MAN CITY INFO VIA THE ALPS "McVittee!" #211

DATE Monday 15th July 1996

Still the news machine rumbles on... and still nothing actually happens. The main, and most welcome news, is that Uwe and Ball have had a much-publicised kiss-and make-up. We have two (contrasting) opinions of Christian Dailly and a rather juicy (but true?) rumour about how Martin Phillips acquired his nickname (well, it is summer!)! There's also a report on the much vaunted MCIVTA FC (OK, perhaps not!) and a Why Blue. Oh, and by the way, we've actually sold a player...

Additionally:

NEWS - MONEY AVAILABLE IF NEEDED...!

Friday:

In an interview on GMR today, after describing the boardroom changes that are to take place, Francis Lee was asked what had happened regarding the expected clear-out of players during the close season. Lee's response was that he felt the present squad was good enough to take us back into the Premiership but that if needed, money would be available for one or two new players. No mention was made of any possible outgoings, thought it still seems that Niall Quinn and Steve Lomas may not be City players by the start of the new season.

City are still keen to sign Christian Dailly but seem unwilling to make a formal, written bid for the player. If things don't move along quickly, he could well move elsewhere.

NEWS - NORWEGIAN BUSINESSMEN

Friday:

I found some comments regarding the takeover bid from Gjeldsten/Roekke in the newspaper "Aftenposten" this morning. Aftenposten is a serious newspaper, not a tabloid. The article was found on the economy pages of the papers, not the sports. Here's an excerpt from the newspaper where their bid is being commented;

The English newspaper "The People on Sunday" is reporting that the two Norwegian "wonderboys" are set to buy the English football club Manchester City, but this is being denied by Gjeldsten.

AFTENPOSTEN; "Do you deny that you could be making a bid for the club?"

GJELDSTEN; "That's a hypothetical question. We don't know the club, and we are not really looking for an English club at the moment."

So he doesn't deny that a bid can be made. But people investing money hardly speak before the deal is sealed, so it could be something in it.

NEWS - CITY SELL SOMEONE!

City have finally managed to complete a transfer - the sale of David Kerr to Mansfield Town for around £20,000.

Alan Ball and Niall Quinn have had a "clear the air" meeting which looks to have been a success. It seems that there wasn't actually anything to clear the air over, according to Ball, who says that Quinn was misquoted last week. It also seems that Aberdeen's enquiries about Quinn were made two weeks ago, not this week. I wonder how much of this to believe personally, but if it means Niall is staying, that's good news in my book. Quinn still has two years left of his contract BTW.

City are to sue the Sun newspaper over allegations that Francis Lee is having to buy out Peter Swales' shares in the club.

City have made a "final bid" for the services of Christian Dailly. He is "dead keen" to sign for the Blues and is "thinking about" taking legal action re the Bosman ruling if the bid is not accepted.

No enquiries have been received as yet for Keith Curle.

United got £600k for Tony Coton, nearly twice as much as they paid for him!

NEWS - RÖSLER AND BALL KISS AND MAKE-UP!

A report in Saturday's MUEN (alongside a picture of Eric Cantona at United's training ground) says that Alan Ball and Uwe Rösler have had a clear-the-air meeting where both parties apologised to each other for the comments they have made to and about each other. The meeting was instigated by Francis Lee, who said "It was a bit like a lovers' tiff. They both told each other what was on their minds, then they kissed and made up. As a sort of broker in the melodrama, I am absolutely delighted. I would never dream of interfering with Alan's day to day dealings with the players but like the rest of our supporters I was dismayed at the situation which developed between the manager and Uwe last season. Thankfully we can now put that behind us. Uwe has pledged his support to Alan and to Manchester City and that is great news because we are going to need all our top players if we are going to bounce straight back into the Premiership next season."

Ball said "It's no secret that Uwe and myself didn't enjoy the best of relationships last season and I have to be honest with myself and admit that it wasn't entirely Uwe's fault. I said things to him and about him last season which I now regret. The pressure was on and the remarks were made in the heat of the moment and I should have been more diplomatic. But the other side of the coin is that Uwe also said things and did things which he now accepts were out of order. I apologised to him last night and, in turn, he apologised to me. As far as I am concerned the slate is now clean and we are starting all over again from scratch."

