With the best of intentions, we decided a weekend in Manchester would be a nice way for our parents to celebrate their wedding anniversary in 1998. Coinciding as it did with our game at Maine Road against Manchester City, it seemed the ideal gift.
It turned sour fairly soon though. Positioned in the away end of the ground, they found themselves caught in the crossfire of seats and coins between both sets of supporters. My mother vowed to stick to home games from then on. It is quite an indictment of those fans that Millwall is seen as a safer location to anyone, but events that day led to the decision to ban away fans from attending games between both clubs when we met again in 2001/2002. As was evident in this month's Carling Cup double-header between rivals City and United, such behaviour is still very much in evidence in Manchester. Prior to the first leg of the semi-final over a fortnight ago, police confiscated darts, bottles and golf balls from supporters entering the ground. Numerous arrests were made on the night, and a further 11 supporters were taken into custody and charged when Manchester police raided their houses on the morning of the second leg.
Those intending to cause trouble at last Wednesday's game were warned they would be severely dealt with. Despite this, several United fans threw coins and bottles at Craig Bellamy as he prepared to take a corner kick in the 50th minute. Those charged face indefinite bans from Old Trafford. Incidents like these have become worryingly common and it is surely only a matter of time before a missile thrown from the crowd or fans encroaching onto the pitch will result in serious injury. Coins cannot be confiscated by police upon entry to any ground, so it has now become an unwelcome addition to the abuse players are expected to face. It's a long time since the semi-final of the Carling Cup meant anything to anyone, but it's even longer since the Manchester derby influenced anything other than the local pride of those who follow the two clubs. The spending power of City's owner and the appointment of Roberto Mancini would suggest that has now changed, but talk of a power shift in the city based solely on City's progress to their first semi-final in 29 years is quite simply daft. As for City's chief executive Garry Cook's guarantee of world domination, it is the latest in a number of embarrassing statements from a man quickly losing any semblance of credibility he may have once had.
As Chelsea set out to do when Abramovich first arrived, Cook's intention to turn City into the "biggest and best club in the world" based solely on their ability to out-spend the competition is flawed in the extreme. Putting to one side the folly of making such an assertion in public (though he would later claim that despite the tv cameras present, he believed the meeting was a closed event), some of their actions thus far suggest they are farther from greatness than they would believe. The manner in which Mark Hughes was sacked, the bungling of the Kaka deal (never mind the decision to offer him a reported £500,000 a week), and just about every moment of their handling of Robinho illustrates that it takes a little more than vast wealth to know how best to run a successful football club. Regardless of how City fans view things, United face their main rival of the Premiership era today at the Emirates stadium. Since the mid-'90s this fixture has stood out as the grudge game, which more than any other has affected the outcome of the league title each May. Without the injured Thomas Vermaelen, it will be left to Sol Campbell to handle Wayne Rooney. How he fares may well be the deciding factor. Winning their two games in hand would put Manchester City within six points of United, and if their target of a top-four finish is to be achieved, a victory this afternoon against Portsmouth, a club in total disarray, is essential. There won't be anything near the hype surrounding the game as there was on Wednesday, but a slip-up of any kind is inexcusable.
However Mancini chooses to spend Sheik Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan's considerable wealth, his greatest obstacle to challenging United's dominance of English football, let alone Manchester, is the continued presence of Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford.
Much is made of United's reliance on Wayne Rooney's abilities and the club's level of debt, but the impending retirement of their manager will impact United greater than the loss of any of their squad. They've coped with the loss of Ronaldo better than most expected; it will be entirely different competing for trophies without Ferguson in charge.
Referring to him as "that Taggart from across the road" and claiming to be "buzzing off" just about everything to do with City at the moment, even Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher has weighed in with his considerable intellect on the topic. "He's a top manager and all that but he looks like a dustbin man." Hard to follow that to be honest.
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini can shoot for the moon with bid for Franck Ribery
Roberto Mancini is to receive backing from Manchester City’s owners to make an £80 million bid this summer for Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery as he tries to mould a Premier League-winning team.
The Italian will confirm in a television interview on Sunday that he intends to honour his 3½-year deal, allaying the fears of fans who believed that his appointment was only a six-month stopgap solution.
A key factor in his commitment is the promise from Sheikh Mansour that he will be given carte blanche to pursue whatever transfer target he deems fit.
There will, however, be no last-minute Man City pyrotechnics over the next 48 hours as they stick fast to the conviction that there are no beneficial deals to be done in the January transfer window.
The one outstanding piece of business to be completed is the poaching of winger Adam Johnson from Middlesbrough for a fee of up £18 million.
To ask Mancini if he has the freedom to make another of City’s audacious big-money transfer moves is to receive one of his quizzical smiles. “Yes, of course,” he said. “But not now.”
Such a liberty, though, is not always so sacrosanct. Indeed, he contests a match on Sunday that vividly reflects both the blessing and the curse of the petrodollar. He needs only to glance across the Eastlands dugout at the squat, lugubrious figure of Portsmouth’s Avram Grant to see a manager stripped of all autonomy and denied even the knowledge of which of his players are leaving.
