Our former skipper and cult hero Andy Morrison – now head coach of the Sri Lanka national team - continues his role predicting the outcomes of City's upcoming games…

It might seem as though I have blue-tinted glasses because I’ve gone for us to win every league game so far, but that’s the mentality we need with teams like Liverpool challenging us. We have to have the same attitude as we had in the last 10 games of last season when we knew we had to win every game. That thinking doesn’t change because this City side is relentless can handle that pressure and with that in mind, I don’t see any problems in this game.

Mozzer’s prediction: Villa 1-3 City

I was fairly pleased with our Champions League group draw. Obviously, we are playing teams that have finished high in their respective leagues so they need to be respected, but I honestly can’t see any banana skins and I’m expecting a positive start to our campaign in Spain and though I don’t believe it will be easy, I can only see a victory.

Mozzer’s prediction: Sevilla 1-2 City

This will be really, really tough. Spurs have played us well over the past few years and become a difficult fixture both home and away and I don’t see that changing this time. They play a back five which is a formation we find the hardest to break down and they have pace on the counter-attack so this will be a tight game and one we need to work hard to get anything out of.

Mozzer’s prediction: City 1-1 Spurs

While Dortmund are an established Champions League side with plenty of experience, it’s a few years since they were a force in this competition. They have players who can hurt teams, but the void left by Erling Haaland is huge, and if he plays, I expect him to score against his former side in a fairly comfortable victory at the Etihad.

Mozzer’s prediction: City 3-1 Dortmund

Wolves are another side who have played a back five in recent years and got some favourable results against us, but they now have a back four which is why they allowed Connor Coady to leave. But their tactical switch is likely to suit us better and so I can’t see anything but a City win at Molineux.

Mozzer’s prediction: Wolves 1-3 City

I know United had a good result against Liverpool, but I feel they were just papering over the cracks. Liverpool should have won that game with the possession they had but missed opportunities and didn’t defend particularly well. I could be wrong, but this is a game I think we will win comfortably.

Mozzer’s prediction: City 4-0 United

HOW ANDY GOT ON LAST MONTH...

Andy got five results out of six right, but no correct scores.

Mozzer’s prediction: West Ham 1-3 City
Result: West Ham 0-2 City

Mozzer’s prediction: City 3-0 Bournemouth
Result: City 4-0 Bournemouth

Mozzer’s prediction: Newcastle 0-2 City
Result: Newcastle 3-3 City

Mozzer’s prediction: Barcelona 2-2 City
Result: Barcelona 3-3 City

Mozzer’s prediction: City 2-0 Palace
Result: City 4 -2 Palace

Mozzer’s prediction: City 4-0 Forest
Result: City 6-0 Forest

BLUES IN EUROPE

Simon Curtis explains why he had to write about our adventures in European football...

City in Europe is a story worth telling.

In this age of social media trolls and teenage media heroes, it seems sometimes that anything that predates the beginning of the Premier league (and that was 30 years ago!) is irrelevant and does not make the argument. At the same time, rival fans delight in telling us that our club did not exist before 2008.

Well, you can’t have it both ways!

City in Europe is a concerted attempt to bring back into the limelight this club’s wonderfully undulating past in European competition. Dating back to 1968, City have been doing their utmost to make a splash on the continent. Having carried off the Cup Winners’ Cup at the first attempt (and only our second season in Europe), the struggle to emulate this feat has been long and real.

The trek from the Faro Islands to Turkey and all points East and West includes a rich tale of near-misses, shots to the foot and heroic deeds. Putting all of this into one volume seemed like a big ask. The story needed to take in the vast panorama from taking ginger steps onto rock hard ice-bound pitches in the Polish coalfields of the early 70s, through “potential” semi-recent pitfalls against the likes of Lokeren, Groclin and Total Network Solutions to the modern-day glittering array of successes against the European game’s big hitters Bayern, Barcelona and Real Madrid.

City in Europe would not be the engaging tale it is, however, without the input of fans of different ages and eras, who I am proud to say have included their own memories and anecdotes of travelling abroad to watch City in action. Behind closed doors in Moscow? City fans were there. Streymur away? Plenty made the trip, including the infamous group, who hired a trawler from Aberdeen.

