Can we finally drop the ‘Typical City’ tag?

Written by: RyanCorless

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1937 – Manchester City win the first division title for the first time in their history.
1938 – Manchester City are relegated from the first division, despite scoring more goals than any team in the division.

Typical City.

For years now supporting City has been a rollercoaster ride, a bit like the Big One at Blackpool Pleasure Beach with a lot more ups and downs. City never fail when it comes to providing their supporters with more contrasting emotions than any other team in England, I’d argue even the world. It’s not all bad though, only City could come from 3 goals down away from home, with 10 men, with their best striker injured to win 4-3 in the last minute of the game. The reward – getting beat by our fiercest rivals Manchester United in the next round.

Only City could inflict the only defeat on a seemingly invincible Chelsea side in the 2004/2005 campaign, only to be beaten by Oldham Athletic in the same season. How many teams are beaten by a goal that deflects on a balloon, a balloon which was thrown onto the pitch by one of the fans who was on the wrong end of the result! Although I must admit Liverpool’s beach ball fiasco away at Sunderland this year did resemble a similar circumstance.

But for how long can we go along having ‘Typical City’ moments? Yes, it’s incredibly entertaining being a Blue, one of the many reasons I chose to support the Blues over the Reds as a boy growing up in a predominantly Red area. But sometimes it just gets tiring watching another disappointing even and listening to the words ‘Typical City’ muttered from many different mouths.

This season we saw our team blow away the likes of Chelsea and Arsenal, yet stumble at home to the likes of Burnley and Hull, who also beat us away. Both teams were relegated come May, whereas Chelsea (the team we completed a double over) finished top of the league.

But imagine, if we shook off the typical City tag? It might lead to less entertaining seasons in terms of ups and downs, but surely with the club at the current stage of development it’s at, we’d see a team that everyone could rely on. A team that could deliver wins where expected, instead of stumbling against minnows.

A lot of our stumbles are psychological though, a lot of fans (myself included) often sit at a match thinking ‘how can we cock this one up?’ Just this season, as I stood at Turf Moor, City leading 5-0 before half-time, a bloke turned round to me and said;
“If we get 6 I think it’s a guaranteed win”, it might sound foolish, but it’s a comment that I whole-heartedly agreed with, I genuinely stood in the pouring ran believing we could in fact throw away a 5 goal lead, adding another ‘Typical City’ moment to our illustrious history. It rained extremely heavily that day, and in that second half I saw the game being called off, only for it to be replayed, with us probably losing 1-0. Instead the game finished 6-1 and there was no sign of ‘Typical City’.

Now can we drop the ‘Typical City’ tag? I’m guilty of applying it a lot too, it’s hard not to watching City at times. But now I feel if we can finally rid the tag from ourselves we can go onto to fulfil the expectations thrust upon us in recent years, and go on to do great things.

I pray for a season where we beat the likes of Blackpool home and away – because we should. I pray for a season where we are not knocked out by lower league opposition in a domestic cup – because we shouldn’t be. I pray for a season with no regrets, and no ‘what ifs’. The Blue Moon is always rising and it’s simply a matter of time because this club goes on to emulate the form which saw us becoming such a reputable club in the first place.

If you enjoyed this piece, Why not try one of these?

Is The Transition Too Hard To Make? by RyanCorless on May 17th, 2010
Tuesday, December 8th, 1998 – Manchester City lose 2-1 at home to Mansfield Town in the Auto Windscreens Shields Trophy in front of Maine Road’s lowest ever crowd, an embarrassingly low 3007 people.

Are Loans the New Graveyard for Out-of-Favour Footballers? by RyanCorless on May 22nd, 2010
A summer full of exciting transfer activity soon awaits us, with City rumoured to be in for a number of top class players over the next few months.

Sign up to MCFCForum.com today! by BlueWolfie on May 8th, 2010
What you are reading here is MCFCForum’s blog; a way that enables us to let everyone out there know we exist, but also to allow our members to get their points of view across to a much wider audience.

Are Loans the New Graveyard for Out-of-Favour Footballers?

A summer full of exciting transfer activity soon awaits us, with City rumoured to be in for a number of top class players over the next few months. However, to make room for the new ‘stars’ at Eastlands, departures will inevitably occur.

Over the years at City we’ve seen a number of players go out on loan, perhaps because they are young and could do with experience holding down a first team place, or because the competition is too fierce to break into the Blue’s starting 11.

However, in today’s day and age it’s almost as if a loan move away from the club signals that a player’s career at the City of Manchester Stadium is swiftly coming to end. There used to be a time where a young, bright footballer would be loaned out to a team who were maybe a few divisions lower to give them an opportunity to experience first team football. Usually they would then return with some useful experience under their belt and make an attempt to stamp their mark on the first team. Whereas today, we see players being loaned out frequently, and never returning to try and make a name for themselves at City.

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Writers Needed

With the new season fast approaching, MCFCForum are looking to expand our current writing team to allow us to cover more aspects of our beloved City.

