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Manchestuh Citeh

HarrowGill

Vital Youth Team
I read earlier this week that Man City fans were going to be calling for Pep Guardiola's head should they not make the Champions League this season, and suffer the 'ignominy' of Thursday nights visiting KAA Ghent, PSV Eindhoven or Marseille instead of Juventus, PSG or Barcelona.

Hmmm... short memories given that it wasn't too long ago that they were playing in the division below their local-ish rivals Stockport County and playing Macclesfield Town in what is now League One, and their fans were greeting us with chants of 'Where the fook is Gilling-yam?!' In their league fixture that season with us that season at Maine Road.

And we are nine mere days shy of the 18th anniversary of *that* day at Wembley, when were beating Man City 2-0 in the last ten minutes of the Second Division Play-Off final in front of 76,000 fans -still a third division/League One play-off final record- until Mark Harlsey, Paul-My-Dickov, and Nicky Weaver decided to fuck up our afternoon.

Given the passing of time, does anyone else wonder what if fortune took a different turn and we DID prevail that afternoon? Would the Qatari billionaires still have taken any interest in the light blue half of Manchester or would they be still have been the poorer, forgotten half of Manchester stuck somewhere in the football league and not in the Premiership?
 
HarrowGill - 21/5/2017 23:13

I read earlier this week that Man City fans were going to be calling for Pep Guardiola's head should they not make the Champions League this season, and suffer the 'ignominy' of Thursday nights visiting KAA Ghent, PSV Eindhoven or Marseille instead of Juventus, PSG or Barcelona.

Hmmm... short memories given that it wasn't too long ago that they were playing in the division below their local-ish rivals Stockport County and playing Macclesfield Town in what is now League One, and their fans were greeting us with chants of 'Where the fook is Gilling-yam?!' In their league fixture that season with us that season at Maine Road.

And we are nine mere days shy of the 18th anniversary of *that* day at Wembley, when were beating Man City 2-0 in the last ten minutes of the Second Division Play-Off final in front of 76,000 fans -still a third division/League One play-off final record- until Mark Harlsey, Paul-My-Dickov, and Nicky Weaver decided to fuck up our afternoon.

Given the passing of time, does anyone else wonder what if fortune took a different turn and we DID prevail that afternoon? Would the Qatari billionaires still have taken any interest in the light blue half of Manchester or would they be still have been the poorer, forgotten half of Manchester stuck somewhere in the football league and not in the Premiership?

Really can't see that Stockport County 18 years ago should come into the supporters' thinking when judging whether finishing in fifth place with the most expensively assembled squad in the country should constitute the sack for the manager. Would have been a monumental underachievement though of course there is a very fine line between 'success' and failure. Even finishing fifth it Would be ridiculous getting rid given his abilities as a coach/manager. Not sure about the phrase 'Manchester City fans' - 'a small section of Manchester City' fans would very likely be the reality.
It certainly could have been very different for both sides had we kept our lead. Probably more so for us - would have been interesting to see Taylor and Asaba together in second tier. Would Pulis have stayed in charge? City would likely have made it up to the premiership within the next few years - not sure when they were bought by the Qatari billionaires?
 
HarrowGill - 21/5/2017 23:13

1) Hmmm... short memories given that it wasn't too long ago that they were playing in the division below their local-ish rivals Stockport County and playing Macclesfield Town in what is now League One, and their fans were greeting us with chants of 'Where the fook is Gilling-yam?!' In their league fixture that season with us that season at Maine Road.

2) Given the passing of time, does anyone else wonder what if fortune took a different turn and we DID prevail that afternoon? Would the Qatari billionaires still have taken any interest in the light blue half of Manchester or would they be still have been the poorer, forgotten half of Manchester stuck somewhere in the football league and not in the Premiership?

1) The small selection of fans (percentage wise) is probably no different from those who started supporting Gillingham when we were in the Championship of whom for numerous years after we dropped back into league one spoke as if our defined place was back in the Championship.

But the thing is, Man City aren't really the same club as they were back in the late 90s. The amount of money that has been brought in has changed the benchmark of what is considered acceptable. Without the rich Qatarians (is that the correct spelling?) I am sure they would be more aware of the past.

Although I think most football experts appreciate they have defensive issues, the quality of their squad means qualifying for Champions League football is the very minimum, even during a transitional phase.

2) The Qatarians bought the club in 2008 and maybe one of the key decisive factors was Man City taking control of the City of Manchester stadium post 2002 - a modern stadium with about 50% more capacity over Maine Road. Provided they were in the Premier League and took control of the stadium them I think they would have still have ultimately got the nod. Hearsay only, but apparently they also considered Everton but didn't want to pay the additional cost to replace Goodison Park. I also heard it say the same about Spurs, but was dismissed early in considerations (source is primarily some of the journalists who do sections on Talk Sport)

As for us, Pulis was gone even if we had gone up. The strain in relationship between him and Scally was visibly bubbling under the surface for years. There was a certain amount of whispering that Pulis knew he was out of a job regardless of a result (cue a few conspiracists to suggest he deliberately threw the game away to spite Scally)

With hindsight, we probably did better going up the year later. We would have kept Bob Taylor who couldn't really be relied upon to be fit rather than selling him for a profit that enabled us to sign the likes of King, Shaw and Hope - the trio who probably did more to ensure our successes in the Championship.

With Pulis gone having got promoted, how well do people think Peter Taylor would have done taking over in the Championship? Would we have got the inspiring Peter Taylor who got us promoted in real life or the one in his second spell?

With hindsight, maybe that defeat against Man City was a blessing in disguise...
 
On a somewhat pedantic note of nationality, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan (to give him his abbreviated name) is actually from Abu Dhabi, not Qatar.

There is Qatari ownership of PSG, and I think they have a huge sponsorship deal with Barcelona.
 
Considering how much money has been spent on man city I can completely understand why they would consider it a failure to not get into the champions league.

It would be very embarrassing to spend all that money and be playing in the UEFA. On a slightly smaller scale, if gills got a billionnaire owner and spent the kind of money that Sheffield Utd can spend etc we'd no expect no less than promotion too despite our history being very different. With great resources come great expectations, and rightly so.

Nibbles - there's no chance puliswill have stayed in charge. We know from the court case that days BEFORE the play offs he had decided he wanted out to go to Norwich and tried to bribe scally into letting him go (hence his sacking for gross misconduct). Regardless of the result, pulis was gone as soon as he did that. It's only a wonder that scally waited until after the game to sack him.
 
Don't rate Pep as he's only achieved with the biggest budget and the team with none or one real opponent. This season has shown that he can buy the "best" players but isn't so hot when faced with several teams on or around the same level. On the same level as Brendan Rodgers at Celtic...