With this story following hot on the heels of Ball and Quinn resolving their differences, it looks to me as though Francis Lee has banged a few heads together, realising that the internal strife within the club can do nothing but harm. How long it will last is anyone's guess but if people (particularly Ball) realise the mistakes they made last season and are ready to learn from them, we could see the squad remaining pretty well intact for the start of next season. If everybody's pulling in the same direction, we must have a great chance of bouncing straight back where we belong.

NEWS - PLAYERS' STRIKE THREATENED

The Professional Footballers' Association is set to ballot its members early in August for a strike which would mean no televised games would take place. The players' union is in dispute with the Football League over an agreement dating back 30 years which meant that 10% of television revenues went to the P.F.A. to fund its projects. The Football League has recently agreed a £25 million deal with Sky TV but is reluctant to increase its contribution to the P.F.A. beyond the £560,000 level from last season. A Football League spokesman stated that they hadn't paid a full 10% contribution since 1987 and in any case the P.F.A.'s accounts showed an £8 million surplus so they couldn't understand why the fuss was all about. If the strike goes ahead, it will affect only televised Football League (not Premier League) games. City would be one of the clubs most affected, as one of the top attractions in the League. Indeed, City's first game of the season, due to be televised, could be the first match affected.

TRANSFER FEES

Martin asked in MCIVTA 210 why a transfer fee is still needed for moves between England and Scotland; my understanding of the situation is as follows:

The Bosman ruling was based on the Treaty of Rome, the fundamental document which all members of the EC are signatories to. One of the things enshrined in this treaty is the free movement of labour between member countries, hence anybody who is out of contract at a club can move to a club in another member country without a fee, as a fee would represent an unfair restraint of trade.

So why doesn't this apply to domestic transfers (which is what a move between England and Scotland is, as both are part of the UK)? The reason is that the Treaty of Rome only applies to movement of labour between member states, not within them. At the time the Treaty was drawn up, it was assumed (somewhat naïvely) that there was already freedom of movement within countries. This is true for most professions but not in the case of footballers.

That's my interpretation of the situation: I'm not a lawyer so there may well be other grounds on which a legal challenge could be made, but as far as I can see, the situation as it stands is perfectly legal within European law.

RUMOUR - WIMBLEDON DEAL

I heard that Lomas' deal with the Wombles has hit a stumbling block due to still outstanding payments on Curle and Phelan? Anyone heard that one?

The candy striped away kit from a few seasons ago was used on a catwalk in Milan by some designer and appeared in several magazines including British Vogue. They obviously liked it then!

CHRISTIAN DAILLY I

I am a Mancunian living and working in Dundee. I have a number of colleagues who are fans of 'The Arabs' as United are called up here. One in particular says that Dailly will be a great loss to the club when he goes. He is a real all-rounder - strong tackler, intelligent midfielder and can also lead the attack. He is rated as one of Scotland's better young players.

Dundee United are angry at what they see as City's 'brinkmanship' over the deal - Dailly is out-of-contract, and United's managerial partnership of Jim McLean and Billy Kirkwood have accused City of threatening them with the Bosman ruling in order to get the club to co-operate.

Dailly has been linked with both Celta Vigo and Cagliari, but is understood to prefer a move to City.

Hope this is useful!

CHRISTIAN DAILLY II

I thought I'd mail the conversation I had with a very knowledgable Celtic fan the other day.

What do you think of Christian Dailly?

Who?

Christian Dailly. He plays for Dundee United.

Oh yes I know him. Yes he's average.

What do you mean?

Well he's a very average player.

What is his best attribute?

He is quite smart.

That was that and I'm sorry to send you bad news. However, if he was a truly classy player wouldn't Rangers/Celtic be interested in him?

BUSTER - A LITTLE HISTORY...

Some of my Exeter friends have informed me of a little ditty that they sang on the terraces about Buster, and also why he's called Buster. If you know already I'll lock myself away again!

Boing, Boing Buster Buster - repeated as many times as possible whilst bouncing up and down, quite amusing after several pints.

Why Buster?

