1) The Power Hasn’t Shifted….Yet.
Call it what you want ‘Six In The City’, the ‘Demolition Derby’ or one of the many other puns doing the rounds but the real significance of the game is that City are now proving their point. The power has not shifted, they will have to win the league a couple of times and a European Cup before we can claim to be the totally dominant team in Manchester but for now they can stand proudly alongside United now and say we are coming, the ‘noisy neighbours’ are going to the next level.
For quite a while now, journalists, supporters and players have all spoken about Manchester City and said that having all this money is one thing, but they have to prove themselves to be real contenders and with the destruction of United at the weekend they did just that, supporters felt the club should be have been taken seriously before the derby but now more than ever the team has proved they are going somewhere, and that is great to see.
2) City Are Now A Team Not A Group Of Individuals
A common criticism of the club in the past was that City were merely a group of individuals and there have been questions about how much the players ‘want it’. I hold my hands up and say that at times over the past couple of years that attitude has been totally understandable, there have been some players that pulled on the City shirt with their mind on the money, not on the team or ‘project’.
I think those claims can now surely be put to bed, the idea that there is no team spirit in the camp is quite frankly laughable. The celebrations at the end of the last minute victory over Villareal were fine evidence of just that, and the win on Sunday has further underlined it, the collection of hugely talented players is becoming a team.
3) Nothing Is Won In October
As soon as the final whistle blew yesterday, Sky announced that City were the new favourites for the Premier League title, a similar sentiment was portrayed by Alan Hansen on MOTD claiming it was their title to lose, apparently Collymore on TalkSport said the same thing…it’s all a load of rubbish, we are in October. Our form has been superb, played 9, won 8, drawn 1. Five points clear of United, and 6 points ahead of Chelsea, there are no complaints from me, and we will be there or there abouts come May, but to claim the title race is over is farcical.
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Ask yourself, do Man city fans pride themselves with Youth moulded from the club or just Superstars?
What if United is bought by some rich Qatari(God forbid) who also pumps money to buy top players, how many will chose to go to City, and if other top players are bought won’t the Status quo remain forever?
Firstly, prior to the City take over there already was a status quo, noone other than Chelsea or United were ever going to win the league, it was becoming like Scotland or Spain, at least now there are 3 teams competing for the title each year, United will always be a force even under the current American ownership.
As for City and their youth development, if you look at all the youngsters coming through there are some extremely good 16 and 17 year olds that will be ready to step up over the coming years, Suarez, Rekik, Roman, Chantler, Henshall to name just a few.
When you also consider the huge new training complex and academy set up, it would be foolish to suggest City were ignoring ‘youth moulded’ players as you put it.
But I do welcome City challenge in the league… But my point is the youth non of them is on the first team nor in the bench… Even the academy players are not even known… Look at Man utd, they’ll buy one potential player mostly young ones and turn them to Superstars, with exception of 1 or two… The Academy boys are already playing first team and reserves, The Youth players play in and out every week… You can’t say about that of Man City
If you have a look at the team from last night there were a few out, although admittedly not as many as at United. Razak and Scapuzzi both started the game, and although Savic was signed for money he is also very young. Karim Rekik and Denis Suarez both came off the bench.
City are behind United in terms of youth development in this current period, sure, but if you look back over the years at the players that have come through the City academy, it is extremely impressive, Micah Richards, Steven Ireland, Joey Barton, Daniel Sturridge are probably the highest profile, but there are many many more playing in the Championship and other levels of English football.
Over the coming months and years there will be a change of focus at City to meet FFP as there will be at Chelsea and more and more academy graduates will make the step into the first time, we are further back in the development cycle than United, but it will happen.