All Articles will be submitted onto our new Website which is linked with the news portal NewsNow.

Anyone who is interested, please remember that your articles will be a gateway to our forum, and so therefore they must be written well (grammar, punctuation, etc). Obviously, they must be Manchester City based, but other than that there are no barriers as to the actual content.

You will be fully accredited for your work on the Website and it will also be pinned within our forums for a period for maximum exposure.

Anyone who is interested please PM me on our forums or leave a comment below, preferably with a piece for review so we know what to expect from you in the future.

MCFCForum

New Forums Launched

The team at MCFCForum.com are pleased to announce that our new forums have been launched here - http://www.mcfcforum.com/forums

Despite being a relatively new community, we have continued to grow at a swift rate and therefore it was nessacery to make this move to enable us to continue this growth.

Unfortunately existing members will have to re-register as we weren’t able to acquire the old database from our old forum providers.

To do so, please visit: MCFCForum Register

The forum is still new and we will be introducing new features in due time such as an Arcade, so please bare with us.

Hope to see you over there soon.

MCFCForum Team.

£20 Mil-lio-ner

Written by: YJMcFc

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As the rumours continue to spread through forums and newspapers regarding players such as Ibrahimovic, Boateng, Gerrard and Torres, it is hard to think that Sky Sports News can ignore these interesting deals. However they have suddenly “broke” the story surrounding Aston Villa midfielder James Milner and his potential move to Manchester City for £20 million.

If we, as City fans, were to of asked each other who they would have liked to sign during the Summer, surely they would not have mentioned Milner. However it is coming clear that Bobby Mancini is definitely interested in signing the young-ish England player, who currently has seven caps at senior level for his country.

So is this deal a goody or a bady? In my own opinion I think it’s quite good, but my father, who is a life long City fan, thinks that this will be the beginning of Mancini’s downfall. (I told him to shag off). I think this is a yet another good signing by Roberto. I like the way he attempts to bring the best out of the youth that he see’s around him ie. Ibrahim etc. With Milner only being at 24, he still has a lot of time to progress which I feel Mancini can help with. Also, being along side other England internationals such as Adam Johnson and Gareth Barry, he is sure to fit right into the squad.

So, will this deal go ahead and when will it happen? Well, if you were to believe all the trolox you hear on forums then you would of expected this to happen today (19 May). Unfortunately that isn’t the case. However, the deals may be done already and not announced. An anonymous source has said the following:

“I believe 2 are done deals that will be announced early next week – possibly Wednesday!”.

This could be in relation to Milner and the other signing Jerome Boateng from Hamburg. I will say this yet again, this summer is going to be absolutely amazing. You have my word.

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Is The Transition Too Hard To Make?

Tuesday, December 8th, 1998 – Manchester City lose 2-1 at home to Mansfield Town in the Auto Windscreens Shields Trophy in front of Maine Road’s lowest ever crowd, an embarrassingly low 3007 people.

Sunday, May 9th, 2010 – Manchester City draw 1-1 away at Upton Park, home of West Ham United. The draw completed a season where City broke countless records, including their highest ever points tally in the Premier League, as well as their highest ever league finish in the same competition.

Which one do you prefer? The obvious answer would be the second scenario, but it’s almost as if for some Blues being stuck in the 3rd tier of English football, struggling away to the likes of Wycombe was a more enjoyable experience all round.

To read the rest of this post please visit :http://www.mcfcforum.com/?p=391

Should you stay or should you go?

The Following was sent in by Ryan Corless

Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Young, Gabriel Agbonlahor and  Mario Ballotelli – just five of the supposed names on City’s summer shopping list. A list so exciting that we forget that players will be going the other way too. A number of rumours regarding players that already wear the sky blue shirt have surfaced over the coming weeks; rumours that question whether or not they have a future at the club.

Some names are more obvious than others, for example it looks like strikers Jo, Felipe Caicedo, Valeri Bojinov and Benjani, as well as Bulgarian midfielder Martin Petrov may have played their last games for the Blues. But there are names that may be a little harder to call for the City faithful; Craig Bellamy, Emmanuel Adebayor, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Stephen Ireland and Robinho all find their names thrust into the media spotlight linking them with moves away from Eastlands.

After a truly remarkable effort this year, it would be hard to see Craig Bellamy anywhere but the City of Manchester stadium come September. Yet still rumours link ‘Bellers’ with a move away to Goodison Park, home of Everton. After an impressive season with City though, surely the hopes of the supporters are that Craig will be playing his football in sky blue and not a darker shade of blue next term.
Verdict – will still be a City player come next season

After a somewhat controversial season, Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor finished with 14 goals in 26 starts. However, a so-called lazy attitude and lack of interest has led to some City fans questioning whether Ade will still be playing his football for us next season. A silly stamp to the face of Robin Van Persie as well as a red card away at Stoke in the FA Cup meant that Ade didn’t get the run of games that City fans would have liked to see, problems that were all of his own making. Sometimes though, it is easy to forget that the 6’3 target man was involved in a horrific gun-attack in January, an event so terrifying that Emmanuel himself said he was finding it difficult to recover from. Given a clean run of games and less controversy could Ade go on to prove a lot of Blues wrong with a better season next year?
Verdict – will still be a City player come next season

