Peter Gardner?!

johnny crossan

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 Aug 2007
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The land of lost content
Living in a Blue heaven
September 14, 2011

This is the moment in time I never thought I would live to see. This is the column I never thought I would write.

Manchester City, the club and the team I’ve supported for the best part of six decades, will tonight lock horns with Napoli in the biggest and best club competition on the planet.

I am looking again at that second paragraph and I can’t believe what I’ve just written. For this ageing old hack, it’s quite literally a dream come true.

Only a couple of years ago, I had reconciled myself to the fact that I would pop off to meet my maker without watching my Blessed Blues ever again winning anything of real significance.

After enjoying a lifestyle which Oliver Reed would have envied, I reckoned it would be a miracle if I achieved the Bible’s target of three score years and 10.

All I had was my memories to fall back on. The two FA Cup finals against Newcastle and Birmingham in the late 50s, but even more vividly the wonderful team assembled by Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison which triumphed at home and in Europe in the late 60s and early 70s.

City fans of a certain vintage will know instantly what I’m talking about when I say that the team which won the First Division title in 1968 was built around the ‘Holy Trinity’ – Mike Summerbee, Francis Lee and Colin Bell. Three of the greatest players in my club’s history. But to suggest it was a ‘three-man team’ which clinched the title on the final day of that season against Sunderland would be an injustice to players like Neil Young, Alan Oakes and skipper Tony Book, who were among the unsung heroes of that glorious period.

Today, I was going to talk about the new ‘Holy Trinity’ at the Etihad Stadium, which is dazzling the Eastlands congregation and bamboozling opponents in equal measure.

David Silva, Carlos Tevez and newboy Sergio Aguero. Three tiny players with talents twice their size. A master craftsman, a turbo engine on legs and a player born to score goals. But then I looked at Roberto Mancini’s senior squad. Samir Nasri. So, it wasn’t the Holy Trinity it was the Holy Quartet. Then I spotted Edin Dzeko. So it became the Holy Quintet.

Wait a moment, what about Vincent Kompany, Nigel De Jong, Ya Ya Toure and Joe Hart? There is no Holy Trinity or Holy Quartet at the Etihad Stadium. What Mancini has assembled is a Holy Team from top to bottom.

It frightens me to say this because football has a nasty habit of biting you on the bum but I genuinely believe that what my fellow Blue Mooners are now watching is the best team in the world. Mancini with typical Italian caution maintains that his team are not yet at that level. But there again, he would say that, wouldn’t he?

It’s true that Mancini is managing a new team. But great players – genuinely great players – don’t need a settling in period when joining a new club.

Did Tevez need time to settle down when he switched from Red to Blue? Did Silva need time to display his magical talents on the Premier League stage?

And if Aguero is still adjusting to the demands of our top flight then heaven help the rest of City’s opponents when he finally finds his feet.

Much has been made of the highly-publicised ‘project’, which began on that heaven- sent day when Sheikh Mansour and his family took control at Eastlands.

I have watched that project developing from day one and I am now totally convinced that the project has reached its destination.

Everywhere you look through Mancini’s team, from goalkeeper to winger, you see quality of the very highest order.

Our ‘friends’ from the Theatre of Dreams will swear that I am looking at the world through blue-tinted specs but I believe that City today are a better team than United.

Neutrals will insist that Barcelona are the best team on the planet and Lionel Messi the best player in the world.

The Blessed Blues will prove those neutrals wrong, either this season or in the season to follow.

And, to my mind, they have already been proved wrong about Messi. The best player in the world plies his trade at the Etihad Stadium and his name is David Silva.

So here I am, nudging closer to that three score years and 10 target.

Mental faculties are diminishing and the ticker needs a good overhaul. I can’t drink as much as I once did (drat) but I am making up for that by smoking more.

So it’s a race against time. I’m supporting a club which, at the moment, stands on the very edge of greatness.

I’m grateful just to be still alive to witness the level City stand at today. But I’ve got greedy this past couple of years.

It’s new wonderful memories I want to take with me when I finally pop my clogs.

So I would urge Roberto and his Holy Team to get a move on!

I already believe that my beloved Blues are the best team in England.

Tonight, against Napoli, they can take the first step towards becoming the best team in Europe.

Do that for this liverish old hack Roberto and I’ll put in a good word for you when I go and meet that great manager up in the sky.


<a class="postlink" href="http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/manchester_city/s/1458680_living-in-a-blue-heaven" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... lue-heaven</a>?
 
There are a lot of Blues feeling exactly like him. The good times are coming back.

Shame about his memory thinking it was against Sunderland. His Oliver Reed lifestyle has taken its toll.
 
Wonderful piece and being 58 I know exactly where he's coming from - I never thought I'd live to see what we now have and could have in the very near future

My only criticism - we played Newcastle not Sunderland to win the league

It was the rags who lost to Sunderland on that historic day back in 1968
 
Quality Journo ... made David Meek look like a rank amateur in his 70's hey day.

Went to same junior school as his son Paul. He (Paul) was original 'junior blue' member number 2. I was number 3. Some son of club official beat us to the number 1 spot.

Poor claim to fame on my part I admit!
 
Surely he means Newcastle???

And he's definitely off his rocker if he thinks we're already better than Barcelona, but you can't fault his excitement.
 
johnny crossan said:
Living in a Blue heaven
September 14, 2011

Much has been made of the highly-publicised ‘project’, which began on that heaven- sent day when Sheikh Mansour and his family took control at Eastlands.

I have watched that project developing from day one and I am now totally convinced that the project has reached its destination.

Personally I reckon the 'project' is still in its early stages. Reaching the CL is a significant milestone, but this is still only the beginning.

The project's ultimate 'destination' will be consistency and a Club/community that becomes the envy of the rest. I can't wait for the next decade - I've siad it before but I'm convinced that in 2021 City will be held up as an example of how a football club should be.
 
Re: Peter Gardner

Great article,sat here with tears in my eyes remembering all the people sadly no longer with us John moss late of ashton ,and the rest who witnessed the highs and the lows that being a blue means to all the"belevers".
 
Gary James said:
johnny crossan said:
Living in a Blue heaven
September 14, 2011

Much has been made of the highly-publicised ‘project’, which began on that heaven- sent day when Sheikh Mansour and his family took control at Eastlands.

I have watched that project developing from day one and I am now totally convinced that the project has reached its destination.

Personally I reckon the 'project' is still in its early stages. Reaching the CL is a significant milestone, but this is still only the beginning.

The project's ultimate 'destination' will be consistency and a Club/community that becomes the envy of the rest. I can't wait for the next decade - I've siad it before but I'm convinced that in 2021 City will be held up as an example of how a football club should be.

I think this is spot on. The owners, as I understand it, are massively impressed by the whole 'mesq'une club' (more than just a club) thing going on at Barca. I think they want not to emulate but to surpass that. It is their model, but they can take it on to another level. And they have the vision, the determination and the resources to do it.

That I think is why the East Manchester regeneration project, City in the Community, the Academy/EDS, the banners with our names on on the spirals, and even the top grade treatment given to visiting journalists are all so important. It's not just about success on the pitch - it's about building something phenomenal and enduring.
 

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