City have their chance to silence Gigi Buffon.
Gigi Buffon is very outspoken on City matters. He and his agent claim to have turned down City, and repeat these comments every week or so, along with other stinging attacks on City and how he would never leave Juventus.
Buffon latest attack was aimed at City’s defenders who he claims none of are world class, that is one of the reasons he would not join City. The other reason is an old chestnut we hear all to often ” History”. Buffon like so many other players of today thinks history can win you cups and glory in the future.
While belittling City and taking every chance possible to take cheap shots at the club Gigi should look to the recent history of Juventus I can think of one fine moment for you “Calciopoli scandal”
Buffon is and always will be a mouth piece, a vain media attention seeking whore. Fantastic goal keeper I would have to say Yes he is, Is Joe Hart and Shay Given in the same leauge no doubts in my mind that they are. City don’t need any more goal keepers Gigi. The fact is City have to many world class keepers as Hart is now surly the England Number 1 and Given will be Irelands number 1 until he decides to retire.
Buffon’s comments about City’s defence were well a little short sighted, as now since City and Juve will come face to face in the Europa league. Time to stop talking and and see what Juve and Buffon can do on the pitch, I feel the fire power City have up front will put 2 or 3 past Buffon on 30th of September at Eastlands. While Kolo and the lads soak up the pressure from Juventus in defence.
I watched Juventus lately against Irish Minnows Shamrock Rovers, away from home Juve looked weak. Their defenders Chiellni and Grosso were resorting to dirty play to save face. Of course no Italian team can play football without diving and rolling around the ground in agony only to get up and walk off smirking.
Really looking forward to Juventus coming to Eastlands so City can show Buffon what they can do first hand.
Juve Promise Action On Balotelli
Following the Europa League draw on Friday, Juventus have stated they will not tolerate any further abuse of City striker Mario Balotelli.
City’s new striker was subjected to racial abuse by Juventus fans whilst playing for Serie A rivals Inter Milan last season and the Turin club have warned by UEFA following the draw, which also paired the blues with Austrian side Salzburg and Lech Poznan of Poland.
Juve chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc said the meeting of the two sides would be a chance for the Juve supporters to ‘demonstrate they have raised the standard’ when the teams meet in December.
“Supporting your team is to support your team, and not to make remarks of a racist nature toward other players. We will be extremely demanding and intransigent about this,” continued Blanc.
The blues travel to Austria on 16th September for the opening game before facing Juventus at Eastlands on 30th September. But City have to wait until 21st October to face Lech Poznan at Eastlands before playing the return in Poland on 4th November. 1 December sees Salzburg arrive at Eastlands before the big game in Turin on Thursday 16th December. By that time, the blues should already have sealed their place in the knock out stage.
The question of Jo ?
This week City boss Roberto Mancini told the media he believes Jo is a great player. Mancini recalled that he remembered Jo from his days at C.S.K.A. Moscow. Jo came to City with a £18m price tag and to be fair not a lot of of us had ever heard tell of the lad. With poor performances and a partying lifestyle Jo was sent on loan to Everton. At Everton he kept his hard partying and lack of respect up by jumping on a plane and jetting of to Brazil with out permission from the Club. This was seen as the last straw and Moyes told Jo to pack his bags and go back to City, that and Everton knew quite well they had not got the Cash to add him to their squad.
While only back a wet day at City sorry that’s wrong, the SAME day he returned, City again loaned him out, this time to Turkish side Galatasaray. Jo true to form was out all night partying and being the playboy, Turkish Police were called to his apartment many times by his neighbours for load music and partying in the middle of the night. Jo’s little time in Turkey was seen as a waste of time by many Galatasaray fans, scoring 3 times in 13 appearances was not enough for the Turkish side to see fit to try and buy him from City.
Jo has looked good in pre season and most would have believed this playing time was to showcase him for sale. Mancini has however seen something in him and has had him on the bench and brought him on a sub against Liverpool on Monday night.
Jo is only 23 years of age, and maybe had gone a little wild with the pitfalls that football bring with it money, glamour models, & fame. Its easy to get drawn by the trappings and forget why you are there in the first place. At 23 and a love for the partying lifestyle Jo lost his way, hopefully he has his head right and realised that a footballers career is short and to be the best you have to want it and sacrifice a lot to become respected and sought after otherwise its the scrap heap for you.
Has Jo finally grown up and seen his career slowly falling away ?
Do you think he can get it together and become a first team regular ?
Or
Has Mancini gone mad in beliving he can change this young man into a top flight footballer ?
The Jury is out on Jo at present, I would love to see Jo go on to prove he can cut it in the premiership. That he can be a grown up and do his job, showing the City faithful why the club paid £18m for him. That all being said so many of us are amazed he is still at the club and looks like he may be in the squad.
Manchester City 2-0 FC Timisoara
Article by Jake Hartley
City eased into the group stages of the Europa League on Thursday evening after dominating the entire 90 minutes against the Romanian side, FC Timisoara. City will now face Italian giants, Juventus, Austrian side, FC Salzburg and Polish side, Lech Poznan in Group A.
City looked comfortable from the outset at the City of Manchester stadium as they dominated possession and never really gave Timisoara a chance to cause a huge upset. Roberto Mancini brought in 7 changes from the side that overcame Liverpool 3-0 on Monday night. Great players like Adebayor, Silva and Zabaleta were recalled to form a very strong side despite the absences of players like Tevez, Yaya Toure and Milner.
Timisoara tried to keep the scoreline as low as possible by having 9 men behind the ball when City attacked, leaving the lone Timisoara frontman to wait for his side to snatch the ball away from the Blues. It was one of those changes that gave City the lead at the end of the first half. A patient and well worked move from City resulted in the veteran, Patrick Vieira sliding a perfectly weighted pass in between the Timisoara defence to release Shaun Wright-Phillips.
The lively winger struck the ball early to leave the keeper rooted to the spot and watch the ball nestle in the corner of the net. City’s dominance continued throughout the second half with Silva and Adebayor guilty of missing one on one chances to increase the blues lead.
The game was put beyond Timisoara’s reach when Silva flighted a free-kick to the back post for the impressive Boyata to head home his first City goal in front a small crowd who instead of waiting for City to get to the latter stages of the competition, turned up to witness a comfortable 2-0 victory.
David Silva was handed his first home start of the season by Roberto Mancini and looked lively especially in the 2ndhalf. He was zipping around the Timisoara backline trying to find spaces to slot through balls for Adebayor, Jo and Shaun Wright-Phillips. Many of his through balls didn’t always come off for the tiny Spaniard, but you can see that the intelligence is there and in time, he will be laying on opportunity after opportunity for the City players.
I think it may be a while before we see the best of Silva as he attempts to settle into the English culture, but once he finds his feet in the Premier League, he will be like a conductor with the ball supplying the orchestra to do the business.
First time goalscorer, Dedryck Boyata had a very impressive game at the heart of the City defence alongside his National idol, Vincent Kompany. The 19 year old, centre half may have come up against a poor attacking unit, but, whenever Timisoara looked like they could cause our defence a problem, Boyata was there. He used his pace to catch up to Timisoara attackers, he used his strength to muscle them off the ball and retain possession for City and he used his aerial ability to win numerous aerial battles and even grab himself his first City goal.
I remember being very worried about Mancini including this lad in the Carling Cup side to face Manchester United, as I thought his inexperience would be exploited by the likes of Rooney and Co, but I can see why Mancini rates him so highly, he defiantly has the attributes to be a top class defender in time.
I worry alot about City and Mancini’s decisions, especially after he signed Patrick Vieira from Inter Milan in January. Although, Vieira won’t be able to put in great performances every week in the Premier League, he can produce crucial performances for us in the Europa League, when the match is at a slower pace to suit the ageing Frenchman.
Last night, Vieira was very impressive in central midfield alongside defensive terrier, Nigel De Jong. Vieira was constantly finding players with his accurate passing and even unlocked the stubborn Timisora defence for Shaun Wright-Phillips to open the scoring. I realise that we were playing a Romanian side equivalent to a Championship/league 1 side in this country, but I still believe Vieira can shine in Europe this season.
I was fairly unhappy with the performance of £18 million striker, Jo last night. He was played out wide on the left of a front three and failed to impact the game in any way. He had a glorious chance to score in the first half, but headed straight at the busy Timisoara goalkeeper and his overall game just isn’t up to scratch.
His first touch often sees the ball bouncing away from him and I just can’t see why Mancini is sticking with him. Unfortunately, I can see Jo being in the 25 man squad that the Premier League requires this season and hope that he proves me wrong when Mancini decides to play him. What do you think of Jo ?
All in all, there were some very positive performances from the City players last night, but there will be sterner tests for us as we progress in the competition. Mancini has stated that he believes we can win the competition and I hope were there competing in the Final in Dublin on the 18th of May.
Italian Job For Blues
City face a stern Italian test in the group stage of the Europa League as they were drawn in the same group as Juventus.
The blues, who easily won their play off tie against Romanians Timisoara, will also face Austrian side FC Salzburg and Polish side Lech
Juventus were one of Fulham’s victims as the Londoners powered their way to last season’s final, overcoming a 3-1 deficit from Turin to win 4-1 at Craven Cottage and the blues will be hoping to make it a miserable return for the Italians, while Salzburg is probably only known for being the birthplace of Mozart. I must admit, I know absolutely nothing about Lech apart from the fact that it’s in Poland.
Elsewhere in the draw Liverpool, the only other remaining British side in the competition, will face also face Italian opposition in Napoli, while Romanian side Steaua Bucharest and Celtic’s conquerors FC Utrecht.
What do you think of the draw? Could it have been worse? Let us know your thoughts
Fergie’s Bizarre Kamikaze-On-A-Budget Risks ‘Manchester’ United’s Financial Future
Article By Real Mancs Are Blue
Alexander ‘Baconface’ Ferguson, renowned whiskey connoisseur and shameless hypocrite is risking ‘Manchester’ United’s financial future with a bizarre and risky transfer strategy, one which has seemingly backfired in a most embarrassing manner.
We all know of the unfortunate and well documented financial mire that Stretford’s finest are in (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10237268) and how Manchester City’s’ increased spending has left Alexander with a face like a bulldog licking piss of a thistle. He recently, and with absolutely no sense of irony, accused gods own club of ‘Kamikaze spending’ when discussing their purchasing of England’s finest prospects, Champions league and World cup winners and internationally renowned talent. It seems odd then, that he has spent what little pocket money he’s been given on an unknown Portuguese fellow called ‘Bebe’. ‘Bebe’ cost £7.5 million, around 7/8ths of his transfer budget. This is a chap that Alexander confesses to have never seen play.
Fair enough, you may think, Alexander knows what he is doing, snapping up the best youth albeit at steep prices, the real big names have continually snubbed the downtrodden rags and even average players are out of the range of his limited funds, and it’s a shrewd move by the man with a face like a roofer’s nailbag. Sadly, it seems that this isn’t the case. The Guardian have reported on good authority that Bebe is a lemon. Poor ball control and passing skills meant he couldn’t even find a place in the reserve team that played their heart out to narrowly beat Manchester City’s’ fourth string.
Given the constraints previously mentioned there is growing concern around parts of southern England that Alexander is putting the very fabric of the club at risk with what is seen as ‘strange and desperate signings’. One United fan I spoke to earlier simply said;
”I really fear for my club, if this carries on we are considering a green and yellow style campaign for Fergie, parts of Lambeth will be awash with Black scarves to signify our dismay. Some of us are even talking about cancelling our Sky accounts.”
What do you make of this frivolous spending by Alexander? Where will end?
As the blue moon rises one can only worry that the man simply known as ‘Whiskey nose’ in Manchester is losing his grip on his club, and his marbles.
Over The Blue Move
It is with a little regret that, after a year online, Over The Blue Moon will shortly cease to exist.
But don’t worry because we have simply merged the site with one from the Football Media network and will in future be known as the Man City Blog. Features will remain the same but we will be closing the comments boards and activating a new, better discussion forum. We are also looking at redeveloping the site completely and hope to provide more interactive games and other features to keep you entertained.
We now have several writers on board, which include Callum Rothwell, Brian Roban, Jake Hartley and the Man United loving Real Mancs Are Blue (I promise he will get full credit for all his articles) as well as the occasional guest writer.
There will be small alterations to the look of the new site to make it feel more like a City site. So come and join us over on the new place. The address is www.mancityblog.com.
Thanks for visiting OTBM but come along and join us on the new site. We still want to hear your views and opinions.
See you there
Andy Gray – Comedian Or Idiot?
Article by Real Mancs Are Blue
Last night I watched Manchester City destroy Liverpool. We played them off the park, dominating possession, winning every tackle and generally disposing of them in a clinical and classy fashion.
I got home from the match and immediately wanted to watch it again on Sky plus, I’m that kind of character. Anyway, it got to half time and Andy Gray reared his ugly head, a truly odious little man who typifies the term ‘Sky 4′. The love he has for Rooney and Gerrard is borderline sexual. He went on to tell us how Liverpool we’re showing glimpses of greatness towards the end, how one mistake from Kuyt was all that separated us and how Manchester should ‘just defend and try to pop another one in on the break’ against the onslaught by Liverpool he clearly expected in the second half. The man is a clown. His blatant and unapologetic bias towards the Sky 4 has been obvious years but last night it was perhaps at its very peak.
The second half ended and Gray appears once more. City had scored another two goals but the way he was harping on with his ‘classic Gerrard’ nonsense you’d think the bin dippers had slaughtered us. ‘From the scoreline you’d think Liverpool we’re battered but it wasn’t the case, it was quite evenly matched, Liverpool had more shots on target’. Here’s a little fact for you Andrew, Ngog rolling the ball with no power along the ground into the waiting hands of England’s number one are not really shots. Liverpool had ONE spell where they looked like they might score, some excellent defending and two world class saves kept them out but its was again ‘Classic Gerrard’.
It’s going to be interesting to watch this little troll when Manchester break that top four permanently and to see how he is forced to change his attitude towards us, he was clearly livid last night when his mighty scousers took a pasting but it’s something he needs to get used to.
Shirt Says It All Really
The blue moon is rising.
Liverpool new Boy Poulsen on City.
Liverpool new boy Christian Poulsen has given his opinions on City as is the fashion these days.
Poulsen has made comments concerning history and how big Liverpool are in Denmark, here is what the 30 year old Danes views are on City.
“You can’t compare City with the history of Liverpool and United,” he said. “In Denmark we really love English football.
“It will take some time for City. Four or five years ago the Premier League was United, Liverpool,Arsenal
and Chelsea.
“Now you have teams like City and Spurs. But in Denmark, Liverpool are No.1. You see the history, it’s really something special.
History is what has gone before and cannot be changed. Great things and terrible things alike stand in the past as a reminder.
In sport history only stands for past glories which fade into time, as the sporting world like time goes forward forging new champions and new memories.
History is not the here and now, or the future. History does not win cups the players of today do .
Poulsen needs to remember one important thing, history of great things lie on the shoulders of Liverpool and Untied players to produce even greater things as their fans are fickle and addicted to past glories. Time is already against you Christian.
The future however yet not written and never certain.
Keep your History lesson. City will write our own starting Monday night.
The future is Blue , The future is Manchester City .
Ireland and the world have their say on City.
In the last week or so City have been the talk of the town.
With Fergie ranting on about Kamikaze spending, ( I think we are all sick of Real Madrid and their £80m super buys) however I was shocked to learn He may have been talking about City ! Fergie has become like a dog with a bone he just wont let it go, sad really. Its seems that Sir Alex of Trafford has City on the mind, Himself , Fletcher and Neville seem to be spokesmen for the anti city movement , watch out for it seems to be broadcast a lot on Sky Sports.
Paul Merson , and Phil Thompson had a right go on Soccer Saturday last week before the Spurs game, saying City would be Lucky to finish 6Th and the spending was a disgrace , fair play to Matt Le Tissier who gave City 3rd spot. Merson and Thompson continued on an anti City rant saying they wont beat this team and they wont do that really tried to bring City fans down minutes before kick off.
Now Ireland has been the latest to speak out against the Club and the manager, Ireland said felt unwanted and feels it was unfair the way he was treated. Ireland was on fire during the 08/09 campaign no doubt about that at all winning player of the year along the way. Ireland did have Robinho and Elano who were at the time both happy and playing some nice football so it was not all a one man show. He at the start of the 09/10 season could not adapt to the way Mark Hughes wanted to set up his midfield and fell out of favour long before Mancini came along. when Mancini arrived he again had his own style of play and Yes maybe Ireland was not seen as part of his plans as is the way of football. Lets face it Elano didn’t fit into Hughes plans but after what we seen of him at World Cup he had who wishes he was still in the Blue of City ? Ireland will be one of those players who may have been a City legend. ( then again he may just be just a crazy midfielder for Cork with a fish tank he spent over £115,000 on ) He surely will be remembered by all City fans fondly as Superman.
Arsene Wenger love him or hate him he has at least has not gone down the road of the green eyed monster, He says ”We cannot be surprised because we knew once Abu Dhabi bought City, that at some stage they would spend money” have to give it to Wenger he understands that to get up there and compete with the top you have to have the players to do so. At present City have to use money to attract the big stars of world football, if however City should find themselves in the Champions League the pull of being in Europe’s Elite football competition will bring them in all the easier and the market prices will balance out. Wenger also said as regards to Mancini ”But there must be a plan in it. Mancini is not stupid. He is an intelligent guy and he has his idea behind his buys.” I think we are all aware that Wenger himself is no fool and can see the bigger picture of what may be going on behind closed doors at Eastlands.
Man City News 24/7
Partners
-