THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 35

Hello, and welcome to issue 35 of the 93:20 Newsletter. Got a lot of random stuff to discuss this week, and I don’t know where to start. Considering the bore fest at Old Trafford on Sunday, there is little chance of any actual football breaking out on this page, so rest easy no that front. So here we go on tickets once more, life after Pep, and City’s greatest players, modern life, and a lot more besides. And as always, please support the podcast if you can. You will not find better coverage of City anywhere else, and we need the support to produce the content.

So to some good news. It’s not often I have said that in recent times. Though considering City are once more to play at Wembley, we are all a tad spoilt perhaps. But anyway, City have announced a freeze on general season tickets, and match day ticket prices. Looks like protesting actually works, who knew? Tell me how many reading this think City would have made the same decision off their own back, if there had been no fan dissatisfaction over ticket prices?

The statement does not answer all the questions that fans have been asking however. It's a first step, and nothing more. What will be ticket allocation for new stand? What is flexi season ticket situation? What about issuing new season tickets? Not a word from the club on that, and don’t hold your breath on that changing. There is no possibility of the club backtracking on third party sale sites, just a fortnight after announcing a tie-up with Viagogo. There is little chance of new season tickets being released to fans, and all this means that further concessions will be the hardest to acquire, and thus less likely. A freeze on match day ticket prices, most of which have long been extortionate, is the definition of a Pyrrhic victory. I put my ticket for the Leicester City game on the Ticket Exchange. It was listed at £51. It didn’t sell, along with thousands of others, because obviously no one is paying £51 for a ticket for this game. Shame those who are running the club can’t twig simple things like this, who cannot read the room, even when the room is plastered in a size 72 font. Freezing something that is already a rip-off is almost insulting, and there are so many other cons that we have just accepted over time. An extortionate price just to be a member, buying loyalty points via Platinum season tickets, and more. A freeze is probably all we are getting out of the club, so the fight must continue. And for that fight to have achieved anything, thanks must go to 1894, the City Foodbank gang, the City Matters Reps and more for all the hard work they have put in, and will continue to do so.

The City Matters Rep Alex Howell has decided to step down in the summer, and who can blame him? He noted on Twitter (always will be Twitter), that the club initially proposed an average price rise of 2.8% for season tickets. Predictably, some will, and have, presented the 2.8% offer as a natural starting point for a discussion, City somehow ending up as masters of the "art of the deal". That negotiations start somewhere, and City should not be talked down by coming to the table with a price rise, and then agreeing to a freeze. This spectacularly misses the point that there was never a need for a negotiation in the first place. There was never a need for an extraordinary meeting. Or there wouldn't have been of the club had owners that were in tune with the established fan base, and cared about the fans as much as they claim in their occasional missives. 

But hope springs eternal. The sun is out and I am willing to be optimistic, for now. We must wait and see if any other concessions are made. I don’t say it with great expectation, but the hope is that the club have been jolted out of their slumber, out of their assumption that they could do what they want, without recourse. They have no economic arguments to lean on the fans for revenue more than they already do, so any further rises will show with absolute clarity what they think of us in the wider scheme of things. The club’s future is more uncertain than ever under the current owners, on and off the pitch, so they need to be very careful how they tread from now on. They do not like bad optics, which is weird for a club whose name has been dragged through the mud for many years now, will little public response, so swathes of empty seats may be the only way they make further concessions. Time will tell. Imagine trying to market Conference League tickets next season, I am embarrassed at the prospect.

A brief word on the Foden chants.

I understand the rhetoric over singling out United fans over such a chant, even though it was United fans singing the chant. The wider point being that all fans sing stuff like this, and that it is part of football. Banter, innit? We’ve all done it.

Well, I haven't. 

Now, fair enough, that’s neither here nor there. I am of course, a snowflake, and have gone full woke. Me not participating in such chants does not invalidate others doing it. And I am not such a hypocrite to deny that when I once heard the chant “there’s only two Andy Gorams” at the news that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, I did not inwardly giggle, along with a hundred other “inappropriate” chants. But I would say we live in a different world to even fifteen years ago, where the impact of such things could not be greater nowadays.

Nowadays, such a chant hits harder. Managers are asked about it in press conferences, articles are written, 50- page threads emerge on Bluemoon. It takes on a life of its own. I would never have known about the chants without this amplification. Now the world knows, and the subject of the chants gets the opportunity to read about it every day, though I would hope that she isn’t. She has done nothing wrong, but the modern world cares little about that. Pep was right. This is not about United fans, it's about people. This is where we are at. Makes you proud, doesn't it? 

