Purely Man City >>> Features
A new City history section has been launched today. It’s very much work-in-progress and will have a lot more additions in the coming weeks.
For the last year or so I’ve been researching City’s history at Manchester’s Central Library, particularly the scandals that affected the club’s early years. I’ll be publishing the results of my research soon, but here are a few surprising things I’ve come across:
Firstly, here’s an advert for season tickets from Aug 1929, which reveals that while men paid £3 / 3s for a season ticket, women were only charged £2 / 2s.
But things were certainly different back then. Here’s a job advert from 1923 that you might not get away with nowadays:
Now here’s a report I stumbled across from The Guardian from May 1955 which reveals City’s failed attempt to buy the Fallowfield Stadium, which hosted the 1893 Cup Final that drew a crowd of 45,000. I haven’t come across any references to the club wanting to move out of Maine Road at this time, so I’m presuming we were planning to use the venue for training purposes.
The next item lends support to the idea that the bitter rivalry between us and United was very much a post-war development (something I touched on in this story about the bombing of Old Trafford). The cartoon was published in a United programme in the 1930s, and is one of several that depict the two clubs as regional ‘brothers’.
The final items are possibly the most interesting, particularly in light of the criticism aimed at Thaksin over the way he is using our club for political ends. Like most fans, it makes me fairly uneasy too, but I do have to take issue with journalists such as Simon Hattenstone, who claims that being used by a right-wing politician is a betrayal of the club’s historic values. In fact, I’ve discovered that it is actually very much part of City’s heritage.
City’s first chairman, Tory brewer John Chapman, blatently used his club connections when he stood for council elections in Ardwick in 1905 and 1909. Here’s one of his campaign postcards:
John Allison, who became chairman in 1906, also used the club in political campaigns. Here’s one of his local election posters:
But the biggest - and baddest - political wheeler-dealer of all was Stephen Chesters Thompson, who was President of Ardwick AFC when it was created in 1887. He was bankrupted by a series of court cases in which he was accused of defrauding his company and bribing voters. Chesters Thompson was the managing director of Chesters Brewery, which ploughed huge sums of money into Ardwick in its early days, and his bankruptcy almost certainly caused the financial crisis that resulted in the formation of Man City in 1894.
In fact, I’m starting to wonder whether turmoil and intrigue has somehow been written into this club’s DNA. I’ve been researching the backgrounds of some of the people currently involved with City, and found enough there to make me a bit uneasy about the club’s future. I’m not saying there’s enough to be alarmed, though it is making me fairly cautious about recent announcements.
But I’ll be writing more about that soon.
Entry Filed under: Features
Now that it’s official, let’s take a good look at what sort of manager we’ve got.
When Hughes took charge at Blackburn on 15th Sep 2004, the club were second to bottom of the Premiership with two points from five games. The previous season, under Graeme Souness, they had finished 15th, compared to 6th the season before that. Here’s how they performed under Hughes:
When placed in the context of the financial resources Hughes had available, his record at Blackburn looks more impressive. The table (below) shows the net transfer spending for each Premiership club over the last four seasons, and reveals that Hughes has spent less than any other manager except Wenger.
(Profits from transfers are in brackets. The Blackburn figures include the £1.5m fee for Morten Pedersen, who signed a month before Hughes became manager).
And here are his signings in full:
The signings of Santa Cruz (fourth top Premiership scorer last season with 19 goals), Benni McCarthy (26 goals in 59 appearances) and Bentley clearly show he has a good eye for a player.
More importantly, his ability to spot of bargain is also striking. Yesterday The Sun claimed that Santa Cruz could be the subject of a £15m bid from Man United, while The Times estimates Bentley to be worth in excess of £12m - making a combined potential profit of £23m. That’s in addition to the £2m he’s made from his signings so far, with a £2.5m profit on the sale of Kuqi, £1m on Bellamy, and a £1.5m loss on Savage.
The final table, I believe, is one of the best indicators of a manager’s ability. It shows how much each Premiership club paid in wages in the 05-06 and 06-07 seasons, then divides that by the number of league points won (£ per point). I’ve separated the Top 4 clubs from the others as they’re pretty much in a different economic league.
The figures for wages are from accountants Deloitte (listed by the BBC here) and are only available for those two seasons.
Of course, Sam Allardyce’s position at the top of the table shows that brilliant management of resources can count for little when stepping up to a bigger club with higher expectations. The fact that Hughes has only had four years as a club manager also leaves a question mark (I’ve excluded his time as Wales boss from this feature as I just don’t think it’s that relevant to club football).
As to whether we’re better off with Hughes than Sven, that’s a question that may never be answered. But my gut feeling is that, in the shape of this combative and successful former international, we’ve got ourselves the thinking man’s Stuart Pearce. And that has to signal progress from where we were just a year ago.
Whether he’ll do enough to satisfy an impatient billionaire owner, or be in agreement with his advisors about potential signings, only time will tell.
Entry Filed under: Features
A run of form that earned him eight Man of the Match awards in his last ten games has resulted in Hart leapfrogging Micah Richards at the top of the 2007-08 player ratings (below).
Hopefully the reports that Spurs are interested in our new No.1 is nothing more than space filler, but if it’s true that that we’re only offering him £10,000-a-week then that is slightly concerning. Although Hart’s contract doesn’t expire until 2010, it’s pretty clear his market value has increased dramatically this season and perfectly understandable that he’d want a much better deal than that.
Here are the final player ratings for the 2007-08 season. The scores are complied from the average of the ratings taken from talkboards and the media after each game. The ratings for individual games can be found in the Stats & Squad section.
And here’s how much each player cost and who brought them to the club. As well as showing that Pearce wasn’t quite as bad a judge of players as many of us thought, it’s worth noting that if Sun Jihai doesn’t get a new contract this summer it will mean that none of Keegan’s signings will be at the club next season.
And finally, here’s a comparison with last season’s ratings. I’m curious about the dramatic fall in Sun Jihai’s rating as I wouldn’t say he is that much worse a player than last season. I’m guessing that with City now playing a passing game the limitations of players such as Jihai, as well as Vassell, are clearer to see and those players have been marked down accordingly.
~ Other season stats can be found at Daily Telegraph and Statbunker.
~ I came across this interesting snippet about Sun Jihai recently. Apparently he is a third child - a very rare thing in China which currently has a one-child policy. The story claims that after his older brother was born handicapped, Sun’s mother was given a special dispensation to try for a third baby.
So… anything been happening?
