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Big chance
Reporter: MATTHEW CHAMBERS
Date online: 16 July 2012
ATHLETIC chairman Simon Corney said taking on Manchester City’s stars is a “great opportunity” for the club.
Mario Balotelli, David Silva, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy, Joe Hart, Joleon Lescott and James Milner are all set to turn out at Boundary Park in a pre-season friendly on Tuesday, July 31 (7.45pm kick-off) in a fixture at which a good crowd is expected to watch the Euro 2012 contingent.
There certainly promises to be more activity at the turnstiles than would have been the case had Athletic kept to the original plan of facing Birmingham City that night.
And while the Championship club have kicked up a fuss in the media at the cancellation of that game, Corney said Blues manager Lee Clark gave the green light before the new plan was announced.
“The City game is a big one for us,” said Corney. “Within one hour of Paul Dickov ringing up to ask, Lee Clark said it was no problem. There was no conspiracy or anything. People get carried away.”
Birmingham will now play Bury instead.
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Comments
Dont want to sound like a scrooge but i'm not paying £15 for a pre-season friendly, I spend enough money supporting my club as it is, plus we should still be able to use the voucher in the season ticket we pay more than enough for that too!
I hope the game goes well, however Latics have handled the whole situation with Birmingham City badly. A good reputation is like gold in business and Latics have tarnished theirs.
Yet again the backroom staff at BP have kicked themselves where it hurts most! How will they feel when all the above named "stars" pull out due to "other commitments"?
Seeing that city are in Malaysia on that date and would probably want their 'big names' out there I can only seeing their stiffs on show at BP. You know, the likes of Scapuzzi and Bunn who failed to impress when on loan. I'll keep my £15 thanks!
You listened to PD's phone call to Lee Clark then did you petelatics?
Sorry reneging on an agreement with Birmingham has put Latics in a bad light, coupled with the fact that season ticket holders cannot use their ticket for a friendly , all in all a bad show. i shall boycott the match on principle. The fact that the Police make a pre-season friendly a category A match is a joke, especially as the majority of City,s First team squad are abroad at the time. 1500 max i estimate for this one
From the Sunday Mercury
"Blues claim they were notified at the beginning of the week that Oldham wished to cancel the fixture.
St Andrew’s bosses maintain they tried to be obliging and asked Oldham to delay announcing the switch until they had found new opposition.
However, the Latics went public with the fixture on their website on Wednesday and Birmingham insist although they asked Oldham to take the news item down they have refused to budge." No-one at Oldham was available to comment.
If that's true petelatics it's a shame. However, I was under the impression BCFC understood MCFC was too good for us to turn down. I guess we needed to maximise publicity to ensure all the Scott's of the world were aware and would turn up.
Mainstander, if I read the article above correctly, City's Euro 2012 contingent will be available for selection at BP.
D'Gawby, how will you feel if they play?
The club are doing all they can to increase revenue and all some can do is moan. Shame on you!
This was posted on Birmingham City's official website:
"Blues' proposed pre-season fixture at Oldham Athletic on Tuesday 31 July has now been formally cancelled.
Despite a written agreement with the Latics being in place, Oldham opted against the formal arrangement after receiving an offer to play a Manchester City XI on the same date.
Blues officials have now reluctantly agreed to cancel the planned trip to Boundary Park and sought opposition elsewhere." Ouch!
lookersandy - Theres always going to be the moaners unfortunately with nothing better to do. They want city get it and still moan.
Pre season preparations change regularly for all teams this is just another example, if B'ham got offered a bigger club providing a big crowd puller etc then im sure the circumstance would have been the same. The price I agree will put people off and maybe should have been a tenner. People are always moaning we have no money well this is an opportunity to get more!
Have Your Say
at least it should put some much needed funds in the coffers and thats what is needed at the moment. Lets hope there is a decent turnout from both sets of fans.
By peteg @ 16/07/2012 13:24:36