The mancityfans.net football forum

What is all this about? I thought that he already had some role like this at City???

Oasis blared, Mike Summerbee was paraded as the inaugural club ambassador, and Craig Bellamy was dropped. The challenging Welshman became the opening casualty of Mark Hughes's brave new world as the Manchester City show made a home competitive bow inside a stadium that was crackling at kick-off.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009 ... verhampton

On a related note, really good to see Franny in the stands for this game. Crap chairman it turned out but City legend and I've been wondering of late if the club had made an effort to bring him into closer touch with Manchester City again.

Summerbee (and many other ex-players) have been unofficial ambassadors of the club for many years now. I think this is just the club making his position official.

It's good to see the club's owners recognising our history and I reckon Summerbee is a great choice for the job.

He turned up at my wedding (at Maine Road) in '99 and brought the play-off trophy with him. He stayed for about 45 minutes and was very accomodating with regard to photographs and autographs and allowed us to go on the pitch despite us being told we wouldn't be able to do so. "If anybody says anything just tell em Mike said it was ok" were his words!

Great to see that Mike Summerbee has been promoted to club ambassador, a position he thoroughly desrves. I go to matches and often go corporate in the boxes above the North Stand and you would regularly see Mike Summerbee doing his rent-a-friend sort of job along with Dennis Tueart, this involves going to peoples boxes who ask for him and he will sit with you and talk about City mainly. Whilst this was great and it was an honour to talk to him i always thought it was a little demeaning for a man of his stature, in my eyes anyway.
Mike is a pleasure to talk to and is very knowledgable about everything City, both old & new and i for one am chuffed that he will be in a role similar to what charlton does at the rags. The new owners have been quick to recognise Mikes ability to talk to people about City and i think he will represent City very very well indeed.
I'm sure there would be a similar role for Colin Bell as well if he was able to get over his shyness, unfortunatly he isn't as comfortable as Mike in unfamiliar company.

When I bought a hospitality package a couple of years ago I was given the royal treatment, including some time with Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell in the Carvery. They were both gracious hosts. My only regret---my bloody camera froze up.

Great role for Mike. I happened to be walking around the outside of the ground one weekday lunchtime, on the way to the Cafe above the Store, when Mike came up like an old friend, and spoke to me and my partner for ages. A really nice genuine guy, and I'd love to see Buzzer interviewed on the Website on video, and what about a few clips showing the man in his prime ?

I was at the Club on business a few months back and was chatting in main reception with someone from the Club that I was due to have a meeting with when Mike Summerbee walked down the stairs and came over to the person I was chatting to.

He was the most friendly person you could ever wish to meet and you could sense the warmth that everyone at the Club felt for him. For example, one of the ladies on reception had been doing some baking at home ..... and had brought some in for him.

I then almost ignored the bloke I was meeting (a fairly influential person at the club, especially where my business is concerned) and spent the next 15 mins shooting the breeze with Buzzer about all sorts of stuff.

I remember asking him how he felt with players like Robinho coming into the Club? He smiled and said they are wonderful to watch .... but WE won some trophies though didn't we??!! A damn good point I thought.

Anyway, you could see how everyone at the Club thought the world of him and he was treated like everyones favourite grandad. Although you knew that that was not because he was a brilliant networker ..... it was just because he was so genuinely NICE!

A great move by the Club to pick up on his general aura around the place, and to take full advantage of it.

Fantastic Summerbee interviews on the OS......two parts

I don't know if you've watched them but really worth a look. What a top top fella. It's brilliant to see and hear how much of an honour he feels this role to be.

Apparently, he's not the first ambassador as the matchday guys already have the title he seems to allude.

He says that there's now a team of them on matchdays:

Tommy Booth
Gary Owen
Peter Barnes
Mike Summerbee
Joe Corrigan and
Colin Bell

He says that they are shortly going to be joined also by Tony Book

It's fantastic for the club and fans and history that the current owners are doing so much to respect and preserve the links with the club's past.

I had no idea that they had all of these guys working matchday hospitality. I've always turned down corporate invites to the match as I like being in the stands, but I think I'll take someone up on the offer if there's a chance of meeting these fellas.