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A little bit of history repeating...

Stu Radnedge returns to the blog with a view - admittedly prior to the Blackpool match (it's been a busy week!)  - on City's disastrous late-Autumn:


It’s all just a little bit of history repeating…?

Those are, what I consider to be, words from one of the greatest Shirley Bassey songs ever (the Propellerheads are credited for the track but her vocals are what makes the song, in my opinion). And it’s rather a fitting description for what us City fans are hopefully enduring currently. I say hopefully, as the season after this we should be getting promoted… and not from League One.

As pointed out by the board last Monday, we’ve been here before. A string of games this long without a win was last experienced in the 2005/06 season which saw a City legend, Brian Tinnion, be man enough to step down after we were annihilated 7-1 by one of the Welsh teams (I can’t mention the name – it still hurts).

Step up Gary Johnson, but the resurgence was not instant. City were 23rd, with the same number of points, on Boxing Day as Johnson started his reign disastrously, but we finished the season in 9th.  The following season, as we all can remember, promotion ensued after finishing as runners-up.

But please don’t take this prose as the ramblings of a mad-man… yet.  I am in no way suggesting the Premier League is waiting for us next season. The focus clearly has to be on turning around this recent run of misfortune and woe – as that is all it is.

But being near the bottom now is nowhere near as bad as being in this position after the New Year. Obviously.

I imagine I’m not alone but I enjoy listening to Talk Sport on the way to and from work. The stick Arsenal get from the presenters is quite amusing, but something that was said one morning made me want to share it in this blog.

The presenter said, “Chelsea fans. What do you think of Di Matteo? Is he not winning enough games?”

Hold on. This is the Chelsea that two weeks ago was demolishing everyone, but has since lost to Man United and drew with Liverpool on the weekend…. Madness.

But it’s the same with City. The successful start to the season bred hope in us all and now the bump back down to earth has been harder to deal with.

Yes, in 2005 a managerial change helped save us, but not instantly. And at this moment in time, could we afford a new manager coming in and taking 15 games to find his feet, over the busy Christmas period. No.

Instead of looking back at history, which will play no part in our future, we should be concentrating on just that – our future.


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