No jinx here.

Football fans are a superstitious lot, and I’m no different. Since the West Brom game I haven’t had time to post anything, mostly preparation for the new job. In the meantime City have played two won two and sat briefly on the top of the league. With this in mind I’m not posting any opinions or predictions about Saturday’s home match against Pompy. We’ll see what the situation is on Sunday; I may not post again until our unbeaten run is ended.

Reserves.

City beat the smoggies 2:1 with Wright-Phillips and Ireland getting our goals.

City - Schmeichel; Warrender(c), Collins, Onuoha, Richards; D’Laryea, Croft, Ireland, Miller (Etuhu 65); Wright-Phillips, Sibierski (Laird 65).
Unused subs: Matthewson (GK), Bennett.

Middlesbrough - Jones; Liddle, Hines, Cooper, Wheater; Doriva, Cattermole, Kennedy (Walker 75), Johnson; Maccarone, Craddock (Watling 75).
Unused subs: Clough, Pennock (GK), Burgess.

Full match report here.

Not the fat airline owner.

My numerous contacts have indicated that the proposed court action by Bolton for City’s disgraceful attempt to buy Stelios Giannakopoulos is just paper talk. I can’t see what they’re whinging about, it’s not Psycho’s fault that Stelios has a £1m get out clause in his contract. Bolton have spit their dummy out. I wouldn’t mind if he was a world beater, he’s just a 30 something right sided midfielder. I’m sure we had more of a case against Chelsea for their theft of SWP.

Willo Flood has been sent to Coventry, but I think it will do him good. A loan spell could be just what he needs, especially if he isn't going to get a regular game in the first team this season. Remember Joe Corrigan before he went on loan, he was fucking awful. Willo will come back ready for next season as a player to rival SWP.

I also think that Psycho should pull Dunney out of the Ireland squad; we don’t need him aggravating his injury, especially with the derby so close.

City 0:0 West Brom.

This sounded like a game of two goalkeepers, with a sprinkling of crap refereeing thrown in for good measure. The make-shift defence played well, but I’ll still feel better when Dunne and Distin are back.

Full match report here

v West Brom.

We have never beaten them at home in the premiership; in fact the last time we did them at home was March 2000 in the first division. Last season they played the majority of the match with ten men, and a freak own goal by Dunne cost us the full three points, we settled for a draw with Anelka scoring ours. Let’s just hope they don’t have luck like that on Saturday.

Prediction: City win 2:1

Geoff Horsefield said on sky sports yesterday that he thought West Brom would finish in the top half of the table. I must admit I thought he was taking the piss; in fact they are one of my tips for relegation. I really don’t rate Robson, and even if he does pay £3m for Nathan Ellington, they’ll still go down.

Football quiz.

1. What do you eat whilst watching football ?
a. Munchies in front of the TV.
b. A pie from the kiosk in the ground.
c. A prawn sandwich.

2. How far do you live from the ground ?
a. I used to live in a nearby town, but I’ve moved.
b. I bought a house on the same street as the stadium.
c. I live in Singapore.

3. Do you have a replica shirt ?
a. I was bought the 1990 away shirt as a present.
b. I buy the new home shirt every other season.
c. My wardrobe contains 48 replica shirts from the last 5 seasons.

4. Your club directors piss you off, do you ?
a. Write a why oh why letter to the BBC.
b. Carry on regardless, it’s the club you love not its staff.
c. Spit out your dummy and form a new club.

5. Why do you support your team ?
a. It was the closest ground to my home.
b. My father, my grandfather and all my family support them.
c. I was looking for another team after Liverpool went shit.

6. Other fans invade your forum, do you ?
a. Log off and have a cup of tea.
b. Give as good as you get with your extensive knowledge and wit.
c. Shut the site down and go and tell your mum.

7. What do you think of opposition players ?
a. I don’t know about them, as long as we win I’m happy.
b. I check opta before each game to see who the danger men are.
c. Anyone who doesn’t play for us is shit.