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Also included are the tales of journalists covering the club’s continental exploits over the last five decades, from reporting from the top deck of a double decker bus in Lokeren to having to change accommodation with the entire playing squad owing to certain unforeseen irregularities in the appointed Bucharest hotel, every little detail is included.

My own fascination in the subject was twigged by early years studying languages and a career that has taken me to all corners of Europe, sometimes making watching City live in a Dutch forest (AGOVV away, pre-season friendly 1993) easier than seeing them in Manchester. Craning the neck to see the men in sky blue step onto the turf in the Bernabeu or the Camp Nou had been a lifelong ambition of mine. Now I can say with pride that I have seen them three times in each stadium, plus a plethora of the other cathedrals of continental football.

What remains to be done is the circling of the story, the return to where the first chapters launch us: success in Europe, with a City captain hoisting the European Cup high above his head. Only then will the story of City in Europe really be complete.  

SIMON CURTIS

As the first month of the new 2022/23 campaign draws to a close, we take a look back at some of the impressive Fantasy Premier League numbers that Pep Guardiola’s men can boast in the popular game.

*Stats correct as of 30 August 2022

 

Total points

Erling Haaland has enjoyed a fantastic start to life at the Etihad Stadium, grabbing six goals in City’s opening four matches of the season.

The Norwegian’s impressive haul of 41 points in that time is more than any other player in the Premier League, with Leeds’ Rodrigo and Brighton’s Pascal Gross his closest rivals with tallies of 37 and 35 respectively.

Most popular picks

Given that early success, it comes as no surprise that Haaland is also one of the most selected players in Fantasy Premier League so far.

Indeed, 64.5% of managers currently own the 21-year-old, with only former City forward Gabriel Jesus (81.9%) currently a more popular pick.

Joao Cancelo isn’t far behind his new teammate, with 46.6% of FPL players currently selected the Portuguese international in their side.

It makes the defender the fifth-most popular option in the game at time of writing.

Creativity

FPL’s creativity index assesses a player’s performance in terms of producing goal-scoring opportunities for their teammates.

Given the array of talent at Pep Guardiola’s disposal, it’s a metric in which City dominate.

Kevin De Bruyne is currently top of the list, while Phil Foden comes in at number five behind only the Belgian, Liverpool duo Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, as well as Southampton captain James Ward-Prowse.

Ilkay Gundogan also makes the top ten, once again demonstrating that City’s attacking threat is a result of the collective, rather than the individual.

Form

FPL calculates a player’s form based off their average score per match over the last 30 days.

And with an incredible score of 10.2 so far, Haaland is considered by FPL indicators to be the most in-form player in the Premier League.

However, the Norwegian isn’t on his own near the top of the list.

Fresh from his best goal-scoring season at the Club, De Bruyne has picked up right where he left off in 2022/23, averaging an impressive 6.8 points per match at time of writing.

It was an historic summer for English football – as Sarina Wiegman’s Lionesses claimed a first major international honour since 1966.

Manchester City left an indelible mark on that success, with Chloe Kelly grabbing an extra-time winner against Germany in the final to bring home the trophy in front of a record 87,000-strong crowd at Wembley.

Six members of the current City team played their part in their nation’s historic achievement, with the now-retired Jill Scott and Ellen White, as well as recently departed Lucy Bronze and Georgia Stanway also part of the victorious squad.

And City and Lionesses photographer Lynne Cameron was there every step of the way, capturing every unforgettable moment of a watershed summer for women’s football.

This is her unique story from inside England’s Euro 2022 triumph.

Newspapers – “This was first thing the day after the game. It was obviously front-page news, so I went outside and brought in all the papers. Keira Walsh and a few of the other players were having their breakfast and came over to read them. It was a really nice moment, and part of the process of realising what had happened. When you see every single newspaper having a women’s sports story on the front, it’s unprecedented really. It was the coverage the girls deserved to get.”

