All about the best team in the land and all the world Manchester City!!!

Link to watch todays match

2010-12-26T14:30:00.004Z

I have several places that I go to watch City away matches when I cannot make it but I have just been informed about a stream that runs at 750 kbps, so I thought I would share it.

http://www.trgoals.net/ is the site and I believe City will be on channel one, I have a very reliable stream that I will be watching on so if anyone uses this link please be sure to let me know how it was.

No.2 America and Claudio Reyna

2010-12-21T20:23:00.002Z

At number two in my top ten viewers is America and the player I have chosen for them is Claudio Reyna.

As a youth Reyna was a much coveted player and when it came time for him to go to college he was not short of options. In 1991 Reyna chose to go to the University of Virginia after being offered a full scholarship, in his time playing for the University football team Reyna had received personal awards as well as national recognition from some of Americas leading magazines as being the best up and coming player in the country.

After his impressive displays at College level Reyna earned a call up for the 1994 World Cup, with the competition being held in his home Country. The competition put Reyna even more in the spotlight and resulted in him being signed by Bayer Leverkusen shortly after the competition.

Reyna struggled to settle in Leverkusen and was sent out on loan to Wolfsburg in 1997, he started to find his feet in German football while at Wolfsburg and went on to be the first American to Captain a European Club whilst playing for them.

In 1999 whilst still on loan at Wolfsburg Reyna caught the attention of Glasgow Rangers, he subsequently signed for the Scottish club in April of the same year. Despite often being played out of position Reyna continued to impress while playing in Scotland and only spent a couple of seasons there before being whisked away by Sunderland.

Sunderland paid almost three million pound for Reyna in 2001 and the early signs made it seem money well spent, unfortunately in 2002 Claudio injured the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee and missed the rest of 2002 - 2003 season. That proved to the end of his Sunderland career.

At the end of the 2002 - 2003 season Reyna signed for City, although the time he spent at City was also hampered by injury, Reyna was a player loved by the fans. When he did play his simplistic approach was lovely to watch, dare I say it but sometimes it was hard to believe that an American could look so classy. In Jan 2007 Reyna's City career came to an end but not because of his injury battle, the club announced that Reyna had requested to leave due to personal reasons.

On the 24Th of January 2007 Reyna returned home and signed for New York Red Bulls, his time at the club did not last long due to his continuous injury problems and he retired from the game on the 16Th of July 2008. After retiring from playing Reyna became the United States soccer federations youth technical director.

Reyna is a player I certainly think could have been at least near World class had he been allowed to fulfill his potential, although regardless of that he will always be very highly thought of by every one in football and the City fans in particular.

No.3 Netherlands and Nigel de Jong

2010-12-14T19:46:00.002Z

At number three in my top ten viewers is the Netherlands and the player I have chosen for them is my current favourite City player Nigel de Jong.

I have to start by saying that I absolutely idolise Nigel de Jong, I relish seeing him play every week.

Jongy started his career in his homeland with Ajax, making his first team debut in 2002 aged just 18. Nigel became an important player in the Ajax team over the four year period he was there, with his contract coming to an end he decided to move on to Hamburg in January 2006 in a cut price one million euro deal.

After some great displays for both club and country de Jong found his true calling in January 2009 when he signed for City. Mark Hughes was reported to have paid at least £10 million more for him than he would have had to if he waited until the summer, which I think was a great decision on his part considering how influential he is to our team.

With the likes of Tevez and Silva taking all the limelight I don't think de Jong gets anywhere near the type of credit he deserves, from anyone who is not a City fan of course, he is for me easily one of our best players.

The way Nigel plays is a joy to watch, his commitment every time he steps on the pitch is second to none. I love watching his hard line no nonsense style of play, every time I see him going for a tackle I get excited because I know he is going to try and take the ball off the opposition at all costs.

For me Nigel is the best in his position in the Prem at the moment and I hope he stays with City for many years, he would also be my choice for Captain.

Unfortunately most of the videos of de Jong were centered around him breaking peoples legs, this is the best I could find, saying that this video of his game against Chelsea was one of his best performances for City to date.

City finally announce Gai Assulin signing videos

2010-12-13T17:51:00.006Z

Gai Assulin has finally been announced by the Club as a City player.

He has been at the club for a little while now but City have been monitoring a knee injury and have also been sorting out compensation with Barcelona.

Barcelona had high hopes for Assulin, he was touted as a future world star, something which was acknowledged throughout football not just by his own club.

Currently 19 years old Assulin was given his first pro contract by Barca as a 16 year old with a massive 20 million euro buy out clause in it, which shows you how much he was rated.

After deciding he would not get a proper chance at Barca he decided to leave when his contract expired, leaving City to pay nothing more than a small development fee to Barcelona.

Other clubs were interested in him including Blackburn whom he trained with as well as Arsenal, but City won the race for his signature so lets hope he can fulfill all that speculated potential.

Poor excuses, who can replace him?

2010-12-12T21:08:00.004Z

Tevez has released a statement, a statement that I am not buying into all that much.

First the statement.
"Since signing for Manchester city, I have enjoyed playing for the supporters. They have welcomed me to the club and I regret that it has come to this.

"They deserve success as reward for their passionate and patient support. The club is very fortunate to have supporters like these. Anybody who has watched me play for Manchester City cannot question my commitment and passion for the club whenever I have worn the shirt.

"However, I can confirm I have handed a transfer request to the chairman of Manchester City Football Club. Now I need to clear my head and think because this is an important part of my career. My feelings have not changed and it is regrettable we have reached this situation but It is something I have felt for some time and have spent many hours thinking this through.

"I wanted to leave in the summer, but was convinced to return to the club. Sadly, my feelings have not changed. I hugely resent the management's suggestions that I have been unduly influenced by others. It was my decision and mine alone. I am disappointed that the management should now see fit to try to portray the situation in another light.

"My relationship with certain executives and individuals at the club has broken down and is now beyond repair. I do not wish to expand on this at this stage. They know, because I have told them. I wish to clarify that I have no personal issue with the manager Roberto Mancini.

"I could have signed an improved contract, offered by the club during this season; however this decision is not about money. I have made that clear to both the board and the management on several occasions. The owner has been very generous with what he has offered to me. I would like to thank Sheik Mansour for his understanding and support.

"I want to thank the supporters for making me welcome at Manchester City and hope they agree I have given my all for the club on the pitch."

Right for a start these people that he has fell out with, if it isn't the manager then why should it concern him so much, secondly I would 99% guarantee that the owners would get rid of directors and any one else who is insignificant in the grand scheme of things before they let Tevez walk.

It sounds to me like the best excuse he could come up with, I love Tevez as do we all but he has potentially just ruined our season with his stupid actions.

His statement and the clubs statement totally contradict each other, the club say he wanted a new deal, he says he turned one down, the City circus is well and truly back in town.

I do hope it can be sorted out and Tevez stays but if not who can we bring in to replace him? We will need a top class striker to score the goals he scores and there isn't that many around, especially ones that will be easy to get.

Obviously Real Madrid and Barcelona will probably come knocking and if they do then I would be asking for their star players in return. Ronaldo? Messi? Ibrahimovic will definitely be thrown into the ring by Barca as they know Mancini likes him, saying that Milan have first refusal on him but then maybe that would mean the possibility of taking Pato from Milan.

I honestly think that Real Madrid will be front runners and asking for Ronaldo who I think could be swayed by massive money would be my first option, if that failed I would probably ask for Higuain in a loan swap so we can see if he can do it in the Prem before we commit to a deal, I also think that would be a realistic option.

I think all of our preferred choice would be to keep Carlos, but if not who would you go for?

Carlos Rooney has transfer request rejected

2010-12-12T09:53:00.004Z

This is an absolute joke, this is exactly what Wayne Rooney did to Utd. Tevez's agent's are having a laugh, City won't renegotiate his contract mid season so they have told him to put a transfer request in.

Why they have to go down this route is beyond me, it is obvious that if they waited until the end of the season when the club is not concentrating on winning titles that Carlos would be rewarded with a pay rise considering the way he is playing.

My phone has been going all morning over this and the reaction from most of my pals is that we should tell his agents to get someone to give us fifty million and he can walk. I am angry but I am not sure how to feel about Tevez at the moment, I would like to see him release a statement on the back of this.

Here is the statement from the club which I am very happy with because they have made it as clear as day what the motive is.

It is with disappointment that we confirm to our supporters that Carlos Tevez has submitted a written transfer request. The Club can also confirm that the request has been rejected.
The Club remains disappointed by this situation and particularly with the actions of Carlos' representative.

Roberto Mancini and all at the Club have shown, and will continue to show, sensitivity to Carlos' personal circumstances including the issue of his family being based overseas. Indeed following his suspension as a result of the game against Bolton, Carlos requested, and was given, special dispensation by the Manager to take leave overseas.

The written transfer request is in stark contrast to Carlos' stated position in both public and club contexts. Significantly, over recent months, the Club has also received numerous requests from Carlos’ representative to renegotiate and improve his playing contract as well as more recently a request to extend that contract by another year.

However, in line with the Club's policy of not negotiating playing contracts mid-season this has not been granted. Carlos' current five-year contract has three-and-a-half years to run and he is the highest paid player at the Manchester City Football Club.

This is both an unfortunate and unwelcome distraction and the Club will remain focused on the games ahead in what is turning out to be a very promising season. The door remains open for Carlos to be selected to play.

No.4 Germany and Bert Trautmann

2010-12-09T20:28:00.002Z

At number four in my top ten viewers is Germany and the player I have chosen for them is Bert Trautmann OBE.

Bernhard Carl Trautmann is a true example of a legend.

Bert signed for City in 1949 and played for the blues until 1964.

Bert's life in England started after being captured by an English soldier during the second World War. When Bert was finally allowed to return home he declined and decided to stay on in England where he worked on a farm and played football for St Helens Town. After some impressive displays for St Helens he attracted the interest of several sides but City won the race for his signature and that's when his legacy began.

When I hear about Bert Trautmann's talent it always makes me feel gutted that I didn't get to see him play. Those who did see him play hold him in such high regard and with good reason.

A lot of people, especially the younger generation instantly link Bert's name to the 1956 Cup Final in which he played part of the game with a broken neck, although it was not only this occasion Bert performed heroics for City, week in week out Bert's great displays were earning him World wide acclaim.

Classed by some as the best goalkeeper they have ever seen, Bert Trautmann's name will never be forgotten at City or in football.

All my knowledge on Bert is of course researched or things that I have been told, I have given a quick run down on him rather than blatantly steal someone else's hard work, I suggest you read his wikipedia page because it makes great reading and gives you the full story of his extraordinary life. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_Trautmann

No.5 France and Nicolas Anelka

2010-12-07T20:10:00.000Z

At number five in my top ten viewers is France and the player I have chosen for them is Nicolas Anelka.

Anelka was signed by Kevin Keegan from Paris Saint-Germain in 2002 for a club record fee of £13 million, the deal also saw Alioune Toure leave City for PSG.

The signing of Anelka was massive to City fans, I remember the excitement like it was yesterday. After a few very unsteady years all of a sudden we had signed a striker that was known and respected around the World, at the time it was a dream.

Anelka did not disappoint us either, he was everything we expected. He was World class, his pace, his vision, his movement and his finishing were exceptional and had City fans brimming.

Unfortunately Anelka's possible departure from City was always being mentioned and it was very unsettling, to be honest looking back and opening my eyes, I dare say a lot of it was engineered by Anelka because as soon as the chance came to leave he was gone.

When he did leave City for Fenerbache in January 2005 I took it as a direct insult to City, to leave a club playing in the best League in the World where he was playing well, to go to the Turkish League I thought was strange to say the least.

His reasons were all to do with playing Champions League football, to me that meant putting himself in the spotlight to big European Clubs. A player like Anelka would never normally want to play for Fenerbache but it seemed if it got him out of Manchester then it would do for him.

I certainly think it was a shame that Anelka couldn't settle at City, I think considering he was doing well at the club and the fact that was loved by the fans that it would have been a good decision on his part, but it wasn't to be.

Anelka has a place in City's history forever because he scored the first City goal ever at Eastlands, it is a real shame he wont be remembered for is commitment to the club.

No.6 Italy and Rolando Bianchi

2010-12-06T18:31:00.007Z

At number six in my top ten viewers is Italy and the player I have chosen for them is Rolando Bianchi.

Bianchi signed for City in 2007 on the back of a great goalscoring campaign in Serie A, unfortunately his goal scoring exploits came to a halt when he came to the Premier League.

Although Bianchi was popular with the City fans he was not able to settle in England and returned to Serie A in January when he signed for Lazio on loan. Lazio did not sign Bianchi on a permanent deal and he instead signed for his current club Torino on a five year deal.

It is a shame that Bianchi could not settle, I think we were all waiting for him to get used to the pace of the Prem but it never came. Although he is currently playing in Serie B, Bianchi is doing good at Torino and is extremely popular there.

No.7 Australia and Danny Tiatto

2010-12-03T19:08:00.004Z

At number seven in my top ten viewers is Australia and the player I have chosen for them is Danny Tiatto.

Danny Tiatto is a player I remember well and to be honest I used to love him when I was a kid.

Danny spent six years at City and I for one enjoyed all six of them. Tiatto always kept me on edge because you just did not know what he was going to do, would he go on a breath taking run that would amaze you or was he going to karate kick someone in mid air which would equally amaze you.

To be honest Danny is normally remembered for his wreckless approach that he had at times, but he was a very capable footballer. I used to really enjoy watching Danny in full flow, his pace and skill excited me as a lad, as did his tough tackling no nonsense style of play.

I don't think City fans will easily forget Tiatto, I certainly know that I won't and can definitely see him being a player that will come up in years to come when I am boring my kids with the players I used to watch as a lad.

Danny still plays at the age of 37 for Melbourne Knights and no, since leaving City he has not changed his style of play or his attitude on the pitch one little bit.

I struggled to find videos of Danny playing for City, his great goal that never was is on the second video.

No.8 Poland and Kazimierz Deyna

2010-12-02T17:32:00.007Z

At number eight in my top ten viewers is Poland and the player I have chosen for them is Kazimierz Deyna.

Obviously I only know about Kazimierz Deyna through what I have been told and from watching videos of him.

Kazimierz Deyna was a midfielder signed in 1978 from Legia Warsaw, he made his City debut in November of that year. Unfortunately his time at City was blighted by injury and he had only made 38 appearances for City by the time he left in 1981.

Regardless of his lack of playing time Deyna was loved by the City fans who could see his class when he did play. I must say he is someone I like to watch when I get my Dads VHS tapes out and it is easy to see why he would have been loved in the days when special players really were special players.

I struggled to find decent videos of him online which was a shame so if anyone can find a good one please do post the link.

Kazimierz Deyna (23 October 1947 – 1 September 1989)

Man City vs FC Salzburg highlights

2010-12-02T17:23:00.003Z

Easy win on a very cold night, not much more you can say about it. In case you haven't seen any highlights yet, here they are.

No.9 Brazil and Elano

2010-11-30T17:59:00.006Z

At number nine in my top ten viewers is Brazil and the player I have chosen for them is Elano.

I have chosen Elano because he was the first glimpse of real class the City fans had seen for years when he arrived.

Elano was a shy man when he arrived at City but it did not stop him from settling in well, he was an instant hit with the city faithful.

He was amazingly talented, there wasn't a fault with his game in his first season. I know that every time he stood in front of a free kick that I had an expectancy of him that I had not had for any other player for a long time. City had real Brazilian magic.

