CAN CITY FINALLY COME GOOD ON A PROMISE MADE 54 YEARS AGO?
In 1968 Malcolm Allison said his side would be European champions. The wait goes on...
MaLCoLM aLLison — the brash Cockney who became a Manchester City icon, masterminding a daring style of play that deserves remembering — would have been 95 yesterday.
assistant to Joe Mercer, the club’s greatest manager until Pep guardiola, allison won a league title, two domestic trophies and the Cup Winners’ Cup with a team including Colin Bell, Mike summerbee and Franny Lee before briefly taking the top job himself.
He was ahead of his time in the 1960s, a progressive coach and gregarious character both on the grass and in the nightclubs. For that reason, allison would often do media work when he was Mercer’s no 2 — largely down to him being more quotable.
He never messed about and shortly after City won the First Division in 1968, uttered the words that have unwittingly haunted their relationship with europe for more than half a century.
inside a stuffy press room at the old Maine Road, allison bulldozed with bravado. City were embarking on a first european Cup campaign the following season and he was a little excited. ‘gentlemen, there is no limit to what this team can achieve,’ he started.
Fair enough, all normal so far — but not for long. ‘We will terrorise europe. City will not play in europe like some of the sides i have seen play Manchester United. i promise that City will attack these people as they have not been attacked since the days of the old Real Madrid. We will win the european Cup.’
they didn’t. United did though, on one of their most famous nights a few weeks after the proclamations that came from across town.
City were drawn minnows Fenerbahce in the first round of their debut campaign in the months after and didn’t bother watching their turkish opponents. they drew 0-0 in the home first leg and blew a lead to lose 2-1 in istanbul, to the backdrop of armed police in an environment alien to those in sky blue.
Fifty-four years later and they are still waiting. so the misadventure surrounding City on the continent is worthy of a forensic look.
allison’s cocky conference is the first story chronicled in a new book, City in Europe, written by simon Curtis, moseying through the stories of one disaster to the next.
‘one day we will get to the final again and one day we will win it,’ chief executive Ferran soriano said recently. ‘We are not obsessed, but i know it’s going to happen.’
tonight they start all over again, away at sevilla — although the group stage rarely poses many issues for City. on paper, this tie feels quite gentle — sevilla have one point from four La Liga games this season.
guardiola rolled his eyes when the question of ‘when’ was asked. ‘i get asked every year,’ he said. ‘sport always gives you another opportunity. they say we are favourites. But for me, Real have to be favourites every year.
‘it depends on our performance. if it’s not good then we will take punishments from the fans. i would love to have the story in europe like sevilla has. Man City is far away from what they have done in europe. We are going to try again. Win it or not win it? F***, i don’t know.’
there is no chance of guardiola going anywhere close to allison’s outbursts, but he surely believes that this City side has to lift the trophy eventually. With 23 goals in 19 Champions League games, erling Haaland offers a significant advantage as well.
‘if we rely on his shoulders we are not going to win,’ guardiola added. ‘i understand everyone talks about erling but i have more new players and i want them to settle. We won’t win just because of erling, but maybe he can solve the problems we have.’
When will the pursuit end? When will City stop finding ways to knock themselves out of the Champions League? even by their standards, the capitulation in the semi-final second leg at the Bernabeu in May represented a tragicomedy that few others could possibly match.
ahead of tonight, there are concerns for Kyle Walker and John stones — who were both left at home.
the pair have sustained muscular injuries, with Walker’s appearing more serious and the right back could miss saturday’s game against tottenham.
‘We are lucky that the club give me Manuel akanji otherwise we’d be in real trouble,’ said guardiola. ‘ the history for John and nathan
(ake) — they aren’t quite reliable to play every week.’
sadly, Manchester City have also been anything but reliable in this competition down the years.
MAN CITY (probable line-up, 4-2-3-1): Ederson; Cancelo, Dias, Akanji, Ake; Rodri, Gundogan; Mahrez, De Bruyne, Grealish; Haaland.