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23:08
4 May
2008 |
The Dark Side Of Blue Moon |
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Football supporters are a great exercise in crowd theory.
Individuals who, on their own, can barely stand or speak through alcohol intake, become en masse witty purveyors of the finest British satire.
Thus it was that the Manchester City fans at Anfield for today's game against Liverpool produced a blinder of a song as a badge of support for manager Sven-Goran Eriksson.
If you haven't been following proceedings, it's simple: Sven is almost certain to be sacked this summer by City's Thai owner, Thaksin Shinawatra, despite the club's best Premier League season for a decade or more. Thaksin doesn't think eighth or ninth place is good enough and, since he's the one waving the cash around, that's the end of Sven.
There's very little you can do to argue against that. If you're paying the club a few hundred million quid, you're probably entitled to make those decisions. But that doesn't make it any more justifiable to the thousands of fans who have seen enough rubbish from City over the years to know when things might just be on the up. They (and I) want Sven to stay, because we reckon he's got the chance to build something really good at the club, and we can't see any hope of Thaksin finding a better replacement.
So cue the City fans who, after singing the manager's name a few times, from nowhere produce a Pink Floyd pastiche:
We don't need no Phil Scolari
We don't need Mourinho
Hey! Thaksin! Leave our Sven alone!
Sven has been typically coy about his job in the post-match interview after the 1-0 defeat to Liverpool. If he does go it'll be a shame as I think he's conducted himself impeccably and struck up a strong rapport with the fans.
That said, results on the pitch have been less than impressive since 2008 began. Take away the stunning victory against Manchester United at Old Trafford in February, and this year has been something of a wash-out. It's questionable whether the second half of Sven's season has been much better than the second half of either of Stuart Pearce's campaigns.
Certainly, surrendering a 2-0 lead at home to Fulham to lose 3-2, in front of Thaksin and a gathered band of his fellow countrymen, was not the greatest result Sven could have hoped for at a time when the team could have done with impressing their chairman.
The problem is who Thaksin thinks he's going to be able to persuade to replace Sven. If he thinks he can get Mourinho, I think he's sadly mistaken - but will gladly be proved wrong.
Scolari is slightly more likely to come to City, especially if a lot of cash is dangled in front of him for squad strengthening, but does Thaksin really think this is an improvement on Sven?
And what if Scolari says no? Who then? Steve McClaren? Gerard Houllier? Worrying times. But in a sense, I'm relieved. I've grown up accepting that my club does one thing better than anyone else, and that's turning itself into a laughing stock. For the past few seasons we've been completely unspectacular at this, and it's good to see a healthy return to form...
Congratulations to Stoke on gaining promotion, by the way. Despite my dad's timely reminder that when City and Stoke were relegated on the same day at Stoke's Britannia Stadium in the 90s, the Stoke fans threw bricks at us after the game, I still quite like the club. It'll be good to have them in the top flight.
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by Ollie : Digg him : Facebook this |
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