We've arrived

Hi my fellow blues.

This is an article I wouldn't dare to put on the old 606 or the ja606 sites as the wums would swoop like hungry vultures on a shit stained carcass.



Whilst on a mini break with Mrs Joey and the kids to Windsor over the weekend (Legoland is great, but not at peak season), we went in one of the many tat shops opposite the Castle. You know the ones, where they sell model London buses, union jack teapots etc.. the yanks love that shit. Anyway, towards the back of the shop, there it was... the mandatory football section with mugs, badges and scarves of ManU, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and........bugger me..likkel ole Man city.

My first thought (after I blew a kiss at the badge on the scarf) was how chuffed I was, after all, this proves we've arrived. But then, I got to thinking, in ten years time will we have to put up with thousands of plastics jumping on OUR glory bandwagon? I suppose we all know the answer to this, but it's still annoying to think that my 5 year old son who was enrolled as a junior blue before he was a day old will be labelled as the above, when in fact he was a 'pre-takeover' City fan, especially as we don't live in Manchester anymore.

I asked the posh lady in the shop about the City section and she shruggd and said her son chooses that display based on current marketing trends. Turns out she's a West Ham fan anyway

I was in Birmingham yesterday and only just got on the site when i saw one lad in a rag shirt and then blow me, a lad in a City shirt, turns out he was actually from Manchester though, but the rag was a Brummie.



With the increased exposure, its bound to happen and in todays financial climate, it needs to happen. Just look at Chelsea, before Romans millions were pumped in, they had just an average support, now you see their shirts everywhere.

Ive worn my shirt round the midlands for the last 5 years and nobody has given me a second glance, but twice this week ive been called a glory hunter by baggies fans, just a typical reaction i expect from now on. I find it amusing, i see arse, rag, lpoo and chel shirts everywhere and the looks the people give me have changed from smug sympathetic grinning, to jealous and fearfull always with a bitter word of warning about how it wont last. How times change.

As I live in London now, and work not far from Oxford St, I've seen 1 City scarf among the loads of Utd Liverpool, Arsenal Chelski, Spurs, Real, Barca gubbins, and that was last year. I see it as a good thing that we're not doing a Chelski, more a steady growth over the last few years.

I've worn my City top (the 1st Umbro retro from a couple of seasons ago) at work and travelled around the tube wearing it, safe in the fact I'm not going to run into a Larn-darn-aaaah plastic wearing the same and not have to get into the North South argument, well not yet anyway!

You lot have always had fans from all over the place, just not as many as United.



That will now start to change & your ground will be full of tourist from all over the world, sky will change all your "top games" which be live, teams will charge City fans top prices for tickets, city fans will have to fork out another £200 per season on average for CL & domestic cup tickets as your team goes farther in compitions ect ect ect ect.



Yep you've arrived.

if that's the downside to having 'arrived' then i'm sure most city fans would gladly take that.

Yep, I'll take that gladly!



A few years ago, round where I live, in the lovely garden village of Dukinfield (and yes, I'm being sarcastic), I'd only ever see my lad, my neighbours lad and one bloke down the pub in a City shirt. Aside from the fact they were the godawful Reebok ones, that was pretty much the sum total of supporters. As for Yernited shirts, they were in plentiful supply. The other day, I must've seen twice as many blue shirts than red ones. So either we Blues are getting braver or there's some bandwagon jumping going on. Or the third option, we don't have a shit shirt any more, so it's less embarrassing to be seen in them!

bandwagon

Our season tickets (seasoncards) haven't gone up that much over the last 3 years that i can remember and the club dont need to pass the cost on to the supporters! Most of my age group born in the late 50's have grown up kids in there mid 20's who have never seen us win much other than last yrs FA cup the play off v Gillingham and the semi final. So they will be there as always. It's the next batch who will support the team that are currently doing the best, a bit like floating voters. And usually people who dont know much about football but want a team to support = the fashionable thing at the time.