Today we start with some Golden Bollox from 2 years ago ... although it could easily be today!
GOLDEN BOLLOX 11-1-2011
Napoli: We wouldn't sell Cavani to City for £40m!
Napoli have declared striker Edinson Cavani is not for sale for even £40m.
The Uruguay striker scored his second hat-trick of the season against Juventus to take his tally to 20 - and attract the interest of several Premier League clubs.
But Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis, whose side have climbed to second place in Serie A, said: "I wouldn't even sell him for €50m. I would say 'no' if Manchester City wanted him."
The Serie A club have the striker on loan for Palermo until the end of the season with a fixed option to buy for £14m.
Back to his roots: City STILL think Mario Balotelli to AC Milan is a goer
Newly-blonde striker was called a rotten apple by the Italians' president this week but Eastlands top brass are convinced there's still a deal to be done
Manchester City are confident a deal CAN still be struck with AC Milan to offload Mario Balotelli. Milan president Silvio Berlusconi branded Balotelli a “rotten apple” this week, in an outburst which looked to scupper any potential deal.
But City officials believe the Italian giants actually remain keen on the striker, once of their San Siro neighbours Inter, and that an agreement can still be reached during the current transfer window.
Despite his public claims to the contrary, City boss Roberto Mancini is willing to get shot of Balotelli, his patience having been pushed to the limit by the 22-year-old.
Milan have already sold striker Alexandre Pato to Corinthinans and are looking to get rid of former City forward Robinho, with Balotelli seen as their ideal replacement.
Balotelli - who was sporting an eye-popping new blonde hairstyle at training on Thursday - has just one Premier League goal to his name this season, and clashed with Mancini on the training pitch last week after a reckless tackle on team-mate Scott Sinclair.
Although Mancini said the episode had not affected the 22-year-old’s future at the club, privately, he and his coaching staff have conceded the point of no return has been reached.
One obstacle to any deal taking the errant Italy international from Manchester to Milan could be the clubs' respective valuations of a man who cost City £22million when they bought him from Inter two-and-a-half years ago.
City accept they will not get back what they paid for Balotelli, but are looking for at least £15m, and have ruled out the prospect of letting him go out on loan.
Of more immediate concern to Mancini is the fitness of striker Sergio Aguero, who missed City’s FA Cup win over Watford last weekend.
Aguero, who suffered a torn hamstring when he pulled up late on in the game against Stoke, has returned from Italy, where he underwent extensive treatment to speed up the recovery process.
But City’s coaching staff are unwilling to rush the forward back and risk him suffering fresh damage, so he is unlikely to be risked in Sunday's game away to Arsenal.
Mancini is in the market for a central defender in this month’s transfer window, with Kolo Toure on Africa Cup of Nations Cup duty and potentially absent for six weeks.
The City boss is concerned he will be short of central defensive cover if one of Vincent Kompany, Matija Nastasic or Joleon Lescott suffers an injury that rules him out for a considerable period of time.
Mancini tried to buy Liverpool defender Daniel Agger last summer and may make a fresh bid for the centre-half this month, despite City’s approach being knocked back last August.
Mario Balotelli's agent slams Silvio Berlusconi over criticism of City striker
Mario Balotelli's agent has hit back at AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi over his criticism of the Manchester City striker.
And the agent, Mino Raiola, says there is virtually no chance Balotelli will be returning to Italy this month.
Berlusconi said Balotelli is "a bad apple," and did not want him in the AC Milan squad.
He made his comments in the aftermath of Balotelli's training ground bust-up with Roberto Mancini, pictures of which were published around the world.
But Raiola insisted that Berlusconi was wrong, adding that the controversial striker - who has also been linked with Napoli - would not be sold to any Italian club.
"Balotelli is not a bad apple. He is a cherry," he told Sky Sport Italia.
"I think that in this case the President made a huge mistake, it was a real gaffe.
"As for Balotelli's chances of returning to Italy right now, I'd give it at 0.0001 per cent. Napoli? There is absolutely nothing in this story."
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Fetch! Manchester City under orders to catch Manchester United next month reveals Silva
Blues came from eight points behind their neighbours with six games left to snatch last season's title, but Mancini doesn't want to wait as long this time
Roberto Mancini has set his Manchester City players a target of catching up to title rivals Manchester United within seven weeks.
Champions City are currently seven points adrift of Premier League leaders, United but Mancini believes that gap can be bridged by the end of February.
Playmaker David Silva has revealed the target, and said Mancini's players remain confident they can overhaul United - just like they did last season.