Elano's City career ended up fading out, he was basically made to give up his free role in midfield and he was constantly put on the left hand side when he got playing time. The arrival of his compatriot Robinho did not help and eventually he was playing a bit part role from the bench.

I certainly would have liked to see Elano stay at City for many years but it was not to be, I am however glad that I got to see him in a City shirt when he was at the top of his game.

No.10 Ireland and Richard Dunne

2010-11-29T14:59:00.003Z

At number ten in my top ten viewers is Ireland and the player chosen for them is DUNNEY.

For me Richard Dunne is the best Irish Player to ever play for City and not just in my life time, he was an inspirational character who always gave his all for Manchester City.

Dunney had his troubled times in his early years at City and was nearly booted out but he pulled himself together and went on to win player of the year several times. He was a rock for us at the back and although some might remember him for his lapses he really didn't have that many considering he put in nine years service.

The club may have treated him in a disgusting manner in the end but the fans will always remember Dunney as one of the best players to Captain the team in recent years.

Stoke vs Man City MOTD Highlights and Goals

2010-11-28T11:46:00.002Z

Stoke City 1 - 1 Man City (Richards 81', Etherington 92')

2010-11-27T16:59:00.003Z

Well a kick in the teeth to say the least, we breezed through the second half and looked on course to win the game and take three points but it wasn't to be.

Goal scoring right backs seem to be the in thing at City in the last couple of games, with Micah Richards getting our goal. He dummied the defender to turn and put the ball into the bottom corner with a superb finish. Matthew Etherington secured a point for Stoke after a great assist from Tuncay, Joe Hart got his fingers to the shot but could not stop it going in the bottom corner of his goal. Goals and highlights will be posted when available.

It was a game of two halves today, Stoke looked very good in the first half and made us look average, then we turned in an impressive second half performance.

I have to say I am gutted we lost obviously but Stoke certainly did not deserve to lose as far as I am concerned and I think a draw was a fair result all round.

I really enjoyed the game today, it was a good example of a Premier League match, no team was ever out of it and the quality on show was good to watch. I can't really put my finger on anything that we did wrong as a team today unless I am being fussy and then maybe I would have changed my mind in regards to bringing Johnson on after we had scored, but I'm not going to be fussy.

I was however disappointed with Balotelli, I thought he made himself look a right dummy at times. Jumping about the pitch as if he had bin shot, he was never looking to go in for a tackle and I basically just don't like his attitude. I certainly think he should have been dragged off today as he didn't do anything and I am still not sure why he started in the first place after Jo played so well last week.

Suppose that's redundant now though, overall I think it was a good point we got from Stoke today and we are still in touch with the title race if we win the big games.

Stoke City vs Man City - Sat 27Th Nov 15:00 pm

2010-11-26T16:55:00.008Z

Two away wins on the bounce? It will be tough if it happens that's for sure, Stoke are a well assembled team. They can play with the ball on the floor well, go route one very well, they are physically imposing and they work hard.

I have to admit I am a bit of a Stoke admirer on the quiet, I like the way they play. It's just a no frills, solid, hard working football team. I think Pulis has done a great job there, the recent good run there on is a message that we have to be on top of our game tomorrow.

I can't really say what I think will happen because you never know what City will turn up, but I would like to think that if we are on form then we would win this one at least semi comfortably. Saying that, I do for some reason have a feeling that we will march on and start winning games on a more consistent basis, after watching Chelsea slip up and playing so well last week the players must be able to see that the title is theirs if they want it.

Man City Team News:
Pablo Zabaleta is suspended and there is a question mark over his replacement with Micah Richards (ribs) and Jerome Boateng (ankle) struggling. Gareth Barry has also been nursing an ankle injury and may miss out, Mario Balotelli returns from suspension.

Stoke City Team News:
Jermaine Pennant is going to have a late fitness test after suffering from a hamstring injury, Andy Wilkinson may also miss out because of a knee complaint. Jon Walters is expected to recover from a groin problem in time for the game.

Possible Man City Line Up: Hart, Richards, K Toure, Kompany, Kolarov, De Jong, Y Toure, Barry, Jo, Silva, Tevez.

Possible Stoke City Line Up: Begovic, Wilkinson, Shawcross, Huth, Collins, Walters, Whitehead, Delap, Etherington, Fuller, Jones.

My Prediciton: Stoke City 1 - 3 Man City.

Worth A Bet: De Jong first goal in a 3 - 1 Man City win @ 375/1.

Man City 0 - 0 Birmingham City

2010-11-13T19:44:00.003Z

Oh dear oh dear, what on earth is going on!? If I said I was disappointed then that would be a major understatement.

I don't have a clue what is going on in the managers head at the moment, I just know that it isn't the same thing that is going on in every single City fans head.

What would be wrong with a normal formation where the players play in their proper positions, instead of these mystery tactics that Mancini is using.

I saw problems coming as soon as I saw the team sheet today, Milner on the left, Zabaleta dropped after playing well against United and Tevez was left all alone up front again.

As individuals the players are playing reasonably well but when it comes to being a unit, they are poor. Sometimes the players look like they don't know where they are supposed to be playing themselves, so it kind of forces them to settle into their own formation and it just is not working. In turn the midfield is forever over packed because some of the players look scared to find themselves too far forward or too far back so instead seem to settle for 'safety' and sit in the middle of the pitch.

As for scoring goals well Roberto must think Tevez is supernatural, I am getting fed up of seeing Tevez up front alone and looking at his body language today he is fed up of it as well. We have strikers in the squad that are good enough to play in the Premier League but it seems Mancini does not have the same feelings, if that is the case why didn't he sign another one in the summer?

Basically we are poor at the moment and it is down to both players and manager but definitely more so the manager and I will be honest after seeing Barry come on for Tevez today I was all for Mancini getting sacked while he was still on his touchline. I have however calmed down and really above anything else we really don't need to change managers again, saying that if it does happen then will I be bothered? The answer is not really.

It is baffling to see what is going on at the moment but we will just have to plod on and see how things pan out as we always do.

Sing, sing and don't stop singing!

2010-11-10T16:04:00.003Z

Just a quick one before I set off for the match, I am urging every single City fan who is able to sing to do so!

It will help if we don't stop singing until the final whistle has blown, recent derby days have had what I consider to be a poor level of support for the lads considering what it should mean to us.

We can win this game tonight, I know we can. Lets help the team win as much as we can.

COME ON CITY CTID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

West Brom 0 - 2 Man City (Balotelli 20',26',s/o 63',Mulumbu s/o 82') Video

2010-11-08T16:27:00.005Z

What a relief, we badly needed to take three points at West Brom to stay in the hunt for the title.

Our goals were scored by our new boy wonder Mario Balotelli, he scored his first goal by making his way into the box before sliding in to get on the end of a ball put across the box by Carlos Tevez. His next goal came from a David Silva up field ball, Mario's first touch took the ball into the air but he stayed strong, brought it down, took it out wide and shot across the keeper to send the ball into the bottom corner. He did let himself down just after the hour mark though, getting sent off for leaving is foot in after a tangle with Mulumbu, who was also later sent off himself. Goals and highlights below!

I was impressed with our performance yesterday, we made a team who have been playing a lot of good football this season look totally inferior. We went back to what we are good at, keeping the ball and moving it around. Credit has to go to all concerned Mancini had one of his days where he got all his tactics right and the players certainly put his plan into action with effect.

There was more talk after the game that Tevez is the difference but yesterday our main man was Yaya Toure. It is only fair to mention his performance because although with good reason, I have slated him all season, yesterday he was the player that I have seen play for Barcelona. He attacked well, passed well and defended well, you just could not have asked for more from him. Maybe the fitness programme that I have been informed he is on is working.

It's not only Toure who impressed though, there is a few more of the lads that are consistently proving that they are instrumental to City. Obviously Tevez I don't have to say anymore on how important he is, but I think the likes of Nigel de Jong who absolutely holds our midfield together and Vincent Kompany who has to be the best centre half in the league don't get the the credit they deserve in the media. As well as those two more recently David Silva has settled in and has started to show his class, I don't think I have seen a player at City with so much natural ability since Kinky, he is just different class when you watch him play football.

Now please City! Again you have shown us you can get it 100% right, lets keep it going and the title may be more than a realistic target this season.

Next up for us, Manchester United at home on Wednesday.

Goals and Highlights.

Rubbish!!!

2010-11-04T19:53:00.003Z

I am extremely angry, what a pathetic excuse of a performance. I am far to angry to write about that rubbish.

I will be holding my tongue and waiting to see what tomorrow brings for Mancini and the so called footballers because I can not see the owners being anything less than annoyed and embarrassed with that display.

Is Mancini the right man for City?

2010-11-01T21:26:00.007Z

Right so lets dust these cobwebs off, following reports today that Mancini is not wanted at the club by his own players, is he the man for the job?

Now I have to admit I have a few problems with Mancini myself, so I wouldn't be surprised if the players have as well.

For me it started right at the beginning of the season, getting rid of Craig Bellamy was one of the most ridiculous decisions I have seen. He is one of our best players and for good reason, we all know what he is capable of and letting such a sought after player leave, I thought made us look arrogant. I'm not sure how Mancini justified spending so much money on new players whilst at the same time getting rid of one of the Premier Leagues most consistent players, but obviously he did. Oh and before anyone mentions the supposed rift between the two being the catalyst behind Bellamy's move, I am not taking that as a valid reason. Grown men should be able to sit down, talk it out and push it to one side. I honestly think once Mancini does not like someone then that's it and I don't like that attitude when it could cost us on the pitch.

The second player I wasn't impressed with being allowed to leave on loan is Nedum Onuoha, now while he isn't as influential as Bellamy, he is a player that I believe should be in our squad. When Nedum was allowed to leave I was quite surprised, you could see us being short in defence if we were to have an injury crisis, or you could also consider that the new defenders may not have adjusted to the Premier League. Well, the injury concern that I had has been proven correct because Mancini has had to play Dedryck Boyata. I am a massive Boyata fan so don't think I am criticising him, it's just that I don't think he is ready for starting Premier League games just yet. Mancini would certainly have been better off keeping Nedum in my opinion.

So two players have been allowed to leave that I think should have stayed but those disappointments ended up being really minor to me after seeing the way Mancini is setting the team up. One up front! That has really been annoying me, at times it has worked because Tevez is pulling it off but why should he have to keep putting in the work of two strikers considering the kind of quality that City have in the squad. It is really disappointing to see Tevez dropping off into midfield to collect the ball because he hasn't got a second striker to link up with, as well as that in the long run it will take its toll on Carlos and he will end up burnt out. Mancini needs to follow through on his comment about preferring two up top and do it a lot more often.

It isn't just the one up top thing that I have a problem with as far as the tactics are concerned, the midfield area is a sore point for me as is playing people out of position. At times we have Milner, De Jong, Barry and Toure on the same pitch, why? The latter three like to sit in the middle and are far too similar to have on the pitch at the same time, then you have Milner who goes forward but likes to get in the thick of the action in the middle of the park as well. It packs the midfield out far too much and if Mancini had the guts it would be Yaya Toure that would be long gone for me because he has been awful.

Leading on from that, Milner who I mentioned likes to go forward, really does just not on the left hand side by the looks of things. It is obvious he is far more comfortable on the right why can Mancini not see that, just like he can't see that Boateng has to keep coming on to his right foot whilst playing at left back.

There are other things I could mention but I won't otherwise I will be typing for a while, all I know is the problems we have when isolated are all quite minor in the grand scheme of things but collectively they are spoiling our performances and that includes when we win games.

I would probably not care to much if Mancini left City apart from the fact it would mean yet another managerial change. I do also have a little bit of faith in Roberto coming through and being a good manager but I stress only a little at this moment in time. I think we should give him his chance to get people back from injury so that he has a full team to choose from and if he still isn't doing the business when that happens, maybe then it should be time to worry about what should happen to him.

Is Mancini the right man in your opinion?

P.S. I'm sorry for blurting that out, I have been frustrated with City lately as well as itching to get my first post since returning out of the way.

Two calls for help!

2010-10-19T18:27:00.003+01:00

As you may have seen I am back and will be changing the blogs name, however it does not seem I can change the web address without losing my followers, page rankings etc. If anybody knows how I can change the web address but link it to the old one so people are redirected to the new one could you please email me at wevegotrobinho@live.co.uk, any help would be much appreciated.

Secondly on the back of a few suggestions for the new name of the blog I am welcoming any further ideas before I go with the one that had been lined up, if you could send any ideas to wevegotrobinho@live.co.uk also that would be great. Thanks.

I will be back!!!!

2010-10-18T18:33:00.002+01:00

Well, I have been gone for a long time but I am making a return! Unfortunately certain issues in my private life prevented me from even turning my computer on at times let alone allowing me to write. I am quite sure that any problems are now behind me and after a little holiday I feel totally refreshed.

I would like to say thanks to everyone that has emailed me it was quite overwhelming and I have only just finished getting through reading them!

While I have not been writing I have still been going to all the games so I am totally up to date with whats going on, in the next couple of days I will be concentrating on changing the name and header of the blog, then after that I will be writing about what has been going on.

Thanks again for all those who have been in touch and I am looking forward to writing for you once again.

Man City 5 - 1 Birmingham City - Video

2010-04-11T19:55:00.003+01:00

Goals from Tevez, Adebayor, and our very own true blue Nedum Onuoha helped us to an impressive victory over Birmingham. Goals and highlights below!

This really was a good win today, Birmingham have been a very good side all season. I did expect us to beat them at home but putting five past them sends out a strong message to our remaining opponents, we just need to keep it up now.

It has not been hard to turn ourselves back into a free scoring good attacking team, all that has happened is a slight change of tactics. We have not been sitting deep and instead have been holding a higher line, teams just can not handle us when we play that way.

The players attitude has had a lot to do with our good form as well, they all seem up for the challenge which is something that I don't think we were seeing enough of on a regular basis. Mancini has to be given credit as well, he has made these changes and seems to have injected some passion into the team, lets hope he can cope with the pressure and grab that fourth place for us.

Fourth place is certainly ours for the taking now and although I don't think we should get excited just yet, I do have a feeling that we may actually have something to smile about come the end of the season for a change. Come on lads you can do it!!!!!!!

Goals and highlights.

Burnley vs Man City - Sat 3rd Apr 17:30 pm

2010-04-02T21:45:00.012+01:00

We travel a short distance today to play a struggling Burnley side, I would like to say that this should be a comfortable win for us but you just never know.

I really hope that we don't mess up in this game against Burnley, it is so hard to be properly confident about a game when your team is so inconsistent.

As well as our inconsistency this season, I think that a lot of teams have us figured out. We are far to rigid at times and sit back to much, it is not hard for opposition teams to counter that. The main way the opposition have foiled us this season is by working hard, almost every time we have come across a workman like team this season we have struggled.

We only managed to comfortably overcome Wigan after we changed the way we were playing, we pushed our line much higher up and did what we are good at, ATTACKING! That is the way that I think we should play for the rest of the season instead of using Mancini's unimpressive 'safe' tactics. However we set up tomorrow one thing is for sure, we must win!

Man City Team News:
Wayne Bridge is still out after a hernia operation and Martin Petrov is still struggling with a knee injury. Stephen Ireland misses out with an ankle problem and Pablo Zabaleta is suspended.

Burnley Team News:
Steven Caldwell is expected to come straight back into the squad after being out for four months with a groin injury. Former City man Stephen Jordan is expected back for Burnley after recovering from a knee problem, the same can't be said for Chris McCann with his knee problem expected to keep him out.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Toure, Kompany, Garrido, Bellamy, De Jong, Barry, A Johnson, Adebayor, Tevez.