Apologies for the lack of activity in the last few weeks. I traveled to the US towards the end of the season and a planned short break from the site turned into a much longer one.
But now that the whirlwind of speculative media stories is petering out (at least until the next one) I’m going to be adding my thoughts on recent events later in the week.
I’ll also be running some extracts from the upcoming book, Purely Man City: Writings, Reference & Miscellany over the next few weeks, starting with some tales of scandal from the club’s early years.
Entry Filed under: Features
A performance that will no doubt intensify the media speculation about Sven’s future, but my guess is our chairman won’t be too unhappy at us handing Fulham the win.
Thaksin is a long-standing business buddy of Fulham owner Mohamed Al Fayed, and granted Al Fayed’s Harrods Energy lucrative drilling rights to oil fields in Thailand back in the 1990s. According to this report, Thaksin also lived in a Park Lane apartment owned by Al Fayed after he was ousted in the coup, so maybe the gift of three precious Premiership points on Saturday will be taken in lieu of back rent.
Plenty of complaints after the game about the way the match programme was turned into a tribute to our Great Leader (not to mention the shambolic ‘Lap of Embarrassment’), but my view is that this was always part of the deal. I loved the surreal nature of last summer’s Thai curry party in Albert Square, and have so far felt a bit let down that Thaksin hasn’t brought more off-field absurdity to Eastlands.
Not sure what to make of his comments in the programme that we will ‘not be spending huge amounts of money this summer’, but it’s worth pointing out that, with payments for overseas players usually spread over the length of the contract, it is possible to bring in big signings without making a huge initial outlay.
And thankfully, it looks as though Thaksin has finally given his public backing to Sven, in this interview in Thai which has been translated by Krieng at Citymancs.
~ There’s an interesting account of today’s game at FulhamUSA.com, which was orignally posted by BadlyDrawnBlue at Wookies Lair.
~ Highlights
~ Telegraph stats graphic, Sky stats, BBC stats
~ Sven’s post-match interview
~ Pictures from rtfract
~ Latest Premiership table
Player ratings
Ratings come from (in order): MEN; xavi6, Fidel Castro, Niall Quinns Discopants, SirElano, LookMumI’mOnMCF.net, irblinx, King Kev, Piccsnumberoneblue (Mancityfans), Richard, mcigo (Bluemoon), Richard Tucker (rtfract.com), Sunday Times, Sky, Sky Your Rating and the BBC.
Hart: 8.0
(7, 8, 10, 10, 10, 8, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7.5, 7, 7, 7.0, 7.4)
Elano: 6.3
(6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6.5, 6, 5, 4.9, 6.3)
Corluka: 6.3
(5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 8, 8, 5, 6, 6, 5.5, 5, 6, 5.6, 6.8)
Ball: 6.1
(5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 5.5, 5, 6, 4.2, 5.7)
Jihai: 4.4
(5, 3, 3, 3, 4, 6, 2, 5, 7, 6, 4, 4, 4.5, 5, 5, 3.2, 4.3)
Vassell (Caicedo 80): 7.2
(7, 7, 9, 9, 9, 7, 7, 7, 7.5, 8, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 5.4, 6.3)
Gelson: 5.4
(6, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 6, 6, 5, 6.5, 6, 5, 4.4, 5.7)
Johnson: 5.1
(6, 5, 4, 4, 5, 4, 5, 5, 6, 5, 4, 4, 6, 7, 6, 5.4, 5.6)
Petrov: 7.7
(7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7.5, 9, 7, 8, 8, 7, 7.5, 8, 8, 7.0, 7.0)
Ireland (Geovanni 56): 7.5
(7, 7, 8, 8, 8.5, 8, 8, 9, 8, 9, 7, 8, 7, 7, 6, 5.4, 6.8)
Benjani: 6.6
(7, 6, 6, 6, 6.5, 7, 8, 7, 7, - , 6, 7, 7, 7, 6, 5.5, 6.5)
Subs:
Geovanni (Ireland 56): 5.9
(6, 5, 6, 6, 6, - , 6, 7, - , 6, - , - , 6, 6, 6, 5.2, 5.4)
Caicedo (Vassell 80): 3.9
(6, 4, 1, 1, 1, - , 3, 6, - , 4, - , - , 6, - , 6, 4.2, 5.0)
Subs not used:
Isaksson, Castillo, Logan.
Fulham: Keller, Stalteri, Hangeland, Hughes, Konchesky, Davies, Bullard, Murphy, Dempsey, Healy (Kamara 64), McBride (Nevland 71). Subs not used: Warner, Bocanegra, Andreasen.
Match reports
City 2 Fulham 3
Kamara’s late double gives Fulham hope of survival (Guy Hodgson)
City’s manager Sven Goran Eriksson was as close to angry as the placid Swede ever gets. “We stopped playing and you can’t do that against anyone in the Premier League,” he said. “We have no one to blame but ourselves. We gave it away.”
Roy Hodgson still harbours hope of great escape (James Ducker)
City were coasting when Kamara entered the fray in the 64th minute. Joe Hart, the City goalkeeper, had denied Clint Dempsey and David Healy with good saves, but the home team were worth their lead, secured courtesy of goals from Stephen Ireland and Benjani Mwaruwari in the first 21 minutes.
Whether it was through complacency or a lack of concentration, City began to unravel. Kamara sowed the seeds of doubt when he capitalised on Vedran Corluka’s indecision and then, when Danny Murphy converted his penalty on the rebound after Sun Jihai had pulled down Nevland, Fulham dared to believe in victory.
Kamara’s injection gives Fulham the glimpse of a future (Jeremy Alexander)
A match which had passed the hour in cruise command for City, producing sweet goals for Stephen Ireland and Benjani that left Fulham’s backs red-faced, had culminated in end-to-end frenzy, including a moment when Benjani, running through on Kasey Keller, passed to Darius Vassell, who was offside and, for good measure, off target. Such lunacy it is that attracts and maddens City’s infatuees.
Fulham get kiss of life from Diomansy Kamara (Derick Allsop)
Joe Hart’s athleticism did indeed frustrate Fulham, although they were palpably outplayed in the crucial areas for more than half the match. Stephen Ireland curled in a glorious opener from the edge of the area and Fulham’s defenders stood and admired the second. Elano’s ball down the wing and Darius Vassell’s drag back set up the opportunity that Benjani despatched.
No one could begrudge Fulham their lifeline, but Eriksson acknowledged his team had only themselves to blame for their capitulation in the final 20 minutes and almost certainly throwing away any prospect of Uefa Cup qualification.