City were eight points behind their neighbours with six games to go, but pipped them to the title on goal difference thanks to a late, late Sergio Aguero goal in their final game.
Despite allowing United to build another significant lead, Silva said he and his team-mates believe they can repeat that feat.
"it won't be easy, but our challenge is to be back level with Manchester United by the end of February," said the Spain international.
"Last year we saw how they were in front by quite a lot of points, and we won the league anyway, so it can be done.
"Our goal this season was the Champions League. But now that chance has gone, we want to win the Premier League and dedicate the achievement to our fans.
"The only way to do it is to work harder every day and to avoid more stumbles. Perhaps being knocked out of Europe had an influence.
"But now we need to react and to demonstrate that City are the English champions and intend to remain so. There is a long way to go, but we can't allow United any more advantage at the top of the table.
"The future is in our own hands but we have already shown how powerful we can be during our worst moments in the past year."
Silva admitted there was a lot of "anger" in the City dressing-room following their shock 1-0 Boxing Day defeat at Sunderland.
That loss allowed United to stretch their lead to seven points after 19 games, the halfway stage of the Premier League campaign.
But since then, City have responded with wins in their last two league games, scoring seven goals in the process.
"The defeat at Sunderland was a hard blow for us to take," said Silva. "Nobody believed we would lose.
"As a team we have a huge desire to repeat our title success - nobody should have any doubt about that. But we know the Premier League is very open and if you give away chances, you can be beaten.
"Even so, there was a lot of anger in the dressing-room at Sunderland - and not only from the coach.
"Those three points were so important, because in our situation they could make the difference between winning and losing the title.
"If we don't win at places like Sunderland, it's nearly impossible to fight for success in this league.
"We have spoken about all this, about our irregular form. It's not a question of a lack of quality or bad luck.
"Rivals know how to play against us and each time they make it more difficult for us to win."Daily Mirror
Holloway Makes First Signing - Alex Nimely
Alex Nimely joins from Manchester City today on a loan deal until the end of the season.
The 21 year old goes straight into the squad for the game against Burnley, bringing with him Championship experience from previous loan spells.
Speaking to Crystal Palace FC after signing the deal, the player said.
'I've played against Blackpool and Crystal Palace a couple of times so I think the manager has been watching me for a long time so when he gave me the call to come here I was very happy. The lads are all good and they've welcomed me well. I met the manager and he's fantastic, his philosophy is great as he wants to play good football and help the young players improve.'
Holloway himself said of the deal.
'I've admired him for a couple of years, I like his movement, skill and his tenacity. He's a nice kid and I'm very pleased that with the choices he had he's chosen us.'
Suspended sentence for Manchester City youth coach after he fell asleep at wheel and killed a motorcyclist
Manchester City youth team coach Scott Sellars has been given a suspended jail sentence after he fell asleep while driving his car and killed a motorcyclist.
Sellars, 47, who also played for Bolton, Blackburn and Newcastle, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.
He was driving home from work after returning from Dubai, where he had been coaching Manchester City's youth team.
The crash happened on the A6 in Derbyshire in April 2011, Nottingham Crown Court heard.
Sellars, who joined the Blues as the under 18s coach after a 20-year playing career, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing.
His six-month sentence was suspended and he was ordered to do 300 hours of community service.
The court was told Sellars had apologised to the family of the motorcyclist, Simon Burnett.
The judge, recorder Shaun Smith, said it was a single careless act because Sellars was not showing off or speeding.
His career started at Leeds in 1983 and the midfielder also played for England's under-21 team as well as Huddersfield Town and Mansfield Town. He hung up his playing boots in 2002.
Manchester City declined to comment on the sentencing
MANCHESTER TITLE RACE
PTS +7 GD +4
Hart out to show mental strength by not letting recent criticism affect performances
Joe Hart is determined not to beat himself up over the recent criticism of his performances.
After spending two seasons unchallenged as the best English keeper in the Barclays Premier League, suddenly a few flaws have been evident with the Manchester City man.
Most recently he was blamed for Adam Johnson's goal, which condemned City to defeat at Sunderland and left them trailing Manchester United by seven points heading into the new year.
Even with England, it was suggested Fraser Forster could be putting pressure on Hart for his shirt after his impressive Champions League performances against Barcelona earlier in the campaign.
But Hart has the mental strength to survive such sniping.
And he accepts there will be times when he doesn't reach the level he would wish.
'If you weren't doing well and winning things, people would not be interested in what you are doing,' he told Sky Sports News.
'People are paid to make comments.
'You have to be strong and give the best you can week in, week out.
'I work hard. Sometimes I don't save the ball. It is not through lack of effort or concentration.
