TELLTALE worry lines are beginning to form on the brows of even the most stoic and blue-eyed Manchester City fans.
Two wins from the last 22 Premiership outings is a disastrous run, one that is sure to stir up those all too easily remembered gut-wrenching feelings when the club last slipped out of the top flight at the end of the ill-fated 2000-2001 campaign.
Radio phone-ins, readers' letters pages and online chat rooms are full of doomongers predicting the end of Manchester City as we know it.
There is a real sense of anxiety unfortunately refuelled by a listless and passionless performance against Wolves at Eastlands last Saturday. Blind optimism has finally been replaced in some cases by pessimism and anger.
Much of that criticism is aimed at the players, some of it at the manager, his coaching staff and the board.
It is understandable because after so much optimism and spending there is no doubt that the team has underachieved hugely this season.
Now, however, is not the correct time for the jabbing fingers of blame no matter how tempting it is to let off steam.
A thorough and hard-hitting inquest into a season of failure will have to take place but not now, not while the battle at the bottom is raging at its most fierce, not when everyone in a Blue shirt needs help more than ever before.
Shortcomings
The shortcomings, the transfer policy, the spending, the tactics, the individual underachievement and the rank bad luck all have to be looked at in the cold light of day and from the comfort of safety. There is no doubt that the team has let the supporters down this season and that loyalty is a busy, two-way street but there is a time and place for recriminations and post mortems and that will come when the Blues are well away from the bottom three - which will only be a matter of time.
Kevin Keegan and his men are immensely lucky to be able to call upon such wonderful support both home and away and that backing and a renewed sense of determination is what will get them through the next five matches.
It has to because some of those players with bulging wage packets, but on odd occasions not the work rate to match, are not just playing for themselves.
They are not just playing for themselves but for the 48,000 who scrimp and save to buy tickets and sit in the cold and wet to offer their voices and their very souls in support.
They are not just playing for themselves but for the livelihoods of people in the club who do the mundane low-paid jobs that allow them the luxury to concentrate on their profession.
Belief
The current playing crop know now that they are not just playing for everyone with sky blue blood in their veins and a genuine love for the club.
They cannot fail; they must not fail; they will not fail.
With Wolves virtually gone, Leicester hanging on by their fingertips and the Leeds revival stalled ahead of a trip to Arsenal tomorrow night, a City win over Saints on Saturday will take a lid off the Eastlands pressure cooker that has been boiling since the derby demolition was followed by a defeat and four draws.
Words like disaster and tragedy are all too easily tossed about when it comes to sporting metaphors but it is not easy to find another way to adequately describe just how big a blow relegation would be.
That's why it cannot happen and that is why it will not happen. Everyone has to believe in Keegan, believe in his staff, believe in the players and implore them to produce the form they have shown against the top teams in matches against the less exalted.
The banner that hangs from the stand at Eastlands that still emotively calls itself the Kippax puts it so well: `We dream of playing in the shirt, today God chose you, play like we dream!'
If they don't, it will be a nightmare for everyone concerned.
Comments
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Good article. A lot of home truths. I do believe that the majority of supporters do believe in Kevin. Contradictory to that, however is that most DONT belive in his backroom staff. Especially they don't believe in Cox and Fazakerly. No Kevin seems to have blind loyalty in the two of them that fans find hard to understand. If, and it is a big if, we escape relegation, Kevin must get rid of his current backroom staff. Get in a young fresh enthusiastic coach with fresh ideas. Dare I say a young Malcolm Allison. KK can play Joe Mercer. The coching and tactics seem to be from a bygone era. Whose fault that is I can't say at the moment but if we believe in KK it must be the backroom boys that are replaced.
