Newsletter #1185

Disappointment on Wednesday night as those cheating and play-acting Chelsea players managed to go home with all three points. I thought we did well to contain them and was heartily sickened by the antics of Drogba, Del Horno and Cole and the inept performance of Mr Rennie. His competence was much akin to City catering in the East Stand lower – suitable for Division One.

Don brings us news and reaction tonight to the Wigan and Chelsea defeats, an honest appraisal of the Christmas fixture congestion and news of yet another fracture as Reyna is sidelined with a broken ankle. What is going on with all these undiagnosed fractures in the City medical room?

We have some excellent opinion on the finances and management, an update on Uwe and some “fun” bits.

All the very best to Blues everywhere for 2006, and thanks to the McV Editing team and all those who have contributed these past 12 months.

NEWS SUMMARY

General News

The Christmas Message: A quick Christmas quiz: a number of Premiership bosses complained this week about the crowded fixture schedule at this time of year – which manager bucked this trend and said that footballers just had to get on with it? “I, and probably the rest of the playing squad, have always done this,” said SP. “Andy Cole has probably played all these amount of games at Christmas for the last twenty years possibly. Twenty five years you play football; in non-league I used to go to Barnet every Boxing Day. That’s just the nature of football and you just get used to it. We play a lot of games in a short period of time. I can’t remember in the seventies, eighties, even the early nineties, that people moaned about it. They just got on and done it. We’ll do the same again and won’t complain. People want to watch football on Boxing Day and the day after. We’ll get on with that. I think if our mentality is strong, we’ll get some decent results. My mentality is they are the fixtures, we’re aware of that and must try to prepare for each game individually,” he stressed. “I think it’s a crucial time in between matches, how we regenerate the players. Some managers might play one team one day, another two days later – that’s their choice. In preference, I’ll look at the players and, if their form is good enough, I can’t see a problem to leave players out. That’s how it is. The more excuses you give yourself in any profession, the more you’ll convince yourself that you’re hard done by.” Pearce also revealed that he’d decided not to call the players in for a Christmas Day training session. “It will give the players a lift to be with their families on Christmas morning,” he explained. “Normally on the day before a game we watch a video. We will now do that on the morning of the game itself, the preparation will be exactly the same. All we will miss out on is maybe 15 minutes of football. We will cover everything else before and after Christmas Day. If we go to Wigan and get beaten I will think to myself ‘Was that the right decision’,” he added. “I make the decisions and take responsibility for everything that happens. I won’t have any excuses and I won’t blame the players.” Looks like the squad will be in for double training next December 25…

Transfer News and Gossip

Policy on the New Year Sales: Mr. Pearce won’t be tempted to splash the cash during the January sales, just for the sake of it. “You can sign all manner of players that get thrown at you, but you have got to be able to look in that mirror and ask, ‘Is this guy better than what we have got?'” he says. “If the answer to that is ‘no’, or ‘I’m not sure’, then don’t do it! It’s common sense not to do it, you’re bringing another wage into the club, you block up holes for the younger players. We’ll bring people in if they are the right people and if they are going to improve the team. As it stands I have done OK with injuries between the start of the season and the window,” he said. “Whether we can get the people in that we want is debatable but we’ll have a go and see what we can do. You also keep your fingers crossed that you don’t cop injuries, the window could close then you lose two or three key players and that’s when you wish you could strengthen. In some ways it makes your job easy, in some ways it makes it difficult. Come the end of January you can concentrate on exactly what you have got. It’s got its plusses and minuses, but I work to it and that’s the nature of the game.”

Place Your Bids: City and Charlton Athletic are reportedly ready to make bids of £1.5 million for Everton’s Marcus Bent. David Moyes has vowed to keep Bent at Goodison, yet still managed to mention the price range for the ex-Ipswich striker. “£1.5 million is not enough for Marcus Bent. £5 million is ridiculously over the top for a Championship player and £1.5 million is ridiculously low for a Premiership striker,” said the Toffees’ boss. “I think there could be interest in him, but I won’t do business as we don’t have enough players. We won’t sell him.”

