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FC Timisoara vs Manchester City
Kick-Off 20:00 (BST)

Hamburgled

It doesn’t seem like five minutes ago since I sat here (well, somewhere else altogether actually, but indulge me) compiling a similar report for our second leg UEFA tie at Eastlands against SV Hamburg in April 2009.

That was our last foray amongst Europe’s (semi-) “elite” so there is quite a nice circularity in the fact that once again I am trusted with the tardy wordsmith’s task of previewing this; Manchester City’s first ever Europa league contest.

It is with much excitement that I and, I imagine most other Blues, approach this start of what we hope is a thrillingly significant period in the club’s history. The club has, this week, announced that the spending is finished for the summer and we are left eyeing, openmouthed, the bounteous riches with which City are now blessed.

Last time around we had a young, British manager who was still getting to grips with life at City under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour but who had started to put his own stamp on the squad he had inherited from Sven’s period in charge at City.

Mancinations

The pace at which Manchester City have galloped forwards since then is mirrored by the degree to which (in little under two years) the club has a new, suave Italian in charge and the team that started against Hamburg is relatively unfamiliar. Of those who took to the field over the course of that night at the City of Manchester Stadium that night; Dunne, Onuoha, Elano, Caicedo, Fernandes, Sturridge and Ireland have departed (with the futures of Robinho and Shay Given still far from certain).

The team that almost edged Hamburg that night, in fact, only has four certain survivors (Zabaleta, Kompany, Richards and Bridge) although the smart money would be that only 2 or 3 of those players would be likely to feature this evening.

In place of the old guard have come a raft of big names and an array of pulsating footballing talent. Any City fan of post late 60’s vintage surely pinches him/herself at the sight of a squad list that now includes the names of global superstars such as Tevez, Adebayor, Silva, Yaya Toure, fans favourites like Nigel de Jong, SWP, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta and new faces such Mario Balotelli, James Milner, Adam Johnson and the likely to be absent Kolarov and Boateng.

Despite this massive influx of talent and increasing optimism/expectation amongst City fans the team and its nature is still a huge unknown quantity. Last season saw Roberto Mancini accused in many quarters of an overly cautious footballing style and strategy (considering the attacking talent within the City ranks). Many observers and fans alike gave Mancini the benefit of the doubt due to last season’s need to challenge for the top 4 and the fact that the team he inherited from Hughes was not “his”.
Mancini has added steel, guile, ambition and a touch of madness to his playing staff and expectations upon him to both achieve but also do so with style are ratcheting up.

Accordingly, a theoretically winnable opening Europa League tie against relatively unknown quantities from one of Europe’s non-elite leagues is likely to be an arena where many puts Mancini and his footballing approach under the microscope. Will he come out and try to put the Romanians to the sword or will this be another chapter from Mancini’s “stop them from scoring and take it from there” footballing handbook.

One of the factors that will ultimately determine the answers to these questions will be the nature of the challenge put up by tonight’s opposition. So we should attempt to answer the question; Just who are FC Timisoara?

The club with no name

City’s opponents hail from Romania, more specifically from the western part of Romania in the Banat region.

The club (formerly known as AEK Bucharest and before that as Fulgerul Bragadiru) is most renowned for the disputes that rage over their name and history due some apparent jiggerypokery undertaken by their current owner. In essence you could think of them as the Romanian version of MK Dons, with a slight twist.

The former Timisoara club (Politechnica Timisoara) re-located from their home city to the capital Bucharest in 2000 and then promptly sank down the leagues to the fourth tier in Romania.
Meanwhile, our opponents’ owner (Anton Dobos) decided in 2002 that his team should move themselves to Timisoara to fill the void in the football public’s heart left when Politechnica upped sticks and moved to Ceaucescu’s neighbourhood. However, in addition to a simple relocation he took the rather interesting decision that the club would really capture Timisoaran hearts and minds should it also change its name to something altogether more familiar.

Thus was born (the snappily titled and football chant friendly) FC Politechnica AEK Timisoara who also decided that they should adopt the badge and colours of their now fourth division-based predecessors.
For some reason, the owners of the lower league outfit took issue with this and launched a series of legal proceedings which ended with the Court for Arbitration for Sport. A paltry fine was handed out initially but ultimately the club were ordered by FIFA to stop using the badge, name and colours and were docked six points domestically, which led to this…..

Despite all this kerfuffle, most local fans adopted the educationally ambitious nickname of Poli (and we shall be hoping there are no kettle songs this evening) and regard the club as a continuation of the old Poli. FC Timi?oara, The club went on to became one of the six most popular football clubs in the country.
Since being promoted to the top division in Romania in the 2002/2003 season the club has consistently recorded the league’s highest average home attendances.