Eriksson said: “The moment you think it is over and don’t defend, anything is possible in football and it was one of those days. We stopped playing and you can’t afford to do that. It should be a lesson. We have no one to blame, only ourselves.”
Kamara’s heroics give Fulham lifeline (Ian Whittell)
City still cling to that hope of European football via an invitation to the Intertoto Cup but the expression on Shinawatra’s face in the tunnel after the game suggested he would view failure to reach that competition as more than ‘a pity’.
All of which is unfortunate. As a former politician - albeit a controversial one - Shinawatra will presumably appreciate the vox populi and, for 70 minutes at least, Eriksson’s name was sung often and approvingly by fans appreciative of his season’s work.
Diomansy Kamara stuns Sven and keeps Fulham alive (Pete Oliver)
Eriksson admitted afterwards that a club wanting to qualify for the Champions League, Shinawatra’s target within two years, would never implode as his side did but suggested that the result would not colour his talks with the chairman when they got together last night for a gala dinner and again today.
“Twenty minutes in almost one season can’t affect anything,” said the City manager. “If you are looking at the bigger picture for the future, for next season and the seasons to come, 20 minutes can’t mean anything, but if those three points mean we lose out on Europe it’s a big, big pity.”
Entry Filed under: Features
Not sure what to make of this performance, as Portsmouth were clearly playing with the Cup final in mind, but it at least shows that we can play some very entertaining football given the chance.
In fact, this was probably the entertaining game since the season’s opener at West Ham, which makes me wonder whether those early performances resulted in some unfair expectations on our part. Certainly, watching Elano do a decent job at right-back (after reportedly volunteering for the role shortly before the game), suggests that we may have overlooked some of the qualities he can bring to the team.
Earlier in the season his former team-mate Rafael gave this assessment of Elano’s abilities:
“He can play at right back, can mark or create in midfield and can operate as a striker. It could be that he’s suffered in his career as a result of his versatility, that at times he’s been moved around without having a fixed place in the side,” Rafael said, while also revealing that Elano’s nickname was ET.
It’s probably a bit unfair to call him a Brazilian John O’Shea, as he’s a much better player than that, but he does appear to be from a similar mould. Elano recently told mcfc.co.uk that a muscle injury had been affecting his form, and combined with the special attention he’s been singled out for (predicted in this profile back in October), it’s still possible he’ll turn out to be a terrific buy after all. My guess is that we’ll only see Elano’s true worth when the team is strengthened and really begins to gel.
Which brings us to the comments made on Saturday by Taweesuk Jack Srisumrid, the Harvard-educated businessman who became a City director in August. In an interview with Reuters, Taweesuk provided the most detailed insight yet into Thaksin’s plans.
Claiming that ‘the finance for an initial investment period’ is already in place, Taweesuk revealed that the objective was to make City the ‘Asian Premier League club’.
“What we will look to do in the summer is to further boost the squad, bring in top quality, internationally-recognised players. Superstars would help fill the stadium and help our global branding. Primarily, we must win on the pitch - it can’t be a gimmick,” he said
“We’ve had discussions (with Ronaldinho) but we’ll see how that pans out. We’ve looked at a host of players”.
Curiously, Taweesuk also revealed that Thaksin was ‘aiming for a top eight finish this year’, which is two places higher than the target our owner set last month.
It’s impossible to say whether the recent speculation about Sven’s future has any real foundation, or whether it is little more than a motivational technique by an impatient Thaksin, but hopefully these back-to-back wins will be enough to kill the speculation for now.
~ Match highlights
~ Interactive stats; BBC stats, Sky stats,
~ Photos from rtfract; Sven’s post-match interview
~ Getty Images
~ Latest Premiership table
Coming up on Purely Man City
I’m going to be launching a History section on the main site this week, which will be expanded over the summer.
With today’s Guardian claiming we’ve agreed to buy Brazilian forward Jô for £20m, I’ll be publishing the complete table of City’s record transfer signings this week.
I’ll also be running a feature on the ownership of Premiership clubs, with a table of shareholders for each club, and a breakdown of their nationalities.
~ Jô YouTube clip, Jô at Corinthians
~ Jô’s Wikipedia page
Player ratings
Ratings come from (in order): MEN; xavi6, bobadji, LookMumI’mOnMCF.net, Geo123, Niall Quinns Discopants, Grob, teenage time killer, irblinx, SirElano, Svensational (Mancityfans), blue_job (Blue Vibe), Richard Tucker (rtfract), The Times, Sky, Sky Your Rating and the BBC.
Hart: 7.3 average
(6, 8, 7, 8, 7, 7, 8, 7, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6.5, 7, 7, 7.1, 7.1)
Elano (Caicedo 90): 7.0
(6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 7, 9, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6.7, 6.8)
Corluka: 7.2
(7, 7, 8, 7, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7.2, 6.6)
Dunne (Williamson 54): 6.9
(6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 6.8, 6.3)
Ball: 6.9
(7, 8, 7, 8, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6.6, 6.3)
Vassell: 7.9
(6, 9, 9, 8, 9, 9, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7.5, 7.3)
Ireland (Geovanni 75): 7.7
(7, 9, 8, 8, 8.5, 9, 8, 7, 8, 9, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6.8, 6.7)
Gelson: 7.1
(7, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 7, 6.7, 6.4)
Johnson: 6.3
(6, 6, 7, 7, 6, 5, 7, 6, 7, 5, 6, 7, 6.5, 6, 7, 6.6, 6.4)
Petrov: 8.0 (MOTM)
(8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 8, 7, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7.5, 8, 8, 8.5, 8.0)
Benjani: 7.9
(8, 8, 9, 8, 8, 8, 8, 6, 7, 9, 8, 8, 8, 7, 9, 8.2, 7.8)
Subs:
Williamson (Dunne 54): 7.0
(6, 8, 7, 7, - , 8, 7, 6, 8, 7, 8, - , 6.5, 6, 6, 7.0, 6.8)
Geovanni (Ireland 75): 6.3
(6, 6, - , -, - , 6, 7, 6, 7, - , - , - , 6.5, - 6, 6.2, 6.1
Caicedo(Elano 90)
Subs not used:
Isaksson, Castillo.
Portsmouth: James, Lauren, Campbell, Distin, Hreidarsson (sent off 41), Utaka (Baros 75), Muntari, Diarra, Diop (Aubey 75), Kranjcar (Davis 83), Defoe. Subs not used: Begovic, Nugent.
