An interesting piece and I will give my two penneth on it.
For the fan's who have done the hard yards, the old third division days and cock up and disappointment upon disappointment over those bleak years it probably goes a bit like this. We were taken over and suddenly became the richest club in the world. After years of winning nothing with the prospect of ever winning anything again almost zero, we now had a chance to compete on a level playing field. Our players and the standard of our football improved and we did actually win a few trophies, we were living the dream.....kind of. I will explain.
Everything appeared to be in place to dominate football in this country for the next ten to twenty years. Every pundit seemed to agree that we would and we couldn't wait. After years of watching the other lot pick up trophy after trophy and rubbing our noses in it we now had a taste of how it felt with the boot on the other foot and boy did it taste great! The problem is it hasn't happened. There are numerous reasons for this, a hostile media, FFP, every club getting millions just by being in the premier league, so being able to strengthen in a way they couldn't when the rags and dippers had it stitched up for years, with the champions league money ensuring they dominated the league. So in a bizarre way we felt cheated......cheated out of a golden period we anticipated we could enjoy and revel in.
Fast forward to today. For three years we have been preparing for arguably the greatest coach in world football. Surely this arrival, backed by the billions of the Sheik would now ensure the dream would come true........getting tonked 4-2 at Leicester and 4-0 at Everton, with a defence that appears non existent, a forward line that can't score and a keeper who seems invisible as every shot on target seems to end up in the back of our net has crushed all optimism, rightly or wrongly. All the demons of our shitty past are coming back to haunt us, ''Typical City, we will never be good enough, always be a laughing stock, also ran's!'' Thirty five years of mediocrity have left us mentally scarred whether we like to believe that or not and it doesn't take long for the self doubts to resurface. So for me it isn't 'Self entitlement' rather fear that no matter what we do we will contrive to cock it up just like the old days, that we are indeed cursed and ultimately doomed to fail. The majority of our fan's are still waiting for Jeremy Beadle to pop out and shout ''You've been framed!!!''
In a strange way it was easier being a City fan in the old days. We never expected to win anything so we went for the crack and were proud of our loyalty which was recognised throughout football. Our highlights were turning over the big boy's, especially the rags and a decent cup run. Our expectations were zero so anything resembling success was a bonus. I doubt any football fan totally enjoys following their club as the stress and fear of failure only dissipates when your team is 3-0 up with five minutes to go and coasting.
So we have all of the above added to the bullshit going on with showsec, the club not appearing to listen or discuss issues with fan's except for endless bloody survey's in the form of an e mail and we are where we are. We have always been a strange breed us Blues, we had to be or we wouldn't have stuck around so long. If we feel the club don't give a fuck about us, or even worse want us out to be replaced by a happy clapping spend more fan relishing the 'Matchday experience' it won't take much to tip us over the edge. So that part is a two way street too.
As for Pep I think he will get it right but I feel 'Backing his entire reputation and career' on doing the business for us is a bit OTT. Every manager does that in every job he takes on. He is being paid handsomely for doing so and backed by the richest owner in world football with some of the best facilities in the sport, he has to succeed surely?
When we sunk to the depth's of what was the old third division the club got down on bended knee pleading with us to to stick with them and we did, as we always would with or without the plea. It has been a while since as a fan base we think they feel the same about us anymore and this is creating division and unrest. It would just need some words from the chairman and/or manager to galvanise the whole club and fan base to unite again, as Blues we love nothing better than a ''It is us against the world'' cause, come on let's get back to where we were as a fan base and watch us take off!