The chaotic misrule at Portsmouth first under Sulaiman Fahim, the man who so conscientiously fronted Mansour’s takeover of City, and latterly by Ali Al-Faraj, has brought them to the cusp of relegation as well as rendering the positions of both Grant and chief executive Peter Storrie untenable. The hierarchy at City, by contrast, has rarely seemed more settled — because their ambitions have never been more limitless.
Stability is sought by Abu Dhabi from Mancini and he is slowly beginning to provide it, improving his English by the week and looking for a property in Manchester to call his home.
The natty City scarf that he has made his own is by no means a superficial expression of loyalty. You only had to study his reaction to last week’s last-gasp defeat to Manchester United to realise how deeply he felt City’s time-honoured frustrations.
“That night at Old Trafford I was very sorry for the supporters,” he said, solemnly. “Myself and the players, we want to do well for them.”
No wonder it has taken so little time for chants of his name to echo around the City of Manchester Stadium. Suddenly, the fans’ Blue Moon anthem has acquired a portentousness to replace its usual tragicomic pathos. Mancini can — and, far more significantly, has the backing — to shoot for the moon.
A key step in that process has been to assert his authority with an emphasis that belies his diffident demeanour. He has started by dispensing with the services of the mercurial Robinho, whom he made clear had no chance of starting for City regularly.
The Brazilian, having been pictured last week carrying his laptop from the training ground, was back at Carrington on Friday morning to say goodbyes to his team-mates before leaving for Sao Paulo.
The six-month loan deal that takes Robinho back to Santos, his hometown club, represents a shrewd piece of negotiation by City, who do not have to pay a penny towards his salary during that time. Mancini, while he made the right diplomatic noises about wanting the 26 year-old to return in the summer, disguised his satisfaction only thinly.
Speaking also on behalf of chief executive Garry Cook and chairman Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, he said: “We’re very sorry about Robinho, because we liked him. But it is good also for him to be always in the first team. He has a World Cup.”
Mancini’s instinctive bracketing of himself with Cook and Al-Mubarak was intriguing. In only six weeks they have become a tight-knit triumvirate, with Cook, who has endured a spate of negative headlines over his ill-advised posturing, impressing upon Mancini that he will be given time to make the job work.
Cook’s long-term future has been the subject of rather more speculation, but the chairman is understood to have been furious at a newspaper report that his position was in doubt after a series of gaffes — not least declaring that City would soon be “the biggest and best club in the world”.
Cook may only have been saying what Mancini is beginning to think. Pressed on the gap he perceived between United and City in their Carling Cup semi-final, he said: “Whether it is United and City, or Roma and Lazio, there is a great passion. But over the last few games, I see no difference. It is important for us to play our game like United.” The difference, he believed, lay only in the tirelessness of Wayne Rooney.
Mancini affects to have a certain empathy with the United striker, having also, like him, been a formidable teenager. “I was a big player,” he joked. “It is the talent. You are born with the talent, then you work with it. You develop the right mentality.”
It is the bedrock of a philosophy that, at Inter Milan and now at City, Mancini has brought swiftly to management.
MCF.THREAD: viewtopic.php?f=119&t=30039
Manchester City rush to pip Jose Mourinho in race for Parma's African starlet McDonald Mariga
Manchester City have rushed through a work permit application for Parma's £7million midfielder McDonald Mariga so they can beat Jose Mourinho and sign him before tomorrow's 5pm transfer deadline.
City have agreed terms with the Serie A club for Mariga.
As part of the deal for the Kenya international, City striker Valeri Bojinov will transfer to Parma, where he has been on loan.
The move for Mariga has echoes of the transfer window 18 months ago, when City pipped Chelsea to sign Robinho.
This time, their rival is Mourinho, who wanted to sign the African player for Inter Milan.
Mariga, 22, helped Parma win promotion last season and is considered one of best young African players.
MCF.THREAD: viewtopic.php?f=119&t=30012
MIDDLESBROUGH are bracing themselves for a second, take-it-or- leave-it £7 million bid from Manchester City for Adam Johnson.
The 22-year-old is out of contract in the summer, and free now to talk to interested clubs.
City offered £5 million for the England Under-21 star last week, when Johnson requested permission to talk to the Eastlands outfit.
But the Teessiders blocked any attempt at talks and are keen to hang onto their star player until the end of the season.
Then, though Johnson could leave the Riverside on a free transfer, Boro would be entitled to compensation because the winger is under 24 and has been brought through the club’s ranks.
However, that figure is unlikely to be substantial, and City are hopeful that a renewed bid before the transfer window shuts tomorrow will tempt Boro to sell.
Wayne Bridge is set to quit England.
The distraught Manchester City star refuses to be in the same squad as love cheat John Terry.
Unless boss Fabio Capello banishes Terry from the England set-up, Bridge will end his international career with 36 caps.
