Media bias against City
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George Hannah
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nitpicker ;)
But he was the first German manager of an English league team
franksinatra
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What?? They really said that? Besides being completely accurate that is completely outrageous.
Imagine the prestige, the glory, possible revenue streams and goodwill we would have got if people knew Uwe was ex-city. There dastardly deeds, to undermine us, learly have no depths. Hang on I have my local MP on the other line
malg
Well-Known Member
Quality!
George Hannah
Well-Known Member
A legendary City figure - the first German to manage an English League club - he even named his children Colin & Tony after Bell and Book - imagine indeed
- Rosler: Manchester City supporters' love helped me beat cancer
- Brentford manager's new book tells of his huge debt to Blues fans - and how he was a target of East Germany's secret police
Chants would be a fine thing: Hearing City fans sing his name inspired hospitalised Rosler
Uwe Rosler has never forgotten the moment Manchester City fans helped to save his life when he was fighting cancer at just 34.
The Brentford boss and one-time darling of the Kippax section of the Blues' old Maine Road home was struggling to breathe, as he wound down his playing career with Lillestrom in Norway, when he was diagnosed with a lethal strain of the disease.
In a moving account of his battle to stay alive, Rosler reveals how a striker brought up in the Cold War oppression of East Germany forged a bond with the Blue Moon tendency which became unbreakable.
Rosler was changing the tyres on his car from winter to summer treads – as the harsh Scandinavian winter turned to spring in 2003 – when his doctor visited him unexpectedly at home.
He said: “I had cancer - non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I had the equivalent of a 12.5cm tennis ball in my chest.
“My reaction was I wanted to be treated in Germany, but my doctor said, ‘No, Uwe, you have to go in now or you won’t survive past Easter.’
“From believing I had, at worst, a chest infection, I was now being told that, as things stood, I had about a week to live. I needed to start chemotherapy immediately to have any chance at all.
“I didn’t know which type of cancer was specific to my tumour, but I did know two of them are deadly while the third is the most aggressive, but curable, if you catch it at the right time and the cancer has not spread.”
Rosler’s gruelling battle included intravenous chemotherapy, radiotherapy and a series of bone marrow injections.
But during one course of treatment, he took the call which gave his recovery a rocket boost.
He said: “My mobile phone began to ring as I came out of a listless sleep. With wires in my arm, I was in my hospital bed recovering from the latest dose of chemotherapy and I barely had the strength to lift the handset.
“I picked it up and saw the name of an old friend from Manchester, Mark Buckley, displayed on the screen.
“He said, ‘Uwe, can you hear it? Listen to this...’
“He held his phone at arm’s length and I realised my friend was calling from the City of Manchester Stadium. The City fans were singing my name, and I could hear it echoing around the ground.
“They were willing me to beat the cancer and they had not given up on me.
“I ended the call and smiled for the first time in a long while. It was exactly what I needed.
“I had my wife, sons, family and close friends helping me. Now I had 46,000 Mancunians willing me back to health.
“With that kind of backing, how could I possibly fail?
“It was incredibly uplifting. I can’t express how much that meant.
“If I had a bond to the club [before], it became unbreakable at that moment and it’s something I’ll never forget.
Daily Mirror
King of the Kippax; Rosler was, and is, beloved by Manchester City fans
“Cards and telegrams started to arrive from City fans. I read each and every one, and I have kept them. It steeled my resolve to return one day and thank the City fans myself.”
Rosler had only begun the long haul back towards rude health when City asked him to take a bow as their VIP guest at a home game.
“It had been a very exhausting few months, which I would not wish on anybody,” said the 44-year-old in his autobiography, Knocking Down Walls.
“But, gradually, I began to regain my strength. Around then I received an invitation from City to fly over, all expenses paid, and say hello to the supporters at half-time.
“I was very weak, but I couldn’t let the City fans down. I was sweating and shaking, but when I walked on the pitch, the whole stadium gave me a standing ovation. Once again, those fans had given me a jump-start when I needed it most.”
Rosler’s familiarity with personal trauma did not end with his cancer battle, however.
Last May, preparing for Brentford’s League One play-off final, his wife Cecilie suffered a miscarriage and Rosler – missing the Bees’ three-day training camp in Wales – concealed his heartbreak from the outside world.
'Police want me to spy on my teammates'
Secret police from East Germany’s hated Stasi tried to put the frighteners on Uwe Rosler to stop him defecting to the West.
Before the Berlin Wall came down, Rosler was grilled by Stasi agents who wanted him to become a dressing-room grass at Lokomotive Leipzig and betray team-mates who were planning to flee the despised regime.
Terrified, 18-year-old Rosler asked for time to think it over, only to be told by one of his Communist interrogators: “You are either with us, or against us. And if you are against us, you are finished. Your career will be over.”
Rosler tearfully confided in his Lokomotive manager, who angrily called his chief executive to demand that the Stasi left his players alone before calling the secret police “f****** a********” and slamming the phone down in a rage.
Since phone-tapping was a rite of passage in East Germany, Rosler feared he would be called to account by the Stasi again.
But he insisted: “I could never have done their dirty work. I was a footballer, not a spy or an informer.
“Serving a ban, for elbowing an opponent who wound me up far too much, the two Stasi agents who had dealt with me turned up at a home game to let me know they were still around.
“But my manager had been right all along – they were a********.”
Ironically, when the Berlin Wall came down and Germany celebrated reunification, after 44 years of post-war division, it denied Rosler – who had just broken through into the East German national side – the chance of playing at the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
He knew he would never dislodge Jurgen Klinsmann and Rudi Voller from a united German national team.
By way of consolation, he collected a “massive” cash bonus after East Germany’s last international, a 2-0 win against Belgium – because the federation had to get rid of all its currency, which was soon to become obsolete.
Uwe Rosler: Knocking Down Walls (RRP £16.99) is available at mirrorcollection.co.ukfor just £12.99.
Blueknows
Well-Known Member
All I and no doubt many others ask for is impartial , fair comment , give credit where credits due , as well as criticise when needed , instead we get envious , snide digs , and comments based on pundits allegiances with certain clubs ( red grievers and rags mostly) that obviously sway their opinions , yes we have been to hell and back and endured many a dark day but that didnt stop me in those days admiring /giving credit to sides that played excellent football
SilverFox2
Well-Known Member
I agree it hurts after all that we have endured during our dark days.
Unfortunately the media is enduring a digital revolution so needs as much subscription revenue as it can get so the fairness that we deserve comes a very poor second to appeasing the majority of their subscribers who are not City fans.
This is why pundits are ex LFC or MUFC players and journos are mainly chasing clicks rather than doing the 'fair reporting' we have a right to expect.
In short they protect their jobs which from a sports point of view helps if they are not City ex players / fans and collectively continue the unfairness you describe.
The same thing has happened for many years in the non sports pages of the tabloids where 'Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story' has always been an editors rule of thumb not because they are compulsive liars but because it is an opportunity to sell more papers etc..
The Light Was Yellow Sir
Well-Known Member
That's right, he doesn't. You are looking a bit too hard to find a slight against City. Do you work in the media?
George Hannah
Well-Known Member
I did think he managed Wigan in the PL when I wrote that - wrongly.
He was the first German to manage in the football league though and there have only been two. Pretty typical SSN
really - pity a few on here are blind enough not to notice.
gordondaviesmoustache
Well-Known Member
If they're blind, presumably you're partially sighted, George....
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