City players – “Every player in this photo is either a current or former City player, but what’s so nice here is that the players themselves asked for this picture. You can see some really close friendships in there. It was a really nice moment.”

Chloe celebration – “I couldn’t be more delighted for Chloe. When she was recovering from her injury she’d keep me updated on how she was doing. When she got her first goal against West Ham after coming back, I said to her ‘next stop the Euros’. The response was: ‘oh stop it, one step at a time’ but I reminded her of it at the Euros. We had a hug and she said: ‘thanks Pappa’. She’d had a tough 18 months with the injury, so it was lovely.”

Roebuck coffee – “We had a barista on site, and Ellie would often get involved. She perfected the heart and said the one in this photo was the best one she’d done, so of course I had to grab a picture! These moments were just a little way of getting a bit of normality as well. With Covid hitting the squad again, we were in a bubble. We wanted down time and different things to do, and Ellie would go in there for 45 minutes or so and make coffees for everyone. It got to the point where she even remembered everyone’s order!”

Stokes signing – “This was one of the players’ signing sessions, and there were so many to do! I saw Demi coming down, hid behind the table and popped up when she got near me, hence her smile and look of ‘what are you doing?!’.”

Table tennis – “Lauren Hemp was 100% the best table tennis player in the squad. She’s as quick on the table as she is on the pitch. She is very, very good. Lauren and Rachel Daly were doubles partners and nobody could get near them. I tried to play her and she was just trying to play it back to me. She was being kind to me, but she always plays to win.”

Boat trip – “There were some boats at the hotel we were staying in, and you could take them out on the Thames. It just gave you a different perspective, and we were looking at all the houses on the river and wondering how much they all were. This was a really nice, relaxed afternoon.”

Alex trophy – “Some of the players touched the trophy as they walked past, but Alex decided she’d give it a little kiss. She is such a good player but doesn’t really give much away or share massive amounts of emotion when she’s on the pitch. But she’s so committed, and I love this picture where she gives it a little kiss. She’s such a good egg, is Alex.”

This season’s Under-18 captain ready to move through the gears...

City have dominated youth football in recent seasons.

The Blues have won the Under-18 Premier League and Premier League 2 titles in both of the last two seasons, making it a hat-trick each year alongside the men’s triumphs.

For Nico O’Reilly, the attacking midfielder who has taken over as Under-18 skipper for 2022/23, that brings pressure but also the opportunity to get the best out of himself.

O’Reilly featured regularly in last season’s success for Ben Wilkinson’s side but will become a central figure as another campaign progresses.

The man who held his position last season has already made a big splash at first team level.

Full-back Rico Lewis joined Pep Guardiola’s squad on this summer’s pre-season tour and made his Premier League debut in the closing minutes of the win over Bournemouth.

While O’Reilly knows that progress of that speed is uncommon, the achievements of Lewis have brought into sharp focus just how close the big stage is.

“I was so happy to see Rico get time for the first team,” he said.

“I know how hard he has worked and he deserves it.

“It gives us hope that we can do it too, but we always have known that opportunity would be there if we keep working hard and be ready to take the chance when it comes.

“Training with the first team helped me see the level of the players and the coaches. Every day they are at their best and there is so much to learn.

“It was nerve wracking at first but the players were really welcoming and I felt comfortable the longer I spent there.

“Hopefully this season I get more chances to play EDS football and train with the first team. That is so important to get better but I have to keep working hard every day to get in that position.”

The Manchester-born 17-year-old first wore City colours at the age of five.

His talent was immediately apparent, and he was coveted around the country, but the decision was simple for him and his family.

It’s paid off for the midfielder, having progressed to this stage in a system that creates all-round footballers of every graduate.

“I first started at Platt Lane and I still remember it,” he said.

“After a while with City I had a few offers from clubs but I knew as soon as City wanted me that I was going to sign for them.

“Moving to the CFA was really important for everyone because it meant we were all together. The training ground is fantastic, but it’s about getting the most out of time with coaches and team-mates while I am here.

“I am close with all the players across the age groups and because we all play a similar style, it makes it easier to move between the teams.”

