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https://plus.google.com/100173774905919 ... LzgFjrH4rK hope this works, photos from CFA opening

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/ ... ew-8247126?

Probably better on here mate. Been massive commentaries on BM since about 6am. I sometimes worry we've lost our raison d'etre on here since Mark Hughes was sacked. We all used to be posting and debating furiously 24/7 before that :-)

It does look superb and i personally cant believe the change in the club since Mansour took over lets hope this creates some fine players for us and keeps us at the forefront for a looonngg time.

You connected bro getting an invite.

MEN has a picture of City players practising headers in the Maine Road car park. We've come a long way. Thanks a million Sheikh Mansour. Well actually thanks a great many millions.

I was delighted to get an invite to the opening today.A big thank you to Vicky Kloss for not forgetting me and getting me in.

I felt proud and priviledged to be there and mixing with some of the old players,some like me who were just fans and I guess a whole lot of people who were there as they had played some part in the construction of the CFA.It really is an awesome place as everyone will now know from the videos and commentaries that can be seen and heard.

Needless to say when I wandered off at the end of the formalities the way to the first team training pitch was barred.I chatted up the security guy and he did let me have a look as the players weren't actually out there but were expected in the afternoon prior to flying out tonight. I had earlier got a glimpse of David Silva working on his own with physios which to me isn't a sign that he will be playing tomorrow. He was kicking a ball so fingers crossed he is very close to being ready.

The pitch I was briefly shown is fully enclosed so nobody can watch and I think is the only one of the first team pitches like that. The key thing for me from today's event is how lucky we are.I thought Khaldoon as ever was superb but he reminded of the vision when the Sheik bought the club and when you look back at what has been achieved on and off the pitch it is just exceptional.

And as was stressed by Khaldoon we are at the early stages of the vision/plan and not the end.

blues2win wrote:MEN has a picture of City players practising headers in the Maine Road car park. We've come a long way. Thanks a million Sheikh Mansour. Well actually thanks a great many millions.

I remember them coming out of the ground & jogging, with boots on, to Platt Lane to train (with us lot of school truants running behind). Tony Book talking about them running up & down the steps inside Maine Rd to keep fit.

Fantastic what the Sheikh has done for our club, thankyou, x 10 billion.

john@staustell wrote:http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/watch-take-look-around-new-8247126?

Probably better on here mate. Been massive commentaries on BM since about 6am. I sometimes worry we've lost our raison d'etre on here since Mark Hughes was sacked. We all used to be posting and debating furiously 24/7 before that :-)

Not wrong there John. It's getting bloody hard work lately.

Doug i'm glad you got invited after all the hard hours at Carrington you deserve it.

lets all have a disco wrote:Doug i'm glad you got invited after all the hard hours at Carrington you deserve it.

I even came away with a couple of little cakes with the City logo as the icing!

If anyone deserved to be at the opening it's you Doug. I still wonder why you couldn't be allowed once a week to write a little report for us even if the authorities gave it the once over first.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:Doug i'm glad you got invited after all the hard hours at Carrington you deserve it.

I even came away with a couple of little cakes with the City logo as the icing!

Someone posted a pic of similar earlier; one of the journos I think.

I agree your invite & cakes are well deserved Doug.

I just hope Yaya got one.

Brilliant stuff, and as others have said, I'm really happy that Doug was there, thoroughly deserved!

It looks absolutely incredible, and the club really deserve all the plaudits they get.
Very proud to be a City fan today.

fantastic stuff, its really hard to believe.

patrickblue wrote:Brilliant stuff, and as others have said, I'm really happy that Doug was there, thoroughly deserved!

It looks absolutely incredible, and the club really deserve all the plaudits they get.
Very proud to be a City fan today.

Standard bellends all over the net ridiculing it.

It looks incredible. Proud of the club and what it is doing for Manchester

By and large the journalists aren't being too cynical. Some of them admittedly will only believe the youth development investment is serious when they see evidence of its fruits in the first team but personally I'm confident they will on merit in the next couple of years. What with Denayer Cole Lopes Pozo Zuculini Brandon Barker Angelino etc it's hard to believe that some of them at least won't make the transition. And many of the ones that don't make it here will make it somewhere else. In the future to be a graduate of the City academy will be a huge help to a youngster getting taken seriously. The Academy will be, arguably is, the place to be for ambitious young players and their parents and that means we'll get a decent share of the cream of each generational crop into the future.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:Doug i'm glad you got invited after all the hard hours at Carrington you deserve it.

I even came away with a couple of little cakes with the City logo as the icing!

Someone posted a pic of similar earlier; one of the journos I think.

I agree your invite & cakes are well deserved Doug.

I just hope Yaya got one.

Yaya's agent would say the cakes were not big enough.

Good to see that of all the photographers there today I have never seen any of them at Carrington.

I was also told that SKY hadn't been invited in as they have not been "in" with City so we were more favouring the BBC. Has that been evident from the coverage that has been shown on TV?

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:Doug i'm glad you got invited after all the hard hours at Carrington you deserve it.

I even came away with a couple of little cakes with the City logo as the icing!

Someone posted a pic of similar earlier; one of the journos I think.

I agree your invite & cakes are well deserved Doug.

I just hope Yaya got one.

Yaya's agent would say the cakes were not big enough.

Good to see that of all the photographers there today I have never seen any of them at Carrington.

I was also told that SKY hadn't been invited in as they have not been "in" with City so we were more favouring the BBC. Has that been evident from the coverage that has been shown on TV?

Sky got there eventually & have been covering it with bits of interviews etc, but not seen much film of the actual development when I've had it on.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

Ted Hughes wrote:

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

lets all have a disco wrote:Doug i'm glad you got invited after all the hard hours at Carrington you deserve it.

I even came away with a couple of little cakes with the City logo as the icing!

Someone posted a pic of similar earlier; one of the journos I think.

I agree your invite & cakes are well deserved Doug.

I just hope Yaya got one.

Yaya's agent would say the cakes were not big enough.

Good to see that of all the photographers there today I have never seen any of them at Carrington.

I was also told that SKY hadn't been invited in as they have not been "in" with City so we were more favouring the BBC. Has that been evident from the coverage that has been shown on TV?

Sky got there eventually & have been covering it with bits of interviews etc, but not seen much film of the actual development when I've had it on.

Maybe that's it ,they weren't invited inside to the main event but allowed outside to do an OB. Mike Wedderburn excepted they should all have been barred.

They have been recording inside, but it's almost all been close ups interviews & bits of speeches so far. It's just showing a bit more now but not much detail of the place itself.

Introduced more as 'bad news for Manchester City as Aguero out for at least a month...oh & here's the new academy..' titter.

Quite a bit of coverage now though tbf.