You can't be perfect as much as you try to be. It is not going to happen.'
It has been suggested City's inability to get a regular defence on the pitch has had an effect, not just on Hart's form, but that of the team as a whole.
The criticism is one he refutes.
'It is definitely not the case,' he said.
'We are a close group and we all know how each other plays.
'It never feels foreign for anyone to come in.' DSSC
SNUB COUNT - 42
TWEETS OF THE WEEK
Back of the net! Manchester City top of the table for Twitter interaction
The blue half of Manchester has been named the club that interacts most with fans through the social network.
Twitter worked out its own league table by analysing the use of team hashtags, follower numbers for sides and their players and the engagement of fans with the content that clubs were putting on the site.
Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal rounded out the top five with Manchester United trailing down in 11th, despite the worst efforts of wannabe gangster and racist RioFerdi5@twat and Swansea and Wigan propping up the rest.
Lewis Wiltshire, head of sport at Twitter, said: “Over the past twelve months we’ve seen some great footballing moments on Twitter – Eden Hazard announced his transfer to Chelsea on the platform, and news of Mark Hughes’ departure and Harry Redknapp’s appointment at QPR was broken first by the club’s Twitter feed.”
GOLDEN BOLLOX 11-11-2010
Look out, Robinho B*ll*x!
Manchester City's Brazil star ambushed by team-mate Micah Richards in training ground snow ball fight
It's usually Robinho who employs the element of surprise to bamboozle opponents, but Manchester City team-mate Micah Richards struck a blow for all defenders on Sunday with this sneaky snowball attack in training.
Richards ghosts up on a heavily armed, smiling Robinho before launching himself within shot of his totally unaware team-mate
The Brazil star, not the most enthusiastic performer once the winter weather arrives, looked surprisingly cheerful until Richards stalked up and, with a leap, hurled a snowball in his friend’s face. Richards slams the snowball into Robinho's face
Robinho’s thoughts presumably turned to where he might have been — a Rio beach, say, sipping a cocktail.
How former City boss Mark Hughes must wish he had still been around to pin one on the errant forward.
MCF.net thread: http://www.mancityfans.net/mcfnet/viewt ... 19&t=29375
Roman Abramovich will make Pep Guardiola an £18m-a-year deal to become Chelsea's next manager in the summer. Daily Express
QPR are set to sign 28-year-old Stoke midfielder Wilson Palacios, who has played only four times this season. Sun
Newcastle United have been rocked by the request of their captain Fabricio Coloccini, 30, to leave the club. Independent
Inter Milan's Netherlands midfielder Wesley Sneijder is hoping for a last-minute switch to England and the 28-year-old has asked his advisers to make one final attempt to plot a move to a top Premier League club. DSSC
Harry Redknapp will hold talks with Ryan Nelsen, 35, next week in an attempt to convince the defender to remain at QPR. Guardian
Tottenham are in talks over a £15m move for Sevilla striker Alvaro Negredo. The 27-year-old is reportedly seeking a four-and-a-half-year deal worth in excess of £70,000 per week. DSSC
Ajax and Galatasaray are seeking a loan deal for Liverpool's 24-year-old winger Oussama Assaidi - a £3m summer signing by Brendan Rodgers. TalkSHIT
Liverpool have offered Turkish club Fenerbahce £9m for Senegalese striker Moussa Sow, 26. Fanatik
Andreas Laudrup, son of Cardiff city manager Michael, has joined French team Saint Etienne on loan with an option to purchase. The 22 year-old has been at Danish side Nordsjaelland since 2008. L'Equipe
Tottenham are reportedly interested in signing South Korean Son Heung-Min, currently of Hamburg. Bild
Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez accepts he has no chance of landing the permanent job after his side's defeat by Swansea in the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final. Sun
Angry Chelsea fans have decided to boycott matches until Rafa Benitez is dumped.DSSC
Liverpool forward Raheem Sterling, 18, says his mother Nadine is his own personal Jose Mourinho, running his life and even advising him on how to play. Daily Mirror
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has warned some of his young players that they need to shape up or face being shipped out this summer. Guardian
Italy's World Cup-winning captain Fabio Cannavaro, 39, has said defending in Serie A is not as good as it was when he played for AC Milan. Goal.com
New Wolves manager Dean Saunders has ordered his players to stay out of McDonalds. Sun
Footage has emerged of former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola appearing to shun Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo, 27, during the Fifa Ballon d'Or awards. There’s no mistaking Guardiola’s unfriendly gaze as the ex-Manchester United man seems to be blanked and moves swiftly on.Metro
[youtube]iphu65q3NrI[/youtube]
MCFC announce new catering partner - Manchester City FC
Manchester City Football Club is delighted to announce ‘Fabulous Fan Fare’ as the new catering partner at the Etihad Stadium.
