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millm103

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Tbitm

Tbitm

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Griffiths wary of in-form Heart

 

Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets attacker Joel Griffiths believes this Saturday’s clash with the Melbourne Heart at Hunter Stadium looms as the Club’s toughest challenge so far this season.

The Jets sit just two points behind sixth placed Sydney FC but face a Heart outfit that have won five straight matches and haven’t tasted defeat in eight games.

“I think Melbourne Heart are definitely the favourites for this week, their form over the last six games has been outstanding and even the way they play, they’re the best team I like to watch,” Griffiths said.

“They’ve got a lot of good players, especially when one of our greatest players of all time in Harry Kewell can’t even get a sniff, it shows David Williams and Mate Dudgandzic are definitely a handful.

“I think any one of the attacking third for Melbourne Heart are definitely going to cause us problems -this is probably the toughest game for the Jets this year by a long shot.

“Hopefully we can go in with the right attitude and stick to the gaffer’s game plan and I’m sure with the players that we have on the park we can do the job, especially at home.”

Griffiths lauded the impact of marquee striker Emile Heskey in the Jets 2-0 win over the Wanderers on Sunday and believes the Englishman is vital to the side’s top six chances.

“Yeah definitely, I think Emile is the key for us, I’ve always said that if he stays injury free and if somehow he can get on some scoring form like Taggart we will definitely be a contender,” he said.

“But we’ve got one game at a time and if Emile can do what he did last week it only benefits myself and Adam Taggart up front because he takes so much pressure off us.”

Taggart brought up his 10th goal of the season against the Wanderers and Griffiths admitted the youngster’s hot goal scoring form can lead him to the A-League’s Golden Boot.

“He’s got a good eye for goal which is always good, he’s got a lot of pace and being so young he doesn’t have as much pressure,” he said.

“He’s doing really well so hopefully he can continue this form for us, keep working hard and you never know he might have a Golden Boot at the end of the season.”

Griffiths played on the right flank against the Wanderers and admitted he is still adjusting to his new position after playing most of his career as a designated striker.

“Yeah I felt okay, I had to be smart how I went forward but overall I felt it was a fairly good hit out,” he said.

“Obviously with that 70 minutes under my belt I can go into the Heart game with a bit of confidence knowing I can get up and back, hopefully I can get better on that performance.”

 

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/newcastlejets/news-display/Griffiths-wary-of-inform-Heart/87487

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Murfy1
Murfy1

So, apparently this happened:     https://twitter.com/trna17/status/504536953388154880

Ando
Ando

Shit banter. Stupid banter. Not needed banter. Mate, we've copped banter from the Vuck since day one. Geoff Lord was well known for agitating against us. Fuck them, it's good to see Scotty give it ba

cadete
cadete

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belaguttman

belaguttman

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Who is this person, what connection does he have with Heart and on what authority does he dare to suggest that we change our logo or colours?

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jw1739

jw1739

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Who is this person, what connection does he have with Heart and on what authority does he dare to suggest that we change our logo or colours?

 

1. Anthony Costa is a writer, designer and illustrator living in Melbourne, Australia. His sports branding analysis has been featured on Sports Business Insider, The Australian, The Age and Fox Sports These alternate AFL and NRL football graphics are inspired by his love of heritage sportslogos and uniforms. Got a comment or sports related design project? Email Anthony at info@costasportslogos.com or chat on Twitter: @CostaSports.

 

2. None whatsoever.

 

3. None whatsoever.

 

Just another interfering busybody hoping to make a dollar somewhere down the track if any of these "designs" are anything like something the club might use at some stage in the future.

 

No doubt there are also people out there busy registering domain names, business names and trademarks that they think someone else might want to use at some stage.

 

I came across these sorts of activities when I was investigating - nothing to do with football - a small business in the UK. it was astonishing what they had done along these lines.

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Dylan

Dylan

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Not sure where to put this, but IMO it's good that we are starting to publicise this aspect of our club.

