THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 26

Author

Howard Hockin
February 14, 2025

Hello, and welcome to what I am guessing is Issue 26 of the 93:20 Newsletter. It has been a long week. You know the drill by now. The thriller script has been delayed for another week as I have got other stuff I need to get off my chest, and Gunnersaurus has threatened legal action over Episode 1.
I thought I painted him in a good light, to be honest.

As always, do check out our podcast content. We need your support to grow, and even to survive, and we really appreciate every person who has given support down the years. Seven shows in the past five days – come on. Up the blues, and let’s crack on.

I may have said this before (I definitely have), that thankfully I don’t tend to dwell on football matters in this newsletter, and the pods deal with that perfectly, but the Madrid match has sadly required me to comment once more on what was going on off the pitch, in the stands. To discuss the Etihad Theme Park on Champions League nights. You may have seen the videos and comments doing the rounds, as yet again, the home end was awash with opposition supporters, enabled by a club who could not care less, as long as each seat has maximum revenue potential.

This letter sent by Alex Howell, the Chair of City Matters summarises the situation perfectly.

Now we must first separate the wheat from the chaff. The Etihad is big enough for all sorts to attend, and all sorts should be attending. I may be a grumpy old “legacy” fan, but I am not one of those legacy fans that expects the ground to be filled with similar legacy fans, who let’s be honest don’t make much noise and are at the bar for at least 15 minutes of the match. There is a snide, insidious nature to some fans calling out the day-tripper element of the crowd because of how they appear, not how they act. They don’t look local, therefore they are just at the ground for a day out. Some other fans want to gatekeep how fans act also, whilst not applying any standards to their own behaviour. As many of the older fans no longer attend such matches anyway, I am not sure who they expect to fill the seats? Obviously there are plenty of local blues who would have stepped in with better pricing and free memberships, but we already know the club couldn’t care less about that, or who fills the seats. Affordability is key to who attends, as many (including me) are on the cusp of being able to afford such games, and on this occasion, City shamefully used the stature of the opposition as an excuse to once more inflate prices for a play-off game in order to reach the knock-out stages, punishing fans further for City’s poor performance in the league stage, whose new format already meant forking out for an extra game compared to previous seasons. Pricing dictates the demographics of a crowd.
Anyway, the more obvious bone of contention is away fans in a home end, and British football fans will never stand for that – it really gets the forehead veins bulging. And the point is, as Alex demonstrated above, the club could not care less. There is no monitoring of who is filling the seats, unless a genuine fan dares not attend at all, in which case a stern email will be sent, or dares sell a ticket on themselves, thus depriving the club of that sweet profit. You can get a nice back and sides from a fellow Madrista in your seat, but there will be hell to pay if I try and bring a bottle of pop into the ground. The stewards on a living wage should not be wholly responsible for policing such situations – the solution is for there not to be situations to police in the first place. This has already led to violence and will do so again. Ticketing is a shambles, pricing is a shambles, and fans are an afterthought. Which leads me to reiterate a much-repeated point – the next time you feel it necessary to criticise the atmosphere at a match Pep, feel free to come on the podcast and I’ll spell out to you how it has got to this point, and how you would be better served speaking to your executive chums. This is a pattern being repeated across the country, and clubs are reaping what they sowed, but don’t care, because the financial numbers are good. I applaud 1894, Alex and others for pushing for change, and we should not stop pushing as a collective, across fanbases. Excuse my pessimism though at having little optimism in anything changing for the better.

Anyway, City have got what they want, that will be my last game on City’s cup schemes. I’ve been ripped off enough, ignored and will pick my games from now on. My seat will be filled, and if they buy a scarf and a pie, all the better for the club. This is nothing to do with form - I fully expect the team to perform better next season, after all. I don’t ask for much – just to be surrounded by people who support the same team as me, and have turned up to actually watch the match, rather than have a wander round. Hope it’s worth it all, City, and I look forward to another season ticket rise announcement soon.

Regular readers may be asking for a bit more optimism from this amateur scribe, so my apologies. I still love match days, and all that surrounds it, but there is an increasing frustration at our insignificance as fans. I am however optimistic of better times on the pitch (next season, that is), and would never give up attending altogether. The actions of my club’s owners just mean I may have to be more selective. And as we all get older, priorities change, and perhaps that is a factor too. There are so many games, that the buzz of a match is diluted. Huge success has that effect too. The 8th title win can never be as special as the 1st, that’s just how it is.  