No Appetite: Ready for this week’s Robbie Fowler rumour? He’s been linked with yet another Championship club, this time Norwich City. It’s been claimed that the 30-year-old was spotted in the Norfolk area, but Norwich manager Nigel Worthington dismissed the tale with the withering put down: “Robbie has made his money and he is a wealthy chap, I am looking for hungry players.” Ouch.

A Spaniard in the Works? Kiki Musampa had better watch out – City are hoping to arrange a loan swoop for Espanyol midfielder Albert Riera. The 23-year-old operates on the left side of midfield but has failed to establish himself at Espanyol since a summer switch from Bordeaux. The Catalans paid £2 million to land the former Mallorca man, but he has made just seven appearances this term with his last league start coming back in mid-November. Any transfer to Manchester would be on a loan basis with the player joining until the end of the season. However, City want to insert an option to make the switch permanent should Riera impress during his time in England, with the fee likely to be set around £2 million. It’s claimed that Riera’s advisors were at the CoMS on Wednesday night, paving the way for the move.

Reactions and Comments

Oh the Horror… City took part in one of the more entertaining Boxing Day games as they succumbed to Wigan Athletic in what is known as a seven goal thriller. The Blues opened the scoring on three minutes as Antoine Sibierski powered home his header, but by half time City were 3-1 down, the defence (and Sylvain Distin in particular) struggling to cope with the strength and speed of the Wigan attacks, lead by Jason Roberts. Roberts (two) and Lee McCulloch were the goalscorers. Despite making numerous chances, City fell further behind as Camara nutmegged Richard Dunne to slide in the fourth. At least City began to make a game of it, as Joey Barton cracked home the goal of the game, and Andy Cole slipped in a typical poacher’s goal on 88 minutes. Neither manager was exactly pleased with the defensive skills on show. SP for instance said: “To score three goals and create a number of chances in an away game is reasonably rewarding. But being a defender of 25 years, watching us defend was a horror show. I thought we were poor, and that’s not taking anything away from Wigan’s two centre forwards who caused us havoc all day. We created some of our own problems, and over the 90 minutes, if you defend like we did then you don’t deserve to win any game. We created as many chances as we are ever going to create on the road this season, scored three goals but we defended atrociously to be honest. Our goalkeeper’s had to defend four one-on-one’s and that’s unacceptable. We were flustered by two forwards with a bit of pace about them, but if you defend like that you will not get anything. As it panned out we put them under a touch of pressure at the end, and chance-for-chance it was probably similar, but they were four poor goals. We just did not defend properly and got punished for it.”

More Gas, Less Olés: “It was a great game for the neutral and Mike Pollitt made two unbelievable saves,” said Wigan manager Paul Jewell. “When we got the fourth goal, it should have been game over, but we got a bit cocky. At 4-1 we started doing olés and it’s a lesson we’ve got to learn at this level. We took our foot off the gas. Give City credit, but we went about it the wrong way in the last 12 minutes and ended up hanging on. It was a great game, a great advert for football. There was attacking, bad defending, honest endeavour and it had everything. But analytically speaking, at 4-1 we should be home and hosed. If we ever get 4-1 up again in The Premiership we have got to be better than that.” Jason Roberts scored twice for the Latics, while Henri Camara also netted, with Jewell happy with the performance of his strike pair. He added: “I love to see strikers scoring goals, they get most of the chances. It was nice to see Jason get a couple and Henri as well. It was a cracking game, don’t get me wrong, but from a professional point of view, the last half hour was not very good for me.”

We Won the Second Half… There weren’t many City players willing to talk to the press after the game, so hats off to Sun Jihai, who offered his views on the defeat. “In the game against Birmingham we had a similar situation when the goal came early, after which we totally controlled the game. After that first goal for us today we had a chance for the same again, but we didn’t play well. They played quite well, and they played quickly. Towards the end we chased the ball better, we tried to win the ball back but by then it was getting difficult to get back. In the second half we played better, in fact it was 2-1 for us in the second half but in the first half we did not wake up when we needed to. We made some good chances in the second half, but we didn’t make sure enough to get the goals. Their goalkeeper played well and made some great saves.”