8. You get a free ticket to see your team, do you ?
a. Give it to one of your mates, he would appreciate it more.
b. Offer it to a fellow fan on the forum, you have a season ticket.
c. Sell it on eBay; it’s too far to travel from Singapore/Cornwall/Dublin.

9. How much do you read about your club ?
a. The Observer sport pages on a Sunday morning.
b. I have a library, I even read past player autobiographies.
c. Janet and John go shopping, then I’m on free reading.

Check your result:

Mostly A’s:
You’re an armchair fan, it’s a while since you went to the ground but you at least you could find it if need be. You might not spend time and money on following your team, but you love your club. Well done.

Mostly B’s:
Congratulations, you’re a proper bone-fide fan. You follow your team through thick and thin, rain or shine. You are the one everyone else phones to answer the quiz questions. You’ll probably have your ashes scattered on the pitch.

Mostly C’s:
You’re a rag ! Your team play in a swamp just outside Manchester. You’ve never been to a game in your life and the only reason you support them is because your mates do. The fact that Cornwall has no premier league teams isn’t a proper excuse.

Grape vine #002

The former Barca midfielder Josep Guardiola has started a week long trial at Eastlands. He is unlikely to play in Saturday’s match against West Brom, but could play midweek against the Smoggies. This bloke is a legend in Spain, but I can’t help thinking that this is just another twilight years pay day for an over the hill player well past his best.

Last night’s reserves match also saw Nedum Onuoha and Antoine Sibierski come through almost a full match unscathed. I think we might see Nedum play alongside Dunne until Distin comes back from injury.

Finally, Ben Thatcher gets a call up to the Welsh side to face Slovenia later this month.

Reserves.

City reserves get a draw at the Hawthorns coming from a goal down to finish one each.

West Brom - Hoult; Hodgkiss, Moore, Forsyth, Carter (Baker 75); Dyer, Chaplow, Davies, Smikle; Elvins (Nicholson 75), Kamara. Subs not used: Daniels (gk), Pringle, Kelleher.

City - De Vlieger; Warrender, Richards, Onouha (Laird 81), Collins; Croft, D'Laryea, Flood (Johnson 90), Bennett; Sibierski (Etuhu 72), Bermingham. Subs not used: Matthewson (gk), Grimes.

Goals: West Brom - Kamara (36) City - Bennett (52).

Match report here.

Grape vine #001

First, Richard Dunne could be available for Saturday. I’m not sure whether this is just optimism, or the injury talk was all a bluff on Psycho’s part. Whatever it was it would be excellent if Dunney is fit to face West Brom’.

Second, the news that City have been linked with a move for Solano has persisted for a couple of days. I’m not sure about this one. He’s skilful, there’s no doubt about that, but I think he may have past his best. There are a couple of continental player we have been linked with that would be better in my opinion.

A brief word about injuries.

Captain Sylvain Distin will be out for the season opener against the Baggies and the following weekend’s trip to Birmingham. This is a nightmare, especially when you consider that Dunne could be out for up to three months. One of the really good things about last season was our rock solid defence, not a term you normally associate with a Keegan side, but it was the main reason we finished in the top ten. I just hope the deputies can keep their heads till at least Distin gets back. Also sporting a sick note is fat Bob Fowler, he’s got a bad back and could be out for quite a while, not that he’d get a game with Cole, Vassell and Bradley Wright Phillips all getting on the pre season score sheet.

Ins and outs.

Even considering Psycho’s great end of season run in, a new manager’s first foray into the transfer market can say a lot about how your club is going to fair in the coming season. First let’s look who he got rid of:

Steve McManaman – I was ecstatic to see the back of this useless cunt, when his doctor signed him off sick and he actually pulled on the sacred shirt, he played like he couldn’t give a toss. He was never a City player; we were just a twilight years pay day for the scouse twat.

