Manchester City

I have followed city since 1989. My cousin took me to Maine Road to watch City play against Crystal Palace. It was a day that will always stick in my mind. At the time I would have been 11 years old. My cousin was a member of the Kippax stand. I had never been before and wasn?t a member, my cousin went to an adult turnstile and I went to the juniors. When I tried to pay the man taking the money wouldn?t let me in, my cousin had already gone through ...
...cousin got a policeman I was allowed through the adult turnstile, it seemed that it was alright for me not to be a member as long as I paid full price. To cut a long story short we won 3-1 and the next day my dad complained to the club and I received a complimentary membership and tickets to sit in the north stand at the next home game.

Really after that first experience I should have thought I?m not going back. At the end of the game ... more

I have followed city since 1989. My cousin took me to Maine Road to watch City play against Crystal Palace. It was a day that will always stick in my mind. At the time I would have been 11 years old. My cousin was a member of the Kippax stand. I had never been before and wasn?t a member, my cousin went to an adult turnstile and I went to the juniors. When I tried to pay the man taking the money wouldn?t let me in, my cousin had already gone through and I was stuck outside, scared stiff. Eventually after my cousin got a policeman I was allowed through the adult turnstile, it seemed that it was alright for me not to be a member as long as I paid full price. To cut a long story short we won 3-1 and the next day my dad complained to the club and I received a complimentary membership and tickets to sit in the north stand at the next home game.

Really after that first experience I should have thought I?m not going back. At the end of the game though I was really happy and have been hooked ever since, me, my brother and my dad have had season tickets every season since.. My hero for the next few seasons was David White. He is still a legend in my eyes.

Every City fan knows that the last 20 years have been largely disappointing. Not even close to winning any trophies and more relegations than I care to mention. There are some great memories as well. Derby wins over United, Injury time equalisers at Wembley, winning the division one championship with style under the management of Kevin Keegan. Players of my generation ranging from David White, Georgi Kinkladze, Shaun Goater, Shaun Wright Phillps and at the moment the genius that is Robinho.

What I really want to write about is the 08/09 season. It has been the strangest season I?ve ever known as a City fan. To begin with Mark Hughes being installed as manager. The general opinion seemed to be that he had joined a sinking ship. Thaksin Shinawatra had to leave the club, due to his legal problems in Thailand and the club was in limbo. I remember reading the newspapers at the time. Every day the stories were that the club had no money, promises had to been made to Hughes that weren?t being kept and he was ready to resign before getting started on the job. As if it wasn?t enough that Hughes would have to win some fans over, being an ex red.

Strangely though the club that had no money made five summer signings before the August 31st transfer deadline. Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany, Jo, Ben Haim and of course Shaun Wright Phillips returning to City with the club making a handsome profit. Where was the money coming from though? It wasn?t until transfer deadline day that the strangest twist I?ve ever known as a city fan came to light.

I was sat in the fork lift truck in the yard at work. One of my workmates (a united fan) came up to me and asked if I had heard the news. He said that he had just heard on the radio that City had been bought by a group of Arabs and were now the richest club in the world. Obviously I thought he was taking the mickey. I gave him a few choice words and sent him on his way. It wasn?t until I heard it for myself that I believed it. Even more unbelievable was the thirty million pound bid we had put in for Dimitar Berbatov. For once City was the most talked about football club in Manchester.

I?m sure that like me all city fans were filled with optimism like never before. There can?t be many clubs that have had more false dawns than city. What a great day that was. I raced home from work and immediately tuned my TV to sky sports news. We were bidding for everybody. Mario Gomez, Dimitar Berbatov, David Villa and Klass Jan Huntelaar to name a few. I stayed up until 1am watching. The night had been dominated by news that we were in talks to sign Robinho from Real Madrid and I had to stay up until they actually confirmed the deal. Even after we signed him for a British record £32000000 I still wasn?t satisfied, I still hoped when I woke up in the morning more news would have filtered through.

In true city style all the excitement was soon dampened down. This season we have continued to be as inconsistent as ever. We have had great wins against West Ham, Portsmouth, Arsenal and Hull and have managed to beat Wigan for the first time in the premiership. It has been our away form that has been our downfall. Losing to West Brom, Middlesboro, Bolton and Stoke. All teams that are now below us in the table. Even our good run in the UEFA cup was overshadowed by defeats to Brighton and Nottingham Forest in cup competitions.

During the January transfer window the squad has been strengthened further. With Mark Hughes first batch of signings being successful, I had faith going into January that he would do the right thing and bring in the right players. For me it has been players that were already at the club that had let him down all season. The signings of Bridge, De Jong and Bellamy will definitely strengthen the squad but the best signing was Shay Given, proving himself to be one of the best keepers in Europe with 4 outstanding saves on his debut. All players signed were key positions that needed filling. Disappointingly we have missed out on the most important position that needed filling. I hoped we would sign a top class centre forward, Bellamy has done well with two goals in his first three games but we need a real physical presence in the box. Santa Cruz would have been a good signing but Hughes was right not to get held to ransom.

Also in January was in my opinion the most talked about transfer deal in history. The ambitious bid to sign Kaka from AC Milan. I couldn?t make my mind up if it was a good thing or bad. One hundred million for one man, half a million a week in wages. The figures being talked about were staggering and I couldn?t help feeling that the deal wasn?t quite right. Surely no one man is worth that much money. I think though, the more the club was criticised the more I wanted the deal to go through. In the end it all broke down and I don?t think we?ll ever know the true story behind why that happened. Maybe we?ll go back for him in the summer.

For me this season has been disappointing. Far too inconsistent, one of the top scoring teams in the premier League, yet we?ve only won one away game. Play well one week, totally inept the next. I think that Hughes has been tinkering with the team all season, not knowing his best players or where to play them. With his new signings things do look to be taking shape. In the last Home game, 8 of the starting 11 were his signings and he should strengthen again in the summer. I just hope the work Jim Cassell does with the academy isn?t overlooked when the Sheikh is trying to sign his superstars.

One of the brightest stars this season has to be Stephen Ireland, he has improved immensely and is now looking a class act. I was told by a friend that when the last season end he didn't go on holiday. I was told he joined a martial arts club and basically trained all summer to get fitter. To be honest i can believe the story. He has probably been the most consistent performer scoring some vital goals as well as creating some.

One thing is for sure, being a city fan has never been dull. It certainly isn't going to be in the future either.
 

...less