Possible Burnley Line Up: Jensen, Mears, Duff, Caldwell, Jordan, Alexander, Elliott, McDonald, Paterson, Fletcher, Nugent.

My Prediction: Burnley 0 - 2 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Adam Johnson scores the first goal in a 2 - 0 City win.

Everton result is a bad set back

2010-03-25T12:34:00.003Z

Last nights result was a big blow to us, I should think we would have to win close to every remaining game to claim fourth place.

After last nights game the stats made good reading for City, bags more possession, more goal attempts, better passing percentage and so on.

So why did we lose? Maybe it was because the referee was rubbish or maybe you could just say it was one of those nights. Last night I would have used both of those excuses when I was fuming but after thinking about it when I had calmed down today, we lost because Everton had our number.

Every time an opposition team has us sussed we can't cope, we don't seem to be able to counter act the other teams game plan and to be honest it is getting annoying. I don't know why we can't because the quality we have in our squad suggests we should be able too, they need to sort it out though because otherwise we will slip further down the table never mind getting fourth.

It's not that we shied away from a quite frankly unclassy dirty Everton team last night because we got stuck in back, I just think we concentrated on that side of the game too much at times because when we did play football we were ripping them apart.

It also could have been a slightly different game last night if we didn't start with one up front again, Tevez on his own against two big strong centre backs is certainly not the way I would go. We should be playing two up top and especially at home because it changes the way the opposition think about playing if they have one more attacker to worry about.

I don't understand what Mancini is thinking with his tactics sometimes, one week he gets it spot on and then he changes it for whatever reason. Why would you change a formation that won the week before away from home to bring an out of form Ireland in as support for your striker, I don't know that's for sure.

I am really on the fence now as to what will happen as far as fourth place is concerned, I think we can do it if we want it bad enough but the question is do we want it bad enough?

Fulham 1 - 2 Man City - ( Santa Cruz 7', Tevez 36', Murphy pen 75')Video

2010-03-22T15:43:00.006Z

They certainly know how to make us sweat, the game against Fulham wasn't much of a spectacle but I don't suppose that matters, as long as we get three points that will do for me.

Our goals came from Roque Santa Cruz and Carlos Tevez, Roque was in the right place at the right time to tap home our first before Carlos doubled our lead after a bit of smart play in the box. GOALS AND HIGHLIGHTS BELOW.

We should have had this game wrapped up well before Fulham managed to give us a scare by getting a penalty, although we were only more or less going through the motions we were still a lot better than Fulham. Fulham were certainly not at full pace either if they were the game would have been tougher, but having just played Juve and with a Cup game coming up their minds were obviously elsewhere and we should have made them pay.

I don't want to be overly critical of our team because at the end of the day we won without busting a gut, however I still would have liked to see us really stick it to Fulham. I think it all comes back to us not be very good at finishing teams off, perhaps the players were happy with the way things were going and that's fine but if they would have got that third goal which was there to be had it would have saved us all a lot stress!

Although we were not really tested yesterday I still think that we had some good individual displays, Toure for one I think proved a lot of his doubters wrong. He was very steady yesterday and made a couple of important interceptions, Kompany again was also very good at the back and I can certainly see him as a permanent fixture there for some time to come.

Mancini also got it right yesterday, I have to say I was surprised when I saw that he was playing a 4-4-2 but maybe he is realising that packing the midfield and playing one up front is not always the way to go.

Overall it was a good performance, it is going to be a different ball game in midweek against Everton though so I hope that the players don't become complacent and make sure they step it up for that game.

Goals and highlights.

Fulham vs Man City - Sun 21st Mar 15:00 pm

2010-03-20T18:29:00.005Z

Villa drew today but Spurs won which makes this game a must, must, must win, it will not be easy against a Juve conquering Fulham team but still we must win!

I am not looking forward to this game if I am honest because if we don't win then that could be the end of that, no fourth place and another mediocre season to look back on. I think we would probably have to win this to stay in the race unless the teams around us decide to totally lose form, something that I can't see.

I am not more worried about Fulham because they beat Juventus because they have shown their quality throughout the season, I have had this game down as a tough one for us for a while now because we are hopeless at exploiting hard working teams.

Roy Hodgson has said he is prioritising the cup competitions so with them playing in the FA Cup in midweek we might see a weaker team put out against us tomorrow, not that I necessarily think that will make a big difference.

Hodgson is doing a brilliant job at Fulham and has his team working very hard, so no matter what team he puts out I think they will still play the same way. If they do approach the game in a workman like fashion then we could be stuffed because we never seem to know how to unlock those kind of teams.

Don't get me wrong though Fulham work very hard but they can also play football, players like Clint Dempsey are more than capable of taking advantage of our defence and if we are not working hard ourselves that's exactly what will happen.

It is down to our players now, it is time they backed up what they have been saying about being the strongest team and knowing how important it is to qualify for the CL, prove it to us!

Fulham are sure to be a good test of our players commitment to the cause, with no disrespect to Fulham if our players are putting their all in, we should be beating these kind of teams.

Man City Team News:
Wayne Bridge is out for up to a month after having a hernia operation, Martin Petrov is out with a knee injury and Emmanuel Adebayor is suspended.

Fulham Team News:
Andy Johnson and John Pantsil are both out with knee injuries, David Elm could miss out after suffering from illness. Danny Murphy and Jonathan Greening missed out against Juventus but are both expected to be back in the squad for this game.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Garrido, Johnson, Zabaleta, de Jong, Barry, Bellamy, Tevez.

Possible Fulham Line Up: Schwarzer, Kelly, Hangeland, Hughes, Shorey, Davies, Murphy, Baird, Dempsey, Gera, Zamora.

My Prediction: Fulham 0 - 1 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Nigel de Jong scores in a 1- 0 City win.

Help a fellow City fan win a comp!

2010-03-14T13:14:00.002Z

Just a quick favour to ask of you, one of my followers and regular readers Col Bury is currently involved in a short story competition.

On top of being a big blue Col is a top fella and an extremely talented writer and deserves to win this competition as much as anyone else, so if you could please go to http://joehuntersfixers.blogspot.com/2010/03/short-story-7-gallance.html and vote it would be much appreciated guys.

After you have clicked the link and are on the page you can find the voting poll on the right hand side, be sure to vote for number 7!

Thanks.

In it for the long run

2010-03-12T16:28:00.003Z

Well for a long time now I have been getting told by other teams supporters that our owners will leave eventually, sorry guys but they have just proved again that they are here to stay.

As you have now probably heard (sorry been at work) our owners are set to spend a further one Billion Pounds on developing the area around Eastlands. I did write about this happening in Feb 2009 here, I wasn't sure if it was all to be believed back then but thankfully it was (roughly).

The money is expected to be spent on many things including a fan zone which is expected to be ready by next season, possible stadium expansion, a world class training complex and many other things that have not properly been disclosed yet.

This is great news for us, firstly it assures us that our owners are in Manchester for the long run and on top of that not only will the club benefit but the people of Manchester too.

This development process is sure to lead us to the top of the table when it comes to football clubs, it is still going to take time but I imagine that we will get there.

The best players in the world are surely going to want to come to the most outstanding set up in World football, will this dream ever end? I hope not!

Are you a video star?

2010-03-05T18:26:00.003Z

So earlier on I was watching a video on City's official site of the players doing tricks and to be honest I wasn't all that impressed.

I know loads of people who could pull those tricks off with ease including younger lads, so it got me thinking and I want people who are daring enough to record themselves doing tricks and send them into me.

If you think you are up to it then send me your video, you can email it to me at wevegotrobinho@live.co.uk.

I only want fresh original videos and to make sure of that I would like you to say 'me against City' into the camera at the beginning of your video.

Here is the video of the city players so that you can see what you are up against. http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Video/Features/Etihad-skills-school.

Bridge over troubled waters!!! Video

2010-02-27T15:47:00.010Z

Chelsea 2 - 4 Man City
Lampard 42', Tevez 45', Bellamy 51', Belletti s/o 75', Tevez 76'(pen), Ballack s/o 81', Bellamy 87', Lampard 90'(pen).

What a win! That's six points off arguably one of the best teams in Europe this season, we needed to win that game and for a change we did it! BRILLIANT!!!!

Tevez and Bellamy both got two goals a piece today, Tevez managed to equalise for us right before half time before Bellamy finished off a good counter just after half time to put us in front. Tevez then converted a penalty after Gareth Barry was brought down, Bellamy rounded the game off after finishing off a move forward that he was involved in starting. Goals below!!!!

Finally City gave us a pick up, we played reasonably well today although I still think we can play better, I think beating Chelsea when we are not on the very top of our game proves how good we can be. When we went one nil down I thought it was undeserved, we were not playing well going forward but neither were Chelsea, thankfully Tevez put us back on terms before the break. I have to say Tevez's equaliser certainly made us book our ideas up in the second half, we started off well with Bellamy putting us ahead and then we continued to improve.

I have already seen a lot of Chelsea fans say that they played badly but I think we had something to do with that, Drogba for starters was not allowed to get away with bullying our defence, Lescott, Kompany and Richards gave him a taste of his own medicine and muscled him.

The defence was excellent all game and as well as keeping Drogba contained they made sure that Anelka, Cole, Malouda and then Kalou and Sturridge were not effective going forward. I have to say it looks like Kompany and Lescott have answered the call for better performances from our centre backs based on their few performances when they have played together.

This was just the sweetest result today, we have managed to beat an excellent team away from home, Sturridge played against us and was beaten, Terry got one shoved up him for a change and most importantly we have taken three points. It couldn't have really worked out better for us!

We should be full of confidence now and have a renewed sense of vigour in our quest for fourth, I am starting to get confident again I probably shouldn't but oh well carpe diem, COME ON CITY!!!!! CTID.

Goals. *Not many decent videos available yet, this may need time to load for you*

P.S. Sorry I haven't been posting as much lately but I have had some obstacles to get past in my private life lately.

Stoke City vs Man City - Weds 24Th Feb 19:45 pm

2010-02-24T17:15:00.006Z

Must win? I know some City fans who don't think so, they would prefer to go for fourth but I disagree with them. We should go for both!!!

This is going to be a tough game again for us tonight but we can win, Stoke are going to give us a bad time tonight and we will need to be more physical against them. I am not suggesting that we go out with the intent to play in a physical style but when we have to get stuck in we must do it.

As far as I am concerned if we show our class tonight we will win, the problem is we don't know what side will turn up. After playing better against Liverpool I am hoping that we will continue to build on that and turn it on against Stoke, I think we can do that and win.

Man City Team News:
Carlos Tevez is still not back from Argentina so will not play, Adam Johnson is cup tied and Patrick Vieira is suspended. Martin Petrov is expected to still be out with a knee injury and Kolo Toure and Roque Santa Cruz will undergo late fitness tests.

Stoke City Team News:
Matthew Etherington and Danny Higginbotham are expected to undergo late fitness tests and Abdoulaye Faye and Andy Wilkinson will miss out through suspension.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Bridge, De Jong, Ireland, Barry, Wright-Phillips, Bellamy, Adebayor.

Possible Stoke City Line Up: Sorensen, Huth, Shawcross, Diao, Collins, Lawrence, Delap, Whelan, Sidibe, Fuller, Sanli.

My Prediction: Stoke City 1 - 2 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Lescott scores in a 2 - 1 City win.

Man City vs Liverpool - Sun 21st Feb 15:00 pm

2010-02-20T17:57:00.006Z

Massive massive game for us tomorrow, we must beat Liverpool and try to pull away from them.

This is not a game we would really want at the moment considering our form but basically that's tough, we simply have to start performing better.

Liverpool have been quite similar to us this season, very inconsistent and frustrating. They have started to perform better lately though and we will definitely have to be on top of our game to beat them.

I think this is the first game that I have come across this season where I am just not quite sure what will happen, I have every faith that if we play well that we can beat Liverpool but that's a big if considering our form. I certainly don't think we should be nervous about playing them, I don't think they are a major threat although they are a threat.

I tend to trust in the fact that City are destined to do something sooner or later and at the moment I am hoping that fourth spot will be ours, saying that if we can't slow Liverpool down tomorrow then I am not sure that we will be able to make it to the Champions League. I think that they will keep their momentum going and be really tough to beat to fourth, so come on City stuff them!!!

Man City Team News:
Carlos Tevez is still in Argentina spending time with his new baby and will not play, Patrick Vieira is suspended. Vincent Kompany is having a test on his groin and is rated at 50/50, Shaun Wright-Phillips and Stephen Ireland have both been carrying knocks but are expected to feature in the squad. Martin Petrov is out with a knee injury although Craig Bellamy is expected to return after resting his own knee problem.

Liverpool Team News:
Fernando Torres and Glen Johnson are both out injured although Yossi Benayoun may return after recovering from a broken rib. Sotirios Kyrgiakos is suspended.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, De Jong, Wright-Phillips, Barry, A Johnson, Santa Cruz, Adebayor.

Possible Liverpool Line Up: Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Insua, Lucas, Mascherano, Kuyt, Gerrard, Maxi, Ngog.

My Prediction: Man City 1 - 0 Liverpool.

Worth A Bet: Joleon Lescott scores in a 1 - 0 City win.

David Gonzalez did sign!

2010-02-17T23:09:00.006Z

Colombian goalkeeper David Gonzalez Giraldo is a Man City player.

He was on trial with us for a while and there was reports that he had signed although nothing official was ever released to say that he was a Man City player.

But he is a City player and we definitely know that now because he has been playing for the reserves.

Gonzalez has previously played for Independiente Medellin, Deportivo Cali, Caykur Rizespor and Huracan, he has also represented the Colombian National team.

He is suppose to be a decent keeper and holds the longest clean sheet record in Colombia. I don't know if he will ever make a first team squad but you never know, you would hope he is at least good enough to challenge Taylor for a place on the bench.

Caicedo scores for Malaga Video

2010-02-15T15:50:00.003Z

Well taken goal by Caicedo, I hope he comes back to play for City next season.

Chelsea up next if we beat Stoke!

2010-02-14T17:52:00.003Z

We have been drawn against Chelsea away in the next round of the FA Cup, if we beat Stoke of course.

If we do go through I am glad that we have got Chelsea, I wanted them when we got drawn against Stoke. I think I want them as early as possible to avoid the heartbreak of being knocked out later on in the competition if that were to happen. I know that's not a good way to think but if we are destined to win it then it is better to get the best teams out of the way as soon as possible in my opinion.

First we have to beat Stoke and hopefully we will, then it would be time to take on Chelsea and if we were to beat them, there are no teams left in the competition that we need to fear.

Frustration is mounting!

2010-02-14T16:15:00.004Z

The way the team are performing at the minute is really annoying City fans, we are used to City teams that attack and that is just not what Mancini is setting out to do at the moment.

Apart from the first couple of games under Mancini City fans have been angry to see our style of play, we are very flat and not exciting to watch or more simply we are an Italian team playing in the Premier League.

We want attacking football at City because that is what we are used to, you could argue that watching slightly boring football that is effective is not so bad except it isn't effective!

I could not believe it when I saw that we were only starting with one striker yesterday, we shouldn't be playing a lone front man at home against any team particularly one that isn't top notch opposition. Adebayor was receiving the ball but then had nobody there to pass to, it was a pathetic decision by Mancini.

