After decades of being shit, mismanaged, completely uncompetitive, bulldozered by our local rivals and generally made to be a laughing stock within English football, it's an understandable position for some fans to find themselves in. When all you've known is abject failure, when your formative years as a City fan were a continual barrage of shit, interspersed with some proper shit, it's hard to adjust your default setting. I readily admit that it's taken me a fair while to view us as a "top table" club, capable of snatching elite footballers from the grasp of clubs a decade or more ago would have been light years ahead of us. Some, it seems, are still struggling to make the adjustment. I still have, from time to time, feelings of inferiority which, when you assess the cold, hard facts, are simply no longer valid.
I realised the difference between my mindset and my son's (currently 11 years old) during the semi-final of the FA Cup v the scum. After Yaya scored all I could think of was, when they were going to score a stuffy goal and then beat us. He turned round to me and said "don't worry Daddy, we always beat United!!"