Just What We Needed

Sometimes help comes in the most unexpected ways and the last two games may prove a blessing to Manchester City.

After last seasons takeover, the media went into hyper-drive with their condemnation of City's new found wealth. The tabloids invented rumours and printed such blatent lies that the club had to threaten legal action against the Sun on two seperate occasions. The Mirror gleefully printed a story about the firm that supplied the club's in-house TV service having financial problems under the headline "Just when things couldn't get any worse for City". The serious papers were more subtle and tried, with partial success, to lead City fans to expect a trophy in Year One. When that didn't materialise, they came down on Mark Hughes like a ton of bricks.

The effect on the fans was explosive. Gentle Saturday night debate in City pubs turned to fist-fights. The fans started to split into Hughes In and Hughes out camps, inter-fan squabbling on comment pages turned into vitriol, members on one forum were trying to organise an anti-Hughes demonstration to coincide with the visit of Khaldoon Mubarak. The City Of Manchester Stadium had an unpleasant, dark atmosphere during the cold months of January and February.

Summer came and sanity returned. Players were moved on and a large amount of money was spent on their replacements. The season got off to a tremendous start, then came the Arsenal game. The events of that match have been well, if not over-documented. Adebayor was banned and the media assumed the morality of Quakers. Britain may be a member of the G8 but the mind-set of the football watching public seems to be trapped in revolutionary France. If a guillotine had been available, Emmanual Adebayour's head would probably be lying in a basket at this moment.

The events of the Manchester Derby have now been entered into the annals of history. The FA rule book was specially re-written for the occasion with a new chapter on time keeping procedure. Players were pelted with coins, Gary Neville danced in front of the City fans after taunting them all game and a fan ran on the pitch to insult Craig Bellemy who replied with little more than a love-tap. As it stands, Craig Bellemy has now been made the villain of the piece, nicely deflecting attention away from provocative celebrations, coin throwing fans and totally inept refereeing.

The effect on Manchester City Football Club - and by that I mean the whole entity, from boardroom through staff to supporters has been electric. Never in my time as a fan has everyone been galvanised into such a state of siege mentality. We stuck together when we were in the 3rd tier of English football but this is different. Despite an onslaught from the media, the FA and fans of just about every other club in the country, we are still in the top 4 with a game in hand and we're not going to give that up lightly. The divisions of last season have hopefully disappeared and there is a new level of assertiveness from the management, the players and judging by their reactions at the last two matches, the fans.

Throw what you want at us. Not only can we take it, we will thrive on it.