‘The Premier League has the champions it deserves’, read the message from an old pal in May, after Manchester City’s footballers had won the title for the fourth year running.
Like many of England’s leading clubs, City are the playthings of foreign billionaires
We were both born within two miles of Maine Road, where ‘the City’ played until 2003. We used to attend matches at that grim yet strangely characterful home, standing in ‘the Kippax’, a cavernous terrace which ran the length of the field. In the days before football became fashionable many grounds were lavatorial.
City didn’t win anything in those days. Between a League Cup triumph in 1976 and 2011, when they won the FA Cup, the players had nothing to show for their increasingly desperate efforts except three relegations from the top tier. In 1998, as their neighbours at Old Trafford were soon to become top dogs in Europe, City were demoted to the old Third Division.
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