Just as Britain looks like it's going to wake up from it's lockdown slumber, the era of hoovering up trophies which has been Manchester City for the past 24 months seems to be at an end (for now). Obviously the league has been on the cards for some time, as I write this we're hours away from our first league game as former champions against the new champions Liverpool. No denying they've completely deserved it, regardless of City not being at the races this year they've been almost unstoppable and I'm sure will go down as one of the greatest single seasons in English football. But I'm not here to talk about them.
What's happened over this last few months has been mental hasn't it? I don't want to make light of anything because it's extremely sad so many lives have been lost, the pressures put on to key workers has been immense and the reality is that many will lose jobs after the furlough scheme ends. However, I have to say that I've had a very fortunate lockdown. Around a week into the UK coming to a standstill I moved over to my parents place in Southport where I've been incredibly well looked after, I've had the opportunity to exercise most days and I've even started to learn Spanish, all whilst 75% of the time the weather has been pleasant and from my parents balcony I've been looking out across the Irish Sea. Also, not consuming 12 pints of Guinness and eating a kebab every weekend has probably been a good thing and the lack of City/commute to work has actually got me to a position where I'm not having an anxiety attack by the 5th of the month wondering how the fuck am I going to get to payday again with what's coming out and what I have left in my bank account.
A bit of perspective really. I've also tried to put a bit of distance between myself and social media. Over the past decade I've used Twitter more than anything else, mostly for keeping up to date with what's going on in football. But as football ended on the 13th March, I was looking through my timeline and realising that I really couldn't give a fuck about what a lot of people have to say. Then there's people out there that I like and have an interest in things they say, but it doesn't mean that any of these people are my friends. And I think lockdown has really shown who is your mate and who isn't your mate. This morning for example I got a message off a guy a went to uni with, probably seen him 5 times in the past decade but this is the 3rd time he's reached out to me since this all began. Whereas there's people I see/read every Saturday for years but it's probably not crossed either of our minds to be in touch. It is what it is I guess. And as for Facebook, fuck me I don't know why I still have it. It's either some woman I met on a night out in 2008 putting pictures of her kids up or a bloke I went to school with who is unashamedly expressing an outrageous racist opinion with the tagline of "dont like it then fuck off!" or something equally as thought provoking.
Ironically the void I've tried to fill in distracting myself with social media has been taken up by Bluemoon. So now instead of scrolling through a timeline, I'm just reading thread after thread of shit opinions and unashamedly racist bollocks from "Barry Conlon's Deep Fat Fryer" instead of @IconicIlkay. Do yourselves a favour and never enter the Political Forum, it's not worth your blood pressure.
Which vaguely brings me on to City. The last blog I posted I got quite a bit of enjoyment writing about all things which have been shit about the past decade, and I think I'll probably enjoy writing about things that are shit at the moment. But things aren't really that shit at the moment.
Well not being there is shit. Football behind closed doors is shit. I don't usually watch a lot of football outside of watching City live and I've somehow watched Sheffield United 4 times in the past 2 weeks. As a former resident of London Road, Sheffield a stones throw away from Bramall Lane I've had a bit of a soft spot fort'Blades. And the Greasy Chip Butty song rivals the Ludo Miklosko song (sorry if that's now in your head). But fucking hell they're bad to watch. And Villa. And West Ham. And Burnley. And Bournemouth. And Norwich (how the fuck did we lose to them?!). In fact, I sometimes cannot believe how popular football is. As a fan that goes to most the games, Chelsea, Southampton, Brighton and Watford away games are all ones I look forward to, so I'm pretty gutted that I've missed out on them this year. But then again, I've probably lost a stone and I'll probably be out of debt in August, so swings and roundabouts. What has been particularly horrific is the last game I went to was the derby, I've still not seen their 2nd goal mind.
Yes we've lost the league and it hurts. Like any love story, it hurts when he/she goes out of your life, but then the most exciting bit is the chase for the next one. Those Autumn/Winter months of 2011, 2013 and 2017 were the most exciting times - yeah actually winning the title is the memory that stands out but when I think of QPR away in November 2011, beating Spurs at home in November 2013 or Chelsea away in September 2017 it gets me giddy as it's that point when you start thinking "it's on here". But I suppose the question is, do we have what it takes for next season?
At this point it looks like we're going to have to invest a bit. 3 players key to winning 6 competitions in just over a year (Kompany, Sane, Silva) will not be with us next season. We knew losing Vincent was going to be big but I don't think most were predicting it would be as big as it has been. Add to that Laporte's injury and Stones/Otamendi's inconsistent form and it's clear that defensive reinforcements are a priority. We've got a few games between now and the end of the season which don't mean a great deal, so any time that Eric Garcia and Taylor Harwood-Bellis can get would be preferential as if they flourish then it could save us some money.
It's been positive to see Tommy Doyle and Cole Palmer being involved in the squad, with Palmer apparently really impressing Pep. I've only seen Palmer play once in the flesh and he did stand out, however I'm not sure you can really judge a player too much from playing at under 18's. Just had a flashback to people saying Brandon Barker should be in the team instead of Jesus Navas as I typed that. I'm a big fan of Doyle, I've probably watched him 8-10 times and he's always looked the part. Another name that is getting linked with making the bench/appearances before the end of the season is Jayden Braaf. I'll be honest and say that I've only seen him in the flesh once and I thought he looked bright but not the finished article. A lot of City fans who watch YouTube compilations of players seem to think that he's the next Sancho... all players develop differently and you know I sell things to dickheads for a living, I'm not a scout, but for me he's not near Sancho level. But then I didn't think Sancho was going to be as good as Brahim Diaz and right now I've got that wrong. An exciting young prospect no doubt but I think if he does get his chance I do hope that the fan boys on Twitter don't ruin his confidence if he doesn't have a great first game.
I've spoken about the positives here but the negative is really quite a big negative - and at the moment it's unknown. So much depends on this CAS appeal. In the worst case scenario it isn't the end of the world, but it will take some adjusting to. I've already mentioned 3 players which were key to our recent success who will be gone, and when you think that Fernandinho, Aguero, Otamendi (as much as he can be a liability, he was in the PL team of the year in 2018) and Walker are all at the wrong end of their careers/they will need replacing within the next 2 years, we could probably do with having Champions League football to attract the best and also they will cost a lot of money to replace. Having said that, we signed David Silva and Yaya Toure without Champions League football. The show will go on, and the club won't fall to pieces, but as well as the issue above you would risk losing our players who hold the most value - Sterling, de Bruyne, Laporte, Bernardo. If it gets thrown out/if it's only one year then I think we'll be able to live with that.
We've got 7 weeks left of football for this season, top 4 spot as good as done, 2 games to win to retain the FA Cup and then 4 games to try and win the Champions League. It probably won't happen but if that's how it turns out then perhaps the big bald Dyson hasn't completely packed in yet, and it will probably go down as one of the greatest seasons the clubs had. Which would probably suit these odd times we're living in.
