The latest in our series of 2019/20 reviews has now been published, as we take a look at the current season issue from Manchester City. The full review is shown below, while you can see all of the Premier League programmes from the current season here.
This season sees Manchester City celebrating their 125th anniversary and their programme has been adapted to mark the occasion. The issue is now presented in a landscape format, roughly A5 size, along the lines of the style of programme the club used in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The covers created during the season have featured various notable moments, players, and memories from City’s history.
The best feature within the programme is ‘125 City Timeline’. This is an attractively laid out feature that explains City’s history and notable moments through a mix of text and images. For the Brighton issue the programme covered the years 1900 to 1904, which included City’s first FA Cup triumph in 1904 – the first major trophy won by a Manchester club, as the programme makes a point of highlighting! The section includes pictures of various items of City memorabilia, including a season ticket from the 1900/01 season and a programme cover from 1st December 1900 – priced at one penny! This is a beautifully presented feature, offering an alternative to the often text and stats heavy features that often appear to mark significant anniversaries.
Another retro feature is ‘Dream Team’, which has one ex-City player selecting their all-time favourite City eleven, while details of the image used on the programme cover are provided in a column that explains the significance of the picture to City. ‘Access All Areas’ is the first of two photographic articles, which in the Brighton issue showed a kit photoshoot that featured various City players against a backdrop of the Shanghai skyline. The other such feature is ‘Showcase’, which sees club photographer Victoria Haydn sharing some of her favourite shots over six pages. In other content, Manager Pep Guardiola offers his pre-match thoughts, while Club Ambassador Mike Summerbee pens a two-page column on the issues of the day. ‘The Life of Riley’ is another two-page article, this time written by BBC 6 Music DJ Marc Riley.
The City issue is strong on club information and news, with four pages on the club’s women’s team and two-page interviews for a member of each of the academy and elite development squad sides. There is page from the Official Supporters Club, plus two pages of fan notices and a two-page kids’ section. ‘The Match’ is a stats and facts page previewing the day’s fixture, which includes a head-to-head record and details of previous meetings. The stats section at the back of the programme provides a page for each of the women’s team, academy side, and development squad. These pages include fixtures, results, tables, and appearance details. ‘For The Record’ includes full line-ups for each team’s recent results. For the first-team, there is a squad roll-call, league table, various facts and figures, two pages of careers stats for one City first-team player, and the usual results and fixtures spread.
‘Visiting the Etihad’ turns the focus on City’s matchday opponents, opening with a very nicely presented two-page spread that includes a backdrop of the visiting club’s ground alongside some commentary on their recent form. This is followed by notes on the club’s players over two pages and a roll-call for the squad. The visiting manager’s stats as a player and boss are provided, as well as details of the club’s last ten games. In related content, ‘Moments in Time’ provides a predominantly photographic look back at previous City games against the day’s opponents.
The City programme is attractively laid-out, with a clean, uncluttered feel throughout, and no overly fussy design work anywhere. As with the last few season’s issues there is a strong lean towards photographic content, but the features marking the club’s 125th anniversary provide some weight to the written content. The timeline feature is especially well presented and a welcome addition to the columns that are familiar from previous years.