“WE'VE done the domestic f****** treble, no one’s ever done it before, but you’ll all have Mo Salah on the back of the fucking papers tomorrow! City!”
Ever since the clip of this finger-jabbing Manchester City supporter emerged on social media I’ve found myself wondering why he – and many others of a City blue persuasion – are so bothered about Liverpool Football Club. Obsessively so, it seems.
If you’ve managed to miss it, the clip, posted by Rob Harris from The Associated Press, was filmed seconds after City lifted the FA Cup following a 6-0 win over Watford. That was the cherry on top of a staggering season for a club that was once reliant on a 95th-minute Paul Dickov goal to force a penalty shoot-out that ultimately lifted the club from the nowhere land of the third tier of English football.
Guardiola: “Liverpool and Manchester United are the biggest two clubs in the Premier League.”
Yep.
Which is why the media ‘conspiracy’ cryarsing from City fans is nonsense.
It’s not a conspiracy. If stuff gets more eyes and ears, you’re going to produce more of it. The end.
— Gareth Roberts (@robbohuyton) May 18, 2019
For City fans of the vintage of the fist-shaker, they have witnessed some barely believable lows and all this must feel like winning the lottery. Which surely begs the question, why, seconds after witnessing your side complete the incredible feat so forcefully communicated by the flag-clutching fan, would another club come to the forefront of your mind?
And more, why would you be setting off for the press box to make your point when joyful pubs and smiling friends were surely waiting nearby? Your club – once the laughing stock of your city – has won three trophies, mate. In one season. Go and enjoy it. Forget Mo Salah and Liverpool.
It’s not a new thing obviously, this preoccupation with all things Liverpool. All season we’ve had the Manchester City fan think pieces, the blog posts, the videos and the Scouse-stirring snide on social media. And then there’s that song. You know, the classy one referencing “victims” and being “battered on the streets”. The one City fans sang all the way through two seasons when they won 198 points.
The obvious comeback to this from their perspective is that, this season at least, Liverpool have been City’s only credible rivals for the title. Fair enough. But it’s running deeper for a lot of their fans it seems (and even – bizarrely – some of the journalists covering the club for The Manchester Evening News).
Classless ‘professionals’ here, singing about being battered in the streets, whilst a Man City fan was induced into a coma from football violence, literally a few months ago… https://t.co/fbu83HmA5c
— Ben Webb (@BenWebbLFC) May 14, 2019
There’s a big commitment to talking (or singing) about Liverpool virtually non stop. We heard over and over how “unbearable” our fans would be if the title had arrived back at Anfield. How, even, City would be doing the world a favour by winning it. How’s that worked out? Feels like everyone is a bit bored, but hey ho.
Then we’re told how we’re different. Or weird. Etcetera and so on. Forever. It’s not even just the fans. As was well documented at the time, the City players were captured singing the previously mentioned distasteful song. Perhaps they knew what they were singing. Perhaps they didn’t. The grim PR statement from the club that followed that did nothing to improve the picture.
Pep Guardiola has been at it, too. Dissecting media coverage, wondering why Liverpool and Manchester United stories get more prominence and presence than those about Manchester City, cry-arsing that a Liverpool title triumph would have received greater acclaim.
Aspects of it all are understandable. Liverpool fans moaned long and hard about the coverage Manchester United got in the media in the 1980s and 1990s, even when they were crap. That though, was built on true, deep-running, long-standing rivalry. We taunted them, they taunted us. We dominated, they dominated. We rubbed their faces in it about 18 titles and they did the same the moment they equalled it and later surpassed it.
“It’s not about Sean Cox, it’s about other fans who were attacked by thugs before a match” isn’t the greatest explanation, is it?
It’s a classless chant from Man City fans. That the players sang it on that video is just baffling. As is the fact that people are defending it.
— Ste Hoare (@stehoare) May 14, 2019
Amid it all both sets of fans recognised the standing and support of the other club. As in, among the world’s biggest. This? Erm.
There are no songs about Manchester City in the Liverpool songbook because there is no traditional rivalry to lean on. And while The Reds bloodied a nose or two with a two-legged Champions League triumph in 2017-18, ultimately City won the league, just like this year.
The same applied when we run them close under Brendan Rodgers. City have won. In the here and now they have three trophies saying so. So why the desperation for a further pound of flesh? Why the outcry for validation from the media?
Because of how the team coach was greeted in Liverpool once upon a time? Because it all feels a bit flat maybe while probes and investigations about money and method rumble on? Because it’s somehow unfair that the content that gets more eyes, ears and clicks is produced more? Because it’s the Champions League you really want?
The word “Liverpool” was out of Mr Alex Ferguson’s lips so fast one year that he had barely touched the league trophy but then it was understandable. Liverpool had been a motivation for Manchester United. It had cut deep watching The Reds rule at home and abroad. And when the tables turned, their fans loved it and Ferguson played up to it. All’s fair there.
Sir Alex Ferguson: "My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f***ing perch. And you can print that." #mufc pic.twitter.com/ipTGLh5fgc
— United Xtra (@utdxtra) February 24, 2019
"My first intention was to win one and try to break the stranglehold Liverpool had on the title," Ferguson once said. "At the time you didn't think about how winning it once could open the door for you, in the sense of what we see now. I felt we were well behind [Liverpool] – 10 titles behind. It's a long way to go when you think of it that way."
Now, again, it will remain a Liverpool task to win that one and hope for more because City pipped us by a point. But the aim ultimately remains to knock United off their perch. City aren’t on one. They’ve won the league six times and are yet to add to a Cup Winners’ Cup in 1970 in European competition. These things matter.
The global football powerhouse talk remains on ice for City and the story simply isn’t as good. Guardiola was right in that respect. “City win again” is not as good as “Liverpool finally victorious after three decades of waiting”.
It was only seven years ago that City won their first title in 44 years in the most dramatic of fashion. That story was everywhere and is still referenced now. Rightly so. Are we to forget that now amid the conspiracy theories?
Sir Alex Ferguson: "My greatest challenge is not what's happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f***ing perch. And you can print that." #mufc pic.twitter.com/ipTGLh5fgc
— United Xtra (@utdxtra) February 24, 2019
If the Liverpool ribbing from City was all about pipping us this season it would be much more understandable. But it’s not. It’s all a bit try hard in an attempt to stir up the traditional football face-offs. Sorry, lads. It’s still Manchester United and Everton for us. City? Them lads that used to play at Maine Road? Nah.
Meanwhile, Liverpool have their own unprecedented feats to aim for. No team has won 97 points in the Premier League and won the Champions League. Imagine the media coverage for that? Imagine how “unbearable” Liverpool will be if they can beat Spurs?
Perhaps that’s another source of the snide. I’ll sign off with some of my own. We said it to Manchester United once and we can still say it to Manchester City now. Come back when you’ve won 18. Win the odd European Cup.
And now? Maybe blow up a banana or two. Surely you should be partying harder with all these trophies and caring less about Liverpool?
PS: Four-midable? No one counts the Charity Shield!
