Tag Archives: UEFA

Bell, Lee Summerbee Statue Latest

Looking forward to Tuesday…

WORLD-RENOWNED SCULPTOR REVEALED AS ARTIST BEHIND PERMANENT TRIBUTE TO CITY’S LEGENDARY TRIUMVIRATE

  • Unveiling confirmed for Tuesday 28 November
  • World-renowned sculptor David Williams-Ellis chosen following exhaustive selection process overseen by Club Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak
  • Tribute will celebrate the legacy of Manchester City’s trophy-laden era of the late 1960s and early 1970s Manchester City Football Club is delighted to reveal that world-renowned sculptor David Williams-Ellis is the artist behind a permanent tribute to legendary triumvirate Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee. A student of eminent octogenarian drawing teacher, Nerina Simi, Williams-Ellis sought out classical training in Florence where his signature style was first established. His sculptures, worked in clay, from life, are inspired by the romanticism of French sculptors Auguste Rodin and Antoine Bourdelle and are noted for their sense of movement and vitality. With exhibitions proudly displayed at Perthshire’s Scone Palace, Aberdeen’s Maritime Museum and the IFC Building in Shanghai, Williams-Ellis is perhaps most famously known for his commission of the Normandy Memorial Trust’s D-Day Sculpture. That monument was unveiled by French President Emmanuel Macron and then-British Prime Minister Theresa May in 2019. Designed and created at his Oxfordshire home studio, Williams-Ellis’s work on this commission has focused on capturing the motion and characteristics of each player and embodying the spirit of their combined 30 years representing Manchester City. This initiative is the latest in a series of tributes to key figures forming the Club’s legacy project, first announced in 2019 and directed by Chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak. Modern-day legends Vincent Kompany, Sergio Aguero and David Silva were celebrated upon their respective departures from the Club, with each of their sculptures located on the east side of the stadium, in addition to permanent mosaic artworks featured throughout the City Football Academy.

This installation will be located on the west side of the perimeter and will be unveiled on Tuesday morning ahead of a UEFA Champions League meeting with RB Leipzig later that day, where fans will be invited to visit the permanent tribute to an extraordinary era in the Club’s history.

Speaking of his appointment to the project David Williams-Ellis said:

“It is a great honour to create a work of art for Manchester City Football Club celebrating the diverse, talented players, Bell, Lee and Summerbee.

“It’s been an extraordinary last two years, working on this project that celebrates these players from a great era in Manchester City’s football history.

“I hope that the work will give a sense of history and place to the legions of fans and visitors that come to the football ground from around the world and become an enduring part of Manchester’s cultural landscape.”

David Williams-Ellis – Artist Biography

David Williams-Ellis’ sculptures, worked in clay directly from life, are inspired by the romanticism of Rodin and Bourdelle and are noted for their sense of movement and vitality.

David was classically trained in Florence under drawing teacher, Nerina Simi. From there he went on to be an apprentice wood carver and then joined a community of marble carvers beneath the Carrara Mountains in Pietresanta.

David’s reputation was cemented after his time in Italy. Today, his work is in private and public collections across the globe and can be seen in flagship buildings including Scone Palace in Perthshire, Aberdeen’s Maritime Museum, the IFC Building in Shanghai and Oxford House, Swires, Hong Kong.

Amongst his most notable work includes the D-Day Memorial Sculpture, unveiled on 6th June 2019 above Gold Beach in Normandy to commemorate the 22443 service men and women who fell on D-Day and in the Normandy campaign under British command.

Here’s the D Day Memorial:

Dortmund Draw

On this day (25 October) last year a hard-fought draw with Dortmund ensured Manchester City were Group G winners, qualifying for the knockout stages of teh Champions League with a game to spare. A crowd of 81,000 watched this goalless game. Highlights below:

https://www.mancity.com/citytv/mens/borussia-dortmund-manchester-city-highlights-63802321

City went on to win the Champions League that season of course! There are plenty of articles on here about the 2023 Champions League such as:

From Istanbul to Istanbul

Juventus beaten

Here’s a report and film of Manchester City beating Juventus in their first competitive meeting on this day (15 September) in 1976. That day Brian Kidd scored the only goal (a header) and you can see that goal here:

The match report expresses the disappointment City felt at only taking a 1-0 lead to Italy for the 2nd leg.

Here’s a photo from the game. Notice anything odd? Follow the link after the photo for the story.

Maine Road 100 – Day 24

Subscribers can read more about the game here:

On This Day in 1976: Juventus

A UEFA First For City

On this day (13 September) in 1972 Manchester City drew 2-2 at home to Valencia in City’s first UEFA Cup tie.  The City scorers were Ian Mellor and Rodney Marsh. Subscribers can read more about that game here:

On this day in 1972
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Istanbul 2023 & Vienna 1970 – ‘I was there’ interview

In the aftermath of Manchester City’s 2023 Champions League success I hoped to find a Blue who had been to both the 2023 final and the club’s previous European trophy success in 1970. I was eventually contacted by Colin Smith who did go to both (and he also went to Porto in 2021 too!) and we decided to have a chat about it. We ended up talking for about one hour comparing the finals and discussing Colin’s trips both as a youngster in 1970 and then as a grandfather in 2023.

The interview took place a while ago and at that time Colin had been to three MCFC European finals. Since then of course he has also been to Athens to watch City win the Super Cup too.