You Owe Me: Having cogitated for a day, SP gave us his postscript to the game: “After yesterday’s game I looked into the eyes of one or two of the players and they know they owe me,” he insisted. “The beauty of it is they are an honest bunch. They know in their own minds, without me shouting and hollering at them, their performances individually weren’t good enough. We’ve players who know they’ve not played well, so I don’t need to motivate people because Chelsea are coming to town. At the moment I can’t do a great deal about the performance just gone. All I can do is make sure we put it right against Chelsea. They’re a sensational side who have lost the odd game in a year and a bit, so that tells you how tough it is going to be.”

Stifling Nearly Worked: It’s not been a happy Christmas so far for City, as the Blues slipped to their second defeat of the holiday period. This was a completely different style of encounter from the Wigan goalfest, however – in a game of few chances, Chelsea extended their lead at the top of the Premiership to 11 points, securing a fortunate win at the COMS thanks to Joe Cole’s late strike. Cole tapped in at the back post after several deflections had gone Chelsea’s way and David James had saved from Eidur Gudjohnsen’s mis-hit effort. SP thought this was a better show than Monday. “You don’t anticipate anything in this game but we did hope our endeavour would bring us something,” said SP. “It was not to be but my players could not have given me any more. From my point of view I have to take defeats personally, from a player’s point of view I feel sorry for them this evening, because they’ve put that much effort into the performance and they have no reward at the end of it. I feel they deserve to walk out of the stadium tonight with their heads held high and with at least a point. I can’t look at any of my players and say you’ve not given me everything you’ve possibly got. They’ve worked exactly to the team shape and tactical plan that we tried to set out to stifle Chelsea – and it worked until the moment when they got the goal.”

Team With the Dosh Put Under the Cosh: David James thought that the team at least deserved a point, saying that “It was disappointing because we defended so well as a team. Even John Terry said to me after the game that they were under the cosh; as much as we didn’t get enough shots on target, we gave them a very good run for their money.” Of Joe Cole’s tap-in, James commented: “It was a fortuitous deflection off Jihai’s attempted clearance to start with and then the deflection off Dunny, my half save which hit Crespo, then hit me again and gone out to Joe Cole – and he must have thought it was Christmas. It’s frustrating, but you look at the game as a whole and I thought we did very well. Also, in the second half against Wigan, I don’t think any team has given them the run-around as much as we did. The fact that John Terry’s commented on how much they were under the cosh proves that we’re doing good things and it’s that touch of fortune that changes defeats into wins.”

The Untouchables: Jose Mourinho, a.k.a. the Special One, was quick to praise the effort shown by his players. “You don’t see the big stars fighting and playing like my team played. If you say this is the power of money, I don’t agree. It’s the power of the group together, a group of human beings who have been together since the first day and are ready for everything. It is the power of a group of friends working together – it is not the power of money.” Despite all the pre-match hype over SWP’s return to the COMS, Shaunie didn’t even make the Chelsea bench. “You can think what you want but it was just a technical decision,” the Chelsea manager said opaquely. “No dramas and nothing strange.” Mourinho rang out his praise for the goalscorer. “At this moment, Joe Cole is untouchable,” said Mourinho, whose side were recording their seventh straight win since losing at Old Trafford on November 6. “He was fantastic in every aspect of the game. Physically he was amazing. He is strong, has control under pressure. He is great one-on-one and has an appetite for goals. He is unbelievable – a fantastic player.”

Squad News

Claudio’s Bad Break: Claudio Reyna’s injury jinx has struck yet again. He has been ruled out for at least six weeks with a broken ankle. The 32-year-old has been playing with the injury for two months but recent scans have only just revealed the full extent of the problem. Reyna will now head to Holland for surgery on Friday, sidelining him for between six to eight weeks. The USA captain will not be in Premiership action again until City tackle Liverpool at Anfield on 28 February, although he could make the Blues’ line-up the previous week if they make the FA Cup fifth round. “It has been really sore and it didn’t feel right,” Reyna said on the club website. “I could not train through the week and I was just trying to get through games.” Reyna’s injury only increases the chances of Blues’ manager Stuart Pearce making a move to bring in midfield reinforcements during the January transfer window.

