Prestwich_Blue
Well-Known Member
As this is my 25,000th post I wanted to do something a bit special. On Thursday 26th January 2006 at 4:06pm, I joined Bluemoon. That’s pretty well seven and a half years ago. What was going on at the time in the City world?
Stuart Pearce was in his first full season as our manager and up to Xmas we’d been doing alright. We’d just lost 2-0 at Bolton the weekend before and were about to play Wigan in the FA Cup Fourth Round. The team for that game was James; Sun, Dunne, Distin, Jordan; Sinclair; Barton, Ireland, Riera; Cole, Vassell. Not a bad team really in hindsight.
Chelsea, under Mourinho, were running away with the league but we’d been in a respectable seventh place as we went into the holiday period, just 4 points behind 4th placed Spurs, with (incredibly) Bolton & Wigan ahead of us. The previous season had seen that saved penalty in the last seconds of the last game against Boro that, if it had been scored, would have seen us in Europe so things looked good. However we only took one point from the next 4 games. We then won our next four home games (including 3-1 against the rags) but lost the four away games. We started a slide down the table and although we were never really in any danger, we finished in a disappointing 15th place.
We won that FA Cup game against Wigan and went to Villa on a Sunday evening. Despite dominating the game, we went a goal down but with the last kick of the game, a young Micah Richards headed the equaliser. We won the replay and had a home quarter final against West Ham. Maybe it would be our year for the Cup? But we lost in a disappointing game that we never really got to grips with and that saw Jihai Sun sent off. The previous summer had seen the departure of Shaun Wright Phillips to Chelsea and his replacement by the rough diamond that was Georgios Samaras, just 4 days after I signed up on here.
A few weeks before, I attended my first AGM, which may well have been the event that prompted me to join Bluemoon. I was quite shocked by the cavalier attitude shown by the board and the glib answers (or non-answers) to the questions asked. I wrote to Alistair Mackintosh to express my view and request answers to some fundamental questions but didn’t get them. As 2006 went on, I was more and more drawn to the idea that we, as fans and shareholders, should have more of a voice. This led me to some like-minded people and we explored and formed a Supporters Trust.
I never imagined at the time that in the next 12 months, I’d spend virtually all my spare time working on this and seemingly talking to journalists, shareholders and senior club employees on a regular basis. I quickly realised that the people running the club simply didn’t give two hoots about us and were far more interested in feathering their own nests. We definitely had them running scared by the end of 2006, so much so that I believe they told a blatant lie to the Stock Exchange to forestall us. I was disappointed by that, having been ever so close to a staggering success but things have a habit of working out for the best. We went through our controversial ownership by Thaksin Shinawatra then were taken into the capable hands of Sheikh Mansour.
And in all that time I racked up my post count, got a reputation as a bit of a WUM and a hopefully better one as a commentator on our finances. I’ve also made a lot of friends on here (and I suspect a few enemies). We’ve all come a long way in those seven and a half years, so much so we’re seriously discussing signing Messi rather than Bernardo Corradi. What will my next 25,000 posts bring for City? World domination (or typical City fuck ups), a CL win or two, the downfall of the rags, plenty of belly laughs, more friendships and the support of the wonderful Bluemoon community when needed? All of those I hope but whatever happens hopefully it’ll be as much fun as the first 25,000.
So when did you join this fine forum, what prompted you in particular and what was going on in the City world at the time?
Stuart Pearce was in his first full season as our manager and up to Xmas we’d been doing alright. We’d just lost 2-0 at Bolton the weekend before and were about to play Wigan in the FA Cup Fourth Round. The team for that game was James; Sun, Dunne, Distin, Jordan; Sinclair; Barton, Ireland, Riera; Cole, Vassell. Not a bad team really in hindsight.
Chelsea, under Mourinho, were running away with the league but we’d been in a respectable seventh place as we went into the holiday period, just 4 points behind 4th placed Spurs, with (incredibly) Bolton & Wigan ahead of us. The previous season had seen that saved penalty in the last seconds of the last game against Boro that, if it had been scored, would have seen us in Europe so things looked good. However we only took one point from the next 4 games. We then won our next four home games (including 3-1 against the rags) but lost the four away games. We started a slide down the table and although we were never really in any danger, we finished in a disappointing 15th place.
We won that FA Cup game against Wigan and went to Villa on a Sunday evening. Despite dominating the game, we went a goal down but with the last kick of the game, a young Micah Richards headed the equaliser. We won the replay and had a home quarter final against West Ham. Maybe it would be our year for the Cup? But we lost in a disappointing game that we never really got to grips with and that saw Jihai Sun sent off. The previous summer had seen the departure of Shaun Wright Phillips to Chelsea and his replacement by the rough diamond that was Georgios Samaras, just 4 days after I signed up on here.
A few weeks before, I attended my first AGM, which may well have been the event that prompted me to join Bluemoon. I was quite shocked by the cavalier attitude shown by the board and the glib answers (or non-answers) to the questions asked. I wrote to Alistair Mackintosh to express my view and request answers to some fundamental questions but didn’t get them. As 2006 went on, I was more and more drawn to the idea that we, as fans and shareholders, should have more of a voice. This led me to some like-minded people and we explored and formed a Supporters Trust.
I never imagined at the time that in the next 12 months, I’d spend virtually all my spare time working on this and seemingly talking to journalists, shareholders and senior club employees on a regular basis. I quickly realised that the people running the club simply didn’t give two hoots about us and were far more interested in feathering their own nests. We definitely had them running scared by the end of 2006, so much so that I believe they told a blatant lie to the Stock Exchange to forestall us. I was disappointed by that, having been ever so close to a staggering success but things have a habit of working out for the best. We went through our controversial ownership by Thaksin Shinawatra then were taken into the capable hands of Sheikh Mansour.
And in all that time I racked up my post count, got a reputation as a bit of a WUM and a hopefully better one as a commentator on our finances. I’ve also made a lot of friends on here (and I suspect a few enemies). We’ve all come a long way in those seven and a half years, so much so we’re seriously discussing signing Messi rather than Bernardo Corradi. What will my next 25,000 posts bring for City? World domination (or typical City fuck ups), a CL win or two, the downfall of the rags, plenty of belly laughs, more friendships and the support of the wonderful Bluemoon community when needed? All of those I hope but whatever happens hopefully it’ll be as much fun as the first 25,000.
So when did you join this fine forum, what prompted you in particular and what was going on in the City world at the time?