When Mancini first came I was very pleased with his tactical decisions because he was doing things that we used to want Hughes to do, Mancini seems to have taken some backward steps since arriving though. When he did change it yesterday he didn't even have any options on the bench that would positively affect the game apart from Santa Cruz who played well after coming on, it left me asking why he has allowed the likes of Weiss, Benjani and even Donal McDermott to go out on loan.

He seems scared to play a proper formation and line up, why not use your strengths to good effect? We have two good English wingers now who know that in the Prem they will have to work back, then play just two defensive midfielders and I am sure that we would have enough to help out defensively. Instead Mancini wants to only think about not conceding before the plans how to score a goal come in to his thoughts, why I do not know!

You can take these problems right back to why Hughes was sacked, we certainly didn't play like this under him that's for sure. Hughes would never have been so negative and these performances of late cement the fact that he should not have been sacked.

Will the owners see fit for Mancini to be sacked after some dodgy performances, who knows.

The competition winner is............

2010-02-14T15:16:00.003Z

The draw has been done to see who has won my free shirt give away competition and the winner is Mark Duckworth.

Mark correctly told me that the teaser was the post code of Maine Road and the post code of Eastlands, Marks numbered email was drawn at random and now he gets a brand new free City shirt of his choice.

Mark will now be emailed and asked to provide an address where I can either go and give him the shirt or send it to him. Hopefully Mark will then send me a picture of himself with his new shirt along with a few words.

Thank you to everyone who entered and because of the good response that I got I can see more free prize give aways coming in the future.

*If Mark does not contact me within seven days the draw will be redone.

Man City 2 - 0 Bolton (Tevez 32' pen, Adebayor 73')Video

2010-02-10T16:53:00.003Z

Another regular performance at best, but another three points none the less.

Our first goal was a penalty, Adam Johnson won the penalty and Carlos Tevez just about scored it. Our second was scored by Emmanuel Adebayor, Vieira pinged a ball over the top to Ade which he then finished emphatically. Goals and highlights below!!!

We were not impressive last night by any stretch of the imagination and if we are to continue to win games we will have to play a lot better.

It made me laugh a little when I heard Owen Coyle say that Bolton made us look average for large parts of the game, sorry to break this to you Owen but we made ourselves look average, playing well we would have hammered Bolton. To be fair to Owen Coyle he is probably not the only manager that has thought his team has done well against us this season when really we are playing badly; we need to stop teams thinking that by playing better otherwise they come to play us with a lot more confidence.

Our players were not really at fault for our performance last night they all played OK, the main reason we were bad was because we were set up wrong again. Ade and Tevez were continuously on the flanks instead of being in the middle and Adam Johnson had to play on both sides of the pitch. We were badly lacking an extra wide man whilst at the same time being overloaded in midfield, I ideally wanted to see SWP come on at half time but it didn't happen, when he did come on it proved that Mancini should have started with him because he made a difference.

We need to start playing with a balanced team because we look much more of a threat when we do, playing a 4-4-2 with our two inform strikers would suit us down to the ground at the minute and in the next game I hope to see us line up with two wingers in the side.

Now to our home debutant's, I thought that Vieira was only good in patches and basically his only contribution to the game was the pass for Adebayor's goal, I think he could get better for us though because he does not look match fit at all. Then there was Adam Johnson, he was fantastic for us last night and is certainly a bargain considering all the money that we have spent lately. A lot of City fans I know were questioning why we didn't wait until the end of the season and get him for free and I did say to them that you bring players like him in as soon as you can because it is to risky to leave it until he has options, I think that last night he proved that spending money on him was definitely the right decision.

P.S. Just to let you know, there is not long left before the draw is done to determine who wins the free City top, if you don't know about it you can see the details by clicking the following link, http://wevegotrobinho.blogspot.com/2010/02/win-man-city-shirt.html.

Goals and highlights.

Man City vs Bolton - Tue 9Th Feb 19:45 pm

2010-02-09T16:26:00.006Z

We must win convincingly tonight and continue to push for that Champions League spot. Bolton are not a bad team but I feel that we should be able to push them aside in our quest for fourth.

This is another game where I have no concerns over the opposition, we are way better than them and should be able to reflect that by winning.

I would like to see a lot more hard work put into this game tonight considering how effortlessly we approached Hull. Bolton are sure to work hard and we must match that, our midfield for one certainly need to be more of an engine for the rest of the team than they were against Hull.

So just a bit of hard work mixed with a bit of class and I am sure that we will take all three points against a side that do not come close to us in terms of quality.

Man City Team News:
Joleon Lescott is ready to return to the team but is expected to start on the bench, Roque Santa Cruz is also fit and should also return to the bench. Vincent Kompany (groin) and Micah Richards (calf) are doubtful and Craig Bellamy is being left out so that he can rest his knee. Patrick Vieira and Adam Johnson are both expected to make their home debuts.

Bolton Team News:
Gary Cahill is expected to be out for the season after being taken ill before the Fulham game which means Andy O'Brien may come in to partner Zat Knight if Knight has shook off a thigh strain. Fabrice Muamba (ankle) is doubtful while Gavin McCann and Ivan Klasnic remain sidelined. Vladimir Weiss is not allowed to face his parent club.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Boyata, Toure, Bridge, A Johnson, Vieira, De Jong, Barry, Adebayor, Tevez.

Possible Bolton Line Up: Jaaskelainen, Ricketts, O'Brien, Knight, Robinson, Lee, Muamba, Cohen, M Davies, Taylor, K Davies.

My Prediction: Man City 4 - 0 Bolton.

Worth A Bet: City win 4 - 0 with Patrick Vieira scoring on his home debut.

Robinho scores on Santos debut! Video

2010-02-08T16:31:00.001Z

This is what he is capable of!

Win a Man City shirt!!!

2010-02-07T11:57:00.001Z

To celebrate my blog being one year old I am giving my readers the chance to win a City shirt of their choice.

All I want you to do is email me your answer to wevegotrobinho@live.co.uk. Each email will be given a number depending on the order that I receive your email in, for example the first email I receive will be number 1, the second email number 2 and so on. All the numbers will then go into the hat and the first number randomly picked out will be the winner.

The winner will be announced between now and next weekend, I will wait until I stop receiving emails before I do the draw, if I am still getting emails by next weekend then next Saturday will be the last day to get your answer in.

All I want you to do is put the following two sets of numbers and letters in the correct order and then tell me the significance of each one.

1) W7N 1M4 This is the.............................

2) F3F 1M1 This is the..............................

I think the teasers are quite easy and I hope that a lot of you know the answer so that you will be in with a chance to win, Good Luck!!!

*Comments have been disabled so that nobody can leave the answer below.

Shirt competition tomorrow!!!

2010-02-06T19:37:00.002Z

Tomorrow I will be posting a teaser for my readers to answer in order to celebrate my blog being one year old, the winner will win a City shirt of their choice.

All the details that you will need to know will be posted along with the teaser tomorrow, so keep your eyes on my blog tomorrow if you want the chance to win.

Hull 2 -1 Man City (Altidore 31', Boateng 54', Adebayor 59')

2010-02-06T19:07:00.000Z

Total rubbish, I can't believe how bad we were again today! We have to beat teams like Hull if we are to finish fourth.

We were poor today and I think it had a lot to do with the team selection. Mancini should have started with SWP and Johnson, we lacked width throughout. I thought the whole point in signing Johnson was to have an equal balance on each side of the pitch, so why those two players didn't start is beyond me.

As well as not being tactically set up properly we lacked any kind of fight, Hull wanted it more than us and got stuck in to us, something that we did not do. Every second ball was won by Hull, our passing was terrible and basically we lacked any conviction in all areas of the field.

After not starting with a positive attacking team I thought that Mancini changed things to late, Bellamy and Ireland who have both been poor in recent weeks should have been replaced sooner. When he did make some changes I felt he made the wrong ones, SWP should have definitely been brought on but he didn't do it.

I was surprised to see Petrov brought on before SWP considering how bad he is, I don't know why Mancini can't see that Petrov is not good enough, he won't tackle, he doesn't track back and he doesn't even do what he is best at and run at people all that often anymore.

As you can see by the way I have sporadically vented my frustration, I am very bitter and disappointed with the result. It is just not good enough though, sometimes it seems like it is only us fans who can see the problems that could be easily fixed.

We have a real shot at fourth but if we carry on playing like this then we can forget about that, I think that Mancini should have a training session or two based on attitude and work rate because both of those things certainly need some work.

Yet again we have to look to our next game to get back on track, as always and maybe stupidly I believe we can do that.

Johnson signs!!!

2010-02-01T17:51:00.006Z

We have beat the transfer deadline and completed the signing of left winger Adam Johnson from Middlesbrough.

Johnson has signed a deal that will last until June 2014, the fee is believed to be around six million pounds although the club have only officially referred to the fee as undisclosed.

This is a good signing, Johnson is not a bad player at all. He has been impressive for the last couple of seasons and because of his good displays he has attracted the interest of Real Madrid and Chelsea as well as a host of other clubs.

It is good to see City sign another good young British player, that can only help us considering the rule that is due to come in on having a set amount of home growns in your match day squad.

I am pleased with this signing especially considering we signed him for a fee that could prove to be a snip should Johnson reach his full potential, hopefully he can come straight into the team and maybe even push for a World Cup place.

What do you think? Are you a Johnson fan?

Man City vs Portsmouth - Sun 31st Jan 13:30 pm

2010-01-30T20:33:00.005Z

Our focus turns back on to the league tomorrow as a struggling Pompey side visit Eastlands.

We have to make sure that we stick the boot in on a club that are struggling on and off the pitch.

I don't like to see what has happened to Pompey but when it comes down to a football match I don't care what position they are in and hope that we can make their situation a little worse.

We should by rights hammer Pompey tomorrow, we are in good form and they are in poor form. Our squad is much stronger than theirs and on top of that their defensive rock Younes Kaboul has just been sold, so I can't really see us not scoring a few goals against them.

Actually all we have to do to convincingly win this game is play like we did against Utd in the Cup, I have no doubt if we play like that for this game we will comfortably win. In fact if we play to that standard for the rest of the season we will easily make fourth spot.

Just a little message to any Pompey fans, I really want us to hammer you tomorrow but it's not good seeing what has happened to your club after making so much progress in recent years and I hope you pull through.

Man City Team News:
Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge (both knee) are both expected to miss out although Bridge has been getting closer to fitness and may make a return, Roque Santa Cruz and Patrick Vieira are both set to miss out with calf problems. Emmanuel Adebayor made his return in midweek and is expected to be back in the match squad along with Kolo Toure.

Portsmouth Team News:
Jamie O'Hara has returned to Pompey for another loan spell and will be available as will David Nugent who has returned from his loan spell at Burnley. Younes Kaboul has left for Spurs but goalkeeper Asmir Begovic has not yet joined him as expected and should be available.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Kompany, Boyata, Garrido, Zabaleta, Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Barry, Bellamy, Tevez.

Possible Portsmouth Line Up: Begovic, Finnan, Hreidarsson, Ben-Haim, Wilson, Mokoena, Boateng, Mullins, Basinas, Utaka, Piquionne.

My Prediction: Man City 4 - 0 Portsmouth.

Worth A Bet: Nigel de Jong and SWP score in a 4 - 0 City win.

Big game and a big player lost!

2010-01-28T20:44:00.004Z

I am still gutted, I really thought that maybe it was our year to win a trophy. It wasn't to be and we just have to plod on.

We played quite well last night and I wasn't disappointed with the performance, just the result. I just can't stop thinking about Shay Given's mistake though, he should have come out and claimed the ball when it ran away from Gigg's before Scholes scored, I am not going to hold a grudge against Given or anything but that does stand out as a key moment in the game and it could have been prevented.

We will just have to dust ourselves down and get on with it now, we are progressing and that is there for all to see. Maybe I got drunk on the hope of winning a trophy when really all I want is to see us make steps in that direction and that is what we are doing.

On the back of that game we have seen Robinho leave on loan, he has headed back home to Brazil on a deal lasting until the 4Th of August.

How frustrated am I that Robinho has left? VERY! I am not surprised that he has been allowed to leave because he just has not looked bothered. I am frustrated though because of the talent that he has, this lad could be one of the very best in the World if he wanted but he just refuses to show what he is capable of.

I really hope he comes back and proves a point to everyone although I am not sure if he will or not, he should otherwise he faces the prospect of fading away into oblivion. We shall see what happens with him, maybe we will just have to buy Messi!!!

Man Utd vs Man City - Wed 27Th Jan 20:00 pm

2010-01-27T16:36:00.009Z

It is here, the big one! Can we do it? Absolutely we can!!!!

I had a lot of people asking me at work today 'are you nervous' my reply was no! I just hope our players feel the same way because they have nothing to be nervous about, we can more than match Utd if we want to!

Again all we need is hard work and determination and I am positive that we can win, our big players need to earn their tags as big players tonight and send us through to the Cup final.

I am looking to our midfield to make a big impact tonight, they are by far the most important part of the team in this game. We can not concede and it will be their job to guard the defence and well at that, I believe we have the players to manage that and I have every faith in them. The midfield will also be very busy attacking tonight as well, we must go all out and put pressure on Utd to win the game.

We need 180 minutes worth of hard work tonight and that is what I think we will get from our players, they are 90 minutes away from Wembley and if that isn't the biggest incentive you need then I don't know what is.

Come on lads you can do it!!!! CTID!!!!!!!!!!

Man City Team News:
Roque Santa Cruz is still out with a calf injury as is Patrick Vieira who has a similar problem, Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge (both knee) are also still out. Emmanuel Adebayor is back from Togo and may make the team, Kolo Toure is also back with us and is expected to start. Robinho is in the squad despite being linked with a move away.

Man Utd Team News:
Owen Hargreaves (knee) and John O'Shea (thigh) are out and it remains to be seen if Nemanja Vidic who has been suffering with a calf injury will play.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Toure, Kompany, Garrido, Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Barry, Zabaleta, Bellamy, Tevez.

Possible Man Utd Line Up: Van der Sar, Neville, Brown, Ferdinand, Evra, Obertan, Fletcher, Anderson, Giggs, Berbatov, Rooney.

My Prediction: Man Utd 0 - 1 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Carlos Tevez scores in a 1 - 0 City win.

Change to come and a prize up for grabs!

2010-01-26T19:19:00.003Z

Firstly as some of you may have guessed the situation with Robinho means I will most likely be changing the name of my blog in the near future, I have a name in mind already but any suggestions are welcome.

Next I would like to tell you about a give away that I am doing, my blog is almost a year old an to celebrate it's 'birthday' I will be asking for an answer to a very simple question, the winner will win a City shirt of their choice! The question will be posted on the 30Th of January, full details about the give away will be given on that day also.

(REGRETTABLY THE COMPETITION DATE HAS NOW CHANGED DUE TO COMMITMENTS THAT I HAVE ON THE 30TH DURING THE DAY, IT WILL NOW TAKE PLACE ON THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND)

Scunthorpe beaten, next up is Stoke! Video

2010-01-24T21:10:00.004Z

We defeated Scunthorpe today and now we must face Stoke at home in our quest for FA Cup glory.

We won 4 - 2 today with the goals coming from Petrov, Onuoha, Sylvinho and Robinho. They were all good goals with Sylvinho's being the pick of the bunch, Goals below!

We played alright today, not amazing but we did enough to get the job done. Scunthorpe were not bad and gave us a harder time than some Prem teams have this season, ultimately it was our class that shone through to help us win the game.

