Etihad Coming Home: THIS time starring the Sydney Blues!

Regular readers of the blog (all 28 of you) will remember our unsuccessful foray into last year's Etihad Coming Home competition, which offered overseas City fans the opportunity to fly back to Manchester to watch the Derby.

But this year, we've gone one better, and made through to the final ten. Public voting will open next month, and don't worry, we'll definitely let you know when it opens, and we'll hound you for your vote then. In the meantime, check out our entry below, and don't forget to visit us on Facebook (facebook.com/LessonInPride) or Twitter (twitter.com/LessonInPride).

"Being a blue is like nothing else.
There's something intangible. Something you can't describe.
You ride every emotion.
The incredible highs. The wonder goals that have you out of your seat and hugging strangers.
The devastating lows. That almost bring you to tears and ruin your week.
Even from 10000 miles away, we support the club like those that live on City's doorstep.
But it just not the same as being there…which is why Gav and I would like to come home…

The Sydney supporters club started off with very humble beginnings, in fact three years ago it was a couple of blokes having a couple of beers in a random pub in Sydney, pleading with the bar staff to turn one of the TVs on to the City game — even if was the one in the corner with no sound.

Through hard work over many months, and by simply turning out at the same venue each week, we began to increase our following.

Two became three. Three became five, and five became ten. Soon, big matches such as the Derby were attracting upwards of forty fans. Some Australian, some ex-pats, some Mancs on holiday, but all part of the City family. We've even managed to get some 'big name' City fans to come down, such as broadcaster Simon Hill and ex- City 'star' Spencer Prior.

Despite being half a world away, we try to bring a little bit of Eastlands to Sydney. Every goal, every missed chance, every injury-time loss — we feel it too.

The Sydney Blues have been recognised on several occasions by the club. We featured had our story published in the Match Programme, we've been on the Official Site in a story about 'Far Away Blues', and our home pub was named as a 'Heart of the City' — one of just eight international venues to be named a safe-havens where City fans can watch matches with like-minded fans wherever they are in the world.

Watching the match on a pub TV is only half the story. We aim to be a proactive supporters club, and spread the Blue Gospel through anyway we can, whether that be through our blog, Facebook, Twitter, or anyway we possibly can. We've been interviewed by FourFourTwo, and appeared on BBC radio — although whether that happens again is unclear, after expressing my disappointment a little too colourfully after losing to Stoke…

We've both made the pilgrimage to Eastlands on previous occasions, but to Come Home with Etihad would be the fulfillment of a dream that's been discussed and poured over many times at Cheers Bar over the past few years."

Over the coming weeks, we'll post some new videos and reasons why we think we we should Come Home to Manchester. But in the meantime, it's a thrill and an honour to even be considered for the prize. Fingers crossed!

Guess who's back with a brand new track?

Oh my word, it is really too long since we updated this website. I can only apologise profusely for the heinous disregard shown to the many thousands dozens that used to follow the blog.

Just like many other media outlets, sometimes a change in direction is required. It's probably for the best if we do away with the physical Match Reports. There are several million sites that cover City matches already. If you're after an alternative to the Official Site or the BBC, there are a couple of sites I can recommend.

For match reports, you can't go past David Mooney's 'Blues Reviews' — a blog so simple and no-nonsense it was last seen playing central defense for Stoke.

If you like your blog posts full of superfluous verbosity and a love for David Silva that blurs the lines of hetero- and homo- sexuality, then Jack at 'TLDORC' is well worth your time.

Of course, these two fellas have a few significant advantages over this website. Firstly, they aren't watching from 16 000 kilometres away. And they're not doing it blind drunk at 3am either. So they have a little bit more of an idea of what they're talking about...

It's a busy time for the City at the moment (and the Sydney Blues too, but more on that later), and if we decide we have an opinion on something, we'll cover it in our trademark irreverent style.

Mario Balotelli Out for Six Weeks

Devastating news to come out of the club overnight — rising star Mario Balotelli is to have surgery on his injured knee, and will be out of action for up to six weeks.

Mario hobbled off in the dying moments of the win at FC Timisoara, with what at the time looked to be a rather harmless knock.

In typical "Typical City" fashion, three of our most anticipated new additions to the squad — Jerome Boateng, Aleksandar Kolarov, and Balotelli — have mustered just over an hour of football in all competitions between them. Combined with the fact that Wayne Bridge is still not fit, as well as the perennially crocked Michael Johnson and Roque Santa Cruz, that's a good quarter of the squad unable to play, and it's only three games into the season!

