When you talk about Manchester City you talk about ups and downs of a loyal fan base. The relegation to the old second division in 1998 followed a year on by one nail biting fight back at wembley. City fans will back then would tell you ’That’s typical City’. Just over a decade on and we are now a few weeks into our ninth successive season in the top flight of English football. The most consistent we have been since our promotion back in 1966 when we went 17 straight seasons before relegation.
Now that doesn’t mean we have been consistent in our results. Go to any seasons fixture list and you will be met with either a win or tough draw to a so called ’big four’ club followed by a defeat to a team destined for relegation. Either that or you will see we narrowly avoid relegation while also progressing to the latter stages of the domestic cup competition.
We have witnessed having a player sent off at half time in a cup competition while already 3-0 down only to win the game 4-3! That same season we also beat Manchester United 4-1 and followed that with a loss to a finally relegated Leeds Utd. We are probably the only team to have an ex Prime Minister as our chairman. Who was previously overthrown in a coup and is now currently in self imposed exile as he and his wife face jail if they return to their home country! But again if you asked the regular City fan they would again remind you that was just typical City!
But now that tag of typical city was meant to have been exorcised and with our new found millions, cups a plenty were promised to be flowing in. The backroom staff even invested in copious amounts of Mr Sheen for the occasion! However silverware has eluded us for another two years and elimination from the League cup after only the first game closes the door on that particular avenue for silverware. However we are currently topping our group in the Europa league. (For those of you who do not know what the Europa league is, just think of it as the special school for European teams. Whoever wins it will get nothing more than a pat on the head and a well done while eyes turn to the more handsome, smarter big brother of a competition, The Champions League). However the Europa league is still a competition and a win on Thursday will see us become more assured of our passage through to the knockout stages.
We do not go into the match with the best of preparations however. As most of you will know we suffered a defeat against Arsenal, although for 85 minutes we were playing a man down in the end the result does not tell the whole story as City fought all the way against what are a good passing side. No the real disappointment came on Saturday when the mighty, free spending City fell down 2-1 to newly promoted Wolverhampton Wanders. This despite going 1-0 up initially. The performance after the opening goal was a disgrace with Mercer and the recently departed Allison probably turning in their graves at the shower on the pitch. Infighting between Adebayor and Kompany didn’t help along with pictures in the tabloids a few days earlier of a couple of City players out drinking. All this along with the rumored altercation between Tevez and boss Mancini is not good for the progression of our team.
And although Gareth Barry today came out to say there is no rift within the team the evidence for the most part doesn’t back up that thought. It is clear however that Mancini needs to regain control of the team in every aspect. He has clearly stated a couple of times his concern for the ‘drinking culture’ so wouldn’t it be in line to now fine players heavily for disobeying the clubs directives? It is also ok to drop players or for players to lose their place for such a display. Gareth Barry was one of the players at the centre of the drinking allegations and he has not been up to a good level consistently for the club. We have a number of players warming the bench so replace him.
The bottom line is we can ill afford to change our manager again. It will take time and a few egos will have to be brought into check, Mr Santa Cruz please listen. We still have time to correct all the underlying problems at the club because despite the lows of the past two weeks, we have been through worse and in fact are still fourth in the table. We are still top of the Europa league and have yet to enter the FA Cup. We may have lost against Sunderland, Arsenal and Wolves in the league this season but the truth is only one of those did we come away ashamed of the performance. As I said earlier, we were down to ten men after five minutes against Arsenal and Sunderland scored from the spot late on after we dominated the first half. The fact is after 10 games last season we only had two points more than we do now.
Have no doubt though if Mancini doesn’t get control of the team and quick and this blip turns into an extended slide down the table then I am sure he will be replaced by Christmas and we will have to start all over again. The team has been expensivly assembled and it is now time for the players to show the world they are worth the money.
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