the joint best run of 22 just after World War II. Sibierski and Sun are moving up the Top 20 substitute appearance tables. Sibierski has made 22 in all competitions, with 19 in the League, just one ahead of Sun on 18 League sub appearances. Both will have a long way to go to surpass Paul Dickov’s record 59 substitute appearances, with 51 coming in the League.

OPINION: BACK TO WORK

After celebrating the “ridiculous” result last Saturday versus the Buccaneers, a friend of mine has been heard in his bathroom chanting “ridiculous”; he is getting ready for the Jan 14th game versus United at COMS.

Congratulations to the England cricket team winning the Ashes, it’s now time for MCFC to get back to work for the upcoming game versus Bolton . It was this same fixture last season that was Kevin Keegan’s last game in charge, so I expect Stuart Pearce will want to win this one for his old gaffer KK.

Stuart Pearce has got off to a great start in his managerial career, 13 games without a defeat and still going strong.

I would like to think of Stuart Pearce’s make up of being a manager/coach as being part of Brian Clough (best manager ever), Kevin Keegan, and his own special brand of passion, and motivation of his players; long may he stay at MCFC, give him a long contract now.

Come on you Blues, beat the Trotters!

OPINION: TRANSFER POLICY AND CASHFLOW I

Can I try to address an issue raised by Billy Watkinson in MCIVTA 1154? There have been a number of queries about the debt situation and this might help some subscribers understand the financial circumstances. I am not an accountant but I do work in a lending environment. There was a contribution recently about the club’s balance sheet; I shall attempt to address repayment of debt.

This may be oversimplifying but here we go. The most important issue for any business is cashflow There is a saying, turnover is vanity, profit is sanity, cash is reality and in our case cash really is the be all and end all.

The last full year accounts available on OFEX (this is a 45Mb PDF file, don’t even think about it if you are on dialup!) are for the year ended 31 May 04; this is historic I accept but at operating level I imagine the 2005 figures will be similar, and hopefully better.

The club made an operating profit of £4 million but after interest of £6 million, a net loss of £2 million was incurred. We can probably add back some non-cash items like depreciation of about £2 million, which at profit level leaves cash at zero or thereabouts. There were working capital movements in the balance sheet and the resultant net cash inflow generated by the club in that financial year was just over £2 million.

This is the cash created by the business rather than the profit (which in our case was a loss of £16.7 million) after everything has been paid for. My understanding of the structured part of the debt is that £30.3 million is repaid in annual instalments over 25 years and £13.7 million is repaid similarly over 15 years. I reckon this calls for debt repayments of about £3.7 million pa. I don’t think all of this shows in these accounts – depends on the timing when these transactions actually took place.

So, it’s easy to see why there is so little money to spend in new playing staff – we have to sell to buy, or raise even more debt. What’s a touch worrying is that trading income needs to drop by only a little – say 10% – to really upset the applecart, in which case there is more going out than coming in, although the current situation does seem to be manageable for the time being. The trouble is of course that we have already raised debt and spent it, and you can only mortgage the family silver once. Therefore we will be paying for the investment in players under the previous manager for the next 25 years in theory, with nothing tangible in return. To be fair to KK you can’t blame it all on him, this is a business and those responsible for making the decisions at the time (the board) need to be called to account. It’s not quite as easy as that though, as Messrs Makin and Wardle have put their own money where the mouth was when supporting these decisions.

Details of the lease at COMS appear as note 11 in the accounts. The lease payments are subject to a formula that is influenced by attendances and inflation but the note does not go into fine detail.

I suspect that many other clubs are in at least the same situation as us and many will be worse off. With the exception of Chelsea (who you can’t count as they have the wealthy Russian – but what happens when the novelty wears off?), Arsenal, sadly United and probably Liverpool, who generate enough cash to sustain refreshing the playing staff through their activities in the Champions’ League.

As far as the SWP sale is concerned, we don’t know what has happened to this money, what is available to SP, what was needed to repay short term debt (bank overdraft) and what loan repayments have the directors had back. It’s not unreasonable for them to ask for something back (it’s hardly an asset stripping operation!), but it would be nice to know.

Finally, the other thing that caught my eye was the number of employees – 54 players OK, but 54 football admin and 98 commercial admin – what do all these people do?

Hope this helps.

OPINION: TRANSFER POLICY AND CASHFLOW II

I have to agree with the comments made by Billy Watkinson in MCIVTA 1154.

It is a crying shame that we always seem unable to compete with the “big clubs” (Rags, Arsenal, Newcastle and Liverpool), Chel-ski are just in a different league altogether – pound;200 million plus in 3 years, I wish.

