The final stretch
by Danny Pugsley on Mar 11, 2010 12:46 PM GMT
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Whilst we are currently in the midst of a long fifteen day break between games, what it has at least allowed is a chance to pause, reflect and take stock before reconvening against Sunderland this coming Sunday.
As it stands, we are currently in fifth place in the table with eleven games to play, behind on goal difference to Tottenham who currently hold possession of fourth place. With the ‘business end' of the season now upon us it is clear that it is a four way fight for the remaining Champions League position (although it will still require qualification to the group stages).
This has led to much analysis of the remaining fixtures, with the MEN's Stuart Brennan predicting a fourth place finish four us given his view of how the season will finish.
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Zander offered pro contract
by Danny Pugsley on Mar 7, 2010 11:09 AM GMT
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German youth international defender Nils Zander has been offered a professional contract on his 17th birthday.
The teenager was signed ten months ago from Bundesliga side Schalke amidst a blaze of publicity. The left back has featured in half a dozen matches at Under 18 level this season as he settles into life in a new country.
Zander was one of a number of highly touted European prospects that were signed at the back end of last season and has obviously shown enough in his short time at the club to warrant the deal.
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City have offered a pay rise to £70,000 and a year-long extension, but it has been turned down flat. The argument now put forward by Wright-Phillips's camp is that City seem more willing to reward new signings than players with an affinity to the club – ignoring, of course, that he has already left Manchester once before. Indeed, that might be part of the problem. Moving to Chelsea can have a funny effect on a footballer's ego. There seems to be something about Stamford Bridge that inflates a player's sense of self-importance.
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A move into the MLS?
by Danny Pugsley on Mar 5, 2010 9:19 PM GMT
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Chief executive Garry Cook has held preliminary talks with MLS commissioner Don Garber, who was attending this week's Soccerex convention in Manchester.
Garber is keen to get European clubs involved in the MLS, and recently held talks with Barcelona and Real Madrid about investing in one of their franchises as they seek to expand their league.
City, who have scrapped the idea of buying a franchise in Indian Premier League cricket, would have to stump up around £25m, and new teams are being formed in Philadelphia this year, and in Vancouver and Portland next year.
This is no great surprise given reports that the club is looking to expand globally both in football and beyond. Reports of purchasing an IPL cricket franchise were rumoured, but given their franchise values, £25 million appears a snip in comparison.
Garry Cook's links with America are well known of course, and the article references Portland in particular.
One to definitely keep an eye on I'd imagine.
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McGivern hoping for break
by Danny Pugsley on Mar 5, 2010 1:10 PM GMT
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"If you are good enough then you are old enough and the new manager, Roberto Mancini, is starting to hand a few of the young boys their debuts, so it does excite me for when I return," said McGivern. "Obviously, I'm focused on helping Leicester have a strong end to the season first, but after that I'll go back to Manchester City stronger for the experience. "It will be hard to break into the side, but nothing in football is easy and I know that I will have to dig in and when that chance comes along I know that I have to take it."
McGivern may be doing well in Leicester's impressive season back in The Championship, but unless both Javi Garrido and Sylvinho depart in the summer (which is unlikely), he will be way down the pecking order.
Even then, it may be that new Republic of Ireland call-up Greg Cunningham - who made his debut in the FA Cup tie at Scunthorpe - may have jumped ahead of him.
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Wikio football blog rankings
by Danny Pugsley on Mar 5, 2010 12:46 PM GMT
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In addition to their sport rankings, Wikio now have football specific football blog rankings, and in the latest figures Bitter and Blue sits at number 5.
The rankings are calculated as follows:
"The position of a blog in the Wikio ranking depends on the number and weight of the incoming links from other blogs. These links are dynamic, which means that they are backlinks or links found within articles.
Only links found in the RSS feed are included. Blogrolls are not taken into account, and the weight of any given link increases according to how recently it was published. We thus hope to provide a classification that is more representative of the current influence levels of the blogs therein.
Only links found in RSS feeds are counted. Blogrolls are not taken into account."
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Race for fourth
by Danny Pugsley on Mar 4, 2010 9:05 PM GMT
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ity are just six points off equalling their best Premier League points total...with eleven games still to play!
The Blues managed 55 points in 2007/08 – the biggest haul since the Premier League reduced to 20 teams in 1995/96 – though we did finish with 57 points in the inaugural 42-match campaign three years earlier.
Nine more goals this term will set a top-flight scoring record, too, with Roberto Mancini’s side already on target to top last season’s best of 58 – all of which bodes well for the bid to gatecrash the top four and clinch a Champions League qualifying berth.
It is amazing to think that given there is a sense of underachievement in many respects about the 2009/10 season, we are on course to not only better our previous highs in both points and goals scored, but should easily shatter them.
Whilst the goals will be attainable, it is the points total that is of greater importance. With eleven games remaining (Aston Villa have twelve and Tottenham and Liverpool ten apiece) we are currently on 49 points. If two (or more) sides put runs together between now and the end of the season it could take 70 points to finish fourth, which for the strong seasons teams have had so farwould still be lower than both 2007/08 and 2008/09.
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Back into the Deloitte rich list
by Danny Pugsley on Mar 2, 2010 12:56 PM GMT
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Manchester City are 19th in the football rich list that rates clubs on their revenue.
The Blues had a revenue of £87m for the 2008/2009 season according to a report from accountants Deloitte.
City's position in the list does not reflect their huge spending power afforded by the club's Abu Dhabi ownership.
Of course, the list only shows the total revenues generated (TV money, merchandising, match day etc) and not the wealth of the ownership or club debts otherwise it would have a very different look to it.
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City have offered a pay rise to £70,000 and a year-long extension, but it has been turned down ...
by Danny Pugsley 5 days ago
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A move into the MLS?
by Danny Pugsley 5 days ago
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Race for fourth
by Danny Pugsley 6 days ago
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