THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 64

Author

Howard Hockin
October 03, 2025

Hello, and welcome to Issue 64 of the 93:20 Newsletter. Lots to discuss as always!

 The usual reminder that the Newsletter cannot survive without your support. As has been the case for many years, there has never been a greater need for independent coverage of City – without bias, but WITH emotion.

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But above all, we all know a certain legal decision is imminent. And when that decision is made, there is only one place where you should be taking in the inevitably huge fallout, whatever the decision may be. There will be A LOT to unpack. That place is on the 93:20 Player, of course. If you are not already a subscriber, this is the time to change that – you’re going to get even better value over the next month.

Let’s crack on! 

Win the League. Spend the equivalent of the GDP of a small African nation. Have a compliant media, most of whom predicted Liverpool to win the league at a canter, after the greatest transfer window in Premier League history, then redefine your season as a transitional one when form drops off.

But i think there’s a separate point to make here, linked to how trying to predict the future makes fools of us all.

So, remember when league champions Liverpool had the most successful transfer window in Premier League history, spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of pounds in the process? A time when many, including many blues, felt they would walk the league?

Well, merely six weeks later, they are officially rubbish. They have barely deserved to win any of their games. Konate has been terrible. Both full backs have been a mixture of injured, underwhelming and rubbish.They failed to sign Guehi, a much-needed defensive signing. Just a few weeks ago, Dominik Szoboszlai was a revelation as a stand-in right back v Arsenal. Now there are grumblings that he is not good enough in that position. They signed two of their ageing, greatest players onto huge new contracts. One has been terrible, and will miss January due to the African Cup of Nations. The other is covering over cracks, and for his error-prone partner in defence. One of their record signings has had a disastrous start, with no assists or goals, and some pundits are already questioning how he fits in the team. The other record signing has barely been fit enough to contribute anything of note yet, and his signing pissed off the previous high-money signing who plays in the same position. The young back-up signing in central defence has snapped his cruciate ligament. The goalkeeper who has single-handedly kept them at the top of the table is out for six weeks.

But, apart from that, things are going well.

Liverpool may still go on to win it all. But it does show how things can change very, very quickly. One key injury has derailed many a title challenger’s season. Poor form from a player you least expected. Tactical changes that do not come off, with little time available with the players to tweak. A week is a long time in politics, and football too. Maybe Slot is a modern-day Pellegrini, maybe not. Time will tell.

And that’s why it’s important City keep plugging away, and look for marginal improvements. Because that may be enough. Who knows what is around the corner?

The Power of PR Writ Large 

This is how I suspect it works for many. Let's be honest, most England games are of limited interest/entertainment. England are going to qualify for the World Cup finals, with ease, it's obvious. So, people tend to tune in to games, but it's background TV, as they doom-scroll on Twitter. So ultimately, they judge Bellingham not on the football he produces, but more likely the inevitable half-time eulogy tweet from the likes of Henry Winter, after 45 minutes of anonymity. He also has a highly effective PR campaign behind him, Winter just one example of that, plays for Real Madrid, so he must be brilliant, and to his credit can pop up with a late goal here or there, and obviously is brilliant at times. He also runs around a lot, and looks sweaty as a result. Put it all together, and most assume he's operating at an elite level every week. And he's certainly capable of being that guy, but the actual evidence from the last two years paints a rather different picture. Tuchel wants more from him, he's said as much. And to say so publicly hints at the frustration the player is providing him. Maybe there is no stand-out candidate for Player of the Year, and Kalvin Phillips has won it in the past, but Bellingham is not the worthy winner, that much I do know.

Savinho

For many blues, it is going to hang over Savinho every time he underwhelms that we could have got £70m for him in the summer. A tedious narrative is born. The uncertainty it caused has only added to his slow start to the season, has added to the likelihood of average performances, and thus a vicious circle begins. The only way to defeat it is for Savinho to hit the heights of this season's version of Jeremy Doku and knuckle down, but he won't get as much patience now, which as I have noted in many previous musings, is in precious short supply with football fans anyway. It's probably a lazy stereotype on my part too to feel that he doesn't give off the vibes of someone who knuckles down. Those lazy Brazilian players, eh? But seriously, we need to forget the past - he still has plenty of time on his side. If he underwhelms, then say so. But stop harking back to what could have been. I doubt Rodrygo was sold on leaving Real Madrid anyway, so all you are bemoaning is not having a bigger pile of money sat in a bank account.

The usual “obsessed with United” section will now follow.

I've probably said it before in recent times, but United have sunk so low, that appointing Gareth Southgate would now be a sensible move, rather than the hilarity-inducing swoop of a year ago. Don't get me wrong, I'd still spend a day or two rolling around on the floor in fits of laughter, but he would organise them into a coherent outfit that were harder to beat. Southgate has supposedly stated he is not interested in the role. But never give up hope. Please let it happen. When managers like Iraola or Glasner are out there, this is still a hilarious possibility. 

On the Burnley review pod this week, I discussed with Ahsan United having pull to attract likes of Glasner or Iraola. Ben Jacobs has reported that Glasner would take the job “in a heartbeat”. I don’t want to sound patronizing, and I would prefer to be totally wrong on this, but such news does not surprise me, and you must be very naïve to think United could not attract the likes of Glasner or Iraola, amongst many others. They’re the ultimate Teflon club. The pull sadly remains, aided by many who are deluded enough to think they can go there and change things.

