Newsletter #1661

As City prepare to play Liverpool tonight in a rather sodden Manchester, we have opinion on Ireland’s comportment and his move out, the anti-City media backlash, Robinho’s repeat behaviour, an update and thanks for the Sierra Leone appeal and the usual requests.

Sou’wester time…

OPINION: IRELAND’S PIQUE

Is anyone else disappointed with Ireland’s parting comments? What has he being doing at the club for the last 18 months that he states has been so unhappy? I defy anyone to say City aren’t a family orientated club; yes, the club are ruthlessly chasing success but football waits for no one and City have an awful lot of catching up to do.

In his time at City, Stephen Ireland has both delighted and frustrated. Never the main man, his ability on the ball was unquestionable and as a youngster emerging into the side under Kevin Keegan and Stuart Pearce you hoped he could fulfil his potential. It wasn’t until Sven arrived in Manchester however, that Ireland became a more common feature in the side. He started to link well with the likes of Elano and was effective at times when on the attack. His potential to frustrate as he drifted in and out of games never really seemed to desert his game though and although he celebrated probably his best season under Hughes it should be remembered that he continued to drift in and out of many games as the club achieved its mid-table finish.

To be fair when he and many like him broke into the City side there wasn’t really any prospect of the club making a marquee signing that would usurp his progress so he gradually became more and more regular in the side and like others before him he never really outplayed the truly great players of the Premier League. Now no one wanted Ireland to fail at City, certainly no City fan did but as the unprecedented influx of money came into the club, particularly last season and this, the fragile Ireland began to disappear. He never really grabbed his opportunities last season despite the new faces in the dressing room. Surely he and every player at the club over the last couple of years know that if you don’t perform consistently well your days are numbered. Nigel de Jong, who didn’t start the first few games last season, took his opportunity when his came and was a regular throughout the season after that. The sad fact is too many games passed Ireland by and he struggled to make an impact.

Interestingly, I remember Ireland criticising Hughes after he left claiming Mancini had “set him free” because Hughes’ tactics had restricted his attacking potential, yet he simply failed to make any impact whenever Mancini gave him an opportunity. However, because he hasn’t established himself in the side under Mancini he takes a swipe at his managerial style. I know the jury with Mancini is still out for many, perhaps me included but we have to give him the chance to succeed or fail. Again, it will take time like we knew it would under Hughes for the team to gel. I do believe however, his signings are a better calibre of player than many of Hughes’ signings from last season. Personally I don’t care if he speaks to the players or not, he’s their boss not their mate!

If Ireland is to succeed as a player at Villa or anywhere else, he surely has to apply himself more in games and have more self-belief, not blame others around him for his failings. Working hard in training is great but counts for little if you’re crap on a Saturday afternoon. It isn’t City’s or Mancini’s fault he hasn’t succeeded and for him to criticise the culture of the club is frankly unfair. After all this is the lad who “pimps his ride” and installs an aquarium to rival the Blue Planet when he hasn’t achieved much either.

Personally I am sad to see him and Bellamy go, but of the two the club in my opinion will miss Bellamy more and his departure from City was both professional and full of humility. Sadly the same cannot be said for Ireland.

OPINION: BIASED REPORTING

Seeing as we are now the team to hate and ruining the sport of footie, it’s interesting (sickening) to see all the negative reporting and plain biased journalism against the Blues. I forgot who wrote the spiteful piece about Aleksandar Kolarov feigning a knock, but will the hapless vile *rick retract his comments now that Kolarov is out for 6 (?) weeks? Likewise that hapless (it’s my new word) website yahoo.co.uk. Why is there a detailed piece about City’s “schoolboy tactical errors” against Spurs? No mention of the team needing time to gel, the fact that it was the opening fixture away against a tough side, and that we got a valuable away point. Did Newcastle get a piece written about them when they were beaten by the Rags? Why such sudden interest in the boys and Bobby Manc? Objective journalism my you-know-what. The superlatives flow for the Rags. We get trashed every step of the way. When you actually read the facts about the Bellamy move it’s a lot more honest than the picture that the ragloids (tabloids, tenuous I know, I just made that up) paint.

Disgusting. So all Blues to boycott yahoo.co.uk; it’s c**p anyway.

That’s me done.

Dammit now I need to change my e-mail server.

OPINION: HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

I was just trawling the net when I came across this article about Robinho’s move to City, dated 02 September 2008, written by Tim Vickery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/timvickery/2008/09/the_big_question_left_by.html

Can I commend it to all MCIVTA readers? It looks like a big case of “I told you so”.