From a footballing perspective, FC Timisoara finished runners up in both domestic league and cup last season so this should be a competitive evening even if I cannot give you much of a sporting preview from their perspective.

The teams and the match

Timisoara look likely to start with 11 players, one of whom will be a goalkeeper. They only have six foreigners within their squad so my prediction is that most will be Romanian. Interesting for fans of the vintage Romanian international team led by Georghe Hagi, very few of their squad have surnames ending in “u”.

City are hampered by a couple of injuries (notably at full back with Bridge, Kolarov and Boateng out for this game) but look likely to set up with Mancini’s old favourite of 4-3-3.

In terms of personnel it would surprise no-one is we started with Hart in goal a defence of Richards, Toure, Kompany, Zabaleta, midfield of Barry, Yaya, Vieira and a front three from Tevez, Balotelli, Adebayor, Johnson, Jo and SWP

Prediction

We will get a bit of momentum and take them 1-3.

Many thanks to Ant Londo of ManCityFans.Net for writing this excellent preview

Tottenham Hotspur vs. MCFC
Saturday, August 15th 2010
White Hart Lane, London KO 12:45pm

It’s been an interesting old summer, well that’s if you discount the England – Algeria world cup fixture, possibly the worst game of football in living memory. Heartbreak for the Blues at the end of last season was quickly replaced by a growing sense of optimism, which morphed into frenzied excitement as some of the world’s finest up and coming talent were brought on board the good ship Manchester City. Talk of cup runs, Europa League success and – whisper it – a title tilt abounded in the pubs and on the fora.

Then came the news of David Platt.

Erm…

Moving quickly along then. The summer (if you can call it that here on the Costa del Chorlton) has flown by, and City now boasts an extremely strong looking playing staff. Mancini has attempted to rectify many of the weaknesses in the side he inherited from he-who-must-not-be-named last season, namely a lack of defensive cohesion, a lack of quality full backs and, fatally last time out, the lack of a truly inspirational playmaking midfielder. In addressing these problems, Mancini has taken a different approach than his predecessor. Instead of looking for premier league experience, Roberto has spread the blue net around Europe and brought in some very exciting young players. David Silva (remember him Bacon?), Yaya Toure, Aleksander Kolarov, Jerome Boateng and the very recently arrived “Super” Mario Balotelli have brought the predictable “buying success/ruining football” balderdash from the media, but quite frankly no one connected with the Blues gives a flying fornication.

But now it’s down to the other business.

The real deal.

The proverbial “It”.

We face an enemy we know well, and have a large, hefty and recently bloodied axe to grind with. The galling scenes witnessed by the City faithful at Eastlands last May are still fresh in the mind, and should prove motivation for the players involved on that particular occasion. That defeat to Spurs was a knife through the straining heart of City’s Champions League ambitions, so what better way to avenge ourselves than an opening day fixture away at White Hart Lane?

Thankfully, the fixture computer is not without its own sense of romance and duly provided us with our opportunity. Not that this will be an easy task. Spurs are an excellent side, well able to beat any team in the league – as their spectacular run of form at the end of last season proved. Unlike the Blues they have been quiet in the transfer market, but as they are already possessed of a strong and settled squad this frugality is understandable.

Speculation as to the team Mancini fields is enough to cause an aneurysm. Who starts in goal? Does he play two forwards, and if so who partners Tevez? Johnson on the left or right? Richards or Boateng? What is certain however, this is where Mancini has to earn his money. This is what he has wanted since taking the job – a squad of his own players who have (mostly) had weeks of pre-season in which to learn how he wants the side to play. There really is no place to hide when the Blues walk out at the Lane tomorrow.

Veni, Vidi, Vici?

“The die is cast” said an Italian long ago, as he was about to embark on an attempt at wresting control of an old and aristocratic empire. Let us hope our own Italian leader will be saying something similar to “I came, I saw, I conquered” come quarter to three on Saturday.

Many thanks to The Man In Blue of ManCityFans.net for writing this preview.

Sunday 09 May 2010: Kick Off 1600

It was tempting to write this preview as a post-mortem on City’s failed Champions League quest, but really it all boiled down to the fact we were not quite good enough. The draws, the cagey approach to big games, the supposed rifts between Mancini and some of the playing staff – it is all so much dust right now. What matters is that MCFC and its supporters, players and staff have had, to younger generations at least, a season of unprecedented success. Our highest ever premiership points tally. In the top six for the vast majority of the season, Semi-finals of a cup competition for the first time in this writer’s lifetime, doubling the champions-elect, fourteen goals in a three-game run, Carlitos Tevez. The list goes on.

