Remember, remember the 1st of September!
Manchester City fans won’t ever forget this date, as it was the beginning of a new era for the blue half of Manchester, as the Abu Dhabi Group took control of the football club in 2008.
Long gone are the days where the blues were battling it out in the lower leagues and in the shadow of rivals Manchester United, instead, they are competing for trophies at the top end of football and attracting the major names to the Etihad stadium.
Ending a 35-year drought for a trophy and winning back-to-back Premier League titles the ‘Cityzens’ have certainly had a lot to shout about in recent years and MM spoke to City fan George Clayton to get his top three moments since Sheikh Mansour’s takeover of the football club!
3. Vincent Kompany’s goal against Leicester
“14 games in a row we needed to win, we’d won 12 so far.”
No pressure then!
Playing a former champion in Leicester, it was never going to be an easy game with George saying: “From supporting City you knew nothing was going to be easy anyway”.
The game was at a stalemate with City perhaps not at their absolute best and in need of a hero! When the ball falls to your centre-half 25 yards from goal the last thing you probably want them to do is shoot, and this was the thoughts of manager Pep Guardiola at the time who told the BBC: “No shoot Vinnie, no shoot!”……I bet he’s certainly glad he did now!
“If you were going to write an emotional send off for Kompany to do it with his final game at the Etihad pretty much securing us the title, then winning the league at Brighton and then winning the FA Cup in his last three games, unbelievable moment!” said George .
Kompany always rose to the occasion for City and will go down as one of the best ever to pull on the blue shirt with George saying: “When Gary Neville said where do you want your statue Vincent Kompany, it’s true he’s just a legend of the club.”
HERO: George with Vincent Kompany
2. FA Cup Final v Stoke City
“It definitely felt like times were changing” said George. Having played and beaten Manchester United in the semi-final of the FA Cup, City faced another city in the final, as this time it was Stoke in front of them.
Yaya Toure had been the hero of the hour in the semi-final, scoring the winner, and he must have loved playing at Wembley on the big stage, as he stepped up once more to deliver City their first major trophy in 35 years….
“Nobody’s stopping that” said George on his reaction to the winning goal!
The aftermath saw the streets of Manchester filled with a ‘sea of blue’ as the club showed off their new piece of silverware to the crowd and it was a momentous occasion for George who said: “It was great to go to the parade through Manchester because for me it was my first one and the first parade to see everyone coming out in Manchester with the FA Cup was a special one.”
1. Aguerooooooo………..
This will go down in history as one of the best moments in football and here’s Georges’ take on the day and that moment….
I can imagine this resonates with most City fans as their number one moment since Sheikh Mansour took charge of the club.
The club have gone from strength to strength both on and off the pitch under the new owners, adding other clubs abroad to the City Football Group, investing in the infrastructure around the Etihad Stadium, as well as putting further trophies in the cabinet.
Everything is in place for the club to go on and be successful for many years to come with fans of the club hoping that the blue moon continues to rise!