Guide to Cheap Xmas Presents: With two goals in as many games and a Man of the Match award in the Birmingham game, Antoine Sibierski is perhaps showing his best form for City since joining the club in 2003. Sibs admits that helping the club achieve a European place is more important than his personal standing in the team. “The main thing is that we get into the top five. We can do that because we have the quality in our squad,” he stated. “It’s not so important to play all 38 games or score 15, 20 goals. What is most important is that we qualify for Europe. Even if I am not going to play as much as last season, I will give my best in training and on the pitch. I have not got the time to complain.” He is confident enough in the club’s future to agree a contract extension. “When the club asked me to sign again I was very happy because it meant I have done well since I came here,” he averred. “It means that the club trust me, so I was very happy. It was easy to sign.” And he revealed that his M-o-M bottle of champers went to the person who deserved it most – Mrs. Sibs. “She has helped me and I thank her,” he said. “It is not easy when you go home every day and you’re not in the first team.” That’s one cheap Christmas pressie, Antoine!

Experience Counts: City’s goalkeeping coach Tim Flowers is sure that David James will be in the England squad for the World Cup next summer, despite the form of Tottenham’s Paul Robinson, who displace DJ as England’ number 1. Flowers said: “Paul Robinson is in good form at Tottenham, no doubt about that. But if you are looking at the man with the experience in England it is David James. I am convinced he will go to Germany.”

OPINION: WIGAN

All credit to Wigan: the club continues to do the organization and its own supporters proud this season.

Abject defending cost us the game – it has to be back to basics, once again. Stuart Pearce certainly has it exactly right: we’re still just an “average” side.

Per published newspaper reports and direct quotes he is far from satisfied with the team’s overall performances this season. Totally justified statements, in my view.

Apart from the totally biased, one has to agree with SP.

As always, it remains up the players to turn things around to make further headway up the table. We shall see if the squad, under the circumstances, has what it takes.

OPINION: PEARCE AND THE PREMIERSHIP

Once again, City have lived up to their reputation of being great to watch, but infuriating to follow.

A few days ago, I wrote lamenting City’s inability to keep a clean sheet, and their propensity for losing games by a one-goal margin. So, the result at Wigan was not entirely surprising. It was clear beforehand that Wigan seldom do draws (with only one in their 18 Premiership games) so it might have seemed that Wigan’s style of play would be predictable – hell or glory. As it transpired, City appear to have fallen into Wigan’s trap by adopting the same approach, only to find a Wigan team that was circumspect enough to absorb City’s consistent pressure and wait for each opportunity to catch-out City’s woeful defence on the break. The ratio of chances created by City was astounding but the outcome was bleak.

Every Blue loves to see a City team that is free-flowing, adventurous in attack, creating chances and, occasionally, sticking some away; however, does this have to occur only at the expense of having a defence that lacks concentration, ability, application and pace?

I was more than a little concerned to see Stu’s reactions at odd instances during the game. At times, one might have been forgiven for thinking that one was witnessing a Premiership-managers-brotherhood-glee-club party, with Stu and Paul Jewell sharing jokes and back-slapping, during the game, mostly at Stu’s instigation. What’s all that about? Even in the last minute of the match, after Sibierski missed a potential equalising header, Stu span round with a smile on his face. These may be considered as petty criticisms, but these incidents are inevitably picked up by the players and, at this level, there is little room for the blunting of a competitive edge. I know that it’s Christmas, but this is a year round multi-million pound industry, where a single point here or there can make a difference of tens of millions of pounds in Champions’ League fees.

At the end of last season, when Stu’s posting was only temporary, he made his reputation by building a solid defence, and, sure enough, once this was achieved, the results followed along with a climb in the table. Now that his posting is secure (by football Premiership standards) has he become a little too cavalier? Has he lost sight of his defensive heritage basics?

Players will always make mistakes, but it is the manager who sets the structure. It’s OK him speaking to the cameras afterwards, saying that there were some unforgivable defensive errors, but it’s his job to reduce the probability for such faults from City’s structure.