Paul Bosvelt – I know he was past his best when he arrived at Eastlands, but I liked him. Of course, there was the infamous tackle against Denis Irwin a few years back, which endeared him to most blues before he even kicked a ball, but for me he gave our midfield some much needed steel and brought on the youngsters. Sad to see him go, but Psycho obviously thought he was over the hill.

Shaun Wright Phillips – I didn’t want him to go, the club didn’t want him to go, and by all accounts he didn’t want to go either. Whatever happened, whether it was the lure of big money or the words of his advisors, he went. In my opinion he was one of the best footballers to pull on a city shirt, but I think £21m will come in handy.

Jon Macken – He wasn’t up to the job of premiership striker. I think we paid way over the odds for a player who was at best a first division striker. He will be fondly remembered for his winning goal in the league cup against Spurs, three nowt down and came back to win four three. Palace will get better value from him than we did.

Kevin Stuhr-Ellegaard – Kevin who ? His stats for the season had a zero against each column. His move to German football has eased our wage bill, besides we have four keepers.

Christian Negouai – The big man has finally fucked off, and who’s the lucky team ? Standard Liege. I’m sure on the occasions that he does play for them, their disciplinary record will plummet to levels unheard of this side of the Vinny Jones era.

That takes care of the dead wood, what about the new faces ?

Andrew Cole – Fulham let him go for nowt so I suppose it’s good business, but I admit to having reservations about signing an ex rag. However, with a couple of friendlies under his belt he seems genuinely pleased to be a City player. Couple that with a couple of goals and you have a potential fans favourite. I’m sure he will pass on some of his experience to the likes of Bradley Wright Phillips and Ishmael Miller.

Darius Vassell – I was shocked to find out that the ex England player is only 25. I think we got him cheap, he’s fast and has an eye for goal, scoring one goal already in a pre season friendly. I think he will link up well with Cole and give us some much needed speed that we have been missing since Le Sulk fucked off to Turkey.

There has been a host of other names linked with a move to Eastlands, most notably Steed Malbranque. The Fulham midfielder has stated that he wanted to stay in London and would only move “up north” for champions league football, he is then alleged to have stated a preference for Newcastle over City. So he must really like playing for poorly supported mid table shite then. Fuck him, we can do better.

Five days to go.

The start of the new football season is almost upon us, and after an excruciating close season I can’t wait. The end of last season was one of the most exciting I’ve seen, a last gasp penalty was missed by fat Bob and we found ourselves out of the European places. At first I was absolutely gutted, but after some thought it occurred to me that things could have been much worse. The exit of Keegan gave Stuart Pearce a chance to show what he could do, and what a fantastic job he did. An eight game unbeaten run gave us our best ever premiership finish and put a smile on all blue faces. After being given the job full time he now seems to be building something really good, in fact the only dampener came with the exit of Shaun Wright Phillips, who left for Chelsea in order to further his England career. Quite how he aims to do this from the Chelsea bench is beyond me, but his advisors seem to think it was a shrewd move. There have been mixed feeling among City fans, some giving the little man their blessings, others planning to boo the former favourite on his return to Eastlands in December. I must admit to mixed feelings, I’m pissed off that he didn’t publicly thank the club and the fans for the support he received during his time at City, but I can’t begrudge him wanting to move on, and I certainly wouldn’t boo a former player. This move typified for me the current face of professional football, loyalty has a price and contracts aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. As a City fan I’ve drawn a line under the whole thing, and now I’m just looking forward to the season ahead, although it would be nice to put one over Chelsea again, that would be a fantastic Christmas present.

This blog is primarily concerned with Manchester City, but I reserve the right to post about any other team…. Especially our neighbours from the swamp, it would be excellent to chart their downfall at the hands of an American businessman. The spat between Taggart and the animal could get funny as well. Plus all the reasons for the hatred City fans feel towards the other teams in England and around the world will be explored. Let's see what 05/06 brings to the blue side of Manchester.

ctid.