Selected Under-18 matches are available to view on CITY+ and the official Man City Recast channel, alongside original documentaries about players past and present and in-depth coverage of the first team.

This season is the 20th anniversary of our move from Maine Road. As many of you already know, I spent the whole of 2002/03 producing a book for the football club. The book, 'We’re not Really Here' is my loving tribute to the longest running saga in my life: Manchester City FC.

When I started shooting photos for the book, although I had a few ideas mapped out, it didn’t always go according to plan. I like the idea of repetitive patterns on pages.

I decided I’d shoot the teams running out on the pitch together for each game, more or less from the same spot, and we’d then run 18 across a double page spread, with the 19th – our final game
(v Southampton) on a full page.

This worked really well. I also thought we’d do similar with a photo each week of the away fans. The first game versus Newcastle was fine. The “Toon Army” was good humoured and were chatting to me and asking what I was shooting for.

The next game, against Everton, was awful. The fans were belligerent, at best, and were throwing coins and plastic bottles at me. One threatened me, then called the police over to say I’d sworn at him. I decided to scrap this idea. I wanted to enjoy the project, not put myself in danger each week.

I decided it’d be safer, and more fun, to photograph our fans in the corner of the Kippax, ‘bantering’ with the away fans.

I occasionally photographed a few opposition fans. The Liverpool fan with the Financial Times (above) was a favourite, and kind of summed up the direction modern Premier League football was heading.

Here’s a few of the photos from inside and outside the ground in the early part of the season...

Kevin Cummins

OSLO CALLING...

Every now and then we are going to check in with our Norwegian Blue for everything Erling Haaland….

Greetings from Norway!

So first, a bit about me...
My name is Ole Fuglestad and I’m a 48 year-old boy from Norway. I grew up in Jæren, where Erling comes from. My first ever football match was at Bryne Stadion, which is also Erling’s boyhood club. My parents gave me a Philips shirt around 1985. I loved that shirt and gradually my interest in City developed into a love, a passion and something that would easily give me a diagnosis if I were ever committed. I got my first season ticket in the new Kippax at Maine Road, after actually being on a waiting list for a year or two. I’ve kept the season ticket since, which I’m glad I did. Because I seriously contemplated giving it up during Stuart Pearce’s reign.

Enough said about that…

Nowadays, my ticket is administered by the Norway & Denmark Official Supporters' branch, so whenever I’m not able to attend myself, there will always be someone in my seat. I’ve been to York away, I’ve been to Gillingham at Wembley, I was there when Agüero won us the league. I have seen the highs and I have seen the lows, mostly lows in fact. But I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Now, I'll answer the City Mag's questions...

What have you made of Erling's first month at City?
Not what I expected, but exactly what I hoped for. I knew his qualities and I knew how many chances City create in a normal game. So, I’m not surprised that Erling has managed to take advantage of that. But I still wouldn’t say I expected it, because I wasn’t sure how much time he would need to adjust to the PL. I guess the only thing that surprised me is how little time he needed to slot into Pep’s team. I suppose it helps when you have players like KDB, Foden, Bernardo and Gundo around you who can make those kinds of passes that not many other footballers can.

What's the coverage in Norway been like?
Mad. As a Norwegian blue, all my life I’ve had to endure hearing about Liverpool or the other lot from across town morning to evening, 365 days a year. If anything good ever happened at City, it would very often be buried underneath all the stuff about the teams in red. Not anymore!

What's impressed you the most?

The way that he keeps on going, even if City are trailing a goal or two. It’s something that Pep pointed out himself.

How many Haaland shirts are you seeing in Norway/Denmark?

Loads! I have a mate who works in a sports store, and he tells me he’s selling loads! I also see commercials and ads with Haaland shirts, which I have never seen before.

What are you seeing different at City compared to Dortmund?
I think the quality in the team is generally a lot higher. When Haaland has got two-three defenders on him in the Premier League, it opens up room for other City players to score. He was a little bit more on his own in Dortmund.

What are your early thoughts on his connection with the City fans?
Fantastic. There's a strong bond already and it's clear that is mutual.

