Premier League Hero- Georgiou Kinkladze
In 1995, Georgiou Kinkladze appeared for his native Georgia, against Mike Smith’s Wale’s side, vying for a place in the European Championships, which were to be held across the border in England some 2 years later. It was during this game in which he announced himself, to not only the fans in Cardiff Arms Park, but to numerous Premiership clubs.
Kinkladze scored once in the first leg, which Georgia won 5-0 and again in the return fixture, a 1-0 victory and totalled 55 caps for the former Soviet state, scoring 8 goals and making him their most famous export, until Temuri Kestbaia had an altercation with an advertising hoarding at St James’ Park several years later.
Kinkladze was born in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, in 1973. At this time his homeland was under Soviet rule and declared independence in 1991 and shortly after became a member of FIFA and Uefa respectively. He started, like many children growing up at this time, playing football, as somewhat of an escape from the desolate landscape that surrounded him and his friends. He started out with local club Mretebi Tbilisi, shortly after moving onto Dinamo Tbilisi, who are comparatively the Real Madrid of Georgia. It was here that he honed his guile and craft, mesmerising his native people for over 100 games, for the side that he had admired so, growing up in the city.
Following his two outstanding performances against Wales, a host of Premiership clubs were touting Kinkladze, with Manchester City his eventual destination. Between his spells at Dinamo and City, there had been a brief spell at German side Saarbrucken; however club politics prevented a move becoming permanent. It was at City that he achieved cult status, following a reported £2million move from Dinamo, becoming former England International; Alan Ball’s first signing with the club.
As of the 15th July 1995, 21 year old Kinkladze had the eyes of the blue half of Manchester bearing down on him, following much speculation and indeed hype on his arrival. Furthermore, many of the supporters voiced their concerns at letting Ball spend such a large amount on an attacking midfielder, when City had been struggling the previous season defensively. Indeed Kinkladze appeared slightly chunky upon his entrance; however rich praise came from ball stating that “when the season starts, every football fan will be talking about him”. Rich praise indeed for a man that lifted the World Cup with England in 1996.
It was little over a month after his arrival, on the 19th August when Georgiou made his debut against Tottenham. Following this, it took almost 3 months for him to get a win under his belt whilst in the starting line up, finally coming against Aston Villa, with the Georgian getting on the score sheet. Incidentally, the first 3 months of his City career were a sign of things to come over the next 3 years for Gio, as the Maine Road club failed to sparkle and he was relegated in his first season at the club,
Despite playing for a floundering City side, Gio was undoubtedly the saving grace for the supporters during his time there. His magical runs, outstanding vision and world class finishes were something that will not be forgotten amongst fans that saw him play. In comparison, his style of dribbling was similar to George Best, his passing of Gascoigne and finishing of Bergkamp; indeed City had a player of true class. This was so much the case, much was made of Kinkladze winning “Visiting Player of the Season”, following his performance at Middlesbrough and won Goal of the Month or his strike against Southampton.
During his time at City, it was moments like this that warmed him to the hearts of the supporters and indeed won the Player of the Year award in both seasons at the club. He appeared in the famous blue shirt 106 times over this period, scoring 20 goals in all competitions. The arrival of no-nonsense manager, Joe Royle, meant that Gio’s time at City was drawing to a close, much to the disappointment to the supporters.
With the number 7 putting in outstanding performances week in, week out, for a struggling side, clubs from across Europe were starting to take an interest and eventually City cashed in on their talismanic midfielder, commanding a fee of around £5million, on what was widely thought to be a like for like replacement for Finn, Jari Litmanen.
Following life after City, Kinkladze’s time at Ajax was plagued by injury and sporadic appearances, meaning he only played 12 times in the famous red and white jersey. He then moved to Derby County, to play under Jim Smith. Between 1999 and 2004 he made 93 appearances, scoring approximately every 13 games, compared to 1 in 5 at City. Whilst with the Ram’s, he again won another Player of the Season award and the fans loved him, there were the expected moments of flair and although not representing a so called big club, had the support of veterans such as Ravanelli to call upon.
