The club have announced that Sheikh Mansour has purchased the 10% of the club’s shares that were owned by Worldwide Investments Limited. This was a company indirectly owned by Thaksin Shinawatra and his family. The 10% had previously gone to Worldwide Investments Limited at the time Sheikh Mansour took over.
David Conn writes in The Guardian:
After the takeover Thaksin was widely reported to have retained his interest in the remaining 10% of shares, and appointed as his nominees his long-term associate Jack Srisumrid, a Thai businessman, and the Greek shipping tycoon Victor Restis. Srisumrid, 38, became a City director in August 2007 shortly after Thaksin bought the club. Restis, 41, based in Athens, was appointed to the City board after Mansour’s takeover but is understood to have been a representative of the 10% holding, not of Mansour’s 90%. Both Srisumrid and Restis resigned as directors of City last Friday.
Sheikh Mansour is now the sole owner of the club. Good.
The last two visits of Fulham have been rather painful and tonight provides a perfect opportunity to redress that a little. Last season we looked exhausted from our Uefa Cup campaign and suffered a tired 1-3 defeat. The previous season was even worse.
Our last home match of the season had Thaksin in attendance hoping for a bit of adulation in an end of season party. City duly swept to a two goal lead, and were playing ole football. Fulham were staring relegation in the face, when somehow they managed to peg us back with their neat and tidy football. With Geovanni getting a rare run-out, it was suddenly end to end stuff, culminating in a Fulham winner.
Cue an exodus of City fans and a lacklustre lap of honour. Anyone remember the ill-judged raffle of a car in the centre circle? My abiding memory was Thaksin standing on the edge of the pitch afterwards, seemingly texting. Sven came out for the lap of honour, cast a sheepish glance in Thaksin’s direction, and set off timidly in a different direction. I’ve often wondered what our Bond villain chairman was tapping into his phone. “Bring me the head of Sven Goran Eriksson” sprung to mind.
Fulham never looked back after that day, while Sven was never seen at Eastlands again.
In some ways Roy Hodgson is an English version of Sven, having made his name across the continent by winning titles in a variety of countries, and having a crack at international management. Both like to set their teams up with an emphasis on maintaining shape and disciplined defending first, followed by neat, progressive football when the opportunity presents itself.
The highpoint of this in Sven’s City could be seen in our victory in the Munich derby, when we nullified United and picked them off with a couple of goals. While Hughes’ City may be better equipped to take us where we want to go, there are times when tactically the ex-England manager is missed. It’s hard to imagine a Sven team on a good day conceding the goals we did at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Anyway, back to tonight’s Carling Cup third round tie. Mark Hughes surprised everyone by fielding a full strength side against Crystal Palace in the last round. Whilst a strong line-up is expected tonight, there is more likelihood of changes from the team that played on Sunday.
Martin Petrov could come in on the left flank. Bellamy may be rested given his fragile knees, or Tevez may be given more time to recover his fitness. Quite possibly they will play a portion of the game each. Pablo Zabaleta would be a popular starter at right-back in place of Richards.
Hughes may also want to give some match time to Sylvinho, Weiss and Taylor. It would be good to see Sylvinho make his debut, and a further glimpse of Weiss’ skills should help lift the crowd.
The club have pegged prices for the game, which implies tickets may not have been going like hot cakes. It will be a shame if there isn’t a decent crowd as Hughes has stated the club are taking this competition seriously in our bid to win a trophy.
Mark Bowen and Joleon Lescott have both spoken about the need to get our defending back on track and I couldn’t agree more. While we did start the season with a series of clean sheets, it’s undeniable that fortune smiled on us in each of those games. Upcoming league games against West Ham and Villa will provide sterner tests, but this is an excellent opportunity to rebuild our confidence at the back.
Kolo Toure:
“When you come back three times like we did in the derby and score in the 90th minute you should not lose no matter how much time is added on. We showed a lack of experience and concentration and must not let it happen again.
“Lessons have to be learned because good players and good times don’t make the same mistake twice.
“The Carling Cup is very important to us and we are now 100 per cent focused on the tie … Winning a trophy of any description is a fantastic feeling and that is what we want to do.”
Roy Hodgson has said he’ll be fielding a similar side to the one that took on CSKA Sofia in the Europa League last week. Of the starting 11 in that match, only Pantsil started against against Wolves on Sunday. Hodgson knows where his priorities lie, and they aren’t the Carling Cup. We should win.
Possible line-up: Given, Sylvinho, Lescott, Toure, Zabaleta, de Jong, Barry, Ireland, Petrov, Bellamy, Wright-Phillips.