But it is depressing when we fail to compete with the rest of England’s elite in trying to buy quality players. Surely Spurs, Everton, Villa, Boro and Charlton are clubs we should be competing with to get into the European places but we seem unwilling or unable to match their offers to bring in the quality needed to bolster our squad.

Joe Royle had money to burn and apart from Richard Dunne, burnt most of it on players less than adequate, many of whom we have subsequently sold for a loss.

Keegan was far from fantastic with some of his purchases as well and now it seems we have a relatively small squad for Psycho to work with, but are now performing Everton-esque like.

After the sale of our prize asset pre-season, I had hoped for 6 or 7 incoming players to strengthen our squad with the departures of Bosvelt, SWP, Macken (bad example perhaps), McManaman et al. Instead we get Mussampa on a season-long loan, who has failed to convince this season, Vassell who looks a shadow of the man who was an international “super-sub” 2 years ago, and Andy Cole who is the one bright spot year to date.

We need to be looking at, and getting, players of quality when they become available.

We do need some cover for the back four: Sommeil, Jordan, and Onuoha are always going to struggle against the top teams, which just leaves the suicidal samurai. Our midfield 4 on Saturday looked better when Sibierski came on for Mussampa on the left, but again injuries and suspensions would leave us struggling. Croft and Flood, whilst great young prospects, are not really ready for the big stage week after week.

I’d love to know as Billy asks the real state of our finances, or lack of them, but surely we need to build on the fantastic start to the season and in January speculate to accumulate? Eleven points from the first 5 games, including an away visit to Rag Central, if you’d have told me in July that would be our start, I’d have had to doubt your sanity.

Now we need to do, as Charlton, Everton and Spurs have, build up a stronger depth to our squad to seriously challenge for those top 6 places and Europe.

Come on you Blues, onwards and upwards.

OPINION: CATCHING UP

I’m still receiving the emailed issue minus the end bit, so I’ve only just got round to reading the end bit of MCIVIA 1154 on the web and have a few comments to make.

1. Chris Wiseman’s (of Calgary, Alberta) comments on David Buxton’s “WhyStill Blue?”: A very enjoyable read, both his and David Buxton’s originalposting. So much so that I have emailed a copy of both home to my father whois a Blue of a similar generation so I’m sure he’ll enjoy the well writtenpieces and joining in the reminiscing.
2. Hero to Zero: I reckon Bernard Molyneux’s version is spot on. But the onething I can’t understand about the SWP deal is this. We knew we wanted someplayers to strengthen the squad. We knew that Chelski have decent playersthat they loan out, particularly to the likes of Brum, and some of thosepossible loanees are better than current squad players and would strengthenthe squad. So if Chelski wanted SWP so badly, why didn’t we insist on themincluding in the deal a couple of season-long loanees? Seems to me like aperfect opportunity went begging! Early days yet but the sale looks likeworking out for the best for SWP, for City and for Chelski.

OPINION: SPORTING WEEKEND

Just wanted to drop a note to the group congratulating all of you English types on your regaining the Ashes. I followed it all summer on Sky over here, and even (I can’t believe I’m writing this) had it on the Internet radio this morning. I have absolutely no idea what happened, but have been led to believe that England apparently did something, or, in the alternative, kept Australia from doing something, a sufficient number of times to secure victory (or something). I found it fitting that it all ended with some sort of ceremonial removal of something from something, so as to indicate finally what had apparently been obvious for several hours – that the damn thing was over. I am now more convinced than ever that all sporting events should include a reference as to how one did “before lunch”.

Anyway, I’m tired of Australians, who seem to be entirely too uniformly tanned and good looking; so I’m thrilled to see them lose at something.

Anxiously awaiting reports from the Sty. I believe we get the match on American TV on Tuesday night. I’ll still fully expect to lose, even though I’ve seen the highlights 10 times. I had said all throughout the close season that van der Saar was the most important PL signing of all. He certainly made me look good in the dying seconds.

REQUEST: TRAUTMANN RETURNS

Bert Trautmann, OBE, the former City great, returns to Manchester this Saturday to sign copies of his biography, Trautmann, at the City Store.

Bert will be at the City Store for two hours from 10.30 on Saturday 17th, and the first 200 people to purchase a copy of his book will receive a discount voucher for the Manchester City Experience (museum and tour) entitling them to a £3 discount off the adult museum and tour price (normally £7.50). Bert’s book is priced at £12.99.

In addition, all Citycard holders and seasoncard holders are entitled to a 10% discount on the price of Bert’s book. This 10% discount only applies to the end of September, so to take advantage of this great series of offers get down to the City Store this Saturday with your Citycard and buy the story of a true Blue legend.

There are still a limited number of places available on stadium tours for Saturday afternoon, so why not book on a tour and make a full day of your visit?

