Newsletter #1453

The Blues drew 2-2 in Saturday’s friendly at Edgeley Park, in a game which saw the welcome return of Bojinov. Next up a trip north of the border to Parkhead as we face Celtic.

Tonight we have opinion on the pre-season performances, the squad, news of ticket allocations being cut and a new online sports mag.

OPINION: KEARNEY’S KORNER

A few things this week:

1. An overall victory of 4-0 against EB Streymur was very promising. Some newfaces given a go like Ched Evans, who within minutes of coming on nearlyscored. I normally moan about City but this is how City should be: aggressive,attacking and 100% commitment. Well done Mark Hughes, despite being an ex-Scumitedplayer, in my book, you’re alright. Bring on the season!
2. Tal Ben Haim ,a new defender to accompany Jo to the very thin list oftransfers (I make it 2 now…). Ex-Chelsea, therefore possible potential.Although, may have been an experiment that failed under Avram Grant (which heturned out to be). We will have to wait and see. Also, I saw on the websitethat he requested to have the number 26 on his shirt, which in fact is his age.Why does it make a difference what number is on the shirt? Will it affect hisgame? If he likes the shirt to have his age on, then does this mean he’ll wantthe number 27, which is owned by Benjani (the “amazing” January purchase bySven).
3. For those of you that don’t know or care, Matthew “who?” Mills has joinedDoncaster Rovers, as if we cared. And finally, some old Blues news, as if wecared, Joey Barton has finally been fined and declared guilty (I think… andhope).

OPINION: SHOTS TO GOALS RATIO

Manchester City: Attempted Shots 100+, Goals: 2

Nothing is ever easy with City is it? Nice simple game against a team no-one’s ever heard of; still we managed to make it as difficult for ourselves as possible. So it’s City against the mighty EB Streymur and we managed to miss literally hundreds of shots and only managed 2!?

Still the team showed signs of growth (like the defenders headers getting progressively better) so all is not lost… and who knows maybe we’ll beat the “mighty” U****d… again!

P.S. Yes that does mean I’m related to the ex-news man Don Barrie (unfortunately… {just kidding Dad}).

OPINION: PRE-SEASON I

Quite difficult to read into pre-season games, of course. However, Bojinov could well be a very, very effective striker to add into the mix this season. Of course the addition of, hopefully, Santa Cruz would be of absolutely enormous benefit to the club and, the younger guys such as Evans and Sturridge (as well as Bojinov and Jo) would clearly blossom even quicker with SC showing them how to do the job.

There’s nothing like goals to spread confidence and really fire up a side as well as the fans so, for me, Santa Cruz is now a must-have target for Mark Hughes, and well worth going all out to bring this particular player into the club, at any cost. He scores goals and, that is certainly a problem area for us, in the Premiership. With Jo, Bojinov, and Santa Cruz leading the way, there may not be too much wrong with what they could do for us.

Looking forward to an interesting season, especially, with Mark in charge, that’s for sure.

OPINION: PRE-SEASON II

The result 2-2 against Stockport County will have pleased Stockport more than Manchester City.

What will have pleased Mark Hughes and City supporters was the way Bojinov returned after a serious injury sustained versus the Evil Empire last season.

Boj not only returned but came back in style with a goal.

Sparky played many players who had not yet had a chance to show how good they are, or the opposite, not good enough for his new City side.

Looking at the votes for best player versus Stockport (Manchester Evening News), Bojinov just ran away with the votes.

But it will take some games for Boj to be match fit, a player we all wish well.

Next game versus Celtic, their fans will be shouting “Mon the Hoops”; this game will be a stiffer test at Parkhead, it will bring out the best in players so that they will be included in the City team versus AC Milan, but more important the games ahead in the Premier League and Euro games.

Come on you Blues! In Sparky we trust.

OPINION: TICKET ALLOCATIONS CUT

Fans from Manchester City, Liverpool and Middlesbrough have been identified as causing problems at matches at Sunderland and will be punished by restrictions on ticket sales.

The decision was made by Sunderland City Council’s Regulatory Committee as a safety measure.

West Ham, Leeds, Cardiff, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Sheffield Wednesday, Liverpool and Newcastle have all been subject to the measures in previous seasons.

“This action of fans standing in seated areas is recognised as a major safety concern as it introduces the risk of injury to spectators and others from falls, surging and crushing,” they say in a report.

A limit of 2,400 will be imposed on fans from Manchester City on Saturday, August 30.

I’m sure most readers will know my viewpoint on this issue. In over 13 years of the all seated regulation being enforced (literally!) this so called ‘domino effect’ that is feared by The Football Licensing Authority has simply never materialised in any stadium.

I assume the safety committee deem it safer for City fans to attempt to buy tickets in the home ends than to stand up in the away end harmlessly…

OPINION: WORK THE WHAT?

From MCIVTA 1452:

PFA chief executive Gordon Taylor believes KK could be the ideal character for Barton to be working with. “Hopefully Kevin thinks he can work his oracle with Joey and get his life back on track, both as a human being and as a footballer,” Taylor said.

I hope Kev’s oracle can work miracles.

OPINION: AU REVOIR

I would like to thank Don for his news articles over the years, thanks Don, much appreciated.

There has, I notice, been on this forum, a fair bit of debate going on about SGE, and I have in the past given my views on this conman, and just in case anyone forgets, when his name was mooted with our great club initially, his reaction was, ‘I would not be interested in managing this club’.

Those of you who feel sorry for this millionaire please don’t, because he does not give two hoots about you. He has made a s**tload of money everywhere he has gone in his career, and used the media to great effect to further it. Let’s move on now and get behind Leslie and forget about the Bartons and others who have strangled us for so long. I see a bright future in Blue.

REQUEST: NEW SPORTS MAG ONLINE

I’m currently editing talksport.net/mag (a digital mag for the station). It’s free and if you sign up it lands in your inbox on a Thursday morning.

The address is http://www.talksport.net/mag and if you go to the back page you can sign up there.

MCIVTA FAQ [v0708.01]

[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 Points of Blue (formerly the Fans’ Committee)?

The committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. Points of Blue appears on the club website as a minor entry under “Fans Zone”.

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

The Radio Manchester (née GMR) pre and post match phone-in is available on the web at http://www.bbc.co.uk/manchester/sport/manchester_city/index.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://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer, 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] 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/.

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: