Sunday 26 February 2012

City vs Blackburn Rovers: Match Report

By Aaron Leggott

City secured their 18th consecutive Premier League victory at the Etihad Stadium thanks to a 3-0 win at the hands of Blackburn Rovers. It has now been a full calendar since Fulham secured a 2-2 draw and Blackburn didn't threaten to repeat the same feat as Kean's men whimpered to another away defeat.

Wednesday 22 February 2012

City vs FC Porto: Match Report

By Tom Smart


An early kick-off brought many strange feelings and emotions to the Etihad Stadium before an impressive 39,000 witnessed an emphatic win against the holders of the Europa League in the day’s early European game.

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Carlos Tevez Apology

Here is the official Carlos Tevez apology from the Manchester City Football Club site regarding incidents over the last few months. “I wish to apologise sincerely and unreservedly to everybody I have let down and to whom my actions over the last few months have caused offence. My wish is to concentrate on playing football for Manchester City Football Club.”

Now, the question is - would you welcome Carlos Tevez back into the Manchester City side if you were Roberto Mancini?

Looking at our Twitter, many of you would not. Adam Kevin Barrett (@bazige) said "no not ahead of any player including kids who actually take pride in playing for city. Not a chance!" whilst many replied with just 'no'. Loucas Georgiou (@LoucasCTID) commented "NO. Lets remember the 2 great seasons he had with us and wish him well. But too much water under" about the situation.

Some defended the Argentine, such as Ray Lowrey (@maineroadray) "big time, we have proven over the last couple of months that you need 4 top class strikers ".

Carlos Tevez has not featured in the squad since the Blues 2-0 loss at Allianz Arena, where Mancini told the press that Carlos had refused to come off the bench as a sub. Since then, he has claimed that he was "treated like a dog".

Granted, Carlos is a brilliant talent and would be an influential substitute to have (hoping he will come on) but should he really be given another chance? He has handed in two transfer requests and it has taken this long for him to come out and actually apologise. Now, we just have to leave the rest with Roberto Mancini and see what he decides, the return of the Argentine hitman may be advantageous for our push towards the end of the season and our attempts of bringing the Premier League to the Etihad.

Get in touch and send us your views on Twitter.

@SkyBlueView

Friday 17 February 2012

Racism Within Football

By Archie Barnett

As you will all agree, racism within football is a huge problem at the moment and it can jeopardise the beautiful game. We have seen numerous examples recently, but lets start with the one closest to our hearts and the most recent.

City vs FC Porto: Match Report


By Tom Smart

City arrived in Porto with the recent memory of being dumped out the Champions League in December. City entered the Europa League after a 2-0 home victory against Bayern Munich was not enough to see them through to the next stages of the competition. A return to a knockout competition appeared a welcome one amid the defeats in both the FA Cup and the Carling Cup that the New Year had brought.

Thursday 16 February 2012

City vs FC Porto: Match Preview

By Aaron Leggott

After Champions League elimination in December, both City and Porto face each other for the first ever time in Europe's secondary competition in the last 32 tie.

Tuesday 14 February 2012

Aston Villa v Manchester City: Match Report

Aston Villa v City: Match Report

By Tom Smart

A Sunday evening in the Midlands demanded the form and resilience of potential Premier League Champions. Before the game Manchester United had a one point lead at the top of the table, having played the day before against fierce rivals Liverpool and winning 2-1 thus increasing overtaking the City in the title race temporarily.

Sunday 12 February 2012

Exclusive Interview with Tony Book

Book speaks to The Sky Blue View about his glittering City career

By Aaron Leggott 

(Interview from Archie Barnett)


With a career spanning over 19 years, Tony Book has definitely seen it all as a footballer. To say his career was remarkable would be an understatement, going from playing non-league football until he was 28 years old to winning some of Europe's most prestigious trophies. Here is the story of a remarkable man after he took the time to generously speak to us.

Book’s professional career is largely thanks to Malcolm Allison, who saw the talent that the right back possessed after becoming the manager of Bath City. This created a long lasting friendship between the two, and Book is very grateful to have been given the chance by Allison.

“Yes, he was a big factor in my career because I don’t think anyone else would’ve given me a chance at that age and he was the one who saw something in me and thought I was a decent player and gave me the chance.”

Before being given his chance in the English football league, Book spent three months in Canada playing for Toronto City, and he believes that whilst the quality was lacking, it was the break that he needed to help push himself into a professional career:

“Yes, it was a little bit of a lower level but at the same time there were some good players there. There were a lot of nationalities, the likes of the Italians, Argentineans and the Brazilians, there were some good players around. And that’s when Malcolm made up his mind that I could play because I had done well against them and that’s when he decided I could get a living out of football.”

As much as Allison rated Book, his age seemed to be a deterrence to many managers, including Joe Mercer, who had to be convinced to bring Book to Maine Road in 1966. And it took Allison to remind Mercer of his playing days, where he was given a chance to prove himself at Arsenal at such a late stage in his career.

Of course, the management of a team is a crucial factor. The team of the late 1960s and early 1970s had great backroom staff, and it is fair to say that there are stark comparisons between Roberto Mancini and Joe Mercer, something which Tony Book also sees in Mancini.

“He has been brilliant. The owners have been a great help to him by giving him the cash to go out and get the players he needs. He did it the right way, by making sure his defensive priorities were right to start with and he got that right he’s gone for quality going forward. Once you get that quality into your side you’re not going to be far away because you know you’re capable of scoring goals and I honestly feel this season that they will go on and win the Premiership.”

So, in the summer of 1966, a 32 year old Tony Book made the move from Plymouth to the North West for a fee of £17,000. But it wasn’t the only story worth celebrating, after an impressive summer for the country as a whole. Book vividly remembers the scenes after England beat West Germany at Wembley to put ‘football back on the map again.’

“Yeah, it was great, the lads did it for England and the country was alive, football was put back on the map again and it was a wonderful time for English football at that particular time. With teams such as United, Liverpool, City, Tottenham and Arsenal, there were some great sides and great players around at that time.”

After making his debut against Southampton in a 1-1 draw, his opening season for City was unbelievably successful, as the man from Bath went on to prosper under the management of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison. Missing just one game in the 1966-67 season, Book was named Player of the Year in his opening season as a Blue.

It was about to get even better though. After Johnny Crossan moved to Middlesbrough, Book was given the captain’s armband by Joe Mercer and he went from strength to strength, becoming our most successful captain in our history after making a total of 242 appearances for the Blues.

He was at the heart of four different successes, which included a league championship, a European Cup Winners Cup, an FA Cup and a League Cup, and was also given the honour of being awarded the 1969 Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the year award. Just to be part of the team during this period must have been something special, never mind captaining the team, and Book was honoured to have been given the opportunity to captain such a great club.
"It was a great honour"
“It was a great honour to captain the club during that period of picking up a few trophies. I came up in 1966 and when Johnny Crossan left to go to Middlesbrough they made me captain, and it was great to captain the likes of Francis Lee, Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee.”

And it must be a great feeling for Book that we have another great role model for our players both on and off the pitch in Vincent Kompany. Book describes Kompany as a ‘great leader’ when he was asked about the comparison between both himself and the Belgian.

“I’ve been lucky that I’ve been with the team when they’ve gone to Europe this season and I’ve seen the way that Vincent conducts himself, he’s a great leader. When you’re captain one of the main things you’ve got to have in your game is to play consistently well because the other players see that and think they can do the same thing. Vincent knows the ones that you’ve got to put your arm around and the ones you can have a little shout at and wake them up. Like I say, I’ve been lucky enough to watch Vincent and he’s certainly a great skipper.”

After retiring in 1974, Book decided to take a managerial role at the club, something which he felt was extremely difficult.

“It was a difficult time for me because I had been playing with all those players and then all of a sudden I was made manager and it was at a time when there were some changes having to be made because we had grown up together and we were getting a little bit older. I went out and signed some very good players, the likes of David Watson and Brian Kidd and we were a decent side and we were unlucky. We lost the championship by a point to Liverpool and we won the league cup. We finished in the top 8 as I was manager and we got into Europe four out of the five seasons that I was in charge.”

It is clear that he proved himself to be as good in the dugout as on the pitch. Tony was a professional both on and off the pitch and a role model for everyone. He wanted success whenever he was involved, and he feels that our current team will be capable of even better, claiming that we have ‘every chance of winning the Premiership this time around.’

(c) The Sky Blue View 2012


Once again, we would like to thank Tony for taking the time out to answer our questions. We hope you enjoyed the article. Remember to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.



Tuesday 7 February 2012

City vs Fulham: Match Report

By Tom Smart

An assured and comfortable 3-0 win for the Premier League leaders ensured the blues remained top of the league after a midweek stumble at the hands of Everton.

Saturday 4 February 2012

The Sky Blue View's Big Day Out

Today was really a day to remember, as The Sky Blue View watched The Citizens in style. I started the day  hoping the game would not be called off, despite sub zero temperatures and heavy snow fall. We got to the stadium and we arrived at 'City@Home' at 3 o'clock, where we were to meet Mike Summerbee and assistant Kate Lyndley.

Friday 3 February 2012

City vs Everton: Match Report

By Tom Smart (@InvisibleManMC)



A disappointing end to January and transfer deadline day ended with the Sky Blues sinking to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Everton. A January that included being knocked out of both domestic cups and involving some particularly dubious decisions around the club.

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Writing for us

Have you ever wanted to try your hand at writing an article about your favorite team?

We at The Sky Blue View are offering our fans just that, we are always looking for new writers and would love to allow our viewers to test their talent at writing an article for a popular site.

Whether you want to write about the happenings of Mario Balotelli, or whether you want to write about David Silva, we can offer you a chance. It is always great to try something new, and if you have not really written before we suggest you take up an opportunity like this. All credit for the article will be given to the writer and none of it taken by The Sky Blue View.

If you want to take advantage of this fantastic opportunity then either email us at - theskyblueview@gmail.com or give us a tweet!

The Sky Blue View - @skyblueview
Archie Barnett - @ArchieeeB
Aaron Leggott - @Aaron_Leggott

We look forward to hearing from you and we will discuss your chosen topic with you thoroughly and if you ever need any guidance then contact us. Remember, we will never push you to put The Sky Blue View first and we appreciate you will have other things on your mind, but give it ago, you never know - you might discover a hidden talent.

Good luck,

Archie Barnett