Vital Manchester City received the following from member Redmond6.
For the younger generation of Manchester City supporters now is a great time to be supporting the team – quality players in all positions and in most cases, two quality players in each position.
But how do we begin to pick our heroes, or indeed, do they pick us?
I started off picking mine because they played in the same position as I did when I played – apart from the list below; I adored Alan Hansen as a ball playing centre half.
When I first started supporting City, my first hero was Tommy Caton, he was like me, blonde, and played central defence for City. What more could a boy ask for? I even saw him score his first goal for City in my first ever away game, away against Forest in March 1982.
e was young, fantastic player already tipped to play for England for years to come. We were relegated and he was sold. I clapped him when he returned years later with Charlton but the truth was I had moved on.
My brother and I always had a favourite player and as any City fans from that period will tell you, you could be changing your player every other year; my brother had Dennis Tueart, Asa Hartford, and Derek Parlane in a very short space of time.
For a few years I was convinced it was my fault, as if I decided I liked someone they would soon be sold – Phil Bowyer, Paul Power even bloody Peter Bodak! So then I moved on to Nicky Reid – they would never get rid of our home grown powerhouse…wrong!
I even suspected being president of Junior Blues was to blame, Tommy Caton, I think Paul Moulden and Paul Lake were joint presidents and Perry Suckling all came and went.
Anyway, the next one I remember clearly is Steve Redmond, as my pseudonym tells you I have never got over this hero worship! I was 13 when he made his debut in Feb 86, within 10 minutes of his debut, he received a dangerous pass in his own box, swivelled away from the forward and danger and my new hero worship was born, the fact that he was only 18 spurred me on, I was so pleased when he read that his height was 5ft 10 ¾ so when I started sprouting up the day I hit 5ft 11 was great.
I told my mum and all my mates that I was now taller than Steve Redmond. Admittedly my thighs were nowhere near as chunky and my attempts at sliding back to the goal line to avert a certain goal usually ending up with my name plus (OG) in brackets. He was City’s youngest ever permanent captain at the age of 20.
I was heartbroken when he swapped along with Neil Pointon for Rick Holden, what on earth was Peter Reid thinking? I never warmed to Holden, he was inconsistent and his fabled crossing ability well I just never saw it. I would still look at the MEN to see how many out of 10 ‘Reddo’ had got.
He got 10 a number of times for City, twice at Anfield (the ground of his boyhood team) and he also got a 10 the day Oldham beat Aston Villa to hand ‘nited their first title in 26 years but still I couldn’t bring myself to dislike him.
I remember his first few games he played for City were, Maine Road, Anfield, Cold Trafford and Wembley.
I had Paul Lake after Reddo but we won’t go into the tragedy of that, it’s just too painful, more painful than the loss of Tommy Caton to Arsenal…not as much as his subsequent death, but to many City fans, Paul Lake was the great white hope, and on such dreams, depression is fostered.
Ian Bishop came and went as a back up to Redo – I loved his Joie de Vrie of playing football, and he played in the 5-1 and scored when my Reddo carried the ball out of defence and played a majestic pass to David Oldfield.
After Reddo left in 1992, I didn’t move on to anyone, too depressed, Keith Curle was excellent but no Reddo. There was always the hope that Lakey would come back from injury.
When we signed Georgi Kinkladze in 1995, I like thousands of others, fell in love again. To watch him play was a delight, what wasn’t a delight was watching Francis Lee allow managers to dismantle the quality to surround him and thus blunt the sharp tool we had playing in our midfield. We hadn’t had a proper goal scoring midfielder since well, Graham Baker(joke).
Those 3 years he spent with our club seem like a lifetime ago, for me and the club. He was the only ray of hope in an otherwise barren landscape. Quite frankly it was like meeting Elle Macpherson in the vault of the eagle and child on a sh*t rainy Tuesday night in November.
he goals, the run, the dummies, the step overs, the loyalty to a club that were floundering were inspirational in a time of insipid.
So there we are, after that came the Keegan team where you could have the pick of the Goat, Paulo, SWP, Ali B, and Eyal.
Then it really down to Joey and Shaun in the Pearce era.
And we are bang up to date; I am too old now for heroes. I love them all equally!
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