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A Strange Week As A Manchester City Fan

By David Crook

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: A general view outside the Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City F.C, is seen as the scheduled match to be played today between Manchester City and Burnley was postponed due to Covid-19 on March 14, 2020 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - MARCH 14: A general view outside the Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City F.C, is seen as the scheduled match to be played today between Manchester City and Burnley was postponed due to Covid-19 on March 14, 2020 in Manchester, England. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images) /
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These are strange times to be fan of Manchester City, as the shutdown of the Premier League continues.

As a Manchester City fan this has been a week of stages of loss. From the giddiness of pretending the Real Madrid fixture was still taking place last Tuesday, to the cold realisation of the austere impact of the coronavirus control measures.

This deadly flu outbreak has swept through much of the World, bolstered through cheap air travel and the human race’s peculiar ability to interact. Initially people ignored it, believing it was a problem for others.

Gradually things changed, and in the UK the first case was recorded on 31 January 2020. In the weeks since there has been an exponential growth in misery, with some 144 people dead so far.

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Social distancing measures have impacted on daily life and supermarkets have suffered a glut of panic buying and shortages across many food stuffs.

Manchester City players have continued to post videos on instagram, of training and passing the time. My favourite of these has been the Nicolas Otamendi Lego building!

But even these public information films, seemingly designed to reassure the public, have started to lose their appeal. There is a dreariness and anxiety settling into UK daily life, with each new day unleashing the prospect of further misery and indignity.

Schools and Universities are closing and there is a very real prospect that all retail bar designated stores will follow  suit this weekend. We are in all likelihood days away from deploying troops on the streets to maintain law and order.

In my real life away from blogging I work in a hard pressed public service, faced with increasingly difficult demands. As the disaster has unfolded we have moved  through rehearsed strategic response plans to virgin territory. From Silver to Gold Command and working hours have expanded to fill every waking moment.

Against this backdrop of trying to keep the show on the road it has been difficult to keep up the blogging. That dreariness is infecting everything and as Adam Ant says “that taste has lost its flavour”.

But we move on. At the weekend there is planned watch party for the 2012 title winning game against QPR, hosted by MCFC Discord. The full match is available for free on the official Cityzens site. The plan is to start at 1730 UK time and live tweet and interact as a fan group.

Join in, if just to experience the humour of comraderie of others at this time. Football is important to us all, so let us take a moment to revel in it again. Stay safe everyone.

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