Newsletter #1841

Well, it’s here!

The new season kicks off with the traditional showpiece and for the second season in succession (a good barometer!) we will feature. This time against Chelsea.

Unusually, in comparison to the past 3-4 seasons, we are not the big spenders and our rivals on the day will no doubt be featuring some expensively-acquired new talent.

What we have had this Summer has been virtually unprecedented. Calmness, little speculation and a successful pre-season tour. What’s wrong?!

Some commentary below on transfer market thoughts and a nice ‘And Finally’ from Phil B.

It’s also the last appearance of the “Champ16ns” Final League Table. Next week it resets. Let’s hope it ends up looking exactly the same though!

Enjoy Sunday if you are going, give them a cheer from me and looking forward to receiving the season’s first match reports next week.

ARTICLE: TUEART AND TÉVEZ

If Philip van Gass’s article in MCIVTA 1840 is true then I agree with Philip and Tueart should keep quiet.

It’s all right Tueart expressing his opinion but Tévez is world class and I can’t see VP outshining him.

Tévez has repaid (well, he’s on the way to repaying) the debt that he owes us for last season’s misdemeanours and is showing lots of endeavour and commitment in pre-season, plus, as Philip points out, a very good partnership is forming with Sergio.

Keep Tévez. Shove VP where the sun don’t shine. Has everyone forgotten his foul-mouthed tirade at the Blues when he scored in the Adebayor game (4-2)?

ARTICLE: TENSION AT THE TOP

Roberto Mancini is clearly not happy. When quizzed about transfers today he said “After four months I don’t know what to say. You need to ask Brian Marwood. I am not the sporting director. I can’t say anything about players.”

He was asked whether he is happy with the management structure at City in which the Sporting Director Brian Marwood is controller of the purse strings for transfers. Roberto replied “I am not happy – but I don’t know what to say.”

I’m sure I’m not alone in sharing Roberto Mancini’s concern that we haven’t signed a single player so far this summer. I have to say that I am staggered that we haven’t. We are in a position of strength and should be signing the players that we need, most importantly a centre back to provide cover and competition for Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott.

It is a tricky one, though. Brian Marwood has a job to do as we have to make sure we comply with Platini’s regulations (it is rather strange though that he says nothing about the lavish expenditure of Paris St Germain, if keeping silent about his compatriots breaking the rules can be deemed “strange”). The policy that MCFC as a club has adopted is to sell before we can buy, but the trouble is not many clubs are going to pay Emmanuel Adebayor’s £170,000 (we funded most of that last season when he played for Tottenham), and he is happy to sit in the reserves here picking up a huge pay cheque. It could be that City have to take a bigger hit on Adebayor and Santa Cruz, though that “hit” has to be worth it for City. We cannot just give them away to our financial detriment.

I don’t see Roberto Mancini leaving over the lack of transfers at the moment, having just signed a new five year contract, but his efforts to defend the title and advance further in the Champions’ league are compromised by the lack of signings. We need greater depth to challenge on all fronts. Whilst I am confident that we can win this year’s title with the players we have, continued failure to strengthen our squad might in the future be a problem for us, and could see us losing Roberto. Brian Marwood needs to find a means to move on the likes of Adebayor and clear the decks so that Manchester City can move forward.

INFO: LONDON BLUES

London Blues will be at The Albion on Sunday from 1pm. We have booked the upstairs so if you are about, come join us.

REQUEST: BLUE TWEETER

It’s getting close now. Can’t wait to welcome out the Champions. I will be sending out a few #champions tweets on twitter praising the Blues and deriding the Reds of course so if anyone wants to follow me it’s @ghindle1. You can have some very interesting if short conversations.

REQUEST: PROGRAMMES AVAILABLE

Prior to moving house I have had a loft and garage clear out and have come across some match day programmes from 1987 and 1988.

If there are any collectors out there that want them I am happy to post them to a UK address. All I ask is that you please consider matching my postage with a charity donation of your choice.

If no response by 17 August I’m afraid they need to go to recycling.

AND FINALLY… RELIVING GLORY

Hart… come on Joe, you take it! – throws to Clichy… up to de Jong… he advances into the QPR half… Agüero… takes a touch… plays it to Balotelli on the edge of the box… who turns it into Agüero… who takes a touch… Go On! shoots… “YE-E-E-E-E-E-E- E-E-E-SSSSS!”

I must have watched it at least once a week and I know some Blues have watched it every day since the ultimately glorious May 13th. It still brings tears to the eyes watching it again, particularly that wonderful moment when Sergio’s shot makes the net billow and he peels away in delight. Just seeing all the emotion of the players, Roberto, his coaches and of course the fans brings back that special moment. When I see what went before on that special afternoon, and how we were put through the emotional wringer, it makes it all the more dramatic.

On the TV pictures there’s a great shot of a family (there’s two middle aged brothers and a daughter and son) whose happy, traumatised, relieved etc. faces say it all after Sergio scored that goal. The bespectacled daughter fans herself to stop herself from fainting. Her dad’s and uncle’s faces also show that they can hardly believe what they have just witnessed. They’re almost gasping for air too!

Some of us have needed weeks to recover from it. Personally I’ve needed the whole summer to get over the emotion of that day and, of course, enjoy being Champions. It’s wonderful isn’t it?

Are we ready to do it all again? You bet. If it has to be like it was last season, then we’ll take it, but it would be nice to have it tied up by the final day.

Come on City!

RESULTS AND TABLE

Final League table

                    P  GD Pts
 1 Manchester City 38  64  89 *CHAMP16NS*
 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: