Media Thread - 2021/22

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I grew up in the last golden era of Manchester City, 1976 and the Tony Book side but City were massively outnumbered at my school even then and then came 3 decades of abject failure. The result was that City fans were the hard core loyalists. If you were a City fan, you were a loyal person, dogged and stubborn with good human qualities. There was always I felt a bond between City fans of shared experience that I don't think many football fans feel. I always feel a glow towards my fellow fans even to this day when I go to the game. I just like being with fellow city fans because I know what we have all been through. It's a shared experience that no one else has had.

Once I think we all felt damned. Bringing up your child to be a city fan was almost an act of cruelty and yet it turned into a blessing. We weren't damned at all, we were the blessed generation and we didn't know it. The ones who follow us are unlikely to experience the joys we felt. I think it's called catharsis. There are very few clubs or fanbases who have experienced this.

It was either James H Reeve, or James Stannage, two great radio presenters who I used to listen to after the game who described City as God's own football club. I think every fan thinks their football club is special but I look around at other clubs, and none has our history. And yet many other football fans regard city as plastic. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not for the old generation anyway.
And it's no coincidence that every rag acquaintance we see or know or have seen or known over the years are gobshites and always the knobheads of the bunch but the city fans was always the quiet, reserved cool kid in the corner keeping themselves to themselves.
 
I presume we're roughly the same age, and having been born in 1964, I was never quite old enough to remember the 68-70 period with any clarity.

Where we differ slightly is that being educated in Marple in the mid 70s, my School Year (plus the one above and below) were predominantly City-biased (my form alone boasted 9 City fans and only 5 United fans)

In answer to your question from another post, the one thing I noticed whilst queueing at the swamp the other week, is the ageing demographic of the United support when compared with the hundreds of young kids at the ETIHAD.

These kids aren't scarred by memories of Cantona or the Class of 92. They're the future, and it's predominantly sky blue
I've coached my son's football team for 11 years (they're U18 now) and when I started there were very few City shirts amongst the kids (other teams not just ours) on training nights but now there are many more. Not the majority yet (we're in Warrington so plenty of Liverpool and United shirts still, given we are midway between the two) but definitely a noticeable upward trend. The red-shirted teams didn't get millions of followers because they all had a deep connection with the North West of England, it's success pure and simple. They had success in the past and we are having it now. It takes time but the young fans we attract now will provide a generation of City supporters in the future.
 
I think we were regularly the third best supported club throughout the 1970s after the 2 red **** clubs. It is clear to me that the media will always pander to the huge support base of those 2 clubs, which means we will always be portrayed extremely negatively by the media, which in turn has significantly stunted the growth of our fan base. The only real change I see is at primary school and secondary school ages where our local Manchester area support is clearly growing, but not yet back to where it was when I was a kid when you used to see loads more City than rag shirts. The Ferguson era clearly changed that balance, and although it’s going our way locally I don’t see too much evidence of a national or international change


For the 11 seasons from 75/76 to 85/86 we had either the 3rd or 4th highest average attendances in the country.
The 2 exceptions were 83/84 amd 84/85 when we were in the 2nd tier but still averaged the 6th and 8th highest attendance.

As far as TV audiences go the PL released figures about 18 months ago confirming we had moved into 3rd place behind United and Liverpool as the 3rd most watched team internationally on TV.

PositionLeagueAvg.Crwd PosHighLow
199014127.975543.24623.350
19892223.500640.07016.033
19889219.4721230.15315.172
198721121.922835.33617.507
198615124.229448.77318.899
19853224.219847.28520.047
19844225.604641.86219.147
198320126.789445.40020.615
198210134.063452.03724.443
198112133.587350.11426.141
198017135.272350.06727.664
197915136.203446.71027.366
19784141.687350.85632.412
19772140.058350.02032.427
19768134.280450.43927.256
19758132.898645.19424.047
197414130.756751.33121.590
197311132.351752.08623.973
19724138.573663.32625.677
197111131.041943.62317.961
197010133.9301063.01322.006
196913133.750963.05220.108
1968Champion137.223662.94222.002
 
I grew up in the last golden era of Manchester City, 1976 and the Tony Book side but City were massively outnumbered at my school even then and then came 3 decades of abject failure. The result was that City fans were the hard core loyalists. If you were a City fan, you were a loyal person, dogged and stubborn with good human qualities. There was always I felt a bond between City fans of shared experience that I don't think many football fans feel. I always feel a glow towards my fellow fans even to this day when I go to the game. I just like being with fellow city fans because I know what we have all been through. It's a shared experience that no one else has had.

Once I think we all felt damned. Bringing up your child to be a city fan was almost an act of cruelty and yet it turned into a blessing. We weren't damned at all, we were the blessed generation and we didn't know it. The ones who follow us are unlikely to experience the joys we felt. I think it's called catharsis. There are very few clubs or fanbases who have experienced this.

It was either James H Reeve, or James Stannage, two great radio presenters who I used to listen to after the game who described City as God's own football club. I think every fan thinks their football club is special but I look around at other clubs, and none has our history. And yet many other football fans regard city as plastic. Nothing could be further from the truth. Not for the old generation anyway.
Your best ever post Marvin, and there have been some very good ones, as well as some shit ones lol. Sums up City fans of that era very well indeed, and we did have that special bond, almost a togetherness and pride in our team’s shitness which was always at odds with the loyalty, humour and self deprecation of our wonderful fan base. It isn’t quite like that anymore, but most things aren’t I guess for us FOCs.

Just as an aside I used to keep a scrapbook of newspaper cuttings that used to regularly compliment us as a fan base, probably the Mirror more than any (how times change), but there was one quote I still remember which was from the late great Sir Bobby Robson, when we’d beaten them 2 1 at Maine Road in a late season game when we had fuck all to play for and Ipswich were going neck and neck with liverpool for the title. Bobby afterwards said how amazing our support was, how it had won the game for us and that if Ipswich had support like that they’d win the league every year. A great tribute from a great man. We were there when we were shit.
 
For the 11 seasons from 75/76 to 85/86 we had either the 3rd or 4th highest average attendances in the country.
The 2 exceptions were 83/84 amd 84/85 when we were in the 2nd tier but still averaged the 6th and 8th highest attendance.

As far as TV audiences go the PL released figures about 18 months ago confirming we had moved into 3rd place behind United and Liverpool as the 3rd most watched team internationally on TV.

PositionLeagueAvg.Crwd PosHighLow
199014127.975543.24623.350
19892223.500640.07016.033
19889219.4721230.15315.172
198721121.922835.33617.507
198615124.229448.77318.899
19853224.219847.28520.047
19844225.604641.86219.147
198320126.789445.40020.615
198210134.063452.03724.443
198112133.587350.11426.141
198017135.272350.06727.664
197915136.203446.71027.366
19784141.687350.85632.412
19772140.058350.02032.427
19768134.280450.43927.256
19758132.898645.19424.047
197414130.756751.33121.590
197311132.351752.08623.973
19724138.573663.32625.677
197111131.041943.62317.961
197010133.9301063.01322.006
196913133.750963.05220.108
1968Champion137.223662.94222.002
Typical City highs and lows in some of those years
 
And it's no coincidence that every rag acquaintance we see or know or have seen or known over the years are gobshites and always the knobheads of the bunch but the city fans was always the quiet, reserved cool kid in the corner keeping themselves to themselves.
Yep, always has been, go in any pub and it's always the gobby cnuts giving it large that are rags.
 
Yep, always has been, go in any pub and it's always the gobby cnuts giving it large that are rags.

In the heady days of August when they were wanking over getting one over on us signing Ronaldo they were. Shit loads of them in their replica shirts knocking about, as Autumn is succeeded by winter they are back in their natural place of self loathing and not being that interested in football. This wasn’t on the brochure when they picked a successful team to support and bask in the reflected glory.
 
decent read but didn't really need the 6th paragraph.
An utterly bizarre but depressingly predictable non-sequitir from the Guardian sports desk, a vile nest of City hating hypocrites and sexual deviants who still seem fit to hector others about ethics and morality.
Why start banging on about money in an article about a player who cost us nothing?
 
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