While Manuel Pellegrini appears to have won over swathes of Manchester City fans by seemingly telling his team to attack for 90 minutes, there are some loyal supporters after just half an hour of his time.
The Blue Moon Podcast are waiting for an interview with the manager having spent three years pursuing the Chilean and his predecessor Roberto Mancini.
Speaking with MM at the second footballing blogging awards at the National Football Museum last month, the Blue Moon Podcast said it would be a dream if they could capture the manager for 30 minutes.
“Every year we want the manager,” said podcast host David Mooney.
“We want a 30 minute one-on-one with the manager. Chairman, owner or manager would be perfect, but that may be aiming a bit too high.”
Although they have failed to bag the manager, famous guests include former Blues legends Patrick Vieira, the World Cup winner and Shaun Goater.
“To actually be in the same room as a World Cup winner, a five time FA Cup winner who was at one point in time part of the best team in the world, is just amazing,” said Mooney of the former European champion, now manager of City’s reserve side.
“It has allowed us to speak to some of our heroes from the past.”
The podcast did not come away with an award on the night, with the Best Podcast Award going to Bantams Banter, dedicated to Bradford City.
Nonetheless, Mooney and co were delighted to have had the recognition.
“It is a great achievement to receive the nomination, we’re obviously disappointed not to have won it,” said Mooney.
Fellow Blue Mood Podcast regular Sam Rosbottom added: “It is really nice to have the recognition as one of the best podcasts in the country.”
The awards attracted the attention of over 200 bloggers and these bloggers campaigned for votes on a number of social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook.
Using these platforms, 30,965 votes were cast to determine the winners of the 11 awards on offer.
The winners of the eleven awards were the following:
Best Male Blog: ArsenalFanTV
Best Female Blog: Anna Louise Adams
Best Established Blog: Width of the Post
Best Video Blog: RedMan TV
Best Fantasy Premier League Blog: Fantasy Football Pundits
Best Non-league Blog: Too Good to Go Down
Best Gambling Blog: Paddy Power
Best Club Blog: LFC Fans Corner
Best Comedy Blog: Wenger Knows Best
Best New Blog: Four Four Tweet
Best Podcast: Bantams Banter
The awards hosted by Natalie Pike created quite a stir on social media, with fans of the blogs mentioning the night over 1000 times in two hours on Twitter, not including the countless number of retweets.
Money was also raised for Football Unites Against Racism to cap a successful evening.
Image courtesy of Manchester City FC via YouTube, with thanks.
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