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/melbourneheart/news-display/Heart-in-the-Community/87626

Do any other club do as much as this as we do? Being a heart supporter I don't really pay much attention to the other clubs so I'm curious to find out since most other clubs say they do all of this but I'm never aware to the extent they carry it out

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Baresi

Baresi

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Posted

 

Not sure where to put this, but IMO it's good that we are starting to publicise this aspect of our club.

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/melbourneheart/news-display/Heart-in-the-Community/87626

Do any other club do as much as this as we do? Being a heart supporter I don't really pay much attention to the other clubs so I'm curious to find out since most other clubs say they do all of this but I'm never aware to the extent they carry it out

 

Central Coast do a fair bit, not sure how it compares to us though.

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HEARTinator

HEARTinator

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Posted

Not sure where to put this, but IMO it's good that we are starting to publicise this aspect of our club.

 

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/melbourneheart/news-display/Heart-in-the-Community/87626

This involvement with community groups probably didn't go unnoticed by MCFC. Just may have been another element of our club that they liked and it aligned with their ethos.
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Dylan

Dylan

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Anyone read the Herald Sun papers today? Our good mate David Davoots saying that Melbourne Heart can go all the way.

Although everyone says this one is the biggest test ahah I think if that were to be even remotely true id like to see the response after a loss with this new found confidence they have.

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Red or Dead

Red or Dead

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Anyone read the Herald Sun papers today? Our good mate David Davoots saying that Melbourne Heart can go all the way.

We can't go all the way if we're not in the top 6 so let's just focus on this weekend's game first shall we!?! If we win against Newcastle it will take us to either 1 or 2 points outside the top 6; no more, no less!

 

I guess he's a journo so he has to write about something, but let's just get this win under our belts first and then worry about the finals the week after ;-)

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Nate

Nate

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The oldest and probably most famous cliche in football, "anything can happen in football" has never been truer than right now, I'm going into this game with no expectations whatsoever. 

 

Hoping for a win of course but wouldn't be surprised if we lost it.

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Murfy1

Murfy1

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Melbourne Heart getting a mention in this article about the ice hockey team Canberra Brave. Something of a rarity to see the Heart brand get spoken of in this positive manner :

 

[...]

 

But the ''Brave'' name was set in stone. The reasons why it was chosen expose a mindset which should give the sport a massive kick-start in Canberra. ''We loved the idea of the Melbourne Heart, the modern name, the modern logo, rather than pitching an animal or one of these other things that has been done for year-on, year-on end. Jeez, you’ve got this group of five or six senior players who’ve gone 'we are not going to lie down, we want our team, we want our hockey'.

 

''And they were really brave about putting their hand up and going to the league and saying 'we’d like to apply for this licence'. And you look at all the community and all the people who chipped in $50, $100, $1000, $5000 to the pledge page, not knowing if they’d actually get a team at the end of it. It’s a pretty brave thing to do. 

 

''Then the sponsors who have come on board. And also the board members and the volunteers who have put all this time into to it. It’s very brave thing to do. So we thought [brave] just encapsulated the spirit of the team, the spirit of the organisation.''

 

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/how-the-canberra-brave-rose-from-the-ashes-of-the-canberra-knights-20140317-hvjkn.html

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Murfy1

Murfy1

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The above article is by Val Migliaccio, probably the worst football journalist in the country. The likes of him are why journalists are often poorly thought of.

 

There's even evidence in that article that weighs against Val's completely unsubstantiated claim that Man City wanted to poach Gombau, namely that Adelaide's own football director "said Gombau had not told him about any interest from Heart." He would have likely have known something if there was actual interest.

 

And a Heart spokesman completely denied the claim.

 

The only actual justification for the unsubstantiated claim put forward in the article is that Gombau was at Barcelona at the same time the Soriano was... and there's nothing else in the article that actually supports the claim.

 

The article also fails to explain why Man City and Heart offered JVS the 3 year deal, if they were really "hot on luring" Gombau.

 

 

So all up the article sounds like a beat up, something that Val is rather known for. It reads like an article meant to "stir up controversy" in the lead up to this Friday's Adelaide vs Heart match. Who knows, maybe the claim is true, but there are no reasons put forward in the article to think that the claim is true (and there is evidence and reasons to think it is not true, as stated above).

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Tommykins

Tommykins

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http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/10/john-van-t-schip-interview-melbourne-heart

 

 

In the 20 minutes it takes him to walk from his Richmond home to AAMI Park, John van ‘t Schip likes to think. About the game that awaits, the week’s preparations and the key points he needs to reaffirm.

 

“You just consider there are last things that you want to say to the players, or to certain players. [but] if you still have to talk a lot before the game, then I think you missed out on things during the week.”

 

Since Melbourne Heart’s inaugural coach answered his old club's SOS over the summer, the message he’s been trying to drill in to his players has been a simple one: express yourselves.

 

“Start playing football. Play free. That’s the reason why, when you were a little boy, you started to play, because you wanted to show your talent and you wanted to enjoy [yourself], and that’s what you should have at this level as well.

 

“Within that, of course, we will have a certain team discipline and roles that you have to do. But within that, there’s still a lot of freedom to express the player that you are, and that’s what I try to reinforce in my sessions.”

 

It’s a message which transformed the Heart from one of the biggest losers (or, technically, non-winners) on record into a team that dropped just two points in seven matches.

 

It wasn’t all just down to a change in mindset though. Van ‘t Schip switched to a three-man midfield, and started showing faith in the likes of Iain Ramsay and Ben Garuccio.

 

But it was when their marquee man-mountain, Orlando Engelaar, finally made his long-awaited debut for the club that everything changed. His first run in the red and white triggered an extraordinary change in fortunes, and John Aloisi may very well still be leading the club had Engelaar been able to get on the pitch earlier.

 

 “He has special kind of things in the way he’s playing. And he’s not even on his top level right now, because he’s coming back from injury and he didn’t really have a pre-season. So for sure, [having him fit] would have changed things a lot, I think. But it’s football. You always have to deal with those kinds of things. It was a big loss for the club.”

 

Of course, you could also link Heart’s sudden outbreak of showpiece football to their acquisition by Manchester City the following week. With Van ‘t Schip on the sidelines, Engelaar on the pitch and City CEO Ferran Soriano in the boardroom, it all started going gangbusters.

 

Prior to the takeover, Heart had equalled the league’s longest winless streak. In the month or so following the announcement, they were so dominant that being held to draw looked like a underachievement. City, by contrast, went into the takeover having lost just two out their past 26 matches, and came out of it barely able to win every second game.

 

The old order has since been restored, and for Van ‘t Schip, it’s not a case of City’s charm wearing off or emotions no longer propelling his team to victory.

 

“We should not exaggerate those things. The influence of City we have to see more and more next year. This year, we had to deal with the same players, the same circumstances, the same training facilities, so I don’t believe in that too much.

 

"It could be a percentage or whatever, maybe it’s given us a little bit of a change. But bringing that back every time to the influence of City ... I haven’t seen that.

 

“I don’t see the difference in the effort the boys are putting in, or in the way that we are playing. Things went our way [for a while] and now, actually, we are having a period where we are getting [in front] and then we give it away.

 

“You look at the game against Brisbane, we really played well the first half. Dominating. And also against Adelaide. They’re two good opponents, the best teams at this moment in the league, and we were really matched up against them.

 

“We were all happy, actually surprised by the take-over. Nobody really expected it. But, of course, the positive thing is the way they came and they explained and the talks that we already had, so we’re very excited about the coming period.”

 

To put the size of the takeover into context, City pay their maligned ‘keeper Joe Hart as much per season as they did for Melbourne Heart in perpetuity, but it was a sale that not even the Western Sydney wunderkinds could trump.

 

What it means for the club long-term is still unclear. A change in name and colours is an option, and one Van ‘t Schip is unwilling to share his thoughts on. As for the possibility of picking up some young guns from City’s overflowing talent pool, he says there are no names on the table yet.

 

“We are going to go to Manchester and have good talks with the people there, talk about certain types of positions, and then we’re going to see what type of players we can get.”

 

There’s also been talk of City sharing their coaching knowledge with the club, if only to skirt around Uefa’s Financial Fair Play regulations. Has that happened?

 

“No. Because I’m the coach. I’ve got my philosophy, I’ve got my vision, and that’s the same way Manchester City wants to play, a beautiful kind of way of football, possession way of football, and that’s also the reason we agreed to work on together and continue this with a new contract [which has been extended until mid-2017].

 

“But of course, if they start to work here with the youth academy, it’s good to have coaches in who can instruct the coaches here, and we need of course in all of Australia a lot of coaches to instruct the younger players.

 

“And I’m going there, and I’m very happy to learn. We still all can learn from each other. That’s why I’m excited about this time that I’m going to have there in a few weeks.”

 

Come Saturday, Van ‘t Schip will make the walk to AAMI Park for the final time this season. In his head, he’ll be going over another of the messages he’s been giving since his return: play for the future.


“Saturday we get a new game against Western Sydney, and we all want to finish well ... because we want to continue, you know. This is not the last game. It’s not the end of a project. It’s just the start, and that’s how we’ll approach it.”

Edited by Tommykins
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M13

M13

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The New York venture will likely end up costing something south of a $1bn before it´s fully operative.. Just the franchise fee and stadium building costs will be something like half a billion, add cost for land in NYC, training facilities, the top floor offices in Manhattan and yeah perhaps a player or two just to get started..

Oddly it might be an advantage for Heart.. I mean, if they need some extra cash for something any cost cutting will be done in Manchester or New York :lol:

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Jestr

Jestr

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Western Sydney Wanderers have produced a stunning A-League comeback to overrun Melbourne Heart 3-2 and spoil Harry Kewell's farewell match.

The retiring Socceroo great looked set to end his professional football career with a win when an Orlando Engelaar special and a deflected Jason Hoffman strike gave the Heart a 2-1 lead.

But late goals to Brendon Santalab and Youssouf Hersi grabbed all three points for the Wanderers, who locked up second spot on the ladder.

The loss condemned the Heart to their first A-League wooden spoon and was an unfair reward for their sparkling play.

The sense of occasion was felt deeply amongst the 10,003-strong crowd, not just for the retiring Kewell, but for the future of their club.

With owners Manchester City planning a winter makeover, Heart fans asked their new owners to "Keep the Red and White" through banners and thousands of signs.

Despite the loss, Heart fans would probably play in pink polka dots next season if they could keep Kewell and Engelaar.

After Nikolai Topor-Stanley had given Western Sydney an early lead with a delightful arcing header, the Heart pair combined neatly to equalise.

Kewell won a free kick and played it quickly to the Dutch giant, who pulled the trigger with a scorching shot that gave Ante Covic no chance.

Engelaar, playing in almost certainly his last game for the Heart, has made a deep impression in his time at the club - matched perhaps only by 35-year-old Kewell.

Both have endured injury-plagued seasons but will be fondly missed by the Heart faithful.

They masterminded a spell of prolonged Heart pressure, eventually leading to a breakthrough.

Hoffman, another long-term injured Heart man, gave his side the lead on 72 minutes.

But that was as good as it got for the Heart, with a mad-cap 20 minutes resulting in their lead being overturned in dramatic fashion.

A rash Jonatan Germano challenge earned Western Sydney Wanderers a penalty, which was missed by Shinji Ono.

The Wanderers weren't to be denied, with Santalab beating Velaphi despite what looked to be a clear foul on Rob Wielaert in the build-up.

Then in the 86th minute, quick feet and a neat finish from Hersi allowed the Wanderers to dance with their travelling fans.

The touch-line fist-pumps from Wanderers coach Tony Popovic accompanying Hersi's winner demonstrated how much a second-placed finish meant to the club.

"It's very important... having that weekend off will help," he said.

"We'll gain a lot from this result and the way we got the result."

John van 't Schip was less than impressed with the manner of his defeat.

"It was more or less a game we have seen the last five. Playing good, creating chances, not finishing, and in the end losing the game," he said.

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jw1739

jw1739

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Maybe this is Heart not in the headlines, but...

 

Piss poor coverage of last night's game on ABC TV news at 7.00 p.m. tonight. Showed only the Hersi goal, a few seconds of Harry Kewell after the game, and nothing - absolutely nothing -  of the "Keep Melbourne Red and White."

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belaguttman

belaguttman

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Leopold Method article from the ever Sydney-centric Joe Gorman

 

 

WE’LL FIGHT TO THE DEATH OR ELSE FOLD LIKE UMBRELLAS

Melbourne Heart are dead. On Saturday evening they ended their season in fitting circumstances – a decent start with glimpses of quality, before a typically hopeless finish. After leading Western Sydney Wanderers with ten minutes to go, the Heart conceded two late goals to lose 3-2. Finishing in last place on the ladder, next season Heart will become ‘Melbourne City’ as the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) that owns Manchester City and New York City solidify their global football brand.

Much has been made of the entry of the new owners. Few would have ever expected Melbourne Heart – previously a two-bit club with precious little capital, resources and support – to be enveloped into one of the richest football clubs in the world. The salary cap will keep them honest, but investment behind the scenes could be a game-changer.

One thing is for sure – Manchester City aren’t investing in Australian and North American football for shits and giggles. Their motives – we assume – are to build their brand and to create global networks for City. It has also been reported that it is an effort to create ‘artificial income’ in order to pass UEFA’s new financial fair play rules. As part of their branding, they want to get rid of ‘Heart’ and replace it with ‘City’ to bring it into line with Manchester and New York. It’s reported they also want to play in sky blue. The name change hasn’t caused too many problems, but the colours have caused a stir.

Sydney FC aren’t happy about it. The Sydney board has indicated it will fight any moves by Melbourne Heart to change the colours to sky blue. In truth, their insecurities should hardly figure, and Football Federation Australia should treat them with the contempt they deserve. David Gallop might tell them that they have bigger issues at the club than trademarking colours. Dither around for nine seasons and then complain that a rival is muscling in on your identity? Please.

More important is the reaction in Melbourne. “A new name is one thing”, a Heart fan told the Guardian Australia in February, “but I know the colours are something 95%, or probably 99%, of the supporters would not want to see changed.” On Saturday night protest placards were hoisted at AAMI Park, pleading with the club to retain red and white. Columnists have urged the new owners to listen. On Saturday, we were told that FFA must resist the change from red and white to sky blue “if they truly believe in the autonomy of the A-League.”

Australian football fans love a good pantomime debate, and we are suckers for symbolism. We are also veterans of the identity crisis. Last week, another team in Melbourne, Dandenong Thunder, changed their logo in more concerning circumstances. As an Albanian-backed club in the Victorian National Premier Leagues, the word is they changed the logo to appear less ‘ethnic’. In the fine print of Football Federation Victoria’s application form for the new competition were warnings that names and logos must not carry any foreign symbolism. Worried about the success of their application, the club directors decided to ditch the Albanian double-headed eagle and replace it with a cartoon soccer ball with wings. What a shame.

This is the historical context upon which the debate over Melbourne Heart’s name and colours should sit. There is a long history of bureaucrats dictating the way football clubs in Australia must look and act, and the outcomes have rarely pleased the fans. Whether it be four seasons of red and white or decades of pride in your local community, tradition be damned.

Indeed, the fans of Melbourne Heart have no recourse apart from their protest placards. Their season ticket grants them the privilege of reserving a seat at AAMI Park, but like all other A-League clubs, there are no formal structures in place to include them in the decision making process. They didn’t know their football club would be sold to rich sheiks from the United Arab Emirates. In fact, the current club directors apparently only knew of ADUG’s involvement just hours before the sale was finalised.

In the fight over red and white, the sky blue might be a consequence of the lust for ‘green’. The lure of ADUG’s cash reserves has us excited, and most have welcomed the new owners. But to accept majority foreign ownership and then squabble over minutiae such as a club colours is to look at the issue backwards. Sell the house, and then complain about the new lick of paint and renovations.

The debate over symbolism has a less emotive but equally important economic subtext. The “autonomy of the A-League” is decided by the fine print of the title deeds, not the colour of the paper it is printed on. Keeping the red and white might give Heart fans a sense of ownership, but ‘fan engagement’ such as this feeds a delusion. The truth is, we have forfeited nearly a third of the league to overseas owners: Sydney FC, Brisbane Roar and now Melbourne Heart are all majority owned by foreign investors. The other clubs are divided amongst captains of industry and mining tycoons.

Earlier this season, during an Asian Champions League game, a section of Melbourne Victory fans held a sign aloft reading “More Club, Less Franchise.” Not long after, Sydney FC fans unfurled a big banner directing their Russian owner, David Traktovenko, to make some urgent changes to the board. Of course, these banners were ignored, but they illustrate a growing discontentment among football supporters in Australia. Deep down we know that these clubs are not ours, and so we fight smaller symbolic battles to convince ourselves we have a stake in their future.

In an era that fetshises growth, modern sport demands deep pockets, not democratic process. David Conn’s book Richer than God: Manchester City Modern Football and Growing Up documents how City became a global business. “It’s fans had proved over forty years that they were unshakably, bloody-mindedly loyal”, writes Conn, “addicted to the hope of seeing Manchester City successful, apparently whatever it took.”

You have to wonder how Melbourne Heart – a tabula rasa when compared to Manchester City – will be any different. If Melbourne does become a sky-blue City, there is bound to be some gnashing of teeth. But if the new colours and new name come with success – something the Heart have always lacked – don’t expect the histrionics to last. The time for principled resistance has long since passed.

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Falastur

Falastur

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Oh good, David Conn gets roped into the debate.

Just so you all know, Conn is a City fan journalist, one of only two City fans I have ever heard of who were against Sheikh Mansour's takeover, the other being Colin Shindler. It's a perfect example of City's reputation for bad luck, coincidence and ability to shoot ourselves in the foot that these two men are both national journalists and the only two men who write books about City's identity, so when other people decide to take a look at "a City fan's perspective" what they get is all the confirmation they were looking for that the club supposedly has no soul.

Basically he is of the belief that there should be no money in football, clubs should only spend what they earn and that English teams should only be owned by English people - despite the fact that our club was almost destroyed by having first a fan and then a legendary former player owning it. These beliefs in themselves are nothing bad of course - he's entitled to believe what he wants - but to then be invited to comment on TV shows and in the press when City achieve anything, and to use the opportunity to claim things like that true City fans would prefer relegation to winning trophies with money put into the club by an outside source, or to write books trying to highlight any human rights abuse he can find, no matter how tenuously linked to City, just to try to force Mansour out of the club is really beyond my ability to put up with.

In short, Conn is a jerk who deserves none of the attention he receives and really needs to learn that he is not the vox pop for all City fans.

Anyway, rant over.

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Shahanga

Shahanga

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I've run out of books to read, saw that and was going to give it a crack!

 

You haven't exactly given it a good sales pitch though, so I guess its back to the book shelf....

 

Arguments like this overlook the fact that sport NEVER WAS pure.  Even when there was no decent money involved people were looking for ways to get in good players. 

