February 18 – Mad for it in Manchester

RATHER like Newcastle United, Manchester City are a club with such a colourful past we could probably run our website based entirely around The Blues.

We are talking about the club who are the only reigning English champions ever to be relegated (in 1938), and the only team to score and concede over 100 goals in the same season (1957â€“58).

On this day in 1998 the Citizens were going through a particularly turbulent time when they sacked manager Frank Clark to replace him with Joe Royle – who became the club’s sixth boss in 18 months a level of staff turnover that even Milan MandariÄ‡ would struggle to keep up with.

Not only were City struggling to hold on to their managers, but they were also being a bit careless with their divisional status. Having been relegated from the Premier League in 1996 they were sitting in the Division One drop zone when they gave Clark the old heave-ho.

Getting the boot from Maine Road would prove to be the end of Clark’s managerial career, which had started promisingly enough when he took Nottingham Forest back into the top flight after relegation under Brian Clough.

As for City, bringing in Joe Royle was not enough to save them and they became the first ever European trophy winning team to be relegated to English football’s third tier (they had lifted the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1970).

Royle proved to the Maine Road faithful that he was the right man for the job over the following two seasons when he achieved successive promotions to take the club back into the big time of the Premier League.

City fans still had to suffer and celebrate another relegation and promotion before they were bought by Thaksin Shinawatra who was declared a fit and proper person to own a football club by the Premier League. For legal reasons we cannot make jokes about that but we’re sure you can insert your own.

Even this season City continue to confound and confuse their fans. After starting the season in great shape under new manager Sven and his happy band of hastily put together players their form tailed off entirely until last week’s emotional Manchester derby when they spoiled Manchester United’s commemorations of the Munich air crash by beating United 2-1.

Here they are ruining United’s day and come back this way tomorrow when we’ll once again be donning the hat and whip of Indiana Jones in search of more footballing history from the temple of doom and various other locations.