There is absolutely no need whatsoever to feel guilty about our present - and coming - success. We've not "bought" it at all: we've merely been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get back to where we always should have been from the moment Albert Alexander stepped down as chairman and Swales got involved in the resultant power struggle. From that moment onwards we were falling from the pre-eminence established during the Mercer-Allison years.
If we've bought anything it's the ability to attract the correct people to run our club on and off the pitch after decades of failure, near-extinction and fannying about trying to kid ourselves that without major investment we could somehow catch up with those who have been allowed to cream mega-millions in prize money and TV dividend payouts from the Premier League and the Champions League for years. There can be no doubt that at long last we finally have the correct manager to make this wonderful club of ours great again and also that he has staffed the backroom with the right type of personalities, abilities and experience to ensure that our players - at whatever level - are continually given the correct advice on how to progress and improve themselves. This has worked so well to the point that the players actually seem to be playing as if they KNOW they’re going to win the League, not just hoping for it on believing it’s possible. We also have the correct people in the boardroom - would YOU mess with Khaldoon al-Mubarak?? - and various off-the-field departments to finally get this club to where it should be.
As just one example of how we’re finally getting things right take the Tevez affair. Even the media have admitted on just about every station and in every paper that City handled the whole affair correctly and have won hands down. I am so proud of the way the club kept its own countenance and made as few and brief statements as possible, letting the media speculate and Tevez’ advisors fuck it up with endless idiotic statements on his behalf. I could also mention the way the club keeps schtum in the face of various media taunts from over the border in Stretford but there’s really no need.
Of course we’re able to attract better players by paying far bigger transfer fees and wages but the real skill is in moulding them all into a team and, more than anyone else in this league other than perhaps United, we are the best example of a team unit in the League, perhaps even the country. Every time I see some dodgy hack, pundit or rival fan witter on about “keeping all those egos happy” I cringe at the utter cluelessness on display. You can see it every time we score, but more importantly whenever it goes wrong on the pitch. The prime example is Balotelli’s sending off at Anfield: Kompany simply strode forward like a teacher sorting out a primary school games lesson dispute and actually tod that odious gnome Adam to (and I quote) “shut the fuck up”. Yes, he’s the captain but could you honestly imagine Tevez doing the same thing last season? All right, it didn’t prevent the idiotic second yellow card but it did demonstrate how the team is prepared to back each other up when things get rough. These are the moments the pundits etc conveniently forget in their rush for lurid and inaccurate headlines and byelines.
So, although I can just about remember the back end of the Mercer-Allison era (I was 5 when we won the League but my earliest City memory is of Joe Mercer on the pitch after we won the Cup a year later, the day I became a Blue), I don’t feel guilty about how we’ve suddenly been fuelled by petrol dollars to help us get where we are and where we’re going. I didn’t begrudge Blackburn their (unsustainable) day in the sun under Jack Walker and I certainly bore Chelsea no ill will when Abramovich came to town. This way it’s easier to enjoy the current situation and look forward to what will be an undeniably bright and successful future.
