Reaction, ratings & stats: City 2 Fulham 3

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."


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.”


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.

Is it time for a new badge?

There's been plenty of discussion about this on the talkboards over the last few days, fuelled by this highly dubious Sunday Mirror story, which claims that Thaksin is going to give our badge a Thai-makeover, incorporating an elephant / mythical creature / Bangkok ladyboy, or whatever, into the design.

Considering that this is the paper that brought us the classic 'Thaksin Asks Players To Bow' nonsense, and that photos of next season's kit, if genuine, have the current badge on them, I'm guessing the story is largely mischief-making by a disgruntled - and possibly former - employee.

However, the possibility of a change of badge was raised at a Points of Blue meeting earlier in the year, attended by City's head of operations Sara Billington, and the matter appears to be under review. Certainly, with the club under new ownership a change of badge might be appropriate, particularly as there are plenty of fans, myself included, who have never been happy with the current one.

Although the introduction of the new badge in 1997 made good sense (Francis Lee revealed at the time that we weren't getting royalties on the old one), I do think it's a very flawed design. While the overall look of the badge is not bad, it hardly screams either "City" or "Manchester". Here it is close up:



My first gripe is that the eagle looks too much like the back of US quarter, or worse, a Nazi symbol. According to the original press release, the eagle was "taken from the Badge of the City of Manchester, dating from 1957". I'm not sure which badge this refers to, as Manchester has been using the same coat of arms since 1842 (pictured lower down) and that certainly doesn't contain an eagle.

The three stars "have no significance and are purely decorative", according to Mcfc.co.uk, and there's even doubts about the meaning, and spelling, of the Latin motto. The original press release claimed the motto was "Superbia In Proelio", but on the badge it is clearly spelt "Praelia", while I've also seen "Praelia" used. And to cap it off, "superbia" best translates as arrogance, according to this item from the McVittee archive.

Below are the designs that have been used throughout the club's history, starting with the Ardwick AFC badge dating from 1887:



That design was ditched after Ardwick evolved into Manchester City in 1894, and the official coat of arms of Manchester was adopted as the club crest. United also used this crest until the late 1960s though it appears that, unlike City, they needed permission on each occasion. "Concileo et Labore" loosely translates as "wisdom and effort":



The only other design I've seen used before the 1970s is this odd one that appeared on season tickets in the 1920s. Thankfully, it doesn't appear to have lasted that long:



The 1970s saw a redesign of the official Manchester crest which, for some reason, involved losing a stripe:



Traditionally only worn for Cup finals, the crest was used on shirts from 1977 to 1981:



I love both the look and the idea of using the Manchester coat of arms on shirts, but the fact that the club can't copyright it means it's unlikely to make another appearance. I'm presuming that copyright was also the reason the classic round badge was introduced, with clubs recognising the potential in club merchandising by the 1960s.

According to Gary James' Manchester: The Greatest City, the original version of this badge first started appearing in programmes and club documentation in the mid-1960s, but wasn't used on the shirt until the 1971-72 season:



In January 1972, a modified version of the badge was introduced. Surprisingly, this particular design has only been used on shirts for 19 seasons (compared to 11 seasons for the new badge) though somehow it feels much longer than that. Maybe my feelings about it are largely shaped by nostalgia, but I just think it is a thing a beauty:



Personally, I'm with Sir Ron Manager at Citymancs, who believes we should revert to this design. It's not clear who currently owns the copyright on the badge, but it might still be Eddie Phillips, who ran the old souvenir shop. According to this interview with Francis Lee, Phillips bought the rights to the badge from Peter Swales in the 1980s and also paid an annual flat fee for control of the souvenir shop, worth just £60,000 a year to the club in 1994.

That deal was terminated in 1995 when City took back control of the Maine Road souvenir shop and Phillips moved out (the redeveloped merchandise operation was making an estimated £2.5 million-a-year by 1998). It appears he took his badge with him, although there are still a few items at the City Store with it on.

Considering how much design consultants charge, you do wonder whether it would be just as cheap for the club to buy back the copyright. PR doesn't come cheap either, and reverting to the classic badge would certainly be a great publicity coup for our controversial owner.

Another option is a new badge that's close to the traditional design, such as this one posted by Wheelsy OSC Sydney at Bluemoon.



Or failing that we could just go the whole hog, with this design posted by MaineRoadMemories at Mancityfans:



~ I found an an excellent site called Behind The Badges, which has the history of the club badges for 98 English league teams.
~ You can see a graphic of every City home kit since 1884 at Historical Kits.

City's all-time record signings / useful City history links

I've just completed two chapters on City's early history for the upcoming book, Purely Man City: Writings, Reference and Miscellany, so thought I'd share some useful City history links with you.

Over the next few weeks I'll be running abbreviated extracts from the book, which will be published later next month. I'm starting with the tale of Stephen Chesters Thompson, the man who funded City in our early days when the club was known as Ardwick. Chesters Thompson was a colourful local politician who had an uncanny knack of creating enemies, and in the course of my research I couldn't help being struck by the similarities between him and Thaksin.

I'll also be publishing the story of a City scandal that lasted from 1904-1906, when a series of FA investigations resulted in two City boards being banned and 17 of our players suspended. The FA penalties, which looked very much like a vendetta, played a critical role in Man United first league title win and may even have been an important factor in the building of Old Trafford in 1909.

Anyway, here are a few links I found useful:


City stats:

Roll of Honour

Season by season: 1891 to present
Full league records and Cup finishes.

Mcfcstats.co.uk
All-time line-ups and results, and records for each manager.

Historic league tables
Select any game from City's history and see what the table looked like at the time.

Attendances from 1947 to 2007


Past seasons:

McVittee archive
A unique record of news, views and features from the oldest City website. Also includes a Maine Road Diary of events between Summer 1994 and Autumn 1997.

City Til I Die
Has histories of the 1971-72, 1973-74, 1974-75 and 1975-76 season, with more to follow soon.

Times feature on 1976 side


1893 match reports
A couple of reports of games against Middlesbrough for that season.


I've also just finished a record of nearly 800 City transfer deals, from the 1890s to the present, for the book. With our transfer record looking likely to be broken in the summer, here's a list of the players who, at the time, were City's most expensive signings:

Reaction, stats & ratings: City 3 Portsmouth 1

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.

From disarray to the Double: the fall and rise of City's youth policy

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 youth team scout, who joined City 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 final 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?

Reaction, stats & ratings: Sunderland 1 City 2

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, while the latest Uefa Fair Play Table shows that Norway have just overtaken England at the top. The country that finishes top of the Fair Play 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.


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.


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.

Tabloid Tales: how Micah got 'Screwed'

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' for 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 know 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 followed 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.

Reaction, stats & ratings: City 0 Chelsea 2

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 (the 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

In pictures: City's chairmen from 1894 to the present (& other history)

I'm going to be creating a City history section for this site over the weekend so thought I'd preview a couple of sections for you.

Further down the page is a revised board and shareholding timeline, while below are the pictures of City chairman from 1894 onwards that I've found online. I've managed to identify 17 chairmen so far, but can't find out who held the position between 1916 and 1923. There's no reference for this period in any of the histories I've read so far, so if anyone knows who the person or people might be please get in touch.

Staying on the history theme, I've been looking at the section of my site stats which tells me what search terms people have used, and it appears this site is helping educate United fans in historical matters. Earlier today someone typed 'what was the greatest achievement of Adolf Hitler?' into Google and my story about the bombing of Old Trafford was third on the list. Another visitor came through a Spanish search engine called Zymboo. If you type 'Old Trafford' into that site, the tale of how United became known as the 'Rags' is listed, while the story I published last year about electricans rearranging the lettering to form this message was ranked third.


City's chairmen: 1894 to the present

You'll notice that City had four chairmen in 1906, which was the result of an FA investigation into match fixing. I'm going to be writing about this in a few weeks time, and will also be publishing an extract from the upcoming book, Purely Man City: Writings, Reference & Miscellany, about a political and financial scandal that resulted in the club changing their name from Ardwick to Manchester City in 1894.

(click on a thumbnail for the full-size picture)


John Chapman (1894 to 1903)


Edward Hulton jnr (1903 to c1906)


John Allison (1906)


William Forrest (1906)


W A Wilkinson (1906 to c1916)


Lawrence Furniss (1916 & 1921 to 1928)


Albert Hughes (1929 to c1937)


Robert Smith (c1937 to 1940s)


Walter Smith (c1956 to c1960)


Alan Douglas (c1960 to 1965)



Albert Alexander jnr (1965 to 1971)


Eric Alexander (Dec 1971 to Oct 1972)


Peter Swales (Oct 1972 to Feb 1994)


Francis Lee (Feb 1994 to Mar 1998)


David Bernstein (Mar 1998 to Mar 2003)


John Wardle (Mar 2003 to Jul 2007)


Thaksin Shinawatra (Jul 2007 to present)


Directors and shareholding timeline

Following the death this week of former vice-chairman Freddie Pye, I thought it would be a good time to show his place in City's history.

A few more details have been added since I first published the timeline, but with financial information about City hard to come by, there are still plenty of gaps to be filled.

1894
April 13: Manchester City Football Club formed as limited company. 2,000 ordinary £1 shares are issued.
May 18: Chesters Brewery takes 100 shares (5%).
Publican John Edward Chapman becomes first chairman.

Founding shareholders include:
John Edward Chapman (publican) - one share
Samuel Barnett (schoolmaster) - one share
Robert Hayes (telegraphist) - one share
Frederick William Skinner (slate manufacturer) - one share
(pencil inventor)
John Robert Connelly? (schoolmaster) - one share
Alfred Jones (brewer) - one share
Edwin Hudson - one share
Charles McCouglan? (agent) - one share
William Raymond? (publican) - one share
Alexander (illegible) (signwriter & decorator) - one share
Robert Heath - one share

1902
Feb: 'Several’ directors resign.
Jun: New directorate elected at AGM. Chapman replaced as chairman by newspaper magnate Edward Hulton Jr.

1903
April board includes:
Chairman: Edward Hulton jnr
President: Alderman C H Waterhouse
Directors: John Chapman and John Allison.

1904
Allison resigns as director towards end of 1903-04 season.
May?: Molyneux and Jones appointed directors.
Oct: Directors Joshua Parlby, John Chapman and Lawrence Furniss banned for three years and finance director G Madders suspended for life.

1906
Feb:
Chairman: John Allison
Apr: W A Wilkinson replaces John Chapman as director.
William Forrest , former president of the Lancashire FA, becomes chairman.
May 31: All directors suspended except Wilkinson.
Directors John Allison and vice-chairman Davies suspended until Jan 1st 1907.
Directors Molyneux and Jones suspended.
Dec 31:
Chairman: W A Wilkinson

1908
Directors: S Anderson and J Royle

1910
May:
Chairman: W A Wilkinson.

1912
Aug 31:
Director: J Ayrton

1921-1928
Chairman: Lawrence Furniss (& also in 1916)

1929
Chairman: Albert Hughes

1933
Chairman: Albert Hughes

1937
Oct 26 board:
Chairman: Robert Smith
Vice-chairman: Albert EB Alexander (Snr)
Directors: Dr J Bowling Holmes, William Menzies Shaw, F R Jolly and H Wood.

1951
Director: Walter Smith

1953
Oct board:
President: Albert Alexander (Snr) JP
Chairman: Robert Smith
Directors: Alan Douglas, E Gill, F R Jolly, Walter Smith

1956
Apr:
Chairman: Walter Smith

1959
Jul 9:
Vice-chairman: Alan Douglas

1960
Mar:
Chairman: Alan Douglas
Director: Doug Hamer

1963
May:
Chairman: Alan Douglas

1965
Apr: Albert Alexander (jnr) becomes chairman.

1968
Summer: Eric Alexander, son of the chairman, joins board

1969
Chris Muir leaves board.

1970
List of shareholders:
Albert Alexander (chairman) - 560 shares (28%)
Frank Johnson (vice chairman) - 521 shares (26.05%)
Eric Alexander (director) 27 shares (1.35%)
John J Humphries (director)
Sidney Rose (director)
Chris Muir - 103 shares (5.15%)
Total shares in issue: 2,000 (including 300 ‘missing’ shares)

1971
Apr: Peter Swales joins board after being given 10 shares (0.5%)
Aug 14: Double glazing tycoon Joe Smith and Simon Cussons, a member of the soap manufacturing family, become directors.
Early Dec: Albert Alexander given title of President. His son Eric Alexander becomes chairman. Joe Smith named vice-chairman.

1972
Feb: Ian Niven joins board.
Mar: Swales becomes vice-chairman.
Oct 5: Eric Alexander stands down. Swales appointed chairman.
Smith becomes president and Cussons vice-chairman. Chris Muir returns to board.

1975-79
Greenalls acquire a stake in the club in the second half of the decade.

1979
Feb: Director John Humphries, a member of the family that created and owned Umbro, dies.

1982
Freddie Pye, a colleague of Swales at Altrincham in the 1960s, joins board as vice-president.

1984-85
Kitchens tycoon Stephen Boler buys a stake in City from Peter Swales.

1988
Freddie Pye appointed vice-chairman.

Late 1980s
Share issue raises £750,000 and leaves Swales and Boler with a joint holding of 64%.

1993
Freddie Pye steps down as vice-chairman.
Aug 21: Former Sunday people journalist John Maddock appointed general manager. Maddock had joined City as a PR at the start of the season.

1994
Feb 05: Francis Lee appointed chairman after paying £3million for 112,337 shares from both Swales and Boler at £13.35 per share. Colin Barlow (the new chief executive), John Dunkerley and David Holt become directors that month. Ashley Lewis also joins board, representing Boler's stake. Andrew Thomas (the Greenalls nominee) remains on board.
Nov: David Bernstein appointed to board after being recommended to Lee by Sir Howard Davies as a City fan background and a name in the City of London who could assist in preparing the club for a flotation on the Stock Exchange.
Oct 2: Company floated on OFEX.

List of shareholders:
Francis Lee - 3,882,660 shares (21.6%)
Other consortium members - 3,713,196 shares (20.66%)
Greenalls PLC - 2,498,477 shares (13.9%)
Stephen Boler - 1,648,356 shares (9.17%)
PJ Swales Ltd & exors of PJ Swales - 1,255,704 shares (6.99%)
Total shares in issue: 17,971,806

1996
Jul: David Bernstein appointed vice-chairman.

Seven of the old directors are phased out over the following twelve months, including Freddie Pye and Ian Niven.

1997
Jan 1: Michael Turner, formerly commercial manager at Liverpool FC, appointed chief executive with effect from 3rd March. Colin Barlow continues on the board with responsibility for special project development.
Feb 17: Rights issue raises £11.8m before expenses. Stephen Boler and "John Wardle & his associate" each pay £5m for 6,250,000 shares. 1,998,343 shares are sold to other subscribers.

New list of shareholders:
Stephen Boler - 7,898,356 shares (24.12%)
Trustees connected with
John Wardle & his associate - 6,250,000 shares (19.09%)
Francis Lee - 3,882,660 shares (11.8%)
Other consortium members - 3,713,196 shares (11.34%)
Greenalls Plc - 2,498,476 shares (7.63%)
PJ Swales Ltd & exors of PJ Swales - 1,255,704 shares (3.84%)
Total shares in issue: 32,470,149

Dec 12: Colin Barlow, John Dunkerley and David Holt all resign from board. Dennis Tueart appointed director.

1998
Mar 16: John Wardle appointed to board.
Mar 17: Francis Lee resigns as chairman. Bernstein replaces him.
Jun 25: Non-executive directors Andrew Thomas (his alternate director Norman Summers) and Ashley Lewis are appointed to the newly formed audit and remuneration committees of the Board.
Oct 30: Stephen Boler dies. Boler’s shareholding to be managed by Walbrook Trustees, representing the Boler family.
Nov 23: Chief executive Mike Turner resigns. Chairman David Bernstein assumes a number of Turner’s responsibilities. Chris Bird becomes chairman's assistant.

1999
Jun 1: John Wardle appointed deputy chairman. Chris Bird promoted to chief operating officer. Alistair Mackintosh becomes finance director.
Dec 6: BSkyB buys 9.95% of club for £5.5m. £4.8m of loans from Wardle & Makin converted into shares. Wardle, Makin and Boler family awarded 5,390,538 bonus shares following triggering of clause in Dec 1996 rights issue. Total of 13,468,683 new shares issued.

New list of shareholders:
John Wardle - 13.99%
David Makin - 11.01%
Walbrook Trustees - 18.89%
BSkyB - 9.95%
Francis Lee - 7.24%
The Greenalls Group Plc - 4.84%
Total shares in issue: 53,672,693

2000
Jul 27: Thomas resigns as director. Bryan Bodek appointed to the board and replaces Thomas on both the audit and remuneration committees.

2001
Feb 7: De Vere Group PLC (formerly The Greenalls Group Plc) sells ‘substantially all’ of its stake to Makin and Wardle.

New list of shareholders:
JC Wardle - 16.1%
David Makin - 13.85%
Walbrook Trustees - 18.75%
BSkyB - 9.88%
Francis Lee - 7.13%
Total shares in issue: 54,089,353

2002
Sep 05: Sara Billington appointed assistant to chief operating officer Chris Bird.
The 31-year-old from Baguley joined the Blues in 1996 as secretary to then managing director Colin Barlow. She is a former pupil of Wellington Road School in Timperley.
"My job will be to assist the chief operating officer in day-to-day business, head up the communications department, assist the chairman and be front of house on match days."
Dec 24: Chris Bird appointed managing director - development. Alistair Mackintosh appointed managing director – finance

2003
Feb 27: Chris Bird tenders resignation.
Mar 5: David Bernstein resigns.
Mar 7: Chris Bird leaves
May 19: John Wardle becomes chairman. Bryan Bodek appointed deputy chairman. Alistair Mackintosh becomes managing director.

2005
May 25: Ashley Lewis leaves board.

2006
Jan 25: Mark Boler becomes director.

2007
Jul 6: Dr Thaksin Shinawatra becomes chairman following the complete takeover of the club.
Jul 6: Panthongtae Shinawatra, Thaksin’s son, appointed non-executive director. Panthongtae ‘founded How Come Group, an events organising company in Thailand and is a major shareholder in seven other companies in Thailand covering various fields including photography, television programme production and beverages.
Jul 6: Pintongta Shinawatra, Thaksin’s daughter, appointed non-executive director. Pintongta is ‘a major shareholder in 12 companies in Thailand ranging from real estate and car-leasing to technology.
Jul 6: Sasin Monvoisin, a fashion company director, appointed director.
Jul 6: John Wardle become non-executive Deputy Chairman.
Jul 6: Dennis Tueart resigns from the board.
Jul 6: Mark Boler resigns from the board.
Aug 9: Taweesuk Jack Srisumrid appointed Executive Director. Taweesuk is managing director of The Empire Asia Group Co Ltd, a leading financial advisory and private investment group based in Thailand.


And back to the present day

Is it just me who's got a really good feeling about the Chelsea game? With City players allegedly read the riot act and Chelsea having to face Fenerbahce next Tuesday, I'm getting confident about a win. And fact that beating Chelsea would probably secure the title for United is for me the final clincher.

~ I decided to hold over the story about Micah Richards' dealings with the News of The World as I'm not quite happy with it yet, but I will definitely be running it next week.