Newcastle United
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear. The club was founded in 1892, by the merger of Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End, and has played at its current home ground, St James' Park, since. The ground was developed into an all-seater stadium in the mid-1990s and now has a capacity of 52,387. The club has been a member of the Premier League for all but two years of the competition's history, and never dropped below the English football's second tier, since joining the Football League in 1893. In 2007, long term chairman and owner Sir John Hall sold his share in the club to Mike Ashley.
They have won four League Championship titles and six FA Cups, as well as the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and the 2006 UEFA Intertoto Cup. Newcastle United has the ninth highest total of major honours won by an English club.The club's most successful period was between 1904 and 1910, when they won an FA Cup and three of their First Division titles.They have a fierce local rivalry with Sunderland, and the two clubs have engaged in the Tyne–Wear derby since 1898. The club's traditional kit colours are black and white striped shirts, black shorts and black socks. Their traditional crest takes elements of the city coat of arms which features two seahorses.
The first record of football being played on Tyneside dates from 3 March 1877 at Elswick Rugby Club. Later that year, Newcastle's first football club, Tyne Association, was formed. The origins of Newcastle United Football Club itself can be traced back to the formation of a football club by the Stanley Cricket Club of Byker in November 1881. This team was renamed Newcastle East End F.C. in October 1882, to avoid confusion with the cricket club in Stanley, County Durham. Rosewood F.C. of Byker merged with Newcastle East End a short time later. In 1886, Newcastle East End moved from Byker to Heaton. In August 1882, Newcastle West End F.C. formed from West End Cricket Club, and in May 1886, the club moved into St James' Park.The two clubs became rivals in the Northern League.
Hughton led Newcastle to win the 2009–10 Football League Championship, securing automatic promotion on 5 April 2010 with five games remaining, and securing the title on 19 April 2010; Newcastle were promoted back to the Premier League after just one season away. Under Hughton, Newcastle enjoyed a strong start to the 2010–11 season, recording famous wins against Aston Villa, Arsenal and archrivals Sunderland. Despite his high popularity among fans following these memorable wins, Hughton was sacked on 6 December 2010, following a 3–1 defeat to West Bromwich Albion. The club's board stated that they felt "an individual with more managerial experience needed to take the club forward."Three days later, Alan Pardew was appointed as manager with a five and a half-year contract.Further controversy was caused on 31 January 2011, when striker Andy Carroll was sold to Liverpool for a club record of £35 million.Despite this turbulence, Newcastle were able to finish twelfth at the end of the season, with one particular highlight being a 4–4 home draw against Arsenal which saw Newcastle come back from four goals down to claim a point.
Newcastle United was set up as a private company limited by shares on 6 September 1895.The club traded in this way for much of the 20th century, until April 1997, when John Hall, who bought 72.9% of the club for £3 million in 1991, floated the club on the stock exchange as a public limited company, with less than half the shares sold to the Hall family and the majority holding going to his business partner Freddy Shepherd. Later that year Hall stepped down as chairman and was replaced by Shepherd, with the Hall family represented on the board by John's son Douglas.In December 1998, after buying a 6.3% stake in the club for £10m, the media group NTL had considered a full takeover of the club. This was later dropped after the April 1999 Competition Commission, brought in due to government concerns about football clubs being owned by media companies.
Team squad :
1 GK Tim Krul
2 DF Fabricio Coloccini (captain)
3 DF Davide Santon
4 MF Yohan Cabaye
5 DF Danny Simpson
6 DF Mike Williamson
8 MF Vurnon Anita
9 FW Papiss Cissé
10 MF Hatem Ben Arfa
14 DF James Perch
15 MF Dan Gosling
16 DF Ryan Taylor
17 MF Romain Amalfitano
18 MF Jonás Gutiérrez (vice-captain)
19 FW Demba Ba
20 MF Gaël Bigirimana
21 GK Rob Elliot
22 MF Sylvain Marveaux
23 FW Shola Ameobi
24 MF Cheick Tioté
25 MF Gabriel Obertan
27 DF Steven Taylor
28 FW Sammy Ameobi
29 MF Haris Vučkić
30 FW Nile Ranger
31 DF Shane Ferguson
32 FW Xisco
34 DF James Tavernier
37 GK Steve Harper
39 MF Mehdi Abeid
42 GK Jak Alnwick
49 FW Adam Campbell
Manchester City
Manchester City Football Club is an English Premier League football club based in Manchester. Founded in 1880 as St. Mark's (West Gorton), they became Ardwick Association Football Club in 1887 and Manchester City in 1894. The club has played at the City of Manchester Stadium since 2003, having played at Maine Road from 1923. The club's most successful period was in the late 1960s and early 1970s when they won the League Championship, FA Cup, League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup under the management team of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison.After losing the 1981 FA Cup Final, the club went through a period of decline, culminating in relegation to the third tier of English football for the only time in their history in 1998. Having regained Premier League status, the club was purchased in 2008 by Abu Dhabi United Group and became one of the wealthiest in the world. In 2011, Manchester City qualified for the Champions League and won the FA Cup. In 2012, the club won the Premier League, their first league title for forty-four years.
City gained their first honours by winning the Second Division in 1899; with it came promotion to the highest level in English football, the First Division. They went on to claim their first major honour on 23 April 1904, beating Bolton Wanderers 1–0 at Crystal Palace to win the FA Cup; City narrowly missed out on a League and Cup double that season after finishing runners-up in the League but City became the first club in Manchester to win a major honour.In the seasons following the FA Cup triumph, the club was dogged by allegations of financial irregularities, culminating in the suspension of seventeen players in 1906, including captain Billy Meredith, who subsequently moved across town to Manchester United. A fire at Hyde Road destroyed the main stand in 1920, and in 1923 the club moved to their new purpose-built stadium at Maine Road in Moss Side.
Team squad :
1 GK Joe Hart
2 DF Micah Richards
3 DF Maicon
4 DF Vincent Kompany (captain)
5 DF Pablo Zabaleta
6 DF Joleon Lescott
7 MF James Milner
8 MF Samir Nasri
10 FW Edin Džeko
11 MF Scott Sinclair
13 DF Aleksandar Kolarov
14 MF Javi García
16 FW Sergio Agüero
17 MF Jack Rodwell
18 MF Gareth Barry
21 MF David Silva
22 DF Gaël Clichy
28 DF Kolo Touré
29 GK Richard Wright
30 GK Costel Pantilimon
32 FW Carlos Tévez
33 DF Matija Nastasić
42 MF Yaya Touré
43 FW Alex Nimely
45 FW Mario Balotelli
46 MF Michael Johnson
60 FW John Guidetti
62 MF Abdul Razak