Match reports
Man City 3 Portsmouth 1
Eriksson sees vindication in a convincing victory (John Culley)
Although they were given a generous start in the form of two gift goals in the opening 14 minutes – plus the added bonus of playing against 10 men for more than half the game – City produced football reminiscent of their vibrant early-season form.
Moreover it lifted their points tally for Eriksson’s first season to 55, the club’s highest yet for a 38-match Premier League season. City could have won by a greater margin, creating numerous chances even before Benjani wrapped things up with their third goal 16 minutes from time.
Manchester City win relieves pressure on Sven (Phil Shaw)
Judging by the warm ovation they gave Eriksson, City’s fans don’t think it is a record that merits the sack. Asked whether he was confident the current situation could be resolved, the Swede replied: “Do you mean will I still have a job? I’m not worried at all. You can’t go around in life worrying about things like that. I think I will be sitting here next season as well.”
Players and fans present strong case for Sven-Goran Eriksson
If this is the kind of response Thaksin Shinawatra gets when he raises questions about the manager’s future, perhaps the Manchester City owner should cast doubt over Sven-Göran Eriksson’s job prospects every week.
Thaksin was not present at the City of Manchester Stadium yesterday, but the reports he will receive will doubtless be glowing. Whether such a marked improvement in City’s performance is enough to keep Eriksson in employment remains to be seen, but on this evidence, the former Prime Minister of Thailand would be unwise to dispense with the former England head coach.
City rediscover their slicker side (Daniel Taylor)
It is difficult to know what will have been more pleasing for Sven-Goran Eriksson: the voluble demonstration of support he received from Manchester City’s fans or the togetherness his players displayed in proving a point or two to the club’s owner, Thaksin Shinawatra. Whichever way to look at it, Eriksson can reflect on a hugely satisfying day as he attempts to show his trigger-happy employer that he deserves better than to be paid off in the summer.
Entry Filed under: Features
Following last night’s historic Double (academy league table here) it’s probably a good time to remind ourselves how different things once were.
I’ve just been reading My Name Is Len Davies, I’m a Football Scout, the autobiography of a former City youth team scout, who joined the club in 1974. In the book, which was published in 2000, Davies correctly predicted great things for our youth teams by the middle of the decade, but he also details the shocking neglect of our youth system under the chairmanship of Peter Swales.
According to Davies, the decline began in 1980, when new manager John Bond brought in Tony Scott to replace youth team boss Steve Fleet.
Fleet had taken City’s juniors to the Youth Cup in the previous two seasons and his youth system had produced players such as Peter Barnes, Kenny Clements, Gary Owen, Paul Power and Tommy Caton, and was at that time nurturing the 1986 Youth Cup-winning side that included Andy Hinchcliffe, David White and Paul Lake. Scott, on the other hand, was working as a butcher at the time of his appointment.
Scott resigned as City’s youth team boss soon after taking charge, in order to take up church work in Australia. His replacement was the ‘ruthless and very dogmatic’ Ted Davies, and the ill-feeling amongst colleagues that followed his appointment, combined with the lack of funds from the board, soon took its toll.
New managers came and went over the next decade - Billy McNeil, Jimmy Frizzell, Mel Machin and Howard Kendall – but according to Len Davies, they all failed to adequately address the neglect of the youth set-up.
One manager who did begin to tackle the problem was Peter Reid, who brought in veteran scout Jack Chapman to oversee the youth team. Chapman quickly won his colleagues’ respect at the club, but lost his job after Brian Horton was appointed.
By the time Francis Lee became chairman in February 1994, the years of underinvestment had made the situation critical.
‘The ranks were not now producing to the extent they had done in the past. Luck alone wasn’t enough. There were frictions that were very apparent and there was no-one with the foresight to save the sinking ship. The youth policy was very low, as was the first team, they were on a slide and no one from the chairman, Peter Swales downwards, came forth with any direction or purpose to combat this downward trend,’ Davies wrote.
Recruiting young talent had also became a problem. In the 1990/91 season, an 11-year-old Wes Brown came for a trial at City, but his father was so incensed at the ‘lack of civility’ he received that he immediately left, vowing that he would never to allow any of his children to have a trial at City again.
It was a couple of years before the problem was properly addressed (Davies reveals that between 1993 and 1996 there had never been a single get-together of scouts, as there had been in the past, to discuss youth development) but things changed following the appointment of Frank Clark in December 1996. Clark, and his assistant Alan Hill, saw the need for a major overhaul of the youth system. Lee agreed, and promised the necessary finance would be available, but the brutal way the changes were implemented left a bitter aftertaste.
At that time Colin Bell and Terry Farrell were joint Youth Development Officers, reporting to senior youth team coach Neil McNab. The three had been doing a decent job on a shoestring budget, with the youth team finishing top, joint top and third in the previous three seasons, but a personality clash between Bell and McNab, and a conflict between their roles, was causing problems.
Clark solution was to call Bell and Farrell into the Platt Lane complex in May 1997 and give them the sack. McNab was also dismissed.
Bell described the events in his autobiography Reluctant Hero (Clark doesn’t mention the sackings in his autobiography): ‘I’d barely sat down when, in a clinical and cold way, Clark simply said, ‘We’re dispensing with your services.’ The only explanation I was given was that they wanted to ‘sort out the department’.’
Davies, although unhappy with the youth set-up at that time, called the sackings ‘too drastic a measure’. For Bell, who did the job for little money and who didn’t even ask for a pay rise when he went from working one day a week to four, it was a shocking way to be treated. After successfully taking the case to an industrial tribunal, Bell refused to attend City games for several seasons afterwards.
But Clark’s next decision was to sow the seeds of City’s future youth successes. I was always under the impression that Joe Royle was responsible for bringing Jim Cassell to City, particularly as he was Royle’s chief scout at Oldham. But according to Davies, it was Alan Hill who first approached Cassell, who agreed to take charge of City’s youth system after a meeting with Clark and Lee.
Cassell is a former book-keeper and local government officer, whose playing career lasted only two games at Bury in the mid-1960s. In Blue Moon: Down Among the Dead Men, Mark Hodkinson describes him as ‘thoughtful and shrewd, candid and friendly, immaculate in a suit and tie and wire-framed glasses, the original Gentleman Jim’.
‘Gentleman’ Jim immediately brought his ‘fastidiously methodical’ approach to the job. “There was no one picking up the bits of paper off the floor, no one taking care of the detail,” Cassell said.
