Manchester City and the Quadruple: Media Obsession or Realistic Ambition?

As Manchester City have in recent years set a series of records in the Premier League – most points won, most goals scored – they have been presented by the media as needing to win an unrealistic quadruple in order to be anointed as a great side.

Before this season started it was possible to get odds of 250/1 for Manchester City to achieve an historic quadruple of honours and yet by yesterday the odds had dropped to just 10/1. The elusive quadruple is the Premier League Trophy, The Champions League Trophy, The League Cup Final and the FA Cup. It is elusive because despite all the great English sides of the past – despite the dominance in the 1990’s of Manchester United and the dominance of Liverpool in the 1980’s – it has never been accomplished.

The domestic treble of English Club competitions has also never been won by a side – no one has ever accomplished a clean sweep of these trophies in the over 125 years of football history. Manchester United are the only English side to have won a treble but their treble back in 1998/99 comprised the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.

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So given how unrealistic the idea of winning a treble – let alone a quadruple – is, why is this level of expectation being set for City? Why are questions appearing before Guardiola in every press conference?

Well the answers are the media are seeking to place this Manchester City somewhere in the list of great sides – are we better than the Invincibles? Would we beat the Utd Treble side? They are also seeking to create some dissonance amongst fans when the reality is it is like picking if an Elvis Presley, Beatles or Bowie song is the best (the answer is they can all be good).

To the long suffering Manchester City fans though talk of a quadruple just feels like another hoop has been placed in front of City that they must jump through in order to receive any plaudits. When we lose one of the games in the four remaining competitions because we will, all of a sudden the narrative will be about how we have lost the quadruple.

So as fans we all need to take a leaf out of Pep Guardiola’s book. We must prepare for the next game only. Never look ahead, just take one game at a time and come the end of May we will see how good we have been. As we approach our first opportunity for silverware this season in the Carabao Cup we need to enjoy the ride along the way.