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Sunday 09 May 2010: Kick Off 1600

It was tempting to write this preview as a post-mortem on City’s failed Champions League quest, but really it all boiled down to the fact we were not quite good enough. The draws, the cagey approach to big games, the supposed rifts between Mancini and some of the playing staff – it is all so much dust right now. What matters is that MCFC and its supporters, players and staff have had, to younger generations at least, a season of unprecedented success. Our highest ever premiership points tally. In the top six for the vast majority of the season, Semi-finals of a cup competition for the first time in this writer’s lifetime, doubling the champions-elect, fourteen goals in a three-game run, Carlitos Tevez. The list goes on.

Then there is the obvious disappointments, but to be honest they can go and whistle – the last thing the club and the fans need is to brood over our shortcomings. Mistakes can be useful, and City need to make sure the mistakes that have been made this season, at all levels, are learnt from and eradicated. The club is in an extremely healthy state, and the scope for further improvement is heartening. We are not in around eight hundred million pounds (looks even bigger writing it out like that eh?) of debt; we are not crippled by the cost of a new stadium, nor are we the subject of some shady boardroom power struggle. Our manager has the full support of the board and the majority of fans and as an aside is unlikely to be charged with tax evasion. We are also not facing the prospect of our best players being sold to service debt.

The critics, upstanding paragons of integrity to a man, will point to the money. “You spent all that money and look where it got you”. These people would have been the same hacks spouting the “You bought it” line had we managed to qualify for the Champions League. Let them write their bile – they are as insignificant to MCFC as say, the opinions of a few thousand Norwich fans are to a certain American family. Make no mistake, City are back among the big boys now and we will only get better.

Three hundred and sixty words in and no mention of the game itself! It may have the feeling of a dead-rubber game, but fifth place is still up for grabs and Villa will obviously do their best to take it from us. A win may not be technically imperative (a draw secures fifth place), but it would be good for everyone connected to the club to end the season on a positive note.
West Ham have had a rough old time of it this season, only securing their premier league status last weekend, so should be right up for this game as the pressure is off. The Boleyn Ground will be packed out and the team should be aiming to pay their fans back for some pathetic performances earlier in the season. The City players will have to have put Wednesday night out of their minds, as for all their struggles West Ham have players that can hurt us, including an Egyptian striker who the Blues are rumoured to be interested in.

Speculation as to Mancini’s team selection and tactics feel somewhat pointless at this stage – whatever team he puts out on Sunday should be, with the greatest respect to a great club, well able to beat West Ham. So let’s get out there, put in a good performance to secure our best-ever premier league finish, and head into what promises to be an interesting football-and-transfer-speculation filled summer with our heads held high.

Thanks to The Man In Blue of ManCityFans.Net for writing this preview.

City Of Manchester Stadium: 05 May 2010, Kick-Off 19:45

There is neither happiness nor unhappiness in this world; there is only the comparison of one state with another. Only a man who has felt ultimate despair is capable of feeling ultimate bliss… the sum of all human wisdom will be contained in these two words: Wait and Hope.”
- Alexandre Dumas.

He talked a good game, that Dumas, but as he wrote those words he could have had no idea what ‘ultimate despair’ really meant. He never saw Robert Taylor race onto a Carl Asaba backheel.
“And that is bye bye Division Two for Gillingham, Division One here we come.”

Without that low there could not have been the high. Paul Dickov dropped to his knees, arched back, head raised to the sky, seeing nothing. Wembley combusted. Only one thing mattered. City were back.
Ultimate bliss? No. But hope. A future. City could wait.

Robert Taylor would break our hearts again, but only by signing a two year deal. We would not then have dared to hope for so much as we have now. Our wait for a trophy continues. That banner is still there. But people talk about it now. They talk about ‘when’, not ‘if’. They talk about us. They talk about little else. And the derision, we’re nobody’s second team, cannot disguise their fear.

A win for City tonight and Champions’ League qualification is in our hands. Kaka’ has offered his opinion. Gianluigi Buffon is intrigued, no doubt his accountant is too. Torres? Villa? The rewards are obvious, just three years ago they were unthinkable.

Spurs have as much to gain. They have spending power, experience, quality. They’ve been on the cusp before. They’ve also won 11 of the last 12 games between the sides. City’s 3-0 defeat at White Hart Lane sealed Mark Hughes’s fate. Under Mancini, City have sacrificed some of their verve for composure. Tactically astute, disciplined, controlled. Not words that you would ever have associated with Manchester City, but it is Mancini’s vision.

The form book holds little relevance. This is a one off. A final. The players must leave everything on the pitch. City will do just that. It may be oil which has fuelled our resurgence but it is the fire in the hearts of our support, in the veins of Tevez, Bellamy and de Jong, which will push us to a level we have not seen before.

In 1999 losing was unthinkable. Tonight may be different. “It’s not do or die for us” said Craig Bellamy. Perhaps that’s true. Perhaps our ascent is inevitable. But for those packed into Eastlands, tonight will still feel like “do or die”. Roberto Mancini has implored his players not to be nervous. For the fans that is not an option. We will do what we always have: Wait and hope.

Prediction:  Impossible.