Our latest review turns the attention to Manchester City’s programme for the 2021/22 season. Read our full review below and check out all of the season’s Premier League issues here.
After last year’s webpage ‘programme’ City have thankfully returned to producing a printed issue for the 2021/22 season – an 84-page, perfect-bound edition.
Perhaps the best feature within the programme is ‘City Reflections’ – a retro column from Gary James – which takes a different theme each issue and offers some good in-depth insight and statistics over four pages. This includes some notes on the average attendances achieved by City and the visiting club. For example, the Crystal Palace issue saw James examine City’s fortunes in the few years immediately prior to, and following, the introduction of the Premier League in 1992. Each issue also includes an interview with a current player – nicely presented over six pages; a short interview with one former City player; and ‘What’s in a Name?’ – which looks at one City player and highlights their key attributes and notable moments from their career using the letters of their name. Photographer and City fan Kevin Cummins introduces a selection of some of his favourite images – demonstrating the connection with Manchester’s music scene with spreads on bands such as the Happy Mondays and the Charlatans. There is also a short junior section under the heading ‘City Kids’, and ‘Buzz Word’ – a column from former City favourite Mike Summerbee.
Opposition coverage is rather limited – with only four dedicated pages on the day’s visitors, plus some related articles. The section offers up a head coach profile, basic player biographies – including a pen-pic of ‘One to Watch’, a ten-year record, and a form guide. The associated articles include ‘Last Time We Met’, which has notes on the previous meeting of the two teams, as well as pictures and line-up information; ‘Head-to-Head’, which compares two opposing players with their respective profiles; and ‘Played for Both’, providing a profile of one player to have represented both teams.
Every issue also contains a solid amount of club information, with some fine coverage of City’s women’s team, development squad, and academy team – each of which has two pages of news, match updates, and statistics. As well as three pages of first-team records, there is news from the Official Supporters’ Club, information about City in the Community – which this season marks 35 years of operations, and coverage of previous games in ‘Match Action’.
This is probably the best programme City have produced for several seasons now, which is an encouraging development, although it nevertheless lacks the calibre of content of the league’s best issues.