The newly-formed company is a joint venture between Jamie Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts and Legends Hospitality and will be partnered with the Club for next five years.
The agreement, beginning in August 2013, will cover all hospitality and catering services including all public concessions, hospitality areas and the City Square fan zone as well as non-match event catering.
“It is our ambition to create a world class customer experience for everybody who visits the Etihad Stadium. We are looking forward to working with these two leading brands as we continue to develop our stadium to achieve this aim," said Tom Glick, Chief Commercial and Operating Officer for MCFC.
Nigel Harris, MD of Jamie Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts continued: “Fabulous Feasts has proven over the last couple of years that we can deliver world class food on a grand scale."
“Our passion for providing tasty food to the public is second to none and so we’re enormously excited to be working with Manchester City and Legends to offer what we believe will be the best stadium catering in the Premier League.
“We’ve been in discussions with the club for many months and we now have a dedicated team in place to ensure that the hospitality at the Etihad Stadium is truly something special.”
“This is obviously an exciting and important partnership for us,” saidDave Checketts, Chairman and CEO, Legends.
“We have long sought out to expand our footprint internationally and think Manchester City and Etihad Stadium are the perfect start and fit quite well with our stable of iconic venues.
"Our experience providing exceptional food and beverage to millions of fans and passion for delivering premium customer service at these venues combined with Jamie Oliver’s Fabulous Feasts' credibility, brand recognition and market knowledge provides an offering that we feel Manchester City supporters will truly enjoy.”
Legends, whose headquarters are in New York, come to the United Kingdom with an irrefutable pedigree that has built its reputation as an award-winning food and beverage provider with a passion for customer service while performing on two of the largest stages in the sports industry - iconic (Dallas) Cowboys and (New York) Yankee Stadiums.
Manchester City would like to thank Lindley Venue Catering for their valued contribution in delivering a first class service to our corporate clients and serving our supporters week in and week out at the Etihad Stadium during their 10 year tenure. The Club furthermore would like to wish Lindley well with their future endeavours .... but you've been ditched ;)
GOLDEN WAG BOLLOX 11-1-2012
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]Arsenal supporters hit out as Man City rivals snub big game
'Pricing out travelling fans will ruin game's atmosphere'
An Arsenal supporters group today warned that fans are being priced out of watching Premier League football after Manchester City returned a third of their allocation for Sunday’s game at Emirates Stadium.
Tickets were priced at £62 for adults, £23.50 for Under-16s and £26.50 for over-65s, with City sending back 912 of the 3,000 seats they were offered.
The game, which is live on Sky Sports, is classed as Category A by the club and therefore carries the highest price for Arsenal’s Premier League games.
Manchester City have returned enough for Arsenal to put a whole block of the Clock End back on sale to home supporters but the club expect the game to sell out today.
Premier League rules state that no club can charge an away fan more than a home fan for a seat in a similar section and Arsenal’s tickets in an equivalent area on Sunday, plus the returned away tickets, will also cost £62.
A spokesman from the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust said: “I can understand why Manchester City fans have stayed away this weekend. It is a reflection of the way the game is going.
“Clubs need to think carefully about their pricing structure for away fans because I don’t think it is good for the game when there are less away fans because the atmosphere will suffer.
“The issue that City fans face is one that actually hits Arsenal fans when we go to away games. We tend to get put in the Category A pricing so, if you follow Arsenal, you end up paying more than teams like QPR because clubs put the prices up for big games.”
Football Supporters’ Federation chairman Malcolm Clarke said today: “This business of categorising matches is blatantly unfair.
“And if they are starting to say enough is enough, and that in turn affects the atmosphere within the stadiums, will it retain its world-wide popularity? I am not so sure it will. This is a real test for the Premier League.”
Spurs and Chelsea, two other Category A clubs where demand for tickets is highest, both sold out their 3,000 allocations at Arsenal for the same prices this season. Prices for Arsenal’s Category A matches have increased on average by 23 per cent from last season but the club have pointed out that ticket prices in Category C games are on average 28 per cent lower than last season.
A survey carried out by the BBC in October found that Arsenal have the most expensive adult matchday ticket, priced at £126, and season ticket, £1,955, in the Premier League.
Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis defended those prices in October, saying: “We have seen ticket prices rise across the game. This is not just a football issue. If you look at the prices of entertainment across the board they have gone up significantly.”
