Archive for September, 2009

Greatest derby ever? Happy Anniversary

23rd September 2009

Fergie may have attempted to claim last Sunday as the greatest derby ever, but maybe he was just trying to deflect us from our real favourite…

Watch the highlights here.

Happy Twentieth Anniversary everybody!

The Guardian have kindly put up their match report from the time.

Sheikh Mansour buys final 10% of City shares

23rd September 2009

The club have announced that Sheikh Mansour has purchased the 10% of the club’s shares that were owned by Worldwide Investments Limited. This was a company indirectly owned by Thaksin Shinawatra and his family. The 10% had previously gone to Worldwide Investments Limited at the time Sheikh Mansour took over.

David Conn writes in The Guardian:

After the takeover Thaksin was widely reported to have retained his interest in the remaining 10% of shares, and appointed as his nominees his long-term associate …

Carling Cup Preview: City v Fulham

23rd September 2009

The last two visits of Fulham have been rather painful and tonight provides a perfect opportunity to redress that a little. Last season we looked exhausted from our Uefa Cup campaign and suffered a tired 1-3 defeat. The previous season was even worse.

Our last home match of the season had Thaksin in attendance hoping for a bit of adulation in an end of season party. City duly swept to a two goal lead, and were playing ole football. Fulham were …

Player ratings: Manchester United v City

21st September 2009

Given – There is surely no justice in the world when Ben Foster can finish on the winning side and Shay on the losing one. For a long period in the second half, the Irishman appeared to be holding out United, and Berbatov in particular, on his own. 9

Richards – A bad start when he was out of position for the first goal, and it didn’t get much better. The tighter marking of Zabaleta would have given Giggs and co …

Verdict: Manchester United 4 City 3

21st September 2009

Deep down I think we all knew after Craig Bellamy had scored his 90th minute equaliser, that the referee would give United as long as it took to score again.  And so it proved in the sixth minute of four minutes injury time. Probably just as well Owen scored then otherwise we could still be playing right up until Wednesday’s game with Fulham.

How often does a manager whose team are chasing the game in injury time feel confident enough to …

Preview: Manchester United v City

19th September 2009

Maybe I’m being a little optimistic, but it could be time for the media and everyone else to move on from Adebayor as we have the small matter of a trip to Old Trafford this weekend. What should have seen us venturing over to Stretford with the strongest comparable squad to our rivals since the 70′s, has been undermined by the lack of available strikers.

We are of course brimful of confidence following our 100% start to the season, but so …

Interview with Khaldoon al Mubarak

18th September 2009

In amongst all the derby previews in today’s press are two excellent pieces by City supporting Guardian writer David Conn, where he interviews Khaldoon al Mubarak in Abu Dhabi.

Khaldoon responds to criticism of City’s spending being a danger to football:

“I could accept the argument if we were artificially building up the club through debt”

“That produces a destructive end result; we have seen that happen. But in our case, the club will be in the healthiest position because there is no …

Adebayor ban confirmed

17th September 2009

The FA have confirmed that Emmanuel Adebayor is suspended for three matches after being found guilty of violent conduct in the game against Arsenal.

He’ll miss the games against Manchester United, Fulham (Carling Cup), and West Ham.

Platini pushing ahead with ‘financial fair play’ rules

17th September 2009

This week has seen Michel Platini’s plans for ‘financial fair play’ accepted in principle by Uefa. Exactly how this will work is yet to be agreed and negotiations are set to continue for the rest of the season. Only then can any new rules be ratified.

Platini hasn’t denied that plans to stop clubs from spending more than they make from revenues is intended to prevent ‘sugar daddies’ like Sheikh Mansour and Roman Abramovich coming into the game and transforming …

New Premier League rules look ok for City

16th September 2009

Chief Executive of the Premier League, Richard Scudamore has announced new rules for both squad sizes and financial reporting which have been agreed by all 20 Premier League clubs and will come into play next season. On the face of it, they make sense and should not adversely affect City.

New squad rules

The squad rules bring in a cap of 25 players over the age of 21. Within this 8 must be home-grown. Therefore up to 17 can be players over …