What's coming up on the international break for Norway?
Well, Norway didn’t make it to the World Cup, but they made a really good start in the Nations League, with Erling scoring against Sweden both home and away for instance! And with Martin Ødegaard excelling with Arsenal, I’m hopeful we can see a Norwegian team competing with the best like they did in the 90s.

Eight years. Eight long years of emails, phone calls and third-party messages before - finally - an interview with Noel Gallagher. If there's been one thing I've wanted to do since first becoming City Mag editor back in 2001, it was to talk with Noel on behalf of our readers and return with the definitive Manchester City/ Oasis interview. I'd be lying if I didn't admit that, as a huge fan of the band since the early 1990s, talking with the man who wrote such classics as 'Live Forever' ‘Don't Look Back in Anger', 'Masterplan' and 'Cigarettes and Alcohol' was something I've always wanted to do anyway.

We're the same age, grew up a mile apart and both follow City - sadly, that's where the similarities end. But we had enough in common to be able to speak easily and after a surreal hour on the phone, I replaced the receiver on the handset and checked the tape and listened, relieved that it was all successfully recorded. It was also comforting to discover Noel is no different from me or you and I could have been chatting to an old mate about the Blues. Laid-back, candid and frank as usual - with Noel Gallagher what you see is what you get and he's as passionate about being a City fan today as he was 35 years ago when he first fell in love with the club.

The thing most people like about Noel, aside from his obvious talent as one of the best singer/songwriters this country has produced since the Lennon/McCartney era, is that he almost always talks sense. True, he puts things bluntly, but when you’ve been raised on a Burnage council estate in the seventies, attended a tough secondary school and had to battle your way from the dole to become the brains behind one of the best bands this country has produced in 20-odd years, you tend not to put on airs or graces. Indeed, with more than 50,000,000 albums sold worldwide (as of 2009*), he can pick and choose who he talks to - or doesn't - so my opening words to Noel are to thank him for giving up his time and then mention I'd be trying to get this interview sorted for the past few years.

"Really? I've never been asked before," he says. That means all my previous requests never actually got past the first few hurdles, but it's at least comforting to know that it wasn't the man himself snubbing the magazine because it seems clear that had he been asked sooner, he'd have almost certainly said yes.

Now is a good time to talk. Noel was due to fly out to Las Vegas with Liam to carry Ricky Hatton's belt into the ring prior to the fight with Paulie Malignaggi before embarking on a world tour that will eventually see the band return home with a massive concert in Heaton Park next summer.

With the excellent new album Dig Out Your Soul continuing to sell in big numbers, Oasis have proved they will be around for a long time, as will Noel and Liam's association with Manchester City. I ask Noel where and when it all began.

"I'd got it in my head that my first game was in 1971 when we beat Newcastle 5-1 at Maine Road, but I've recently looked that game up and it was actually January 1975." he says. "I was seven at the time and the only goal I can remember from that match was Malcolm Macdonald scoring for Newcastle with a shot that struck the underside of the crossbar and went in - I remember that vividly.

"I always mention that game as being my first in interviews so I thought I'd better check that the game was actually played in 1971 - but the only time we beat Newcastle by that score was 1975. It's possible I could have gone to a game before that date but that's the first game I can recall."

Thirty years of despair could have been avoided had Noel's dad Tommy fallen in line with the rest of the Gallagher family and gone to Old Trafford instead of Maine Road, but Gallagher senior was nothing if not a rebel and decided to buck the trend.

*Being from Irish descent, all my dad's side of the family - apart from dad and his three sons, me, Paul and Liam - all support Man United - there's about 200 of them and four Blues," laments Noel.

"I'm not sure why he decided to support City. I think, romantically enough, it was because City were our local team. We were born in Longsight and as we all know, the other lot don't come from Manchester. We could walk from Longsight to Maine Road in about half-an hour, too.

