Favourite ever season.

B B

Bobby the blue

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Manchester city
Just reading the post about the 19 or 22 seasons and what one was the best. For me I couldn’t really enjoy them as much as I would have liked. The stress and pressure of it all was at times off the scale. Don’t get me wrong I loved winning the league both times but even after gundogans last goal I was just relived more than anything. Hard to explain but I didn’t have that europhic wave of emotions I’ve had in the past.

So it got me thinking about my favourite season watching city and for me it was without doubt the 2001/2002 season.

that year I had just signed for a really good non league side and was doing well in pre season and the first few games went like a dream. Then in early September I suffered a really bad injury and was out for a year. I was obviously gutted but this was the first time really that I could watch city most weeks.

Maine Road was in its pomp and the away days were amazing. Our away ends were what I would call proper and it felt like we had a mixture of everyone in those ends and had some great times. Luckily at that time I still had some good connections so could get tickets for games .

I loved that team the likes of Berkovic/Bernabia/Goater/wanchope and Huckerby. We scored so many goals and the football at times was beyond what that division has ever seen. We blew teams away. The likes of burnley,wolves etc who were battling with us couldn’t keep up. For me it was just enjoyable every week bar the odd slip up especially at the start but it was still so much fun in those days.

For me some highlights.

Burnley just after Christmas when we absolutely ruined them.
Ipswich in the cup.
Watford first game of the season.
Norwich at home when down to ten.
Millwall away.
Wolves away.
Newcastle away.
 
86-87.
My first proper season going to watch city. As a shy, naive 12 nearly 13 year old the memories of being on the Kippax and shitting my pants when the crowd starting singing are still fresh in my mind today, can still feel my ears ringing as the songs echoed around the stand. Although we got relegated and wasn't much cop it's still my favourite season as it was the first for me.
 
My favourite season was in the Championship with Keegan. The first time I remember us being exciting to watch. We were awesome and it was the first time I actually remember looking forward to our football - always excited to watch the Blues, but with Keegan in that season it was different.
 
Bobby the blue said:
Just reading the post about the 19 or 22 seasons and what one was the best. For me I couldn’t really enjoy them as much as I would have liked. The stress and pressure of it all was at times off the scale. Don’t get me wrong I loved winning the league both times but even after gundogans last goal I was just relived more than anything. Hard to explain but I didn’t have that europhic wave of emotions I’ve had in the past.

So it got me thinking about my favourite season watching city and for me it was without doubt the 2001/2002 season.

that year I had just signed for a really good non league side and was doing well in pre season and the first few games went like a dream. Then in early September I suffered a really bad injury and was out for a year. I was obviously gutted but this was the first time really that I could watch city most weeks.

Maine Road was in its pomp and the away days were amazing. Our away ends were what I would call proper and it felt like we had a mixture of everyone in those ends and had some great times. Luckily at that time I still had some good connections so could get tickets for games .

I loved that team the likes of Berkovic/Bernabia/Goater/wanchope and Huckerby. We scored so many goals and the football at times was beyond what that division has ever seen. We blew teams away. The likes of burnley,wolves etc who were battling with us couldn’t keep up. For me it was just enjoyable every week bar the odd slip up especially at the start but it was still so much fun in those days.

For me some highlights.

Burnley just after Christmas when we absolutely ruined them.
Ipswich in the cup.
Watford first game of the season.
Norwich at home when down to ten.
Millwall away.
Wolves away.
Newcastle away.
Click to expand...
2001/2002. Not my best season. Not even close. But still a brilliant one. We've been very blessed.
 
1987/88 season for me.
My first full season watching The Blues.
Everything was new and exciting. Away Blue crowds were bouncing and very very loud.First memories of the Kippax.watching Paul Lake play in every outfield position for City.
Going to Merseyside against Everton in the league cup quarter finals and having to duck as the coach got bricked as soon as we got off the motorway...I still shudder as I go under the bloody bridge where it happened all those years ago
Going to Leeds elland road as a somewhat naive teenager ...that was an experience...
Beating Huddersfield 10-1 ....Wow.just Wow
Going to Leeds rd road for my 1st ever fa cup match.watching a disabled supporter throwing his crutches at the ref for some reason..and
Wondering why Mel Machin our manager at the time was sent off..

Dancing with joy on the away terrace as John gidmans( iirc?) last min equaliser from a free kick, right in front of the away end made it 2-2!!

Being on the kippax on boxing day for the visit of Leeds...they brought thousands to Platt Lane and Kippax was in full voice..Xmas football was absolutely magic in those days.. the atmosphere natural and electric with everyone in a good mood( we lost 2-1 of course )
Drinking cider in the old supporters club bat..chatting to older Blues about Bell Lee Summerbee.

Travelling to Maine rd with forest fans for the league cup game midweek...Paul Lake absolutely destroyed forest the league cup holders and our team eam of home grown kids from the old 2nd division dumped 1st Division Forest out the cup.complete silence in the car on the way back....

Playing for City supporters club against quite a few teams that season..

Attending the Crystal Palace match at selhurst park for last match of the season,both sets of supporters singing anti man Utd songs as palace faced them in the fa cup final the week after( we,d been knocked out by redscouse in the quarter finals)

We finished well adrift of the promotion places.we had no money. Swales was chairman,the kippax was still a terrace and as a 2nd division team punched well above our weight in both domestic cups.

My favourite season bar none watching The Mighty Blues.
 
Last edited:
Strange isn't it how with hindsight comes clarity. I think back to that Keegan team and promotion to the Premier League and how easy it was to become deluded with false expectation. There we were hammering 3 or 4 past every opposition, beating Premier League teams in the Cup, a new stadium was inbound and we had the likes of Anelka and Fowler inbound. Surely we would smash everyone the next season but so it proved that this Premier League (even in 02/03) is just a different level! It makes me see clearly why Fulham, Bournemouth and Forest will, despite their great play this year, be next season's fodder.

It's only once you become Premier League Champions and look back at the journey you've taken do you realise just how far you have come and what an achievement it has been. Just look at the other supposed big 6 teams! Spurs no titles in 61 years! Liverpool 1 title* in 32 years! United have seen us win 5 Premier Leagues since their last win and were 35 points and 73 goals away last year! Arsenal have won the title for 18 years, and Chelsea have seen us win 4 Premier Leagues since their last triumph. It's beyond the wildest dreams we ever had and to then stay there and dominate is astounding. Certainly 2019 for the achievement and run in is almost perfection but in a strange type of way 2022 feels better because it keeps all those wannabe clubs well and truly contained and frustrated beyond belief! Just think of the Dippers, who have seen us relegated countless times yet have seen us storm past them as a club and utterly dominate them domestically. No wonder they are sick to the core.
 
Last edited:
dennishasdoneit said:
1987/88 season for me.
My first full season watching The Blues.
Everything was new and exciting. Away Blue crowds were bouncing and very very loud.First memories of the Kippax.watching Paul Lake play in every outfield position for City.
Going to Merseyside against Everton in the league cup quarter finals and having to duck as the coach got bricked as soon as we got off the motorway...I still shudder as I go under the bloody bridge where it happened all those years ago
Going to Leeds elland road as a somewhat naive teenager ...that was an experience...
Beating Huddersfield 10-1 ....Wow.just Wow
Going to Leeds rd road for my 1st ever fa cup match.watching a disabled supporter throwing his crutches at the ref for some reason..and
Wondering why Mel Machin our manager at the time was sent off..

Dancing with joy on the away terrace as John gidmans( iirc?) last min equaliser from a free kick, right in front of the away end made it 2-2!!

Being on the kippax on boxing day for the visit of Leeds...they brought thousands to Platt Lane and Kippax was in full voice..Xmas football was absolutely magic in those days.. the atmosphere natural and electric with everyone in a good mood( we lost 2-1 of course )
Drinking cider in the old supporters club bat..chatting to older Blues about Bell Lee Summerbee.

Travelling to Maine rd with forest fans for the league cup game midweek...Paul Lake absolutely destroyed forest the league cup holders and our team eam of home grown kids from the old 2nd division dumped 1st Division Forest out the cup.complete silence in the car on the way back....

Playing for City supporters club against quite a few teams that season..

Attending the Crystal Palace match at selhurst park for last match of the season,both sets of supporters singing anti man Utd songs as palace faced them in the fa cup final the week after( we,d been knocked out by redscouse in the quarter finals)

We finished well adrift of the promotion places.we had no money. Swales was chairman,the kippax was still a terrace and as a 2nd division team punched well above our weight in both domestic cups.

My favourite season bar none watching The Mighty Blues.
Click to expand...
Was a fun season but you’ve definitely mixed up that Palace away with a few years later
 
Well, I think I'd have to say 68-69. Simply because it was my first full season. Nothing to do with the football really. You're young, you're full of hope, the Kippax is rocking (not always by any means, but that's what you remember from when it happened), you're absolutely dazzled by everything, the players, the shirts, the stadium, sometimes, yes, by the football.
It's less about where the team and club are at that moment in time. Much more about where you are.
It's like those first few weeks or months with a girl that you're head over heels with. You feel a bit immortal.
 
Ive got a strong affinity for 1980-81 as it was the year my dad started taking me regularly. Even though we were rubbish at the start I loved the Johnny Bond era. I went to all the cup games (league and FA) except for the semis and Wembley and that was the year I think I "got City", I had been before when I was 4 but can only really remember images, like the stench of bovril, wagon wheels and stale wee!

I also loved 1988-89 as that was the year I started following City away aswell and standing in Kippax. The banter at the games like away at Bournemouth, Brentford, Oxford and Plymouth was unreal.
 
Bobby the blue said:
Just reading the post about the 19 or 22 seasons and what one was the best. For me I couldn’t really enjoy them as much as I would have liked. The stress and pressure of it all was at times off the scale. Don’t get me wrong I loved winning the league both times but even after gundogans last goal I was just relived more than anything. Hard to explain but I didn’t have that europhic wave of emotions I’ve had in the past.

So it got me thinking about my favourite season watching city and for me it was without doubt the 2001/2002 season.

that year I had just signed for a really good non league side and was doing well in pre season and the first few games went like a dream. Then in early September I suffered a really bad injury and was out for a year. I was obviously gutted but this was the first time really that I could watch city most weeks.

Maine Road was in its pomp and the away days were amazing. Our away ends were what I would call proper and it felt like we had a mixture of everyone in those ends and had some great times. Luckily at that time I still had some good connections so could get tickets for games .

I loved that team the likes of Berkovic/Bernabia/Goater/wanchope and Huckerby. We scored so many goals and the football at times was beyond what that division has ever seen. We blew teams away. The likes of burnley,wolves etc who were battling with us couldn’t keep up. For me it was just enjoyable every week bar the odd slip up especially at the start but it was still so much fun in those days.

For me some highlights.

Burnley just after Christmas when we absolutely ruined them.
Ipswich in the cup.
Watford first game of the season.
Norwich at home when down to ten.
Millwall away.
Wolves away.
Newcastle away.
Click to expand...
I think this was one of my favourite seasons as well. Joyous football, goals going in all the time, 99 points, 100+ goals, loads of highs and not too many lows. Wimbledon at home and Stockport home and away spring to mind but not much else.
Then, fast forward to 2018/19, 100 points and 100+ goals from EIGHT games fewer and in the top division. Extraordinary is the only word for it. It’ll possibly never be equalled and they should be hailed as the best top division side ever, for all the obvious reasons.
 
It's so tough to say. I'm not sure if I can completely call it my "favourite", because I think the Pep years are just another level to anything we've seen before, but I'd say 13/14 was one of the ones I had the most fun watching. I loved Pellegrini and so much of the squad we had back then - peak Yaya, Silva weaving his magic, Kolarov, Zaba, Negredo! It felt like we'd outscore anyone we played against and even if it was absolutely crazy football at times, it was a thrill to watch.

Bonus: United finished seventh that year, too, which was particularly delicious.
 
Honourable mentions to 2001/2, which was great fun, and 1980/1, which featured that gripping recovery from the foot of the league table and the two wonderful cup runs. I also loved the 1988/9 promotion campaign, when I went to most of the southern-based away games from university and we saw the initial flowering of a group of outstanding players fresh from the youth system, with whom I especially identified because they were my contemporaries and I'd watched their progress in the youth and reserve teams.

I'd go for 1976/7, though. It was my first full season watching with my late dad, and we had a better side than City had at any point until the 2010s. As a young boy, I found it thrilling to turn up to watch that team full of international players win nearly every week in front of home crowds that averaged over 40K per game, and were invariably vocal and raucous, too.

Unfortunately, that group of players never quite reached its potential, IMO. The loss of Colin Bell the previous season was arguably the difference between it going down as a 'nearly' team rather than a great one and we didn't get the transfers quite right to enable us to build on that runners-up spot in 1977. Nonetheless, that team and players in it such as Corrigan, Doyle, Donachie, Watson (my particular favourite), Hartford, Barnes, Tueart, Kidd and others claimed my heart in a way that no subsequent team quite has and instilled in me a love of this beguiling but daft institution that is MCFC.
 
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