CITY BLUES.

Its been an eventful pre-season for Manchester City. First with the departure of there manager and now with the arrival of new manager Matt Cooper and his backroom staff. And the new boss has his own ideas of what will go on at the club.

"I'm looking to get this club promoted." said the new boss in an exclusive interview with Kickoff. "Ill be bringing in new faces to the club. Starting from today this club will be run in a professional manner, everything will be in good condition."

The new man in charge also told Kickoff about his views on the recent goings on in the dressing room. "A couple of the boys disagreed with what I am trying to do here and they have asked to leave and I have placed them on the transfer market because of it. If a player wants to leave I will let him do so, as I will not have unhappy players at my club. And because of this the Australian international, Colosimo, and the highly rated goalkeeper, Carlo Nash, have been transfer listed."

It was rumored that there was also a training ground bust up between two of the Man City players. Matt Cooper refused to comment to much on this at this stage but said, "It is true that there was a slight disagreement between one of my trialists and one of my established players. Because of this I have sent the trialist back to his club, and have sold the other player involved as an offer came in for him the following day."

There is speculation around Manchester that City are to make a big money bid to take a United midfielder across the city, to replace Eyal Berkovic, who Cooper sold to Blackburn during the week. Cooper refused to comment on this other than to say "All dealings within this club will take place amongst Manchester City and the club we are dealing with. I will make dealings public when I feel it is right to do so."

The City boss also ruled out a move for Birminghams Geoff Horsefield and ruled out selling his star striker unless big money is paid, saying "We made a move for him (Horsefield), but at the moment our valuations and Birmingham's valuations are slightly apart. We have our valuation of the player and we have increased our offer for him. But we are both in a stalemate at the moment." "In regards to Shaun Goater, I am reluctant to sell him, as he is the best striker in the first division, and would walk straight into many Premier league teams, but if the right offer comes along I would have to accept it. There has been big interest in him and it wont take much more than what is currently being offered to prize him away I'm afraid."

The new boss finished the interview by saying how delighted he is to have been given a chance to manage a great club. "I am very very proud to have been given a chance to manage a club the size of Manchester City. The fans here are fantastic, and I plan to bring back the good days, and take this club to the very top. It will take time though, and I would ask the fans to support the team when we come out on Saturday to play Nottingham Forest. I will be making a speech before the game, along with the chairman to say hello to the fans and assure them where we are going."

Birmingham City Fans Should Be Optimistic Since the Trevor Francis sacking which led blues fans pleading for David Gold’s, Karen Bradey’s and David Sullivan’s heads. The pressure was on the board to find an exciting, well-known and very tactical manager, which could lead Birmingham City to the Premiership. So they appointed the wonderful accomplished Owen Griffiths to steer them to the Big Boys League. This provided more anger and disappointment to the blues fans because Owen Griffiths despite being very successful at his previous clubs is been a die-hard villa fan and has been all his life. This appointment seems very strange to the blues fans and even to the fans of Aston Villa because of the fierce rivalry between the two clubs. Owen Griffiths commented on this subject with a special interview with Kickoff “I am an Aston Villa fan, I have claret and blue blood but the fans of Birmingham City must not be worried by this. I am really eager to bring the blues into the premiership.” Owen Griffiths has asked the fans of City to be as supportive as possible “…. as long as the fans can get behind me and the starting eleven 110% of the way then we have a decent chance of promotion” There has been some major re-shaping to Birmingham City and loads of transfer activity. “I have seen the lads in pre-season and I have been impressed with only a few of them. This is no disrespect for the players but I like to see a lot of effort being pumped into training and the friendlies I arrange. If I don’t see the commitment or desire to play for Birmingham City then they will have to leave. There has been a lot of transfers going in and out of St Andrews already but overall I think my new players have improved the squad,” commented Owen. Some fan favorites including Darren Purse and Martin Grainger have moved on, this lead to more anger and disappointment for the fans of Birmingham City but Owen commented “They will have to get over some of the best players at St Andrews leaving but I think my replacements are just as good, but the fans will have to wait to see them in action for their opinions to be worthy of judgment.” Owen Griffiths seems to be one of the most active managers in the transfer market at the moment as well as the Watford boss David Tonks and the Manchester City manager Matt Cooper. Numerous transfers have been between Watford and Birmingham City, “I have my links with many clubs so I can negotiate with them, David (Tonks) is just one of them but because me and Dave get on so well is that is why he has brought my deadwood and I have brought his best players in Galli, Gayle and Neilsen” Owen told Kickoff. Owen finished the interview off saying how optimistic he is about this season, “I have total faith in my new team and I think we can go all the way, I just hope the blues fans give me time to adjust to the lower depths of division one. There is only one negative point so far the end of pre-season and that is we (Birmingham City) are struggling to find a worthwhile sponsor, we hope our board can speed up the process being as we are short on funds at the present time.” 

Well where shall we start, I'm appalled with the teams opening start to the season and the fans are already calling for my head after 3 games without getting a point and without even scoring a goal!

The signing of Owen Hargreaves should help bring a bit of luck into my team although I chose to play last weeks game without him as I wanted to give my regular players one more chance to shine, but sadly they didn't so I will have a look at my formation and correct any errors I see occurring.

I just feel sorry for the team who are next on my fixture list because this back log of defeats are sure going to strengthen my team and they are going to come out with all guns firing in this game. I'm still looking to purchase some defenders though as I've conceded 8 goals in 3 games, which isn't good for a potential title challenge side!

Hope now I can get a bit of luck with my results!

Cheers Craig Johnson Team: Coventry F.C

1: How do you rate the squad? 

I have been in charge for 3 games now and I have learned a lot about the squad and have been able to bring in a few players of my own. There are some good players here but there are also some players who I feel don't belong. 

2: What do you think of the clubs start to the season? 

We've had a great start to the season with the highlight being the win at Fulham. It was a great team performance and I don't think we get the credit we deserve. We kept a strike force of Raul and Saha down to 1 goal, and grabbed 3 goals ourselves.

3: What do you think about Saturday's game against Wimbledon?