Wigan has taken very little time in gaining a Premiership reputation for being an attractive team to watch, but have they done this at the expense of a solid defence? Just refer to the stats. Clean sheets for City 3, Clean sheets for Wigan 7.

OK – rant over. Let’s have a Blue 2006 with a dozen clean sheets!

OPINION: CITY’S FINANCES

I have only just read Colin Savage’s excellent article in MCIVTA 1182 on the recent AGM of Manchester City and the Annual Accounts. I did write an article last July which dealt, in part, with City’s debt. In that article I incorrectly calculated at that time that the amount of indebtedness had fallen from £62 million to about £40 million. I got quite a shock when I read that it was still as high as £57.7 million at the end of last May. I have written to Colin Savage and he has kindly given me a detailed reply that answers some of my queries. Nevertheless, I thought I would share my concerns with readers of MCIVTA, which I do below.

Surely it would be standard practice for City’s financial controller to formulate a budget for the financial year 2004-5, bearing in mind: the £62 million debt and attendant interest payments; the anticipated income; and the anticipated expenditure? I am amazed at the figure of £57.7 million debt as at 31st May. I based my calculations of last July on the assumption that City’s financial controller must have budgeted for expenditure that did not occur (reduced salary payments in respect of departed players) and income that he could not have foreseen (transfer fees received). I assumed that he would have prepared at least a “balanced” budget, bearing in mind the high level of debt carried by the club.

City sold the following players during the period covered by the last accounts:

Elliott     £0.25 million
Wanchope    £0.5 million
Anelka      £7.0 million
(surely any outstanding fee due to Paris SG would have been included in the
£62.2 million of outstanding debt reported in the previous accounts?)
Waterreus   £0.1 million
McCarthy    £0.1 million

That is almost £8.0 million of income that could not have been budgeted for. I cannot remember any expenditure on purchases of players in this period. The club also received a fee for Vuoso and I wonder in which year’s accounts this was credited? Of course, there would have been significant savings on players’ salaries, in respect of those named above whose full year salaries would have been budgeted for, not to mention the departure of the Assistant Manager in September, 2004. Then there was the £6 million “prize money” received for our final league position, which must have been far in excess of any figure previously budgeted for (Colin Savage indicates to me that this will be credited in the accounts for the current financial year). Add in the £0.45 million returned to City by the courts after the Joe Royle case, and we are getting towards a significant figure. That is before any profit on gate receipts, lettings of the stadium and merchandise sold. I would also have thought that interest payments on the debt would have been steadily reduced from that budgeted for during the financial year as these income items were banked. The only “downside” that I can think of is any farewell payment to KK, if such a payment was made.

Are the City accounts presented in such a general way that it is difficult for the above items to be identified? I wonder if there is a reader of MCIVTA who is an accountant and who could go through the accounts and write an article on them in layman’s terms for the rest of us?

Of course, in the accounts for the current financial year there will be the fees gained from the sale of SWP and Jon Macken, less the cost of Vassell and any other purchases made in the coming January transfer window. We should also gain from the fact that we are no longer paying a £2 million salary to McManaman. However, in my opinion, the sooner we are out of debt the better. The £5 million paid in interest on the debt would be far better spent on our Academy or in purchasing players.

I hope that Mr Wardle has the courtesy to reply in detail to Colin Savage’s questions and that Colin will share the answers with readers of MCIVTA.

OPINION: SONG FOR SHAUN

Heart & Soul (A Song for Shaun Wright-Phillips)

Music has featured quite heavily on MCIVTA in recent months, what with the official City album and discussion of chants etc., so I thought as its Christmas I’d chip in with my very own MCFC inspired song written for Shaun Wright-Phillips.