We move on, to the curious case of Vinicius Jr, and I will jump straight in by stating the need to separate the horrendous racial abuse he has received, and that it may affect how he reacts and acts beyond that. It has been dealt with as effectively as you may expect by the fascist Tebas and others – i.e. not at all, and I cannot begin to comprehend how difficult it must be for him to have dealt with all this, and see how unserious many in power consider the issue.

But we can also accept that he is an ego-driven crybaby arsehole. Both can be true. He is Ronaldo incarnate, a mard arse extraordinaire, always close to tears. Driven to succeed by his ego and the desire to be acknowledged as the greatest. And if you play for Real Madrid, you can be guaranteed quite the PR machine behind you. It is a machine that gives a player who was probably the 8th or 9th best performer during a game the Man of the Match award, because there was a sarcastic banner in the stands. Performative nonsense, akin to the Fa Cup goal of the round being an own goal by Ortega.

Ah yes, that banner. The reaction from sections of the English media to it was hilarious, frustrating but above all entirely predictable. There was a desperation for Vinicius Jr to destroy City and put in a performance for the ages, and when he did not, the media ran with a narrative they had decided pre-match anyway. Let’s put to bed this ridiculous idea that something like the banner would drive a player to perform better, as if he would have otherwise put in a half-arsed 90 minutes or so. The banner was nothing to do with performances anyway, but the quite shameful, embarrassing conduct of player and club after Rodri won the Ballon D’Or. He deserved all he got, and it was low-key in its brutality. A club by the way that even dragged down a decent human being in Carlo Ancelotti, embarrassing himself by being caught up in it all, following on from boycotting a night when he won an award.

Still, great news everyone – Barney Ronay has had his say! Rejoice!

He popped up on my Bluesky feed the other day, which sadly means that the platform is inevitably becoming more like Twitter. It was a reminder that I have had a lovely break from the Guardian pseudo-intellectuals, and it felt good. Still, all good things must come to an end.

I scanned the piece so that you don’t have to, and it’s classic Ronay. You know the structure now. It's just a banner, but I will nevertheless use a 1000-word piece to opine on what this represents in the wider remit of this state-owned club who I have decided have an identity issue, and will use a false narrative of them claiming to be the underdogs to underpin my underlying prejudices. Here's my invoice, please support the Guardian's work! 

Elsewhere, I have not looked, and dare not look, but I will assume that the fall-out from Liverpool fans to the Everton game on Twitter and beyond was reasonable, calm and measured. Thought so. The unfortunate position we are all in is that Arsenal are the title rivals, so I cannot wish Liverpool to fail – it’s like deciding which limb to cut off. Nevertheless, it was joyous stuff at the end of the game, with faux indignation galore. As I touched on in the last newsletter, we as fans absolutely want to see scenes like that. My only regret is that there was no tunnel cam to capture some proper scrapping. And credit to Slot, who has taken the first baby steps to becoming Klopp, by which I mean someone I can feel comfortable despising. He has a long way to go though, as sadly he seems like a decent sort. As Liverpool have Aston Villa and Newcastle coming up, it’s really not in City’s interests for them to collapse.

WHAT WE DID THIS WEEK

As always – a lot!

THE 93:20 REVIEW – ORIENT EXPRESS

Howard and George look back at a hard-earned win at Orient, talking youth, debutants, an open draw and more.

REAL MADRID PREVIEW

Ahsan and Lloyd look forward to the first leg against Madrid and discuss how both teams match up this season.

THE HUB – EPISODE 26

Jake Entwistle from Scouted Football joins Bailey to discuss the transfer business of City in January, recruitment trends across European clubs and Brazilian central defenders.

THE 93:20 REVIEW – LEGLESS

Ste, Howard and Ahsan look back on another collapse, why it happened, what it means, and more.

OPPOSITION FAN – NEWCASTLE

Howard chatted to Harry De Cosemo, talking all things Newcastle. Isak, Howe, trophies and progress, a big weekend match and much more!

THE HUB – EPISODE 27

Sam (a.k.a CityzenAmerica) joins Bailey to discuss the narrative around Pep Guardiola and wingers, how they’ve been used in previous years, and whether the current crop at City is good enough.

THE WEEKEND SHOW

In the usual packed show, Howard, Chris and Lloyd talk FA Cup draws, repeated collapses, legal wrangles, another huge match and more.

If you are not a subscriber to our player shows, then enjoy some free samples of what we are about. Every show we do will have a 15 minutes sample on Soundcloud, along with a full, free weekly Friday show, jam- packed with content. Give it a try!