We head into the last 19 days of our season with two major goals still to be achieved: Champions League qualification and the FA Cup trophy.
We can't mess this up now. Words cannot express how upset I will be if we finish 5th with no trophies again. Another season and no progress will have been made. Champions League qualification and the FA Cup trophy will keep Mancini here, and keeping Mancini here allows him to build up his squad properly and sign the talent and experience we need to push on for more.
But we are not just doing this for the future. We are doing this for the players, supporters and staff that have saved us down the years.
We need to do this so that Fowler's penalty miss can be forgotten,
we need to do this so that we can finally get to where we've always dreamed of being,
we need to do this so that all those Derby losses seem worthwhile,
we need to do this to show the world what we can do,
we need to do this so that Paul Dickov can know that he didn't equalise in the dying seconds against Gillingham for nothing,
we need to do this so that players like Richard Dunne, Joey Barton and Nicky Weaver can look back and know they played a part in putting us where we are today,
we need to do this so that one day, when we're eventually successful, we can look back and see that this was when things started to look up,
we need to do this so that Blue Moon can be sung high from every part of the ground,
we need to do this so that Harry Redknapp has to admit we're better than Tottenham,
we need to do this so that Sven, Pearce and Keegan know they kept us in a position where we could be taken over.
But we mainly need to do this so that every United fan that has ever told you that City were 'shitty' is silenced. Silenced by a huge cheer that will be heard from the highest point of every mountain, to the lowest cave in the oceans that surround our lands. In the playground, United fans judged you and teased you about the club you supported, and they denied you any word in a football debate. They wore those red shirts to tease you, and they mocked you for those years when City didn't win a Derby, and they mocked you when we were in what is now League 1.
But we need to do this to show that every City player, and City every fan and every City staff member that never gave up on us through all of those 35 years can raise a smile and feel as if they contributed to what is now "the coming force in English football"1. We need to show them, and the rest of football, that we are not going to come and fall away. No - we need to show them that we are here to stay, and here to fight, and win. We have financial backer that needs a return on its investments and its improvements.
It's not time to fall away and remain small-time. No. It is time to be better. Let's knock United off their perch - once and for all. Let's have their local Derby become Bury or FC United, and not us - Manchester City. The most patient of fans are about to be rewarded, you'd hope. But hope is nothing without a bit of gutsy desire to help it along.
Let's start against Everton, shall we? Come on, City. Let's see what you've got.
1 - Clive Tyldesley.
We can't mess this up now. Words cannot express how upset I will be if we finish 5th with no trophies again. Another season and no progress will have been made. Champions League qualification and the FA Cup trophy will keep Mancini here, and keeping Mancini here allows him to build up his squad properly and sign the talent and experience we need to push on for more.
But we are not just doing this for the future. We are doing this for the players, supporters and staff that have saved us down the years.
We need to do this so that Fowler's penalty miss can be forgotten,
we need to do this so that we can finally get to where we've always dreamed of being,
we need to do this so that all those Derby losses seem worthwhile,
we need to do this to show the world what we can do,
we need to do this so that Paul Dickov can know that he didn't equalise in the dying seconds against Gillingham for nothing,
we need to do this so that players like Richard Dunne, Joey Barton and Nicky Weaver can look back and know they played a part in putting us where we are today,
we need to do this so that one day, when we're eventually successful, we can look back and see that this was when things started to look up,
we need to do this so that Blue Moon can be sung high from every part of the ground,
we need to do this so that Harry Redknapp has to admit we're better than Tottenham,
we need to do this so that Sven, Pearce and Keegan know they kept us in a position where we could be taken over.
But we mainly need to do this so that every United fan that has ever told you that City were 'shitty' is silenced. Silenced by a huge cheer that will be heard from the highest point of every mountain, to the lowest cave in the oceans that surround our lands. In the playground, United fans judged you and teased you about the club you supported, and they denied you any word in a football debate. They wore those red shirts to tease you, and they mocked you for those years when City didn't win a Derby, and they mocked you when we were in what is now League 1.
But we need to do this to show that every City player, and City every fan and every City staff member that never gave up on us through all of those 35 years can raise a smile and feel as if they contributed to what is now "the coming force in English football"1. We need to show them, and the rest of football, that we are not going to come and fall away. No - we need to show them that we are here to stay, and here to fight, and win. We have financial backer that needs a return on its investments and its improvements.
It's not time to fall away and remain small-time. No. It is time to be better. Let's knock United off their perch - once and for all. Let's have their local Derby become Bury or FC United, and not us - Manchester City. The most patient of fans are about to be rewarded, you'd hope. But hope is nothing without a bit of gutsy desire to help it along.
Let's start against Everton, shall we? Come on, City. Let's see what you've got.
1 - Clive Tyldesley.
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