Michael Bayliss

Why Blue?

When all is said and done I don’t know if I will be as devastated as I thought I would be should City not go up. This is not about us not being good enough to stay up, once we get there etc. (I think we will attract some good players, more so than Charlton or Watford). Of course I understand the implications of missing out on the Premiership windfall, the disappointment of being so close to the top and not getting to the land of the golden fleece. I am as desperate as the next Blue to see us play in the most exciting league in the world (unfortunately we are an English side not Italian – humor attack!).

This is more of a Why Blue Still than a Why Blue. I’ve done one of those. What I am getting at is that that nagging, pulling feeling in the stomach that has been so long part and parcel of a City fan that tells you “What A F!?*ing mess we are in: iffy team, crap manager, rubbish back room staff, bobbins Chairman, no money etc.” is slowly turning into a dull cramp. I think the term used is “turning the corner”. We all know that we are a long way from the finished article but things are getting better. They are for me anyway. We know where we have been, for those of us who had one had on the Cup in ’81, that was our last kiss with the goddess of shiny silver things (last season not included). And for a good, long time we have known where we are going – up sh*t creek without a paddle. Is that why we have been so loyal, ’cause we have know that it’s not as easy as choosing a winning team or a glamorous one. Are we safe in the knowledge that no matter how bad it gets, we are still going to be there for them, and we know it is going to get worse or at least it was? For the first time in years, and here is my point, I think that sometime soon City are going to do something alternative to just surviving. I don’t get that feeling of utter despair that I used to get. We didn’t win for 7 or 8 games and although I was gutted, I still felt we had some more in our tanks. We can still go up second. Not like years past when when one of the wheels came off you could bet your house on the rest of them following suit. Not now. We actually have the stomach for it. And so do I. cutmethroughanditi’llsayblue.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #594 on