it is typical City that we're still not happy.
I'm happy. I have absolutely no time whatsoever for the arguments of the likes of Schindler and Hattenstone that we were somehow better off when we were shit. I can be nostalgic as much as anybody for the atmosphere of the old Kippax terrace, the Football Pink and £10 season tickets. I'm also nostalgic for the football of those days, cos we were good back then. But I'm not nostalgic for standing in shite grounds with a shite view and running battles outside and inside the ground, on and off the pitch. And I'm not nostalgic for the years in the wilderness from when Swales finally gave up his ambitions and made it clear we were a selling club, which I date to when we sold Trevor Francis; to the sale of the club to Thaksin, rogue that he was, who enabled the ADUG takeover and finally ended our time as a selling club. Because in all those years, we were simply never likely to achieve success, because we could never afford it. It has always been necessary to have the ability to spend a lot of money to succeed in football, that was not invented by Sky or the Premier League. Colin Bell was not a youth product, we bought him from Bury. Mike Summerbee was not a youth product, we bought him from Swindon for £35,000. Francis Lee was not a youth product, we bought him from Bolton, for £60,000 which was a club record, and a tidy sum back then. Having been brought up on a City team which won trophies I'd kind of like to see that sort of thing again before I cark it.
I also don't buy this players as mercenaries argument. Those players who have shown loyalty to just one club and played for the club they support have always been a small minority - the vast majority of footballers play for what they get paid. The only reason I get out of bed in the morning and go to work is because they pay me to do it, and I'm loyal to my present employers to the extent that I do it to the best of my ability. However, if somebody else offers me more money to do it I'll do it for them instead, and I'd be a bloody fool to do otherwise, all other things being equal. I don't expect footballers to do behave any differently - provided they do their job to the best of their ability I expect no more loyalty than that.
I'll do the full loyalty bit, I'm a fan, that's what I do - they just need to play as well as they can, that's what
they do, or should.
Carlos Tevez plays his bloody socks off for us, and used to play his bloody socks off for the dark side, and before that for Wet Spam. Is he a mercenary? Or is he just a damned good footballer who gives his all when he runs onto the pitch? Bell, Lee and Summerbee are inextricably linked with our successful years, and are still closely linked with the club - ask them now, they're City fans. But when they came they were not - I think they'd tell you that they transferred here because they thought it would further their careers, because they thought they'd be more likely to win trophies. And I bet they all got a pay rise.
I don't agree with everything that the club has done since ADUG took over, I'm not particularly fond of the way we are trying to attract the prawn sandwich brigade, nor do I like the way the club imposed the Blue Peter stand on us, but if you want to compete at the top in the Premiership you have to allow a bit of realpolitik, and in all fairness they do seem to be striving (not always successfully) not to disenfranchise the existing fanbase. My Seasoncard went up this season, but not unreasonably, and it is still compares well to other Premiership clubs - it works out at £26.32 a game which I think is pretty reasonable value for a seat on the half way line in a bloody nice stadium to watch a team which is likely to be competing for honours and contains some fantastic players.
Initiative after initiative is intended to make us all feel included, and whilst some may find names on the spirals or "Why Blues" on the concourse or City Square a waste of time and money, to me it shows that the club is making a real effort - far more effort than any other club from what I can see. We all bitched when we moved into CoMS how the ground looked grey and soul-less and didn't seem to belong to us - anybody who went last night knows that's no longer true - yet I've heard people whinging that Joe Mercer way looks stupid painted blue, that City Square is a waste of time. Yes, they get it wrong, all the time, they piss us off, all the time, yes, every time Cook opens his mouth he puts his foot in it, but they
do listen, and they
do at least try to keep us happy, and I give them credit for that.
I've been complaining to anybody who'll listen that I don't much like Family Stands or corporate heated seats or pies at £3 a time, that I don't want City to improve my "Matchday Experience" through plasma screens and clowns and buskers - I want them to improve my experience by improving what I see on the pitch.
And what I saw on the pitch last night were quality footballers who I couldn't ever have dreamed of in a sky blue shirt before the takeover. Would we want to swap Carlos Tevez for George Samaras? Emanuel Adebayour for Bernado Corradi? Yaya Toure for Ousmane Dabo? David Silva for Claudio Reyna? Jerome Boateng for Danny Mills? Yeah, I could have compared with Ali Bernarbia and Eyal Berbatov, but while they got us into the Premiership, they couldn't take us on from there.
Here,I'll make it easy, I'll make it even more stark. Who do you want to see taking our set-pieces, Alexander Kolarov, mercenary Serb from an Italian team, or Joey Barton, Englishman and product of our own academy?
No, I'm a happy blue, I'm looking forward to the season, I've not felt so optimistic about City since the early 1970s. Maybe our new players won't "gel." I doubt they'll
all succeed. But if they do - there's some fooking cracking footballers in our squad, as good as we've had in decades. I have no doubt I'll have lots of reasons to be pissed off during the season, but am I happy? No need to ask.
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Topic: season (Read 1516 times)