On leaving Derby 6 years ago, Georgiou then moved to Cyprus after numerous unsuccessful trials with the likes of Celtic, who renewed their interest in him, after initially making an enquiry whilst at Dinamo. In the 2004-2005 season, he re-discovered his form, helping Anorthosis Famagusta to the league title, where the aforementioned Ketsbaia was stationed as a player/coach.
Rubin Kazan was Georgiou’s last professional club as a player. City have coincidentally been linked with 23 year old, Argentinean left back, Cristian Ansaldi, who currently plies his trade with the Russian club. However in the 2005-2006 season, it was Kinkladze who helped guide them to a Uefa cup qualifying spot and have since gone onto make the Champions League. His playing days came to an end, like many, as a result of a lack of fitness and a club, due to his advancing years, though in no small part, had a role to play in the Russian’s success, even if his jinking runs were not there, his vision and finishing ability did not diminish.
Manchester City supporters will always remember him for his flair and guile in the centre of the park, being one of their most technically gifted players in recent generations. Perhaps Gio was lucky, in the fact that he joined the likes of Lomas, Rosler and Quinn, although legendary, were not the type of player that would get the Kippax Stand on their feet with such ease. With City’s millions, it is unlikely that they will be looking to Tbilisi for a marquee signing in the near future, although it would be fascinating to know what a player of Kinkladze’s calibre would fetch in today’s market.
Priceless, that was Gio’s value! The shining jewel in the most uninspiring City team for many a year – he gave you something to cheer! You can’t buy hope!
Usually, I’m said to be quite critical towards new bloggers, having worked so hard to bring this blog to people’s attention. Having spent so much time and effort in getting this blog accepted onto NewsNow, it hurt me to see new bloggers come in and ruin all my previous work with lazy, ill-conceived and plainly abysmal articles.
However, I have nothing but praise for you Lyndon! Your writing style is very fluent and reader friendly, and your sentences do have a lovely flow to them. Time constraints prevent me from writing with any regularity at the moment, but I now know that this blog is in good hands whilst you write. I intend to write a perview for the second leg of the Carling Cup semi-final, but otherwise, you have free reign on here.
Just to point out a couple of things, hopefully which you will see in a positive light and thus improve, you could reduce line spacing between paragraphs, because at the moment, it does look too spaced out. I can’t see the first picture in this article so I’m not sure whether you need to try that again. Perhaps your other pictures could be slightly bigger as well. Finally, just make sure that you read your article through a couple of times before publishing, as there are some grammatical and spelling mistakes, but they happen to all of us!!
Anyway, well done and keep up the good work
Steven
Lyndon! Prasie from Steven! You’re a lucky lad!!
Matt, seeing how desperate you are for players for tomorrow, I would have probably done you a favour and played for once!! But obviously, the driving lesson puts paid to that
Gio was a genius, fact! I saw him play many times including the wonder-goal against Southampton. Nice article.
Oh, and while we all look to you to “thus improve” your writing, I am indeed looking forward to Steven’s “perview” of the Carling Cup 2nd leg!!!!!! Seems genius is par for the course around here.. He He…
blueboy…not going to lie, Steven’s articles are top draw? He is possibly the bets writer on this entire website so it’ll ne good to see your comments when his preview comes out…
Steven….you would have played?! Gutted
We’ve got Will Adam now!! I’m gutted…could have done with you on the left wing and Fabian on the right? Damnnnnnn? Nice to se you were willing though, so thanks. One piece of good news…Bully is in net for us tomorrow!! Surely we cannot concede with our quality defence and Bully?!
p.s Steven…check my comments of Sky Sports website over the Sangakarra signing…some guy commented back like “I dont know what Matt Jones is on blahhblahhh”!!! So i whacked my facts out and shot his comment down! BOOM!
I knew Will was playing, so you must be desperate
Why isn’t Bully in seconds, and whoever would drop down to thirds?
