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• Recent Posts

  • Paul Lake at 40…
  • Newcastle 2 - 2 Man City
  • Man City’s Worst Football Kits…
  • Lawro’s predictions league table and some other housekeeping duties
  • Man City 6 - 0 Portsmouth | Post Match Reaction

• Recent Comments

  • T on Man City’s Worst Football Kits…
  • London on Transfer Deadline Day News…
  • Midtjylland vs Man City. A great end to a great day | Feeding the goat | A Man City blog... on I Have A Dream…
  • beijing blog on I Have A Dream…
  • Deconstruction of the Midtjylland game | Feeding the goat | A Man City blog... on Man City vs F.C. Midtjylland
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Paul Lake at 40… Written on October 31, 2008, by admin.

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that I’ve not commented on our last two games (a 3-0 victory at home to stoke and a 2-0 defeat away to Boro). I’m going to provide a quick synopsis now and then move onto the main reason for this post.

Firstly the victory at home to Stoke.  A pleasing result made more pleasing by our tighter defence and good performances from both Danny Sturridge and Ched Evans. I felt we quenched Stokes threat (read Rory Delap and his ridiculous throw ins - joke) pretty well and Robinho’s finishing for his hat-trick was calm and accurate every time. Two words that probably don’t sum up City particularly well.

Following those nice couple of steps forward we then travelled up to Middlesborough and took a large step back. To be fair, their keeper Ross Turnbull made some terrific saves and the penalty wasn’t a penalty but still… it’s just very disappointing. No disrespect to Boro who are decent side (I really thought Gareth Southgate was going to be a rubbish manager and get sacked when he first took over Midllesborough but he seems to be doing ok and know what he’s doing) but these are the games we should be winning if we want to be pushing onwards towards the top four. Sigh.

Anyway, moving on, I wanted to draw your attention to this article at the bbc. It’s titled, Paul Lake - The greatest player you never saw. The great Paul Lake who’s career was very prematurely ended when he injured his cruciate is turning 40 years old and this article examines his early promise, his injury, his woeful rehabilitation and his life now. It’s a great article and it’s really sad to remember the promise this lad had and never managed to fulfil. The warm messages left by all in the comments is really touching.

When you think about a players such as Paul Lake, it’s really saddening to think of a player with such potential, neither getting the chance to fulfill it and show the world what he could do with a football.

Happy Birthday Paul, all the best.

Newcastle 2 - 2 Man City Written on October 21, 2008, by admin.

So yet another disappointing result yesterday to add to our recent run of disappointing results against Brighton, Wigan and Liverpool. Firstly the penalty which has caused some controversy today. I personally think, that as things stand, the penalty was right to be given. Beye took a lot of Robinho and a small sliver of the ball. From where the referee was stood it looked a stone-wall pen and obviously once he’s made that decision the red card is a given. If video replays were introduced then I don’t know. I must have seen the replay 20+ times and I’m still not certain - I assume as there is an element of uncertainty, the decision would have to go with Newcastle as the defending team. Graham Poll said it was a penalty, but that doesn’t necessarily mean much

Once we were one - nil up against ten man Newcastle, a team second from bottom in the league, it should have been a formality to go on and win. But credit to Newcastle, they rallied well and put 100% effort in, and made the game a lot more physical, something Man City don’t seem to be very good at coping with. Ameobi’s equaliser just before half time was a real comedy of errors, with several pinball-like deflection taking the ball to Ameobi, who then shinned it in! The second Newcastle goal wasn’t much better, with Richard Dunne side footing into the top corner of the net from a Newcastle set piece. Probably the best goal Dunnie will ever score. Shame he can’t do it at the right end. We managed to grab an equaliser in the last ten minutes, a well worked move culminating in Robinho playing a nice through ball for Stephen Ireland to slot past Shay Given. But other than another Ireland cross/strike nipping just the wrong side of the post, we never really looked like grabbing the winner.

In the end, too many of the City players had an average performance yesterday. I feel that given the circumstances we should have won, but I would probably have taken a point pre-match as Newcastle is always a difficult place to go - particularly with a new manager at the helm which always seems to inspire an improvement in performances even if only a short lived one. We must now quickly get past this and beat Stoke on Sunday, something which will be a task in itself as Stoke like to play an extremely tough, physical game and I hope we will be able to raise our own game and play with some real brains to overcome their brawn.