It appears that Robinho has a history of falling out with clubs, and even going on strike (Santos and Real) to force them to sell him on.

OPINION: BELLAMY, BELITTLING AND BLUE HUMOUR

The press this morning decries City’s lack of inventive midfield football last night. The same day that Bellamy went to Cardiff and Ireland went to Villa. I wish Ireland well and hope he has a brilliant year.

In the meantime, and I know this is our City letter, I was thinking about the situation with the Rags’ new signings.

As the new Portugese lad is relatively young, I wondered if Nani would be made to look after the Bebe?

THANKS: SIERRA LEONE

On Wednesday, I from the Swinton branch, Tony Griffiths and Howard Burr from the Reddish branch, Phil Holme of the Portadown branch, Paul Lake Ambassador for CITC and Neil Cole from Endemol UK who is filming for the BBC and Sky TV are flying out to Sierra Leone.

Between us we will be taking well in excess of 100 kg of City kits etc., hundreds of spectacles and other goodies for the City community out there.

On Thursday the container with a 30 seater coach and loads of boxes of even more City stuff will be unloaded at the port in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Much of the funds raised to buy the coach and lots of the kits have been donated by generous MCIVTA readers. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all you kind people out there in MCIVTAland who have made financial donations and contributed kits and specs for the people of Sierra Leone. You will be able to see your contributions being given to the people of Sierra Leone on TV sometime in the not too distant future.

Once again, thank you, thank you, thank you.

REQUEST: COSTA DEL SOL BLUES VIEWING

I’ll be over in the Costa del Sol for a few weeks from mid-September to mid-October and maybe again after that and wondered if there were any ex-pat City fans who got together to watch TV games or just socially?

REQUEST: MARY D’S AND PHIL

Reddish Blues’ branch member and DJ Phil Coe is back with all the pre-match and after match entertainment at Mary D’s starting at the Liverpool home game on Monday night.

Phil is available for all weddings, christenings, birthdays and functions and offers a discount for Reddish Blues members on production of their current membership card (the white one).

To book Phil for your special occasion please contact him directly on 07794 493 009 or e-mail at <philcoe1(at)live.co.uk>

REQUEST: NEW WEEKLY ONLINE SHOW

I just wanted to inform you of a new weekly football fan show that will be online on WinkBall; it showcases the best of the fans in the football week that was.

It’s still a new show so it’s an evolving process at the moment. We’re trying to get some feedback for the show and find out what people think so we’re contacting bloggers in the football world to see what they think.

It would be great to get your feedback as one of the games we covered which we have footage of is Spurs versus Man City. You can see the show and a blog post about it here: http://blog.winkballproject.com/2010/08/winkball-the-weekly-football-show/

RESULTS

22 August 2010

Newcastle United      6 - 0  Aston Villa           43,546
Fulham                2 - 2  Manchester United     25,643

21 August 2010

Arsenal               6 - 0  Blackpool             60,032
Birmingham City       2 - 1  Blackburn Rovers      21,394
Everton               1 - 1  Wolverhampton Wndrs   37,767
Stoke City            1 - 2  Tottenham Hotspur     27,243
West Bromwich Albion  1 - 0  Sunderland            23,624
West Ham United       1 - 3  Bolton Wanderers      32,533
Wigan Athletic        0 - 6  Chelsea               14,476

League table to 22 August 2010 inclusive

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

MCIVTA FAQ [v1011.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Heidi Pickup)          : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour (Alex Rowen)         : news@mcivta.city-fan.org
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[2] What are MCIVTA’s publishing deadlines?

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

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

http://www.mcivta.com/ 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. You can also follow on www.twitter.com/mcivta to get the latest updates.

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

The official club web site can be found at http://www.mcfc.co.uk/ and the official club Twitter page at www.twitter.com/mcfc. The club also has a facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/mcfcofficial

[5] What supporters’ clubs are there?

The Official Supporters’ Club and the Centenary Supporters’ Association have merged to become the Manchester City Supporters’ Club (http://www.mcfcsupportersclub.com/). The club also recognise the Manchester City Disabled Supporters’ Association (http://www.mcdsa.co.uk/).

[6] Where can I find out about Points of Blue?

The committee operates as an interface between supporters and the club. Points of Blue appears on the club website under the “Fans” heading (http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Fans).

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

Live match commentary can be found on the club website. The Radio Manchester pre- and post-match phone-in is available on the web at http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/tv_and_radio/.

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

http://www.satfootball.com/pl.html provides a listing of Premier League games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. Useful sites for North American viewers are http://msn.foxsports.com/, http://www.soccertv.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.mcivta.com/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: