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PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:48 pm 
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So first of all I love Robinho. I went to the Hull game the other day, my mate, a Hull fan paid for my ticket and for petrol cos he didn't want to go alone, and then watched them get mauled. Good as it all was, the bestest bit, they didn't show on MOTD, so watch the video at about six minutes for Robby's little flick. :D

http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/Robinho%2B-%2Bhull/video/x7ulne_city-vs-hull-0809_sport

He's a muthaloving god. Also so is Zabaleta.

Also, this:

With the number of games we have left potentially, depending on FA Cup and UEFA progress, we need six fit strikers to have a competitive squad. We could manage with four, if Hughes persists with the current tactics. If the rumours are true and we are signing two new strikers, then perhaps we can afford for two to go. Benjani is going nowhere as he is injured for the next three months so we can stop even mentioning the idea of offloading him in January. Bojinov is out for at least two more months until he can even be considered for the first team, so we can rule him out of the equation too. That leaves us with Evans, Sturridge, Caicedo and Jo. If we sign two more, we will still only have six and we might actually need that many.

If Jo is to have any long-term future with City, there is absolutely no point in loaning him abroad. He will learn nothing about how to play in the Premier League there. We already know he can play well in other strongish leagues, as he has proved that in Russia. Caicedo has already started to prove that it can take a good year for a young striker to find his feet at this level so I think Jo needs to either continue with occasional substitute roles or go on loan to another English club. I have no problem in lending him to any of the Premier League also-rans. He won't be able to play against us anyway and there is no point talking about relegation competitors if we want to take ourselves seriously. Evans likewise could go on loan but I would be reluctant to send both Evans and Jo out, as the cover would then be very thin for all those matches.

We have to keep reminding ourselves that we no longer have to worry about big wage bills for fringe players. If we are to seriously compete in three competitions, we need a big and strong squad. We won't get that if we sell or loan out as many players as we bring in. We should only loan out players if there are good footballing reasons to do so, namely that the player can be improved by the experience.

Also, Sturridge is out of contract in the summer so we can't risk losing even more players until we have tied him down to a new contract.

Good little post from elsewhere.

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PostPosted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:59 pm 
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Betfred have the price of 1/2 that Kolo Toure is our first signing in January. These odds have been slashed massively today.

1. That all on ManCityForum have a happy and prosperous New Year.

2. That Mark Hughes is given the chance to prove he is the right man to manage our club. I sense he is and hope I am proved right.

3. That the mouthy toe rags who keep breaking confidentiality and talking to the scum press are sacked/shot/consigned to oblivion. I don't care who they are or how important they think they are, whether they are players, staff, volunteers, mascots, fans, z list celebs, just shut it. If you continue to break ranks and sow seeds of discontent you are undermining everything in my opinion and have no place at MCFC.

4. That we win the FA Cup.

5. That I continue to enjoy the ride. And, despite everything, I am. Some of the football this season has been fantasy stuff. I never dreamed I'd see a talent like Robinho at this club and his combination play with the equally admirable SWP and Stephen ireland gives me joy and hope.

6. That people get off Micah's back. He's played out of position so often and played through injury yet no allowances are made for him. He's potentially the best defender in the country and still a baby so get off his back please and let him develop.

7. That Michael Johnson proves his critics wrong.

8. That we offload those that aren't good enough. Elano, Vassell and Ball spring immediately to mind.

9. That we go as far as possible in Europe. Stupid competition in my opinion but a good run will attract prospective signings.

10. That we finish top 6. We can do and I think we will do.

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The world is a beautiful place. You must go into it and love everyone. Try to make everyone happy, and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter ... Well, it's not much of a philosophy I know ... but well ... fuck you! I can live my own life in my own way if I want to! Fuck off!


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:07 am 
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Great og here:

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/1917702/

But we should and could have had the beating of a pretty poor Blackburn. It would have helped had Robinho taken his easy chance, or had Webb given the penalty that we really ought to have had, but that's by the by - we gave away possession far too easily. On the rare occasions we strung some passes together we looked threatening. Blackburn worked hard at closing us down, but didn't kick us up in the air nearly as much as I'd feared, and I felt that had we actually tried to play a bit more football we could have beaten them comfortably. Sadly, our midfield was just bypassed too often - Kompany struggled manfully, but SWP, Ireland, Elano and Robinho simply didn't pass the ball well enough when we did have possession, and Caicedo looked lost with no service at all.

Defensively we coped better than we have been in the habit of doing, and at least avoided too many Keystone Kops moments, although Ball is clearly not up to the job, and Pab Zab looked uncomfortable at times. Ned looks like the old Ned, Dunne is better on the right of the pair, and Richards, when he came on, seemed more focussed than he has been of late - goals apart, we did not give Blackburn many chances. But nor did we create many, and it does not excuse the free header for their second goal.

A couple of things have been bugging me for weeks. I really do think that Hart needs to learn to communicate better with his defence - it was very noticeable that when Blackburn had that free kick on the edge of the box early on he was not clear to his wall exactly what he wanted. And he needs to work on his distribution - he has an excellent long throw that he doesn't use nearly enough, preferring to kick out of his hands, which generally results in a loss of possession. He did this several times today when Kompany, Elano, Ball or Zab were in space and ready to receive the ball to build an attack from the back. And there was one occasion in the second half when Hart had the ball in his hands - there was a melee of players on our left wing, meanwhile Robinho was standing in acres of space out on our right wing. Joe hoofed it straight into the melee, where we lost possession (and regained it, as it happens). Why? Has he been instructed to do this? Or is he just making the wrong decisions? I don't know, but it seems a thoroughly wrong-headed strategy.

Still, we did something we have often wished we were capable of doing, which is to grind out a point away from home without playing well. If we could learn to grind out a win without playing well, I'd be happier, if we could learn to play well for more than 10 minutes at time away from home, I'd be happier still.

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Whether he joins or not, we'll be fine this season, and then in the Summer we will build a stunning team, the perfect blend of our youth players, stars and solid signings.


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The world is a beautiful place. You must go into it and love everyone. Try to make everyone happy, and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter ... Well, it's not much of a philosophy I know ... but well ... fuck you! I can live my own life in my own way if I want to! Fuck off!


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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:10 am 
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Nice find. I watched that game on football first and motd and neither showed that flick, that's the first time I've seen it. Plus, the commentator said Robinhos goal celebration was the worst celebration of the season. Fuck off. It was the best. And not just of the season either. Ever.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:11 am 
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And I agree with what you said about Zabaleta.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:16 am 
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Haha Just watched that again. Just after that flick when he gets the ball backfrom zabaleta, he runs it out for a corner, but he carries on running right up to the Hull fans. Look at their faces.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:47 am 
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This is an excellent post and just another reason why I dig your shit MRAMB.

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PostPosted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:48 am 
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save me jeebus wrote:
Haha Just watched that again. Just after that flick when he gets the ball backfrom zabaleta, he runs it out for a corner, but he carries on running right up to the Hull fans. Look at their faces.


Hard to be angry at a player showing class and brilliance.

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 12:15 am 
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Good thread this MRAMB

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PostPosted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:47 pm 
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it should be stickied

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:02 am 
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Great post. Not me.

Mark Hughes: Charlatan or Messiah

First and foremost, I wish to make clear that, initially at least, I was NOT in favour of Mark Hughes being appointed as Manchester City manager. Some of the reasons for my opposition to his appointment were personal, and certainly aren’t appropriate to this debate. Some of my doubts were linked to his past career with Manchester United. My main objection though was that he was being appointed by a chairman who, if the febrile media reports were to be believed, would shortly be selling his shares and leaving the club. I was concerned that a new owner might want his own man and that within weeks we’d be facing another period of upheaval.

So, I’m not someone supporting MH now because I’m afraid of losing face, of being proved wrong.

At the outset, I wasn’t unduly concerned about our fans not taking to MH because of his MUFC associations. I reasoned that Peter Schmeichel and Andy Cole had won the City faithful over and that if MH could get results then his previous associations would not be an issue.

Indeed, if he did manage to deliver success and thwart our arch rival’s ambitions of complete domination, how much sweeter the taste of success if an ex Red was the one inflicting the damage.

The early weeks of MH’s tenure were mixed. On the one hand, I was impressed with how he went about the job, his comments to the press and how his team was taking shape. He ended the “training ground is a holiday camp” culture, spoke in positive terms about how proud he was to be the manager of MCFC and our pre-season displays were quite decent.

On the other hand, the Dr Shinawatra reign was ending in farce and on the eve of the AC Milan friendly it appeared that the club was in meltdown amidst reports that the City board were attempting to sell Stephen Ireland behind the manager’s back and that they were also lining up moves for other supposed fringe players in a Woolworths type “everything must go sale”.

Understandably, Hughes was furious about the duplicity of his employers and I for one believed that he might quit before the season proper had even begun. The limp defeat at home to FC Midtjylland 3 days before our crushing defeat away to Aston Villa on the opening day of the league season only increased my concerns.

An early difficulty for MH was the Olympics. Our then record signing, Jo, was on duty with Brazil and as a player who had been thrust upon Hughes I can’t help but believe that the absence of Jo in those early days of pre-season subsequently impeded his development as a MCFC player.

However, Danny Sturridge stepped up to the plate and with another youngster, Ched Evans, also vying for a 1st team place, the absence of Jo and the injured Benjani was overcome impressively.

