With last season behind us all thoughts are now looking ahead. That’s certainly the view of City’s faithful season ticket holders. There’s been a good response to renewals so far and the club are very fortunate to have such a staunch following who are with them through thick and thin. As soon as you’ve purchased your new season ticket the anticipation for what could happen next year starts to build. Let’s hope that as the new signings start rolling in excitement will build even further and we can keep those season ticket numbers rising! It’s a tough time with the economy and a big ask for fans to fork out so much on supporting their team, but the club know the backing is there. Now it’s up to the players to reward them with the performances on the pitch!
Most thoughts are towards players coming into the club, but there are also a few familiar faces leaving. One face that’s going to be missed is Sol Bamba who has just signed for Trabzonspor. Sol was always a firm favourite with the fans and he didn’t make many errors. He’s a player who took chances now and again and I think the fans appreciated that. He played well when Nigel came in and then went off to the African Nations whilst in pretty good form. I’ve never heard anyone at the club say a bad word about him and I want to wish him all the best in his future career.
The club have also released another number of players, so Nigel is obviously making his plans and seeing what positions he needs to strengthen. Stevie Howard is one of the players leaving us; he put his heart and soul into the club. Age isn’t on his side but he put in some really great performances for us and had some moments the fans won’t forget! Matt Oakley is another one who’s left the club. Matt suffered some bad injuries that hindered his time at the club, and whilst he wasn’t a favourite with every fan he had some great times here and played a big role at the club as captain and squad member. The same goes for Chris Weale. I still believe he’s a terrific keeper but Logan has now stepped up and as 3rd choice keeper obviously he wants to be playing regular football. He’s still training at the club to keep fit, which is a nice gesture for the club to allow him that time to use the facilities after his contract has ended. For Tunchev I expected really great things but unfortunately he went through a very serious cruciate ligament injury which halted his career at the club. I know how hard those injuries are to come back from and it’s a real shame that it knocked his career back. He’s very well respected and liked at the club! Other players to be released include Elliott Chamberlain and as with all of the other players, they all deserve a pat on the back for what they did for the club and I wish them all well in their future careers!
I still can’t quite believe it’s 10 years now since we left Filbert Street! That makes me feel pretty old. I retired before the move so I never got to play professionally at the King Power Stadium, although I wish I had. I got a bit of a run out the other week when we played the box holders though! It’s a big pitch out there, firm but incredibly slippy. I think that was visible in a lot of the matches last season too, you could see visiting teams struggling with it. When you look back over the 10 years an awful lot has happened – promotions, relegations, managers-a-plenty. There have been some fantastic games and I recall my mate Muzzy scoring a couple of cracking goals down there in the early days! Obviously I’m a little bit biased and my heart will always lie at Filbert Street. There was definitely a difference in atmosphere there, it was a special place. The fans were so close to you it really made a difference on the pitch. As a player as well I remember the goal mouth near the Double Decker, the ground was so soft your feet would literally sink in! However, we’re hugely fortunate to have such a great ground now, without doubt it’s one of the best in the league! It’s a ground that deserves Premier League football, so let’s hope that’s what we get! The club have everything in place and are ready for the challenge of the Premier League but with the teams going up and down last season it’s going to be a very tough league to get out of.
The fixtures for next season come out very soon on 18th June, so now let’s all look forward to that and think about what we can achieve!
Coming soon…
Don’t forget that tickets are now on sale for An Evening with Mike Tyson, which is taking place later in the year! It’s such an exciting event to be involved in and tables are already selling really well, so be sure to get in quickly and secure your place! For further info and bookings please contact [email protected]