Best decision City have ever made?

[moston-moaner]

Definitely leaving Maine Road.

 

[Mr Partridge]

I remember when Stuart Pearce took over as manager, he wanted to make it his mission to get rid of the phrase "Typical City" forever as he absolutely hated it. We then became the most boring team in the country.

I know what I preferred...

 

[bluethrunthru]

To be the only football club actually IN the city of Manchester

 

[NorCalBlue]

Where have I said we were unique? I made no such claim. On that basis your subsequent post is dishonest in its construction, as you are trying to shoehorn me into a position that I have never assumed.

I am well aware that there will be other clubs who can match and exceed our numbers on relegation and promotion (although some of the ones that you referred to had a lower proportion than we did, but that isn't the point). So let's look at those ten promotions and relegations which, in fact, I haven't had to do any online research at all to muster up:

1983 - relegated by our fellow strugglers Luton with a goal eight minutes from the end of the last game of the season. Only time we'd been in the bottom three all season btw.
1985 - promoted on the last day against Charlton
1987 - relegated on the last day v West Ham
1989 - promoted on the last day v Bradford with an equalising goal in the last ten minutes
1996 - relegated on the last day when drawing with Liverpool - a game which included several 'typical City' moments.
1998 - relegated on the last day in spite of beating Stoke 5-2 with our best performance of the season.
1999 - Gillingham. Say no more.
2000 - promoted on the last day by beating Blackburn 4-1 despite being battered for the first half.
2001 - relegated - a bit of a damp squib, I'll grant you.
2002 - promoted - no last day drama as such, although Stuart Pearce missing a penalty in the last minute for his 100th ever goal had a certain typical City air to it.

So eight of the ten promotions/relegations were secured/endured on the last game of the season. Perhaps you could point to some of the examples you have used with a record that even begins to compare with that for drama.

You add to that the fact that we have been to the third tier of English football in recent history and are now (barely) Premier League Champions and you have a narrative that is unusual and replete with drama. I make no claim about us being "unique" as to do so would be arrogant and preposterous and there are other clubs who have a history which is just as engaging. I would suggest Napoli and Swansea could be examples of this. The fact that you have used Birmingham and Wolves to support your argument suggest a complete failure to grasp what the term "colourful history" actually means, as they are both a by-word for the mundane in the main, at least as far as I'm concerned. Fuck me, Birmingham City have to be the most atypical example out of the 91 other clubs you could have chosen to attempt to bolster your assertion.

So in summary, (and for the avoidance of doubt) I maintain that we aren't unique, but we are most certainly unusual. To suggest that "many teams are more worthy of the expression typical......" is absurd. There might be a handful, but Wolves and Birmingham most certainly don't form part of that group. I haven't fallen for any fallacy. I am more than capable of arriving at my own conclusions and unlike you I don't have to make disingenuous representations about others' arguments in order to justify my position.

You say tomato, I say tomato (doesn't really work written down, but it may be relevant)...

I think we may both be looking at a 6 foot 5 inch guy and having the following exchange;
GDM: "bloody hell, he's uncommonly tall - freakishly tall, even"
CB: "sure, he's very tall, but he's not uniquely tall - there are lots of people taller than him. Here's a list of some of them"
GDM: "I realize there are other people who are also very tall, I didn't say he was unique"
CB: "Hey, perhaps we're not so far apart, imagine if we were looking at a car doing 100 mph down the M6....."
Rest of Bluemoon on this thread: "I thought this was supposed to be about the 'Best Decision City have ever made'?"
CB: "Er, okay... selling to Sheikh Mansour"

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

Where have I said we were unique? I made no such claim. On that basis your subsequent post is dishonest in its construction, as you are trying to shoehorn me into a position that I have never assumed.

I am well aware that there will be other clubs who can match and exceed our numbers on relegation and promotion (although some of the ones that you referred to had a lower proportion than we did, but that isn't the point). So let's look at those ten promotions and relegations which, in fact, I haven't had to do any online research at all to muster up:

1983 - relegated by our fellow strugglers Luton with a goal eight minutes from the end of the last game of the season. Only time we'd been in the bottom three all season btw.
1985 - promoted on the last day against Charlton
1987 - relegated on the last day v West Ham
1989 - promoted on the last day v Bradford with an equalising goal in the last ten minutes
1996 - relegated on the last day when drawing with Liverpool - a game which included several 'typical City' moments.
1998 - relegated on the last day in spite of beating Stoke 5-2 with our best performance of the season.
1999 - Gillingham. Say no more.
2000 - promoted on the last day by beating Blackburn 4-1 despite being battered for the first half.
2001 - relegated - a bit of a damp squib, I'll grant you.
2002 - promoted - no last day drama as such, although Stuart Pearce missing a penalty in the last minute for his 100th ever goal had a certain typical City air to it.

So eight of the ten promotions/relegations were secured/endured on the last game of the season. Perhaps you could point to some of the examples you have used with a record that even begins to compare with that for drama.

You add to that the fact that we have been to the third tier of English football in recent history and are now (barely) Premier League Champions and you have a narrative that is unusual and replete with drama. I make no claim about us being "unique" as to do so would be arrogant and preposterous and there are other clubs who have a history which is just as engaging. I would suggest Napoli and Swansea could be examples of this. The fact that you have used Birmingham and Wolves to support your argument suggest a complete failure to grasp what the term "colourful history" actually means, as they are both a by-word for the mundane in the main, at least as far as I'm concerned. Fuck me, Birmingham City have to be the most atypical example out of the 91 other clubs you could have chosen to attempt to bolster your assertion.

So in summary, (and for the avoidance of doubt) I maintain that we aren't unique, but we are most certainly unusual. To suggest that "many teams are more worthy of the expression typical......" is absurd. There might be a handful, but Wolves and Birmingham most certainly don't form part of that group. I haven't fallen for any fallacy. I am more than capable of arriving at my own conclusions and unlike you I don't have to make disingenuous representations about others' arguments in order to justify my position.

You say tomato, I say tomato (doesn't really work written down, but it may be relevant)...

I think we may both be looking at a 6 foot 5 inch guy and having the following exchange;
GDM: "bloody hell, he's uncommonly tall - freakishly tall, even"
CB: "sure, he's very tall, but he's not uniquely tall - there are lots of people taller than him. Here's a list of some of them"
GDM: "I realize there are other people who are also very tall, I didn't say he was unique"
CB: "Hey, perhaps we're not so far apart, imagine if we were looking at a car doing 100 mph down the M6....."
Rest of Bluemoon on this thread: "I thought this was supposed to be about the 'Best Decision City have ever made'?"
CB: "Er, okay... selling to Sheikh Mansour"

Haha! Ok, fair enough :-)

 

[Anthony Kun]

While we are on useless non city match facts can anyone tell me the only club to have gone from 4th division to 1st and back to 4th in 7 consecutive seasons??

Anyway on topic, In my lifetime - the Goat! Idolised him as a kid.
More recently apart from HRH, the appointment of Txiki and Ferran, we will see the influence of them in the seasons to come!

 

[Shirley]

While we are on useless non city match facts can anyone tell me the only club to have gone from 4th division to 1st and back to 4th in 7 consecutive seasons??

Anyway on topic, In my lifetime - the Goat! Idolised him as a kid.
More recently apart from HRH, the appointment of Txiki and Ferran, we will see the influence of them in the seasons to come!

Swansea.

 

[Ladybarn Blue .]

Selling Balotelli...

On Sky News this morning , Mario has scored 6 in 7 , or was it 7 in 6 , any away a lot .

I believe with Mario playing on Saturday @ Everton we would have won !!

I still do not understand why we sold him .

 

[cant spel forgive me]

robinho, simply because he put us on the map

 

[Any1aBlue]

Whilst the thrust of this post has some merit, it is almost entirely undermined by the last sentence. To suggest, as it seems to, that the narrative of this football club isn't unusual displays a complete lack of appreciation for City's extraordinary history.

Ten promotions and relegations in under two decades; only Champions to be relegated and the procession of managers since Joe Mercer was moved "upstairs" are all examples that support the view that our enduring capacity to create drama is uncommon and out of the ordinary. It is why our reputation in this regard extends well beyond our own supporters.

I'm afraid you've displayed a complete lack of appreciation for the facts, and have fallen for the fallacy of exceptionalism.

Yes, we have had some colorful exploits in our history, and are towards the high end of the distribution for such events as manager turnover and relegation/promotions, but to suggest there aren't lots of other clubs that have a similar or far worse history of "typical City" syndrome is laughable. It almost seems to be a secret source of pride to many fans to think of us as some sort of calamity-attracting entity, but we really aren't that exceptional.

Here's what I turned up with about five minutes of online research;
Watford have been promoted/relegated 11 times in 25 years, spanning all four divisions and losing an FA Cup in the process.
Brighton have been relegated/promoted 19 times in the last 58 years.
During the 1980s, Wolves moved divisions seven times in eight seasons.
Birmingham have been promoted/relegated between the top two divisions 24 times (the most of any club, oh, and they got relegated the same year they won the League Cup), Leicester are second on 22, and there are 7 other teams with at least 15. Although City are third in this list, on 21, we only have two other movements in the lower divisions whereas almost all of the other teams have large numbers of additional promotion/relegations in the lower divisions.

There are lots of examples from other countries as well;
Drogheda United swapped Divisions every season between 1993/94 and 2000/01 and starting in 1979 and ending in 1987, SK Brann (Norway) were promoted in every odd-numbered year and relegated in every even-numbered year. This is the world record for consecutive promotion/relegations.

How about managers? Well, we've had 10 (including caretakers) in the Premier League era, which puts us a distant 6th behind Newcastle (19), Spurs (18), Chelsea (15), Southampton (12), and Aston Villa (11).

So, despite the stereotype (apparently perpetuated by many of our own fans), we're a long way from being unique in our quirky history, and in fact, many teams are more worthy of the expression; "Typical ______".

Where have I said we were unique? I made no such claim. On that basis your subsequent post is dishonest in its construction, as you are trying to shoehorn me into a position that I have never assumed.

I am well aware that there will be other clubs who can match and exceed our numbers on relegation and promotion (although some of the ones that you referred to had a lower proportion than we did, but that isn't the point). So let's look at those ten promotions and relegations which, in fact, I haven't had to do any online research at all to muster up:

1983 - relegated by our fellow strugglers Luton with a goal eight minutes from the end of the last game of the season. Only time we'd been in the bottom three all season btw.
1985 - promoted on the last day against Charlton
1987 - relegated on the last day v West Ham
1989 - promoted on the last day v Bradford with an equalising goal in the last ten minutes
1996 - relegated on the last day when drawing with Liverpool - a game which included several 'typical City' moments.
1998 - relegated on the last day in spite of beating Stoke 5-2 with our best performance of the season.
1999 - Gillingham. Say no more.
2000 - promoted on the last day by beating Blackburn 4-1 despite being battered for the first half.
2001 - relegated - a bit of a damp squib, I'll grant you.
2002 - promoted - no last day drama as such, although Stuart Pearce missing a penalty in the last minute for his 100th ever goal had a certain typical City air to it.

So eight of the ten promotions/relegations were secured/endured on the last game of the season. Perhaps you could point to some of the examples you have used with a record that even begins to compare with that for drama.

You add to that the fact that we have been to the third tier of English football in recent history and are now (barely) Premier League Champions and you have a narrative that is unusual and replete with drama. I make no claim about us being "unique" as to do so would be arrogant and preposterous and there are other clubs who have a history which is just as engaging. I would suggest Napoli and Swansea could be examples of this. The fact that you have used Birmingham and Wolves to support your argument suggest a complete failure to grasp what the term "colourful history" actually means, as they are both a by-word for the mundane in the main, at least as far as I'm concerned. Fuck me, Birmingham City have to be the most atypical example out of the 91 other clubs you could have chosen to attempt to bolster your assertion.

So in summary, (and for the avoidance of doubt) I maintain that we aren't unique, but we are most certainly unusual. To suggest that "many teams are more worthy of the expression typical......" is absurd. There might be a handful, but Wolves and Birmingham most certainly don't form part of that group. I haven't fallen for any fallacy. I am more than capable of arriving at my own conclusions and unlike you I don't have to make disingenuous representations about others' arguments in order to justify my position.

Too much time on your hands - havent they got porn sites in USA?