But in many respects, managing United is a win/win. You either turn the club around, or get very rich trying. The problem at United (for them, not us), is that every manager appointed becomes more unsackable than the previous one by default, due to the ever-increasing desire not to continue the managerial merry go round cycle. So the bar is lowered further for a sacking, until United limbo their way until the Championship with a billion in the Glazers' bank. We are at the point now, and have been for some years, whereby much of the media simply parrot the same rhetoric that sacking the United manager is pointless because whilst he may be useless, the next manager probably will be too. And all the while, their new stadium design has had the canopy removed, because this is a circus that needs no advertising. 

Singing the blues song seems almost redundant now.  It was intended as a song to be used sparingly, on those special days when City had a good weekend, and United did not. Now, it’s been overused more than John Lennon’s Imagine. Maybe that’s why Pep phoned in a poor season, so the song could retain a modicum of authenticity.

And I say this only slightly tongue-in-cheek - the three promoted sides' good start to the season is bad news for United. 

It’s truly insane that a United manager, after close to a year at the club, averages under a point a game, and even more insane he has failed to win two consecutive games. Keep drinking it in, blues.

Thought For The Day

Have Arsenal, in their own eyes, ever legitimately conceded a goal? What a pathetic bunch of cry-babies they truly are. 

VAR (sorry)

I've finally succumbed to talking about VAR again. Last weekend was not good for its already trashed reputation. Let’s look at United’s penalty at Brentford. VAR decided that Mbuemo was not in control of the ball when fouled. He was literally about to run onto it four yards out. It is one of the most laughable explanations I have ever heard. Laughable because it was United who suffered as a result, but not acceptable nevertheless.

Elsewhere, kick someone in the head in the penalty area - play on - and what a gutless refereeing performance at Chelsea, a clear example of a referee hiding behind VAR and unwilling to make any decisions himself. How did he not see the red card offence in real time?

The less said about the Monaco game, the better. I can understand the feeling of dangerous play, but having not been given on the pitch, it felt disgraceful to me that it fit the criteria for VAR involvement. I doubt there was any contact at all, and I think we all know Dier feigned injury, and yet another referee fell for it. I find it hilarious the many people who profess European referees to be far superior to their English counterparts. European football is a lottery. You need nous to survive it, something a team like Real Madrid have in spades. It may not be that the referees on the continent are objectively worse, more that the interpretation of the laws is. I despise how Champions League games are officiated. City have been the architects of their own downfall in the past many times, but boy have they been shafted too.

It's important to remember however, that there’s always someone worse off than you. If you thought that City were badly treated on Wednesday night (they were), wait until you see Celtic’s disallowed goal on Thursday night, given for handball against the goal scorer, none other than Kelechi Iheanacho. Do check out the footage, but basically, as he burst through, the ball bounced up off an opposition player, from the footage it clearly hit his head, with no remotely conclusive proof of it hitting his arm on the way up, and he went on to slot the ball home. From piecing together what happened, with Dale Johnson’s help on Twitter, it seems the referee gave handball on the pitch, for an offence he imagined. VAR could not find conclusive proof that he did not handball it, so the system demands that it cannot intervene, even though the footage shows zero conclusive evidence he did handball it. A valid equaliser is denied, and Celtic went on to lose.
This is not the sport I know and love.

The nonsense of xG

Ah, good old xG. It gets the old-school managers frothing at the mouth, which has only warmed me to it. And it’s a popular discussion point right now it seems.

But it is essentially nonsense, and I don’t say that as part of an anti-stats rhetoric. I just don’t think it’s very accurate – or maybe I’m using it for the wrong reasons. An Athletic piece this week points out how it is useful for identifying long-term trends, but the way I use it is simply inadequate.

When I am mildly curious as to how a game I am not watching is going, I will often pop onto a betting website and check the xG to see if one team is dominating. But I know from personal experience that it does not paint a true picture of dominance. I have watched a match where a team has missed three sitters, chances I felt they should (not just could) have scored, and noticed that their xG was something ridiculous like 0.4. A team gets a huge xG for getting a penalty, which may have been earned by an innocuous handball, or a dive and feigned injury from a Nico G high foot. So for me, it is of limited value as a fan. Ultimately the only true guide is the eye test, and for a fan, it always will be. 

And Finally. AI Has A Way To Go.

I’ll be honest, I’m not impressed.

The prompt? Create a video of Manchester United directors choosing a new manager by throwing darts at a dartboard, on which were pinned the candidates.

This is what google Flow came up with.

WHAT WE HAVE BEEN UP TO THIS WEEK

THE 93:20 REVIEW:- CARLSBERG

Howard and Ahsan look back at an eventually comfortable win, talk title races, Nico G, wide players and much more.

MONACO PREVIEW

Howard and Ahsan look forward to the Monaco game, and some selection dilemmas.

THE 93:20 REVIEW:- DESMOND

Howard, Ste and Lloyd look back on the draw in Monaco, and whether it was good or not. Phil, Nico, Erling, VAR and more.

THE WEEKEND SHOW

Another bumper show with Ahsan and Bailey, looking back at the week and the last game before the international break.

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!