Allison: darling of the Stretford End |
The heavily nuanced, insult-filled, low-respect Manchester Derby is back at the top of the bill, frothing at the mouth and swaggering like a top heavy drunk on his way out of Yates Wine Lodge.
This one reaches us, as usual, with
plenty coming to the boil, a full mother load of reputations at stake and the recognisable blustery faces telling us it is bound to be all red or all blue at the end of
the day.
In the last five years Manchester has
witnessed such a sea change that even that old sage Alex Ferguson has been caught
on the hop. What was not supposed to happen in his lifetime, not only did just
that but happened on his watch. Much of what we now see of Manchester United, a
club scampering to pick up lost ground on their neighbours, is a result of the
slack final chapters under Ferguson’s stewardship. United may have wrested the
title away from City one final time before the Scot faded into retirement, but
what has come since cannot all be blamed on the Glazers, on the incapacity of David Moyes and on the Ed Woodward Show.
City are busy empire building. Whilst
having Far East coconut drink partners smacks of a rampant commercialisation
that City fans thought and hoped would never come their way, it is part of a
new Manchester City unafraid to grasp opportunities and benefit from how modern football
works. And, whisper it gently, they are making a pretty good fist of it all.
Daniel Taylor’s Guardian report on youth teams' progress highlights a sea change in Manchester youth football
Swiss Ramble’s financial report is proof of incredible progress off the pitch
Football, dynamic , unpredictable and
quixotic beast that it is, has sucked us all in and thrown us out the other
side in somebody else's trousers.
Current Manchester Status actually has the record
league champions portrayed as upstart challengers, down on their luck despite
spending a fortune to avert the decline and desperately clawing their way
towards the light in a belly-scraping operation along the Chester Road.
City, the feathered beauties, all shine
and gloss, are Kings of the North with their two titles in three years (Reds
will tell you it’s also two in 46 years, but never let the small print hold you
down) and a slew of other baubles and trophies that have been collected since the
desert sandstorm blew in over Moss Side.
And yet. Football's delicious ability to trip up the arrogant, to dispose with the cock-sure and put leeches in the bed of he who carps too long and too loud, means the first Manchester Derby of season 2015-16 brings together two sides well capable of doing damage to each other. United, diminished and devoid of the old swagger, can still grind out the wins. Louis van Gaal has dragged them up the table with a string of uncomplicated and unfettered victories that have been big on percentages and starved of style. The United power of the last two decades has faded now but the old beast can still throw a punch or two. City, with their tails up, step out in search of their 50th Derby win. That United already wait for their 70th tells the story of two and a half decades of unchallenged hegemony.
And yet. Football's delicious ability to trip up the arrogant, to dispose with the cock-sure and put leeches in the bed of he who carps too long and too loud, means the first Manchester Derby of season 2015-16 brings together two sides well capable of doing damage to each other. United, diminished and devoid of the old swagger, can still grind out the wins. Louis van Gaal has dragged them up the table with a string of uncomplicated and unfettered victories that have been big on percentages and starved of style. The United power of the last two decades has faded now but the old beast can still throw a punch or two. City, with their tails up, step out in search of their 50th Derby win. That United already wait for their 70th tells the story of two and a half decades of unchallenged hegemony.
City's enter the fray without Sergio
Aguero and David Silva and with Vincent Kompany unsure whether it is his brittle
hamstrings or his manager’s hurt feelings that have been keeping him away from
first team action. These absences represent United’s best chance, for City with
the Spanish-speaking pair would surely be too strong for their neighbours. As
it stands, summer additions like Kevin de Bruyne and Raheem Sterling are hardly
much of a drop in quality, while Kompany is likely to be given the nod over the slash-happy Otamendi.
Brightwell: welly |
United remain in front in the Derby stakes thanks to a period between 1983 and 2003 where City hardly had a look in. Andy Hinchcliffe, Ian Brightwell and a select few lightened the burden briefly, but the rest was dull, dark and dense.
City’s recent years have mainly been spent shattering perceptions of them put in place by Giggs and Butt and Scholes over a painful drawn-out period of bruises and black eyes: The FA Cup victory over Stoke after waiting to replicate the feeling of 1969, a first League Cup win since 1976, a league title after 44 years twiddling thumbs and wringing hands. Not since the Malcolm Allison-inspired days of bravado in the late 60s when the coach would stride up to the heaving Stretford End before the start of the game and raise the number of fingers that he thought City would win by have City had such a clear upper hand.
Yet still the memories of André Kanchelskis whipping in three goals in a truly horrible 5-0 defeat at Old Trafford in 1994 cling to us. Still the pictures of Hughes and Ince and Bruce waving their fists in the air haunt our dreams. Samir nasri’s casually raised leg and last season’s shambolic no-show have added more recent layers to the technicolour nightmare that losing to United represents.
Time, though, stands still for
no one and the next chapter is about to commence. Maybe it is no longer so clear who the
noisy neighbours are and who let the football do the talking for them. Maybe it
is no longer so evident who the title big-shots are and who are tagging along
in their limelight. Things have changed quickly on the Manchester football
scene, too quickly for some, more rapidly than even the wiliest old souls
predicted, but you get the distinct feeling that the trend of the last five
years that has brought the Blues to parity with the Reds and carried them
quickly beyond, has not yet run its fascinating course.
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