Thanks for your support against blueboy – I thought his comment was so childish and infantile that I didn’t bother responding.
Off to check SkySports now.
I’m not bothered about the preview, and said nothing of Steven’s articles. You missed my point. Anyone and everyone makes mistakes when writing, and people have differing opinions when it comes to form, layout etc; and some of Steven’s observations are well founded. I just thought the the whole of the last paragraph was full of prissy, blow your own trumpet remarks.
Steven, But you just did! Welcome to the world of childish and infantile behaviour.
I’m still unsure of how the whole of the last paragraph is me blowing my own trumpet. I’d advising a new blogger how he could improve. Surely that’s being helpful rather than highlighting my own blogs.
And blueboy, I was speaking to someone else (a friend, a concept which may seem a bit alien to you) rather than directly replying to you. There’s a difference, you ‘tarado’.
If the last paragraph isn’t as blow your own trumpet as pedantic, the first certainly is.
I still wouldn’t say it’s blowing my own trumpet; rather, it’s recognition of the work I’ve put into this blog and the ongoing hope that when I have my own website next year, someone is capable of continuing the good work on blogsfc.
Didn’t you think to e-mail him then rather than berate him in front of everyone else on the net. Way to go teacher. By the way my missus has a degree in Spanish, unfortunately she is out! Muy infantil no?
Also, nice to hide behind the old, it wasn’t to you, I was talking to a friend, gig. Nice! What makes you think a friend is an alien concept to me. What a strange comment. I really don’t know what to say to that.
Why on earth would I email him?!? That’s the most ridiculous suggestion I’ve heard in years. Its not exactly berating im is it to try and help. I’m not sure whether or not you’re familiar with the blogging concept, but the idea is that the blogger writes an article, and then people comment on it. Now it’s up to those people what they want to say. As someone who has blogged and commented on other blogs for a while, I’ve never known anyone to send me a private email telling me I’ve spelt a word wrong or a picture is not large enough. I felt I ought to tell Lyndon on here, short and sharp, so he can change it if he decides. As someone who searches for grammatical perfection in my blogs(that’s not blowing my own trmpet, that’s just being thorough), I am more than happy for someone to point out any mistake on here and for me to then go and correct it. Unfortunately, I think you are trying too hard to have a dig at others, instead of being subjective and realising that I’m only trying to help. A look in the mirror (try not to break it) might help.
Oh, and say ‘hola’ to your missus. Just for your benefit, it means ‘hello.’
Look in the mirror?! I have not had a dig at anyone except you, and that was only after you started getting fruity because you don’t take well to criticism it seems. Anyway just thought, like I said earlier, that it was a bit of blow your own trumpet time. You may have been trying to help, but boy I bet you enjoyed it.
Also if:
“childish and infantile”
“a friend, a concept which may seem a bit alien to you”
“tarado”
“A look in the mirror (try not to break it)”
“Oh, and say ‘hola’ to your missus. Just for your benefit, it means ‘hello.’”
is being subjective and not trying too hard to have a dig at others, I suggest you go back to school. I expect comments like this off a child.
Just for the record, what the hell does: “a friend, a concept which may seem a bit alien to you” actually mean? You weren’t on the piss at the time were you? That, my friend, is the most ridiculous suggestion I’ve heard in years!! I thought you were a good writer with a clever diplomatic brain the way Matt was talking you up.
Adios, Hasta luego.
I take perfectly well to criticism – it can only make me improve my writing. In an article, if I write ‘Wayne Roooney’ and someone pointed it out, I’d only be too happy to rectify the problem. Why anyone would want mistakes in their article is beyond me. As for helping Lyndon, I did enjoy it – I garner immense satisfaction in being able to help anyone. As would anyone generous and thoughtful.
Also, you hjave contradicted yourself in your farewell phrase. ‘Adios’ and ‘hasta luego’ have completely different connotations. Don’t think you can use languages on me. I’m fluent in five and working on two more.