You can now hear our interview here. It’s well worth a listen, especially if you’re a fan who didn’t get chance to go to those finals. Here goes:

1970 ECWC

I hope you enjoy the interview. I have other interviews (both audio and written) here on my website available to subscribers, so why not subscribe? Details here:

How To Subscribe

Champions League Celebrations

Tonight’s online talk and celebration of Manchester City’s 2023 Champions League success is completely sold out (it was free but you know what I mean!). If all goes to plan I will be posting it as a separate recording here on my website at some point. If you didn’t get tickets but would like to relive the Champions League final I have written several articles on this which you can read here:

From Istanbul to Istanbul

2023 Champions League Final
European Span of Success
Raining on the Parade
Champions League Celebrations Video
Champions League Final: UEFA’s Travel Incompetence
Treble Success

This was the story about tonight’s talk:

Celebrate Manchester City’s 2023 Champions League Success

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Last Few Places: Celebrate Manchester City’s 2023 Champions League Success

On Wednesday 21 June at 6pm (UK time) come and join me for one hour of discussion on Manchester City FC’s 2023 Champions League final. Let’s celebrate and remember the positives of this remarkable achievement. Lots have already reserved their place and there are only a few more places left, so register now if you want to attend.

As with previous Manchester City history talks I’ll spend a bit of time discussing the significance of the success and will then open the session up. I’m keen to hear your experiences of the night and what this meant to you as a City fan, whether you travelled to Istanbul or watched from home. Every Blue is welcome! 

Come and celebrate this incredible and historic achievement. 

Sign up to join this free online event where I will discuss the significance of this momentous night in Mancunian history. This hour will include the opportunity to share your stories and memories as I am keen to hear your thoughts.

Lots suffered horrendous conditions both before and after the match BUT this night won’t be discussing those (maybe we’ll do that another day?). You can add your comments/experiences here:

Champions League Final: UEFA’s Travel Incompetence

Instead the idea is to celebrate and remember the stuff that might get lost along the way. Make no mistake this was a truly significant occasion and one we should celebrate for the rest of our lives.

To ensure we have enough opportunity to hear from each other the capacity is restricted to the first 40 people who register. This is free to join but there’s also the opportunity to pay a donation if you’d like to support my website, work and research. No obligation though – this is about celebrating a wonderful event!

The event will be live on Zoom on 21/6/23 at 6pm and a link will be sent to all those who have registered for the event beforehand (probably earlier that day). THIS WILL BE EMAILED OUT SEPARATELY – NOT VIA EVENTBRITE.

The session will be recorded and a recording will appear on my website at a later date. There is the possibility that everyone who speaks will be recorded and included in the video. 

You can find out more about previous talks here:

https://gjfootballarchive.com/tag/history-talks/

You can register for Wednesday’s celebration here:

Register on Eventbrite

Treble Success

I don’t know where to start with this but I wanted to get a few thoughts down ahead of the celebration chat I’ve planned for Wednesday (see link below)… This has been an absolutely incredible few weeks for fans of Manchester City and it’s also be mentally and physically draining too. It will be in the coming weeks that we get to relax and look back on it all but I wanted to get some top of the head thoughts down now while they’re buzzing around. So here goes…

The history of football moves at a frantic pace and there are key moments (Tueart, Dickov, Aguerooooooooooooo for example) that are era defining or represent the beginning or the end of an era. This last week is another of those with Rodri’s goal at Istanbul finally bringing City the Champions League that we’ve all craved for so long (but pretended at times that we didn’t).

Manchester City are now Champions Of Europe and, finally, Villa fans can stop singing their song to us! There were many occasions over the decades since City’s last European trophy that the club had a squad of players that were capable of major European success but sadly circumstances worked against them. There were also times when the club suffered major failures but I’ll forget those for the moment.

Depending on when you were born you tend to fall into three rough categories of City fan (there’s more than this but I hope you get my point):

  • Those who remember City as a major power, winning trophies and being ahead of United, Liverpool & others; then falling apart under bad chairmanship; then resurrected; then takeover and what we have today.
  • Those who remember the failures of the 80s/90s; the lack of chance of competing then the takeover and the glory that’s followed.
  • Those who have only known City as a dominant, trophy winning force.

The media tend to portray City as a failing 3rd tier club that got lucky, but the truth is that that was only one season and it was only in the late 1990s that United overtook City in terms of number of seasons at the highest level (I’ll explain the numbers another day but prior to the late 1990s United had spent more seasons between 1894 and then in the second tier than City had !).

In the 1970s City won three times as many trophies as United and even in the 1990s/2000s the Blues only spent 6 seasons out of the top flight. This was two spells (5 years and 1 year) and that 5 year spell was the longest period the Blues had ever endured out of the top flight.

This season finding European success has lifted everything in a global sense. I’ve talked previously (way back in 2012) about City being the club for the new generation and that is absolutely how it is panning out. Add to the Champions League the FA Cup – where City’s traditional rivals United were vanquished – and the Premier League (where City’s old rival from the 1930s looked certain to win the League for much of the season) and this has been a truly brilliant season.

https://gjfootballarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/2023-champions-league-final-sd-480p.mov

City and United are now the only clubs ever to have achieved THE treble – a truly great achievement that many thought impossible. Add to that that Guardiola’s Blues have previously become the ONLY team to win a domestic treble and you get to see that this isn’t simply the greatest ever Manchester City side but one of, if not THE, greatest ever side in English football.

We’ve had the Viking Call (the best team in the land and all the world) chant for almost 50 years now but, for the first time, the words are absolutely true (though we haven’t yet had a competitive fixture to determine the best world team of course – that will come!).

If you’d like to come and join me for an online celebration then please do:

Celebrate Manchester City’s 2023 Champions League Success

These are truly great times to be a Blue. Enjoy!