In the summer of 1998, he presented a 51-page dossier to new chairman David Bernstein and the board. According to Hodkinson, it revealed ‘a club run by people without real job specifications, where the hierarchical structure was muddled and essential facilities had to be borrowed, or were missing altogether’.
Bernstein authorised £500,000 to implement the reforms, which is probably the shrewdest investment the club have ever made.
Cassell’s first coup was picking up a 15-year-old Shaun Wright Phillips, who had been released by Forest, and he is responsible for signing Micah Richards from Oldham’s youth academy aged 14.
Other academy staff have also played a vital role. Joey Barton was signed by head of recruitment Barry Poynton after he was released by Everton. Before joining City, Poynton was Everton’s youth recruitment chief. He heads up a team of more than 40 scouts, the vast majority of whom are part-time.
In Sunday’s Observer, Cassell for the first time revealed just how profitable City’s academy has been.
The academy has cost City £10.5million since 1998, while last year the running costs were £1.6m - £400,000 less than the current salary of Chelsea’s youth team boss. But Cassell reveals that the club has banked £32.5m from the sale of academy players.
Here’s a list of the academy players who have moved to other clubs:
On top of that £22m profit, the academy players still at the club (listed below) must now be worth at least £40m, while the future value of our current kids is anybody’s guess.
In Blue Moon, the author claims that a fair amount of hostility was aimed towards Cassell in the late 1990s, with the academy boss portrayed by some at the club as ‘the school-teacher twit caught blinking in the hurly-burly of football’, whose decency was mistaken for meekness.
After last night’s triumph, no-one can doubt the debt this club owes to ‘Gentleman Jim’. Maybe a fitting tribute would be a song in his honour at the Portsmouth game.
Anyone got any suggestions?
Technical problems
Apologies to anyone who’s been unable to get through to the site recently. There’s currently an unidentified problems that the site’s hosts are trying to fix.
I’m not sure how long the problem will take to fix, but you can read all the stories that are published here over at the Purely Man City Blog.
Entry Filed under: Features
Another game overshadowed by events off the pitch, following Joe Lovejoy’s story in The Times which claims that Thaksin has threatened Sven with the sack if results don’t improve.
Lovejoy is a seasoned journalist, who has written a decent biography of Sven, but the fact that the story doesn’t cite any sources is unusual. Two hours after it was published, The Observer ran a similar story that made these claims:
According to a source familiar with City’s politics, Thaksin upbraided Eriksson over his part in an internal club dispute. The source said: ‘Thaksin rang Sven to reprimand him, telling him he would be sacked at the end of the season if results did not improve.’
It is further understood that agents attempting to negotiate deals with City in recent weeks have been told not to factor Eriksson into their equations because the club does not necessarily expect the manager they appointed last summer to be present for a second season at there.
The club quickly moved to quash the rumours, with denials published in the MEN and Independent, but what is most noticable is that none of the four stories contained any new quotes from Thaksin or any of his representatives.
The fact is, the only person who would know whether Sven has a long-term future at City is Thaksin himself, and being the politician he is, I imagine he’s keeping all his options open right now.
But I like this take on events by Tommy Gun at BlueVibe:
‘A higher profile & more money will in future allow us to make a complete arse of ourselves on a global rather than a regional level’.
Considering that last summer we were looking at the relative merits of Chris Coleman and Gary Megson, the fact that we’re now discussing Sven v Scolari does at least represent significant progress.
~ The wait for the updated Official Fair Play Table continues, though Wednesday’s Daily Mirror claims we’ve increased our lead over the rivals.
The latest Uefa Fair Play Table shows that Norway have just overtaken England at the top. The country that finishes top of the league gains an automatic Uefa Cup spot, while any country that finishes on 8pts or higher will go into a draw, from which two Uefa Cup places will be awarded.
~ I came across a new site called Journalisted which is worth a visit. It allows you to type in a journalist’s name into a search box and see what stories they’ve written on any given subject since Oct 2007.
~ Match highlights
~ Sven’s post-match interview
~ Getty Images photos
~ Latest Premiership table
Is this the best rant of the season?
This was posted by Puskas at BlueVibe over the weekend:
‘I despair at City fans after yesterday, I really ****ing do. We are, without doubt, the mongiest bunch of whining ****s in the league (all four divisions). The fact that players of the calibre of Elano get the boo boy treatment just proves it.
We played away with an injury-ravaged team against a bunch of long ball cloggers with a five man defence whose mission from the start was to hospitalise our midfield, and our response was to play attractive passing football throughout.
I read the match thread on the Blue Moon forum after the game and the vitriol of some of the City ‘fans’ on there for our team would shame a Rag. They want us to fail because that’s the only thing that makes them happy. Every one of them, to a man, showering Elano with ****, then once he scored and set up the winner refusing to admit he’s any good and going on about how **** Ireland is.
I wish they’d all **** off and support Rochdale, the bitter little depressing small time MONGS’.
Coming up on Purely Man City
I’ve just been reading a fascinating autobiography by Len Davies, a former scout at City, which charts the decline and rise of our youth set-up.
The book has plenty of surprises (including the fact that we passed up the chance of signing a 20-year-old Kevin Reeves for £50,000), so in light of the game on Wednesday I’m going to be running a piece on the history of City’s youth policy.
Player ratings
Ratings come from (in order): Manchester Evening News; Fidel Castro, pears12, bluemoon, The Original Special One, xavi6, Svensational, LookMumI’mOnMCF.net, teenage time killer, Green & Blue, King Kev, (Mancityfans); The Oracle, Benarbia, svennis pennis, goat boy, quiet_riot, leighton, zandvoort blue, Father Dougal MaGuire, Corky (Bluemoon); Kevin Cummins (in Observer); Sky, Sky Your Rating and the BBC.
Hart: av: 7.8 (MOTM)
(7, 8, 9, 8, 8, 9, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 9, 8, 8, 8, 7, 8, 7, 6, 8, 7, 7, 6.6, 7.2)
Sun Jihai: 6.4
(6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 6, 8, 7, 7, 5, 7, 7, 7, 8, 6, 6, 6.1, 5.8)
Corluka: 6.0
(6, 7, 7, 6, 6, 6, 7, 7, 5, 7, 7, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 6, 8, 4, 6, 5.9, 6.3)
Dunne: 7.2
(8, 7, 7, 6, 9, 7, 7, 8, 6, 7.5, 6, 9, 8, 6, 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 4, 7, 7, 8, 7.2, 7.1)
Ball: 6.6
(7, 8, 8, 6, 7, 7, 8, 7, 5, 6.5, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 7, 5, 6, - , 6, 7, 6, 6, 5.5, 5.8)
Gelson Fernandes: 6.1
(6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 7, 7, 7, 6, 6, 7, 5, 7, 5, 5, 5.6, 6.0)
Ireland (Sturridge 58 - Vassell 82): 4.8
(6, 6, 5, 4, 5, 6, 6, 5, 4, 3, 3, 5, 3, 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 4, 5, 4.9, 5.2)
Johnson: 6.0
(6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 6, 7, 6, 5, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 5, 7, 5.9, 6.3)
Elano (Hamann 89): 6.9
(7, 8, 7.5, 7, 7, 8, 9, 8, 6, 7, 8, 7, 6, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 6, 7, 5, 6, 5.6, 6.8)
Petrov: 6.1
(6, 4, 6, 6, 5, 7, 6, 7, 6, 6.5, 6, 5, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 7, 6, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6.4, 6.7)
Benjani: 5.2
(6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, - , 5, 4, 6, 7, 5, 4, 6, 4.5, 4.5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5.2, 5.7)
Subs:
Sturridge (Ireland 58): 6.0
(6, - , - , 6, - , 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 7, - , - , - , - , - , 6, - , - , 6, 8, 5, 5, 5.3, 6.4)
Vassell (Sturridge 82): 6.6
(6, 7, 7, 6, 7, - , 7, 7, 6, - , 7, 7, - , - , 6, - , 6, 6, - , 7, 7, - , - , - , 6.4)
Hamann(Elano 89)
Subs not used:
Isaksson, Geovanni
Match stats
I’m going to discontinue the table of match stats as I really don’t think it adds much to what’s available elsewhere. However, if enough people think it’s worth keeping (which I doubt) I will bring it back.
For a detailed interactive graphic, including a breakdown of each player’s passes and tackles click here (and trawl to the bottom of the page), while you can also find match details at the BBC and Sky.
Match reports
Sunderland 1 City 2
Darius Vassell foils Sunderland (John Aizlewood)
And if the infectious joy that characterised Benjani Mwaruwari’s game at Fratton Park has been mysteriously extinguished since his move north, it was not hard to see why. Ploughing an unhappy lone furrow against Nyron Nosworthy and Jonny Evans, he repeatedly looked for support. He invariably found none.
Worse still, City’s aesthetically pleasing passing game had lost its rhythm. Stephen Ireland, Michael Johnson and Elano, hitherto exemplary practitioners of the incisive through ball, found their radar malfunctioning and their aim skew-whiff. No wonder Mwaruwari looked so disconsolate.
Keane stays calm as fortune favours City (John Wardle)
Nothing that had gone before prepared the crowd for what occurred in the final 11 minutes of this match. Indeed, many of them had already departed the ground after witnessing a featureless encounter between two teams who seemed to assume they can coast through the final weeks of the season.
Vassell gives Keane cause for concern (Michael Walker)
A dreadful first half had been followed by a slightly improved second – due to Sunderland’s increased urgency – but an afternoon that was high on expectation was petering out towards what seemed like an inevitable goalless draw.
Then on 79 minutes the teenage City substitute Daniel Sturridge surged into the Sunderland area from the left. Sturridge had come on 20 minutes earlier and this was his first contribution. He cut inside Evans and was running away from Nyron Nosworthy when he went down as if he had been clipped from behind.
Referee Mike Riley clearly thought so and pointed to the spot but the naked eye was confused. Nosworthy did not look close enough to make contact with Sturridge and television replays appeared to show the teenager tripping over his own feet. Sturridge needed treatment and Nosworthy did not complain when booked by Riley, to add to the confusion.
Roy Keane still sensitive to dip in standards
City have been sleepwalking, but a fourth win in 17 matches allowed Sven-Göran Eriksson to “keep dreaming about Europe next season”, albeit via the Intertoto Cup. They, like this match, were mediocre, but having forced his squad to squirm through videos of recent matches, the Swede was given a response. “We had to get the fighting spirit back,” he said.
Sunderland were sympathetic opponents. A dreadful first half gave City impetus, further assisted by an awful penalty decision in the 78th minute, allowing Elano to grasp the lead. Dean Whitehead’s superb volley restored parity briefly before Darius Vassell’s ugly finish. “It was the luckiest goal of my career,” he said.
City back Eriksson as Scolari haunts him again (David Hopps)
Vassell, curiously, was a regular in Eriksson’s England, with six goals in 22 games, but his move to City has done little to reignite his career. His winning goal with three minutes of normal time remaining had nothing to commend it other than the outcome, a scuffed shot which dribbled in at Gordon’s right-hand post.
City’s bench celebrated some tactical triumph which to the casual observer passed unnoticed, Eriksson not as much punching the air as moving his fist through it with infinite politeness. Elano should have added a third but thumped a volley high from seven yards. City’s win maintains their hopes of European qualification, as well as their first top-10 finish in the Premier League, but it was no renaissance. Eriksson has achieved about as much as one could have expected.
Vassell’s late winner frustrates Sunderland (Martin Hardy)
Darius Vassell amassed 22 caps when Sven-Goran Eriksson was England manager; now he cannot get a game under him at Manchester City. Yesterday, however, Vassell turned into an unlikely saviour, affording some sort of payback with an even more unlikely winner.
The round-shouldered forward, an 82nd-minute substitute, rarely inspires confidence in front of goal, thus when the Brazilian Elano slipped him through with three minutes left, his weak shot struggled for power and accuracy.
Somehow, perhaps unknown to either the player or his manager, the shot apologetically limped into the bottom corner of Craig Gordon’s goal and City had their first victory in four, and maintain faint hopes of European qualification.
Entry Filed under: Features
I suppose the full headline should read: ‘how Micah got Screwed by a 77-year-old Australian man’, as that seems the most appropriate way of describing the player’s recent dealings with Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World.
For those of you that don’t subscribe to Britain’s most popular newspaper, Micah recently poured his heart out to the Screws, in a bid to salvage his reputation following the paper’s Micah ’sex roast shame’ story on December 23.
That story branded Micah a ‘vile animal’, describing his behaviour as ’sick’, ‘depraved’, ‘vile’ and ‘debauched’. It’s worth noting that, on the NOTW website, the story nestled among a video of Paris Hilton getting ‘wet and wild’, a story about actress Lindsay Lohan’s ‘manic addiction to sex’, news that glamour model Beyonce has stripped for a new jeans ad, pictures of Gary Lineker’s new girlfriend in her bikini, a video of Girls Aloud dressed as schoolgirls, a video of glamour model Jodie Marsh and the ‘topless top 10′ slideshow, which features ‘Beck’s lover’ Rebecca Loos and others.
But more noteworthy was the timing of the story, which was published just three days after Micah split with his agents, SEM.
Now I’m not suggesting that SEM had anything to do with its publication, but I do believe Micah’s decision to part company with them is likely to have shaped subsequent events.
According to The Times, SEM’s role was then taken over by Micah’s father, Lincoln Richards. And having a family member as your agent can land you in deep water with this paper. Nicolas Anelka for instance, who is represented by his brother Claude, was recently accused of being a ‘text cheat’ by the NOTW, in a story that has now disappeared from its website.
To understand why certain players get exposed in papers like the NOTW, it helps to examine the economic forces at work. Celebrity stories are essentially commodities, and the big agencies commodity brokers, trading their assets for financial gain. Not only do agents and publicists push to get positive coverage for their clients, but the financial influence they have over papers is often enough to get negative stories pulled. SEM, for instance, regularly supply stories to the NOTW, with features even marked ‘courtesy’ of SEM’ (examples here and here).
According to Micah, the original ‘sex roast’ incident took place in early 2007, and it’s likely that the NOTW had been in possession of the video for some time. However, with such big money at stake for SEM (as well as the fee for renegotiating his contract and the millions in potential sponsorship deals, SEM chairman Jerome Anderson made an estimated £8m from City in the summer) a few story trades would have been enough to keep Micah’s private life out of the paper. But as soon as SEM parted company with Micah (and City according to this Daily Mail story ) all obstacles to running the story would have immediately vanished.
Micah is now represented by Chris Nathaniel’s NVA Entertainment Group, whose clients include Rio Ferdinand and John Terry as well as glamour model Jordan and pop group Mist-Teeq.
Nathaniel is probably a sensible choice for a player in need of image repair (see how Drunken Terry urinates on floor can quickly become Terry honours war heroes) and his ‘confession’ to the NOTW represented an important part of his tabloid rehabilitation. That story had the feel of a press release, with Micah revealing that his new role models were, coincidentally, fellow NVA clients Rio Ferdinand and John Terry.
It’s a shame because Micah has an interesting story to tell. In December he talked to the The Times about his upbringing in Leeds and how he was affected by the the suicide of a boyhood friend, but I suspect we’ll be hearing little more of that from now on.
Instead, we now only have the bland offerings of his BBC column, where he recently stressed his respect for referees and praised the return of David Beckham.
And frankly, who can blame him? No doubt it made a lot of sense to use his father as his advisor, particularly as it would have saved him a hefty agent’s fee on his new contract. But with the damage to his image caused by the NOTW revelations likely to have cost him millions in potential advertising and sponsorship deals, this has been a hard lesson learned.
And the most important lesson appears to be this: if you’re going to film yourself having sex in a bathroom, make sure you’ve got protection.
~ Back in December The Times’s Janice Turner wrote an interesting article on the economic forces at work in the tabloid glamour industry, which she termed ‘boobonomics’, while the Guardian published this piece about footballers and sex.
Taking it to the Max
If agents and publicists are commodity brokers then Britain’s most famous spin-meister, Max Clifford, is a one-man Wall Street.
I only had one encounter with Clifford, back in the 1990s when I was working for a national daily newspaper, but I think it offers a good insight into the forces at work.
My feature editor called me over one morning and asked me to write a piece on an ‘economic guru’ who had just published a book about the housing market. “Oh, and treat this one carefully. He’s one of Max Clifford’s and Max is calling in a couple of favours,” I was advised.
So off I went to Clifford’s headquarters, an anonymous office above a hairdressers in London’s West End. Clifford arrived shortly after I got there, gleefully announcing to his staff that he had just had lunch with a director of Talk Radio (which later became TalkSport), who told him that more than 40% of the station’s audience were either prison inmates or people in mental institutions. I introduced myself and shook his hand, while he looked at me as though I was something he had trodden in.
I took my ‘guru’ from a spot of lunch at a nearby restaurant, where I listened to some of his thoughts. I’d discovered from the cuttings library that the guy had published two previous books. His first had predicted a crash in the housing market shortly before it boomed, while his second predicted a property boom – just before the crash that left the developers of Canary Wharf, and many others, facing bankruptcy.
Steering the conversation away from financial matters I remarked that he looked a lot younger than his years. Do you what the secret of staying young is?” he asked, leaning towards me as he delivered his secret: “Regular onanism“.
Sensing it was a good time to take the conversation elsewhere I asked him about Clifford. “It’s amazing,” he said. “I never really had any publicity before, but as soon as Max became my publicist the phone never stopped ringing.”
Returning to the office, I set a about the task of navigating political waters. I should point out that the story I ended up writing was 100% factually accurate, but by selecting certain facts and omitting others (I’ll show you how this is done in a later Tabloid Tales) it wasn’t exactly the most rigorous book review ever written.
I’m not sure what happened to our ‘guru’. Needless to say his book predicted a property crash, and uncannily, was following by almost a decade of boom.
But somehow I have a hunch he ended up a big stockholder in Northern Rock.
~ One man who didn’t grasp the workings of tabloid newspapers was former FA press officer Colin Gibson, when he attempted to dish the dirt on Sven to the NOTW back in 2004.
Gibson was previously the Daily Mail’s sports editor, and in an attempt to keep a damaging story about the then FA chief executive, Mark Palios, out of the paper, followed what was common practice by offering a better story in exchange. Unfortunately for him, not only was that the only story he had to bargain with, but he had unwittingly created a third, and even juicer story.
For the paper it was a simple choice. They opted for the much more sensational story No.3, and published this transcript of the damning phone conversation.
Entry Filed under: Features
So much for my pre-match optimism, but then this is a different club from last year and at least now we’re one that does United no favours whatsoever.
Right now matters off the pitch are holding more interest than those on, but at least it’s for all the right reasons.
News that Thaksin’s men are after Ronaldinho, if true, shows that Thaksin is more ambitious than previously thought. Sven’s reaction was also interesting, telling The Times:
“I will phone the owners. It was a surprise, but if they want to package Ronaldinho for me I would accept him and be very happy.” Eriksson joked about signing another high-profile Brazilian, adding: “I would be happy to take Kaka at the same time!”
This all raises a couple of interesting questions. Firstly,
should Thaksin’s advisors be focusing their attentions on players that are highly unlikely to sign? In December the Daily Star reported that ‘a close associate’ of Thaksin was in talks with one of Javier Mascherano’s representatives over a £17m move. Clearly there’s a danger that we’re just being used by agents to get better deals for their players elsewhere, but I suppose right now we’re just going to have to wait and see.
