We haven’t really been particularly shit for much of our history.
We were supposedly very poor in the early 1960s. Even our ever loyal supporters fucked us off back then with crowds at their lowest ever in our history.
Then from about 1983 to 1988 we were very poor. But had a really good side in the early 90s; we finished above United in 1991 in 5th and above Liverpool in 1992 in 5th (in years they both won trophies).
Then we were proper shit from about 1995 onwards that saw us spiral down to the third tier. I thought that Frank Clark side was the worst ever. We were in huge debt yet we spent £3m on Lee Bradbury?. Joe Royle came in and saying the squad was ridiculously big, the Platt Lane training ground was worse than what some school teams facilities were like, we were proper shit then!
But I really liked our team under Joe Royle. I still love Nicky Weaver, Andy Morrison, Gerrard Weikens, Kevin Horlock, Shaun Goater, and Paul Dickov today. Royle’s a fucking legend for what he did! And again under Keegan with Stuart Pearce, Richard Dunne, Eyal Berkovic, Ali Benarbia, Darren Huckerbee, Paolo Wanchope, Marc Vivien-Foe, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Nicolas Anelka… the last year at Maine Road, the first year at the CoMS… they were great years!
Then we took a nose-dive again under Pearce where we were terrible at home, not scoring for half a season and only scoring 10 all season. But that was very short lived and we still got 40,000 every week!
Outside that we’ve always been a decent First Division/Premier League club. That’s why we’ve always been up there in the all-time league table; United only ever overtook us for the first time in that in 1983. And we’re right up there for most seasons in the top flight; only one place and a few years lower than United.
I think we overegg the shitness of Manchester City Football Club. All that “never forget where we’ve come from” shit is a load of bollocks. Apart from a few eras, for the most part of football history, we’ve been a proper decent club in English football.