The City that vanished from the mapUpdated: December 20th, 2006
I caught a bit of the United game last night. Aside from being heartened by the shockingly poor displays of Rooney and Carrick, one thing struck me: City seem to have almost disappeared from the media’s consciousness of late.
Not only did co-commentator David Pleat refer to United as ‘Manchester’, but the caption for United at the top of the screen read ‘MAN’. Now, I’m pretty sure that in previous seasons they were abbreviated to MAN U, so I’m curious as to why this has changed.
A couple of weeks ago, glass toilet owner Sven Goran Eriksson emerged from his own personal fantasy world to ponder his management options:
“Arsenal? Liverpool? Manchester? They’re all big clubs, and any of those would be good,” he told The Sun.
Considering his team selections as England manager, the fact that Eriksson seems unaware there is a club in Manchester called City should not come as great surprise. But there seems to be a pattern forming here.
A week last Sunday I was listening to TalkSport after the Blackburn game. In the following hour they discussed the Spurs, West Ham and Chelsea games, the United v Arsenal match which was still being played, and even found time to talk about Seria A. The City game didn’t even get a mention.
At the end of the hour, just before the phone lines opened, they did a quick round-up of the day’s talking points. Listeners were urged to call in about the Spurs, West Ham, Chelsea and United games, but no mention was made of City at Blackburn. As they went into the news they did another round-up, again failing to mention City.
So I twiddled the dial to 5 Live, who at least remembered to mention City. But an hour later, after listening to at least five United callers and not a single City one, I turned off in disgust.
Now it’s easy to be oversensitive when you support a club that’s overshadowed by a bigger neighbour, and I’ve always felt that too many fans have been quick to develop a chip on their shoulders in regards to media coverage, but I really do think there’s been a change in attitude of late.
So maybe the song was right after all.
Just like the fan of the Invisible Man
We’re not really here
How my school drove Willie away
Well done Willie Donachie for earning a creditable draw in his first game in temporary charge of Millwall last night.
My cookery teacher at school once went out with him. During one lesson, we started joking about the own goal he scored for Scotland and she said: “Aww, don’t be horrible. He was really upset about that”. So we shut up, and watched as she made cheese on toast incorrectly.
Donachie also arranged a trip to Maine Road for our year. As places were limited, the sports teacher said he wanted to make sure most of the kids he took were City fans. Fantastic, I thought, until he told me off for chatting to a mate during a gym lesson a few days before the trip.
I didn’t get to go, and the next day had to listen to some United-supporting kid boast about how he sat next to Kevin Reeves on the team bus.
Mr Woods, I have not forgiven you for that.
Anyway, it seems that trip caused problems between Donachie and the club. According to our cookery teacher, City were unhappy that he had arranged it. Donachie, though, had been getting increasingly fed up at Maine Road, and the friction the trip caused was just one of a few reasons he decided to leave.