A fan-favourite for many years now, Shaun Wright-Phillips hasn’t enjoyed his best season for the Blues, struggling to get a decent run of games in the first team, something that wasn’t made easier by the January arrival of Adam Johnson, not to mention the outstanding consistency of Craig Bellamy. It could well be that Shaun wishes to play more first-team football, and may look elsewhere to do so, but if the England winger can accept that only top-class performances will allow him a stretch of games – something which he is very capable of producing, then City are likely to offer him the chance of staying at Eastlands.
Verdict – may be sold if the price is right

After an impressive season in 2008/09, scoring 13 goals, the pressure and expectation was on Stephen Ireland to perform. It’s a fair comment to say however, that it just hasn’t been Superman’s year. Struggling to perform consistently enough to hold down a first-team place, with competition from the likes of Nigel De Jong, Gareth Barry and Patrick Vieira, Stephen has had a frustrating year with City. However, in the season prior to this, we saw Stevie play some magnificent stuff, which had some Blues branding him our very own Steven Gerrard in the making. Given a bit more luck next year, City fans all over will be hoping that Ireland can re-produce the form that made them think so highly of him a year ago – if, that is, the Irish midfielder is still here.
Verdict – may be sold, if the price is right

In August 2008, we saw the arrival of a Brazilian forward, an arrival that excited every Blue on the planet. With a debut goal against Chelsea, Robinho couldn’t have wished to a better start to his City career, but a lack of determination away from home meant that Robbie was the target of much stick from the City faithful. After a long January in which rumours surfaced that Robinho was about to exit from the club, he was loaned to Santos. A loan that, he said; he would be happy to extend, given the chance. Despite saying he left City on good terms it looks as though the Brazilian has no desire to return to Manchester and may well have played his last game from the Blues.
Verdict – has played his last game for City

Whatever happens it is bound to be a busy transfer window this summer, with players coming to the club, as well as players departing. Some may say it is harder now than any other time in the Blue’s history to predict the starting line-up for 3 months onwards from this day.

Have an opinion? Want to discuss this further? Come and discuss this piece at MCFC Forum

Masters of our own downfall?

The Following was sent in by Ryan Corless

Despite beating Chelsea twice, Arsenal once, and losing only 7 times all season, it turned out to be another season of disappointment and ultimately misery for the City faithful. After failing to learn from our mistakes one too many times, we endured three late losses against our fierce rivals from over the road. A run of eight straight draws did nothing to help our push for a top 4 place. The misery was confirmed on the last Wednesday of the season, when Spurs came to Eastlands and did what they do best; beat City.

Our problems began in September, with an on fire Emmanuel Adebayor stupidly getting himself banned for a number of games after scoring four times in his first four games. A moment that was highly significant in our pursuit of 4th place, as one can only wonder how well Adebayor would have done in a Blue shirt given a consistent run of games. However, up stepped Carlos Tevez in an attempt to show City why we invested £25million on him in the first place, with a particularly impressive December for the small Argentine, bagging 8 goals in 7 games.

Slowly and steadily we grew into a team that genuinely looked capable of breaking the top 4 threshold, a convincing 3-0 win against Wolves was particularly impressive. But spineless performances against Everton at Goodison Park and Hull at the KC stadium meant it was another 6 points dropped in a season where every point would turn out to be vital.

However, come January we were still in a position where winning both domestic cups was possible, with the semi-final against United high on our list of priority. A less than convincing 2-1 win at Eastlands was enough to see us take an advantage to Old Trafford, but any City watching the game that night knew we suffered a beating in the latter stages of the second half and to take a lead to the second leg was fortunate to say the least. Still, in typical City fashion, we decided to give up our chances of a famous semi-final win in the last minute of the game, with Wayne Shrek scoring a painful goal for Blues all over to have to watch.

A disappointing loss to Stoke away in the FA Cup fifth round replay followed, with Adebayor getting sent off for a less than clever elbow, just after the Togolese striker had begin to re-create the form that saw him become an instant hit at City in the first four games of the campaign. Another mountain to climb for City, a mountain that we climbed fairly well, with an unbelievable win at Stamford Bridge following the FA cup exit. Unfortunately we didn’t follow the win at the would-be champions up with a great month after drawing to Sunderland and losing at home to Everton.

Crushing victories over Burnley and Birmingham followed in April, but our inability to accept a point in the fourth Manchester derby of the season meant another difficult pill to swallow.

Eventually, the same arrogance cost us any chance of a last-day battle off with Spurs for 4th place, a battle off that, we would have come out on top of, had we settled for a point in a game that we were clearly second best in. Despite an unusual amount of optimism surrounding the City of Manchester before the game, City failed to put in a performance, with several players fading despite being such a big part of the previous 36 games, as it was, Peter Crouch scored a scrappy goal which took our London rivals to the Champion’s League ahead of us, in true City fashion, we again waited until the last 10 minutes to scupper our chances of success.