Prediction: 3-0 to City
Given – There is surely no justice in the world when Ben Foster can finish on the winning side and Shay on the losing one. For a long period in the second half, the Irishman appeared to be holding out United, and Berbatov in particular, on his own. 9
Richards – A bad start when he was out of position for the first goal, and it didn’t get much better. The tighter marking of Zabaleta would have given Giggs and co a harder time. Had a chance to make up for things, but didn’t react quickly enough to Petrov’s cross. 5
Toure – The captain didn’t cover himself in glory for Rooney’s goal either, and failed to climb high enough to keep the ball from Fletcher’s head for the third. In between times he managed to get forward and instigate our move for Tevez’s big chance. 6
Lescott – Like the captain he was overworked in the centre of defence. Didn’t do badly, but didn’t command the area either. A little more authority would have been welcome. 6
Bridge – Having to focus on the defensive side of his game isn’t his preference, but that’s the way things are sometimes, especially when you concede possession as regularly as Wayne did. At least he saw off the threat of Park and Valencia fared little better. 6
de Jong – An excellent 1st half when he helped us get a foothold in the game. Less effective in the second and has to take some responsibility for us sitting to deep. 7
Barry – A coolly taken goal was the highlight. The low point was being outjumped by Fletcher for United’s second. For the second game in succession his influence faded in the second half, at a time when we needed his controlled passing to relieve the pressure. 7
Ireland – The lay-off for Tevez on the stroke of half-time was a good touch, but that’s not enough and he’ll know it. Moving him out to the left flank in the second half didn’t do him any favours. We needed more from him in the middle to take the game to United. 6
Wright-Phillips – Spent to much time at right-back. Shaun looked dangerous on the few times he managed to get forward. 7
Tevez – His trademark harrying won us our first goal. He’ll be equally remembered for hitting the post with his golden chance. Lack of fitness caught up with him in the second half and he shouldn’t have played for the full match. 6
Bellamy – His game’s not just about work-rate. Two brilliant goals looked to have salvaged us a point. It’s cruel on the Welshman that they proved to be in vain. 9
Subs:
Petrov – Managed two quality moments in the short time he was on the pitch. The first was a low, driven ball that flashed
across the goal and was nearly turned in by Richards. The second was the quick thinking lay-off to release Bellamy for City’s third. 7
Blue Days
21 September 2009
Deep down I think we all knew after Craig Bellamy had scored his 90th minute equaliser, that the referee would give United as long as it took to score again. And so it proved in the sixth minute of four minutes injury time. Probably just as well Owen scored then otherwise we could still be playing right up until Wednesday’s game with Fulham.
How often does a manager whose team are chasing the game in injury time feel confident enough to make a substitution, knowing that he’ll get extra time allowed for it? Only at Old Trafford.
The timekeepers can come up with justification for their extra extra time, with time for a goal celebration here and time for a substitution there, but it’s not normally applied in full. How long did Mr Atkinson allow for Owen’s celebration when City needed to score?
When it was introduced, the whole point of having the fourth official show the amount of added time was to remove the mystery of how long is left, and any resultant controversy about late goals. In this match it failed. It’s been suggested before that a separate official should be responsible for the time-keeping, as is the case in rugby. Apparently most referees back the idea. Timekeeping is an unnecessary distraction for the man in the middle. Displaying the remaining time on the video screens would add to the drama and remove the controversy.
Having got that off our chest, we can reflect on a game where Bellamy and Given were truly heroic. De Jong wasn’t far behind, but these performances and the three equalisers shouldn’t mask what was in many regards a disappointing performance. We started badly and in the second half reverted to the bad old days of being unable to retain possession.
There were questions to be asked about Mark Hughes’ second half tactics and substitutions. Whilst the gamble to play Tevez paid off in the first half, the Argentinian should surely have made way in the second when his lack of fitness was clearly apparent.
City were pinned back and desperately needed an outlet, but Tevez wasn’t able to provide it. Apparently he was about to come off when United scored their third. Hughes had left it to late. Petrov should have been brought on and Bellamy moved into the middle by the hour mark. Even after Bellamy’s second, it would have been worth taking off the Argentinian. His tired header conceded possession and led to the final goal.
David Pleat in The Guardian offers a good analysis of where we went wrong tactically in the second half. Moving Ireland to the left flank and leaving us under-manned in the middle isn’t something I’d like to see repeated when we’re under the cosh.
From the beginning we weren’t switched on and conceded territory even before the first goal. Richards had spent to long talking over the previous incident with Toure and was horribly out of position, unable to stop Evra. Even then it was unclear how Rooney’s footwork managed to account for both Toure and de Jong going to ground in an almost comic fashion.