As someone now attempting to make a case for City fans supporting MH in his darkest days, I guess I could use the example of his refusal to transform the principled resignation that the press were predicting into reality as a platform of my defence. However, the more likely factor which encouraged him to work around the shambles of the last days of Frankie was the imminent takeover by the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG).

As I understand it, the leading figures in ADUG are largely Manchester United fans. Even if like most of United’s overseas devotees they believe football was only invented in 1992, I’m certain that the name of Mark Hughes will have been well known to them and that they would have been happy to speak to him in advance of the deal being completed to reassure him that once the mad dictator had been deposed he’d have the job of his dreams.

Frankly, the takeover prompted new fears for me. If we were now the RICHEST CLUB IN THE WORLD and in a position to attract world class players, was Mark Hughes the man to lead the club into this new and exciting era? I concluded that I didn’t know. And I still don’t.

Nevertheless, ADUG appeared 100% behind Mark Hughes and the palpable excitement of the manager in those early days following the takeover convinced me that he too felt that his new bosses believed in his abilities as a young and talented manager.

Tal Ben Haim, an impressive centre half with both Bolton and Chelsea had joined forces with MH in August and soon old crowd favourite Shaun Wright Phillips was back for a fraction of the fee that had taken him to Stamford Bridge 3 years earlier.

The defeat of West Ham United (I was imploring MH to take off the feckless Elano seconds before the Brazilian scored the first of 2 goals to make the game safe) and Sunderland in the final weeks of August, with a 2nd leg UEFFA CUP victory over FC Midtjylland sandwiched in between, saw us enter September in a positive frame of mind.

But nothing could have prepared us for the joy of piping Chelsea for the signature of the Real Madrid galactico, Robinho on the final day of the transfer window. I recall being at work that day and someone popping their head around the office door to tell me that we’d bid £30 million for Dimitar Berbatov. Fuck off was my less than friendly reply.

I left work early, my head spinning. I entered Ladbrokes to see if any of my bets at Newmarket had proved fruitful but it wasn’t the horse racing that caught my eye. Instead, it was the Sky Sports News ticker tape revealing bids for David Villa, Berbatov and Robinho which caught my attention.

I was speechless. In truth I suspected that none of these deals would come off but even the idea that we were outbidding the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United was enough excitement for me.

Like everyone else I guess, I sat watching Sky Sports News until gone midnight. When it was announced that Robinho was a City player I just couldn’t believe it. I remember texting Tragic with the one word: “surreal”.

Robinho’s debut against Chelsea was a day to remember despite our defeat. Our latest Number 10 scored on his debut but a then high flying Chelsea fought back to win 3-1. I consoled myself with the thought that the two major differences between the sides was (a) they had more world class players and (b) they demonstrated the advantage of a side that has been together for several years rather than several weeks. I told myself that at some stage in the near future, we would build a side like the one that Chelsea had assembled.

The home victory over Portsmouth is a game I will forever cherish. I hate Harry Redknapp and Portsmouth FC but it wasn’t negative thoughts such as those which made our victory that day so special. It was the joy of our football, the genius of Robinho, the impact his presence had on SWP and Ireland, both of whom excelled, the eccentricity and sheer lunacy of Robinho’s celebrations with the crowd. More than anything though, it felt like a fresh start. The dawning of a new era. Not like the old false dawns. This time it was for real.

Typical City interbened and 4 days later saw us exit the League Cup at Brighton and we were then defeated in controversial circumstances by Wigan but compensation was soon to be found with a win full of character in Cyprus against AC Omonia.

By now we were in October and I was full of optimism. Despite what the press were saying, Robinho did want to be here and had known who he was signing for. The other players were clearly lifting their game in order to impress the mercurial Brazilian. SWP had settled in as though he’d never been away, Ireland was now emerging as the player I’d always hoped he’d become and although our defending was causing me some concern I was convinced that the coaching staff would resolve these problems swiftly.

Pablo Zabaleta was another new recruit and although my dislike for all things Argentinian meant a less than warm welcome mentally, I saw it as another positive signing from a footballing perpective.

Since October, there has been a tumultuous downturn. The initial turning point for me was the home defeat to Liverpool on the 5th of October. With City 2-0 up and Liverpool looking beaten, I remember thinking that the good days had finally arrived.

Suddenly, Torres pulled a goal back and then Zabaleta revived my bigotry when he was sent off for a rash challenge. When Liverpool equalised I consoled myself that I’d have settled for a point before the game and that it was all the Argie’s fault anyway. When Torres netted an injury time winner I felt sick.

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Whether he joins or not, we'll be fine this season, and then in the Summer we will build a stunning team, the perfect blend of our youth players, stars and solid signings.


Quote:
The world is a beautiful place. You must go into it and love everyone. Try to make everyone happy, and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter ... Well, it's not much of a philosophy I know ... but well ... fuck you! I can live my own life in my own way if I want to! Fuck off!


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:04 am 
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Despite one or two isolated moments since, our season has gone downhill from that point on.

The display at Newcastle United was poor, only for City to bounce back spectacularly with a 3-0 home victory over Stoke “you’re just a joke” City; a hat-trick by Robinho another memory to treasure.

Then came two pitiful defeats at Middlesbrough and Bolton.

Europe was going well though. Steve `talk like a Dutchman’ McClaren’s Twente Enschede were defeated thanks to another marvellous goal by Robinho before the blues travelled to Germany and delivered their most professional and comprehensive victory of the season against an outclassed Schalke.

Arry `the 2nd hand car salesman’ Redknapp brought Spurs to City and perhaps we’d have dished out another heavy beating but for Gelson Fernandez being dismissed just minutes after Robinho had given us a first half lead. Spurs fought back, won 2-1 and the first murmurs of dissent amongst the City crowd could be heard.

A draw at Hull and a glorious 3-0 triumph at home to Arsenal (another sublime goal by Robinho) provided renewed hope before a craven display against Manchester United saw the enemy celebrate a 1-0 victory which, frankly, flattered us.

A draw at much improved Fulham was a plus, but a miserable defeat at home to Everton was swiftly followed by a shambolic defeat at WBA.

To be honest, I expected Hughes to be sacked after that game. And suddenly I realised that I didn’t want him to go.

Unthinkingly, I’d just bobbed along enjoying the ride up until that point. Like any person with brains, I knew that sustained success / achievement could not be obtained overnight, regardless of who the manager is. At Chelsea, Jose Mourinho took over a side who’d finished 2nd so a title in his first season wasn’t exactly the 9th wonder of the world that he articulated it as being.

Consequently, the fact that we’d played some good football, handed out 2 or 3 good thrashings and were just weeks away from a new transfer window meant that I hadn’t seriously asked myself whether I was still anti MH.

With City in crisis and in the bottom 3, I still reached the conclusion that to seek the dismissal of MH after such a brief reign was insanity. I still believe that.

I’ve seen enough positives to reassure me that he can produce a winning side. I also think that his teams will play good football.

Of course our results up until that point had not been good enough. We’d lost too many at home and, Sunderland aside, had been insipid away from home.

But how much blame can you lay at the door of the manager? The manager is accountable for results, of course he is. You might have the best track record in football but if you lose more games than you win then you will get the sack. The only 2 certainties in football are that (a) a manager will eventually at some point get sacked and (b) said manager will get too much credit for successes and too much criticism for perceived failures.

The players meanwhile, get off scot free.

Let me make clear that I do not have ANY quarrel with people disappointed with our season and MH’s record at MCFC to-date. What I do take issue with is the argument made by some that, or words to this effect, “they have seen nothing so far to impress them” and that “he has done nothing to make them believe he can successfully manage our club“.

I just can’t accept that. It is too glib and only takes into account the negatives. Am I really to believe that the critics saw nothing in the following games to give them hope:-

West Ham [h], Portsmouth [h], Sunderland [a], Hull [h], Arsenal [h], Schalke [a], Stoke [h], Liverpool [h] and periods of the fight-back at Blackburn.

There have been plenty of poor and unacceptable displays and I don’t try to deny that. As I said earlier, I’m not for one minute suggesting that I’m a confirmed MH devotee who is convinced that he’ll lead us to the promised land. I’m merely sick and tired of the glib argument that it has all been horrendous and that there is no hope.

Many of the accusations against MH from posters on here surrounds purported leaks to the press, dressing room splits and supposed man management failings.

These allegations may be perfectly true for all I know. But I don’t know for sure that the situation as presented by the press and media is the truth. And I doubt hat anyone who posts on this message board does either.

What I do know from my experience with Fleetwood Town (a club now just 3 divisions below Leeds United) is that football is a hive of rumour, gossip and untruths. When you are winning everyone is your friend. When you are losing, issues that are otherwise ignored are built up into major incidents. There are so many crooks and liars in the football industry that, frankly, I have grown to trust no-one.

So my advice to anyone prepared to believe rumours that emanate from football clubs/dressing rooms/boardrooms, particularly during times of stress, is to tread carefully.

One aspect that I’m particularly dubious about is the insight some posters seem to believe they possess in relation to the apparent discontent amongst some players with the manager.

Rumours can emanate from various sources, most notably from Agents who stand to gain most from such strife by earning the perennial 10% from any forthcoming transfer.

Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that all the reported strife is an invention of the press or agents or disaffected players.

Indeed, I’m certain that there are problems and that the leaks are coming from well placed figures within the club. These twats have survived for too long. As MH stated the other week, the club is porous. This is nothing new. Successive managerial regimes have suffered similarly but perhaps MH is the first to stand up and say this has to stop. If he is, then there will be a reaction from the 5th columnists and I suspect that the source for much of the recent bad press is those who feel threatened by MH. But I’m guessing because, like the rest of you, I don’t know the truth.

I’m sure that in private MH believes that he could have handled certain situations better. But I’m guessing and so are the posters on here who state with such certainty MH’s failings in terms of man management and his general leadership. Have you got secret cameras in the dressing rooms?

I’ve heard the rumours about Michael Ball and Diddy Hamann refusing to warm up on the sidelines when on substitute duty. I’ve heard too that Ben Haim has supposedly been leading a dressing room revolt against the manager, and that he has been assisted with some alacrity by Jo and Elano.

But, is this true? I don’t know. Do you?

I was once told that Nicky Weaver’s career at City ended the day he punched a team-mate in training. Truth? Bull-shit? I don’t know.

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Whether he joins or not, we'll be fine this season, and then in the Summer we will build a stunning team, the perfect blend of our youth players, stars and solid signings.


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The world is a beautiful place. You must go into it and love everyone. Try to make everyone happy, and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter ... Well, it's not much of a philosophy I know ... but well ... fuck you! I can live my own life in my own way if I want to! Fuck off!


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:05 am 
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Let me be clear though, if MH is giving the under-performing players and leakers a hard time then more power to his elbow. It is about time.

In terms of our league position, I don’t deny that our current position is a grave disappointment. MH has to accept some blame, of course he does. Away from home we haven’t been mentally strong enough and I would certainly agree that 4-3-3 is not the most solid formation ever conceived. But the players are equally culpable. And here is the rub. This is largely a squad he inherited.

I’m sure that way from home, MH would love to put out a side full of fighting qualities and one which lines up in a 4-4-2 or even a 4-5-1 formation. But, for whatever reason, he clearly does not believe that he has the players to carry out these tasks. And when you look at the calibre of performance from the likes of Hamann, Elano and, recently at least, Fernandez, I understand his problem.

It surely can be no co-incidence that he is trying to bring in battle hardened and in your face characters like Scott Parker and Craig Bellamy. Only when he has had time to absorb players such as those can we fairly judge the man.

The player whose demise has sparked most unrest is Elano. Aside from a handful of admittedly spectacular displays early last season, the “Elano is a key player” mantra has become in my view the biggest myth at COMS. Play him and not only is he lightweight in terms of keeping and winning back possession but he is wasteful with the ball too. Yes, he’ll produce glimpses of his considerable ability and on his better days he can be influential but the Elano I have become accustomed to is the one on the periphery of play who often spoils the hard work of his team-mates by delivering a misplaced or ill advised pass. We can live without him in my opinion.

Defensively we have been woeful and if I have one criticism of the MH reign it is that he has not improved this aspect. Richard Dunne has been so bad it is untrue and we have clearly been weak at left back. Micah Richards is, in my opinion, suffering from his versatility (right back, left back, right centre half, left centre half, centre of midfield and emergency centre forward when we are losing) and a lack of confidence emanating from his England exclusion. People criticise his attitude and yet he willingly plays whilst injured, made a miraculous comeback within days of a very bad head injury and as a kid still learning his trade might expect more understanding from a fan base which purports to crave the development of academy players but which often criticises them unmercilessly. Ben Haim has been woeful, Ball is inadequate, Garrido too lightweight, Onuoha too injury prone and pedestrian and Zabelata is still acclimatising. But the coaches should still have made more headway and MH must resolve this and quickly.

In midfield, I don’t buy this theory of a specialist defensive midfielder, I prefer the all round combative types like Michael Essien to the pedestrian one trick ponies like Maschereno. With a player of that ilk alongside the likes of Ireland, SWP, a Kaka and a Scott Parker type, we can move forward. With Elano, a clearly past his sell by date Hamann, a sulking Fernandez ( think) and the need to integrate into this side the flair of Ireland and Robinho I sense we will always be vulnerable.

Up front, MH inherited a poor set of options. Vassell is a joke, Benjani was always a stop gap, Jo was another manager’s target, Sturridge and Evans are babies and Valeri Bojinov is a one man medical book.

Until these deficiencies have been redressed by the recruitment of new players I don’t think that I PERSONALLY can make a lasting or final judgement on Mark Hughes.

Only when I have seen him bring in new players and seen whether improvement results can I judge him.

Personally, I think that he appears to be a decent and hard working man. On the field I’ve been encouraged and discouraged in equal measure.

I can’t tell other people how they should think. I can only tell you how I feel. And personally, I still want MH as our manager. I still believe that he has the qualities to take us forward. Whether, ultimately, he is the man for the job I don’t know but I’m prepared to give him more time. I only turned against KK after 3 years. I only turned against Stuart Pearce after 18 months. I’m not yet prepared to turn against Mark Hughes after effectively less than 6 months in the job.

The next month will be vital. It matters not a jot what we think. If results don’t improve he’ll be sacked. That is the fate of all managers. But, at this point, he has my support and faith and whilst I might not be able to come up with any clever arguments to challenge the conclusions reached by other posters I’m happy in this cocoon of my own making.

Much of decision making in football is formed by hunches. When you appoint a manager you have a hunch they will do a good job. Nothing else, just a hunch.

My hunch, after not being sure when he was first appointed, is that MH has much to offer and has certainly not yet had long enough in the job for me to judge him. People can rail against his substitutions, etc, all they want, I’ve heard the same comments about all our previous managers and I’ll hear the same hackneyed observations from the Manyoo, Liverpool and PNE fans I work with tomorrow.

So that is my viewpoint. Take it or leave it.

Despite what Blue_Blue thinks, I am interested in other views and I look forward to reading them.

However, please don’t give me this guff about how we should be beating teams like Stoke and Sunderland. Bollocks. No team has a divine right to win any games, and certainly not one that has won fuck all for 30 odd years. Tell the current league leaders Liverpool that there are easy games and they will tell you that you are talking crap.

Finally, anyone who knows me well would confirm that I love a laugh and joke. Most of the TV programmes and DVD’s I watch are comedy based and I try not to take life too seriously.

However, it does irk me when the glib response to a debate about our present manager is to describe him “as a loser”. Not only is that disrespectful so early in his tenure with us, it is spectacularly untrue. If any of his current players ask him to “show us your medals” he’ll certainly not look much of a loser on the “winning” front. As a manager, he did ok for Wales and at Blackburn he did very well. He even took them to an FA Cup semi final. Which would be a novelty for us.

I also dislike this “Leslie” bollocks. It is a lazy way of taking the piss which is fair enough, we have all been there, but then when said poster(s) then attempt to make the moral high ground in the MH debate it does irk me. Insult him all you like but leave it out of debates about his managerial ability.

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Whether he joins or not, we'll be fine this season, and then in the Summer we will build a stunning team, the perfect blend of our youth players, stars and solid signings.


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The world is a beautiful place. You must go into it and love everyone. Try to make everyone happy, and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter ... Well, it's not much of a philosophy I know ... but well ... fuck you! I can live my own life in my own way if I want to! Fuck off!


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:16 am 
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Long, but an interesting read. I'd concur largely.

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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:48 am 
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The Kompany that you keep

Why join Manchester City? Actually there are many reasons, says their best signing of last summer – from the friendliness of the locals to Robinho's dressing-room tricks. An unsung hero spoke to Ian Herbert

And what is life like when you join Manchester City? It is the question which will have crossed the minds of Gianluigi Buffon, Kaka, perhaps David Villa, in these crazy past four months and the answer most people might give will include apartments, Ferraris and all the other trappings which come with the whole Arab ownership fandangle. Vincent Kompany isn't "most people" though and he's made the journey into east Manchester already, so he is worth listening to when he insists that a casual chat about egg cups sums up what it has meant to join the richest club on the planet.

City's Belgian defensive midfielder was in Manchester's Trafford Centre with a friend, looking to kit out the place he has called home since his £6m summer arrival from SV Hamburg, when he saw the said items. "And all of a sudden a discussion started with a woman who worked in the shop about whether we should like boiled eggs, fried eggs or what," he says. "She was just someone who was working there and it was something you could never imagine. In Germany, you go in needing information. You get information. Here, I bought a bed. You have a chat about which one you feel comfortable in; the one you had in your childhood – and it's just normal. It's having a conversation about meaningless things. It makes everything so relaxed."

Egg cups? Eggshells are what you imagine Kompany has been walking on since arriving in a dressing room which has become damaged by the faction which has not taken to Mark Hughes and his uncompromising managerial methods. But amid the eddies of conflict which all the Arab millions have somehow created, Kompany has provided an oasis of hope for Hughes, demonstrating that even while clubs the world over are inflating their prices for City it was possible to walk into a Bundesliga club and prudently acquire the player whom many observers – this one included – would describe as City's best piece of overseas summer business bar none.

It has certainly helped that Kompany and Hughes are individuals on the same plain. Hughes was always the quiet, reflective one in those tough early Nineties dressing rooms at Old Trafford and Kompany is a deep thinker too – comfortably the most erudite individual at City since David James walked out of the door. His reflections on Barack Obama's victory will impress James – "it's good for the environment; he thinks green," he says – and even the England goalkeeper will struggle with the Belgian's literary range. His favourite novel? The Alchemist, Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho's story of a young man's voyage of self discovery. Kompany's read it in translation, though it's usually the original text for this individual, who has immaculate English to go with his French and German and reads in all three languages. "I don't want to sound too..." he says, checking himself as he expounds on the merits of the book on Napoli's Camorra Mafia which he is currently reading. "I've just got those languages because I'm lucky enough to be born in a small country and you need to communicate."

There is a fair bit more to his intelligence than that. Kompany's quest for knowledge has its roots in an immigrant work ethic ingrained in him by his father, Pierre, who arrived in Belgium from the Congo in the 1970s and by his late mother, Jocelyne, whom he lost last year, from the Belgian Ardennes. His mother's own long hours of work, latterly as an employment adviser for the Belgian government, enabled his father to juggle his night work as a taxi driver with daytime studies which saw him qualify as an engineer for logistics firm DHL. "My father had the usual tough time for someone who comes over from Africa and tries to make something of his life," Kompany says. "He and my mother were doing what work they had to do to bring in food for the children but education was always the most important thing for them. They sacrificed everything for that. From the youngest age, they decided for us to follow a different way."

The outlook was not auspicious for Kompany, his elder sister Christel and younger brother, Francois, growing up in an area behind Brussels railway station near the city's red light district where drug abuse and vandalism were rife. But their parents loaded activity into the children's lives – Kompany attended scouts, a track and field club, with football matches beneath the floodlights the municipality installed around one grassy pitch – to keep them on the straight and narrow. In return Kompany made the couple a promise he would keep: to complete the baccalaureate he was studying for at a Flemish-speaking school in Belgium before throwing himself into a career in football.

Doing that wasn't easy. It is hard to underestimate the clamour there was across Europe five years ago for a player whose prodigious talent was apparent as he worked his way through the youth system at Anderlecht – the club he joined, aged six – and earned a reputation as the "Belgian Desailly''. Even then, he found words way beyond his years of articulating why he would not leave – despite the interest of Manchester United and Chelsea. "I do not have the maturity to play two big matches a week. With Anderlecht I play one every fortnight. That's enough," he told L'Equipe at the time. "If I left it would be putting a part of my learning process to one side. It would be like playing Russian roulette.''

Kompany still feels that decision was right – even though, he says, he was aware of United's interest. "I was playing Champions League football for Anderlecht but at the end of the season when everybody went off for holidays I was doing the exams – and when I had finished those it was time for the new season," he reflects. "After all those sacrifices I didn't want to throw it away in my last year. It was only one more year and I've never regretted it." It seemed like the gamble had failed when, having played 15 Champions League games by the age of 18, he moved to SV Hamburg, a less prestigious outcome than many had predicted, and found himself in the throes of two debilitating years of injury. There was a back problem following by Achilles tendon trouble, which kept him out for eight months, and a shoulder injury for a further five. Kompany rationalises that period as his body's way of telling him he was advancing too fast. "Good I was in Germany. If I'd suffered at Inter Milan or Manchester I could have been forgotten forever."

Serendipity played its part in him making it to Manchester in the end. Kompany had been incensed by Hamburg's decision last August to haul him back from the Belgium's Olympic Games campaign before the nation competed for the bronze medal against Brazil and the day before he told the club's president he wanted out, City managing director Paul Aldridge enquired about the player. Thaksin Shinawatra still owned the club but Sheikh Mansour al-Nahyan was evidently on the horizon. "I was just told something big is going to happen," Kompany says. "I had a discussion with Mark Hughes and Paul Aldridge before I signed and some things were told to me but nothing specific. They said: 'We want to do something big and you will see

things move'. The next day Shaun Wright-Phillips signs, and then [Pablo] Zabaleta comes in and then Robinho, so for me that was a pretty good sign."

The 6-0 win over Portsmouth on 21 September – the return match at Fratton Park comes today – was another good omen but little has gone to script since then. Kompany isn't for discussing dressing room strife, of course, but there is evidence that he has little time for those – the Brazilian Elano is chief among them – disgruntled by a place on the bench.

"Many players have the same opinion as me on this," he says. "I've always aimed to play for teams in Europe that would go for trophies every year and if you play for one of those clubs – Chelsea, Arsenal, United, Liverpool, Madrid – there are always going to be better players coming in for your spot. That's just natural selection; part of playing for a bigger club, and if it's difficult, it's no big deal. You go on with your life. No one can disagree that [Didier] Drogba must have been the best striker in the Premier League for a couple of years now but still Chelsea have searched for another striker. [Andrei] Shevchenko came in, [Nicolas] Anelka came in but it doesn't mean Chelsea want to get rid of him. But it does mean it's a way to make the team better. Bring in everybody for me, as long as the team benefits. I absolutely believe there should be no problem with that."

Kompany, like Hughes, speaks of the "young team" City are assembling, one he says, in which "there is not much double thinking, everybody is quite straight; there's no politics." It's single rooms on Uefa Cup trips, no cliques borne out of players rooming, and the young British players like to join in when Robinho starts his fabled dressing-room football tricks. The £32m man has "a very big heart and that makes things easier," Kompany says. "He stands out that much – not only because of his qualities but because he is able to make himself accepted."

City's struggles are a reflection of the fact there is much more work to be done. "Perhaps we don't yet have the level of concentration that the big teams have because we have many young players," their Belgian believes. But for this moment, with dusk setting on City's training ground and everyone else gone, it's the finer points of British regionality that Kompany is more interested in. "Yes," he reflects again. "I realise even more, now, that I'm a big fan of the English mentality. I've never been to London but the way people live here up – I can say 'Up North', yes? – has been a big surprise. A very positive surprise."

_________________
Emigre wrote:
Whether he joins or not, we'll be fine this season, and then in the Summer we will build a stunning team, the perfect blend of our youth players, stars and solid signings.


Quote:
The world is a beautiful place. You must go into it and love everyone. Try to make everyone happy, and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter ... Well, it's not much of a philosophy I know ... but well ... fuck you! I can live my own life in my own way if I want to! Fuck off!


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:49 am 
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My Other Life

It's politics for me. That's why I stayed up late to see if Barack Obama had made it to the White House last month.

Of course, there wasn't a real moment for quite a long time where they could say: 'Obama's won'. He'd won a couple of states that looked as if they were going to be decisive and that's when I went off to bed, because it was looking good for him. The next morning I had so many messages from my friends saying: 'It's Obama', 'He's done it.' Never mind how good the Americans felt about it. I can't tell you how happy I was. It actually surprised me how close it was. I'd been following it almost from the beginning and John McCain should have been 30 points behind, in my opinion.

People can say the media was at Obama's side all they want because if that was the case then it was logical. That result gives Americans a big chance to be positive to other foreign countries again. It's also good for the environment – Obama thinks green – and it makes a statement about what immigrant families, like my own, really actually mean when you are in America. After all, all Americans are immigrants anyway, aren't they?

People the world over like Obama – and they haven't liked an American president for so long. That means a lot for world diplomacy. Other countries will be more open to him and he can't mess that chance up. Nobody has been in a better position in America to re-straighten the friendship between them and their allies and even open the discussion with their enemies. People suddenly want to hear what America have to say.

I know there are plenty of British politics programmes around but I've actually steered clear of them so far because it's quite a good feeling not to know anything about British politics. I live in a country, Belgium, where I know everything about the political situation. But our situation in Belgium is one of the most complicated in Europe and it just gives me a headache! American and French politics? Yes, I do follow them, but that's more than enough for me. That's why Newsnight isn't for me but I do like to watch Family Guy, the comedy on BBC3. I've found it at 10.30pm, at the end of the evening, and it's always ideal before you go to sleep.

_________________
Emigre wrote:
Whether he joins or not, we'll be fine this season, and then in the Summer we will build a stunning team, the perfect blend of our youth players, stars and solid signings.


Quote:
The world is a beautiful place. You must go into it and love everyone. Try to make everyone happy, and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter ... Well, it's not much of a philosophy I know ... but well ... fuck you! I can live my own life in my own way if I want to! Fuck off!


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:49 am 
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Micahrichardsatemybaby wrote:
Kompany Stuff


He's another classy bastard. I'd love to sit and have a beer with him, he sounds like he'd be a really interesting guy to have around.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:52 am 
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BiscuitBlueCheese wrote:
He's another classy bastard. I'd love to sit and have a beer with him, he sounds like he'd be a really interesting guy to have around.


You could drink Health Tonic with him I reckon.

_________________
Emigre wrote:
Whether he joins or not, we'll be fine this season, and then in the Summer we will build a stunning team, the perfect blend of our youth players, stars and solid signings.


Quote:
The world is a beautiful place. You must go into it and love everyone. Try to make everyone happy, and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter ... Well, it's not much of a philosophy I know ... but well ... fuck you! I can live my own life in my own way if I want to! Fuck off!


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:55 am 
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Micahrichardsatemybaby wrote:
You could drink Health Tonic with him I reckon.


Hmm. You might be right. I'll do him a nice healthy smoothie.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:57 am 
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BiscuitBlueCheese wrote:
Hmm. You might be right. I'll do him a nice healthy smoothie.


That won't help his gigantism

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Emigre wrote:
Whether he joins or not, we'll be fine this season, and then in the Summer we will build a stunning team, the perfect blend of our youth players, stars and solid signings.


Quote:
The world is a beautiful place. You must go into it and love everyone. Try to make everyone happy, and bring peace and contentment everywhere you go. And so I became a waiter ... Well, it's not much of a philosophy I know ... but well ... fuck you! I can live my own life in my own way if I want to! Fuck off!


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