Man City’s Worst Football Kits… Written on October 8, 2008, by admin.

Its been a couple of weeks since my last post, due to a couple of technical difficulties and some commitments - but there’s not been a great deal that I’ve wanted to shout about City-wise. There’s been a couple of disappointments over the last few weeks obviously the defeats to Brighton, Wigan and Liverpool, with the UEFA cup win over Omonia Nicosia being the only silver lining. The draw for the group stage was made yesterday, with City being selected in group A along with Schalke, PSG, Racing Santander and Steve McClaren’s FC Twente (the full draw can be seen here). I’ll be examining each of these clubs in a future post in an attempt to size up the opposition, but for now I’ll move onto the main reason for posting today…

I read this post the other day, displaying some of the World’s worst football kits of all time (great to see Man United’s “invisible” grey kit at number 20) and it made me decide to compile this, my own Man City specific list, because lets face it, we’ve had some bloody horrible kits over the years. So here we have Man City’s 5 worst kits of the last 20 years. (images taken from Tonythetiger69’s photostream on flickr).

Number 5

Number 4

Number 3

Number 2

Number 1

Lawro’s predictions league table and some other housekeeping duties Written on September 24, 2008, by admin.

Just a quick update on some changes I’ve been making to the site. First of all is the new theme. I decided to ditch the old one and update it for something a little more basic and a little more City-looking. I hope you like it. Second, I have added a banner with a picture of shit football pundit Mark Lawrensons face to the bottom of the sidebar over there on the left <<<

This links through to a league table created (not by me incidentally - I’m far too lazy) to show how the premier league table would look if all Lawro’s predictions were correct. Needless to say he’s wrong the majority of the time and so the table barely reflects reality at all. His predictions currently have Man City lying third from bottom.

I love this table and it sure adds fuel to the fire of the argument that he is the worlds worst football pundit and should be removed from his post immediately. I’m starting my own experiment as of this weekend to place a bet on the opposite outcome of whatever Mark Lawrenson predicts for each game. I haven’t worked out the finer details yet so please feel free to suggest the best way to do this in the comments. Then I will keep a track of how much money I have spent and how much I have won, somewhere on this blog (probably in the sidebar too). I’m hoping Lawro’s incompetency will make me a fortune!!!

Man City 6 - 0 Portsmouth | Post Match Reaction Written on September 22, 2008, by admin.

I went along to the Man City vs. Portsmouth game at Eastlands yesterday - and fuck me was I glad I did. I think that’s probably the best I’ve ever seen City play in 14+ years of watching them. I know that pundits up and down the country have been falling over themselves waxing lyrical about the performance yesterday - and I hate to be a sheep -  but there wasn’t a player on the pitch (apart from Hart - but that wasn’t his fault, and maybe Javier Garrido) that didn’t play well and contribute something to the victory. I think the most pleasing aspect of the win for me was the fact that the six goals were scored by six different players.  I remember when Australia beat Kuala Lumpur 10 - 0 in qualifying and everyone was raving then that their goals were scored by six different players. Well this was in a Premier League game where only six goals were scored, and we weren’t playing against some whipping boys either. We were playing against the eighth best team in the country (according to the previous seasons final table) and holders of the FA cup. And the sun was shining on the east stand. What a great day!

I thought I’d provide a different take on the old “who played well, who didn’t play well etc etc” thing that I’ve been doing, so please allow me to present the inaugural “Feeding the goat” awards.

Award for bestest player in the match (elsewhere known as the man of the match award):

The official man of the match was awarded to Stephen Ireland, and although he was excellent and made some super intelligent, deftly touched passes, my award goes to a certain Mr. Robinho, simply for the entertainment he provided me. He showed off all his tricks, confused Glen Johnson no end, and tried a ridiculous, audacious, striking-foot-goes-behind-the-standing-foot chip (is there a proper name for that?), when he probably could have side footed it past David James.

The best goal of the game award

Six to choose from and initially I would have said Jo’s opener, but having watched the highlights on MOTD2 (big thumbs down to Alan Hansen - he was shite) I’m going with SWP’s goal. A great finish from a difficult angle following a superb pass from Ireland.

