... So I might as well write my thoughts and be a little self-indulgent for a while. It's more than twelve hours until kick-off and my heart is thumping at a rate of knots - faster than it was before last month's Derby. But the difference in my mood is that I think I have a hint of confidence ahead of tomorrow's fixture in the same way that I had a hint of pessimism before the Newcastle game last week, which is weird considering that I’ve been putting City’s chances down at every opportunity in fear of being accused of arrogance (mainly because arrogance is something that I still think City don’t have amongst their supporters) and having egg left on my face if we do lose the title tomorrow afternoon. It’s safe to say that I both can’t wait for tomorrow’s game and I don’t want tomorrow to arrive at all. Time has never stopped for this football, club, though.
I’ve been a City fan since Dickov slotted home at Wembley in 1999, so I’ve been through my fair share of ups and downs on my journey as a blue but I know that, by a lot of other blues’ standards, I caught the City bug just before the ideal time. Even in this modern age where there are thousands of football teams to ridicule and poke fun at, I was always the butt of the footballing jokes because I was the only City fan in a class of thirty at primary school. Even some of my best friends at high school, who I’d known for years prior, never failed to tease me out of their front room windows whenever I walked past their house after a Derby defeat or if we were on the wrong end of a giant killing - again - in the cup. In fact, I remember one day where my friend and I had a scuffle in the street the day after we lost to Doncaster on penalties under Sven-Goran Eriksson. Over the years, like many of you, I’ve definitely become hardened from the insults thrown in my direction for the team I support, follow and unconditionally adore.
But even before the takeover in 2008, the taunts were lessening as the beginning signs of Ferguson’s empire crumbling began to show. The completion of the Derby double in 2008 definitely seemed like a one-off at the time, but even when they won the title that year and we finished just above mid-table after a humiliating defeat to Middlesbrough, they knew that signs were showing that we were very slowly on the up. Being third in November and going the whole season without slipping into the bottom half of the table showed that time were going to get better. And after the takeover, the fear shown by most of my United fan friends was all too real. All of a sudden, any defeat by City was ignored, or not mentioned. Any hopes that my United fan friends had of “putting City in their place” were dashed more often than they were before. And after Monday’s Derby I think it began to sink in that we weren’t going anywhere. This is the only dawn where a blue moon shall rise.
So when you watch the game tomorrow, regardless of the result and wherever you may be, know that losing tomorrow will be seen as a pinprick on the canvas, but that winning tomorrow is the first stroke of paint of a beautiful tapestry. When you step out your door tomorrow, and when you take that first stride away from your house and shut the door, leave the old City behind and walk towards your future as a football fan. Tie that scarf around your throat to hold your head up. If you think this season has been like no other, then just you wait for the seasons that are to come in the next decade or so. We are the coming force in club football, and a loss tomorrow will not change that. A win tomorrow will only accelerate the progress we are going to make. We are beautiful, we are brave… we are Manchester City.
Stay classy.