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Falastur

Falastur

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Yep, very true. Even in the 1890s City had a sugardaddy paying for upgrades and so on, even in the days of amateur footballers who weren't even allowed to be paid - and we were far from the first.

About the book - for obvious reasons, I have strong opinions. Others with less of a bias will not find it so bad. His books are supposed to be good, well-written, decent to read. I dont believe he actively out-and-out criticises City in his books, for them he takes the "*shakes head*, isn't it a shame that this isn't the club I used to love anymore?" slant. It's just that he's one of those guys who grew up in the 60s when City was filled with local lads who played for one team for almost their whole careers and cared more for the club than their own futures, and he can't get over that football is not like that anymore and he can't understand why other City fans don't side with him. Also I think he really does hate Mansour, for no reason other than that he's a foreign owner - but I'm not sure how strongly he pushes that in his books.

I'm not trying to tell you not to read his books. It's just that if you do read them you should expect to be told about how City are everything that's wrong with modern football with no real attempt to look at the other side of the argument. For obvious reasons this really annoys City fans, but if you don't have strong feelings one way or the other you'll probably find it an insightful read. It just doesn't tell the story the way City fans honestly believe it.

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belaguttman

belaguttman

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The ever droll Shoot Farken take

 

 

Melbourne Heart (City) to launch Red & White Buy-Back Scheme
mcfc-blue-620x472.jpg

In a Shoot Farken exclusive, we can reveal that Manchester City, the new mega-rich owners of A-League club Melbourne Heart, will soon be launching The Red & White Bye-Bye Heart Buy-Back Scheme.

According to documents leaked to Shoot Farken, the plan has been partly inspired by the Australian Government’s recently aborted scheme to buy back old boats from Indonesian fishing villages to stop asylum seekers arriving on Australian shores.

A similar principle will apply to deter Melbourne Heart fans seeking to enter AAMI Park Stadium next A-League season in what was described “obsolete, redundant, brand killing Red & White.”

In what amounts to a Faustian pact, Heart fans will be asked to sacrifice their Red & White in exchange for Sky Blue on field success. But there’s more.

Not only will Heart fans be luxuriating in the unfamiliar warm scented bubblebath of this success, they will also be able to exchange their jerseys and their red and white scarves for the sky blue equivalent.

But there’s still more.

Reluctant sky blue wearing Heart fans will be able to exchange their official red and white merchandise for a partial refund on the purchase price.

But they know you want more.

To alleviate any residual bitterness from the exchange, Manchester City will not be setting the collected red and white mass of official merchandise alight this Guy Fawkes Night, November 5, in a massive bonfire as previously planned.

Instead, in what is bound to warm the cockles of even the bitterest Heart fan, they will be sending the stuff to the most impoverished and strife torn countries so they can be worn and used by some of the neediest football players on the planet.

This one simple symbolic exercise will turn Melbourne Heart from modest community club to Melbourne City the global community club.

The leaked document also provides details on how the new owners will appease the harder to please, prone to protest, Yarraside ‘casual’ active fans.

The new owners acknowledge that it’s pointless setting up an exchange program for Fred Perry polo shirts, Sergio Tacchini and Fila track tops, and C.P. Company & K-Way jackets. More creative measures will have to be put in place.

One such plan involves bringing down former Oasis frontman, Brit-pop legend and lad’s mag style icon Liam Gallagher for a stint as “Marquee Capo.”

Manchester City are aware that some members of Yarraside were but a thought bubble in the minds of their parents when (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? was released in 1995.

However, teen-marketing gurus have advised the new owners that Liam belting out “Wonderwall” on the Yarraside megaphone will have the same pacifying effect on the teenagers as Leonard Cohen has on their parents singing“Hallelujah” at his Melbourne concerts.

If resistance continues to be met, the new owners will dig slightly deeper into their bulging pockets and get Liam to personally sign and hand out £125 Green Deansgate Parkas from his very own label, Pretty Green.

green-deansgate-parka.jpg

Pretty Green Deansgate Parka Jacket In Green

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