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CITY are in pole position to claim a place in next year's UEFA Cup after the Football Association was awarded an extra place in next season's competition.
THAKSIN Shinawatra's top choice as next City boss, Luiz Felipe Scolari, has hinted he would be happy to stay on as Portugal boss beyond this season's Euroe 2008 championships.
IT has been said many times that Manchester City are the soap opera of English football but even scriptwriters would struggle with the plot lines that currently cling so enthusiastically to the Blues.
"Anticipation has a habit to set you up for disappointment..."
It could, of course, only happen to Manchester bloody City. Our long suffering supporters are used to the element of farce that comes following the club; as far as I'm aware we're still the only team to get knocked out of the F.A. Cup by a balloon, for instance. But the events of the last 24 hours, where it has transpired that Sven Goran Eriksson's position as manager has become untenable, are extremely difficult to comprehend or accept. This represents a major balls up, even by City's standards.
Under Eriksson's leadership, City fans had started to truly believe that we were on the verge of something special for the first time in over thirty years. He gave us hope, sob. I concede that our aspirations only amounted to, say, a top six finish or, god forbid, the League Cup but that's what decades of crushing disappointments and mediocrity do to you.
When Thaksin Shinawatra (I refuse to give him his full title of Dr; that'll teach him, eh?) initially took over at City he was heralded as a messiah, the man to lead us into a new era of unparalleled success at Eastlands. We conveniently ignored his background. Electoral fraud? Who cares. Human rights abuses "of the worst kind" (alleged by Human Rights Watch, backed by Amnesty International)? Pah. What about our human rights, huh? Football fans are notoriously fickle when it comes to these things.
Christ, we even gave him the jovial nickname "Frank". As in Sinatra, geddit? Ha ha bloody ha. Well, no one is laughing now. Quite the opposite in fact. To say the natives are getting restless would be a gross understatement. City fans are so livid that they're signing online petitions in their, um, hundreds, because obviously megalomaniacs like Thaksin are prone to making decisions based on internet forums.
His decision to sack Sven, if indeed that transpires, defies all logic of course. At the beginning of the season a three year plan was outlined, with the objective for this season a top ten finish, which was been comfortably achieved. The six points taken from United were just an additional bonus, albeit a very welcome one. To then shift the goal posts considerably, at a time when the manager has the full support of both the fans and the players, beggars belief. Just typing these words is making me bash my keyboard with such ferocity that there's a very real danger the bones in my hands will disintegrate into a fine powder and I won't be able to finish thi...
It all looked so promising; an exciting blend of academy graduates (such as Micah Richards, Michael Johnson, Steven Ireland and Nedum Onuoha) complemented by talented foreign imports like Martin Petrov, Elano and Vedran Corluka. There was a real belief that we were building for the future. We were looking forward to next season with high expectation, and suddenly we find ourselves rudderless once more, lacking direction and effectively back to square one. All on a whim of an egotistical, despot leader. Argh. To make matters worse we don't even have a military junta to hand to overthrow him. Come back Franny Lee, all is forgiven...
Ric Turner |
