It’s with great trepidation that I write my first blog entry as a build up to City’s latest make or break escapade in the Champions League. To be quite honest, I am not sure what, if anything, the Champions League means to me anymore. There’s a bitter taste in the mouth when I say the words and the aroma of bull whenever the architects of this competition, UEFA, come forward to explain its idiosyncrasies to us the paying public.
And these idiosyncrasies are many (though most have a single underlying cause); be it the inclusion of none champions, the bizarre seeding system, the insistent “Say No” advertisements ironically interspersed with UEFA rulings explaining why racist chanting warrants ever diminishing punishments, dubious sponsorship, truly appalling refereeing, and last but not least the “Financial Fair Play” rules which now underpins its participants.
There’s also the haunting past histories of the Euro glories of the old enemy and the scousers which I am sure will be ever so subtly rammed down our throats over the coming hours by numerous ex-red pundits. Though for the love of the children please let the idiots at ITV realise that the pinnacle of truly awful punditry, Scholes, is best left for none City games!
Perhaps though my unease is simpler, as despite rising to the heights of the domestic game not once but twice in three years, the Champions League gives Man City the collywobbles. Everything which can go wrong does go wrong; from the draw to the tactics, from the refereeing decisions to the phantom Muscovites on the terraces of CSKA, it all goes TU, and as a Club we have found no cure.
If ever a fixture was more likely to increase this malaise it is Bayern Munich in their current form. Having all but destroyed opposition in the Bundesliga with a mix of fast paced football and aggressive transfer policies, they remain unbeaten this season and have conceded only three goals. You might look to the silver lining of Bayern being guaranteed ECL qualification already, so they may rest key players, but this is unlikely to cut any sway with Pep Guardiola. Indeed, if anything, Guardiola seems more intense, more focused this season, and resembles DeCaprio’s manic “Wolf of Wall Street” as he patrols his technical area in search of footballing perfection (though snorting cocaine off Ribery’s backside at half time is probably not within the Bundesliga code of conduct).
So the Citizens are underdogs, with basically nothing to lose. A position enjoyed for decades but one which, according to the media, should not be accepted. Personally, given all the above, I am more than happy to luxuriate in underdog status. Who knows it may actually have a beneficial effect … nothing else has … UEFA hates us and we don’t care J.
