on what a WANKER was.. here he is. ( & just check his smarmy face out! I want to belt it!)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rory ... of-giants/
Manchester City a long way from standing on the shoulders of giants
By Rory Smith Football Last updated: July 24th, 2010
For all the riches, for all the recently-acquired glamour, there is nobody inside or outside Manchester City who doubts that the most ambitious project in English football history is far from complete. £65 million may already have been spent this summer, £200 million or so in the last two years and upwards of half a billion, give or take, in total when wage commitments over the next few years are taken into consideration, but this is very much a work in progress.
That is not a knee-jerk assessment from an evening in which City were thoroughly outclassed by Sporting Clube de Portugal, an attempt to read grand meaning into a game devoid of significance. This was – at best – City’s third team, featuring just two players, Vincent Kompany and Adam Johnson, likely to feature when their season opens against Tottenham next month.
Sporting, too, inspired by the electric Yannick Djalo, who scored one simple headed goal and one wonderful effort from a Carlos Saleiro flick, have the distinct advantage of standing just a week from the start of their season. City have almost four before they must be at their peak.
But, mitigating circumstances aside, this was an educational evening for all concerned. The scale of the task awaiting Roberto Mancini can not be in doubt: if he is to mould his side into potential title challengers, he must cut a substantial amount of chaff and replace it with yet more premium wheat. He should start, on this evidence, by sending Jo out to stud, though probably not literally.
But there is a greater challenge awaiting City than simply cracking English football’s ever-weakening Big Four cartel. There is a far more exclusive clique they wish to belong to, and how difficult membership is to obtain was spelled out in the stands of the Red Bull Arena.
In one corner, a boisterous group of City fans made their presence felt, offering America their own extraordinary renditions of Blue Moon. But they were drowned out by the sea – well, small freshwater lake – of Sporting fans among the 13, 586 crowd. In fact, there may have been more Benfica shirts than City in the audience, though they were, presumably, supporting the same side.
That may seem strange in a tournament which has been advertised here through the Premier League prism. Thierry Henry is the star attraction, in no small part down to what he achieved in England, while City and Tottenham are supposed to provide the top-class opposition, the litany of household names, by which the standards of the native product can be judged. It is they – particularly City – who have dominated the media build-up to the event, at home and abroad.
And yet the biggest club here, in terms of history certainly and in terms of fanbase possibly, have passed by relatively unnoticed. For all that City and Spurs are undoubtedly fine clubs, laden with tradition and importance, Sporting are the only true global giants present in New York.
For all that they have suffered, as all major clubs in smaller television markets have, in the brave new world of football, Sporting are one of that elite group of clubs who will always stand among the greats. They may no longer be kings of the global game, but, whatever the vicissitudes of the now, they remain its hereditary peers.
It is that status which City aspire to, that ability to go anywhere in the world and be able to count on the fervour of thousands of fans, that gilded history, that place in the pantheon. It is something that requires more than money. It requires time, and it requires titles. City, as Garry Cook might say, are at the beginning of that journey. It will be a long one.
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You were right about his face though
