Newsletter #1769

Return to form on Saturday as we beat Blackburn 4-0, a welcome performance given the recent distractions of player disputes and our poor form against them last season.

We’ve opinion on the game tonight, more on the player disputes and the usual requests.

This is my final McV; after 10 years and 1041 issues I’m handing over the reins to Phil Alcock who I am sure will enjoy it as much as I have and make a splendid job.

From small acorns back in 1994 when Ashley, Paul and Svenn got the idea going, MCIVTA soon grew to be the first City related website and I’m proud to have been a part of that continuation and MCIVTA family. MCIVTA has brought many friendships, and meeting up with numerous of the worldwide based Blues over the years has been terrific; those emails and camaraderie are unique to MCIVTA.

City the team and club may be vastly different to those of 10 years ago, let alone 17 years ago, but the fans and ethos of McV remains the same. Enjoy.

OPINION: BRFC 0 MCFC 4

What a brilliant performance that was by City at Ewood Park on Saturday. I’ve been to Blackburn several times in the past but couldn’t make this one. Getting to an away game is a bit of a rarity for me at the moment, with us having a young family, but I really wished we could have been there. The backing that the players and Roberto Mancini received made me very proud of the City fans that made it a cracking atmosphere. Take a bow if you were there. You did us all proud.

I’ll leave it to others who attended to describe the occasion, but Roberto, his staff and the players can also be very proud of the 4-0 win. They showed great character to put the Bayern defeat and all the issues surrounding it, behind them. Granted, Rovers are struggling, but they still had to be beaten. City did that professionally and with no little flair. Super Mario is becoming a little bit of a favourite and dare I say it, is he starting to grow up a little, given that he didn’t react adversely to any of the rough treatment that he received. I hope he continues in the same vein. I can’t help but raise a smile when I hear that ‘Wooah Balotelli…” song. Don’t we just love them even more when they’re just a little but mischievous? Don’t let us down, Mario.

Not being able to get to the game, I used a combination of my super City app on my phone and Radio 5 Live (not always so super) to keep in touch with the game. All in all, it was a good weekend.

Indeed, my only gripes for the weekend are about commentators in general. I was listening to Five Live’s commentary of the North London derby while I was cooking tea on Sunday and the commentators were referring to Arsenal’s goalkeeper as “Sir Chesney”. Ditto the Match of the Day 2 lot. Eh? Am I “the one and only” (geddit!) person to be irritated by this faux pronunciation of Wojciech Szczesny’s name? Now I’d confess that I am not an expert in Polish pronunciation but having known people of Polish extract, and been informed them that Gornik Zabrze is pronounced “Gorneek Zabshuh”, I’m told the Arsenal’s goalie’s name is pronounced something like it is written and nothing like the two worded “Sir Chesney”. And there was me thinking that commentators did a bit of research on pronunciation the night before a game. Silly me. Apparently they even go on pronunciation courses!

David Plee-att, who is normally awful at pronunciation (often capable of at least two different ways of pronouncing words in the same commentary, e.g. “pass” and “pahss”) was nearer for once but even he only offered “Chesney”.

My other moan is that every commentator over the last couple of years has started talking about players getting their “shot away”. What happened to getting your “shot in”? Surely the idea is to get your shot “into” the goal whilst “away” could be anywhere, Row Z even? A sort of anywhere will do. I can only conclude that there must have been a completely pointless “shot away” BBC directive memo going out to all commentators from someone with a need to justify his/her own existence, and that anyone disobeying would be in the sticky stuff. Either that or said three commentators are as capable of speaking English as David Beckman is.

Anyway, thanks for reading and indulging me. I hope you got to the Blackburn game and enjoyed it.

OPINION: TACTICS

I was talking to some fellow Blue friends recently about our game in Munich, and there were two very good points made.

Firstly, Mancini did take off a forward and replace him with a defensive midfielder, and there has been a lot of talk about poor tactics, but I feel his reasoning was sound. He said that we were being overrun in the midfield and he wanted to sort that out. Once he had this he intended to send on a forward (Tévez) to try to get a goal or two back before the home leg. Whether you agree with this or not, he had a plan, and his plans have served us well thus far. I think he deserves our trust here – surely he is not responsible for the behaviour of the brat that is Carlo?

Secondly, there is method in Tévez’s madness. Maybe I am the last one to figure this out, but Tévez would not join the game because he did not want to cup tied, and this just proves the little #@$% has an eye on a transfer more than a genuine interest in our club.

There will be plenty of more problems to come, and the media will rejoice in every one of them. We must ignore this negativity and allow Roberto the trust and support he deserves. He certainly has mine.