Our team was a much different one to usual today, two young men, Abdisalam Ibrahim and Greg Cunningham made their debuts. Ibrahim impressed me in the first half and although he faded in the second had an all round good game. Cunningham wasn't tested that much after coming on for de Jong in the second half, anything he did do was done well though.

I also thought that Boyata did well today, he has been a little shaky in his first couple of games at times but today he was very steady. Benjani was also a bit of an unsung hero, he worked very hard up top.

There was also a much better performance from Robinho today, he has took a lot of stick lately but did show signs of improvement today. He was trying a lot harder and was even tackling, he reverted to mixing his skill with doing the simple thing and it worked. He even scored after finishing off a good piece of build up, lets hope he continues to improve, if he isn't leaving that is!

Another Mancini win has seen us go through to play Stoke at home on the weekend of the 13/14Th of February. It is a good draw for us and we should be able to win it.

A few trips to Wembley for us lot this season? We shall see!

Goals.

Scunthorpe Utd vs Man City - Sun 24Th Jan 16:00 pm

2010-01-24T13:37:00.011Z

Another Cup game against Scunthorpe sees us to travel to them this time round, it should not prove to be much of a task for us.

Having already beaten Scunthorpe 5 - 1 this season you would expect us to win this game, which I do. Scunny have been struggling in the Championship this season but they have been doing better lately, not that I expect that to make any difference to the result of this game.

We are expected to make a few changes for the game today and I will not be surprised if we do, any team that we put out today should be able to beat Scunthorpe and take some strain off our regular starters ahead of the Utd game.

Man City Team News:
Roque Santa Cruz and Patrick Vieira are both out with calf injuries and Joleon Lescott, Michael Johnson and Wayne Bridge all have knee problems which will see them miss out as well. Kolo Toure is still at the African Cup of Nations and Emmanuel Adebayor is still not ready to return to the pitch but was expected back in the Country today.

Scunthorpe Team News:
Josh Wright has recovered from illness and may return to the starting line up, Michael O'Connor misses out due to suspension. Big City fan Josh Lillis son of former City player Mark Lillis hopes to keep his place in goal against his beloved Blues.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Vidal, Boyata, Onuoha, Sylvinho, Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Barry, Petrov, Robinho, Benjani.

Possible Scunthorpe Line Up: Lillis, Byrne, A.Wright, Mirfin, Williams, Thompson, Woolford, J.Wright, McCann, Hayes, Hooper.

My Prediction: Man City 3 - 1 Scunthorpe Utd.

Worth A Bet: Ireland scores the first goal in a 3 - 1 City win.

Man City 2 - 1 Man Utd (Giggs 17', Tevez 42' pen,65') Video

2010-01-20T17:26:00.006Z

Get in! I am so relieved and overjoyed, first blood is ours and now we must see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tevez was our main man again and scored both of our goals, his energy and work rate is unbelievable and no matter what Ferguson says, he must be regretting letting him go. Goals and highlights below!!!

We played decent for periods last night and managed to get the win, we will have to play a lot better to beat Man Utd away from home though. When we played them at their own game and attacked them last night we looked good, the problem was we sat back way to much and let Utd put pressure on us. I feel we should go to Old Trafford and attack them throughout, that's when we are at our most dangerous and that is when Utd look most vulnerable.

I don't have a lot more to say as I still slightly overwhelmed, but one last thing I must point out is the teams work rate last night. They all worked very hard all the way through the game, at times our passing was bad and our marking was poor but as long as they are giving their all, then that can be forgiven.

I just hope the lads go to Old Trafford and maintain their advantage, we can do it CTID!!!

Man City vs Man Utd - Tues 19Th Sep 20:00 pm

2010-01-19T15:32:00.004Z

It is time for our players to stand up and be counted, I will be in great form in the stands tonight but I really don't care that it is United we are playing. I am more bothered about reaching the final of the Cup and honestly that's all this game is about for me.

It has been a long time for some City fans since they saw proper silverware at the club, luckily I am younger and have not had to endure that heartache for as long as some of you, not to say I am willing to wait any longer! We need to win this game and give ourselves that glimmer of hope that might suggest that this year is our year!

I am not going to evaluate what certain players need to do in this game that they didn't do against Everton because basically it doesn't matter, this game is a whole different kettle of fish. The players can go into it with a clean slate ready to give their all, they must near kill themselves tonight to win this game and that's what I hope to see.

Us fans can also make a huge difference tonight, to often do I see people around me not clapping or singing and cheering. Those people know who they are and tonight you must must must make an effort to get right behind the team for as long as the game goes on for. Lets make it an experience that we will never forget, win or lose.

COME ON CITY!!!

Man City Team News:
Stephen Ireland looks set to return to the bench tonight after recovering from injury but Roque Santa Cruz will miss out after being sidelined for a month with a calf injury. Nedum Onuoha should be on the bench again although Joleon Lescott (knee) and Wayne Bridge (knee) are said to be out with injury even though Bridge was rated as a week away by Mancini a couple of weeks back. Patrick Vieira (calf) is still out as is long term casualty Michael Johnson. Toure is at the African Cup of Nations and Adebayor is still in Togo.

Man Utd Team News:
Rio Ferdinand (calf), Nemanja Vidic (calf), Dimitar Berbatov (dead leg), Ben Foster (back), Owen Hargreaves (knee), John O'Shea (thigh) and Ryan Giggs (old) are all expected to be out.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Richards, Kompany, Garrido, Wright-Phillips, De Jong, Barry, Bellamy, Benjani, Tevez.

Possible Man Utd Line Up: Kuszczack, Rafael, Brown, Evans, Fabio, Obertan, Fletcher, Anderson, Nani, Owen, Diouf.

My Prediction: Man City 2 - 0 Man Utd.

Worth A Bet: Nigel de Jong and Carlos Tevez score in a 2-0 City win.

Everton 2 - 0 Man City (Pienaar 36', Saha 45'pen)

2010-01-17T11:04:00.003Z

What a totally rubbish performance, we don't expect to win every game but surely we expect the team to try harder than they did yesterday.

The team decided to return to the form that got Mark Hughes sacked yesterday, we were terrible. The whole team were poor but there were also some particular awful individual performances, Martin Petrov and Robinho being the two that stand out most.

Robinho got most of the flack but Petrov was just as bad as him, non of these players looked as if they had played football before and if either of them ever makes a tackle I will probably suffer from shock for a long time! Robinho ran round yesterday like a headless chicken, maybe it was his way of trying harder but what he was doing was pointless. His confidence is obviously low and he needs to sort that out rapidly or he will find himself getting sold because he is not wanted and not because he thinks he is worth a move to a bigger club.

Petrov is the one who is annoying me the most at the moment, a lot of City fans agree with what he says about deserving to be in the team, I don't I have always seen what Mark Hughes saw in him. He is a liability, he doesn't even do what he is good at anymore and run at people and as for his tackling, I have never seen anyone bottle going in for a tackle as much as he does.

I think the thing that annoys me most about both of these players, is that they are clearly talented players on their day. It is just a shame we are not seeing the best out of them regularly.

Now I have got that out of the way I want to be clear that I am not just blaming these two players, I think we also saw de Jong have a bad game for the first time yesterday and Zabbo wasn't as neat as he usually is. In fact the only player who I thought did OK was Javier Garrido, he was steady and did his job well.

I just hope they got the slap in the face they needed before we play United, I mean lets face it if we approached the semi final in this manner then United would have really battered us. So if I am trying to be positive I would say that the defeat may have been a blessing in disguise that will help us pull our socks up on Tuesday!

Everton vs Man City - Sat 16Th Jan 17:30 pm

2010-01-16T11:03:00.005Z

Arguably our toughest game of Mancini's reign takes place today, Everton have been playing better in recent weeks and will be hard to beat.

I have a lot of respect for Everton's ability, I think a lot of people have wrote them off but I still think they are a strong side despite their bad patch.

I still think that we should win this game as long as we don't become complacent, in recent times we have seen the team take it easy after a couple of wins and expect to win games, if we do that today all our good work of late will be wasted.

I have something a little different in my build up today, my good Evertonian friend Anthony or 'Chunky' thought it was a good idea for him to have a little say on today's game and I agree.

Anthony aka Chunky says.........

''I am looking forward to a good game of football today, I think both teams will be up for it and it should turn out to be a good contest. We are both in form and will both really want to win the game, but I see Everton coming out on top with a 3 - 0 win. City have the best striker in the League at the moment but I feel one man can't take down a team like ours that have a strong team ethic.''

Well if all goes to plan I will be seeing Chunky at the game today and on behalf of us all I will be sure to tell him how wrong he is!

Man City Team News:
Shaun Wright-Phillips (ankle) and new signing Patrick Vieira (calf) are both said to be fit but may not be rushed into the team. Joleon Lescott (knee), Nedum Onuoha (calf) and Stephen Ireland (hamstring) are all expected to be missing, Wayne Bridge may feature on the bench. Kolo Toure is at the African Cup of Nations and Emmanuel Adebayor is still recovering from that terrible attack on the Togo team bus.

Everton Team News:
Sylvain Distin returned to training this week after coming back from a hamstring injury but is not expected to make his first team return today. Yakubu Aiyegbeni and Joseph Yobo are on African Cup of Nations duty and Lucas Neill looks set to play his last game for Everton before moving to Galatasaray.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Richards, Kompany, Garrido, Petrov, De Jong, Barry, Bellamy, Benjani, Tevez.

Possible Everton Line Up: Howard, Heitinga, Neill, Baines, Neville, Cahill, Fellaini, Pienaar, Osman, Donovan, Saha.

My Prediction: Everton 1 - 3 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Nigel de Jong and Benjani score in a City win.

Video of our progress in the Carling Cup!

2010-01-14T16:12:00.002Z

I have been sent a video from City that shows the progress we have made in the Carling Cup so far.

So here you go!

Can you dance like Tevez?

2010-01-14T16:08:00.002Z

City are running a competition to see who is the best at impersonating Carlos Tevez's goal celebration.

From the official site.........

Not only have the performances and goalscoring exploits of our Argentinean ace made the headlines over the past few weeks but so has the celebratory dance routine now known as ‘The Tevez’.

We want you to record yourself and your friends doing ‘The Tevez’, upload it to YouTube and email a link to us at mcfc@mcfc.co.uk and we’ll choose our favourite.

The winner will receive a signed Tevez shirt, two tickets to City vs Portsmouth on the 31^st January and have their dance shown on the big screens at CoMS at the game. The closing date is 28/01/10 with the winner notified the following day.

And for some inspiration, here's the man himself...

Do you want to feature in a City documentary?

2010-01-13T17:29:00.003Z

City have sent me an email about a documentary that is going to be made and they want the fans to feature!!!

Here is the info................

Your Stories - Be a part of City History

MCFC has commissioned a major documentary about the Club during the 2009/2010 season focussing on both the team and a group of long-time supporters.

The Producers want to hear from fans who have experienced the ups and downs of following the Club over the last 30 years.

They want to talk to fans who remember any of the following:

1976 – League Cup Final - MCFC v Newcastle.

1981 – FA Cup runners up - MCFC v Spurs.

1998 – Relegation to the third tier - Stoke v MCFC.

1999 – The legendary Gillingham match which secured promotion.

It might be that you weren’t at the game itself but remember it for another reason – maybe it was the day you married/became engaged. Or perhaps you just watched the game in the pub ?

If you have fantastic stories about any other City matches, the Producers would also like to hear about those, too.

The best stories will be filmed as part of the documentary. These will then be combined with footage of the match and maybe comments of the players involved, so your story is preserved forever.

Please email us with your memories asap, ideally by the end of January, to matthew.mccann@endemoluk.com

We look forward to receiving your stories, Many thanks.

Man City 4 - 1 Blackburn Rovers Video (Tevez 7', 49', 90', Richards 39', Pedersen 71')

2010-01-12T15:22:00.005Z

Another win saw us move up to fourth spot in the table, Carlos Tevez was the driving force behind the teams performance last night.

City's and Tevez's first goal was scored off his knee after Benjani turned to drill the ball towards the goal. Our second was scored by Micah Richards, he picked the ball up in his own half and steamed towards the Blackburn box, he then passed to Benjani who hit the post but Micah was there to put the loose ball into the back of the net. Both of Tevez's other two goals we absolute crackers that he curled from outside the box and passed Paul Robinson. Goals and highlights below!!!!

We played well last night and each and every player can say that they played their part, I was very impressed with our whole back four and particularly Zabbo. Zabbo goes about what he does very quietly but oh boy he is effective, he put in a real strong performance last night and didn't put a foot wrong. Garrido was also steady again, he does get wrong side of his attacker at times but I am sure Mancini will soon knock that out of him. Lescott and Toure will have a job getting back into the defence at the moment because they are playing very well as a unit.

In the midfield I was impressed with Barry again, he seems to have put his bad form behind him, de Jong was also excellent again. I was a little disappointed with Bellamy and more than disappointed with Petrov, Bellamy just wasn't himself last night and Petrov may as well have not been playing. Bellamy just had an off night he wasn't bad as such but he wasn't good either, Petrov was a waste of space and did pretty much nothing, why he plays him on the right hand side I will never know because I am not even sure he knows what a right foot is!

And then there was our forwards Tevez was exceptional, think of every possible way of playing a game of football well and add them all together, that was Tevez's performance last night! Benjani wasn't to bad himself, although he drifted in and out at times he was really strong, held the ball up well and ran the line very well.

The players must see themselves that making the top four is in their hands, all we have to do is keep it going and we will have no problem with making the top four and maybe even getting higher than that.

Goals and highlights.

Man City vs Blackburn Rovers - Mon 11Th Jan 20:00 pm

2010-01-11T15:45:00.007Z

A win against Blackburn tonight will see us make our way into the top four, hopefully we can do that and then stay there!

We convincingly beat Blackburn in our first game of the season and I don't see why this game should go any different. Blackburn will fight hard but lack what I believe to be any necessary class that they will need to defeat us.

I can't see Blackburn giving us any problems when going forward so for me it is just down to our attackers to stick the ball in the net, saying that I wouldn't take the likes of McCarthy and Roberts for granted because you would have to be stupid to do that but I still can't see how they will bother us if we defend properly.

We must win tonight to keep our momentum going, a place in the top four is ours for the taking if we apply ourselves properly. We have to continue to build on our good form of late and resend the message out to any doubters that we are a force to be reckoned with.

Man City Team News:
Patrick Vieira's debut is in the balance, he has been carrying a knock on his calf and is rated doubtful. There are also still concerns over the fitness of Shaun Wright-Phillips (ankle), Joleon Lescott (knee) and Nedum Onuoha (calf), SWP is said to be nearing fitness but whether he plays remains unknown, Lescott and Onuoha are not expected to feature. Wayne Bridge is close to fitness but expected to need another seven days of training before returning to the squad, Roque Santa Cruz is rated at 50/50 to make tonight's game. Kolo Toure is away at the African Cup of Nations and Adebayor is resting and trying to recover from the terrible incident he encountered this week.

Blackburn Rovers Team News:
Brett Emerton is looking to return to the the starting line up after being out with a groin injury, Vince Grella misses out due to a thigh strain and El-Hadji Diouf also misses out due to suspension.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Richards, Kompany, Garrido, De Jong, Barry, Petrov, Robinho, Bellamy, Tevez.

Possible Blackburn Line Up: Robinson, Chimbonda, Nelsen, Samba, Givet, Emerton, Andrews, N'Zonzi, Pedersen, McCarthy, Roberts.

My Prediction: Man City 3 - 0 Blackburn Rovers.