The equaliser came out of the blue, when Foster failed to shepherd the ball back into his penalty area. Surely he would have known about Tevez’s harrying? Apparently not, and a nicely weighted pass from the Argentinian allowed Barry to do the honours. The former Villa man deserves credit for his finish as to often we’ve seen this kind of chance fluffed.
City took confidence from Foster’s gift and for the rest of the first half were able to give as good as they got. This culminated in Toure’s expert tackle of Rooney, surge forward and intelligent lay-off to Ireland. Stevie was aware of Tevez in a better position and the Argentinian only had Foster to beat. His big moment: he took a touch, and fired past the keeper… but not the post. Our chance to take the lead was gone. It would be unfair to say this miss cost us the match, given United’s domination of the second half.
Depressingly, United started the second half as they did the first, with a goal. Not for the last time, they easily worked a position to get in a cross from our right and Barry was outjumped by Fletcher for a simple header. Again it looked ominous, but again City struck back. Tevez laid the ball off to Bellamy who feinted to return it, before heading to the corner of the penalty area and unleashing a tremendous shot beyond Foster and into the top corner.
From then on it was one way traffic with City unable to retain possession and put together many meaningful moves. The central defence was having to deal with to many crosses and it was no surprise when Fletcher got a second. The blame this time could be attributed to Toure who didn’t get high enough to head clear.
Finally we had a substitution with Petrov making a belated appearance for the sacrificed de Jong. We started to show some improvement with Petrov flashing a ball across the face of the goal. A quicker reaction from Richards could have seen him steer it in. Our chance seemed to have gone, but Rio Ferdinand had other ideas. He gifted the ball to Petrov, who instantly released Bellamy. Ferdinand gave a futile chase, while Bellamy drove towards the six yard box, went past a diving Foster and just as it looked like he’d gone to far, turned the ball goalwards. Another brilliant strike from the Welsh captain.
90 minutes was up, but we know the rest, with some panicky defending culminating in Tevez conceding possession, and Giggs picking out an unmarked Owen to score. Questions can be asked of Toure and Richards as to who was supposed to be picking up the striker.
Mark Hughes:
“In the end we feel really frustrated and, if it is not a too strong word, robbed because the ref has played seven minutes.
“Craig Bellamy has finished on the losing side. He has scored two goals that will probably never be bettered in his career. To be on a losing side is very difficult for him and the team to take.”
Gareth Barry:
“It always hurts to lose to a last-minute goal, especially after we looked like we would get a well-deserved point. Not many teams are going to come here and score three. We’ve made another statement by doing that.
“We deserve a lot of credit for that but at the same time we have to look at ourselves because we conceded four goals at the other end. We have to have a look at that, it’s obviously something we have to improve on.”
Joleon Lescott:
“There are no excuses. We are pros and we have to look at ourselves collectively and as individuals and realise that it just wasn’t good enough.
“We look at each other and we’ve made mistakes. We started the season with four clean sheets and now we’ve conceded goals. We have to correct that.”
City could take pride in coming back three times and only losing to a goal in the 96th minute, but there are also important lessons to be learned:
- Despite the clean sheets in the first three League matches the defending still needs to be tighter.
- Substitutions need to be made to head off danger, not left till after something has happened.
- The team-play of United when they attack is something we need to emulate. They always have players available. We were only dangerous on the break.
- The ability to mount sustained pressure until the opposition cracks. This has been a hallmark of Fergie’s success, and previously that of the great Liverpool sides. We can only do this once our team-play improves.
The upcoming Premier League games against West Ham and Villa will both be tough tests where we can see how well the lessons of this match have been learnt.
External reports:
BBC
The Guardian
The Independent
The Mail
Official site
The Times
The Telegraph
90 minutes was up, but we know the rest with some panicky defending culminating in Tevez conceding possession, and Giggs picking out an unmarked Owen to score. Questions can be asked of Toure and Richards as to who was supposed to be picking up the striker.
City could take pride in coming back three times and only losing to a goal in the 96th minute, but there are also important lessons to be learned:
Despite the clean sheets in the first three League matches the defending still needs to be tighter.
Substitutions need to be made to head off danger, not left till after something has happened.
The teamplay of United when they attack is something we need to emulate. They always have players available. We were only dangerous on the break.
The ability to mount sustained pressure until the opposition cracks. This has been a hallmark of Fergie’s success, and previously that of great Liverpool sides. We can only do this once our teamplay improves.
The upcoming Premier League games against West Ham and Villa will both be tough tests where we can see how well the lessons of this match have been learnt.