At first I thought it was some play on Dambusters, but apparently not. One night at a nightclub in Exeter, the Exeter team sat Buster on a chair which was on top of table, they held him down, and ripped his trousers and boxers off, and stood laughing and staring with amazement. Apparently he's got the biggest balls anyone had ever seen; with that and the fact that there were some fans in there, someone came up with Buster Gonads from Viz, and the Buster part stuck, I'm not sure but I think that is also where boing boing comes from, as bouncing balls!

Anyone know the date of the Exeter friendly as I'm supposed to be going, but don't know when it is!

On the note of the French Connection guy, I live near the factory in London, and am in negotiations with them on something, so i'll try to find out something concrete, it may also help my proposal through!!

MCIVTA F.C. OUT OF BREADTH!

Just a short note to say a big thanks to everyone who turned out yesterday for the indoor footy, namely:

Whites: Jon Fielding, Robert 'the target' Watson, Mark 'the ankle' Varley, Adam 'the Shearer' Houghton, Martin 'the back-pass' Ford and Matt Popplewell.

Floater: Adam 'the everywhere' Murphy

Colours: Steve 'can I have my ball back?' Bolton, Ashley 'the genes' Birch, Tony 'the iron lug' Hulme, Colin Surrey, Phil 'the goalie' and Dave 'the dribbler' Bowl.

3rd Umpire: Paul Howarth

The game was hotly contested for the full hour - hotly being the operative word as it felt quite close in the hall. Mark Varley scored the first goal as usual but this time in the wrong net :-( After the final whistle we played on for about ten golden goals. From memory, Adam Houghton won the golden boot award for this match with a number of well struck shots and then a lot of not so well directed (tired) ones! Afterwards several of us made it to the Friendship pub where Ashley was exposed as being in Mark's trousers ;-)

I can't remember who it was - but someone suggested another game in a fortnight - anyone up for this? Also there are a number of people who have contacts with other teams which would be willing to thrash us - so I guess the strategy is to have a couple more of these 'practices' before graduating to the full pitch.

P.S. Please can Jason King and Riccardo Keefe get in touch.

BLUES IN CHINA

I have finally managed to mesh together a work visit to China to co-incide with City's matches there and will be able to attend the Dailian and Szechuan games - so not having seen the boys for a year or so it will be twice in a week. I will try to do a match report and send it in - but doubt if it will be up to the usual high standard of our contributors. I will also send a programme or two (if they have such things!) to Ashley and maybe we can get them scanned and into the WWW page.

The trip is very problematical - not least trying to get some information - so if anyone else is planning to go let me know! And I will be risking life and limb by taking internal flights in China!

Apparently attendances are good 30,000+ and I am certainly looking forward to seeing Gio in the flesh. How many City shirts will there be in the crowd?

OPINION - QUINN

I suppose my support of City is and always has been a fairly emotional thing. That is why I'm so upset about the prospect of Quinn being transferred. He has been really dedicated to the club and during the years when I actually got to the games it seemed that he was very much the team's centre with young players, Andy Hinchcliffe and David White, actually lodging with him. I expect players to be absolutely loyal to City; Quinn seems to me to have been that, perhaps Alan Ball should repay this loyalty?

OPINION - VIDEO CENSORSHIP

Am I the only person angry about the excessive censorship applied to the latest City end of season video? Why do they do this? What are they trying to spare us?

Having missed much of the season due to working abroad I was hoping to catch up on it with this video, but that is now impossible. I too want to see the heartache as well as Gio's skills.

Is there a law against people compiling their own highlights video and then selling it to other people over the net?

If not, how about it?

I want all the goals, for and against, from every match. All the cup highlights, especially Gio's solo slaughtering of Leicester, and as many interviews as can be squeezed on the tape (or two).

If the businessmen can't organise things like this properly, why can't we do it ourselves?

My favourite video recently was the one that documented Franny's struggle for power against Swales. It makes it so much more interesting than just a lot of goals.

HUMOUR - ANTI-RAG

I saw the following on Soccernet which made me smile - apologies to Blackburn and Burnley! More transfer speculation?

The Electronic Sun: Sport:

Solar System champions, Neptune Rangers, are reported to have made a bid for Alan Shearer worth eight billion trillion space dollars - with out-of-sorts striker, Ming the Merciless, going to Ewood as part of the deal.

Ace Sun reporter, Reg Tosser, defended his story saying, 'Two of our top quality photographers captured Alan Shearer pointing towards the sky and talking to his two young daughters in his garden in Southport. Clearly, Mr Shearer was explaining to his children that they would soon be moving to outerspace when the deal is finally signed.'