Worth A Bet: Tevez bags two goals in a 3 - 0 City win.

* For anyone who normally parks in one of the stadium car parks like myself I would suggest maybe leaving a little earlier than normal, this week City said that they were using some of the car parks to store snow so maybe you will have to find alternative parking.

Caicedo joins Malaga on loan

2010-01-10T12:28:00.005Z

Felipe Caicedo has joined Malaga on loan for the rest of the season.

Felipe has spent the first half of the season on loan to Sporting Lisbon but did not get many opportunities, he will be hoping to go to Malaga and impress new City boss Roberto Mancini.

I am hoping that Caicedo will do well in Spain because I want to see him come back and get a chance with us, I am a Caicedo fan and have high hopes for him.

Arabic version of the official site launched

2010-01-09T21:43:00.016Z

City have now completed the making of an Arabic version of the official website.

If that sounds good to you then you can find it by clicking this link - http://www.manchestercityfc.ae.

Adebayor is coming back and so should Toure!!!

2010-01-09T20:55:00.005Z

Emmanuel Adebayor is returning home from the African Cup of Nations after a terrorist attack on the Togo team bus resulted in people being killed and injured.

This is totally the right decision and I am glad he is coming back, although he is coming back he might not play for a while as there is a fear he may be traumatised.

Although Adebayor will be returning home safe there is still a worry about the other footballers who are still in Angola and in particularly for us Kolo Toure. I think that City should demand that he returns, number one priority of course is his safety but it is also the perfect excuse to get him back so that he can play for us.

I would just like to say on behalf of myself and all my readers that our thoughts are with the families of the people who were killed and injured in the terrorist attack.

Is Vieira a good signing?

2010-01-09T20:04:00.005Z

Roberto Mancini's first signing has been made, Patrick Vieira was the chosen man but has he still got what it takes?

Mancini has described Vieira as a World class midfielder, there is no doubt that Vieira was once a World class player but if he still has what it takes to compete in the Premier League remains unknown.

Since leaving Arsenal he has had a lot of injury problems that have disrupted his time in Italy badly at times, saying that when he has played I personally have not seen him play a bad game.

I am pleased with the signing of Vieira, he will bring lots of experience and class to the squad and those two things will help all of our squad improve especially the younger lads. The other reason that I am happy we have signed him is just because of who he is, it's great having top class players like Tevez and Robinho at the club but when a Premier League legend like Vieira signs that you have grew up watching it feels very special.

I genuinely believe that we have made a good signing, if it doesn't work out then we haven't committed to him by giving him a huge contract and if it does work out as I think it will, then that will benefit us no end.

What are your feelings on the signing of Vieira?

Cristian Ansaldi deal could be close

2010-01-07T18:38:00.007Z

A deal for Argentina International left back Cristian Ansaldi looks to be likely at the moment.

The Rubin Kazan left back has been heavily linked with a move to us for the last few weeks but with no heavy evidence to back it up.

The rumours seem to have turned into truth in the last couple of days, reports in Russia say that a fee has now been agreed and all that has to happen now is for the player to agree personal terms. I have done my own digging on how true this is but unfortunately I can't get anything more out of anyone than 'there has been contact'.

Ansaldi is highly rated and has been watched by some big clubs around Europe, hopefully if we do sign him we will see why so many clubs have had an eye on him.

Because a lot of you probably haven't seen a lot of Ansaldi I was going to put his stats up for you but Lloyd at Man City issues already has that covered, so because it is one of my favourite blogs I am going to refer you there. Just click this link www.man-city-issues.blogspot.com.

Semi Final postponed!!!

2010-01-05T14:28:00.003Z

Due to concerns over the safety of the fans, tomorrows Carling Cup tie has been postponed.

This is a real let down, I am sure like me many of you had started to hype yourself up so that you were ready for the game.

The home leg of the fixture has been rearranged for the 19Th of January with the away leg being played on the 27Th of January.

Next up Scunthorpe!

2010-01-03T18:26:00.003Z

City have been drawn away from home to Scunthorpe in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The tie is due to take place on the weekend of the 23rd and 24Th of January.

A nice easy draw for us should see us progress into the fifth round.

Middlesbrough 0 - 1 Man City (Benjani 45') Video

2010-01-02T17:25:00.005Z

Another win and clean sheet for City and Mancini sees us head into the next round of the FA Cup.

Benjani's strike just before half time was enough to see us through to the next round, Benjani's movement was good which helped Petrov to pick him out, Benjani then took one touch and slotted home. Goal below!

I have to say I was surprised with the starting eleven for us today, it was weaker than I was expecting. We went with Given, Zabaleta, Richards, Boyata, Kompany, Sylvinho, Weiss , Garrido, De Jong, Petrov, Benjani. Tevez, Bellamy and Barry all found their way onto the field which I was also surprised about considering we play United in midweek, I think that Mancini was just trying to make sure that even one nil was going to be enough to see us win.

The first half was a little poor from both teams, a lot of our players didn't really seem to know what position they were playing in and in turn that meant we were all over the place. In the second half we were a lot more comfortable and took total control of the game, Boro huffed and puffed but ultimately never made Given make a save.

The main thing that I took from today's game was how stupid Vladimir Weiss made us all look, he was awful. We have all been shouting from the roof tops for him to get a chance and he let us down, he didn't get at people and take them on as we all have wanted. I am really disappointed with him as he did not take his chance at all.

All in all another win, another clean sheet and the next round of the FA Cup beckons.

Now bring on United!!!!!

Goal.

Middlesbrough vs Man City - Sat 2nd Jan 15:00 pm

2010-01-01T16:43:00.009Z

Our first game of the new year sees us travel to play Boro at the Riverside in the FA Cup, winning the FA Cup would be amazing so lets hope we get a good start on the way to achieving that.

Boro have won two games on the bounce lately as they hit a bit of form, but they should not pose a threat to us. We are also in good form and are a much superior team to Boro, I would hope that the result of this game will turn out to be a comfortable City win.

I can't really see any problems for us from Boro tomorrow especially considering their injury problems, I expect us to put in a good professional performance and get the job done nice and easy. If our good form of late continues then I expect us to hammer Boro if I am honest and lets face it, it is about time we give Boro a good going over especially after that terrible defeat at the end of Sven's reign.

This competition is another good chance for us to reach Wembley together with the Carling Cup, I hope that the players and Mancini apply themselves properly and understand how important this competition is to us!

Man City Team News:
SWP is a major doubt with an ankle injury, Ireland is going to be missing with a hamstring injury. Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor are both at the African Cup of Nations and Roque Santa Cruz is doubtful due to a calf injury. Joleon Lescott, Wayne Bridge and Nedum Onuoha are all still injured, Javier Garrido is expected to make his first start for some time.

Middlesbrough Team News:
Dave Kitson has returned to Stoke after his loan and Leroy Lita is suspended, Jeremie Aliadiere is struggling with an ankle problem. Isaiah Osbourne is ineligible and injured, David Wheater is struggling with his ankle and knee whilst Emanuel Pogatetz is also a doubt due to a hamstring injury. Seb Hines (ankle and knee), Didier Digard (back) and Matthew Bates (cruciate ligament) are all out.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Richards, Kompany, Garrido, De Jong, Barry, Petrov, Tevez, Robinho, Bellamy.

Possible Middlesbrough Line Up: Coyne, Riggot, McMahon, Williams, Taylor, Hoyte, O'Neil, Johnson, Arca, Bent, Franks.

My Prediction: Middlesbrough 0 - 4 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Nigel de Jong scores in a 4 - 0 City win.

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T20:43:00.005Z

I just wanted to say another quick thank you to everyone who has supported my blog over the last year, so thank you!!!!!!

I hope that 2010 will be a great year for everyone, particularly City!

Wolves 0 - 3 Man City (Tevez 33',Garrido 69',Tevez 86') Video

2009-12-29T07:20:00.001Z

Another win, another clean sheet and most importantly another three points. Up to now it seems like Mancini is doing a good job at continuing with what Hughes left behind.

Our first goal was scored by Tevez from inside the box after some great work down the wing from Bellamy, the second was a wonderful free kick from our forgotten man Javier Garrido. Tevez finished off the scoring with a left footed shot from outside the box. Goals below!

I am delighted with this win and with our current form in general, this result makes it three wins from three games and with our next six league games looking more than winnable then maybe we can break in to the top four.

We had periods in the game last night where we let Wolves have to much of the ball for my liking, but all in all we dominated for the majority of the game. When Wolves did put pressure on us tonight we coped with it excellently, our defence looked a lot more assured than it has at times this season.

Barry and de jong did a good job of guarding our midfield again last night although I thought that Ireland and Petrov could have been a whole lot better. Ireland was replaced and rightly so, he was not playing well at all. Petrov was also very poor, this week he said that Hughes was unfair to him but I don't think he was, he is a total fairy and I have to say I am getting tired of the way he ducks out of tackles repeatedly.

Our attackers were good again, Tevez worked hard and scored two goals what more could you possibly ask for? Bellamy, well he is for me the most consistent player in the league this season and I would have to say that for me he has to leading the hunt for the PFA player of the year award.

I am starting to regain hope that our season will not be yet another mediocre finish, our defending is better and our attacking is second to none lets hope it continues!

Goals.

Man City 2 - 0 Stoke City (Petrov 28', Tevez 45') Video

2009-12-26T19:04:00.006Z

I am sure that I wasn't the only one who breathed a big sigh of relief after this victory, you could imagine what the papers were going to be saying tomorrow if we didn't.

Our first goal was scored by Martin Petrov, the Bulgarian winger hit home from close range and believe it or not he actually scored using his right foot! Our second goal was scored by Tevez, Zabaleta crossed the ball into Barry who headed into Tevez's path for him to finish in an unorthodox fashion. Goals and highlights Below!

This was a good win for us today considering the events of late, we played OK and deserved to win but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

Our defence was still dodgy at times today but luckily our midfield duo of Barry and de Jong were doing a good job at protecting them, in fact saying that Barry alone made a big difference for us today. It was his first good game for quite some time and he made a major difference, he controlled the ball in the midfield and Stoke were not able to freeze him out of the game.

We missed a big man upfront today, Tevez did a great job on his own but we were certainly restricted from attacking aerially. If we had a big man up top I think that we would have won by a more convincing scoreline.

A huge difference from Hughes's team today was the tactics, Mancini was countering all Stokes changes and also made sure we played much more narrower when we didn't have the ball. It worked great for us because in recent times we have been far to open and the opposition have been able to take advantage of that, not today though!

I think the only thing that I was a bit unhappy with today was not seeing Weiss come on, we were really missing any kind of width on the right hand side. Petrov was going over to that side form time to time but was not very convincing because he constantly has to go back onto his right foot, I think at two nil we should have gave Weiss a run out for twenty or thirty minutes.

Listening to people at the match and on the radio on the way home today it is clear that they have already made their mind up about Mancini, I am not going to do that. It will take a few more games before I say if I like him or not, so far so good for now though!

Goals and highlights.

Man City vs Stoke City - Sat 26Th Dec 15:00 pm

2009-12-25T18:21:00.010Z

A boxing day match awaits and I love it when we play at home on boxing day, it makes my Christmas that much better. Lets just hope we win!

Tomorrow sees the start of yet another 'new era' at City, Roberto Mancini takes charge of his first game as Manchester City manager.

I honestly think that Mancini has a huge pressure to win this game tomorrow, it is an absolute must win for us as far as I am concerned. We have a lot of injuries of course but I am not even going to let them use that as an excuse, if this guy is better than Mark Hughes as the club obviously think then he will be able to work something out.

If we are to make fourth place then we have to start winning game after game starting now. Without trying to be disrespectful we should have enough quality to beat Stoke regardless of injuries, on top of that it is time for people to make their mark and try and stay in the team.

We have to look at Stoke and see a threat tomorrow, not necessarily a threat in the sense that they can beat us but at the very least a threat that can stop us from winning. Stoke are a very decent side when they are playing well and I actually like the way they set up, they are a very strong, physical and organised team who perform the basics of football quite well.

Of course we are a threat to Stoke in a lot of ways but at the same time these kind of teams are not nervous of our threat because they come into these games against good teams with nothing but pride to lose if they don't at least play well.

The battle has to be won in midfield tomorrow, Stoke will not sit back and will certainly be in our faces from the first whistle, we have to be better in that department for sure. I think if we do that then we will not concede and because we know that we can score goals that should win us the game.

Man City Team News:
Joleon Lescott and Wayne Bridge are still out injured and Nedum Onuoha has joined them after picking up a calf injury. Micah Richards is 50/50 after coming off against Sunderland with a knock and SWP is also fighting to overcome an ankle injury, Adebayor is another doubt due to the same problem. Nigel de Jong returns from suspension.

Stoke City Team News:
Stoke are sweating on the fitness of Ryan Shawcross who has been having sugar injections in a groin injury. Robert Huth is back from suspension and could come straight back into the team, Ricardo Fuller and James Beattie are very much pushing for a place back in the starting line up.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Kompany, Toure, Sylvinho, De Jong, Barry, Robinho, Tevez, Santa Cruz, Bellamy.

Possible Stoke City Line Up: Sorensen, Wilkinson, Huth, Abdoulaye Faye, Collins, Whelan, Diao, Whitehead, Etherington, Sidibe, Tuncay.

My Prediction: Man City 3 - 0 Stoke City.

Worth A Bet: Santa Cruz and Tevez score in a 3 - 0 Man City win.

Happy Christmas and thank you!

2009-12-25T09:38:00.004Z

I just wanted to say happy Christmas and thank you to a few people who have helped my blog to be what it is, also for anybody who does not celebrate Christmas I extend my best wishes to you in this holiday period.

First of all I want to thank all of my readers, I have a great community of City fans using my blog and it helps what I do to be more than worth it. Just the little bit of time each of you take to read and leave comments/opinions on my blog fills me with total satisfaction. Without you guys the blog that I love to do would not be here, so THANK YOU!!!

Next I would like to thank my fellow bloggers, some people may not believe how strong the relationship between fellow bloggers is behind the scenes. We are all constantly in touch with each other and trying our best to help each other so that our readers experience of our blogs are the best that they can be. In my case I have always been able to turn to a fellow blogger to discuss things and bounce ideas off them, a big THANK YOU goes out to all of them also.

My last thank you goes out to the club, they have really put a lot of effort into helping City fan sites like my own be the best that they can possibly be. In particular I would like to thank Chris Nield who puts an awful lot of time and effort into making sure that we know what we do is important to the club and also very much appreciated by them. THANK YOU!!!

What ever your this seasonal period brings for you I hope that you all have a great time, thank you again to everyone who has supported my blog!

CTID.

Where has he gone?

2009-12-23T19:41:00.004Z

Over the last few weeks in my close circle of family and friends I have been asking, where is Garrido? I would like to know what his situation is more than ever considering Sylvinho hasn't been very convincing.

Now maybe controversially for a long time I wanted to see Garrido play instead of Bridge, I thought he was quicker, better going forward, a better crosser of the ball and and equally as good at defending. Granted Bridge began to improve a hell of a lot but even then there has been no place even on the bench for Javier.

Garrido started off at City quite well when he arrived but slowly started to find it tough playing every week in the premier league and was taken out of the team, he then got another chance and was visibly improving game by game although he did end up being dropped again.

He has never really had a fair crack at City considering his playing background, he has played all the way through Spain's International ranks up to under 21 level and when we bought him he was being coveted as one of the best young left backs in Spain.