OPINION: YESTERDAY’S MAN

I mentioned last week that I was looking forward to the end of September, when I’d be able to turn the page of my City calendar and get rid of the sight of Tévez. It was therefore with some relief that I turned to October, only to discover… Adebayor!

OPINION: MIND ELSEWHERE

I have to say I disagree with the assertion that Tévez was worthy of a place in the starting line-up against Bayern.

I loved Tévez for his never say die attitude on the pitch and am gutted by his actions last Tuesday. However, I personally don’t think we have seen many “performances” on the pitch from him since March when he scored his 50th goal for the club. What’s more, at the business end of the season we achieved our goals (which were by no means guaranteed) in spite of him and not because of him.

This season to me he has looked flat and his performances and attitude on the pitch have seemed very subdued. He’s been limited to cameos against Bolton, Napoli and a full game against Birmingham in the cup. The Napoli game in particular he looked like he didn’t care!

For a professional player to behave the way he has is nothing short of a disgrace. I applaud Souness for lambasting him and Micah for speaking out. I question his very integrity and whether his presence if he remains at the club will have a destabilising effect on what is fast becoming a very promising season.

The vocal support for Mancini at Blackburn was there for all to see. No manager ever gets it right all of the time but in Roberto we have seen the evolution of what has become an excellent side in less than 2 years. In that time we have won a trophy and are playing at the highest level possible.

In Mancini we trust – thanks for the memories Carlos, but your taxi is waiting.

OPINION: CRAZY WORLD WE LIVE IN

In a week when workers at BAe Systems in Lancashire and Yorkshire were told that they will face huge redundancies on top of the imminent decimation of Derby’s rail industry (whilst our government just sits on the sidelines and does nothing), how can an idiot footballer on £250,000 a week refuse to play footy for just a few minutes? What kind of world do we live in where that is possible?

Tévez and Joorabchian should be flown out to Pakistan with all their cash and be shamed into building new homes for those poor souls who lost their homes in the recent floods in Sind Province.

OPINION: SELLING CLAUSES

Can someone please tell me if the real reason he did not go on the field was so he did not get cup-tied? That’s how it seems to me.

OPINION: BLUES OUT BEST

I would just like to say how great City fans are. On a recent trip to the UK from Australia, a mate and I went down to the Etihad Stadium for the City vs. Wigan game hoping to buy tickets for the match. It was the only game we were going to get a chance to see before we headed back to Oz. I took my Australian passport to use as sympathy card if there were problems buying a ticket. Unfortunately, when we got to the ground we found it was a sell-out. We went to the ticket enquiry booth and whilst the security guy manning the entrance was very helpful and went inside to plead our case for tickets, he came out shaking his head – sorry lads all sold out. We thought we were out of luck in watching a game.

Then our fortunes changed. First another mate of ours rang to say he had found a guy in the Summerbee bar who had one spare ticket at face value of 30 quid. One down, one to find. Next in the queue for the ticket windows, a guy came over and asked if anyone needed a ticket. Yes I said. Okay, he said, I have a spare season ticket seat that no one is using, you can use that, meet me at gate P. Fantastic I said.

So 15 minutes before the game, I headed around to gate P, found this guy who swiped me into the ground and showed me where to go just to the left of the goal behind which Agüero scored the first goal in the match, where everyone stands throughout the game, great spot. I tried to give the guy some money for his ticket: “Don’t worry about it” he said. I tried to buy him and his mate a drink at half time: “Don’t worry about it” he said. He told me when we scored and after the initial celebrations right, we turn round now and do the Poznan, which was fantastic. What a bloke. What a City fan and I didn’t even get his name. If he reads this list he will know who he is, just like to thank him once again.

Me and my mate split the total cost of our tickets, so it ended up costing us 15 quid each to watch the game, and what a fantastic performance from the Boys in Blue. Brilliant.

Now back in Oz and watching the games once again at horrible times, midnight tonight versus Blackburn, soon to get worse as the clocks change, but what an experience at the Etihad. Come on Blues, this is our year.

It is true that City fans are the best.

OPINION: EUROPEAN BLUES

Oh dear… Oh dear…

What a night of glory turned to a night of misery… over here in our great little country (that is Ireland) we are just about getting there in terms of City’s status in the footballing world. Over here it’s United, Arsenal, Liverpool, Celtic and Shamrock Rovers… after that there are just other teams that happen to play the others from time to time.

Our relatively small number of supporters was just beginning to increase (as was evident in the Dublin Super Cup). Being a supporter since being born in Manchester in 1964 has been a forlorn experience at times.

