Man City Backtrack

[Dipper]

Man City held a poll with supporters to choose a name for one of the stands at their new ground, Colin Bell came out on top narrowly beating Joe Mercer.

Club officials however are reluctant to have the stand in question known as the Bell End & are said to be reconsidering.

 

[moomba]

While it sounds a bit of a joke, sadly this is true.

It is also true that a lot of opposition supporters voted for Bell in the hope that the stand would be called the Bell End, even though it would have been the Colin Bell Stand, not End.

Not overly bothered by Joe MErcer getting the nod, but it is a touch embarrassing, particularly for Bell. I am sure the club will honour him in another way, and Joe Mercer is certainly deserving of having a stand named after him, if not the entire stadium. I only wish the other 3 stands were named after legends instead of the inevitable company sponsors.

Still, I guess we've got to make back the £20 million we've spent on our brand new stadium eh Dipper

Moomba

 

[Shinboners]

I would have liked the stand to have been named after the great Peter Swales.

 

[The Hitman]

Beardsley Stand? You could have a giant poster of the man who served you so well in Nationwide on top of the stand.

The Hitman

 

[moomba]

Originally posted by The Hitman
Beardsley Stand? You could have a giant poster of the man who served you so well in Nationwide on top of the stand.

The Hitman

Speaking of Beardsley he is doing a week long stint on Talksport. Every person they have interviewed on the show, Beardo has been coached by, or played with or played against at one of his many, many clubs.

He also said today that he got drug tested after the Hand of God match, along with Terry Butcher and Maradona himself. Apparently they were stuck in the same room, with Beardo having to restrain Butcher until they completed their test. Would have been a very tense atmosphere I am sure.

Moomba

 

[moomba]

Originally posted by Shinboners
I would have liked the stand to have been named after the great Peter Swales.

We could always have the Martin Edwards toilets at OT.

Moomba

 

[Shinboners]

Originally posted by moomba
We could always have the Martin Edwards toilets at OT.

I'd imagine that it'd be the toilets with the longest queue.

Especially if they put a picture of Fartin' Martin at the bottom of the toilets.

 

[Shinboners]

Further on Swales vs Edwards, I find it ironic that Swales loved City and did everything he could to make them the best team in England. Sure, his decisions often backfired, but you could never doubt his love and passion for his club. Edwards, on the other hand, never really loved United like his father did (in fact, Edwards prefers rugby union to football). He tried to sell out to Knighton and Murdoch, and he never ploughed all the money that United made in the 90s back into the club. He fluked the decision not to sack Fergie in the late 80s, but then tried to sack him during the late 90s.

It's fair to say that Swales was truly unlucky and Edwards should be thanking whatever force is looking after him.

 

[David Votoupal]

Michael Knighton? Remember the plans he had for Carlisle United, claiming they would by now be one of Europe's top clubs?!?

 

[Shinboners]

Yep, the very same Michael Knighton.

I remember his ball juggling antics in front of the Stretford End just before the propose takeover collapsed.

It's strange to think that at the time, plenty of United fans would have been happy to see Knighton in for Edwards. As it turned out, Edwards was the lesser of two evils.

 

[Jars458]

What's wrong with the "Bell End"

I don't get what's funny.

 

[Shinboners]

Originally posted by Jars458
What's wrong with the "Bell End"

I don't get what's funny.

From what I can figure out, "Bell End" is local slang for backside.

Moomba? DIPPER? Is that correct?

 

[Voice of Reason]

Originally posted by Jars458
What's wrong with the "Bell End"

I don't get what's funny.

Frequently used term of abuse in England - as in "he's a right bell-end" or "what a bell-end". Bit like "arse" or "********".

 

[windyhill]

Isn`t bell end something to do with d icks ? hahah????
I thought Trevor Francis would have been a chance to have a stand named after him, magnificent service.

 

[Dipper]

Err well I was always under the impression that Bell end was an insult with reference to the end of one's penis, due to the shape, at least I always assumed that eveybody else's were shaped like that too .

 

[Dipper]

Originally posted by Shinboners
I would have liked the stand to have been named after the great Peter Swales.

Nah why don't they just call it the Denis Law stand & all the seats could be coloured to make a picture of him back heeling in that goal.

 

[Dipper]

Originally posted by moomba

Still, I guess we've got to make back the £20 million we've spent on our brand new stadium eh Dipper

Moomba

Don't rub it in mate, to be honest I didn't know that you even had to pay that much I mean you could have bought Sebastian Veron for that sort of money.


Actually my West ham supporting mate's are hoping that London wins the right to host the Olympics, they'll build a spanking new stadium in east London probably in the Stratford area, it'll be an 80k stadium that they need to get rid of when it's all over & West Ham would seem to be the only candidates for it, they'd then probably reduce the capacity to 60k & WH would then have a chance to become serious contenders, added to that it would have the best transport links of any stadium in London(possibly the country) whilst Arsenal struggle with £400m debts for the next 30 years.



Who said life was fair.

 

[moomba]

What windyhill and Dipper said re "Bell End".

Dipper, sorry mate, it was too good an opportunity to refuse.

I heard on the radio the other day that some (insert nationality here) businessman had offered to buy Arsenal a new stadium in return for shares in the club, but was knocked back. I still don't understand how this is supposed to cost so much, from memory the CoMS cost £100 million, I know being in London, and the extra capacity is going to add a few dollars onto the price, but £400 million seems outrageous.

Perhaps you could build a new stadium at MK, I think there is a club there looking for a ground share.

Moomba

 

[Shinboners]

Originally posted by DIPPER
Nah why don't they just call it the Denis Law stand & all the seats could be coloured to make a picture of him back heeling in that goal.

I'm just surprised that they didn't suggest that in the first place.

Why not celebrate the Massive's greatest achievement (Insert my usual rant that Denis's goal did not send United down as all other results had gone against us anyway) in their last 30 years?

 

[BT]

I'm patenting the "Malcom Allison Chippy" tm.

I thought the reason why "The Colin Bell Stand" was one of the suggestions put up by the club was that it wasn't an end stand. From memory the "West" stand was the one being named & that's the Main stand/Broadcast side I think.

The Bell side.... Nup it'll never catch on...

 

[Dipper]

Originally posted by moomba
What windyhill and Dipper said re "Bell End".

Dipper, sorry mate, it was too good an opportunity to refuse.

I heard on the radio the other day that some (insert nationality here) businessman had offered to buy Arsenal a new stadium in return for shares in the club, but was knocked back. I still don't understand how this is supposed to cost so much, from memory the CoMS cost £100 million, I know being in London, and the extra capacity is going to add a few dollars onto the price, but £400 million seems outrageous.

Perhaps you could build a new stadium at MK, I think there is a club there looking for a ground share.

Moomba

Yeah he's another one of those Russian Oligarchs, he's even richer than Roman Abramovich, apparently he's an Arsenal supporter.It's all a bit confusing, he was meant to have offered £120m to the new stadium costs but I bet it wasn't no strings attatched, I doubt the present Arsenal board would have hm aboard, they seem to guard their position ferociously but are the kind of board that never put in money from their own pockets unlike those much maligned types such as Doug Ellis who actually do.

Really I don't know how come the stadium costs so much, you just have to look at Wembley to see how much it costs to build a stadium in London.
Obviously the land is dearer & there's a number of compulsory purchase cases to settle & labour must cost a bit more but when you consider that Liverpool's 60k stadium will cost £100m it's a bit hard to understand.
One of the things is that Arsenal are building a load of housing as well (much of it what they call affordable) so we'll get money back from that when it's done & there's also the costs that will be incurred developing Highbury as well, so I suppose all that increases the risk from banks' point of view & increases the initial cost but means that we'll get money back in the future, the trouble is that the London property game is a dodgy enough caper to be in even when you're experts, with a projected fall in property prices it does seem to carry a few risks especially for a football club.

 

[Shinboners]

Rumour: City have backflipped on their backtracking and the stand in question will be called the Bell End.

 

[moomba]

No rumour. The West Stand will officially be known as the Colin Bell Stand. The road leading into the stadium wil be known as Joe Mercer Way, several other roads will be named later.

It wasn't the ideal way of getting things done, but the honours awarded to two of our club greats are very well deserved.

Laugh away, every City fan is proud of Colin Bell, and proud of the Colin Bell stand.

Moomba

 

[Shinboners]

Originally posted by moomba
and proud of the Colin Bell stand.

ER, that's Bell End.

 

[moomba]

Originally posted by Shinboners
ER, that's Bell End.

Shall I change that to giggle away, we are proud etc etc.

I think you know very well the difference between a stand and an end, and I am sure by now you know exactly where the stand is located.

Moomba