Overall, due to our own over-estimation of our ability in too many games, it was disappointment for our beloved Blues and it meant another season without silverware. There were definitely positives though, with City breaking all sorts of records along the way, given a little bit more consistency, fewer minutes added on in Manchester derbies, and fewer stamps to the faces of Dutch players, next season could prove to be the one where we crack the top 4 and maybe snatch a domestic cup along the way.

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Times, They Are A-Changin’

The following was submitted by BlueWolf.

In 1882, the cricket club (presumably fed up with being shown up by the sporting footballers) asked St. Mark’s to leave, and so they moved to Queen’s Road, a little further east along Hyde Road. However, some of the cricketers, presumably fearing for their manliness, joined this new football club, and so the men¹ from the Ironworks, the street and the cricket club made up the squad of St. Mark’s.

It was during this time and up into 1884, that St. Mark’s football club, underwent major changes, the biggest of which was to change the name to West Gorton (including moving once more to Pink Bank Lane – presumably to appease the local growing gay community), in fact, the senior church figures were indeed instrumental to these changes, because they wanted to create a proper professional side; it was also mentioned by Beastow that he had one or two problems from Ms. Connell.

“What did I tell you, Bertrand? She’s a woman! What the dickens she is doing out of the kitchen, I will never know, my dear chap. Someone ought to take a rod to her!”

At the end of 1884, a massive riot occurred between Gorton and Openshaw², and it became evident that the area desperately needed something to belong to. The club joined the Manchester FA, and Beastow presented the players with a brand new kit; black with a white Maltese Cross on it³.

The 1880’s were very pivotal in the growth of West Gorton, as once again they found themselves moving once again, and sat and watched the Heathens start to win things such as the Manchester Cup. West Gorton wanted to be a part of this, and they felt that they had to return to their roots by returning to an area they were more familiar with (and where the hookers were also cheaper).

They moved to Bennett Street changing their name yet again to Ardwick, and with a brand new pitch, their opening fixture on September 10th 1887 against Salford FC was announced. Alas, West Gorton didn’t actually show up – it was half-price night on Sackville Street – and the term ‘Typical City’ begun.*

¹ For the purposes of men, read: white men
² Once more, not at all like today
³ Some noted that it was also very German in style – not that anyone minded, because as every Englishman knew, Germans were very nice people, and would never do something silly like start a war.
*Well, obviously not “typical City”, because they were called West Gorton. Actually they were called Ardwick at this point in time, although they did try out ‘The Fun-Loving Funktastic Fun-Boys’ for a time, but it didn’t work out too well.

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What you are reading here is MCFCForum’s blog; a way that enables us to let everyone out there know we exist, but also to allow our members to get their points of view across to a much wider audience.

Of course what goes on at MCFCForum.com is so much more than this, and, even though we are only 6 weeks old, we are growing at a membership rate of 18% per week, with members from Europe, N.America, S.America, Asia and Australasia. Why? Because we are a no-nonsence forum for all things Manchester City - and so much more besides, with live chat exclusively for members and over 100 arcade games.

On top of all of this, we here at MCFCForum actually listen to our members, and where possible we do our utmost to include things that they (you) want.

We realise that we are not the only Man City forum around, and neither would we want to be (those that want to post abuse at each other can find other forums to go to), but we do feel that we have created a welcoming place for all City fans – Manchester City F.C. thought so, too, which is why they allowed our inclusion after only exisiting for 5 weeks.

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Time For The Fat Lady To Sing On Abusive Songs

The following was submitted by mcfcirish.

I have decided to write this article about a subject that I am sure divides football fans opinion; abusive songs/chants. Chanting and singing are and will always be part of the spectacle of football, so let me say straight off that I am not calling for a ban on singing at football games!

Perhaps I can put forward an example if a song that bugs me, the song in question is ‘The Fields of Athenry’. I’ve always hated the damned thing, as an proud Irishman this song is far from patriotic, all it does is drag up the past and has an air of ‘small oppressed nation’ nonsense that bugs me. As I mentioned I feel it drags up the past and while football should treasure its history the history of nations, conflicts etc, has no place whatsoever in football. After all is that not the reason we come to watch football? To get away from religion, politics, etc?

‘The Fields of Athenry’ is a song that has been adopted by Munster rugby fans, let me first say for those not up on their geography, Athenry is in Galway which is in the province of Connacht and NOT in Munster so why they sing it is beyond me. The same song has also been adopted by a certain section of Glasgow, why they feel the need to sing it at a football game I’ll never know, if they were so interested in bringing up the past and shouting at people on the opposite side of the fence then maybe they should consider a job in politics.