I would like to see Garrido get another crack in our team, Sylvinho is not convincing me at all as a stand in for Bridge, Garrido has surely got to be worth a shot it isn't like he ever did anything particularly bad in the past.

Would you give Garrido a shot or just go out and buy a new left back to place in the team ahead of all our current players who play in that position.

Typical press conference

2009-12-21T18:10:00.004Z

Roberto Mancini has officially been introduced as our manager at a press conference this evening, the press conference started off however with Garry Cook trying to justify a few things.

Cook said...............

Today’s press conference is about the appointment of Roberto Mancini as the manager of Manchester City.

That said, there has been a lot of conjecture about the process of Mark Hughes’ departure. The Club made a statement about this on Saturday and it reflects our position. However, in light of some of the comments and characterisations of events I will take this opportunity to add a few additional points today:

1. Firstly, I want to put on the record again our thanks for everything Mark and his team did here and to reiterate the respect that the owners and everyone in the Club have for them. This has been a very difficult decision for the Board to make and not one that was taken lightly.

2. At the end of last season we set a target of a 6Th place finish, but following the accelerated player acquisition activity of the Club in the summer transfer window, the new target that the playing staff agreed with the Board for the 2009/2010 season was 70 points. The trajectory of recent results was below this requirement and the Board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change.

3. The owner, Chairman and I all worked to give Mark any resources that he might require to achieve that goal.

4. Some of the characterisation of events of the last two days is particularly disappointing considering the fact that in the last 15 months there have been a number of occasions where Mark’s position has been questioned by people outside the Club. The support that he was shown at those times and the resources that he was given was complete and extensive.

5. The Chairman has been nothing but transparent with Mark Hughes throughout his tenure and had communicated with him regularly over the last several weeks. In keeping with that behaviour, the Chairman got on a plane and came to Manchester to meet with Mark in person to explain the decision. Once the decision to change managers had been taken, the Board felt that the sooner that change was made, the less disruption there would be to the Club and the fairer it would be to Mark and his team.

6. The intention was to tell Mark immediately after the game on Saturday. That would give Roberto and his team a full week to prepare for the next game. Regrettably, and despite our best efforts, rumours of discussions with Roberto Mancini became public before the game.

7. Once Mark was informed, I informed his coaching staff and the players were then informed. That is why Kolo Toure and Shay Given were asked to attend a meeting after the game. There is no player rebellion and the playing and training staff have been going about their business this morning very professionally with Roberto and Brian Kidd.

8. The decision to end Mark’s tenure was a unanimous decision by the Owner, the Chairman, myself and the Board, as was the decision to appoint Roberto Mancini to the position.

9. Like any other business we have plans and targets; and we have contingencies for when those plans and targets are not being met. The decision to look at managerial options was taken only three weeks ago after the Hull game, but I think it is important for people to know that Roberto was only offered the job after the Spurs game; we negotiated on Thursday and finalised his agreement on Friday. He was not in the Stadium on Saturday as has been reported.

With the points that I have just made and the statement that the Club made on Saturday there is nothing more for me to add on the process of change we have gone through. You will find everything I have just said in statement form on the Club website. The Club has nothing further to add and I will not be taking questions on this subject.

I now very much want to focus on the reason that we have called today’s press conference - to introduce Roberto Mancini to you as the new manager of Manchester City. After a hugely distinguished playing career he has gone on to further success as a manager in one of the toughest leagues in the world, becoming in the process the most successful Inter Milan manager of the last 30 years. Because of this track record of success he is just the manager we need to take us to the next level.

I know what your thinking blah blah blah, usual rubbish that we are expected to accept.

Mancini said all the basic things that you say when you take over at a new club, things like he is aiming for top four and that he is a winner whether it be on a training ground, home or away.

We just have to wait and see if his actions speak louder than his words.

There is an interview with Mancini available on the official site now, http://www.mcfc.co.uk/Video.

A thank you to the stranger in the car park.

2009-12-19T21:21:00.004Z

I just wanted to say a big thank you to a fellow City fan who helped us in the car park at the ground today.

There was a frozen patch of water in the car park which we could not see due to it being covered with frost, we got stuck and could not get the car out of it. It was impossible to get behind the car and push due to the unsafe deep water and ice or so we thought that is. We were stumped, the steward was useless and we did not know what to do until a guy came over and lifted the back of the car up on his own so that we could get out of the hole.

I think this wonderful man proves that City fans are the best in the world!

If you see this I would just like to say a big thank you to you once again, I owe you a drink if I see you at the match again.

Also I would just like to say that considering City charge £5 per car each home game that the car park is a total mess, it needs to be sorted out. Some staff training might be needed also as they were no help at all and even suggested that we would have to pay for a tow truck at one point even though the car parks condition is their responsibility.

Today's goals Video

2009-12-19T20:26:00.004Z

Considering tonight's events at the club I have decided against doing a post match report, seems as we are about to start a new period at the club I think that what we seen today may be irrelevant now. In fact it would be pretty easy to sum up today's performance anyway, poor!

Videos may need time to buffer, sorry for the inconvenience but it was all I could get at the moment.

Goals.

I dub him MANC - CINI!!!!

2009-12-19T19:34:00.007Z

So Roberto Mancini is our new manager, he has a good pedigree as a manger and was also a very accomplished player.

As a player Mancini has played for Bologna, Sampdoria, Lazio and the most glamorous of all Leicester City.

As a manager he has took charge of Fiorentina, Lazio and Inter Milan.

He won the Coppa Italia in his first and only season in charge of Fiorentina, he then moved to Lazio where he stayed for two years winning one more Coppa Italia. His best period as a manager was at Inter Milan, in four years he won three Serie A titles and two Coppa Italia's. He has also won plenty of top honours as a player which gives us a huge indication that he is a winner.

Although he wouldn't have been my choice I am not disappointed with Mancini's appointment, up until Inter saw fit to replace him with Mourinho he had a growing reputation as one of the best managers in Europe. Although he has only managed for seven years he has an average of one trophy per season, on top of that his reputation may mean he has more pull when it comes to signing players.

Hopefully another good thing about him is that Italians are renowned for defending and the way our defence is playing at the moment we could sure do with his expertise helping us out in that area of the pitch.

We will just have to wait and see what he does now and fingers crossed he will turn out to be a good appointment.

This is not the first of the Mancini family to be associated with City, His son Filippo was at the club on loan in 2008, he didn't stick around for long lets hope that his Father can do a little better.

What do you think? Is Mancini a good or bad choice?

Should Hughes have been sacked?

2009-12-19T18:49:00.005Z

For me I do not think Hughes should have been sacked yet and I think the way in which he has been sacked shows poor professionalism on the part of our owners.

Sacking a man before the team has a game is ridiculous, then to top it off they had planned to announce it shortly after the game.

I also think that the owners have acted prematurely by sacking him, Hughes has not been the greatest manager in the world by any stretch of the imagination but he was going in the right direction. As well as bringing in a host of new players Hughes has totally over hauled the way the club works as a whole, I have been angry at times with Hughes this season and have thought maybe we should sack him but when it happens and you think about it properly it was not the right decision.

His sacking I have to say has a lot to do with our players, they have let him down with their lacklustre performances. A majority of them should feel bad that they have helped to lose a man his job.

Saying that, we are comfortable in the League and the without a doubt the owners have acted on impulse, so they are to blame for this nonsense as well.

We now have to carry on without the man who was in charge of the team with the least losses in the Premier League this season and more importantly than that without the man who led us to our first semi final of a domestic cup for many years.

Will we ever have some continuity? I just don't know, are you happy to see Hughes go?

City confirm change in manager!

2009-12-19T18:40:00.002Z

It has now been confirmed by City that Mark Hughes has been sacked, he will be replaced by Roberto Mancini who will be joined by Brian Kidd as his assistant.

The statement from our Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak on our website reads.............

“Prior to the current season beginning, with significant investment in players and infrastructure in place, the consensus between the Board and coaching staff was that appropriate agreed targets should be set for the 2009/2010 season.

“The targets were agreed as a result of the player acquisition strategy of the club being radically accelerated in the summer as a result of very favourable conditions for any buying club. It was also based on the fact that the infrastructure of the club had been overhauled completely at great cost in order to create the best possible environment for the team.

“A return of two wins in 11 Premier League games is clearly not in line with the targets that were agreed and set. Sheikh Mansour and the Board felt that there was no evidence that the situation would fundamentally change. This is a particularly difficult announcement given the personal investment over the past 15 months on all sides and we would like to put on record our respect for and thanks to Mark Hughes and we wish him the best in his future career.”

“Roberto is a hugely experienced manager with a proven track record of winning trophies and championships. His experience and track record speak for themselves. What is absolutely clear is that Roberto believes in Manchester City’s potential to achieve at the highest level and importantly in his own ability to make this happen. My hope is that our incredible fans will join us in welcoming Roberto to the football club.”

I am not very happy about this if I am honest, what do you think?

More reaction to come when I have got my head around it!

HUGHES ON WAY OUT!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-12-19T17:53:00.003Z

It looks like Mark Hughes is on his way out! There will be a statement at 7:30 pm tonight, we are expected to announce Roberto Mancini as our new manager on a temporary basis.

We will just have to wait and see now!

More reaction to come along with my post match run down.

UPDATE: Mancini was reported to be taking over just for the remainder of the season, it is now being reported he will sign a 3 and a half year deal.

Great news for a change!

2009-12-17T18:57:00.007Z

City have announced that Vladimir Weiss has signed a new contract!!!!!!

His new deal means he will be at City until at least 2012, Weiss had this to say after putting pen to paper...........

"I have been here for four years now and I came here to realise my first team ambitions. I am delighted to have signed this contract.''

"I am excited about what the future holds and delighted that even with the players that City have got now, the club have given me the opportunity to progress and show that not only the big players can make it.

"The new deal shows that young players from the academy can progress. I am happy that I am one of them.

This is brilliant news, I was beginning to wonder why we hadn't moved to tie him down but City had it covered all along.

Weiss has the makings of a world star and I for one hope that he can realise his potential at City, now we just need Hughes to give him more playing time!!!!!!!

Tottenham Hotspur 3 - 0 Man City (Kranjcar 37',90' Defoe 54')

2009-12-17T16:27:00.004Z

We were let down again, our biggest game of the season so far and we didn't bother to turn up for it.

Rather than disappointed I am actually angry with the showing we put in last night, it is pathetic for professionals to play the way that we did.

We actually started off well and looked like dominating the game but it wasn't to be, the second half was an absolute waste of time. Spurs were totally bypassing our midfield which took de Jongs influence out of the game, our game plan should have been changed but Hughes obviously didn't see fit to do that.

We were crying out for width and I thought Hughes should have gone for it and brought on both Petrov and Weiss, I would have took Adebayor and Barry off for those two and played Robinho across the front line behind Tevez and used him as our creator. I don't know why Hughes didn't do something along those lines because the way Adebayor and Barry were playing it could not have got any worse.

Hughes at least could have made a tactical change so that Robinho was brought into the game more, he got a lot of bad press about his performance last night but for me we were not using him. When he did get on the ball he looked up for it, although I do think he gave up bothering in the second half and there is no excuse for that, I just think he got frustrated with not seeing any of the ball.

The performance as a whole was basically all round poor, players at this level diving in and turning their backs on the ball is damn right pathetic, there is players at the club at the moment that I do not think are fit to wear our shirt and that includes some big money players.

Yet again we are looking at getting back on track at the weekend, if we don't then I think Hughes should fear for his job, maybe I will apply if that does happen because I am sure that I could do a better job than him at times.

Send your loved ones a Christmas Message!

2009-12-16T16:37:00.003Z

The club are providing a great service this year which helps you to send your love to the important people in your life this Christmas.

If the people you love are going to be out of your reach this Christmas then City have got you covered, get down to Eastlands this Friday and record a video message for them free of charge!!!

Your message will then be put onto the official site - www.mcfc.co.uk on Christmas day.

If you want to record a special message you need to be at Eastlands this Friday! Recording will take place at 10am until noon and then again from 3pm-5pm.

I think this a great idea, I am lucky and have all my loved ones near by this Christmas but if I didn't I would definitely take advantage of this wonderful gesture from the club.

Tottenham Hotspur vs Man City - Weds 16Th Dec 20:00

2009-12-15T19:48:00.007Z

Our midweek trip sees us take on a strong Spurs side, after a disappointing result against Bolton we could really do with winning this game.

With us having a game in hand over Spurs who are just one point ahead of us in the league, I would say that this is our biggest game of the season so far.

If we are to fulfill our top four aspirations then I feel we have to win games like this one. Spurs are certainly in the race for top four, so to finish above them I feel we have to be good enough to beat them. Spurs have been in good form this season and will prove a very tough test for us, I think if we are to beat them then we have to fight fire with fire.

To echo Mark Hughes, Spurs are an attacking team and like to play football, if we are on song and they try to attack us I think that we could open them up. We have become one of the best counter attacking sides in the league over the last couple of seasons and should be able to take advantage of Spurs when they attack us, saying that Spurs can break quickly to so our defence will have to be on top form.

I am praying that Nigel de Jong will be fit for this game tomorrow, it looks like he is set to travel but I am not sure what capacity he will be used in. I think we missed him badly against Bolton, he does the work of ten men in the midfield and is really important for us. He injects fight and determination into the game and when you get past his rough and ready approach he is also a very good ball player, he plays the percentages and makes sure his pass goes to a blue shirt. I really hope he can start!!!

Man City Team News:
As I was saying Nigel de Jong looks to have got over his swine flu and is due to travel for the game, Wayne Bridge may also return early from a knee injury. SWP is out with an ankle injury and Michael Johnson is out for the rest of the season. Craig Bellamy is banned after being ridiculously sent off against Bolton.

Tottenham Team News:
Ledley King (Hamstring) and Jonathan Woodgate (Groin) are major doubts for the home side, Carlo Cudicini is still recovering from a motor bike accident and Jermaine Jenas is facing a late fitness test.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Sylvinho, Ireland, de Jong, Barry, Robinho, Tevez, Adebayor.

Possible Tottenham Line Up: Gomes, Dawson, Corluka, Bassong, Assou-Ekotto, Kranjcar, Palacios, Huddlestone, Defoe, Keane, Lennon.

My Prediction: Tottenham 2 - 4 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Tevez and Ireland score in a City win.

Bolton 3 - 3 Man City (Klasnic 11',Tevez 28', Cahill 43', Richards 45', Klasnic 53', Tevez 77') Video

2009-12-12T18:09:00.006Z

I feel embarrassed and I hope that our players do as well, our performance was poor and at times we even made a worse side in Bolton look decent.

Three times we went behind today and three times we equalised but that winning goal was just beyond us. I cannot believe that we did not win against an extremely poor team, it was all down to how we played and not what Bolton did. Tevez scored two and Richards the other to help get us a point, Goals below.

The whole team did not play well today but I was mostly disappointed with our defence, I thought that as individuals that they all did OK but as a unit they were all over the place at times. I don't think it helped that Nigel de Jong didn't play today, he takes so much pressure off the defence usually and I just don't think they could adapt to him not being there today.

I also was not pleased with Hughes leaving it so long to bring Robinho on today, we were crying out for some creativity but Hughes thought best to leave him on the bench for longer than he should have. I think Hughes could have also stopped Craig Bellamy getting sent off today in a way, he did absolutely nothing up until the point the ref wrongly sent him off and should have been replaced earlier in the game.