Sources close to Neptune Rangers are reported to think Shearer is quite a good player, 'He's quite good isn't he?' said Brian Zork, Rangers Manager. And as speculation mounted that Shearer would soon leave the tiny little plague-ridden, poverty stricken, pit-village of Blackburn on the outskirts of Manchester, Neptune Rangers refused to confirm that they had already set aside a transporter pod for Alan Shearer; and NASA claim no knowledge of a special Space Shuttle being chartered to take Mr and Mrs Shearer and their children to the outer reaches of the Solar System.

To add further fuel to the frantic speculation - it has emerged today that Neptune Rangers' new kits (in distinctive anti-matter and krypton diagonal hoops) haven't appeared in shops on Pluto with '9 SHEARER' printed on the back.

Neptune Rangers may wish to sign Shearer in order to increase their season ticket sales - 'most people on Neptune support Man Utd', said Brian Zork.

Late news:

Burnley boss, Adrian Heath, is exploring the Moon in search of new signings.

Mr Heath said, "We believe that Lunar footballers would be particularly suited to Turf Moor because they are used to playing where there's no atmosphere."

PRE-SEASON FRIENDLIES

Is anyone out there going to the pre-season friendly games in Ireland? If so, could you possibly pick up a programme for me and I'll refund cost, postage and a pint! If anyone is willing (Johnny Coen of Dublin, are you going?) could they please email me direct and I'll provide my postal details.

THE BIG MATCH

ITV's Big Match - screened on different days in different regions (and possibly not at all in some regions, given ITV's flakiness), has the Chelsea vs. City game from 1978 this week. I don't know the format of the programme - e.g whether it is a straight highlights replay, or (as I rather expect) we will have to suffer interviews with luminaries of the era. South West exiles - this will be too late for you, as it is being shown in the HTV West region in the early hours of Tuesday morning (16th)

MORE ANAGRAMS

How about 'Chemistry at NEC'? I worked that one out at the end of an English A-level Exam. I bet No-one can find a good one from Alan Ball: the best I could do was 'Anal Ball' which is not very good. and for Georgiou Kinkladze I've got 'Kule are zoo King, Dig'

WHY BLUE?

I have been told by my parents tha I had no interest whatsoever in Football until I was 7 (1980); suddenly I was frantic about the game, playing and Watching. Even though I was born in Manchester and my grandfather and father were City Fans, because I had spent most of my upbringing, at that time, near Birmingham, I became a brief Villa Fan (now my second club); this was mainly due to peer pressure. My dad was great and didn't push me to support City, I guess he realised that I would realise soon enough that it was in my blood. It was and I found it. My earliest recollection of watching a City game is the '81 Final, and seeing my dad cry for the first (and last) time in my life. During the eighties I went to not so many games and had to follow it on TV, mainly due to being away at school, and my mum banning my dad from taking me due to crowd violence.

My first game at the Academy was against Watford in the League Cup, I remember Coton in goal for them! He saved a Paul Stewart penalty if I remember rightly, but he made up for it by scoring one in the second half. Best moment at Maine Road has got to be in '89 when we thrashed the Rags 5-1, and nearly as good a year later when me and my dad were driving up the M6 passing loads of scum buses; my dad would wave and hold all five fingers out, some would wave back, and I would greet them with the Bird next to my dad's hand and show my shirt (small things...!).

Best and worst moment in one day, Colin Hendry getting me in to Forest for free and having the team sign my leg (it was broken, I still have it as well, the plaster that is, the leg fell off shortly after! not), thought it was great until the Dibble Disaster; on the video of that game you can see me in the stand behind Kendall giving it some chelp and waving my crutch about!

Since '92, I've been in London and get to all the London games, favourite ground seems to be QPR as it seems lucky for City bar last season. I've just bought two season tickets for Maine Road next season even though, thanks to Sky, I won't be able to get to them all. The last time City won something major I wasn't even one year old, I hope I am not going to wait too long, and whilst I don't have much faith in AB my Exeter friends assure me he'll come good. Finally there is no way I would support any other club like I do City, and it breaks my heart to hear of unrest in the camp. Here's to a happier future.