Our great resurgence over the past 2 seasons meant that people began to suddenly notice that there might be an a challenge to the rest. However, I fear that Munich on Tuesday night will have put us back some ways. Whatever happened needs to be appraised and sorted very quickly to try to get the focus back on our progress in the Premier League this season. As an amateur player for all of 20 years I would never have refused to go on (Tévez) or off (Dzeko) when requested by my manager.

That said, I cannot help but think that there might have been at least some confusion (sometimes I do not understand what Mancini says myself). Maybe the review of events will clear things up and maybe, just maybe, there is a hope that it could be resolved. I was just as worried about the game itself. I thought we started brightly but seemed to just run out of ideas and we got overrun so easily in the end it was scary.

It’s going to be very hard to keep our Champions’ League hope alive so I just hope that we can resolve the Tévez affair quickly one way or the other and get back to our serious challenge in Premier League.

Slan leat and keep it Blue.

OPINION: THREE STOOGES

In direct response to Mr Cobb’s ponderings, I’d like to offer some answers.

“Let’s not pile it all on Tévez. Save a little for his boss.” If you mean that snake of an agent he has, then I agree. Because (he who shall not be named) certainly doesn’t see Bobby as his boss.

“Why wasn’t Tévez on the field from the beginning?” He is not fully fit, he did not have a pre-season, his demeanour and body language has not indicated he is interested in putting 100% in, when he has played so far this season he has not been effective, Mancini decided to start with a forward line that has delivered a bounty of goals so far this season in a formation we had been playing all season… need I go on?

“I for one thought Mancini was saving him for this game.” You may well be right to some extent and if it had not been for the above reasons he may well have been involved from the start.

“After a few early games in the dog house as punishment.” It was not punishment. He who shall not be named returned late from the Copa America and effectively was still in a pre-season schedule. Had he shown he was anywhere near 100% and was chomping at the bit as it were, he would have been involved more and sooner; let’s face it, a 100% fit and motivated (HWSNBN) can force his way into any team in the world. Have you seen him showing that? No? Thought not.

“Tévez is, after all, a goal machine and was the Premier League’s joint top scorer last year.” Was being the operative word. Joint with Berbaflop. Hypothetically if we had signed Berbaflop in August, and he had not shown any promise of form so far, who out of Kun, Edin, Silva, Nasri, would you have dropped to include both the Premier League’s top scorers from last season? Simply because they were leading scorers last season? Not as black and white as that is it?

“So I was slightly surprised when he didn’t start.” Slightly, not very?

“Who would have guessed that instead, Mancini would choose instead to defend a two goal deficit?” Erm… Me? When the midfield was getting totally overrun and was not effective, Mancini clearly sought to stabilize the team before assessing the next sub, which was intended to be (HWSNBN), until his act of mutiny. Unlike some managers, Mancini does not just always make like for like substitutions, he understands the game tactically.

“In the words of the late, great Eric Morecambe: There’s no answer to that.” In the words of Sun Tzu, from The Art of War (600 bc) “One defends when his strength is inadequate, he attacks when it is abundant.” And at the time we were very much under siege from a very capable, motivated, disciplined and effective Bayern.

I am not evangelical about Mancini and sometimes some of his substitutions make you question why he does what he does; sometimes it doesn’t work, sometimes (Everton) it clearly does. I think we are in safe hands with Bobby Manc and I think on the issue of (HWSNBN), The Club, The Fans, The Players, The Media, should all back him 100%. I hope they sack him and then drag him through the courts and rinse him for every penny in loss of transfer funds. Did Chelsea not do something similar with Mutu? he had to pay Euro 17 million to Chelsea for his breach of contract (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Mutu).

This is another chapter in a club learning how to be one of the big boys, and the sooner it is over and we can move on, the better.

On a side note, the question was raised on bluemoon as to what you should do should you possess a shirt with “his” name on the back. I just think it would really make a statement if everyone owning such a hideously defaced shirt, gathered outside the main entrance before the next game and very calmly and orderly tossed them inside the perimeter of the railings, effectively returning them to the club. It would really send a message to Voldermort in full view of the media, exactly what we think of him now.

The future is bright, the future is Blue, the future is now.

OPINION: DO THEY MEAN US

John Nisbet wrote in MCIVTA 1768. Would it not be better to write about football rather than look for faults in what others write? It’s bad enough the team decided not to play on Tuesday or maybe that’s why you wrote a few lines about nothing!

Tévez could have been right not to play; if it’s a team game why did City not play like a team? The team selection left a lot to be desired: why play a man who has just got back from a drugs ban? What was the name of that defender who we let go but looked world class?