REQUEST: AUSTRALIAN BLUES

Not quite City or mcfcstats I know, but my wife and I are venturing south of the equator for the first time in our lives in October to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, and wonder if anybody can give us any tips on things to see, places to eat, etc., in the places listed below? Also, what weather can we expect at this time of year?

Thu Oct 13th arriving early evening in Brisbane – staying at Goodearth Hotel one night only – recommended place to eat? Or will we be knackered after flying for 20 hours?

Friday Oct 14th to Thursday Oct 20th staying on Daydream Island in the Whitsundays.

Thu Oct 20th arriving early evening in Sydney – staying at Old Sydney Holiday Inn for 4 nights – doing the Bridge walk (wanted a photo on top showing my mcfcstats shirt but told I have to wear a boiler suit), Hunter Valley and Blue Mountains – any recommended breakfast and evening eateries in the Rocks area? Best places for shopping? Anything else to see or do?

Mon Oct 24th arriving early evening in Singapore – staying at Pan Pacific for 2 nights – any recommended places to eat (breakfast and evening) and things to see and do?

As City are playing West Ham and Arsenal whilst we are in Oz, can anybody tell me what time and channel to tune into to catch any highlights (or live coverage) of these games?

Any feedback, even on the choice of hotels, would be appreciated!

RESULTS

12 September 2005

West Ham United       4 - 0  Aston Villa           29,582

League table to 14 September 2005 inclusive

                             HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                    P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F   A   GD Pts
 1 Chelsea          5  3  0  0  7  0  2  0  0  3  0  5  0  0  10   0  10  15
 2 Charlton Ath.    4  1  0  0  1  0  3  0  0  7  1  4  0  0   8   1   7  12
 3 Manchester City  5  1  1  0  2  1  2  1  0  5  3  3  2  0   7   4   3  11
 4 Manchester Utd   4  1  1  0  2  1  2  0  0  4  0  3  1  0   6   1   5  10
 5 Bolton Wndrs     5  1  1  1  2  1  1  1  0  4  3  2  2  1   6   4   2   8
 6 Tottenham H.     5  1  1  1  2  2  1  1  0  2  0  2  2  1   4   2   2   8
 7 West Ham United  4  2  0  1  8  3  0  1  0  0  0  2  1  1   8   3   5   7
 8 Middlesbrough    5  1  1  1  2  4  1  0  1  3  2  2  1  2   5   6  -1   7
 9 Arsenal          4  2  0  0  6  1  0  0  2  1  3  2  0  2   7   4   3   6
10 Wigan Athletic   4  1  0  1  1  1  1  0  1  2  2  2  0  2   3   3   0   6
11 Liverpool        3  1  0  0  1  0  0  2  0  0  0  1  2  0   1   0   1   5
12 Blackburn R.     5  1  1  0  2  1  0  1  2  1  4  1  2  2   3   5  -2   5
13 Fulham           5  1  1  0  1  0  0  1  2  3  7  1  2  2   4   7  -3   5
14 Aston Villa      5  1  1  0  3  2  0  1  2  1  6  1  2  2   4   8  -4   5
15 Portsmouth       5  0  1  1  1  3  1  0  2  3  4  1  1  3   4   7  -3   4
16 Birmingham City  5  0  0  3  1  6  1  1  0  3  2  1  1  3   4   8  -4   4
17 West Brom A.     5  1  0  2  5  6  0  1  1  0  4  1  1  3   5  10  -5   4
18 Everton          4  0  0  2  0  3  1  0  1  1  1  1  0  3   1   4  -3   3
19 Newcastle Utd    5  0  2  1  1  3  0  0  2  0  4  0  2  3   1   7  -6   2
20 Sunderland       5  0  0  2  2  5  0  0  3  0  4  0  0  5   2   9  -7   0

MCIVTA FAQ [v0506.02]

[1] 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

[2] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

Deadlines for issues are nominally 6pm, Monday and Thursday evenings bu email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

[3] 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.

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

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

[5] What supporters’ clubs are there?

Manchester City FC recognises three supporters’ clubs: The “Official Supporters Club” (http://www.mcfcosc.com/); the “Centenary Supporters’ Association” (http://www.reddishblues.com/CSAWebsite/CSA.htm) and “The International Supporters’ Club”.

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

The Fans’ Committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. The Fans’ Committee has been relaunched as “Points of Blue”. It has appeared on the club website as a minor entry under “Fans Zone”.

[7] 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://mcfc.videoloungetv.com/do/preLogin?clubSiteCode=MCFC&CMP=AFC-003.

[8] 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://www.foxsportsworld.com/named/FSW/Index/Soccer, http://www.soccertv.com/, and http://www.livesoccertv.com/.

[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/.

[13] Where can I find a list of City-related websites?

Try Wookie’s Lair: http://www.wookieslair.com/modules.php?name=Web_Links

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: