How 34,000 Napoli Fans Watched My Wobbly Video

There's been an incredible response to that video I posted on YouTube showing the remarkable reception the Napoli fans gave to their team in the Champions League match against City.

It's low-res, iPhone and shakey but so far it's had 33,977 views, 56 comments and 88 thumbs up. It's been shared 122 times, favourited by 42 viewers and disliked by two.

The stats say 86 per cent of the viewers were blokes and 72 per cent of them found it when it was embedded on Napoli's website at www.calcionapoli.it. 

Unsurprisingly, 30,753 of the viewers were in Italy when they hit the play button.

Some of the comments have been quite touching:

"Maximum respect to Manchester City supporters, all of you will always be welcome in Naples."

"You too have great supporters... In Naples we are so, we live for football. :D"

"GO GO NAPLES! RESPECT FOR CITY IN PREMIER LEAGUE!"

"Thank you for coming! We loved having you there and hoped that you enjoyed it too!"

And my favourite:

"You're my mast of work!!! But the real mast have to pass a big truble in the middle of legs."

He's got a point.

Good luck to Napoli in the jauntily titled Round of 16. I'm genuinely looking forward to our own Round of 32 in the Europa League, no matter who we get and where it takes us.

The derision that competition gets is baffling. Would fans really prefer their team to be scrapping away for the top four in the Premier League rather than going gung ho for a place in a major European final in Bucharest in May? And we wouldn't have the Poznan without it.

Bring on those Thursday nights on Channel 5.

Safety Fears Over Future Of Manchester City's Poznan

I love the Poznan as much as the next man but the Fulham match on Sunday raised the first few concerns over its longevity.

It soon became clear in the Putney End that some Fulham fans in the Riverside Stand to the left seemed as interested in the City fans as the match itself. Quite a few of them had cameras and phones pointed at our supporters during open play, clearly hoping for some spontaneous outbreak of Polish-inspired unity.

The greatest example I've seen so far was at the FA Cup final in May. We were lucky enough to be in the Wembley corner where Yaya ran to celebrate after scoring the winner. This video, shot on my iPhone, shows how quickly the fans turned from hailing Toure to turning our backs, throwing our arms over our neighbours' shoulders and jumping up and down in the most memorable City moment of my life. It's now been viewed more than a thousand times (most of them probably mine).

The joyous celebration is now as familiar and essential as Blue Moon to most City fans - an obligation every after every goal.

But after Kun's brilliant first strike against Fulham I slightly misjudged the narrowness of the gap between my legs and the Craven Cottage seat. I clattered both knees with the kind of impact that makes you feel slightly queasy for a minute. I had to grit my teeth for the encore after his stunning second goal.

The pain came flooding back when I absent-mindedly knelt down in the gym yesterday as part of my neverending training for this WWF charity half-marathon.

The other problem is the opposition piss-take Poznan. Murphy's deflected equaliser on Sunday led to an impromptu, if vastly inferior, effort from the home fans in the Hammersmith End. We had to stand there ruefully, hoisted by our own Poznan petard.

Intelligence from Poland suggests that the sight will become a Europe-wide phenomenon during the European Championships next year.

Maybe that's when City fans will shrug and move on. It'll be stored in the mental attic next to the inflatable bananas and bounced out only on special occasions.

But for now the British franchise belongs to us. So hands off. And make those terraces wider.

First The FA Cup, Next This

Today: Champions League Festival, Hyde Park

Maybe not.

Because chronologically it's the Premier League first.

Then off to Munich to win this in 2012...

Nosey City Fan Shames Cup Win

Shameful new evidence has emerged of a Manchester City fan apparently picking his nose at the FA Cup Final last Saturday.

The man, aged between 35 and 55, was photographed by the official Wembley 360 camera in the North West corner of the stadium during City's match against Stoke City.

One onlooker said: "He's either pensive and thoughtful or having a proper clear out. But my money's on the latter."

He added: "Fergie called us the noisy neighbours but this bloke just looks nosey."

City won the match 1-0.

Why No Lap Of Honour?

When did FA Cup-winning teams stop doing a lap of honour at Wembley?

The celebrations after the trophy lift on Saturday were fabulous: Tevez with the lid on his head, wearing a City flag like a Superman cape; Joe Hart covered in blue ticker-tape; Tevez and Zabaleta with the Cup and the Argentina flag in the goalmouth; Mancini showing off the silverware to the fans behind the goal.

But all the celebrations were at the City end. And there was a lot of jigging about and Poznaning but no running around with the trophy held aloft by two players at a time

Plenty of flag-waving Stoke fans had stayed for the presentation as you can see towards the end of this video. The Potters had come for a party and Yaya Toure wasn't going to stop them having one.

But their view of the famous old trophy was confined to tiny flashes of silver seen from the other end of the stadium.

