City start the club management’s next pre-defined block of games in an exciting season against Wigan on Sunday.  The first block went extremely well, and if City are in the top four by new year then I ‘ll have a fine Scotch in honour of a great first half of the season.  To be honest I’ll have a fine Scotch anyway, but it’ll taste better if City are up there!

City have defied the pre-season critics both on and off the pitch, smoothly riding the waves of press vitriol coming its’ way.  One can only hazard at the current state of mind of Sir Alex Ferguson who in yesterday’s Daily Mail advised us that City may be heading for financial disintegration in the future, questioning at the same time whether or not it can be good for a club to have financial stability.

The tide is turning.  Sport magazine, a London-based sports freebie, has been something akin to a United fanzine for much of the early season.  So it was no surprise that its’ editor didn’t reply to my friendly e-mail requesting some balance in their coverage.  It’s a decent Sport weekly, so why did they see fit to profile a different United player each week? 

Well maybe they were listening this week as the player profiling gave way for “The Power List 2009,” a list of Sports view of the 50 people who wield the most influence in British sport.  Sandwiched in between Lord Coe at No.3 and Jeremy Darroch, Chief Executive of BSkyB, is our very own Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayad Al Nahyan.  One of the world’s most powerful investors who has brought instant stability to City, certainly not the prospect of financial disintegration that £700 million of debt brings.

Kicking off the season again with a win against Wigan will be important. It’s a tough game that provides a stern test of resilience.  We will miss Bellamy if he’s not fit, but it’s up to the team to make sure we win games like this.  Once again the Manchester City Babies in Ghana have provided great inspiration.  The club picked up a triple crown of league victories in all age groups two weeks ago, and finished last weekend unbeaten with two wins and a draw – see their dedicated page here.

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