It’s guest blog time again but it’s a familiar voice you’re about to hear. Colin Michael has been kind enough to help MFW this season with some of the match previews and as a regular commenter, has more than earned his stripes. Here he takes us to the *inverted commas* Promised Land.
Take it away Colin…
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Professional sportspeople play to win trophies; to play at the highest level; to pit their wits and skills against the best players.
To them, winning tends to mean everything. Being runner up or coming close is okay but comes with ‘no cigar’, as the saying goes.
So here we are, on our way back to the Promised Land. What a fantastic season once again it’s been and City will be crowned champions of England’s second division for the fifth time in the club’s long history; this time around standing imperious, top of the class with distinction, and season 2021-22 will be our 27th in the top flight of English football.
Lest we forget, the past 120 years have also seen us reach three FA Cup semi-finals, win two League Cups, and most recently, in 1993, advance to the third round of the UEFA Cup. However, these momentous events are all a very long time ago and football has changed; the money brokers have seen to that.
I am lucky, (always have been). Now in my 65th year, I can recall most of our achievements plus England winning the 1966 World Cup, still the footy moment to eclipse everything, (I was just 11 and a football-mad schoolboy at the time).
Let me assume then, from my own experience, that football fan club ‘life sentences’ are handed out between 8-10 years of age. Therefore, when it comes to major achievements, all City supporters below the age of 38 will have no actual recollection of anything other than Championship winning/promotion seasons and virtually zero chance of witnessing anything more, including any outfield player being picked for England.
Being crowned champions will fill us with hope and expectation yet again for the Premier League campaign ahead and so it should – we have been fantastic and support the best club in the land.
What lies in store we wonder, or should we?
In reality, the ‘Big Five’ – Arsenal, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool – win everything. Over the past 25 seasons, both the Premier League and FA Cup have been won by one of them with just three exceptions – Portsmouth, Wigan, and Leicester) and the League Cup has been won by Man City in five of the past seven seasons with Chelsea and Man Utd the two imposters.
I suppose we should look forward to the fight to avoid relegation, to proving all TV and football media pundits wrong, beating Leeds and Villa plus one of the ‘Big Five’, and watching on as our prized assets move on for tens of millions in search of the trophies, accolades, and recognition a club like us simply cannot give them.
We should therefore cherish this campaign, as we have done our Championship campaigns of the past, and cling on to those wonderful memories.
Anyone for a cigar?
Me too. My first game was the January 1959 thrashing of the mighty Man United which kicked off the run to the semis of the FA Cup, when I was not quite a teenager.
Lately I’ve been fantasising that if we could be certain of the good years, two years getting promoted and one disappointing year of relegation might be better than PL survival a la Burnley or Newcastle?
No thought not … no cigar … OTBC
How good was that team Roger, I bet the atmosphere was electric, rattles and all!
Good read, like you , my friend can look back and savour our highlights from being 7 during the 59 run, going to old Trafford and beat the great Utd. Ron Saunders, John Bond, Ken Brown etc. The Old first division was a different animal when we first graced it. It is unrecognisable now. The Grand Cayon size gap between the big clubs and the lesser one is more incredible than it has been.
We know only too well we can not compete at those levels off the field, but no reason why we cannot give a game to them on the field. My only hope is the purse strings are relaxed .
Thank you.
Although competing with the very top clubs on a regular basis is no longer likely In many ways we are perhaps the lucky ones. Winning the Championship/promotion regularly is a huge achievement and wonderful for our fans, so many incredible memories. Such memories and occasions are denied to fans of the top clubs where finishing second is seen as failure.
Remembering the 59 cup run is quite something my late Dad was a Luton Town supporter, say no more.
I hate the Premier League. VAR has destroyed the atmosphere. Secondly, smaller clubs that are “well run” can’t often spend until January, when it is perhaps too late. I’d rather teams, on the day that they are mathematically promoted, are granted 80% of their guaranteed TV revenue so that they can genuinely spend money in the summer. If only we’d been able to afford Dean Ashton in the summer for example….
Nor do I care for 7pm kick offs on a Sunday, or just 3 Saturday 3pm kickoffs for example. Hate it.
If we can keep Emi, we have our best chance to stay up this time.
I must admit VAR sends shivers down my spine. In my mind I go back to Pukki’s brilliant disallowed 2nd v Spurs last time around, we’d have been 2 up. Supposedly offside by a toe nail. We were never the same after that game.
Hi Colin
I’m just a year younger than you so share the same timeline – although I saw relatively little of us in the 70s and 80s as I was living and working in London.
Handy enough for our latter three League Cup finals, of course. Goodmayes to Wembley Park [change at Liverpool Street] took well under an hour. Not many City fans on the first train though!
The ways of the football world have changed so much over our particular generation. When it comes to *development* I’m finding myself in a situation whereby I look back on the past with rosy tints on, enjoy the present but very much fear for the future – if that makes any sense!
Funny that, I must have the same specs as you, guess all we can do as we grow older is to enjoy the moments as and when they come along. We are both into our 7th decade of following footy, how lucky we’ve been!
It is the time to be looking forward to another go at the Premier League Colin.
Between 1986 and 1993 we achieved a 4th, 5th and a 3rd in the Premier League/First Division, so for a period of time we were a top 6ish club.
Heady days indeed and the football we played in that era was fantastic and it is why although I loved the football and the players from the Championship winning team of 2 years ago I did think some of us got a little bit carried away.
The team Ken Brown built and continued by Dave Stringer and Mike Walker was the best in our history without a doubt. Sadly ruined by one Mr Robert Chase.
That is why the comparison with the great Ipswich teams of the past and our selves is totally unfair to us.
We were denied European football because of the awful tragedy at the Heysel Stadium, twice through league finishes and once from winning the Milk/League Cup. Who knows how much the club lost through that.
I think it highly unlikely those days will ever return in my lifetime. But teams like Charlton, Bolton, Stoke City, Blackburn Rovers, Burnley etc have had and some still have extended stays in the Premier League so it is possible to achieve this.
I looked at the Premier League table from 20 years ago and ten years ago and there were 7-8 teams no longer in that league at the moment. That’s roughly a 30 % turnaround every ten years so get a good manager, good training facilities and scouting network and we have a chance to have a few good years in the Premier League.
If that sounds a bit negative I’m afraid for us to stay there for a longer, established period of time as the way things are these days I do think you do need higher financial investment than our two very good owners can afford, a debate for another day.
You make some valid points, especially our ‘long stay in the top flight and being denied European adventures.
The inaugural Premier League had 22 clubs, hard to imagine the likes of Oldham in the top flight, (although we will always be indebted to them for selling us ‘Only one ‘F’ in Fleming’). Both ourselves and the Tractor Boys were part of it too.
I’ll hang onto your optimism.
Even more interesting is looking at the First Division table from say 1920-21 – 100 years ago – 12 of the teams in that division are in the Premier League now. So to break into the outer circle of top 20 teams in the country is still some achievement given that there are now effectively roughly 8 spaces up for grabs! If one then considers that we finished 16th in Division 3 that season (with Brighton at 18th being the only other Prem club to have been lower than us 100 years ago) then over the long term we have been very successful to rise as high as we have! NB Ipswich weren’t even in the football league so they have merely descended to their natural level. Class is permanent!
We were formed in 1902 and I seem to recall reading that was the year Newton Heath reformed as Man Utd, next season we will be playing them so the point you make regarding our success is spot on.
Indeed, the teams outside the top flight in 1919-20 but above us were West Ham, Leicester, Southampton,Fulham, Leeds, Wolvesand Palace. The only current Prem club below us was Brighton. So we are keeping pretty good company by hanging on their coat tails after a hundred years!
Great column Colin, and some excellent comments.
I have my 67th birthday in June so can level with all of the above…
What I would say about NCFC for those supporters under 40, what an amazing supporting period you’ve witnessed. OK, we have not yet found the consistency to deliver a sustained run in the Premier League….however, the other side to that is that there has hardly ever been a season when we’ve not been in a promotion battle or relegation scrap. How much more interesting it must be to be a member of the Canary faithful than a follower of teams like Palace, Burnley (and now Brighton, Newcastle et al) who are desperate merely to stay at the PL table.
O T B C
In fairness, I am jealous who has lived through the period from 1959 until now. They have seen it all.