Sunday, May 20, 2012
Welcome To All New Manchester City Fans
Sports shops and street vendors throughout the region can
expect a few busy days; all around the world, excited new fans will be
downloading Blue Moon and listening to Oasis’ classic Wonderwall for the first
time after the exciting climax to the English Premier League that saw
Manchester City come from behind to score two goals and win their first title
in 44 years.
A new species of football fan was born when Sergio Aguero
drilled home the winner. The title success means that the Manchester City fan
has well and truly arrived in these parts.
Winning the league plus having obscenely rich owners is a
heady aphrodisiacal cocktail for teens high on testosterone and susceptible to
peer pressure. The Abu Dhabi money has made Manchester City seem sexy, much
like Roman Abramovich did with Chelsea and for those of us from an older
vintage it is all rather bemusing.
We know, for example that Manchester City were not formed in
2008, when the Arabs swept into the unfashionable half of Manchester, bailing
out the shamed former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra who had enough on
his plate to worry about football. We know that City had won nothing for ages,
that they had played in the third tier of English football and that they were
famous for croaking at the most inopportune moments.
We can now expect to see Manchester City Supporters’ Clubs
spread throughout the region as fans celebrate their new heroes and flock
together and proclaim their long lasting love for the team they knew nothing
about 18 months ago.
So what can the new Manchester City fan expect apart from
people laughing at them when they wear their replica shirt or their “I’m City
Till I Die’ t shirt?
Not much to be honest. Around the world when fans get
together on match day or to watch the game in the pub they have years of shared
experiences to talk about and relive. That 1-0 defeat in the last minute way up
north when only 200 fans travelled; the time they were chased outside of New
Street; that single programme they are missing from the 1973/74 season.
The new City fans have none of this. For them BC does not
denote events on the Old Testament or Roman expansion across Europe but the
time before Carlos Tevez arrived; a time when to all intents and purposes Manchester
City existed in a kind of dark age.
Maine Road means nothing to them. The Sky Blue Holy Trinity
of Bell, Lee and Summerbee might as well be a legal firm. The cheeky Denis Law
back flick that sent rivals United down back in 1974 will be as remote as the
island of Halmahara.
The day that City won 10-1, with three of their strikers
scoring hat tricks, will be an unknown piece of history, the yellow inflatable
bananas that launched a craze in the early 1980s will be incomprehensible. Georgi
Kinkladze? An eastern European diplomat. That single in the year in the third tier
of English football. Not on the radar.
They have a whole new lingo to learn as well. For example if
they hear someone say Dickov then it is not a term of abuse, rather a reverent
recollection of a diminutive Scottish striker named Paul Dickov whose goal in
the 2000 play off at Wembley set up the penalty shoot out that helped City
escape the ignominy of a second season in English football’s 3rd
tier.
Feed the goat does not mean preparing a beast for a family
get together but refers to an iconic striker named Shaun Goater. And if they
see people wearing a t shirt proudly proclaiming “Uwe’s Grandad Bombed Old
Trafford’ then that is not to be taken as a tendency to right wing fascistic
leanings but rather a tribute to another legendary striker, Uwe Rosler, and his
German ancestry.
There are likely to be several new faces joining the new
champions during the summer, just like there are going to be a lot of new faces
purchasing their first ever sky blue replica shirt. Both will have a lot to
learn about a football club that has its own rich, varied heritage.
# posted by Me @ 5:08 AM 
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