A global journey…
Does Sven Goran-Eriksson have any undestanding of how deeply unpopular he is in England? The man who took England's best generation of players in a long time and turned them into a toothless celebrity sideshow will have a hard time winning friends in England, no matter how badly Steve McClaren does. The Swede's going to get booed and mocked at several Premiership grounds next season so I'm genuinely amazed he's chasing the Manchester City job. Further, if he had a heart Sven wouldn't be subjecting Manchester City fans to his dull brand of "two banks of four" football. They've suffered enough.
City's a club with great support and history. They famously won the FA Cup in 1956, with German keeper Bert Trautmann playing on after breaking his neck. Legend. Then there was the famous midfield of Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee in the late '60s early '70s, which brought a league title in 1967/8 and the European Cup Winners Cup in 1970 (I miss that tournament.) But it's been mostly downhill and ill fortune since then.
There was a lot of money wasted in the '70s (this means you Steve Daley, sorry) and relegation to the old Second Division twice in the '80s. Then a brief resurgence in the early '90s gave way to absolute disaster. They were relegated from the Premiership to the First Division (second tier) in '96, then relegated even further to the Second Division (third tier) in '98. To make things worse, United were enjoying some unbridled success round about the same time.
The fans kept showing up though, bless their Mancunian hearts. After slowly but surely clawing their way back to the Premiership in 2002, moving into their shiny new stadium and maybe – if his bank accounts are still vaild – getting a bilionaire owner, the last thing the blue half of Manchester will want to see is the Svenster.
4 Responses
Tim on 26-06-2007 at 10:47 pm
Which dick wrote this dribble. Sven is by far the most accomplished manager that Man City have had in their history
Adz on 27-06-2007 at 12:03 am
Typical comment for a site that is called Soccer instead Football.
For a start, the majority of City fans are over the moon about this, its only the english media and people with goldfish memories who are causing this fake panic.
Do you forget that 2 years ago he was being touted as Alex Taggarts next in line at Old Trafford?
We are greatful that we have this opportunity to have the only manager who has won 3 domestic doubles in different countries and only lost a handful of games managing the worst national team in the world!
And this is not just from me. Its from all the other true City fans who I know and have spoken to.
Neil Warnock, get back under your rock!
leckhamptonblue on 27-06-2007 at 12:20 am
This article is very sad. I remember the days of Bell, Lee, Summerbee and co, and wonderful they were……..but they are gone. City’s support in the future rests on creating another successful City side today that will make kids all over Britain want to own a City shirt.
Sven is the best, yes best thing to happen to our club for a long time and combined with Frank’s bhats and Roland Andersson I can see us starting to build something really worthwhile. Why don’t the moaners just shut up and give this man a chance? Whinging before he has even started is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. All true City fans will reserve judgement. This article is the worst sort of ‘journalism’ and does not represent the views of most blues.
JK on 27-06-2007 at 1:47 am
Tim,
You’re spot on. City fans seem to forget that we aren’t a big club and haven’t been since the early 70′s. Getting Eriksson in is a great move. Apart from the last World Cup his record is good – only one defeat in all the qualifiers for the three major tournaments (for me, England are over-rated anyway). His club record is pretty good too. He’ll be able to attract big names hopefully. The only thing I fear is that he overlooks Academy Players like Sturridge etc. I was worrying a bit when I renewed my ticket again in March, but I’m looking forward now. I hope so called City fans at Eastlands give Eriksson and the team the support we all know they deserve!