Newsletter #1833

Mario versus England awaits us this weekend in what should be an intriguing battle with the Italians. Seeing Joleon and Mario competing directly against each other promises to be a particular highlight and let’s hope Joe is well protected as, judging by his goal against Ireland, Mario has taken his shooting boots with him.

I’m actually hoping Mario has a stormer as I think it will do his image a world of good, perversely. Just hoping he is not good enough that he actually knocks us out though!

Some interesting follow-up articles tonight and Keith Sharp turns his focus on the transfer window. Hasn’t speculation been thin on the ground – not even a whisper about Carlos!

Enjoy the newsletter and just to update you the Charity… sorry… Community Shield will be kicking off at 1.30.

ARTICLE: MCIVTA FANTASY FOOTBALL

In response to Dave Kilroy’s end of season report on MCIVTA Fans’ League winners and losers (where I came a credible 6th but just outside the name-check zone) and his amusing fining of those not keeping their teams Red-free.

Back in the day when I was studenting, one of my good pals was a Sheffield United fan whose weekly habit was to head to the bookies on Saturday morning and bet on Sheffield Wednesday to win. His philosophy was that if they lost, he didn’t care 2 hoots about losing his cash and if they won, at least he had some form of recompense out of the sorry situation.

I have played Fantasy Football now for about 20 years and decided that every year I would use this philosophy to offset the misery of watching those lot over in Stretford inevitably do better than everyone else, so the first name on my fantasy team sheet was always United’s goalkeeper (so Schmeichel for many years then the following unmentionables). The approach being if they conceded goals, who cared about fantasy points and if they got a clean sheet, small comfort.

I wondered whether this would still reap the fines from the Kilroy administration knowing the reason behind the selection and whether others can see the logic here, or whether my participation in next season’s league is now under the same scrutiny as Bentner’s disco pants?

P.S. As a footnote, I did dispense with this approach this year after about 5 games and fared far better in all the leagues I entered than ever before, so maybe there’s the answer!?

ARTICLE: STASH THE CHEQUEBOOK

The more I watch Lescott and Hart play for England, the more I am convinced City will field the strongest defence in Europe next season. Hart, Zabaleta/Richards, Clichy, Kompany and Lescott is as strong as it gets and with one complete season behind them, this unit looks invincible.

Add to this a midfield of Yaya Touré, de Jong (please give him a new contract!), Barry, Milner and Silva, plus a strike force of Agüero, Nasri, Tévez, Balotelli and Dzeko and you wonder why we need any more major signings.

From what we have seen from Milner playing on the right flank for England, he could replace Johnson in that position and we may need one top flight defender to cover for Clichy, understanding Kolorov is on the way out and, yes, if Dzeko is going back to Germany, we may need one high profile forward, but that’s about it.

All this stuff about Skrtel, De Rossi and van Persie… please!

It took Dzeko two seasons to settle with City and I would rather keep him than bring a new face to the forward line. Yes to van Persie, if we could get him, but I am not sure he would settle into a rotation.

The key question going forward is if Mancini is prepared to organise a Plan-B attack plan that would allow for an orthodox winger like a Gareth Bale. City got undone last season when the opposition parked the bus defensively and clogged up the intricate passing moves of Silva, Nasri and Agüero. The same thing happened to Barcelona against Chelsea.

Mancini needs the option of switching tactics if their initial attack is running into trouble. This is where he needs to recruit attacking options if he has indeed given up on Adam Johnson.

For my money, getting Tévez back was like acquiring a new player, he just needs cover for Clichy. Otherwise, same again!

ARTICLE: RESPONSE TO BEN

Great that there was a response to my article from MCIVTA 1831, from Ben, and I certainly do not disagree with everything that he said.

I did say that Mario Balotelli can play great football but I still maintain his downfall up to now is his hot head and, because of this, his reputation comes with it; refs are well aware of this and so are other teams.

If Ben reads MCIVTA on a regular basis he will have noticed going back since Roberto Mancini arrived at City, I have always said “In Mancini I trust”; his judgement I trust, but that still does not stop what some players do unfortunately in a consistent way. Mancini has been very patient with Mario.

Mancini still sees the potential in Balotelli and, like the majority of us, wants him to cool down but still play some brilliant football that he is capable of. Even Mancini threatened to sell him after not just the red card versus the Gooners but for stamping on another player’s, head which he got away with.

