Football is not just about winning games of football, it is about those first few seconds when you wake up in the morning and you feel that rush of excitement in your blood and those last few moments of the night when head on pillow you close your eyes and are happy. Football is about entertainment and anticipation, it's not just about the 90 minutes. For that reason, I am thrilled that City seem to be signing Ronaldo, and thrilled for all the other City fans, especially the older ones who are still kids at heart. Ronaldo is larger than life. A genuine sporting and football icon.
Thank you Sheikh Mansour, Khaldoon, Txiki, Omar and Ferran for the last ten years.
I think every City fan knows Ronaldo is 36. We are not stupid. He is not going to move like he did when he thrilled the world at Real Madrid but he still scores an unbelievable amount of goals. I know a lot are penalties but still what does that matter? He scored 29 goals in Serie A from 33 games in what was a poor side!!!! And we need a striker. No wonder we dropped the Kane move. He would have cost us over £130m and it would have been a long term deal for a player who will not age that well imo. Ronaldo's cost, if we incur it, will be significant but not eye-wateringly so and genuinely we will make back that back.
I will also be interested in how our club will now be perceived in the media. Some people in the media whose background is football like Lineker, Ferdinand, Neville, Shearer, Wrighty are fair. Those from Fleet St with the exception of some BBC presenters are nasty, cynical and racist. I am not sure quite where we now sit in the world ranking of clubs but no longer can we be ignored and the commercial rationale for battering MCFC because they are the rival of MUFC and LFC now probably fades because we are becoming a more popular club than they are particularly amongst the young. You just cannot if you are a media organisation now survive by baiting MCFC. Sure some will continue to do so because it is ingrained in them but they will be marginalised. If Ronaldo signs for Manchester City, this will be an important symbolic moment for MCFC where we cement ourselves as one of the elite clubs of world football. The transformation is almost complete.
Now back to the news!