THE 93:20 NEWSLETTER:- ISSUE 9

Hello, and welcome to the 93:20 Newsletter, Issue Number 9. Don’t worry, the sunlit uplands are approaching, as the international break is almost over. Something to be thankful for, as the dark nights draw in. There is another one however next month, so don’t get too giddy.

City continue to dominate the football narrative, and this week, it is the uncertainty over Pep Guardiola, and the predictable news that the FA are desperate to appoint him as the next England manager. Considering how England managers are treated, I hope he never goes anywhere near the role, and obviously not anytime soon. No wonder Lee Carsley isn’t sold on the idea of a permanent role. Though it would be interesting to witness Pep as England manager, it would also be rather bittersweet. I think it would be easier to cope with a post-Pep world if he had no connection to England in any shape or form. Out of sight, partially out of mind.

Naturally, it soon transpired Pep was not in the running, and let’s be honest, he never was, realistically, in the current climate. Nope, it’s another FOREIGNER instead, coming over here and taking our jobs when Big Sam is ready and waiting, pint glass in hand. And without looking at a newspaper or going on the internet this week, you will know how this has all played out, once Thomas Tuchel accepted the offer to be the next England manager.

You see, for some, the England manager must be English. And let me make it clear from the start, whilst I completely disagree with this opinion, if that is your opinion simply because you feel personally that is how it should be, that is fine, and you are perfectly entitled to that opinion. It does speak of a failure to produce coaches of a certain calibre in this country, and moves to change that path have hardly been a success. There are two problems that follow on though. Firstly, that opinion comes with certain undercurrents for some (not all). I think you know what I mean. Secondly, is the need for many commentators to express their opinion as fact, as definitive. This is made worse when we consider that we are talking about the most tedious debate in football, which is saying something. Tedious because there is no definitive answer, so no evidence to back up opinions – just those opinions endlessly swirling around the ether. Take for example one of the “England means England” brigade, Rory Smith, commenting on the “point of international football”. This is so annoying, as he is trying to define, like many others, what international football is. There is no singular “point” to it, only views on what it should be. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe I missed the meeting when “the point of international football” was agreed on, by a panel of peers? Maybe I was catching up on Sherwood that day. I must have, because Rory is stating it as a fact, rather than as what it actually is – to reiterate for the 30th time - an opinion. And that’s what makes the debate so tedious – it’s just opinions with precious little evidence to back up. It’s vibes. Here’s the debate compacted down for you:

Person 1: I think the England manager should be English.
Person 2: I don’t think the England manager has to be English.

End of debate.

So many foreign managers manage international teams nowadays, and have for decades, that it makes the debate even more pointless. In other sports, there would not be this outcry, and foreign management is extremely common, and let’s not forget the muddy water of many a player’s nationality. I can guarantee you that many who are up in arms would argue that football is somehow different to other sports, thus making Tuchel’s appointment all the more unacceptable. Sorry to disappoint you lads, but it isn’t. It is no more special, or subject to different sensibilities than any other sport. If a Frenchman can manage England’s crown green bowls team, then a Frenchman can manage the football team. Wait to Sam Wallace hears about our cricket and rugby sides! Has their success been cheapened for him? And if Sarina Wiegman can manage the women’s team to European glory, and the likes of Rory Smith and Sam Wallace can celebrate that without pointing out she should not be in charge, then they don’t get to moan now, and they’re steaming hypocrites. So, was the achievement of England winning a tournament devalued at all because the manager was not English? Feel less of an achievement? Many would champion foreign managers managing “smaller” teams to aid their development, but be against a big team doing so. So where is the line drawn when a team becomes too big for a foreign manager to be acceptable? And is it a Telegraph football journalist who should define it?

Here’s an idea – maybe an English manager could win the Premier League, then we can revisit the debate. Deal? And more to the point, considering the media coverage this week and many decades beyond, why would we assume that any English manager wanted the job? Do we know that Eddie Howe would take the job. If I was him, and felt safe from the sack, I would stay where I was. What’s more, these foreign managers have a connection to England. They have worked here, expressed their love for the English game, speak the language. They are not total strangers, plucked out of a foreign league. 

Many journalists don’t even have the power of their convictions anyway. They are just sheeple, parroting the group chat consensus. Sam Wallace was bigging up Pep as England manager just days before he decried Tuchel’s appointment. He tried to explain his hypocrisy, saying that the reputation of Pep would drown out the arguments against a foreign coach, as if this was a viable argument. So a foreign coach is ok after all, if he meets certain generational criteria that I assume football journalists alone will be setting? Glad we cleared that up. What is hilarious about all this, is that all these journalists were more than happy to waive their conviction that the England manager must be English if that manager was Pep, as it would weaken and destabilise Manchester City. As always with these people, their convictions only go so far, namely when it is convenient to have them, and there's an easy opinion piece in it that gets good numbers. Tuchel actually signed the contract a week ago, showing just how much all the journalists pushing Pep this week had a handle on the situation, all the while slagging off Lee Carsley, a man who knew his fate but could not say so, for his lack of clarity. It reminds me of the PR drive that Pep preferred to join United rather than City, just before he was announced as Pellegrini's successor. 

It’s just a further example of the pitiful media we are lumped with as football fans (not all of them, obviously, there’s real talent out there), and we deserve better. The sort of media that predictably asks Tuchel if he will sing the national anthem. The sort of media that will not give him half the support of Southgate, simply because of where he was born. I’m embarrassed for my country. Tired of fuckwit ex-players and managers like Harry Redknapp being wheeled out with their opinions every week, as if we could learn anything from them, Redknapp bigging up Klopp as a potential England manager over the summer. Tired of Danny Mills, stating that Tuchel is too scruffy. Tired of having to hear what Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville think about EVERYTHING. We can think for ourselves, thanks. We are all individuals. Or we were. And ultimately, who cares where the manager is from? It’s decades of this noise, this coverage, that has made me care so little for the fortunes of my national side. The tribalism over individual players during a match has only ramped up that apathy further.

Anyway, that’s my opinion.

The final word on the subject – Tuchel had better be wearing a poppy at his unveiling <shakes fist at sky>. And surely the solution to all this angst, to get people onside, is to simply sing the National Anthem, but in German. Our German royal family would love that. Ultimately, has the imminent appointment of Thomas Tuchel paved the way for all future appointments, shown us a way that we can get behind? Because this appointment has annoyed all the worst people you know, and at the end of the day, what more can you ask for than that? Right now, a bare chested Jeff Powell is rampaging around London screaming at pigeons that he just wants his country back. 

I saw a tweet last week about food that somehow encapsulated the experience of City fans over the past decade. The hatred, the bile, the assumption of guilt and cheating whatever now transpires. Because as I have said many a time, nothing any tribunal says or does can change the mindset of the fans of rival clubs. We should not care, but it is truly breathtaking how deep this runs. How many fans walk around with misconceptions about City, how many lies they spout, how ill-educated they are on football, despite being intelligent, logical human beings in all other aspects.

And so it came to pass on the Footy Scran Twitter account last week, when I was delighted to see this comment.

Yep. Hatred of City and everything about them runs so deep, that even complimenting the food served outside the stadium is close to blasphemy. Got to hate even the food. What next, the trams? Not sure we do need the money either, truth be told.

One far more important point raised on the Football Cliches podcast last week – does this count as food served by City? There seems to be a grey area as to whether food served outside the stadium counts as a club’s food offering. For me to rate the offerings of a club, it has to be served inside the stadium, not outside. I shall be writing to my M.P. forthwith to make my points clear.

The APT noise has dimmed, for now, thankfully. Well, apart from all meetings being cancelled, which is hilarious. No quick fix after all, was there Masters? It’s almost as if, and call me a cynic here, they don’t think they’ll get the votes for the revised rules to get through.

But I have been thinking about City’s approach to all this. We as fans, or at least the ones like me, paranoid about optics and perception, need to remember two things. Firstly, that the views of rival fans will never change whatever facts emerge, whatever now happens (I may be repeating myself here). Secondly, not to worry if the actions of the club and their decision to go nuclear, something must of us have wished for, for many years, causes the bedwetting fraternity at the Guardian to spew out another set of articles bemoaning the end of football as we know it. The one thing we do know is that football will be fine and will carry on as before. There will just be even greater pressure on the likes of United to actually be run in at least a semi-competent manner if they want a sniff of past glories. 

On a similar note, you’ll be overjoyed to learn that Miguel Delaney has a book out imminently on sports washing, not that I intend to go in two-footed. Sorry. I wonder if City feature in the book at all? I can name right now every single journalist who will tweet out their praise about one of the most important books released about the sport in recent years. And here I go repeating myself yet again, the sport will carry on as before, teams will win, teams will lose, and the same people will shout at clouds about the inherent danger football is in. It's a living, I guess.

This is not me saying football has no problems, no issues, and that we should not talk about them. I appreciate how money has taken over the game at the top level and how an even playing field would be fairer. This will never happen, but if people want to theorise, that’s fine. I don’t think City fans should be comfortable with our owner either – google Sudan for more details. It’s hardly ideal, is it? But why I dismiss such books is that why some decent ideas may lie behind them, and the articles we are now so used to, the tone has left me cold. As blues, there can be rampant paranoia from some over media treatment over the past 15 years – the club, like any other, has deserved much criticism (there’s some more below) – but after all this time, I think most of us have long had enough of being mansplained, preached and talked down to. The pious, sneering, never-knowingly-wrong bunch of morally superior journalists cherry-picking opinions to suit their own view. We have been pariahs for a long time. Get out the world’s smallest violin I hear you cry, we should not care, we are living the best life, and don’t need the validation of an Arsenal fan or Barry Glendenning. But let these people write, bemoan the state of football and more. Everything will carry on as before, and the only thing that can destroy that is not money, but something tied to that – a Super League. The crumbling of the fabric of English football, its pyramid, that has endured for well over a century. Everything else should be discussed, but the fear that football will implode is beyond tiresome. I’ve been reading about the bubble bursting for decades. Delaney has valid points that football on an even playing field, stripped of its riches, would be a superior model – I agree with him safe in the knowledge I’ve lived the dream as a fan. But it will never happen, realistically, it’s never been even, so how many times do we have to read about it? It’s defeatist of me to say it, but top-level football is the playground of power-grabbing billionaires, and that’s how it is. Many have walked away, left cold by its sanitisation and commercialism, but there is no turning back now, sadly. Maybe I too can eke out a career repeating the same article lamenting how sad and worrying it all is. Or i could just stick to a dry, overly-long newsletter I guess.

And with the club once more showing their disdain for long-standing fans this week, many more will continue to walk away. This is my last season of being on the cup schemes. A decision fully ratified this week, with City informing fans of the ticket details for the Feyenoord match, and also announcing they will be taking money out with under 24 hours’ notice, six weeks before the match. It’s almost as if they want us to fuck off so they can monetise the day-trippers, backed up by news that despite building a huge new tier, there will be no new season tickets, unless you want the club to rip you off and monetise you with a flexi ticket. I am thankful for all that has been done by our owners, without which there would not be a ground expansion, along with a million other things, but the North Stand expansion is already looking like a generational missed opportunity. Sanitised football is the future. Maybe we are being naive to expect anything different, as this is a situation replicated across other clubs. Wait until concessions are trimmed. And City had better hope we get off those charges, because you won’t be getting a lot of fans back in that ground if you don’t, though the ticket approach from City does project a supreme confidence on how this will all pan out. Nevertheless, the decision-makers seem to be totally disconnected from reality.

What We Have Done This Week

The Hub:- Episode 14

Cottage Tactico joins Bailey to discuss Fulham under Marco Silva. Dissecting their approach against Manchester City, the decisions made by Guardiola in the match, and what needs to change after the international break.

Dream Menu

As always in the international break, an hour away from football. Ste and Howard discuss their dream menu, from starter to dessert, location, drinks, company and a lot more besides. No sparkling water on this show.

No History – Kits

Joe and Howard look at the history of City’s football kits. The best, the worst, the sponsors, the manufacturers and a lot more besides (out Thursday).

The Hub:- Episode 15

Zach Lowry joins Bailey to discuss the appointment of Hugo Viana from Sporting Lisbon, his experiences, weaknesses, and strengths as a director of football. Why Ruben Amorim and Michel are great options to succeed Guardiola (out Thursday or Friday).

Coming Up (Friday)

The Friday Show

Another bumper episode, as always. Howard, Ste and George look at the week that was, from England to season tickets to Pep and more. Dan from the Wolves Fancast pops in to talk about a troubled team, and the panel preview Sunday’s big game.

A Txiki Special

Ahsan chats with Pol Ballus about Txiki’s time at City, his successes, his legacy and what lies ahead. This is not to be missed.

Coming Up (Next Week)

The Hub:- Episode 16

Fahd Ahmed joins Bailey to discuss Tuchel becoming England manager, look at the strengths and weaknesses of Kovacic as a number six, and go through the impact of Enzo Maresca at Chelsea

Plus of course a Wolves Review, Sparta Prague Review, all the usual shows and a lot more besides!

Also, if you’re looking for a book to read, this is the best, and last, thing I’ve done, so, you know….

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!