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TRANSFER BOLLOX
Spurs striker Robbie Keane could be on his way to Sunderland after Black Cats manager Steve Bruce made a £9m offer for the Tottenham forward. News of the World
Keane's arrival at the Stadium of Light could signal the departure of Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones to Liverpool. Sunday Mirror
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish has admitted that his chances of signing Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko are all but over.
Sunday Mercury
Liverpool midfielder Yossi Benayoun is set to quit Liverpool after becoming disillusioned with life at Anfield. News of the World
Wolves' £4m bid for Stephen Hunt has been rejected by Hull City who say the winger is staying put. Sunday Mirror
Wolves and Fulham are battling it out to sign Egypt striker Mohamed Gedo, who has impressed at the Africa Cup of Nations. Sunday Mirror
Manchester United striker Michael Owen could be on his way out of Old Trafford in the summer having failed to impress manager Alex Ferguson. Sunday Mirror
Sunderland are poised to sign Crystal Palace defender Nathaniel Clyne. Sunday Mirror
Wigan look to have won the race to sign Crystal Palace's £2.5m-rated striker Victor Moses. Mail on Sunday
Thierry Henry looks set to leave Barcelona in the summer with the Spanish giants tracking Valencia's David Silva or Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery to fill the left side of their attack. (Mail on Sunday)
Arsenal manager has revealed he has £30m to spend with Valencia's David Villa and Bordeaux's Marouane Chamakh on his wish list. Mail on Sunday
Wenger is also keeping tabs on Real Madrid winger Pablo Sarabia, who is a free agent at the end of the season. News of the World
Both of Barcelona's presidential candidates have put Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas top of their wanted list. News of the World
Tottenham are trying to sign Manchester United keeper Ben Foster after a move for Portsmouth stopper Asmir Begovic fell through on Saturday. News of the World
Fiorentina are lining up a loan move for Tottenham striker Roman Pavlychenko. News of the World
West Ham are interested in taking Spurs right-back Alan Hutton on loan.
News of the World
Rangers have rejected a £3.5m offer from Sunderland for Algeria defender Madjid Bougherra. (News of the World)
Celtic have upped their bid for Preston North End central defender Sean St Ledger by a third to £3m. (Sunday Mail)
Cardiff City sources say Celtic will have to pay more than £5m if they want striker Ross McCormack. (News of the World/Sunday Herald)
Cardiff City striker Ross McCormack says he would be interested in a switch to Celtic should the club he supported as a boy make an approach. (Sunday Mail)
Celtic are locked in talks with Real Mallorca over the transfer of defender Ivan Ramis after increasing their offer to £2m. (Sunday Mail)
Celtic are weighing up whether to make a £2.5m second offer to Real Mallorca for central defender Ivan Ramis after their £1.5m bid was rejected on Thursday. (Sunday Herald)
Celtic are closing in on a loan deal for Fulham forward Diomansy Kamara, who worked with manager Tony Mowbray at West Brom. (Sunday Mail)
Celtic will move for Fulham's Diomansy Kamara or Valerenga striker Mohammed Abdellaoue should Scott McDonald be sold to West Ham. (Sunday Herald)
Winger Paul Slane will snub a new contract with Motherwell and sign a three-and-a-half-year contract with Celtic in the next 24 hours. (Sunday Mail)
Aberdeen striker Lee Miller will on Sunday move to Middlesbrough for £500,000 and Dons boss Mark McGhee could use the money to make a move for Kilmarnock's Kevin Kyle. (Sunday Mail)
New Hearts manager Jim Jefferies has refused to quell speculation that he will move for Kilmarnock striker Kevin Kyle. (Sunday Times)
Jim Jefferies will make Alan Gow his first signing as Hearts manager, taking the former Falkirk and Rangers forward on loan from Plymouth Argyle. (Various)
WAG OF THE DAY - Veronika-Varekova
http://www.thespoiler.co.uk/index.php/2 ... a-varekova
OTHER BOLLOX
Juventus have agreed terms with Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez for him to manage the Serie A club next season. The Independent
Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney is set to ignore interest from Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid and sign a new four-year contract worth £24m in the summer. Sunday Express
Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin Van der Saar is closer than ever to his club after he was allowed three weeks off to care for his wife after she had suffered a brain haemorrhage just before Christmas. Sunday Mirror
Portsmouth narrowly avoided becoming the first Premier League club to go into administration after raising vital funds from the sale of defender Younes Kaboul to Tottenham on Saturday. Sunday Mirror
But Pompey chief executive Peter Storrie has revealed that the cash-strapped club are only weeks away from going bust. News of the World
Striker Robin van Persie is to hand Arsenal's title push a boost with a return to fitness from his ankle injury in March rather than April or May as feared. Mail on Sunday
West Ham midfielder Kieron Dyer has been given a month to prove his fitness or face being forced into retirement.News of the World
Wayne Rooney is at the centre of a legal battle over his future earnings and will appear in court on Monday to defend himself against a multi-million-pound lawsuit.
