George Larcos

Why Blue?

Why? I often ask myself. I was about 6 or 7 in the late 60’s when I first saw Manchester City play on TV in Sydney. They were featured on a program called “Star Soccer” hosted by Brian Moore and they walloped the team they were playing (Sheffield Utd?). “I’m onto a good thing”, I thought. Little did I know then that it would grow into an obsession.

Success followed in the late 60’s and early 70’s, with a League Championship and victories in the FA, League & European Cup-Winners Cup. During this time the Blues seemed to have a mortgage on some of the best players around, with names like Summerbee, Lee, Denis Law, Dave Watson, Joe Corrigan, Asa Hartford, Dennis Tueart & Peter Barnes. I’m sure there were others, but memory and distance fail me.

Growing up, most of my friends also had an interest in English football. Needless to say many of them followed Man. Utd or Liverpool (bad taste was everywhere). The lean years saw relegation a couple of times, which only strengthened my support. Sunday evening would often find me tuning into the BBC radio summary of the weekend’s football results presented to the ABC. My mental integrity was often questioned by my family.

After last season’s narrow brush with relegation I remember picking up a football magazine in August 1994 which made a number of predictions, amongst them that City would again be featuring in relegation battles. “Oh boy”, I thought, “Here we go again”. Anyway, this season the Blues seemed to get off to a reasonable start and at one stage were 5th. Too bad that internal politics, injuries and other factors have pulled them back to the pack. I share everyone’s concern about how things will end this year, particularly as you see that the last 4-5 games will be very difficult. Anyway, our confidence and resolve separate us from the rest. Keep your chin up everyone!

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #41 on