Manchester City F.C.

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Manchester City F.C. is a football club based in Manchester, United Kingdom. Having been formed in 1880 as West Gorton Saint Marks, it went on to become Ardwick F.C. in 1887 and moved to Hyde Road, before finally becoming Manchester City F.C. in 1894.

Winning the Second Division in 1899 gave the club their first honours. They went on to claim their first 'major' honour in 1904, beating Bolton Wanderers to claim the FA Cup. In 1923 they moved to Maine Road in Moss Side, Manchester.

They first claimed the First Division title in 1937. The next time was in 1968 - their "golden era" of football, acquiring much silverware in the late 60s and early 70s under manager Joe Mercer with the deadly contingent of Francis Lee, Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee and Mike Doyle. Their most significant moment in Europe was capturing the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1970 by beating Gornik Zabrze 2-1 in Vienna.

One of the highlights of the last season in the old Maine Road stadium (now demolished) was a 3-1 derby victory over their Manchester rivals Manchester United to end a run of 13 years without a win. A goal from Nicolas Anelka and two from Shaun Goater, gave City full points. In 2003 they moved to The City of Manchester Stadium, a newly constructed state of the art 48,000 seater stadium situated in East Manchester, which they lease from the local council. In the 2002-2003 season they came 9th in the Premiership and qualified for the 2003-2004 UEFA Cup through the "fair play league".

They opened their new stadium with a 2-1 win over Spanish giants F.C. Barcelona with goals scored by Nicolas Anelka and Trevor Sinclair.

Their current squad contains the likes of Robbie Fowler, David James, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Trevor Sinclair and Claudio Reyna. Former England international Stuart Pearce is the manager.

Over the previous two seasons, veteran goalkeepers Peter Schmeichel and David Seaman have seen out their careers here.

In the pre-season of 2002-2003 they spent £13,500,000 (US$20,000,000) on Anelka. Their rise was rapid; from being in the third tier of English football in 1999, to being in European competition, having a large stadium, with top facilities and having world class players in their squad. In February 2005, a report by accountants Deloitte & Touche; ranked Manchester City as the 16th richest club in the world in terms of turnover.

None of this, however, has diluted their distinguishing characteristic of comical unpredictability. A brilliantly-headed own-goal scored from some distance when playing Queens Park Rangers in 1998 was not only voted by their fans as the goal of the season, it was also instrumental in Manchester City's subsequent relegation.

Fortunately, their supporters display great wit and loyalty. When Arsenal F.C played some of the best football ever seen at Maine Road and scored four goals in the first twenty-five minutes, the stoic City fans responded with a chant of "boring, boring Arsenal". Manchester City will never face that accusation.

2 Years later when they played the same team and found themselves 5-0 down with a minute to spare, City scored a goal to make it 5-1. City fans responded with a chant of "You're not singing anymore" to the buoyant Arsenal fans.

The City fan's song of choice is a rendition of "Blue Moon", which despite its melancholic theme is belted out with gusto as though it were a heroic anthem.

Oasis are known to be huge supporters of Manchester City and have played at Maine Road.

Boxer Ricky "The Hitman" Hatton is also a huge supporter of Manchester City; his father was a former player for the club. Hatton always wears a Manchester City club crest on his robes, and his shorts bear the City colours. He also enters the ring to the club tune of Blue Moon.

Table of contents

1 Honours 2 Stadium information 3 Playing Squad 4 Number 23 5 Famous Players 6 External link

Honours

Full Members Challenge Cup

Finalists

1986

First Division (Old Format)

Champions

1937,1968

Runners-up

1904,1921,1977

Division One (New Format)

Champions

2002

Runners-up

2000

Second Division (Old Format)

Champions

1899,1903,1910,1928,1947,1966

Runners-up

1896,1951,1989

Division Two (New Format)

Play-off winners

1999

FA Cup

Winners

1903,1934,1956,1969

Finalists

1926,1933,1955,1981

League Cup

Winners

1970,1976

Runners-up

1974

European Cup Winners' Cup

Winners

1970

Stadium information

Since 2002 the club moved from Maine Road to the City of Manchester Stadium, a newly constructed state of the art 48,000 seater stadium situated in East Manchester, which they purchased from Manchester City Council after the Commonwealth Games were held there in 2002.

Since moving to the stadium, Manchester City FC have spent about GB£35 million on upgrading it and lowering the field of play from ground level (during the Commonwealth Games) to below ground level, adding an additional tier of seating around the entire pitch and also building the new North Stand.

Playing Squad

1. David James 2. David Sommeil 3. Ben Thatcher 5. Sylvain Distin 6. Claudio Reyna 8. Robbie Fowler 10. Antoine Sibierski 12. Nicky Weaver 14. Kiki Musampa (on loan from Atlético de Madrid) 16. Nedum Onuoha 17. Sun Jihai 18. Danny Mills 22. Richard Dunne

24. Joey Barton 25. Geert De Vlieger 26. Paul Bosvelt 27. Mikkel Bischoff (on loan to Wolves) 28. Trevor Sinclair 29. Shaun Wright-Phillips 30. Christian Negouai 31. Jonathan D'Laryea 33. Kasper Schmeichel 40. Lee Croft 41. Stephen Jordan 42. Bradley Wright-Phillips 44. Willo Flood Karl Bermingham

Number 23

Since 2003, Manchester City have not issued the squad number 23. It was retired in honour of Marc-Vivien Foé, who was on loan to the club from Olympique Lyonnais at the time of his death on the field of play playing for his country Cameroon.

Famous Players

Notable former players for the club include:

• Colin Bell
• Kazimierz Deyna
• Marc-Vivien Foé
• Trevor Francis
• Shaun Goater
• Georgiou Kinkladze
• Denis Law
• Francis Lee
• Billy Meredith
• Roy Paul
• Uwe Rosler
• Peter Schmeichel
• David Seaman
• Mike Summerbee
• Frank Swift
• Kit Symons
• Bert Trautmann
• Paul Walsh
• Dave Watson

External link

• Official site
• 4thegame.com's Manchester City page
• fansite with Blue Moon lyrics and more
• mcfc.tv - Manchester City FC news and links with RSS feed

This article is part of the series: FA Premier League 2004/05
Arsenal | Aston Villa; | Birmingham City; | Blackburn Rovers; | Bolton Wanderers; | Charlton Athletic; | Chelsea | Crystal Palace; | Everton | Fulham | Liverpool | Manchester City; | Manchester United; | Middlesbrough | Newcastle United; | Norwich City; | Portsmouth | Southampton | Tottenham Hotspur; | West Bromwich Albion; [ [{{localurl:{}|action=edit}} edit] ]

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