This song and many others are, in my view, one of the main reason we no longer see international friendlies between the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and England. These kinds of games would be passionate enough affairs even if sectarian etc songs were banned so let’s stop the singing of these songs altogether and have friendlies that fans of the three above nations can get excited about. The majority of fans from the three nations are I’m sure, totally fed up about hearing about the past and just want to enjoy an ‘international’ derby game or two. Maybe I’m asking too much, hopefully I have given people who may sing these kind of songs something to think about.

Now, onto the clubs scene, again chanting and singing is a BIG part of club football, it adds to the atmosphere and fun at games of football. But like its international counterpart, there are songs that couldn’t have less to do with football. United fans seem to think it’s clever to sing and make fun of Hillsborough and we City fans think it’s alright to sing about the Munich air disaster. Both of those examples were obvious cases of human tragedy and disaster, we may dislike our archenemies on the football field and on the terraces but when we start singing about events, where lives have been lost, then we are crossing the line.

One thing that seems to confuse me is the fact parents seem to be concerned about their kids hearing swearing at football grounds but aren’t concerned about songs that make fun of events of the past just as bad? Surely if a kid grows up hearing this kind of stuff he or she will think it is ok to make light of the same or similar events in the future. Football has made great strides in stamping out racism at grounds and all those involved should be applauded for it but what I am asking now is that we all try and get together and put a lid on abusive songs based on religion and history. We fans are proud of our clubs, why should we feel the need to tarnish our beloved club’s image by singing such songs? Surely we are better than that? I am not for one minute saying singing should be banned because if I were, we may as well ban the whole game while we are at it. Singing and teasing is part of the game but there is a line and surely if clubs and fans can get together to establish where that line is, then all the better for the game as a whole. I hope that I have given everyone something to think about and let me end by saying I’ll be looking forward to seeing you and hearing you all on the terraces soon.

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We Are Gorton, Super Gorton, We Are Gorton From … Umm …

The following was submitted by BlueWolf.

And so the history that was to become funnily enough, the history of Manchester City, began in the year of 1880. Now although we learned that it was a woman that created our beloved club, we see William Beastow stepping forward to disagree completely. It was him that had come up with the original idea to create a cricket team five years earlier, and it is he who is regarded to have come up with the initial idea of creating a football team¹. He was also quoted in the weekly church minute meetings, as saying, “A woman? A woman in charge of football? No good can come of it, Bertrand.²”

However, regardless of who was the true founder, Beastow recruited hard-working honest men from the local ironworks factory, whereas Anna Connell recruited those who were, shall we say, scum, and the very first recorded game using these men was against a Baptist Church from Macclesfield on November 13th. The final score is unknown, so it can only be presumed that St. Mark's were awesome and they won, like 85-0 or something.

Due to literacy and numeracy not being practiced particularly well, teams were made up of twelve, instead of the usual eleven, although this might have had something to do with 'Fatty' McTavish, who always insisted on being a part of everything, even though he was less use than a venereal disease.

Newspapers of the day, began their talent of not being able to report the news correctly, by calling this new team either St. Mark's or West Gorton, and changing it on a day-to-day basis. Unknown to all, this bad reporting would go unchecked throughout the history of 'news'papers up to and including the present day.³

In the 'season' of 1881/2, St. Mark's met for the very first time, what were to become their arch enemy; Newton Heath. So apt was their name, that it leant itself to the name 'Heathens', which they have been doing their utmost to live up to ever since. The game was played at their new home Kirkmanshulme Cricket Club, thereby finally being able to show the locals what a proper sport was. Again, the final score is unknown, but, again, we can only presume it was an embarrassing result for the Heathens, who more than likely ran home crying like little girls.

¹ Football had actually been introduced to Manchester at least 600 years before hand, and was in fact banned on at least three occasions in the 1300's within the city limits - most notably by Edward II and Richard III. They were obviously gay.
² See, Karen Brady for further proof.
³ Go on, I dare you to prove to me that I am wrong. Yeah, that's what I thought. Pussies.

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Transfer Targets: Oscar Cardozo

The following was submitted by Kevez

Full Name: Óscar René Cardozo

Born: 20th May 1983, Juan Eulogio Estigarribia, Paraguay

Height: 1m 94cm

Position: Striker

Current Club: Benfica

Former Club: Club Atlético 3 de Febrero (PAR), Club Nacional (PAR), Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys (ARG)
Squad Number: 7

Club Career: 181 appearances, 106 goals

International Record: Paraguay, 29 caps, 4 goals at full international level

Did You Know? Cardozo is nicknamed "Tacuara" which in Guarani, a Paraguayan Indian language, means "big cane."

First Impressions

Cardozo is a big, strong centre forward who is excellent in the air and possesses a fairly good touch, technique and movement for a big guy. He has a habit of getting himself into the right areas and although he does miss some chances that he should really convert, he has an excellent strike rate at club level. Cardozo is an expert penalty and free kick taker.

Do We Need Him?