Like many people, I think it seems such a waste that he’s not even playing for Chelsea but never mind, Chelsea have achieved their goal of keeping him out of the Arsenal side! You may remember that I thought the SWP transfer was ‘badly presented’ to us City fans and so the song concerns this viewpoint, ironically though and just for the record, I felt that John Wardle and MCFC had no choice but to take the money for Shauny so that we could pay off Keegan’s colossal debts and provide Stuart Pearce with some cash for slow and steady rebuilding: it seems to be working so far. So I felt that City should have been thanking Shaun for the move, and not heaping some kind of blame upon his shoulders; even now, our financial situation doesn’t seem that rosy.

The song ‘Heart & Soul’ can be heard via the Internet at http://www.numberonemusic.com/blueside and it’s written in the classic torch ballad style of Jimmy Webb because I still love our Shaunny.

OPINION: UWE RÖSLER UPDATE

A great interview on the bbc website today with Uwe: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/4562198.stm

Former Manchester City striker Uwe Rösler has always adopted a positive outlook on life. It is a trait Rösler has needed in bucket loads as he has rebuilt his life after discovering he had cancer at the age of 34 in May 2003.

He had joined Norwegian club Lillestrom in 2002 following spells at a number of clubs, including Kaiserslautern in Germany and Southampton. And he was still playing when he was told he had a tumour in his chest. The diagnosis came two days after what was to turn out to be Rösler’s final professional game – a 1-0 win over Bodo/Glimt – with the German-born striker scoring the goal.

“I couldn’t run and I was struggling to breathe in that game so I was sent for an X-ray and the doctors discovered there was a big tumour in front of the lungs,” Rösler told BBC Sport. “I started chemotherapy and in a few weeks I had lost the body that I had worked on for over 25 years.”

“I lost 12 kilos and all my muscles – it was a very strange feeling. The doctors told me that normally the cancer I had was very aggressive – but that it would respond to chemotherapy. I didn’t want to know the percentage, I just wanted to know I had a good chance of survival.”

While he was recovering, Rösler decided he wanted to manage and he began to study for his coaching badges in Germany.

“I missed football so much when I was recovering and as I couldn’t play any more my only chance was to coach,” he added. “When I applied for the Lillestrom job I didn’t expect to get it but I had a little bit of luck as the club had some financial problems and I was in the right time at the right place.”

Lillestrom’s financial difficulties meant Rösler was only able to sign one player for the new campaign. But in his first season in charge the club reached the Norwegian Cup final and finished fourth to qualify for the Royal League – a Scandinavian version of the Champions’ League.

“I’m really thankful to start at this level,” said Rösler. “In the summer we beat Leicester 5-0 in a friendly and by qualifying for the Royal League we’re regarded as one of the 12 best teams in Scandinavia. When I watch Manchester City manager Stuart Pearce on the touchline I think I’m a bit like him. I’m quite active on the sideline and I demand a lot of professionalism from the players. I try to find the right balance between encouraging people and giving them credit and pushing them to make them understand that what is good today is not good enough tomorrow. With more experience – and in the years to come – I’ll get better and better. I learn every day, about myself, about the players, about the game. We’ve had a good year and we’re heading in the right direction. We have a three-year plan for Lillestrom to re-establish them as a top team and win something. I want to compete against the best as I did when I was a player.”

Rösler signed for City in a £500,000 move from Nuremburg in 1994 – after originally arriving at Maine Road on trial. He was the leading goalscorer in his first three seasons at the club and over four years scored 64 times before joining Kaiserslautern in April 1998. During his four years at Maine Road, Rösler became a cult hero, so much he starred in a video looking at his life in England with City to help promote the German language in this country. And a return to England or his homeland remains a distinct possibility.

“Germany or England would be a dream for me as a coach,” he revealed. “I have to work hard but, with a little bit of luck, it’s something I hope I can achieve.”

REQUEST: WHERE’S ROGER?

If Roger Haigh is reading this, please could you get in touch – I’ve had some problems with my PC and email lately and lost your details!

BLUE HUMOUR

The three wise men enter the stable bearing gifts. The first wise man says “I am Bobbychadnezzar. I come from a city far away called Newcastle, of which you will not have heard. I have brought a crate of wondrous brown ale to keep you and Joseph in good cheer while you are watching over the baby Jesus.”

Mary and Joseph knock the tops off a brace of bottles and, after one swig, agree that the brown ale is indeed wondrous.

