People like Rio Ferdinand , who's insisting he's seein' an increase in blue shirts on the streets ( although Nani appears to want to give him an arguement ) need reminding that back when the Etihad first opened for business , a few years before Shinawatra found his way here , the arabs showed up , or even when we had few , if any , top class , players , we were still pulling in 47,000 crowds in a number of games .......
and let's face , if we could have got them in , we'd have crammed 47,000 into Maine Road for that final fixture with Southampton ... such was the clamour for tickets !
in fact , Rio , our league crowds have rarely dipped below the 40,000 mark in all the time we've spent at the new stadium .... even through the Stuart Pearce era , which was probably Citys worst home form since records began back in the late 1800's!!!!!
