Newsletter #1913

Well here we go again!

Tomorrow sees the first of the new season’s pre-season warm-up games with us travelling down to South Africa for the Nelson Mandela Football Invitational which, given the condition of the great man, is a timely event and one we should be proud to be part of.

It seems a few younger members of the squad will be given their head on this trip so let’s hope one or two of them emerge as first team contenders. One who may is young Denis Suarez, who has recently been a mainstay of the Spanish midfield in the U20 World Cup.

If you are that game today then give them a cheer from me and enjoy yourself. Hopefully the Vuvuzuelas don’t make too deafening a din!

TRANSFER TARGETS

I have been reading about all the “players City have been linked with” and the need to replace Tévez with a quality striker.

Initially, I, like any other City fan, wanted us to secure the services of Cavani. However, Napoli insist that he will not be sold for less than £50 million – a hell of a lot of money – but someone will pay that, probably RM or PSG. Remember, he will also come with massive wages, so the total outlay will be enormous.

City have been the victims of having a wealthy owner but business is business, and too often we have been involved with deals that can be labelled “poor business”. Surely our Board, or whoever sanctions transfers, must be qualified or at the very least have some business acumen, or is it the case “well it’s not my money, so who cares, let’s just get him in!” This has set a precedent and we have been over-priced with all the targets we have been linked with (remember Chelsea when Abramovich came along). Take a look at the Tévez sale: he surely must have been one of the top 7 strikers in the world, and yet he went for a very “generous” £11 million, not bad for a 29-year-old who gives 100% on the pitch. Then we enquired for Pepe, a 30-year-old from RM who was not a regular, and we were quoted £24 million – interesting to say the least.

We paid £17 millionfor Kolarov (extremely inflated in my opinion, for a poor wing back), yet he will be traded for no more than £5 million. We have to offload a few before we bring in the “right type” of players to improve upon what we currently have; what will Javi Garcia go for? Boy did we pay well over the odds for a very, very slow holding midfielder!

We really need 4 good strikers and I know we are looking at Negredo, but if Dzeko does move on, we should look at either Lewandowski or Benteke, as they are of the right age and big enough to give us strength in the air, plus a re-sale value to boot. We have Guidetti on the books already as a striker that we can call upon, so perhaps 3 plus him, might be good enough. We also need to purchase a quality back up left back, as Kolarov is woeful there. I like the look of Shaw at Southampton. At right back, Maicon is too injury prone, and should be moved on, Micah Richards is just as injury prone, but he has age on his side; I still think that he lacks the “spatial awareness” when defending, and more often than not relies on his physical attributes to get him out of trouble. He does not read the game as well as he should (that’s the reason England overlook him!).

We seem to be well stocked in the midfield and I really hope Rodwell continues to improve on his end of season form, where he looked to be a quality central midfielder.

As the season gets closer, we will be linked to numerous players. I just hope that this time we purchase players that will improve on what we currently have – we need to show that we are a force to contend with in the Champions’ League, and hopefully win the PL once more.

P.S. How can such a woeful player like Jo make it into the Brazil team? He was absolutely awful in a City shirt – beggars belief!

OUCH!

Something touched a nerve?

I didn’t realise MCIVTA was a medieval court where criticism of the king was deemed as heresy and treason. Apologies to Graham, but I’m sure you’ll get over it.

The case for the defence m’lud comes in four parts:

1. Mancini achieved 1 of the 4 stated targets:
   • Defend PL
   • One cup
   • Qualify for CL
   • Advance in the CL beyond the League stages
2. The two gentleman fired RM for only achieving one of the four stated(by them) targets. Other reasons included relationship with the team / squad. His relationshipwith the fans is beyond reproach though.
3. You will notice I have emphasized the word stated because the two statedtransfer targets were Isco and Cavani as identified by the 2 gentlemen(Soriano and Begiristain). I concede the point on Cavani being Uruguayan andplaying in Napoli so therefore out of the remit of Spanish transfer system.The 2 gentlemen have failed in their stated targets to land them.Seemingly, in the medieval court, is it the case that failure is not aproblem when you are in charge? Forget the money, terms, buy-out clausesetc., these two were their own stated targets.
4. I didn’t state that Señors Soriano and Begiristain were the muppets Waldorf and Statler:I did the journalistic trick of asking a question: Were they W&S in disguise?I left it as a question (not a statement) – it is a subtle difference asit removes the accusation and allows the grenade to be thrown from theside. I posed the question as I feel the jury is still out on them. Iawait to be proved wrong (hopefully).

The signing of Navas and Fernandinho could prove to be signings of the century or pups; again we await the outcome, I hope it’s the former.

I am sanguine on the sacking of RM as these 2 men are deemed to know what they are doing. I am disappointed in the manner of the sacking, a classless display IMO. This is people’s democratic republic of MCIVTA, it is not North Korea and as such we are allowed to question, opine, debate and rant about these things. As are the free press…

REAL MADRID, ISCO & CO.

Some thoughts on this. I too am sad we didn’t get this extraordinary player. However, that we are vying with perhaps the most famous football club in the world for such players tells its own story. There’s no shame in not signing him, nor is the club belittled.

Onwards and upwards.

AND FINALLY… TRIED BUT FAILED

To find where on the goggle box today’s match may be being broadcast?

If anyone has insight then do shout out.

RESULTS AND TABLE

Final League table 2012 / 2013

                        P / GD / Pts
 1 Manchester Utd      38 / 43 / 89 CLQ
 2 Manchester City     38 / 32 / 78 CLQ
 3 Chelsea             38 / 36 / 75 CLQ
 4 Arsenal             38 / 35 / 73
-----------------------------------
 5 Tottenham Hotspur   38 / 20 / 72
-----------------------------------
 6 Everton             38 / 15 / 63
 7 Liverpool           38 / 28 / 61
 8 West Bromwich Alb   38 / -4 / 49
 9 Swansea City        38 / -4 / 46 ELQ
10 West Ham Utd        38 / -8 / 46
11 Norwich City        38 /-17 / 44
12 Fulham              38 /-10 / 43
13 Stoke City          38 /-11 / 42
14 Newcastle Utd       38 /-23 / 41
15 Southampton         38 /-11 / 41
16 Aston Villa         38 /-22 / 41
17 Sunderland          38 /-13 / 39
-----------------------------------
18 Wigan Athletic      38 /-26 / 36 R/ELQ
19 Reading             38 /-30 / 28 R
20 QPR                 38 /-30 / 25 R

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: