Diogenes
Well-Known Member
In the light of yesterdays champions league final win against Real Incester a lot of us are in reflective mood about just how far we have progressed the last 6 years. I think we are in the healthiest position the club has been in, probably since the start of the prem days.
I started following City in the mid/late 90s. My first game was a pre season friendly against a Spanish team in 1999 - Espanyol i think? Then started regularly going in the 99/00 season. My first full season was a mix of excitement, hope, and ultimately disappointment as our away day hoodoo hamstrung our league position and the promising future we saw in Keane was snatched away.
That failure to win away from home was the start of a long list of things that made me come to the conclusion that we were cursed.
You know the score - if a team is on a bad run and comes up against us, we are guaranteed to gift them the three points. This has happened repeatedly and so disproportionate - when did we ever do the same to others?
You know everything that's happened since 2001 - you know what rotten "luck" we have bad.
On a personal level - I live up north and after the 2001 relegation attended 6-10 games a year. Between 2001 and 2009 I didn't see city win a single game in the flesh. It was soul destroying.
I saw mediocre clubs bypass us, and get promoted to the prem multiple times whilst we just festered. They made it look so easy, why not us?
Is city just a club for losers? Am I the loser? Am I the Curse?
These were the thoughts constantly going through my mind about football and it had an effect, I had to take a step back. I didn't bother with football at all for years and I just blocked it out for the most part.
Since then I watch city from afar, the people I used to go with are dead or too ill to go now. I've watched the Wembley finals and soaked up the success of the past few seasons as an armchair fan.
The Robins revolution has reinvigorated my passion, but beyond that it's not just what Robins and Co are doing on the pitch. It's how the club are being governed. I'm sure King has many faults, but for the first time in all of my life as a city fan it feels like the people running the club are doing so with its interests at heart.
Even just the retro shirts that have come out, they are a way to connect with our past. The club has no museum, the stuff in the shop until this year was tat only, we could have been founded in 2020 with the total lack of heritage displayed. Theres a long way to go, but thats clearly changing. Then there's the statue, the training ground, the signings strategy....So much positive long term thinking.
All of it in complete opposite to how the club has been run the last 30 years. I think what I'm trying to say is that only since King has come in, am I starting to understand the colossal scale of mismanagement (and worse) that took place at least from the mid 90s onwards.
The way the club and its fans have been treated is nothing short of criminal. Though that surely, is what has made it what it is today. Would we have the second highest away following in the league, or 25k home average without our abusive past? I think not.
So when Leicester, Leeds, Sunderland disparage us and refer to it as our cup final I cant help but smile. After all, maybe it is? Since looking into the abyss every game at this level is a bonus, we know how quickly that can be taken away from us. So let's enjoy the ride whilst it lasts.
Should Reading ever come back from their current predicament and be hammering us in a few years, I certainly won't be looking down my nose at them.
I started following City in the mid/late 90s. My first game was a pre season friendly against a Spanish team in 1999 - Espanyol i think? Then started regularly going in the 99/00 season. My first full season was a mix of excitement, hope, and ultimately disappointment as our away day hoodoo hamstrung our league position and the promising future we saw in Keane was snatched away.
That failure to win away from home was the start of a long list of things that made me come to the conclusion that we were cursed.
You know the score - if a team is on a bad run and comes up against us, we are guaranteed to gift them the three points. This has happened repeatedly and so disproportionate - when did we ever do the same to others?
You know everything that's happened since 2001 - you know what rotten "luck" we have bad.
On a personal level - I live up north and after the 2001 relegation attended 6-10 games a year. Between 2001 and 2009 I didn't see city win a single game in the flesh. It was soul destroying.
I saw mediocre clubs bypass us, and get promoted to the prem multiple times whilst we just festered. They made it look so easy, why not us?
Is city just a club for losers? Am I the loser? Am I the Curse?
These were the thoughts constantly going through my mind about football and it had an effect, I had to take a step back. I didn't bother with football at all for years and I just blocked it out for the most part.
Since then I watch city from afar, the people I used to go with are dead or too ill to go now. I've watched the Wembley finals and soaked up the success of the past few seasons as an armchair fan.
The Robins revolution has reinvigorated my passion, but beyond that it's not just what Robins and Co are doing on the pitch. It's how the club are being governed. I'm sure King has many faults, but for the first time in all of my life as a city fan it feels like the people running the club are doing so with its interests at heart.
Even just the retro shirts that have come out, they are a way to connect with our past. The club has no museum, the stuff in the shop until this year was tat only, we could have been founded in 2020 with the total lack of heritage displayed. Theres a long way to go, but thats clearly changing. Then there's the statue, the training ground, the signings strategy....So much positive long term thinking.
All of it in complete opposite to how the club has been run the last 30 years. I think what I'm trying to say is that only since King has come in, am I starting to understand the colossal scale of mismanagement (and worse) that took place at least from the mid 90s onwards.
The way the club and its fans have been treated is nothing short of criminal. Though that surely, is what has made it what it is today. Would we have the second highest away following in the league, or 25k home average without our abusive past? I think not.
So when Leicester, Leeds, Sunderland disparage us and refer to it as our cup final I cant help but smile. After all, maybe it is? Since looking into the abyss every game at this level is a bonus, we know how quickly that can be taken away from us. So let's enjoy the ride whilst it lasts.
Should Reading ever come back from their current predicament and be hammering us in a few years, I certainly won't be looking down my nose at them.
