Pigeonho said:
gordondaviesmoustache said:
Anyone who thinks that the transformation of how this football club is perceived in the last two years was just down to how we performed on the pitch is hopelessly naive.
Anyone who thinks how this club is perceived isn't important in terms of its ability to attract top players within the prism of FFP is hopelessly deluded.
These things matter. The battle for supremacy in modern football is fought beyond the playing arena. City are now big news, which enables us to be taken seriously. Without that we are just another Blackburn or Wolfsburg.
Mario has, quite possibly inadvertently in the main, helped propel this club into the big league. Fans of clubs like Liverpool and Arsenal now talk about us with much more respect than even a year ago. We are on everybody's lips and he has been very much part of that.
That's not saying we shouldn't sell him. I think we probably should, but as I posted earlier he has, as much as anyone, helped make Sheikh Mansour's vision for this club become a reality - and has accelerated that process too.
Every club needs a big character at the point of their development into a bigger force. united had Beckham. That doesn't mean that football considerations aren't paramount: of course they are, but equally that doesn't mean that the club doesn't have the indirect benefits that the reflected attention gives them. It may be a sad reflection on the modern world, but it is the reality nonetheless.
Many have previously pointed to our "egos" as the reason for our expected undoing, but the fact is that it is these "egos" that have made this club such box office. And box office, for good or bad, matters in contemporary football.
With all respect that is rubbish. Ask kids born from 1995 onwards who they associated Barca with. I would say 10 out of 10 asked would say Messi. Why? Because he does magic tricks, gets sent off, rows with his manager, has a strange hair cut and drives a camouflage Bentley? Or is it because he scores 100 goals in a calendar year, puts in mesmeric performances and is all in all 100% football? Barca are probably a bad example to use for obvious reasons, but i'm sure you see my point. You could very well ask kids of that same age bracket who they associate with Man City. It would be a mixed bag but there will be some who say Balotelli. Unfortunately for him and the club in regards to football reasons, they would say the reasons above, which at the end of the day have nothing to do with results on the pitch. Also, who cares if Liverpool fans talk about City? Are you that insecure you need fans of other clubs to talk about the club you support? The last day of the season it was nice to see the QPR fans and Sunderland fans cheer our victory and if rumours are true there were many pubs full of Chelsea fans in London who went equally as bonkers but do you think that is for there newly found respect of City? No, it was because it denied United another league title. If we had won the league over any other club that day those reactions wouldn't have happened because quite honestly people other than their hatred of United, (and any local rival), only care about their own club and no 'character' like Balotelli is going to change that.
Your example of Barcelona is, as you say, a poor one as they already were a globally recognised behemoth of a football club. To make the transformation we have from a team with Ched Evans and Michael Ball to one that is on everybody's lips was always going to take a number of factors: money, obviously; success on the pitch, clearly; but a global superstar was always going to accelerate that process. Balotelli is such a superstar, irrespective of his performances on the pitch. In fact it is even better then that: he has become a global superstar whist at this football cub.
You ask any eight year old to name a City player and I reckon 7 or 8 would say Mario. These kids are the future of this football club and will ensure that the battle for supremacy with united is an enduring rather than fleeting one.
As to fans of other clubs talking about us, it matters in that it reflects our current status in the game. That matters to me. I was there when we were in the third tier of English football and I am enjoying the dividends now. The fact that fans of clubs who used to look down their noses at us and mock us are now casting envious gazes in our direction is something that I enjoy. If that makes me insecure, then so be it.
There are worse things in this world to be...
