HAVE you ever pressed pause on a film close to midnight? Perhaps nature calls or you want a late night snack or very possibly both of these distractions take you away from the sofa. When you return someone has texted so you swap a few messages, and then a storm in a teacup on Twitter further diverts your attention. Before you know it an entire hour has passed and your eyes are heavy and tired and your bed beckons.
Now you have a dilemma. Do you sack the film off? After all, it was nearly finished anyway and barring a remarkable twist it was pretty obvious how it was going to end. Or do you vow to watch the last few scenes another time, maybe tomorrow but probably not? Probably not because at a later date the film will have lost its hold and all relevance, and just as the plot begins to make sense again the bad guy will be shot and the hero will make a quip and the credits will roll.
That’s what the remainder of the 2019/20 Premier League season has become – a film paused for too long three quarters of the way through – and with its hiatus now entering a fifth week due to the coronavirus pandemic, debate continues to rage about what the hell to do with it.
Should it be voided completely? That certainly appears to be the majority view, with many believing that even discussing a truncated football campaign is somewhat incongruous right now given the awful state of affairs we find ourselves in. Scrap it and start again anew in August, should the world have righted itself in the meantime. That seems to be the majority view.
Others however insist that the integrity of the league needs to be preserved and that we should resurrect it to completion at some nebulous juncture, even if that means games being played behind closed doors with players isolated in ‘World Cup-style’ camps. Personally, I don’t see much integrity in that, but it is merely my opinion. It could equally be said that unprecedented circumstances warrant unprecedented measures.
Ultimately nobody is right and nobody is wrong. We all have a voice and all of our voices are valid. Yet amidst this sustained and charged national discussion an aspect annoys. Truthfully, that is an understatement. It angers. Because when Liverpool or Manchester City supporters have their say too often their view is dismissed as being born from a vested interest, or to use the word that football journalists seem to be obsessed with at present: from ‘tribalism’.
Tribalism is a problem, there is no disputing that, but in tacking its rise in the modern age the media has gone too far to an extreme, to the extent where it’s assumed that every time a supporter airs an opinion it must automatically be taken with a pinch of salt due to it being propelled by bias.
So it is that when a Blue – a discerning, intelligent, reasonable individual more often than not – states they would like the season to be voided it is inferred that all they really want is to enjoy some puerile bantz at Liverpool’s expense. That schadenfreude is all that motivates them. That they are incapable of sincerity or rational thought.
Of course some satisfaction would be taken at the Reds missing out on a first Premier League crown, especially when they were so near to it they could smell the polish. Especially considering how unbearable the fanbase would have been in an unaltered world.
Yet to suggest that such a cheap thrill wholly colours their judgement on this very serious subject is insulting. Most City fans I know who want the season scrapped are of this opinion because they believe that the game doesn’t matter a jot at present. People are dying. People are scared. Who eventually finishes where in a sporting structure is utterly meaningless in comparison.
Kevin De Bruyne has suggested that the Premier League season should be voided pic.twitter.com/9vtutQPlcA
— Goal (@goal) April 2, 2020
Furthermore, there is the implication that holding such a belief is grounded in self-interest, because to quash all football from last August onwards would mean handily nullifying a disappointing season for Pep Guardiola’s team. If to this point we’ve been insulted, now the accusation is massively wide of the mark.
Perhaps others have become too enamoured by the domestic competition that is currently hanging in suspended animation to really notice this but beyond the Premier League, City were on course to complete another special year. Regarding the title, that was given up a long time ago. It’s been absorbed and accepted. Liverpool thoroughly deserved to win it.
Outside of that bubble however this week would have heralded the Champions League quarter-finals, an advanced stage of the tournament that City could very conceivably have been involved in after triumphing in Madrid in the opening exchange of their aborted tie. A study of the teams left in it reveals Atalanta and RB Leipzig: sides that have greatly impressed for sure but who are beatable nonetheless. Indeed the strongest opponent that possibly lay ahead was Barcelona, who have lost five league games this term and are on their second manager.
Add in the fact that Guardiola was openly prioritizing the tournament this season and that a two-year ban administered by UEFA meant this was likely to be his last continental waltz with the Blues and giving all that up is a considerable sacrifice made.
Then there’s the FA Cup, with a quarter-final trip to Newcastle originally scheduled to take place this month until the world went into isolation. Victory in the north east can never be presumed but let the statistics state that the Magpies have won only two of their last 26 encounters with City while Sergio Aguero has scored 15 goals in their last 13 meetings. Progress up there and Wembley awaited; one step away from a consecutive cup final appearance. A memorable match-up with Manchester United was on the cards too.
Prior to everything we hold dear being turned upside-down City were notably short odds to win both competitions and in doing so complete a double-treble and it would have been a treble because let’s not forget that the Carabao Cup is already twinkling in the trophy room. What now becomes of that success should the season be cancelled? Surely the result will stand but always within the vacuum of an otherwise deleted calendar; always with an asterisk for being achieved in an incomplete year.
When a Manchester City fan posits the idea of scrapping this season don’t dismiss it as partisanship; merely a desire to mock Scouse Kenny in work when work resumes. Their film was set for a blockbuster ending with a plot that was thickening and a script that enthralled. Giving that up would be a sacrifice indeed.