Then there is the obvious disappointments, but to be honest they can go and whistle – the last thing the club and the fans need is to brood over our shortcomings. Mistakes can be useful, and City need to make sure the mistakes that have been made this season, at all levels, are learnt from and eradicated. The club is in an extremely healthy state, and the scope for further improvement is heartening. We are not in around eight hundred million pounds (looks even bigger writing it out like that eh?) of debt; we are not crippled by the cost of a new stadium, nor are we the subject of some shady boardroom power struggle. Our manager has the full support of the board and the majority of fans and as an aside is unlikely to be charged with tax evasion. We are also not facing the prospect of our best players being sold to service debt.

The critics, upstanding paragons of integrity to a man, will point to the money. “You spent all that money and look where it got you”. These people would have been the same hacks spouting the “You bought it” line had we managed to qualify for the Champions League. Let them write their bile – they are as insignificant to MCFC as say, the opinions of a few thousand Norwich fans are to a certain American family. Make no mistake, City are back among the big boys now and we will only get better.

Three hundred and sixty words in and no mention of the game itself! It may have the feeling of a dead-rubber game, but fifth place is still up for grabs and Villa will obviously do their best to take it from us. A win may not be technically imperative (a draw secures fifth place), but it would be good for everyone connected to the club to end the season on a positive note.
West Ham have had a rough old time of it this season, only securing their premier league status last weekend, so should be right up for this game as the pressure is off. The Boleyn Ground will be packed out and the team should be aiming to pay their fans back for some pathetic performances earlier in the season. The City players will have to have put Wednesday night out of their minds, as for all their struggles West Ham have players that can hurt us, including an Egyptian striker who the Blues are rumoured to be interested in.

Speculation as to Mancini’s team selection and tactics feel somewhat pointless at this stage – whatever team he puts out on Sunday should be, with the greatest respect to a great club, well able to beat West Ham. So let’s get out there, put in a good performance to secure our best-ever premier league finish, and head into what promises to be an interesting football-and-transfer-speculation filled summer with our heads held high.

Thanks to The Man In Blue of ManCityFans.Net for writing this preview.

City Of Manchester Stadium: 05 May 2010, Kick-Off 19:45

There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss… the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope.”
- Alexandre Dumas.

He talked a good game, that Dumas, but as he wrote those words he could have had no idea what ‘ultimate despair’ really meant. He never saw Robert Taylor race onto a Carl Asaba backheel.
“And that is bye bye Division Two for Gillingham, Division One here we come.”

Without that low there could not have been the high. Paul Dickov dropped to his knees, arched back, head raised to the sky, seeing nothing. Wembley combusted. Only one thing mattered. City were back.
Ultimate bliss? No. But hope. A future. City could wait.

Robert Taylor would break our hearts again, but only by signing a two year deal. We would not then have dared to hope for so much as we have now. Our wait for a trophy continues. That banner is still there. But people talk about it now. They talk about ‘when’, not ‘if’. They talk about us. They talk about little else. And the derision, we’re nobody’s second team, cannot disguise their fear.

A win for City tonight and Champions’ League qualification is in our hands. Kaka’ has offered his opinion. Gianluigi Buffon is intrigued, no doubt his accountant is too. Torres? Villa? The rewards are obvious, just three years ago they were unthinkable.

Spurs have as much to gain. They have spending power, experience, quality. They’ve been on the cusp before. They’ve also won 11 of the last 12 games between the sides. City’s 3-0 defeat at White Hart Lane sealed Mark Hughes’s fate. Under Mancini, City have sacrificed some of their verve for composure. Tactically astute, disciplined, controlled. Not words that you would ever have associated with Manchester City, but it is Mancini’s vision.

The form book holds little relevance. This is a one off. A final. The players must leave everything on the pitch. City will do just that. It may be oil which has fuelled our resurgence but it is the fire in the hearts of our support, in the veins of Tevez, Bellamy and de Jong, which will push us to a level we have not seen before.

In 1999 losing was unthinkable. Tonight may be different. “It’s not do or die for us” said Craig Bellamy. Perhaps that’s true. Perhaps our ascent is inevitable. But for those packed into Eastlands, tonight will still feel like “do or die”. Roberto Mancini has implored his players not to be nervous. For the fans that is not an option. We will do what we always have: Wait and hope.

Prediction:  Impossible.