Haven’t we all got short memories? It’s not that long ago that Tévez was the best thing since Colin Bell; sorry Colin, none of them are fit to lace your boots!

The Swamp Dwellers recovered a point by fighting to the very end as they always do; we didn’t even start a fight so all those who think we were better in the first half must have been watching a different game and you don’t win trophies by penalties you don’t get,! or by strikers missing chances. Never mind lads, we can always drop into the other competition and play Stoke or Birmingham or Spurs or Fulham.

REQUEST: BLUES VIEWING IN NEW YORK

I’m in Manhattan for the derby on October 23rd. Can you recommend a bar in which to watch the match with other Blues?

REQUEST: BLUES VIEWING IN EGYPT

I’m going to be in Egypt next month and was wondering if anyone knew of a place in Cairo or Luxor to watch matches?

RESULTS AND TABLE

2 October 2011

Bolton Wanderers      1 - 5  Chelsea               24,657
Fulham                6 - 0  Queens Park Rangers   23,766
Swansea City          2 - 0  Stoke City            19,523
Tottenham Hotspur     2 - 1  Arsenal

1 October 2011

Everton               0 - 2  Liverpool             39,510
Aston Villa           2 - 0  Wigan Athletic        30,744
Blackburn Rovers      0 - 4  Manchester City       24,760
Manchester United     2 - 0  Norwich City          75,514
Sunderland            2 - 2  West Bromwich Albion  34,815
Wolverhampton Wndrs   1 - 2  Newcastle United      26,561

League table to 02 October 2011 inclusive

                            HOME          AWAY        OVERALL
                   P  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L  F  A  W  D  L   F   A  GD Pts
 1 Manchester Utd  7  4  0  0 16  3  2  1  0  8  2  6  1  0  24   5  19  19
 2 Manchester City 7  3  0  0  9  0  3  1  0 14  5  6  1  0  23   5  18  19
 3 Chelsea         7  3  0  0  9  3  2  1  1  8  5  5  1  1  17   8   9  16
 4 Newcastle Utd   7  2  1  0  5  2  2  2  0  4  2  4  3  0   9   4   5  15
 5 Liverpool       7  2  1  0  6  3  2  0  2  4  5  4  1  2  10   8   2  13
 6 Tottenham H.    6  2  0  1  7  6  2  0  1  4  4  4  0  2  11  10   1  12
 7 Aston Villa     7  2  2  0  6  2  0  3  0  3  3  2  5  0   9   5   4  11
 8 Stoke City      7  1  2  0  2  1  1  1  2  2  7  2  3  2   4   8  -4   9
 9 Norwich City    7  1  1  1  3  3  1  1  2  4  7  2  2  3   7  10  -3   8
10 Swansea City    7  2  2  0  5  0  0  0  3  1  9  2  2  3   6   9  -3   8
11 QPR             7  0  2  1  1  5  2  0  2  4  8  2  2  3   5  13  -8   8
12 Fulham          7  1  3  0  9  3  0  1  2  1  4  1  4  2  10   7   3   7
13 Everton         6  1  1  2  5  6  1  0  1  1  2  2  1  3   6   8  -2   7
14 Wolves          7  1  0  3  3  7  1  1  1  3  3  2  1  4   6  10  -4   7
15 Arsenal         7  2  0  1  4  2  0  1  3  6 14  2  1  4  10  16  -6   7
16 Sunderland      7  1  1  2  7  5  0  2  1  2  3  1  3  3   9   8   1   6
17 West Brom A.    7  0  1  2  1  3  1  1  2  4  7  1  2  4   5  10  -5   5
18 Wigan Athletic  7  1  1  1  4  3  0  1  3  1  8  1  2  4   5  11  -6   5
19 Blackburn R.    7  1  0  3  5 10  0  1  2  3  7  1  1  5   8  17  -9   4
20 Bolton Wndrs    7  0  0  4  4 15  1  0  2  5  6  1  0  6   9  21 -12   3

MCIVTA FAQ [v1112.01]

[1] MCIVTA Addresses

Articles (Philip Alcock)         : editor@mcivta.city-fan.org
News/rumour                      : 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 by email. Unfortunately we cannot accept email attachments.

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

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://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/manchester/.

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

http://www.satfootball.com/ provides a listing of Premier League games being shown on UK domestic and foreign satellite channels. A useful site for North American viewers is http://msn.foxsports.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://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/Usenet

[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] Do any squad members have their own Twitter accounts?

A list of genuine player accounts is maintained at http://twitter.com/#!/MCFC/players

[12] Where can I find match statistics?

Statistics for the current season are available from the club site, but for a more in-depth historical 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: