I had a quick trawl through the newspapers before the morning swim, to see how they'd covered our success yesterday and, like you, read Liew's article reviewing the game.
In short, my response to Liew's effort is this.. what a joyless person he must be, writing such a dismal piece.
To expand on my reaction, it's not just the 'City Bingo' he plays throughout that gives away his joyless take on life ('state funded', 'autocrats', 'billion £ spend', '115 charges' and the like). He has to throw in extra, snide comments to pepper his prose; for example, thanking goodness that Noel Gallagher 'didn't reveal a new album'; that West Ham's goal silenced 'whatever noise there was in the stadium' and so on.. these are the things that make me think that Liew's presence in the room would suck the life out of it for the rest of us.
But I think there's more that Liew and his chums in the UK sports media should consider when they put together such clickbait, shoddy 'journalism'. Allow me to explain further..
In yesterday's sunshine, I went to the match to meet up with my family and friends, all of us hoping our club would finish the task of winning what would be an unprecedented fourth consecutive title after 10 months of incredible struggle against two of the toughest opponents imaginable.
Like many Blues, I thought of family and friends no longer around to witness what we've been able to see happen since 2008. They'd never believe me if they could come back for a day and I told them what has been happening while they've been away!
I particularly had in mind an old school pal, Bob, whose younger brother Mike was as City daft as the rest of us when we were all at Grammar school together. Sadly, Mike was a haemophiliac who died on our school playing field in 1969. For all the years thereafter that I knew Bobby, he'd always say 'We only get one shot at this..'
Fast forward to 1976, I met up with Bob as we were finishing our respective post-grad years to watch City beat Newcastle in the League Cup final at Wembley. Little did we know that would be it for possible trophy winning by City for the next 35 years.
We kept in touch during that time, occasionally meeting at Maine Road when he'd travel across from Yorkshire where he carved out his career as a widely respected Head Teacher at a school there. In 2011, as we were making progress under Mancini, I spoke with Bob about the prospect of us getting back to Wembley again and he mentioned how he wished his brother Mike was around to see it too. Sadly, Bob then suddenly passed away barely weeks before we played Stoke, aged 57. And of course, he never got to see everything that's happened with our club since.. all the excitement, the wonderful players, the thrilling football, the trophies, Pep.. you name it.
So, no Mr Liew et al in the media, with your clickbait agendas and your tribal loyalties that skew your reporting of our club and its achievements, no, we don't need your poor attempts at being clever, at trying to score points off our beloved City.
My pal Bobby would advise you to lighten up and stop sucking the life out of the room and concentrate on being positive about the most thrilling football this country has ever seen. You might find you enjoy life better if you give it a try..
'We only get one shot at this..'