Now that Mario is a year older, let us all hope that he keeps a cool head, for he is brilliant when he is on form. Nothing would please me more than to see Mario have a great season with City!

By the way, the player who was with Feyenoord on loan from City is John Guidetti, I think that he is one for the future.

In Mancini I trust!

P.S. Just watched Ireland vs. Italy and Balotelli scored an absolutely brilliant goal; immediately a fellow Italian player put his hand across Mario’s mouth, to stop him from saying anything – good idea have team mates looking out to protect!

P.P.S. Check out:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/06/19/balotelli-might-score–and-he-might-snap
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/balotelli-puzzles-us-all-admits-manager-of-italian-squad-7866572.html
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1231655-5-things-to-expect-from-manchester-city-striker-mario-balotelli-on-sunday#/articles/1231655-5-things-to-expect-from-manchester-city-striker-mario-balotelli-on-sunday/page/2

ARTICLE: CITY RINGTONE

If anyone is interested in the actual video clip I put together from which the ringtone was extracted then here is on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkigsdTMqkU

If anyone wants a copy of the clip here is a link to my dropbox to enable you to download the clip:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/54830796/First was Dickov then along came Aguero.mkv

(I did it this way because it is a bit too big (13.7MB) to send as an attachment that most e-mail clients can’t handle)

The clip should open in your browser window for viewing. To save the clip (I am using Google Chrome as an example here) click on the tools icon (the ‘spanner’ top right in the browser) and click on ‘Save page as…’ that will open a save dialog box where you can save the actual clip on your PC. In Firefox it would be – click on ‘File’ then ‘Save Page as…’ and other browsers have similar functions.

ARTICLE: CITY DVD

Following on from Peter’s post in MCIVTA 1832, I’ve been informed by another fellow Blue that play.com are doing it for £11.99 + free delivery – CHAMPION!

REQUEST: PANINI STICKERS

If anyone is doing a Euro 2012 Panini sticker album please could they get in touch to arrange swaps?

AND FINALLY… 2012-13 FIXTURE LIST

No doubt this will change dramatically when the TV listings are announced but the new season’s Premier League fixture list is as follows:

August

18 Southampton (H)
25 Liverpool   (A)

September

 1 QPR         (H)
15 Stoke       (A)
22 Arsenal     (H)
29 Fulham      (A)

October

 6 Sunderland  (H)
20 West Brom   (A)
27 Swansea     (H)

November

 3 West Ham    (A)
10 Tottenham   (H)
17 Aston Villa (H)
24 Chelsea     (A)
27 Wigan       (A)

December

 1 Everton     (H)
 8 Man Utd     (H)
15 Newcastle   (A)
22 Reading     (H)
26 Sunderland  (A)
29 Norwich     (A)

January

 1 Stoke       (H)
12 Arsenal     (A)
19 Fulham      (H)
29 QPR         (A)

February

 2 Liverpool   (H)
 9 Southampton (A)
23 Chelsea     (H)

March

 2 Aston Villa (A)
 9 Wigan       (H)
16 Everton     (A)
30 Newcastle   (H)

April

 6 Man Utd     (A)
13 West Brom   (H)
20 Tottenham   (A)
27 West Ham    (H)

May

 4 Swansea     (A)
12 Reading     (A)
19 Norwich     (H)

RESULTS AND TABLE

Final League table

                    P  GD Pts
 1 Manchester City 38  64  89 *CHAMPIONS*
 2 Manchester Utd  38  56  89
 3 Arsenal         38  25  70
-----------------------------
 4 Tottenham H.    38  25  69
 5 Newcastle Utd   38   5  65
-----------------------------
 6 Chelsea         38  19  64
 7 Everton         38  10  56
 8 Liverpool       38   7  52
 9 Fulham          38  -3  52
10 West Brom A.    38  -7  47
11 Swansea City    38  -7  47
12 Norwich City    38 -14  47
13 Sunderland      38  -1  45
14 Stoke City      38 -17  45
15 Wigan Athletic  38 -20  43
16 Aston Villa     38 -16  38
17 QPR             38 -23  37
-----------------------------
18 Bolton Wndrs    38 -31  36
19 Blackburn R.    38 -30  31
20 Wolves          38 -42  25

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.

Philip Alcock, editor@mcivta.city-fan.org

Editor: