Normal Service Resumes at City

Well now, it just goes to show that it probably doesn't make a huge amount of difference what regime (and I use the term advisedly) is in charge at City, there is just something inherently flaky and chaotic within the very fabric of the club that we are able to self destruct so spectacularly and with depressing regularity.

Just cast you mind back a short while to those heady pre-christmas days when we were riding high with 'nited looking up at us in the table and all was well with the world. Well, what a difference a few months makes.

It's difficult to put your finger on quite where it's all gone tits up and in which direction the club is heading now. Just w.t.f happened this afternoon, I mean being thrashed 8-1 by 'Boro - that really is rock bottom and captures in a scoreline the current gloom at Eastlands.

I'd like to think today was just a complete abhoration, and it probably was, but what was Dunny thinking of and why was there just such abject chucking in of the towel by the rest of the team in the knowledge that it was more likely than not Sven's last game. If Shinawatra had been wondering whether to hang on to Sven, any doubts he had must surely have evaporated at the Riverside.

Yes, I know we were stuffed today and our season has tailed off, but when you think about it, we have in Sven, one of the few managers with the gravitas and respect of the footballing world to be considered as a potential manager of Madrid, Inter & AC Milan, Barcelona, Chelsea and dare I say even United and we are just about to show him the door - the world has gone mad.... or is it just me ?

And just to rub salt into the deepening wounds, Taggart won another League title with the Rags this afternoon.

Thank Christ it's the cricket season already !

Sign Up to Save Sven

If you haven't seen this "Save our Sven" petition already, you might want to add your support.

Hopefully it's not just City fans who will sign, but also all football fans, irrespective of their club loyalties who will have been saddened by the rough treatment being handed out to Sven and will want to register their views about the almost certain departure from the Premiership of a fine manager and a genuinely nice guy.

Sven deserves better than this !

The Return of the old Citeh !

At the end of one of City's better seasons in many a year and during a nine month period since Sven took over when it has been difficult to find anything of substance to moan about, we have news today that the owner is about to shoot the club in the foot big-time, and dare I say score a massive own goal if reports of the imminent sacking of Eriksson are to be believed.

This is the stuff long suffering Blues have been waiting for, as it has been a sort of uneasy season when you just knew deep down that despite an upturn in fortunes, somehow it was unlikely to last long and this news marks the return of the Citeh of old that's seen us reeling from one crisis to the next.

I've a lot of time for Sven and I thing given a chance he could well have done great things with the Club, but it looks like now, we'll never know what might have been under his managership.

Shinawatra is obviously a clever guy, but it seems to have escaped him and his advisors that clubs who have found a good manager and stuck with him, have by and large enjoyed long periods of stability and success.

Just this evening we've seen Taggart take the Rags to another Champions League final, Wenger has transformed the Gooners over the last decade and even Moyes up the road at Goodison has been given time and has done a great job within a tight budget.

I have a feeling the full story behind Sven's departure has yet to emerge and I'm sure there will be endless speculation about it. However, in the blink of an eye, Shinawatra has managed to alienate a large proportion of the City fans with what looks like a misguided and badly advised course of action.

Sven's replacement will need to be a galactico of a manager to appease the fans and nothing short of someone like Mourinho will go anywhere near to making amends. Would even the "Special One" be that much better than Sven.... I doubt it very much, but I'd like to see him have a try.

Nice one Frank !

Bluesology Update

In response to the many requests I've had (both of them, and one of them was from my Mum) to post some articles, I would just like to apologise for the relative inactivity in recent weeks.

Unfortunately, I have a day job and at the moment am struggling to find enough time to spend with my family, let alone write articles.

I will be posting sometime soon though and will keep this Blog going..... things at City are almost getting sufficiently depressing at Eastlands to drive me back into action, so I could be back sooner rather than later.

Keep the faith !

City's Reverse Striker Issue Conundrum

Talk about famine and feast, it wasn't so long ago that City's firepower looked like it was going to have to rely on academy lads still green behind the ears and not well acquainted with the daily bathroom encounter with Mr Gillette or Mr Wilkinson.

Now, by a combination of new signings and players return from injury, Sven has got quite a problem choosing his best strike partnership from what now looks almost like a bottomless pit of forwards.

I say strike partnership, but Sven's favoured formation so far has been one up front, which if he sticks that line-up will make the problem of what to do with all the forwards much more acute. Strikers tend to be a highly strung lot by nature and none will relish the prospect of keeping the bench warm.

By my reckoning, the following are now all vying for two or maybe just one place:

- Bojinov

- Mpenza

- Benjani

- Vassell

- Caicedo

- Castillo

- Sturridge

Add to that list the strikers out on loan and you have the likes of Bianchi, Samaras, Dickov & Corradi, plus the precocious talent of academy graduate Ched Evans, who to me has top premiership striker written all over him, and you get a sense of scale of the issue City now have. Oh, and I forgot Etuhu.

Granted, some of the loan strikers are unlikely to return, but nothing is certain and City will have to do some serious thinning out of the herd in the summer, especially if Sven fancies other players during the transfer window.

I guess, after all we've been through over the last few years, it's a nice problem to have for a change, however, we've still yet to find our regular 20+ goals per season striker. Once we do that, I think we can start talking more realistically about trophies and a successful European campaign.

It'll be good to see City adopt a more attacking formation for the rest of the season, now that we seem to have an abundance of riches up front. Let's park the 4-5-1 formation and go back to a 4-4-2, maybe even throw the boat out and try a 4-3-3.

As for the best strike partnership, I haven't got a clue, but Sven needs to find it quick and stick with it. Any ideas ?

Time To Resume Normal Service

It's been a strange couple of weeks.

All the rubbish media hype about the inevitable disruption to the minute's silence by loutish City fans never materialised, much to the disgust of the gutter press who I'm sure already had articles penned in advance about what a load of low-life scum all us City fans are..... well, we're not, but we knew that anyway, and now that whole world knows it as well.

I've got to say I felt a bit more emotional about it during the event than I thought I would. For me, the lingering shot of Bobby Charlton's face captured the moment with his obvious pain, and from what he's said about it himself, lingering guilt about how he survived yet others around him didn't. It's clear that the passing of half a century has done little to heal any of his emotional scars judging by the sadness etched in his face - it was very moving indeed.

Anyway, going back to the strangeness thing. First of all doing the double over United is pretty strange enough - I'd just entered my teenage years the last time it happened and had almost forgotten what it was like. I hope I won't be drawing my pension before the next time it happens!

Then there has also been this recognition in the ranks of some United fans that City played well and actually deserved to win, with absolutely no suggestion that the referee had cost them the game; dare I say it, but we heard grudging admiration of what City achieved on Sunday.... and rightly so.

I don't know, all this appreciation from United makes one feel slightly uncomfortable; it's not something we're used to. I must admit it was nice to see our lads being applauded down at the Stretford End after the game - that must be a first !

Now that it's all thankfully over I'm just looking forward to getting back to normal service with the re-instatement of that peculiar Mancunian rivalry in all its incisively brutal cruelty yet at the same time affectionately humorous splendour - long may it continue !

Finally, for those of you who haven't seen this explanation of United's performance, click here ..... it's a classic !