It didn't used to be like that. This clip from 1976 shows Southampton's victorious players, including future Blue Mike Channon, actually running around the old Wembley dog track so both Saints and Man United fans could pay their respects.

So when and why did it stop? Are today's players afraid they'll be abused by opposition fans? Is it seen as something that might incite angry losers? Or is it a tradition that's simply been forgotten?

If City had lost I would have still liked to see the trophy paraded at our end. It should be a guaranteed part of the £85-per-ticket Cup Final experience.

So come on the FA - let's Get Our Lap Back.

The imaginary campaign starts here.

How Me, Vince, City & The Goat Won The FA Cup

We waited 35 years and all we got was this three-minute video.

The 28th Shirt

An 11am dash to the post office yesterday armed with the dreaded sorry-we-missed-you card was rewarded with the FA Cup Final special shirt.

Turned out to be a lucky one.

I'll post a mini-video of a fabulous day later.

Champions League In 13 Texts: City v Spurs

Vince at Eastlands (7.41pm): In position. Just made it. Packed. Come on blues. Good early start.

Me watching on TV in W12: Quietly confident.

United Fan Brother watching on TV in Manchester (7.43pm): Looking 4ward 2 sum sexy futbol. if mancini ruins this game there'll be calls 4 sak. bad sport 2, as witness fil nevil, sparky etc. Come on the lilywhites.

Me: Park the bus!

Me (8.13pm): Bloody dreadful.

Vince: Poznan! Lescott! Needed that. Phew.

Me: Come on!

Me (half-time): Can't remember shouting at TV so much. Agony.

Vince (8.53pm): Got to get another. Tev and mario on to put it beyond doubt.

Vince: We're suffering here. Need to clear our lines. Tev warming up. Too early yet. Edge of seat.

Me (9.16pm): Nervy 20 ahead.

Vince (9.48pm): Dave! We did it! Champions league!

Me: With 2 games to spare! Get in. Taste of Lahore next.

Brother: radio silence

Cup Final Countdown: 5 Days To Go

Today is the 30th anniversary of City's last appearance in the FA Cup Final.

The famous one when Corrigan, Ranson, MacDonald, Reid, Power, Caton, Bennett, Gow, Hutchison, MacKenzie and Reeves drew with Tottenham then lost to Ricky Villa's bonkers winner in the replay. This is my memory of it in an earlier post.

That unhappy replay took place on May 14 - the same date City go back to Wembley to face the long-throw ammo of Stoke in this year's final.

The 2011 ticket is almost identical to the semi-final ticket (above) and basically an advert for the sponsors.  Back in 1981 it was a mini work of art with an etching, a lion watermark and everything.

And it didn't cost £85.

Be good if we could hammer Spurs tomorrow night and take their place in next season's Champions League as a Final warm-up.

Revenge is a dish best served very cold.

FA Cup Final Countdown: 6 Days To Go

One fan. Twenty-seven Manchester City shirts.

The Road To Wembley Via Swaffham

I secured my FA Cup Final ticket today.

I had the required number of loyalty points but It still took three-and-a-half Bank Holiday hours of two people hitting redial - that's the equivalent of two finals and one extra time and included the unbearable tension of penalties.

For 95 per cent of the time I didn't get beyond the engaged tone. The rest of it was even more infuriating - I made it into the switchboard queue but got inexplicably cut off.

I eventually got through on my mobile on the A1065 near Swaffham in Norfolk. A seat at Wembley cost £92.

There must be a more efficient way of selling tickets to silver-haired veteran season ticket holders but I guess City haven't had much experience of sorting out finals in the last 30 years.

And in the texted words of Vince from his holiday hideaway in Tel Aviv: "Dave! What an ordeal but we're going back to the TASTE OF LAHORE. Er, WEMBLEY! Wow. FA Cup final. Come on Blues."

Semi-Final Tickets 30 Years Apart

My Wembley ticket today is 20 times more expensive than City's last FA Cup semi at Villa Park 30 years ago. Mancini's team probably cost a 100 times more than John Bond's...

Mancini's City: Shot-Shy, Tough-Tackling, Deadly

Away

Very interesting stats on Sky Sports News confirm what's obvious to most of us: we don't shoot very often compared to the rest of the top four but when we do they tend to be on target and go in.

The research was prompted by a Spurs fan after it was pointed out that City have scored nine more Premier League goals than Tottenham despite Harry's reputation for all-out attacking flair.

Away, we've got the fewest shots but the highest percentage of goals to shots. At home, we're second only to United in the goals/shots ratio.

Both stats confirm what we already knew: our strikers, and Tevez in particular, are ruthless in front of goal.

It's also striking that Chelsea have had more than twice as many shots as City away from home but more of City's have been on target.

What is surprising is the high amount of tackles we put in: testament to the tirelessness of De Jong, Barry and the rest.

Let's hope Mancini keeps them off the leash against Liverpool on Monday. They were a treat to watch against Sunderland at home last weekend.

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