My opinion is that given as Craig Bellamy seems to play as a left winger these days we only really have Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor as serious striking options which means that we really need more striking options if we are serious about challenging on all fronts. I fully expect Jo, Valeri Bojinov, Felipe Caicedo and Robinho to all be shown the door this summer and Roque Santa Cruz always seems to be injured or trying to get himself match fit which is not really of much use to us. Of course we have a pressing need for players in other positions but I can seriously see 1 if not 2 strikers being signed this summer as a welcome addition to our main 2 forwards as successful teams usually require 3 to 4 strikers to see them through a long, tough season.

The Likely Cost

Benfica are rumoured to have paid around €11.1 million for Cardozo in June 2007 – They acquired 100% of the player which has taken care of any previous co-ownership issues. Benfica are rumoured to not be in the best financial state so a bid of around £12 - £18 million should be more than enough to acquire the player.

Chances Of Success?

I think that we’re going to need another big striker as an alternative to Adebayor and despite wanting to see Santa Cruz succeed there must be some doubt whether that will actually happen given his awful luck with injuries. Cardozo has usually been something of an understudy to Santa Cruz at international level but there is no doubt that he would give better value for money as he seems to be a lot less susceptible to injuries and probably has a better all-round set of skills. Seeing that Cardozo’s agent seems to have been giving encouraging signs to the press today I’d rate this one as about 8/10.

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How It All Began

The following was submitted by BlueWolf.

It was the late 19th century – 1880 to be exact – and the City of Manchester was a grimy grease-hole where law and order was best described as 'not done very well'. The Industrial Revolution that had begun in the city, and spread Worldwide had put Manchester firmly on the map¹, resulting in many to come to this place to find employment at some degrading and unfilling workplace (not at all like today).

Trouble was that there were many that arrived that had the common sense and skill of a cabbage, and so for these men, their days were spent drinking, wandering around aimlessly, picking random fights and rogering anything that moved (again, not at all like today).

This turn of events had however not gone unnoticed by a certain Anna Connell of St. Mark's Church in West Gorton, who had taken it upon herself to propose that the local men needed something better to do, than beating ten tons of shit out of each other. She even pointed to the passage of scripture in Thessalonians 1, ch5, v7, that states: “For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night; and they that are buggered up the jacksie will more than likely be relatively upset during the night”.

Suggesting to the Church Warden, William Beastow, she surmised that the men's daily routine would be better served via the church organising games in the manner of a new and upcoming sport called 'football'.
And so it became so; the first and only club to have been formed by a woman – yes, I know! I find it as hard to believe as you do, but that's what history says. So the next time your woman complains about you watching the game, you just remind her of ol' Anna. Put that in your pipe and smoke it! And while you're at it, make me some dinner woman, I'm hungry.

Anyway, the team was named St. Mark's (wonder how long it took her to come up with that name), and the men finally had something to do. The first game was set-up and went off without much fuss, until they realised upon arriving that there was no-one to play with and that they would actually need some opponents; something that Anna had failed to realise initially (silly cow).

Once the confusion that had occured during their first game had been solved, the men that signed up for the team of St. Mark's spent their days practising this so-called football, and being preached to about the error of their ways. So successful was Ms Connell's approach, that it was reported that sexual assualt in the area dropped by a staggering 37%, although there were some that attributed this to the fact that the men were too knackered to 'get it up', due to the intensive short-passing and 4-3-3-1 system she had introduced.

It is worthy to note that from 1875 up until the incarnation of the St. Mark's football team, the church had played cricket, which of course they had been ridiculed by the nearby St. Peter's for playing a game fit for pansies. To this day, St. Peter's still holds their annual tiddly-winks tournament, and they are very proud of it, thank you very much.

¹ This was the first time that Manchester had actually accomplished anything noteworthy since 1439, when Horace Bogshaw had declared himself the reincarnation of a hamster, and successor to the throne of England.

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Transfer Target - Miloš Krasic

The following was submitted by Kevez

Full Name: Miloš Krasic
Born: 1st November 1984, Kosovska Mitrovica, Kosovo
Height: 1m 85cm
Position: Winger/Attacking Midfielder
Current Club: CSKA Moscow
Former Club: FK Vojvodina
Squad Number: 17
Club Career: 216 appearances, 31 goals
International Record: Serbia, 29 caps, 2 goals at full international level
Did You Know? Krasic was part of CSKA Moscows 2004-2005 UEFA Cup winning team, the first ever Russian team to win a major European trophy.

First Impressions

Krasic looks to be a very useful player not least because of his versatility as despite being primarily right footed, he can play down either flank or as a central attacking midfielder. He is very quick and looks a very tricky and clever player who can pick out an excellent through ball and a decent cross. On the evidence that I have seen he looks like he can certainly hit a ball from long range and if anything could be better at shooting from inside the box – An exciting prospect.

Do We Need Him?