Well aren’t you clever. I don’t speak any other languages, and find it lame that not only did you find it necessary to lower the tone to name calling, but to do it in a language that the vast majority of the population can’t speak. Did you and your friends have a laugh at the “tarado” comment. I’m a scientist, but I don’t use it to get laughs on people who have no idea about it.
Plus, why is saying goodbye and then until later contradictory?!
YOU STILL HAVEN’T ANSWERED MY QUESTION! Is it because it was a thoughtless comment, with no answer?
Clearly, an intellectual gentleman such as thyself should be able to work out the m eaning of the question. Unfortunately, again you failed to note my earlier comment that ‘tarado’ was the word used by Carlos Tévez to describe Gary Neville, and not my own opinion.
With reagrds to your farewell words, in English, the difference is less noted, but in Spanish, ‘adios’ is used in the sense that there may not be a reconvening in the near future. It’s a more long term goodbye. Obviously, ‘hasta luego’ conveys the impression that you may speak again shortly, as its translation is along the lines of ‘until later’. Continuing this, ‘hasta pronto’ signifies ‘until next time’, and the Spanish are very particular on when they use each one. Hope that clarifies everything.
Happy to help (actually, I probably shouldn’t have said that – you think I’m blowing my own trunpet, whilst in fact, I’m actually genuinely delighted to aid you in your understanding of Spanish)
Blueboy
>>> You are quite correct, I did allow myself a litte chuckle at the tarado comment.
One question, why would advertising yourself as a scientist aid yourself to “get laughs at other people who have no idea about it”.
Steven, hasta luego.
Hola Esteban!
The scientist is getting veru fruity with you! Loved Ricky’s comment! When he said go back to school, you should have said…”I will do on Monday!”
Ahahaa, by the way my prediction…
City 2 – 0 Scunthorpe
Ireland and Benjani
p.s did you like my comments on Sangakarra?
p.s we won 1-0 today…guess who scored a cheeky little left-footed dink over the onrushing keeper and sliding defender?!
That’s right…Matt Jones
We could have easily lost having said that! I’ll email you VJ’s match report when I get it!
Hasta luego!
p.p.s what predictions has everyone else gone for?
I heard a strong rumour that City have been watching your games recently, having been informed of the talents of Kaka Vjestica and Torres Jones. Another delightful through-ball from VJ and incisive finish from you is what my sources tell me
I thought you expressed your views on Sanga well, but I still totally disagree!
Predictions: couple of big wins for City, 4-0, 4-1. I’ve gone 2-1 City, but I think we may actually lose!
Actually Steven,
MCFC 3 (Ireland, Benjani and Petrov)
Scunthorpe 0
Thanks
I do put up a strong argument don’t you think!?
It was a delightful through-ball I must admit! He ahd been trying it the whole game and finally it came off! We can carve defences open like that!
VJ’s ratings >>>
Bully: 9 – Showed what a difference having a very assured goalkeeper can have. Is he available next time?
Paddy: 8 – Very reliable.
Joel: 7 – Solid, but loses a mark for his stupid booking.
Kingy: 8 – Always good.
Searle: 7 – An impressive debut, and hilarious comments about the female referee in the dressing room.
Saf: 7 – Looked good when he was on the ball, but I don’t think he quite went after it enough.
Tuck: 6 – Not his best game, quite quiet, but he was playing in an unfamilar position.
You: 8 – You were sharp, and took the goal very well.
Me: 7 – I thought I had a reasonable game, I was pleased with the assist as I was trying throughballs all game and none had come off. I was knackered in the second half though.
Fabian: 6 – Looked a bit isolated and not as incisive as he can.
Granty: 6 – Caused problems, but had one glaring miss.
Will: 6 – By no means disgraced himself, but he wasn’t really involved.
Rishi: 6 – Not a bad cameo.
Mikey: 6 – A couple of times he was skinned by that left winger, but the times he got a tackle in he did well. He looked less panicky today too.
Matt’s ratings >>>
Bully – 9 – Superb!
Paddy – 9 – Very good
Kingy – 9 – Very good
Joel – 9 – Much better from him, impressive
Searle – 8 – Solid! Could be a useful addition as he has a natural left foot instead of Tuck?
Tuck – 7 – Let himself down…
VJ – 7.5 – Did a solid job, but not as effective as usual if you don’t mind me saying?
Safdar – 8.5 – Very impressed, played extremely well first half and me and him linked up very nicely…really want to play more with him…
Fabian – 6.5 – Tried….but a bit like Robinho, doesn’t like to tackle…also needs to learn to play the ball EARLY!!!
Rishi – 7 – Quiet but did okay when he had the ball
Granty – 6 – Not a good game really…thought he did okay but nothing great…played the ball in the air to me in the first half when had he played it on the floor it would have been a certain goal…few donkey kicks…should have also had a goal e.t.c
Me – 7.5 – Okay….I cant really say….should have scored first half…Had granty also given it me on the floor I would of scored so could have had a hatrick……took my goal very nicely though if you dotn mind me saying! A deft little left-footed chip over the on rushing keeper and the sliding defender! My pace did pose a few problems though…we really just need to perfect that through ball?
Will – 6 – Didn’t really get in the game?
Mike – 6 – Strong but that left-winger had him in his pocket….and had he stayed on I think we would have conceded
Thanks for your comments all (even if some are slightly off the subject!), all are appreciated!
I have had a few problems logging in, posting and using the pic app, that should be sorted now but I am using that as an excuse for my layout and picture troubles!
I have no excuse gramatically, apart from the fact I usually in a rush on my lunchbreak!
Cheers all.
Ahhhh, don’t worry, you’ll soon learn that off topic bitching is par for the course.
Keep up the good work.
and you’ll soon realise that Ricky loves you
For Steven >>>
http://www.skysports.com/opinion/story/0,25212,16708_5884181,00.html
I saw that earlier, thanks Matt. I’ve commented, so hopefully soon, you should be able to read my views.
Not up yet??
Not sure why not? Check back here tonight for the preview of the game.
Well my Sky Sports comments took a couple of days to go through as they ahd to be checked e.t.c.
What time precisely shall I check back?
Ive decided to run that Blackpool half-marathon!!!! Im crazy! Need to get training!
Not sure what time, I’m going out for dinner tonight, so maybe a bit later than normal – 9.30 roughly?? I can give a half marathon a miss! At first he though a mile, but good on you
Ahahahaa, ah well, its for charity
Im doing it handcuffed to Ollie too!!!!
Enjoy your meal
Oh, what predictions ahs everyone gone for? I’m worried about tomorrow, I might not come out alive!
Quite negative predictions: you will see mine in detail in the blog but I’ve gone 2-1 them. Dan has gone 3-2 them, Plattsy 2-2, and still waiting for Ricky. My parents are next to the directors box tomorrow – I’m soooooooo nervous! Weaing my City scarf on Monday though if we get through!
Ahahaa i’m still undecided…i’ll let you know after reading your long awaited blog
I know, you said :/ im near the united fans…like the edge of the City bit! I’ll get hit with like a golf ball no doubt! Were leaving early so we can avoid the crush…it was tense when we beat them 2-1 and ive not been back since…hmmm…thats when a horse stood on Ben Sciama!!!
I’ll be wearing mine with pride too but i’ve little confidence at the moment…though I can see a draw on the cards which will do me fine!
Not heard from Ricky in ages…I thought he would be at these economics reviison sessions we’ve had this week but no sign of him…
On reflection it was a bad idea to join this marathon…but Ollie will have to drag me along! Ahahaa as long as we get pink fluffy handcuffs thats fine
Is Dan doing it? I thought he said he was but I might have made that up!!
I would have been had I not had exams yesterday and today – as well as a music leson straight after the exam.
I’ve gone for 2-2 by the way (Tevez, Bellamy, Rooney, Giggs)