And hey, man up say you, I am not demanding that we sanitise football further, though such chants have more validity if they contain humour, rather than a crude insult. If the players all hugging and shaking hands at the end of a dire derby infuriates you, the Foden chant is not the answer. A good on-pitch bout of fisticuffs would have been far more suitable, and some pizza slices flying round dressing rooms of course. This was real barrel-scraping chanting, and anyone involved should be thoroughly ashamed.

I was on a plane (Ryanair, so do not consider this bragging), during the Arsenal match this week, but know enough about the match to know that the nation’s saviour Jude Bellingham put in another no-show, but unless you watched the match, you would probably be unaware of this fact. Yes, the Bellingham PR machine was in full flow once more, and we know how it works. He rampages around the pitch and big-name journalists fawn at his feet, irrespective of performance levels. This time around Henry Winter obliged, though he had to do it at half-time, as not even Bellingham’s greatest sycophants could eulogise over him at full-time. It’s weird how we have got to this point. He is a brilliant player, who often does brilliant things. But he is not the level above some seem to think he is. And he has an attitude that stinks, which puts him at the perfect club. Why can’t the media just report what happens, instead of attaching pre-determined narratives to everything? There is no doubt in my mind that many a post-match report was written before a ball was kicked, and shaped to fit such narratives.

I have been having some dark thoughts related to Real Madrid recently that I am reticent to publicise, as it puts me in severe danger of being bracketed with the likes of Rory Jennings and Mark Goldbridge as an edgelord looking for an angle for online clout. But saying it hidden away in this newsletter is hopefully safer. I cannot get away from the nagging thought, however.

Is Carlo Ancelotti all that?

Ahsan touched on it oh so briefly in a recent podcast we were both on, and so I am dragging him into this whether he likes it or not. But unknown to him, I was silently nodding my head as he spoke. Carlo Ancelotti looks like a lovely man, a scholar, a gent, and has had a career most could only dream of. But I can never be truly convinced he is a great manager, not top tier. Too many times, especially at Real Madrid, I have wondered if he is really getting the most out of the players at his disposal. Maybe we need to separate the skillset of a successful manager. Tactically he does not bring anything special to the game, but does he have to, in order to be a great? He has been flexible, over time. Where he clearly excels is as a man-manager, a much-needed asset to handle the egos in Madrid. I can excuse him not being able to sort out the car crash that was Everton, or his utter inability to react to City’s greatest ever performance a couple of years back. I am probably being unfair. But if Pep left tomorrow, he would be for me the most uninspiring of replacements. Maybe it’s just simmering resentment over his magnificent eyebrows.

Last week, news of Kevin De Bruyne’s exit from City at the end of the season broke just before our Weekend Show, forcing a hasty rewrite. We had our say on that show, so check it out, but of course will have a lot more to say at season-end. One of the consequences of the news was a number of online and WhatsApp debates over who City’s greatest players are.

Favourite and greatest are heavily linked, but not the same thing. And I am not big on lists, debates over who is greatest and the like, especially if it involves Liverpool fans desperately claiming Gerrard was better than Kevin De Bruyne. And yet here I am, about to do a list anyway.

So this is the top 10 greatest City players as I have decided today. Only players I have watched can be included.  Ask me tomorrow, and it would probably be different, and what a wonderful dilemma to have to try and somehow decide the order of merit. I mean, that top 6 is almost impossible to determine. These are players picked on performances, with no sentiment, that would lead to a different list. Amazing to consider, that there are another ten players not on this list that would be in contention at any other club over the past decade. Sorry, John Stones, I won’t forget you – just too many injuries to consider.

10. Kyle Walker
9. Ilkay Gundogan
8. Erling Haaland (expect future rise)
7. Fernandinho
6. Rodri (expect future rise)
5. Yaya Toure
4. Vincent Kompany
3. Sergio Aguero
2. David Silva
1. Kevin De Bruyne

Separating 1 and 2 is like being asked to choose a favourite child*

*probably the first-born

A weird, leftfield afterthought to finish off with. Kevin De Bruyne is inexorably linked with 115, he is the key reason, above all other factors, why Manchester City are hated. What are you on about, I hear you ask? Well, he is the reason because he was better than everyone else. Because he is yet another Premier League legend that Manchester City created in the past decade, and probably the greatest of them all. More legends than everyone else combined. Deny it all you want; it's a simple fact. City have created as many legends as United have managers. Most seasons, one has retired or moved on. And new ones are created. This is the reality, and it's why so many hang on the decision of a tribunal. A golden opportunity for legends to be created elsewhere, and for City’s wings to be clipped. Perhaps we are finally witnessing a changing order on the pitch, but have no doubt that for years now, a fevered belief that City are cheats and would be suitably punished has been the desperate hope of many a rival fan. And with punishment, City are less likely to sign the next Kevin De Bruyne.