The second wise man says “I am Jewellchadnezzar. I come from a town far away called Wigan, of which you will not have heard. I have brought a bag of fabulous pies to keep away the pangs of hunger while you are watching over the baby Jesus.”

Mary and Joseph take two pies out of the bag and after one bite agree that the savoury morsels are indeed fabulous.

The third wise man says “I am Fergichadnezzar and I come from a great city far away called Manchester, of which you will not have heard. I have brought a couple of shirts to keep you warm while you are watching over the baby Jesus.”

Mary and Joseph unwrap the shirts, take a look at them and Joseph says “Very nice, but are you sure you’re from Manchester?”

RESULTS

28 December 2005

Arsenal               4 - 0  Portsmouth            38,223
Birmingham City       2 - 2  Manchester United     28,459
Fulham                3 - 3  Aston Villa           20,446
Manchester City       0 - 1  Chelsea               46,587
West Bromwich Albion  2 - 0  Tottenham Hotspur     27,510
West Ham United       0 - 2  Wigan Athletic        34,131
Everton               1 - 3  Liverpool             40,158

26 December 2005

Charlton Athletic     0 - 1  Arsenal               27,111
Chelsea               3 - 2  Fulham                42,313
Liverpool             2 - 0  Newcastle United      44,197
Manchester United     3 - 0  West Bromwich Albion  67,972
Middlesbrough         0 - 2  Blackburn Rovers      29,881
Portsmouth            1 - 1  West Ham United       20,168
Sunderland            0 - 0  Bolton Wanderers      32,232
Tottenham Hotspur     2 - 0  Birmingham City       36,045
Wigan Athletic        4 - 3  Manchester City       25,017
Aston Villa           4 - 0  Everton               32,432

League table to 28 December 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         19 10  0  0 26  6  7  1  1 15  3 17  1  1  41   9  32  52
 2 Manchester Utd  19  5  3  1 16  5  7  2  1 20 11 12  5  2  36  16  20  41
 3 Liverpool       17  7  1  1 15  4  4  3  1 10  5 11  4  2  25   9  16  37
 4 Tottenham H.    19  6  3  1 15  7  3  4  2 12 11  9  7  3  27  18   9  34
 5 Wigan Athletic  19  6  1  3 16 11  5  0  4  9 10 11  1  7  25  21   4  34
 6 Arsenal         18  8  0  1 20  4  2  2  5  7 11 10  2  6  27  15  12  32
 7 Bolton Wndrs    17  5  2  1  9  2  4  2  3 13 12  9  4  4  22  14   8  31
 8 Manchester City 19  5  2  3 13  7  3  1  5 14 15  8  3  8  27  22   5  27
 9 West Ham United 19  4  1  4 14 12  3  4  3 12 13  7  5  7  26  25   1  26
10 Newcastle Utd   18  4  3  1  8  6  3  1  6 10 13  7  4  7  18  19  -1  25
11 Blackburn R.    18  5  1  2 13  9  2  2  6  8 15  7  3  8  21  24  -3  24
12 Charlton Ath.   17  2  1  6  9 16  5  0  3 12 11  7  1  9  21  27  -6  22
13 Aston Villa     19  3  2  4 11 12  2  4  4 12 17  5  6  8  23  29  -6  21
14 Fulham          19  5  2  2 15 11  0  3  7  8 17  5  5  9  23  28  -5  20
15 Middlesbrough   18  3  4  3 15 17  2  1  5  8 11  5  5  8  23  28  -5  20
16 West Brom A.    19  5  1  4 16 12  0  3  6  3 16  5  4 10  19  28  -9  19
17 Everton         19  2  1  6  5 14  3  1  6  5 16  5  2 12  10  30 -20  17
18 Portsmouth      19  1  4  4  5 11  2  1  7  9 20  3  5 11  14  31 -17  14
19 Birmingham City 18  1  2  6  7 14  2  2  5  6 13  3  4 11  13  27 -14  13
20 Sunderland      18  0  3  7  7 20  1  0  7  7 15  1  3 14  14  35 -21   6

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: