How City's attendances compareUpdated: August 8th, 2007
City have now sold 24,000 seasoncards, according to a survey released today by Channel 4 News - a 1,500 increase on the figure reported on June 28.
We are now just 3,000 short of the 27,000 seasoncards sold last season. Channel 4 claims we are currently selling around 150-a-day, which would take us to 27,000 by the end of July and around 28,500 by the start of the season.
Below is a table showing Premiership attendances for last season. Although it shows us second to bottom in terms of the percentage decline, the fact that we only lost an average 2,859 fans per game while playing some of the most dire football in our history could be seen as a pretty creditable figure.
City’s figures should also be seen in the context of the North-South divide in attendances. The second table reveals that the five grounds with the largest spare capacity (as well as 8 of the bottom 10) are all in the North.
Bianchi fee agreed
With a £8.8m fee for Bianchi now agreed, hopefully the medical won’t prove a problem. According to Sky, Bianchi was sidelined for a lengthy spell in 2005 after having surgery for ligament damage to his right knee, though he remained injury free for all of last season.
Bianchi links: YouTube; Wikipedia; Sky Sports archive.
~ Michael Ball has signed a two-year deal with City. Ball still has two matches from a three-match suspension to serve, meaning he will miss the opening games against West Ham and Derby.
When Peles attack
There’s only 1day 2hrs 19min 20sec until the most overrated player in history touches down in LA. Or there was the last time I checked.
One player who was worthy of the hype over there was Rodney Marsh, who signed for the Tampa Bay Rowdies from City in January 1976. True to form, it wasn’t long before Marsh was hitting the headline for all the wrong reasons.
“Rodney Marsh is known as the white Pele,” the Tampa Bay owner told a packed press conference as the player was unveiled. “No, Pele is known as the black Rodney Marsh,” was Marsh’s diplomatic response.
Pele was not amused and in the first match they played against each other, the sight of Marsh showboating was enough to send him over the edge.
‘Pele went berserk at this. I’ve already said - what a sublime player he was but he also had a very physical side to his game. At the sight of my antics, he ran over and launched himself in my direction. I can still see the look of anger in his eyes. He grabbed hold of my head and dug his finger in my ear, which started to bleed. The pictures of this clash were splashed in the sports sections of every American newspaper the following day,’ Marsh wrote in his autobiography.
In the rematch, in front of a 77,000 sell-out at the Giants’ Stadium, Pele again went on the attack, knocking Marsh to the floor with a vicious double-footed lunge.
As referee Gordon Hill waved play on, Marsh protested. “What do you want me to do, Rodney? Send him off?” was Hill’s reply as Marsh ducked the missiles aimed at him from the crowd.
~ A 19-year-old homeless man is facing up to four years in jail after sawing off the arms of a bronze statue of Pele. The man planned to sell them for scrap - or to Rodney Marsh.