You know I could pick at our faults all day long actually but I am not going to, I am feeling really deflated after this result. We should have won it and that is the bottom line, but it was typical City again today I am afraid. We thought that we could win the game at a canter and it backfired, another typical thing that we didn't do today was take advantage of the results around us, when will it stop I just do not know!

We have a massive game coming up now at Spurs, we have to win it to get our top four aspirations on track, if we don't win then I fear that we will look back when the season has finished and see another mediocre finish.

Goals.

Bolton vs Man City - Sat 12Th Dec 15:00 pm.

2009-12-11T16:08:00.012Z

Not far to travel tomorrow as City take on Bolton, for me this game should be a walk in the park for us.

Not a lot to say about this fixture, Bolton are not a good side at all. We should be able to win convincingly tomorrow, I am talking four or five nil. It should be a nice easy game for us where we come strolling home with three points in the bag, I know that sounds arrogant and I am not trying to come across that way but the form book certainly suggests that an easy City win is what should happen. All we have to do is keep playing the same way that we have been in our last couple of games and we will not be troubled by Bolton.

Man City Team News:
Micah Richards, Craig Bellamy and Stephen Ireland are all struggling with knee injuries and may miss out, Wayne Bridge is out for a few weeks with a knee ligament injury. Michael Johnson looks set to be out for the rest of the season after picking up a knee injury in training.

Bolton Team News:
Kevin Davies returns from a one match suspension but Joey O'Brien and Sean Davies will both miss out with knee injuries. Gavin McCann and Johan Elmander are carrying knocks but should be available for selection.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Sylvinho, Wright-Phillips, de Jong, Barry, Robinho, Tevez, Adebayor.

Possible Bolton Line Up: Jaaskelainen, Steinsson, O'Brien, Cahill, Samuel, McCann, Cohen, Gardner, Taylor, Elmander, Davies.

My Prediction: Bolton 0 - 3 Man City.

Worth A Bet: Robinho scores in a 3 - 0 City win.

EXCLUSIVE Joleon Lescott interview!

2009-12-10T17:39:00.005Z

Thanks to the club wevegotrobinho has got an exclusive Joleon Lescott interview, the interview was taken and recorded by the club and sent on to me.

I would like to thank Chris Nield and everyone else who works at City for constantly making sure that independent City fan sites are well looked after, to be able to publish an exclusive is great. Thanks guys!

View more great videos from City at our official site, www.mcfc.co.uk.

Joleon Lescott interview!

Man City 2- 1 Chelsea ( Adebayor 8' (og), Adebayor 37', Tevez 56', ) Video

2009-12-06T14:00:00.003Z

Well I will be going in to work tomorrow and asking everyone what they were saying about us having no chance against Chelsea, that is for sure! What a great performance and a great day, our players really came through for us and sent a big message out.

We went behind yesterday after a great Shay Given save hit Adebayor on the back and went in to the net. We brushed ourselves off though and Adebayor pounced from inside the box to give us a much deserved equaliser, then Tevez sent us into the lead with a good free kick. Goals and highlights below!

We played brilliant yesterday and took the three points we deserved, people have to give us credit after this victory. I have to say that I think Mark Hughes is a big reason behind our last two great performances, he has had us playing as a team and his tactical plays have been much better. I have also noticed in the last couple of games that Hughes has not sat down, he has been on his feet orchestrating from the sideline.

I can't believe how much of a unit we looked yesterday, it is a dramatic transformation from the team of individuals we have been watching. Every player worked hard for each other and it payed off, the team now has no excuses not to play like that every week!

Because everyone played so well yesterday I am going to rate them individually because they all deserve a mention.

Given - This man has to be the best keeper in the league by a mile, he made some great saves yesterday and a penalty save summed up his quality. My rating 10.

Richards - Played very well and seems to have gone back to basics a little, which is what he needed to do. I can only remember one mistake when he did a silly header. My rating 8.

Toure - Brilliant defending, made no mistakes and beat Nicolas Anelka for pace. Superb game for him. My rating 8.

Lescott - Well I am finally starting to see why we spent so much money on him, along with Toure he had Drogba and Anelka in his bin all game long, flawless performance. My rating 9.

Bridge - Had a good game before going off injured, handled the Chelsea attack well and was also great support going forward. My rating 7.5.

SWP - He finally looks like he is returning to form, he had a great game yesterday and worked extremely hard, the Chelsea defence could not handle him. My rating 9.

Barry - He had a decent first half but really improved in the second, he was moved to left back and did a really good job for us. My rating 7.5.

de Jong - I have nothing to say about this man except for UNBELIEVABLE!!!!!!! Out classed all of the Chelsea midfield. My rating off the chart!

Robinho - Didn't see much of the silky skills from him yesterday but he did a good job sitting in the midfield creating and helping to break things up. My rating 7.5,

Tevez - This lad was absolutely knackered at the end of the game his work rate is second to none, he scored the winning goal and thoroughly deserved to. My rating 10.

Adebayor - He worked a lot harder than in recent times against Chelsea and caused problems for their defence by running the line extremely well, his goal got us on our way to winning the game. My rating 8.

Man of the match: Nigel de Jong.

This man was amazing yesterday, he won every single tackle that he went for, he was simple but effective with his passing and he stopped the Chelsea midfield single handedly. He covered every blade of grass on the pitch and I am going to say that he was not the main reason but the reason that we won the game! The performances that he has been putting in have got to have this guy right at the top in the race for player of the year.

It was an all round great performance yesterday by the playing and coaching staff, I hope that we can continue with this form now and if we do then it will not be 4Th place that we will settle for it will be higher!

Goals and highlights.

Man City vs Chelsea - Sat 5Th Dec 17:30 pm

2009-12-04T19:01:00.005Z

Our toughest game of the season is up next, in my opinion Chelsea are by far the best team in the league and this will be a tough game to take anything from.

If I said definite defeat tomorrow hadn't gone through my mind then I would be telling fibs, Chelsea look very good this season and at times have looked unbeatable. I have to say that more than anything, I am looking forward to this test tomorrow. If we can give a good account of ourselves it will give us some more much needed confidence and it will also send a renewed message out to the rest of the league that we are opposition to be taken seriously.

So what do we look to tomorrow to help us take something from this game? That is an easy one for me, our defending is key. Chelsea are very strong going forward, Drogba is in great form and then when your not worrying about him you have to keep your eyes on the likes of Anelka. I should imagine that if our midfield do not play a little deeper than they have been lately Chelsea will run us ragged, on top of that Toure and Lescott will have to be on their game to handle Drogba's bullying style of play. We can score goals against anybody I believe, so the defending must be put first by Hughes tomorrow.

Luckily for us coming into this game some of our players have started to return to form, in particular SWP, Lescott and Bridge have started to play a lot better than they have been. Two of those players are ex Chelsea players so hopefully they will have something to prove, Chelsea never really gave SWP a fair crack so hopefully he will be on the top of his game to prove them wrong. Bridge should also want to prove something not just to Chelsea but to Capello considering Chelsea will feature England's first choice left back Ashley Cole.

I really wouldn't put it past City to spring a surprise on a lot of people tomorrow and beat Chelsea and although Chelsea are a great team it is not impossible for us to do exactly that. This is yet another game where we will see just how much some of our players want to help us to be considered as a top team.

Man City Team News:
Craig Bellamy and Stephen Ireland might both miss out with knee injuries, Vladimir Weiss is struggling with illness and may also miss out. Martin Petrov is fit again and should make the squad, Robinho and Nigel de Jong are ready to come back into the squad after being rested in midweek.

Chelsea Team News:
Salomon Kalou is set to miss out with a thigh injury and Jose Boswinga is also out with a knee injury. Petr Cech, John Terry, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka are all expected to come back into the starting line up.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Richards, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, Wright-Phillips, Ireland, de Jong, Robinho, Tevez, Adebayor.

Possible Chelsea Line Up: Cech, Ivanovic, Terry, Carvalho, Ashley Cole, Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Deco, Drogba, Anelka.

My Prediction: Man City 2 - 1 Chelsea.

Worth A Bet: Wright-Phillips scores in a 2 - 1 City win.

Man City 3 - 0 Arsenal ( Tevez 50', Wright-Phillips 69', Weiss 89' ) Video

2009-12-03T18:37:00.003Z

We finally got to a semi final and it feels great! We have disposed of Arsenal and now I am genuinely looking forward to playing United.

Our first two goals were absolute crackers, Tevez banged his in first followed by SWP, our scoring was completed when Vladimir Weiss scored from inside the box after Bellamy ripped Arsenal apart. Goals Below!

We played great last night but as is the way because the young Arsenal team finally lost, we only beat kids according to almost everyone who isn't a City fan. I am not buying it, we can only beat what is put in front of us and we carried out that task superbly.

Our whole team last night played as a unit and it was great to watch, there were also certain individuals who stood out. When I tried to think about who was my man of the match I found myself saying 'SWP played well but mind you so did Bellamy' and so on. If I was to pick a few out it would have to be SWP, Bellamy, Lescott and Tevez, SWP and Bellamy absolutely terrorised Arsenal's defence all night long, then Tevez was working extremely hard up front and definitely deserved his goal and then there was Lescott, I thought he was superb last night and would say it was his best game for us so far.

I think the main thing that our team should take from the game is that if you actually shoot it can work wonders, to often we try to walk the ball in but last night has hopefully shown them that they do not have to walk the ball into the net to get a goal.

If I am honest I am still on a buzz from the result last night and I still haven't been able to gather my thoughts properly, but what I do know is that I am not afraid of playing United in the semi's, on top of that it is better to play them now than in the final because none of us want that long journey home having got beaten by them.

Bring it on!!!!!!!!!!!!

Goals.

Man City 3 - 0 Arsenal

2009-12-02T22:29:00.000Z

I will do my match report tomorrow afternoon, I have to get to bed for work in the morning now. Feel free to leave comments on what your feeling like after getting to the semi final and on getting United!

For now all I have to say is wooooooooooooooooooooo bring on Man United!

Man City vs Arsenal - Wed 2nd Dec 19:45 pm

2009-12-01T19:22:00.007Z

So we have the chance to progress into a semi final, for some reason I am not as excited about this game as I normally would be. I just don't want to get my hopes up about getting to the semi final because then I start to dream about getting to the final!

The question is can we beat Arsenal and the answer is of course we can! We have beat them once this season and considering they will probably have a weakened team out this time around it is more than possible. Mind you, when I say weakened it will still be a very talented team, we all know about Arsene Wenger's young stars and what they are capable of.

If there was ever a time we needed our players to stand up and be counted it is tomorrow, we have had enough heartache and it is time we got some kind of payback and getting to a final of a cup would be a good start that's for sure, I know the final is two rounds away but if we beat Arsenal we are a lot closer to going on a trip to Wembley.

One thing is for sure, win or lose we will see how much our players care about our club tomorrow. If we see a slack performance then there has to be some questions asked about the commitment of our squad.

Man City Team News:
Petrov is out with a knee injury, Toure and Adebayor both look to have shook off niggles and should start the game. Gareth Barry may miss out with a groin injury.

Arsenal Team News:
Van Persie misses out with an ankle injury, Kieran Gibbs will miss the game due to a broken metatarsal in his left foot, Gael Clichy is struggling with a back problem and Nicklas Bendtner is out with a groin injury.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, De Jong, Wright-Phillips, Robinho, Ireland, Tevez, Adebayor.

Possible Arsenal Line Up: Fabianski, Silvestre, Senderos, Traore, Eastmond, Gilbert, Ramsey, Merida, Eduardo, Walcott, Nasri.

My Prediction: Man City 1 - 0 Arsenal.

Worth A Bet: Lescott scores in a 1 - 0 City win.

Feeling fed up? Have a giggle! Video

2009-11-29T20:31:00.003Z

So I was watching City videos on YouTube as per usual and I came across a video that made me laugh, me being someone who tries not to stay upset for to long I thought it might help to cheer you up to if your feeling a little fed up with our results of late.

Man City 1 - 1 Hull City ( Wright-Phillips 45', Bullard 82' pen ) Video

2009-11-28T19:42:00.004Z

Well I don't know, we should have been out of sight in this game but were not able to see Hull off.

We went ahead when SWP fired home just before half time, unfortunately Hull were awarded a penalty which Jimmy Bullard converted. Goals and highlights below.

I just can't believe that we didn't win this game, we scored and then just went through the motions. We were pressing forward a lot but on a whole didn't seem to bothered about finishing Hull off. Hull were not even trying to play football their game plan was obviously to kick us at every opportunity and see how it went.

I have to blame Mark Hughes for this result I'm afraid, he did nothing to change the way we were playing and seemingly handed Hull the opportunity to snatch something from the game. Hughes dropped Bellamy today for Robinho and although Robinho looked alright, how can you drop a player in Bellamy's form? He also did nothing about our midfield, well I say midfield not that there actually was one on the pitch. SWP and Robinho were playing to far forward to be considered as midfielders and it left us exposed again.

Hughes also should have made more effective changes, SWP had one of those days again where he scored but did not much more apart from a few decent runs that came to nothing as per usual, I felt Weiss should have replaced him at some point in the second half. He also should have yet again tried to see the game out and brought Kompany on to give the defence more support along side de Jong. To be honest there was so many options available to Hughes that could have changed the game and he just refused to use them.

I know a lot of City fans are now crying out for Hughes to be sacked, I myself am still 50/50. If he was to get sacked I would not be bothered, but I am not quite ready to call for his head as I have a burning desire to see us have some continuity. The way it is going he will get sacked shortly if our poor run continues and if I am honest the only way that we can get out of this rut is if Hughes were to some how miraculously learn how to be tactically aware.

Goals and highlights.

Man City vs Hull City - Sat 28Th Nov 15:00 pm

2009-11-27T22:03:00.008Z

I am really looking forward to the game tomorrow, I think we are improving and hopefully we will be able to finally win a game rather than draw again!

I have not got a lot to say about the game tomorrow, basically I just can't see us losing. That sounds very arrogant but it is how I feel, we should be way to strong for Hull and bag all three points.

Hull just don't have a player that I think can trouble us if I am honest, I am not saying that they don't have players that cause problems for teams but I think we should be able to handle them no problem.

We played well against Liverpool and if we play in the same way tomorrow we should be able to give Hull a football lesson. I think that de Jong and Bellamy will be our key players tomorrow, de Jong should be able to shut Hull down when they try to come forward and Bellamy should be able to rip a weak defence apart.

I am going to be bitterly disappointed if we don't win tomorrow, we should be comfortably turning sides like Hull over. If we don't win then I am afraid that we are going to have to start questioning Hughes, it's OK saying he needs time to build and I agree but with the team we have now not beating Hull on the back of all those draws would be a few steps back, let's hope that doesn't happen!

Man City Team News:
Robinho is expected to return to the squad tomorrow after recovering from a knee injury, Martin Petrov is ruled out with a knee injury. Benjani should be fit for selection.

Hull City Team News:
Craig Fagan has recovered from a chest injury and may return to the squad, Bernard Mendy is back after suspension and Jimmy Bullard is expected to return after being rested in midweek. Seyi Olofinjana is likely to miss out with a hamstring injury.

Possible Man City Line Up: Given, Zabaleta, Toure, Lescott, Bridge, De Jong, Wright-Phillips, Ireland, Tevez, Bellamy, Adebayor.

Possible Hull City Line up: Duke, Mendy, Gardner, Zayatte, Dawson, Garcia, Marney, Bullard, Hunt, Geovanni, Altidore.

My Prediction: Man City 4 - 0 Hull City.

Worth A Bet: Stephen Ireland scores in a 4 - 0 Man City win.