*Aged seven, you're not sure which way you stand up, let alone which football club you support, but being at the match fascinated me. There was a bit at the end of the Kippax where the railings went from the corrugated shed bit at the top right the way down to the bottom near the pitch. It's where all the dads used to put their kids and that's where my dad sat me. There were loads of other kids around the same age and dad would come back for us at half-time and again at full-time - and that was it - you don't get. Dad didn't take us every week, but then we moved to Burnage which seemed to be predominantly a City area. We moved from St Robert's in Longsight to St Bernard's in Burnage and that's where things sort of took off.

*On a clear night, you could see the floodlights at Maine Road from my bedroom at our new house and there'd be times when City were playing in midweek and I'd be listening to the match on Piccadilly Radio and I'd look over to the floodlights and think, "they're playing there - it's all happening there.' It was the time when they'd interrupt a record in between match reports with 'It's a goal!' or 'Oh no! - I used to dread the 'Oh no! in case it was City that had conceded one."

Noel and his brothers Liam and Paul soon began to trek the three miles or so to Maine Road from their home on Ashburn Avenue and when their mum Peggy separated from their dad, going to the game with their mates was the only way of guaranteeing their weekly fix of the Blues.

"I think the first time we went to the match on our own would have been when we started secondary school at Burnage, continues Noel. "There were a few of us who used to go - I can't remember the other lads' names because I haven't seen them for years - but there was about six or seven of us and it used to take us about an hour to walk to Maine Road. I'd have been in my very early teens at the time."

Did the Gallagher brothers ever have dreams of playing for the club they followed or did Noel know from an early age his future lay elsewhere?

"Was I any good at football?" he ponders. "I guess before Claude Makelele made that role his own at Chelsea they used to call it the "Gallagher role" in Burnage – but he nicked the title from me. I used to be the holding midfielder before that role had even been invented - I may have even invented it, you know.

"I was never that bothered about being a centre-forward and I used to go in goal a lot as well, but I kind of figured out I'd see more of the ball in midfield. I wasn't big enough to play in defence or up front so I ended up somewhere in the middle. Liam was a dirty goal- hanger, of course."

So while his own career and reputation seemed to be confined to Cringle Fields in Burnage, the City players lived out his dreams at Maine Road every other week. His heroes - apart from The Beatles - are a mixture of industry and artistry, with the odd surprise thrown in for good measure.

"I was fortunate enough to see the likes of Colin Bell, Dennis Tueart, Mike Summerbee, Gary Owen, Steve Mackenzie, Paul Power and Joe Corrigan and I remember us playing in the sky blue round-necked kit.

"Initially my hero was Bell, then Tueart, then Peter Barnes and we were struggling a bit after that. Then Barry Silkman comes along and he had a bag of tricks so I didn't mind him, either. Paul Stewart, maybe - the first striker in years who'd scored 20 goals for us and we promptly flogged him. I never really got into David White - I didn't rate him at all.

"Then it wasn't until Georgi Kinkladze later followed by Ali Benarbia and Shaun Wright-Phillips came along because we weren't really blessed with a great many heroes in between."

Because Noel finds it hard to get up for home games these days due to work and family commitments, he tends to find it easier to go to away games south of Birmingham, but there was a time when he never missed a match.

"Between 12 and 21 I used to go religiously," he recalls. "The first season after we'd been relegated in 1983, I went to every single game, home and away. In those days, there was a great facility for football fans to travel around the country because half of us were on the dole so we'd get into Maine Road for half-price as well as get cheap train travel with the Inter City specials, so following football in the early eighties wasn't that expensive. Plus in the old Second Division – or whatever they call it now - most of the teams were up north anyway. There was nothing to do all week so it was quite easy to jib a train to Huddersfield, Bradford or Barnsley and all that caper.

"I used to know a few of the Maine Line Crew, Young Guvnors and the Under-5s. I knew all that lot and still see a few of them today. They were quite mad times, but if you look back to how football was back then to how it is today, it seems almost pre-historic.

"You see the stadiums of today and they're all shiny and flash, but the grounds we used to go to 20 years ago were dangerous, especially night games at Leeds and places like that and wondering whether or not you'd make it home in one piece. It's all part of growing up, I suppose." (PART 2 NEXT MONTH)