The “Player most bored and not afraid to show it” award

This award unsurprisingly goes to Joe Hart. He was virtually untroubled all afternoon and spent most of the second half with his arms crossed.

The “I wish I hadn’t bothered turning up” award

Could be given to either of the Pompey strikers or David James or Sylvain Distin who was constantly barracked throughout the game with boo’s and chants of “Distin, what’s the score, Distin Distin whats the score.”

but I’m presenting this bad boy to the bloke who announced the half time draw winners and commented on the  inflatable penalty shoot out. The poor bastards microphone must have worked for about 30 seconds of the 10 minutes he was speaking. Needless to say, each time he attempted to speak and the mic cut out he was greeted with ironic cheers.

So following such a perfect performance, Mark Hughes must now decide whether he will field a strong squad for the Carling cup match on Wednesday or whether he will give the kids a run out. I would personally go with the kids and see what they can do, but whatever he decides, lets put in a professional performance and hope we don’t come crashing back to Earth too soon.

Man City 1 - 3 Chelsea Written on September 14, 2008, by admin.

It feels like its been ages since my last post. Due to the international break there obviously hasn’t been a great deal of city news that’s been blog-worthy, but now we’re back into regular Premier League action and obviously following yesterdays game, I thought I’d better get writing. I wanted to stick something up on here last night, but “technical difficulties” prevented me from doing so, but I’m back up and running and just wanted to post a bit of reaction following the Chelsea game.

Firstly, I thought we were well beaten by a better side, but there were a lot of positive moments. In the first half, I thought Wright-Phillips was excellent and looked dangerous every time he had the ball. I was pleased with Robinho’s work-rate and obviously his finish for the goal (although it did take a deflection off the wall - which resulted in a funny ’shouty’ match between Cech and Terry). I was a little concerned with how often he gave the ball away though and also the way that the rest of the City team looked desperate to get the ball to him, even if he wasn’t the best option. I appreciate that he’s a superstar amongst mere mortals but I hope city don’t fall over themselves to accommodate him at detriment to the rest of the team. Hopefully as time moves on and the hype dies down we’ll see him and the team settle.

Chelsea were a bit lucky with their equaliser but at the same time our defending wasn’t brilliant. In particular I was a little disappointed with Zabaletta’s debut. I lost count of the number of times he gave the ball away with sloppy passes. As with Robinho, hopefully he will settle into the English game quickly and his future performances will improve. The second half was very one sided and we never really looked like getting into it. Chelseas remaining two goals were both well worked with some nice passing unlocking our defence a little two easily. When John Terry brought down Jo with ten minutes to go and was sent off (a sending off which I think was a little luck and  I certainly think Chelsea should appeal as Terry wasn’t the last man - god, I’m sounding like a Chelski fan!) I was expecting a swift reaction from Mark Hughes and looking for him to introduce Elano and Sturridge very quickly to try and take advantage and get the two goal deficit back. But it never came. Sturridge was introduced but not immediately and Elano’s backside never left the bench. So this has been the first time I have disagreed with the managers actions (or in-actions as it were).

Overall, I think Chelsea deserved their win and there were also some rays of light from a city perspective.  I’ll be at the COMS next week to watch City take on Portsmouth so I’ll certainly be looking for an improved performance.

UPDATE

The referee’s report has shown that John Terry wasn’t sent off for denying a clear cut goalscoring opportunity, he was sent off for serious foul play. Apparently Chelski have appealed against the red card, although it’s unlikely it gets rescinded as they must show that it didn’t even warrant a yellow card.

Al Fahim looks a bit like Chris Moyles… Written on September 3, 2008, by admin.

Mr. Al Fahim, the head of the ADUG group that took Man City over on Monday certainly isn’t shy. He’s been more than vocal and has already provided interviews and spoken to the press of his plans to bring in several “Galacticos” to City in the January transfer window, citing Cesc Fabregas, Fernando Torres and Cristiano Ronaldo amongst others as the faces he aims to bring in, and quoting suitably absurd transfer fees in the process (£135 million quid for Ronaldo anyone?). This man clearly means business.

Anyone think he looks a bit like beardy Chris Moyles though? 

Exhibit A - Not Moyles

Exhibit B - Moyles

Robinho has moved to Man City. Are we potential title challengers now? Written on September 2, 2008, by admin.

