Opinion
All SportsGlorious European nights wasted on soulless Manchester City fans
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Published 05/05/2015 at 12:39 GMT
Little did we know when Bayern Munich were traipsing out to play in a deserted stadium in Moscow around tea time on Tuesday that ghostly atmospheres would quickly become the theme for the evening.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said that never again did he want to experience such goings on after Thomas Mueller scored a penalty in the first half to condemn CSKA Moscow to defeat in a match played behind closed doors on UEFA's orders.
Moscow's ground was closed due to several episodes of racist chanting at the Arena Khimki, but Guardiola was not content about the effect it had on his Bayern side.
"Communication is a little better for a coach when there are no fans, but it is much better with fans in the stands. Football is played for the people, not for us. I hope these things that have happened won’t happen again."
Perhaps Pep should have tried out the Etihad with fans in it. It didn’t seem much livelier.
Manchester City's Yaya Toure was racially abused in Moscow last year prompting the authorities to act, but he would have heard as much noise if he had been back in the Russian capital without a CSKA fan in sight.
Whatever else is made of Manchester City's excellence as a football team, and the riches that they bathes in via their Abu Dhabi owners, the atmosphere at the Etihad Stadium is soulless.
How many empty seats are there at the city vs Roma game by the way....big CL game & fans would rather Ramsays Kitchen or something at home🙈— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) September 30, 2014
You can buy a team, a dream, and a title, but you can't buy a crowd, or a party. Manchester City's ground on European nights seems to contain as much spirit as Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.
City's struggles to master the nuances of Champions League appears to be matched by their support's inexplicable indifference towards it.
With 20 minutes until kick-off, there seemed like a duty rather than a dedication about City fans as they took to their seats. And they appeared to be plenty of empty spaces, it is worth pointing out.
Just over 37,000 fans witnessed the match. It is difficult to remember a song of any note being sung with any great relish.
Golf fans were making much more noise during the Ryder Cup last week which says enough.
All the frisson was emanating from a Roma support, who obviously continue to put great stock on the Champions League.
As the match progressed with Franceso Totti overtaking Ryan Giggs as the oldest goalscorer in Champions League and enjoying the run of the place at the age of 38, it would have been worth checking if there was Mogadon in the bovril of the home followers.
The former Manchester United player Paul Scholes summed it up during his role as a pundit on ITV.
“It just doesn't have a European night feel to it,” said Scholes. “You go to Liverpool, you go to Old Trafford, you go to Chelsea, they have a special feeling for it.
“Tonight I don't think there is (a special atmosphere). I don't think they realise what a big game this is.
“They've got the team, they've definitely got the players, the quality is definitely there, but do the crowd realise how lucky they are to be in this competition? I don't think they do.”
On such lofty occasions, you do question the damaging long-term effect money has had on the game of football.
It is only 15 years since Paul Dickov was helping City clamber back out of the old Second Division via a play-off match against Gillingham at the old Wembley, a match City only won on penalties.
City were in the third rung of English football. The idea of bringing Champions League football to the old Maine Road back then would have been enough to suggest City diehard had seen a real Blue moon over Manchester.
They still play Oasis’s Roll With It at full-time, but how many City supporters stick about until the full-time whistle to hear it?
When City were pushing for the Premier League title last season, the final whistle of a 1-0 win over Stoke in February was greeted with as much gusto as a fisherman hooking an old Frannie Lee boot out of the Irwell. Plenty had headed for the exit doors.
Their relationship with the ground formerly known as Eastlands seems about as healthy for the mental compass as having Kelly Brook as your love interest.
Either the City fans from Maine Road have become dispossessed, or Roy Keane's Prawn Sandwich Brigade now occupy the joint.
Fans of City have quickly become spoiled. It is quite astonishing to accept that the City's fans can't take to a match with a side such as AS Roma.
It seems that they turn up, expect to be entertained and expect their players to win because they are the wealthiest club in the world.
What is the point of qualifying for the Champions League if this is the reaction?
And why are they planning to increase the capacity at the Etihad to 61,000 when they can’t fill the current ground with an appropriate level of noise or bodies?
Money has deprived supporters of City some of the great joys of football. If such enlivening evenings against a side leading Serie A does not do it for you, we are all lost.
Manchester United and Liverpool have never lost the appetite for European nights over the years despite enjoying greater moments than City. This only adds to the mystery.
Totti overtook Ryan Giggs as the competition's oldest scorer.
He would have been better reserving his momentous goal for Giggs’ old haunt of Old Trafford, a venue where the Champions League is afforded greater and more approriate levels of respect.
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