City's 25-man Squad Announced

Roberto Mancini has named his 25-man Premier League squad, and as a result, will have to play with the cards he's been dealt until January.

There are no major surprises or omissions, although Michael Johnson could consider himself lucky to have made the cut, considering his ongoing injury situation.

Whilst it would have been possible for Roberto to nominate a squad that featured big names like Robinho, Craig Bellamy, or Stephen Ireland — it was just not feasible from a man-management point of view.

Unfortunately, the real world is not like FIFA10, where you can buy as many players as you fancy and they don't kick up a stink when they sit on the bench. I know we fell into this trap when we chose our 25-man squad around a month ago.

Overall, it's a strong squad, but I do worry slightly about the amount of creativity in that line-up, and the amount of players that can come on and turn the game on its head.

The full squad is as follows:

Goalkeepers
1 Joe Hart
2 Shay Given
3 Stuart Taylor

Defenders
4 Kolo Toure
5 Vincent Kompany
6 Jerome Boateng
7 Aleksandar Kolarov
8 Micah Richards
9 Pablo Zabaleta
10 Joleon Lescott
11 Wayne Bridge
12 Shaleum Logan
X Dedryck Boyata
X Greg Cunningham

Midfielders
13 Yaya Toure
14 Gareth Barry
15 Nigel De Jong
16 Patrick Vieira
17 James Milner
18 Adam Johnson
19 David Silva
20 Shaun Wright-Phillips
21 Michael Johnson
X Abdisalam Ibrahim

Forwards
22 Carlos Tevez
23 Emmanuel Adebayor
24 Jo
25 Roque Santa Cruz
X Mario Balotelli
X Alex Nimely-Tchumeni

Deadline Day: Robinho Gone (For Good)

As the 2010 transfer window slams shut (watch your fingers), City have made just a few changes to the squad — which is understandable considering the magnitude of spending already embarked upon by the club this summer.

The major protagonist in transfer deadline day proceedings two years ago to the day, Robinho, has been involved in another last-minute deal — this time signing for AC Milan in a deal thought to be worth around £20million.

The skill of Robinho cannot be questioned — his complete control in the 6-0 win over Portsmouth is one of the best individual performances ever witnessed at Eastlands.

It's ironic that at the time Robinho was playing his best football (August to December 2008), was actually when as a team, we were at our worst. After crashing to a 2-1 defeat at West Brom in late December, City sat 18th in the League. Conversely, when Robinho failed to score for the next few months (and with the assistance of January signings), we made a late charge up the table.

We have seen this all before as City fans. Georgiou Kinkladze was arguably the most skillful player on the ball to have played for Manchester City, however, we were relegated twice with him in the team — but after he was sold, we soon earned successive promotions. Having a big fish in a small pond does not make for a good football team.

Robinho may well thrive at AC Milan, along side fellow Brazilians Ronaldinho and Pato. He'll also be given an age on the ball in Serie A, compared to the Premier League. As long as he doesn't have to play away games, or at night, or in the cold, he'll be a success I'm sure.

His career will always be blighted by the fact he was unable to make it at Real Madrid, or under two separate managers at Manchester City. If he was truly world-class, he would have stuck it out and earned his first team place back — not disappeared to the sunny climes of Santos to play kick-about with his mates.

An amazing footballer, but a coward on and off the pitch.

In other news, occasional footballer and wannabe rapper Felipe "Xzhibit" Caicedo, went out on loan to Spain for the second time in as many seasons, signing for Levante UD (who looking at their club badge, are a merger between Valencia and Barcelona).

Asamoah Gyan, who scored four goals for Ghana in the World Cup (but missed a penalty in the dying seconds against Uruguay), joined Sunderland for £13million. It's a shame he didn't sign for them a week earlier — we might have picked up a point on the weekend if he had!

That old wheeler-and-dealer Arry Redknapp (oh come on Arry, I didn't mean it like that!) got up to his old tricks, and may just have snagged Real Madrid midfielder and World Cup runner-up Rafael Van Der Vaart for the cut-price fee of £8million — despite Bayern Munich close to signing the player for over twice that amount the day before.

For that price, he could have got half a Roque Santa Cruz (I assume you'd want the top half, as the bottom half is knackered), or one homeless Portuguese third-division player, so it's a good bit of business from 'Ol Twitcher if true.

So, no Dzeko, no Torres, and no Luiz, but a successful transfer window nevertheless. If we're there and thereabouts in the League come January, I can see another addition or two to get us over the line.