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crossing the border into wales is like stepping back 25 years in time

mcnab, white and moulden to score in a 3-0 win today

Keith Curle to hit the post with a penalty in a(nother) humilating defeat!

Moulden likes Wales. Makes him seem tall. Trevor Morley 1-0

Beware of Nathan Blake.

That lad's got a big future.

Fuck that, they need to beware of Aguero, Dzeko, Silva, Navas, Yaya and Fred. Also Jojo, Negredo, Nasri and Milner.

Slim wrote:Fuck that, they need to beware of Aguero, Dzeko, Silva, Navas, Yaya and Fred. Also Jojo, Negredo, Nasri and Milner.

[youtube]CEd4_PVz12M[/youtube]

Ted Hughes wrote:

Slim wrote:Fuck that, they need to beware of Aguero, Dzeko, Silva, Navas, Yaya and Fred. Also Jojo, Negredo, Nasri and Milner.

[youtube]CEd4_PVz12M[/youtube]

I would swear it's 2013, how did I get the year so wrong?

On the upside, I'm 21 again.

Slim wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Slim wrote:Fuck that, they need to beware of Aguero, Dzeko, Silva, Navas, Yaya and Fred. Also Jojo, Negredo, Nasri and Milner.

[youtube]CEd4_PVz12M[/youtube]

I would swear it's 2013, how did I get the year so wrong?

On the upside, I'm 21 again.

mcfly!

I've done a preview. Read it please.

Dunne's Half-Time Pint wrote:I've done a preview. Read it please.

Where?

Got it... Have to click on stickies when using the app

City v Cardiff

The writer, short of ideas, desperate and sweating in the heat of the August night, turned to the Telegraph for inspiration. It was there, amidst the buy-to-lets, polenta recipes and Pippa Middleton’s tips, that your part-time hack found this gem: Cardiff City has renamed the [strike]historic[/strike] Canton Stand “Croeso”. Welcome.

Welcome to Cardiff City Stadium for the first Premier League clash in the Bluebird’s 114 year history. History that Cardiff’s billionaire owner, Vincent Tan, has been reshaping with alacrity. The Bluebirds, now Red Dragons, must face off against Sheikh Mansour’s Manchester City in the Welsh capital’s curtain raiser.

Whilst David Moyes has taken umbrage at the fixtures dished up and served cold by the FA’s very own A.B.U. H.A.L., another Glaswegian manager, Malky Mackay, is looking forward to tucking in. Massive Malk, as nobody calls him, has spoken of the “buoyancy” and “positive energy” which has accompanied the Welsh warriors’ (patent pending) stuttering climb to the top flight. Cardiff will need all that and more to resist a Manchester City side which looks irresistible after its summer course of holistic therapy.

Talent has been added to the Cardiff squad in the form of £8.5m man Andreas Cornelius, in contention for his first competitive start and brimming with the sort of confidence that has so endeared compatriot Nicklas Bendtner to the Premier League gallery. Old faces look set to make an impact with the rickety knees, strong opinions and private charitable contributions of former City fan favourite Craig Bellamy bringing guile and class to the Cardiff City flank.

Manuel Pellegrini won’t be the only Chilean on parade today. Carafe-sized midfield man Gary Medel missed the Seville to Manchester City lifeboat and must now float around the Cardiff back line hoping to fend off former colleagues, Alvaro Negredo and Jesus Navas. Whether the “Pitbull” can form an effective barrier in front of Cardiff’s back four will have a significant bearing on a game in which City will look to attack at pace and in numbers.

City’s blueprint for success has not been colour changes and mythical names (though a new badge would be welcome). The Emirati boys have looked to build infrastructure and buy class whilst maintaining a relationship with the core support. Vincent Tan take note.

However, perhaps for the first time in the Sheikh’s reign, an old fashioned Manchester City solution has been deployed to address the dressing room disharmony that appeared to dog our last campaign. The tried and trusted P45 so beloved of Swales and Lee has been revived and Mancini is gone. With him, though not sharing a cab, goes the first successful talisman of the new era, Carlos Tevez.

