Richard Dickson sent Vital Manchester City the following.
As a kid I supported the lesser club in Manchester. Whilst most of my mates were watching cup final after cup final, I vaguely remember losing to Spurs in 1981. Even playing in the park I was the one of the minority, but I loved it.
I loved the humour and the banter of the City fans. I loved the outlet that three o’clock on a Saturday gave. I am proud to say I have started many a rude but humorous chant. I was proud to be a blue…we were the everlasting losers…yoyo-ing between divisions and tossing off every chance we got for some kind of run at the top…a la Peter Reid finishing fifth and getting sacked the following season. Our heroes were true stars…Kinky, Uwe, Whitey, Bish. I can even go back to Power and Corrigan. We were every ones second team.
Then came the false dawn of Shiniwatra, which we so nearly messed up. But at the last minute our present owners took over. Suddenly, overnight we became the pariah, destroying football with our wealth. The papers…not just the red tops…all of them stated to write with bitterness about how we would have a team of foreign legionnaires available to the highest bidder.
They forget to mention the England squad being half City players. They don’t mention the money we injected into the transfer market stimulating sales for other clubs. They call us boring failing to mention we have scored more and conceded less than Spurs. UEFA allow clubs to have near £1bn debt but stay within fair play rules! And clubs allowed to negotiate individual T.V. rights are measured on an equal footing with those that can’t.
We are ploughing millions into local areas creating jobs, improving people’s lives; we have invested in the best training facilities and recruitment and development teams. We built a state of the art rooftop football pitch in New York to allow kids to play ‘soccer’ in a neighbourhood with no football pitches?this was never given any positive slant in the press.
All we have done as a Club has been done legally validly and with honour. But even the referees seem on a vendetta to alter games negatively for us.
All this new found negativity for a club most certainly going places; does this make me feel bad to be a blue? Does this make me bitter? Never. Proud, excited, lucky…and loving the fact that my four year old son will grow up loving a City team of winners, thanks to The Sheik…not the team of so nearly’s I grew up loving.
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