Newsletter #98

Plenty of opinions and comment on the club’s current situation but the only official stirrings from Maine Road have been a statement from Frannie that the choice of manager is now down to two candidates. It also appears that Dino will not be signed, something with which I happen to agree. What I don’t agree with however, is the manner in which the affair seems to have been handled. It appears that City have just not bothered to take up the option of signing Dino before the expiry deadline. Wouldn’t it have been better all round to have issued a statement saying that they didn’t wish to complete the transfer rather than let everything just end by default. Come on City, you can do better than this on the public relations front surely?

Accompanying this issue will be a new FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file which Paul has rewritten. It will eventually go to R.S.S. and the RSS Web page. Paul would like to hear any suggestions for the various sections (see his request along with the FAQ) as well as any errors which may be in there. Any help with this task would be much appreciated.

Finally, we welcome our 300th subscriber with this edition. It seems an awful long time ago since we started out with 12 people back in September ’94!

** To order the MCIVTA T-shirt see MCIVTA 97, deadline 15th July**

NEWS – KIDD

The following appeared in the Electronic Telegraph last Monday:

‘Kidd move to City rejected by United’

Manchester United last night rejected reports that assistant manager Brian Kidd was set to be named as manager of Manchester City. Ken Ramsden, the United press officer, said that Kidd had no intention of leaving. “Any reports that Brian Kidd is leaving Old Trafford are totally untrue,” he said. “He is not going to Manchester City. He has no wish to talk to Manchester City. He is totally committed to Manchester United. A move has never been in the agenda.”

Ramsden explained that Kidd was refused permission to talk to City by United chairman Martin Edwards and had made it clear that he had no desire to speak with City anyway. Francis Lee, the City chairman, has bided his time since the departure of Brian Horton in May. Many top managers – including George Graham and Bruce Rioch – have been linked.

NEWS – HORTON

Sky News just reported that Brian Horton is the new manager of Huddersfield Town, newly promoted to Division 1. Wonder if he’ll get them into the Premiership? Nah, don’t be daft!

NEWS – DINO

According to Radio 5, Maurizio Gaudino has said that he will be staying at Eintracht Frankfurt and not returning to City next season.

NEWS – MANAGER & DINO

It seems to me that the club just don’t know which way they’re going. I’ve seen a couple of items (on CeeFax) which makes this more apparent.

For the manager’s job, CeeFax reported that Lee had hinted that there are two possible targets; he wouldn’t name either of them but said that one of the pair was very interested in the job. The report mentioned Alan Ball and George Graham as the possible targets. This sounds OK until I heard that one of the tabloid papers had reported that Lee had two weeks to find a manager or else the board might appoint someone! (It also mentioned that Lee might have to untertake the task himself!!!)

The second item reported that Gaudino has (alledgedly) returned to Eintracht Frankfurt, which is because City failed to sign him in time (a deadline agreed by both clubs?). What with the manager gone from Frankfurt who Dino and Yeboah had argued with, would this open the way for his return to be much smoother?

Darren Burke (D.P.Burke1@sheffield.ac.uk)

NEWS – LEE STATEMENT I

Report in The Times (Thursday June 22):

Manchester City are no nearer to finding a new manager. “I put four people’s names to the last board meeting, but two have gone out of the picture,” Francis Lee, the City chairman said, with obvious reference to Rioch and Kidd.

The indications yesterday were that they were waiting to see if George Graham avoids suspension when he faces an FA Commission next month. In the meantime Lee admitted that he might step into the breach, although he rejected the suggestion that he would take the job permanently as “the biggest joke I’ve heard recently.”

“We will probably have a manager before the players report back in four weeks’ time, but if the worst comes to the worst, I may have to get my boots out again myself, although I don’t really want to get involved day to day. Besides, I don’t think the club could afford my wages.”

So it looks like George Graham for the job as the board obviously rejected the fourth name. Personally I’d be happy with that and I think that the current freeze on transfers is a good thing. We wouldn’t be able to compete for the likes of Bergkamp and since everybody else is spending millions on average players such as