Fantastic piece and i could not agree more.Lets have the finger pointing and the disputes at the end of the season when we r SAFE and lets get right behind the side in possibly one of the most crucial months in the clubs history ! THEY NEED US. C.T.I.D
This is a brilliant article written by Chris Bailey and I wish I could print it off and copy it to all concerned at Eastlands, especially the players who regularly underperform, and insist they thoroughly read and understand it. It has to be said, however, that at most other clubs these players wouldn't have been allowed to have got away for it for as long as they have. This is where I must point the finger of blame at Kevin Keegan, particularly as we are led to believe that he is an excellent motivational manager with a reputation for getting the best out of his players. Well based on this seasons performances, at least, this 'quality' should be confined to the pages of myth. I believe City will survive, but come the season's end there must be a massive inquest with no stone unturned. For now though I am with the rest of this clubs fantastic support, firmly behind the team. Come on City!
We Manchester CITY Fans shall never give in we shall "Keep the Faith"
Now players do the same.
Come on you BLUES!
Can't fault a word of this - it's right to the point and totally accurate.We've just got to hang on in there,support the team on Saturday - hope they come out with the will to win - and look at it all when safety has been achieved.For most of the last three years KK's record has been exceptionally good and we have seen some fantastic football and we have some great memories.Something has gone very wrong since last October and KK will know that more than anyone.Hopefully we can get back on track next season - in the Premier League !
I'm all fired up now, I hope everyone at the game on Saturday has read this article! Now is the time for the players to re-pay the fans for the faith we put in them. What will it take for them to realise how much this club means to some of us. To them it is just a profession but do they not realise that when they walk out onto the pitch and give a mere 70 or 80 percent that they are messing with people lives. Some may call me sad, some may agree but there are 4 things in my life that I really, really care about. My girlfriend, My family, My friends, and Manchester City Football Club.
Couldn't have put it better myself! Well said, Chris.
From an interesting article on the BBC website today. Apparently D.Beckham's worth B#55million (that's not including his missus), but it's what came after that interested me .. "Beckham is the richest young sportsman in the list, followed by fellow footballer, the Manchester City player Robbie Fowler ... ". Now we're deep in the brown-stuff and i, and a few others, have not exactly seen Robbie sweat blood for the cause over the last few matches. Though i was one who cheered at the signing and hoped that Robbie might return to something like his old self, i ask myself, can people with so much money really be bothered to get their hands dirty?
Concise and totally to the point, your article said it all.
However, the person who should be held most accountable surely is the one who recommended the Vuoso's, Macken's, Negouai's - money down the drain.
At the start, the signings of Fowler, McManaman, plus Sinclair (you have to go back to Frontzek to remember a worse player) seemd to fill us with hope, hoever, once again your article rightly pointed the finger of blame where it lies.
As to the much vaunted Youth Academy, I happened to read in the City programme of the appointment of Mr Cassell
in August '97 where it stated that his previous occupation was that of running the Groundcare division of Trafford MBC! Result? since then we have only had SWP and Joey Barton coming through.
Finally, around 46,000 supporters predicted we would rue the departure of Berkovich. I think we were proved right. No matter what lay behind the scenes, KK should never have allowed personalities to come into it.
Regards,
Larry Davis
58 years a Blue.
What a nice change,an article of some substance it should be printed off and given to each of the players to read.
I wonder if any of them would defere any of their salary for poor performances this season?........... to keep the cost of my now extortionate season ticket down!
keep the faith...... they know how to test it!
CTID
Believe the dream, see the dream, visit the Theatre Of Dreams and finally live the dream that is United.
I have a dream that outside certain localities in Manchester and further afield even to the desolate waste lands of liverpool, the glorious name of citeh will be known, held high and worshipped as one of the best mediocre teams to have graced many a 1st division ground.
For an article about not finger pointing until after the season, it appears to do a lot of finger pointing and has encouraged many others to do the same.
Tempting though it is at this worrying time, let's keep our thoughts to ourselves and just get behind the boys.
As for Sal and Big Bird (I'd heard Sal was a big bird, but that might just be rumour!) maybe a competition:
I'd rather be ............. than a united fan.
Best response gets one of my golden locks!