Arsenal fans were charged £56 for the reverse Premier League fixture in September and sold out the away end. City have played down the problem but a Premier League spokesman said today: "Ticket pricing is a matter for individual clubs, many of which work hard to fill their stadiums with offers at different points during a season that make top flight football accessible to large numbers of fans.
"We have always encouraged stretch pricing to help accessibility and it is against Premier League rules to charge away fans more than home fans for the same standard of seats.
"The quality and safety of stadia is as a result of extensive and continued investment from the clubs. Fans clearly enjoy the environment in which they watch Premier League matches and the football on offer with occupancy rates at grounds tracking at 95% for this season and having been 90%+ for the last fifteen seasons in a row."
LAHAD'S BINGO CIRCLE OF BOLLOX
Back in December we broke the news that the club plans to build a brand new iconic landmark around the circumference of the Etihad Stadium. Inspired by and dedicated to City fans, City Circle, as it will be known, is set to transform the home of the blues with thousands of supporter messages in the shape of personalised ‘Bluemoon discs’ spelling out the lyrics of the fans’ favourite Club anthem, Blue Moon.
The new tribute will see all four versus of the terrace classic written by Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart recreated from approximately 40,000 circular disks and is set become the UK’s largest permanent fan tribute. Each letter will span more than two metres in height. Blues fans can take their pick from a range of styles and prices starting from stainless steel, costing £60, coloured glass at £95, and a limited edition of hand cast bronze discs for £395.
Needless to say this would be a perfect place to honour the Fez & Nipple Tassel wearing one ....
MCF.net THREAD: viewtopic.php?f=121&t=44934
STOLEN POST OF THE DAY
carl_feedthegoat wrote:Stolen from BM...fantastic post.
Just wanted to say this to any lurking Arsenal fans whom may still be caught in the headlights of a self consuming hatred eating away regarding our oil money.
I started watching City in 1972 when we truly had some great players and football was a world away from what it is today. Somewhere between 1978 -1982 we lost our way and the rot set in and since then I and thousands of others have had to suffer, watch and support some incredibly poor footballers. Most of us have travelled the length and breadth of this country spending thousands for nothing more in return than a faint glimmer of hope that one day it would change. Other clubs were financed and had great luck with the timing of the Premier League and the cartel of the Champions League and the gap grew ever wider.
To all you Arsenal fans who are now outraged with our newly found wealth please understand this - This is the only one way other clubs can compete nowadays and your cosy 'big 4' got too cosy to notice that by keeping it all to themselves that one day somebody somewhere more powerful or more richer would eventually say 'f**k this we're having some of it'. So whilst you enjoyed your time in the sun, we floundered and just about kept afloat largely due to thousands of us turning up week in week out. Yes we was here when we were shit. Whilst you have never ever had to witness years upon years of some of the worst footballers you could ever imagine wearing your beloved clubs shirt. You have never ever had to watch your closest historical neighbours win everything in sight for 20 years non stop. Doubles/trebles, buying star after star footballers, having to endure 20 plus years of piss taking from the world's biggest set of C**tiest supporters. Having to listen to every pundit from China to Chinley spout on about how great they are. You have never had to grow up and listen to every footballer tell us 'it's their dream to play for United'. To have the Munich disaster held as some self righteous reason why everybody should hold a candle for that club. You have never had to hang onto a dream that one day just one day you could have some success instead of watching your club yoyo from division to division, to watch your club change managers so often it became almost a monthly event. You have never had to watch your club lose at home to their historical friendly lower league clubs like Bury and Stockport.
Our name has been dragged through the mud, kicked in the balls, laughed at from all corners yet one thing has remained constant through it all.
Us the fans...
So please forgive me and try not to take this too personally but I couldn't give a flying f**k as to what Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, United, Gillingham, Stockport, Bury and any other football club on the planet thinks about how we got the money or how we go about spending the money. Right now I couldn't give an Owl's hoot as to bringing through some unknown kid from some unknown club from some unknown village on the planet, nurturing him and watching him grow with us. I'll tell you why that is, because for years we've done that and clubs like your's used to come and take them off us when all the hard work had been done. You would lord it over us like some self righteous lord of the manor who was coming to take what was rightly their own.
So forgive me this one little pleasure as I will go on for the next 10 years loving it if we spend spend and spend some more to bring any silverware and I mean any silverware to my beautiful long deserved club and our supporters.
Seven years without a trophy...comeback when your near the 35yr mark and i'll start to have some sympathy
MCF.net THREAD: http://www.mancityfans.net/mcfnet/viewt ... 75#p496703
MORE BOLLOX LATER ...