As I said in a previous scouting report in this series one area of weakness in the squad in my opinion is the lack of flair and creativity in the central midfield area and Krasic looks like he could be a Kinkladze type player if employed in that role. The player particularly prefers to play in a central role than out wide. As it happens we currently look well stocked with left wingers at the moment although that could well change this summer but if we are looking to play a right footed winger down the correct side again then there would appear to be few better options in world football than Krasic particularly as SWP hasn’t particularly impressed everyone this season and Krasic appears to have the type of pace that Shaun once had.

The Likely Cost

There doesn’t appear to be any talk of a minimum release clause so I would rate Krasic in the region of £15-£20 million which would be a similar fee to what City paid CSKA for Brazilian striker Jo. I’d be guessing that if they are looking to cash in this summer that they will want the full fee up front rather than a clause based deal which was the case for that particular player who flopped.

Chances Of Success
I’d probably rate our chances of signing Krasic at about 7/10 as there is no doubting that he is a top player but that reason coupled with the fact that he currently plays in Russia will no doubt mean that we would face stiff competition for the player from several of Europes top clubs as he will be a highly sought after player at the likely asking price – However if a bidding war did ensue then CSKA would probably prefer to sell to the likes of City as they would almost certainly maximize their return on the player.

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Cook Must Go

The following was submitted by mcfcirish.

As the title of my article suggests, this is not going to be a Gary Cook love in; let me also say from the start if you are in support of Gary Cook and his policies, I am not bashing you or anything similar, I am simply putting forward reasons why I think the guy has got to go.

Now as we all know, Mr Cook is our CEO. He joined us on June of 2008 after a spell at Nike in the United States. As his profile on www.mcfc.co.uk describes, he is 'an expert at creating and managing global brands and growth' .However I for one struggle to find any good thing Cook has done for us. One of the first blotches on his copy book came in the summer of 2009, whilst on a business trip to the far east. Cook in his role of 'City Ambassador' thought, 'The name Richard Dunne doesnt roll off the tounge here'. Well Garry, while Dunne may have been performing poorly at the time, he was at the club an awful lot longer than you were. Also, if he was trying to help sell the club, why would you knock the then captain? Sadly, this would not be Cook's last involvment with Dunne, who of course was sold to Aston Villa on the last day of the summer transfer window. Dunne on international duty with the Republic of Ireland in Bulgaria at the time, was informed that the club needed to sell him because they 'needed the money'.

Next of course came the Kaka debacle: a player valued at something like £100,000,000. Now according to who you believe, City never made a formal bid but Cook released a statment on the City website saying no formal contact had been made, nor had a bid. But yet, a few days later, he appeared outside Eastlands talking to Sky Sports News accusing AC Milan of 'bottling it'. Now, again, I dont know if City made an offer or not, but to come out and say that AC had bottled it is un-professional at best, and childish at worst. We didn't get Kaka, but Cook couldn't accept that, so had to fire in a very embarassing broadside. Of course there was a similar story with Eto'o; another madly priced player, someone like Kaka, who City didnt need but probably would have spelt a paycheck so big for Cook he would have needed a new wallet. We did not get Eto'o - again, according to who you believe, City walked away first but again a pretty high profile embarrasment for us.

Fast forward a few months and City have just beaten Sunderland 4-3 at Eastlands. However, talk is not about the win but how Hughes' days are up. Indeed, at the end of the game, Hughes came on the pitch and waved to the crowd as if to say goodbye. Of course the game was up for Mark, and before the day was out it was announced that Hughes had gone and that Roberto Mancini would take his place. A press conference was called for the folowing Monday at Eastlands where Mancini was to be un-vieled. However, it was Cook who took centre stage, first stating why Hughes had been sacked and just when Roberto Mancini had been contacted. His version of events didn't seem to add up with Mr. Mancini's, nor did the length of Mancini's contract. During the whole conference Cook looked bullish and refused to answer all but a few of the press' questions; leaving more people, including myself, questioning what was the real truth.

Of course then there was the combined incidents at the Uwe Rossler dinner, where Cook referred to us as Manchester Utd and then at a pub in the States pre-Carling Cup semi final vs Utd, stating that we were going to be the biggest club in the World - forgetting that we had done nothing to give that statment a hint of truth. Of course we were beaten at the Swamp, and Cook's remarks made us look about as bad as I'm sure we were all feeling.

Now, my mind was long made up before the last two examples, but I had to list them as they were the most recent. I hear people talk about there having to be changes in the summer: players maybe even a manager. May I remind people that Mancini has barely been here 6 months? What I am propsing is a change of CEO. If we are to get top 4 and Champions League, there will be a much bigger spotlight on us and the last thing we need is someone undermining us from within. This is not an attack on the club I love but an attack on someone who I feel has constantly put his own shelfish ego ahead of the clubs needs. Cook has done enough damage, so, for the good of the club, I feel he HAS to go. Only then can we move forward and work without fear from someone, who lest we forget, is a Birmingham City fan.

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Hughes Vs Mancini

The following piece was submitted by Scraggster

This is the first of my "Hughes v Mancini" articles.

Here are the statistics about the amount of appearances and sub appearances made by Manchester City's players under Mark Hughes and then under Roberto Mancini.

