We've Come A Long Way Baby

Cast your mind back 12 months and you'll remember that being a City fan mean't you were living in a very difficult place. Our chairman, Thaskin Shinawtra was using his financial resources to side-step extradition procedures, Vedran Corluka was in the process of being sold to Spurs so there would be some cash in the biscuit tin and someone was having a quiet word with John Wardle about a £3 Million sub to pay the workers. On the pitch, a sparse crowd left the City of Manchester Stadium shell-shocked after we had gone down 1-0 to FC Midtjylland.

As intrepid fans consulted their AA Roadmaps, Google Earth and various other geographical tools to find out exactly where Midtjylland was, few - if any of us were trying to locate the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. This pleasant, if somewhat hot Middle Eastern trading post was just about to catapult itself into the media spotlight with the most talked about takeover in football history and none of us knew a thing.

A year later, City are bereft of meaningful European competition. With no midweek fixture they accept the invitation to compete in the prestigious Juan Gamper Tournament. A few eyebrows are raised and questions are murmured about the advantages of travelling to Spain for a mid-week kickabout with the season already underway. Most eyebrows were probably lowered and the critics were hushed when City walked on to the pitch in front of 95,000 people to face the European Champions.

The game was entertaining, both teams held some of their better players back. Martin Petrov scored and the travelling City fans sang "were not really here" with the same sense of irony they had sung it at Lincoln, a decade earlier. As the game went on it took on a surreal quality, was that really 19 year old Vladi Weiss skipping past Barca legend Puyol, the man who had neutralised Christiano Ronaldo barely 3 months ago. As the Catalans brought on Messi and Ibrahimovic, Hughes introduced Trippier and Etuhu. Sepp Blatter would be horrified at the thought of 'classless City' blooding a young lad from Bury against Europe's elite - what happened to the 'Respect' campaign?

A thoroughly enjoyable evening all round, no injuries and City were introduced to the posh people without disgracing themselves or nicking the cutlery. We've come a long way since that night against Midtjylland and the journeys only just started.