And as the news breaks that a decision on City's 115 charges may not be made until the summer, it seems that it takes longer than we thought to prove obvious guilt, which is what every rival fan has convinced themselves is the only fair outcome, City's eventual innocence only possible due to technicalities and the weight of a thousand expensive lawyers. In a week when Chelsea sold the women's team to themselves and Bournemouth got off a PSR loss by writing off a shareholder loan, consider once more the farcical nature of all of this. 

Are we the bad guys? No. Well, not the only ones anyway. But whatever the tribunal decides, history will write it very differently. 

Which leads to my final thoughts, and another nagging thought that I am cautious to share. Then it’s time to enjoy the Manchester sunshine with a good book, and catch up on the brilliant Severance.

Many will have seen PSG shine a light on City’s season indirectly this week. There is a natural reaction of some fans to bemoan their lot whenever City are in a lull (as all teams will experience, even the greatest), and another team is performing at the peak of their powers. Why aren’t we like them? Why didn’t we sign their players? Because naturally, City have first dibs on every player in the world. This has mostly played out with Liverpool in my experience, but PSG are a perfect case study right now. And to be honest, I’m all for it. And it’s not just down to a poor season, some plodding football, and poor recruitment. It’s more that I am ready for a change of style in my football club, and I am afraid to say it, should it come across as anti-Pep sentiment, which it absolutely is not. You could have the nicest house in the world, overlooking a beautiful bay, and beautiful weather all year round. That doesn’t mean that one day you may wake up and consider that you might want something different for once, risky as that may be.
There has been discourse recently over whether football is changing, and what is needed to succeed is changing. Suggesting perhaps that Pep’s style of football, tied into control, has had its day, and vibrant, athleticism, allowing individuality to flourish, is the way forward. And I don’t agree with the general discourse – there is no one way to succeed after all, but for me personally, I think it is what I want too. After experiencing it all, after seeing my team win it all, and after the end of an era for the players that made it happen, an opportunity presents itself. The question remains over how flexible Pep is to such changes, and how he sees the future, and the next reiteration of a City team. More of the same? Or a hybrid that fuses control with individualism in the final third? He has espoused something similar in the past, and finding a way to not be fearful of every opposition transition, to be comfortable with losing the ball, is the only way Pep would feel ready to plough such a path. I am thankful for my lot, but I am ready for something different. That does not mean the manager has to change, and nor would I want it to. But as devastating as it will feel when it happens, it has made me more comfortable about the idea of life after Pep. Maybe that’s just me getting old, and counting my days. Any change feels exciting. Just not Sam Allardyce, please – but maybe Carlo Ancelotti is not such a bad idea after all. Expressionism is the future.

And not surrealism please – I visited the Picasso museum in Malaga this week, and had no idea what was going on, to be honest.

But as the final, final afterthought, Gary Neville did once say something of note – we must rally against the immediacy of modern football. We were dour against United. Arsenal were brilliant this week against Real Madrid. But then United should have beaten them at Old Trafford just a few weeks ago. Is Iraola now a bad manager after a couple of bad results? Or still the future? We must not overreact to City’s bad season. It does not need £300m to fix, and it does not need a new manager. But what it may need is players who are already here?
During the vast and varied discourse on how City rebuild, there is precious little mention of youth players as being incorporated into any masterplan.

We all know that a chunk of the purpose of the academy is a money-making machine. And it sets up players well, a situation I did not feel particularly secure about a decade ago. But every other club brings through youth. And we can't use Rico Lewis, a bit-part player if truth be told and Nico O' Reilly as sufficient evidence that City have done the same. We have youth players who must be good enough to play for the first team. They must be part of the conversation. And that aligns with the separate conversation over Pep needing to accept the need for a larger squad. In a team that has lacked legs all season, the answer should not solely be found in the transfer market, though it is also clear that much money will and should be spent. But let’s not forget the kids. Some are ripping it up at youth level, and they deserve a chance.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO THIS WEEK

THE 9320 REVIEW – UNCLES FESTER

Ben is joined by Ahsan to pick the bones out of a crushingly boring draw at Old Trafford in a game which threw up more questions than answers.

NO HISTORY – GERMANY

Joe and Howard look at City’s rich history once more, this time examining a long line of German players to have worn the blue shirt.

THE WEEKEND SHOW

The usual bumper show, with a lot to discuss, from the Old Trafford bore draw, Kevin, chants, tickets, and a big Saturday lunchtime match.

OPPOSITION FAN

If time allows, hopefully Kevin Day will be popping in to talk about the Eagles, and a club in a rich vein of form.

And coming up, we will have the usual reviews, another huge Market Show and a lot, lot more!

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