Key:

40 - Forty starting appearances
(3) - Three appearances from the bench
* - January Signing

(Statistics are in chronological order and are from all competitions)

Manchester City under Hughes:

Hughes managed 21 games in all competitions.

Shay Given: 21
Gareth Barry: 20
Shaun Wright-Phillips: 19 (1)
Carlos Tevez: 18 (2)
Kolo Toure (c): 18
Wayne Bridge: 17
Joleon Lescott: 16
Emmanuel Adebayor: 15
Stephen Ireland: 14 (5)
Craig Bellamy: 14 (3)
Micah Richards: 14
Nigel de Jong: 13 (3)
Pablo Zabaleta: 8 (3)
Robinho: 6 (1)
Sylvinho: 4
Martin Petrov: 3 (7)
Roque Santa Cruz: 3 (6)
Vincent Kompany: 3 (5)
Nedum Onouha: 2 (2)
Richard Dunne (sold): 2
Vladimir Weiss: 0 (3)
Michael Johnson: 0 (2)
Benjani: 0 (1)

Major injuries (3 games missed or more) were sustained by:

•Wayne Bridge
•Joleon Lescott
•Robinho
•Martin Petrov
•Roque Santa Cruz
•Vincent Kompany
•Nedum Onouha
•Michael Johnson
•Benjani

Suspensions awarded to:

•Pablo Zabaleta
•Craig Bellamy
Manchester City under Mancini:

Mancini has managed 20 games in all competitions so far.

Shay Given: 19
Pablo Zabaleta: 18 (2)
Nigel de Jong: 18 (1)
Gareth Barry: 17 (1)
Vincent Kompany: 17
Carlos Tevez: 14 (1)
Craig Bellamy: 11 (6)
Micah Richards: 12 (1)
Javier Garrido: 9 (2)
Stephen Ireland: 9 (1)
Kolo Toure (c): 9
Martin Petrov: 8 (2)
Emmanuel Adebayor: 8 (1)
*Adam Johnson: 7 (2)
Joleon Lescott: 7 (1)
Wayne Bridge: 7
Shaun Wright-Phillips: 6 (7)
Dedryck Boyata: 5 (2)
*Patrick Vieira: 4 (4)
Roque Santa Cruz: 3 (6)
Sylvinho: 3 (6)
Benjani: 3 (2)
Nedum Onouha: 2 (4)
Robinho: 2 (3)
Vladimir Weiss: 1
Abdi Ibrahim: 1 (1)
Stuart Taylor: 1
Greg Cunningham: 0 (1)

Major injuries (3 games missed or more) were sustained by:

•Micah Richards
•Stephen Ireland
•Kolo Toure (c)
•Martin Petrov
•Joleon Lescott
•Wayne Bridge
•Shaun Wright-Phillips
•Roque Santa Cruz
•Nedum Onouha

Suspensions awarded to:

•Emmanuel Adebayor
•Patrick Vieira

Compassionate leave given to:

•Emmanuel Adebayor
•Carlos Tevez
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There is clearly a difference between the players used by Mark Hughes and by Roberto Mancini, and this is taking into account all the injuries, suspensions and unavailabilities. Firstly, the most used player by both managers is Shay Given which is no surprise. However, Hughes no.2 and no.3 are Gareth Barry and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Mancini's no.2 and no.3 are Pablo Zabaleta and Nigel de Jong. And then there's Shaun Wright-Phillips who finds himself behind the likes of Martin Petrov and Javier Garrido in Mancini's list which for a regular in Fabio Capello's squad, isn't good enough. And there's no excuses, this has nothing to do with his contract negotiations but everything to do with his poor form and attitude.

Another big-mover in Mancini's list is Vincent Kompany who had actually returned for selection 11 games before Hughes' departure. But Mancini has used the Belgian in virtually every game he's managed and sees him as an integral part of the squad. Then there's Javier Garrido, who didn't make 1 appearance under Hughes but has flourished under Mancini scoring a fantastic goal at Molineux. Finally we have Nedum Onouha who I rate very highly, but unfortunately for Onouha, he managed to injured at exactly the wrong times under both managers; when he was put into the starting eleven, he got injured almost staright away.

Mancini has also put his trust into the Academy's prospects, most notably Dedryck Boyata. I hadn't heard of young Boyata before he was thrust into the spotlight at the Riverside and was then selected to play both ties of the Manchester derby semi-finals in which he did himself proud. Boyata recently signed a new contract and is a very promising prospect. Mancini has also used the likes of Abdi Ibrahim and Greg Cunningham.

Then there's the January signings. Adam Johnson (who was probably not signed by Mancini) has really flourished in his 7 starts and has managed to thrust name into the picture for a late surge into Fabio Capello's provisional 30-man squad at the World Cup. Finally, there's Patrick Vieira, disliked by many but I think he may have an important part to play yet despite his lack of pace.

What are your thoughts? What do these statistics tell you?

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