The other question is how long Thaksin would stick with Sven if results don’t improve. If our owner is following advice on transfer targets from people outside the club and not informing Sven, and given the apparent level of his ambitions, you do wonder at what point he would consider bringing in a bigger ‘name’ as manager.
~ The wait for the updated Fair Play table continues (the current one claims to include matches up to Apr 5 but is actually the same table as last month), but after looking at the number of cards handed out since March I’m expecting us to have risen up the table when it is finally published.
~ Plenty of discussion about Dunne’s own-goal record after the match. I can’t find any site that lists own-goals, but after looking through Soccerbase I’ve found that Dunne has now conceded five own-goals at City in league and Cup games, compared to the six he’s scored at the right end. For the record, his own-goals before Saturday are: v Bradford (16-12-01), v United (13-2-15), v W Brom (28-12-04)and v Wigan (21-10-06.
~ Highlights
~ Sven’s post-match interview
~ Pictures from rtfract, Getty Images
~ Latest Premiership table.
Player ratings
Ratings come from (in order): Manchester Evening News; King Kev, Blue2, irblinx, MaineRoadMemories, Grob, xavi6, Piccsnumberoneblue, SirElano, sandman (Mancityfans), Richard Tucker (rtfract.com), Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph Opta, Sky, Sky Your Rating and the BBC.
Hart: 7.2 average (MOTM)
(7, 6,7,8, 8, 6, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7.5,8, 5, 8, 6.0, 7.0)
Corluka: 5.9
(6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 7, 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5.0,5.9)
Dunne: 5.3
(6, 5, 4, 6, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 7, 5.0, 5.3)
Onuoha (Jihai 59): 6.7
(7, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7, 7, 7, 8, 7, 7, 7, 5, 7, 5.4, 6.3)
Ball: 6.1
(6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 8, 6, 6, 7, 7, 6, 5, 5, 6, 4.7, 5.4)
Ireland (Caicedo 75): 5.4
(6, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7, 6, 7, 6, 7, 5.5, 5.8)
Gelson Fernandes: 6.5
(5, 6, 7, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 6, 7, 7, 5.3, 6.1)
Johnson: 6.9
(6, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 8, 6, 7, 8, 7, 7, 6, 7, 5.6, 6.2)
Petrov: 6.9
(7, 6, 7, 7, 5, 8, 8, 5, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 6.3, 6.8)
Elano (Vassell 65): 5.1
(5, 5, 4, 6, 4, 4, 5, 4, 6, 6, 6, 5, 4,6, 5.4, 5.6)
Benjani: 5.8
(5, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6.5, 5, 6, 7, 4.9, 5.9)
Subs:
Sun Jihai (Onuoha 59): 5.4
(5, - , - , 6, - , 6, 6, 5, - , 6, 5, 5, 5, 6, 4.4, 4.8)
Vassell (Elano 65): 5.0
(5, - , - , 5, - , 5, 6, 5, - , 5, 5, 4, 6, 4.4, 4.9)
Caicedo(Ireland 75): 4.7
(5, - , - , 3, - , 5, 5, 4, - , 6, - , 4, 6, 4.1, 5.1)
Subs not used:
Isaksson, Hamann
Chelsea: Cudicini, Belletti (Ferreira 86), Alex, Terry, A Cole, Essien, Obi, Lampard, Wright-Phillips (J Cole 52), Anelka, Kalou. Subs not used: Hilario, Shevchenko, Ballack
Match stats
The usual match stats have been cancelled this week due to lack of interest, so I’ll again direct you to the Daily Telegraph, whose excellent interactive graphic is located at the bottom of the page. You can also find match details at the BBC, Sky and Setanta.
Also worth a view is the excellent Nerdic Indicator over at Wookies Lair.
Match reports
City 0 Chelsea 2
City Dunne and dusted by Chelsea (Guy Hodgson)
This was a stroll on a cool but sunny afternoon for Avram Grant’s team against a City side who have won one match in their last seven and who, apart from a 15-minute spell before half-time, looked like they cannot wait for the season to end. Slow, sloppy and dull, just about the only imagination anyone with Sky Blue affiliation showed came from the announcer on the public address system, who billed the start of the second half as “the push for Europe”. Push for mid-table mediocrity more like.
Unloved, unremarked, Grant assembles title form (Daniel Taylor)
Strange clubs, Manchester City and Chelsea. Since the turn of the year City have been in near-relegation form, yet their fans were still belting out Sven-Goran Eriksson’s name on Saturday. And then there is Chelsea, perhaps the only club on the planet where the team win 80% of matches and the supporters refuse to sing the manager’s name as a point of principle.
Perhaps a cry of “there’s only one Avram Grant” will carry through the air at Stamford Bridge on April 26 if Chelsea beat Manchester United when the Premier League’s top two clubs renew acquaintances. Or maybe it will not. Grant, after all, could never be described as debonair. He does not wear Prada suits or suede loafers. His press conferences can be fist-eatingly boring and he is not dedicated to the idea of being permanently extraordinary. He is not, in other words, Jose Mourinho.
Chelsea refuse to give up on Premier League (Derick Allsop)
Richard Dunne, City’s generally dependable captain and central defender, contributed to Chelsea’s title mission with an own-goal and inadvertent collaboration in the creation of the second, scored by Salomon Kalou.
City had their moments, particularly during a 15-minute period of the first half, yet ultimately had their goalkeeper, Joe Hart, to thank for averting a more substantial defeat.
Chelsea stay in hunt as Kalou hits target (Jamie Jackson)
By the 75th minute, the atmosphere in the City of Manchester Stadium - hardly lively at the best of times - had become soporific. Eriksson had also used up his attacking options by introducing Felipe Caicedo for Ireland, having earlier switched Darius Vassell for Elano.
It all made little difference, though. Eriksson’s next programme notes should contain more despair at a season now dying, while Grant and his team might still snatch the title.
Winning is Avram Grant’s way to fight his critics (James Ducker)
Eriksson’s misery was compounded after Nedum Onuoha, the defender, was ruled out for the rest of the season with a dislocated shoulder and possible fractured wrist.
City’s hope of a route into Europe would appear to be through the Inter-toto Cup or the Uefa Fair Play League, but a top-ten finish would be an achievement, given that Eriksson has fashioned a team out of a group of strangers in such a short space of time
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