So obviously the news has been all over the place today that late last night (very late, about 20 mins to spare before the transfer window shut I heard) we completed the signing of one Robinho from Real Madrid for 40 million Euros - a British transfer record. Who could possibly have predicted that yesterday morning?

ADUG (The group that have taken over city) are flexing some serious financial muscle here, with apparently no limit placed on the amount of money availible for Mark Hughes to spend, there was talk that even if 100 million wasn’t deemed enough to convert us into title challengers then even more will be available. So having spent a huge amount of cash on one of the World’s most coveted strikers, the expectations on Mark Hughes have surely been re-assessed and anything bar bringing some silverware back to Eastlands this year will have been deemed a failure by the investors wanting to see some quick return on their outlay. We would need to have an excellent run up to Christmas (as we managed last year before the wheels came off ) and then buy the right players to bolster the team in January, but with no boundaries on our spending this shouldn’t be an issue.

Personally I think this year is too soon, but next year, who knows? As Chelsea showed, it’s certainly possible. However things pan out, it’s definitely going to be a very exciting year for Man City fans everywhere. The dramatic twists and turns this club keeps taking over the years continues to surprise me. In typical Man City fashion, this could all yet go wrong and blow up in our faces, but I’m hopeful of some big things to come from my club and I’ve never been more excited to be a blue. CTID.

Transfer Deadline Day News… Written on September 1, 2008, by admin.

I don’t think there’s ever been a day when I’ve wished I was in front of Sky Sports News, rather than at work, more than today.

Firstly there was the confirmation that Man City have been taken over by the Abu Dhabi royal family, and now we have squillions of pounds to spend. All the financial problems and issues with Frank Shinawatra we have been hearing about over the last few weeks seem to be have been forgotten about in one foul swoop.

Secondly is the news that we have made bids for some of Europe’s top footballing talent. Bids have been placed for the want-away Dimitar Berbatov (unlikely to join us unless Man Utd don’t fork out the required cash me-thinks), Sevilla’s David Villa and  Stuttgart’s Mario Gomez.

All three of these have got me extremely excited. We have all seen what Berbatov can do in the premiership (plus, how good would it be to snatch him away from under Ferguson’s big, red nose), Villa is perhaps one of the most coveted players in Europe currenty and Gomez played in matches on the biggest stage at Euro 2008 this summer with Germany.

On the negative side, Corluka has headed off to Larndan and to Spurs to hang out with his bezzie mate Modric for around 8 million quid. But with all these potential new signings, I’ve kind of forgotten about that and am salivating big globules of footbally spit at the thought of our future. One thing’s for sure, Mark Hughes will surely have to finish in the top 6 this year to keep his job.

More to come later…

It’s been a busy day, new signings & the same old Shaun… Written on August 31, 2008, by admin.

It’s the last day of the transfer window and city have completed what are almost certainly our last two signings of the transfer window. Firstly, the signing that we were all expecting as it has been all over the papers, Pablo Zabaleta has signed on a 5 year deal for a fee of around 6.45 million. The more surprising transfer (I’d not heard any new about this one until sky sports news reported it had gone through) we have brought in Glauber Berti from German side Nuremburg on a one year contract. Both players predominantly play in defence, with Glauber operating as a centre back and Zabaleta playing on the right hand side of defence but also able to play on the right of midfield. This makes me wonder how Mark Hughes is planning to use our current center backs and more importantly, Vedran Corluka. I’m anticipating Hughes using Micah Richards in midfield and Mr. Corluka packing his bags to join Spurs before the end of the window tonight. Although I hope I’m wrong.

Anyway, moving on to today’s 3 - 0 victory away at Sunderland, I must say this is a result that I’m delighted with, as Sunderlands form has been good in their first two games and I thought it would be tough in the North East. I’d probably have taken a draw before the match. Shaun Wright-Phillips’ double on his debut since re-signing really was the icing on the cake and I’m really pleased for him - long may it continue. Man City lie in 3rd position this evening and today has been the perfect end to a pretty damn good week. SInce I’ve started this blog, with the exception of the ongoing roller-coaster ride that is Thaksin Shinawatra, life as a Manchester City fan has been good

Mark Hughes’ post match comments can be seen here

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