da roleta： Manchester City are now one of the established Premier League big boys. They have a star-studded squad, a manager who has already secured one league title at their helm, and fabulously wealthy owners who can pick and choose from the best players world football has to offer. They are, in short, a coming force in European football.
da 888： I therefore find it extremely strange that the attitude of the fans towards the Champions League, and the performances of the team in it, are so off-colour, negative and unlike the domestic competitions. Despite regularly achieving near sell-outs for league games, there are regular European nights when vast, yawning gaps appear in the sea of fans, a sign perhaps that City fans have not really taken to the magic of Champions League matches yet. So why is that?
Firstly, it should be pointed out that City just don’t have quite as many fans as more established Champions League clubs like Arsenal or Chelsea, or of course their red neighbours. This is not meant to be an insult to City’s standing, but it is a fact – having only been successful for a relatively short time recently, they have not yet built up a large enough fan base to be able to cater for a few thousand taking a night off.
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If the latter happens, there will inevitably be gaps, whereas if Man United or Arsenal had some regulars decide not to attend, there would be more than enough takers for these remaining seats.
Another factor is possibly the pre-occupation amongst the fans with the Premier League and domestic competitions. Unlike more established heavyweights of the Premier League such as United, Liverpool and Arsenal, City do not have a great deal of memories, history and magical moments in Europe in the last 40 or so years.
The new generation of City fans have no connection point to their team in Europe, there is no success there which will make them put the date in their calendars for the next year. Even the stadium itself has not had long enough to get used to hosting Champions League matches – City fans do not have the routine established every year of automatically heading to the Etihad for European nights in the autumn.
There would also appear to be, amongst the club’s hierarchy, a greater concern with domestic matters than at the English clubs who have managed to be successful in Europe. At Old Trafford, Sir Alex Ferguson was fixated and entranced by European nights and the glamour of the Champions League, and made sure everyone else at the club was as well.
At Chelsea, that role was played by Roman Abramovich, who finally found the European success he craved above all else a few years ago after ruthlessly sifting through several managers in order to find the right one to lift Ol’ Big Ears. At Liverpool, the memories of the 70s and 80s are still strong with many fans, who send that devotion to the competition to the current generation and the team.
I do not mean to imply here that City’s fans and management do not care about the competition. The way they have celebrated goals and supported their team gives the lie to that opinion. However, I would suggest that neither the fans or those in high-up positions at the club have really ‘got’ the Champions League yet.
I believe there has been no defining and dramatic moment, either agony or ecstasy, which has really tied the fanbase to Europe and cemented their love for the competition.
Until that moment arrives, it is hard to see how the fans will warm to the red-hot football of the Champions League.
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