Pellegrini is smoother than a waxed duck, more charming than David Niven and has a luxuriant head of hair. It is, no doubt, these attributes that have helped him restore shared purpose to a dressing room of stars who were simply too expensive to replace.

This is his first test. Cardiff will be fired up, their fans more so, and the atmosphere will be red hot. Like a dragon. City are favourites but Kompany is missing. Our savvy work this summer has earned the grudging respect of a media which continues to pick and prod at spendthrift rivals: Fail to win and Pellegrini will get his first negative review.

No chance. 0-4. “Croeso” to the Premier League.

Cardiff City v Manchester City

Kick-off Sunday 4pm
Venue Cardiff City Stadium
Last season n/a
Live Sky Sports 1
Referee L Probert
Cardiff
From: Marshall, Caulker, Connolly, Turner, Taylor, Medel, Kim, Bellamy, Gunarsson, Whittingham, Campbell, Lewis, Hudson, Cornelius, Brayford, Gestede, Noone, Smith, John, Mutch, Cowie, Mason, Conway, Lappin, Maynard, McNaughton, Kiss, Velikonja
Manchester City
From: Hart, Zabaleta, Lescott, Nastatic, Clichy, Garcia, Toure, Fernandinho, Navas, Silva, Aguero, Pantilimon, Wright, Kolarov, Barry, Milner, Nasri, Razak, Sinclair, Jovetic, Negredo, Guidetti, Milner, Dzeko
Doubtful Nastasic (ankle)
Injured Richards (hamstring, Sep), Kompany (groin, Sep)
Source: The Guardian

Word is Natasic is fit again and steps in to replace Kompany , great news if true !

Dunne's Half-Time Pint wrote:I've done a preview. Read it please.

I was going to ask if one had been done. Well done that man!!!

Shove it on a thread of its own it deserves it! :-)

I enjoyed that read young Mr Half Pint...though for the life of me cannot seem to find anyone called Alacrity in their squad.

Not sure how Mackay will approach this game...probably with a tin hat. The vision of an already nervous and inexperienced squad seeking 1st its Prem points sat in the dressing room, absorbing the names of Silva, Aguero, Navas, Yaya, Jovetic, Negredo, Zaba, Clichy et al....and chucking up into a communal dressing room bucket as fear grips their pre match stomachs.

The poor buggers must now know how have more than an inkling of how their ancestors felt, all those years ago, as they learned that Edward 1 was planning to visit them with several thousand mates.

"Noooo Blodwyn, I thought I'd not bother with the game today, how do you fancy a little trip to visit your Mother in Llanfaircityarcomingletsgogoquick?"

I think JoJo is still injured.

Bit of a test this one today. The sort we haven't passed on too many occasions in the last eighteen months or so.
It would be a big win.

The first big test will be an away game when the opposing team decides to defend with two banks of 4 for the entire game. A test which Mancini failed about 90% of the time. With a wide player in Navas, I feel much more confident that we can win those sort of games.
Don't know if Cardiff will play like that today. Hopefully since it's their first home game they'll want to come and attack us and leave nice big spaces at the back for Aguero and co to exploit.

Hard to predict the Count's team. Will he stick with Monday's team? Will he draft in another central midfielder? Two strikers? One? Willy Nasty be back?

I think the following will definitely play

Hart
Zaba
Clichy
Lescott
Yaya
Ferdie
Silva
Dzeko

My head says:

Hart

Zabba---Garcia---Lescott---Clichy

Jesus---Yaya---Fernandinho---Silva

Dzeko---Negredo

Negredo at least for the first hour for the extra graft and Aguero wasn't 100% on Monday and gives you a impact sub up front. Hopefully well have some cintinuity in performance from the new Dzeko and summer signings, fingers crossed there not one hit wonders.