In Manchester, a Blue Moon is Rising over its Sun

Of the many digs Sir Alex Ferguson threw at Manchester City, one of his standout punches thus remain when he labeled the blue Mancunians “a small club, with a small mentality. All they can talk about is Manchester United… and they can't get away from it." He never considered them capable of achieving anything tangible with Sheikh Mansour's cash cow

The noisy neighbours, now everyone's favourite

It’s been five years since his departure and United are shadows of their former selves while City, despite having issues of their own, do manage to come up with strings of achievements, no matter how little, at the end of every season.

For Man United? Not so much. Interestingly a number of stats appear to have been screaming at the Red Devils’ seemingly disappearance from the radar of criticism. Since bulling United, 6-1 at Old Trafford in late 2011, City have won 8 of the last 13 Manchester derbies in the English Premier league (excluding cup ties), drawing 2 and loosing 3. The Citizens are yet to finish outside the top 4 while United have made the top 4 just once in the past four seasons.

From Ed Woodward’s dexterous hands at managing financial line graphs – using his board room wizardry to push them to the top of Delloite’s Money league, replacing a Real Madrid empire that have won the Champions League thrice in the last four years – to the media’s continued vilification of Arsene Wenger and his team of underachievers, Manchester United have so far escaped the harsh criticism deserving of their poor Returns on Investments.

Like the moon, the Citizens have spent the better part of their existence in the shadows of the darling sun of England’s northwest city of Manchester – Manchester United.

When the surge of petrodollars arrived at their shores, pundits never failed to point out how money couldn’t buy success but City were wise in spending. Main case in point being how their recruitment policy centered on poaching fiery preachers of the Barcelona way of football – most notably Txiki Begiristain and Feran Soriano.

Pep Guardiola’s capture last year appears to be the final piece of the puzzle. Looking back at the way the decision makers pushed their chess pieces around, it appears City had all along been playing soothing tunes to the desires of a 46-year old bald perfectionist from Spain. From the type of players they bought to the kind of style demanded from former managers Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini.

At Old Trafford, options are beginning to run dry. In appointing Mourinho, the board directors took an extreme opposite to the wishes of Sir Alex. It’s still the best appointment till date except that his better half now manages their next door neighbours making it feel like no matter how good United gets, they can never best a City team backed by Guardiola.

Doesn't matter where you go Jose, Pep is your nightmare

To the average United fan, the city of Manchester is dark as night has fallen upon it. In the absence of the sun who obviously can’t operate at night, the moon has taken up the mantle of keeping the city alive. When Ferguson stepped down in 2013, it was expected and considered to be a temporary setback. 5 years on, the sun is yet to rise again. Worst part is the moon doesn’t look one bit interested in going back to sleep. Haven tried every trick in their playbook, back-pedaling from a traditional youth policy, attempting to buy their way back to the summit, the general feeling remains one of one step forward, two backwards.

Nowadays in these parts, the best hope looks like the one which brought them into the light – natural selection. A dance of fate and destiny that made it possible for Mark Robins to score that last quarter clincher, handing United an FA cup title and stopping Fergusson’s sack letter from being stamped far back 1990. The same dance ensured Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt and David Beckham were all part of the same generation of Fergies Fledglings.

Given the math on ground keeps favouring City, United seem to have no choice than to hope for a spontaneous revival. If the nightfall expires, the day breaks and eventually the sun will rise. That is one irrefutable natural equation they desperately need soccer deities to apply.

It is left for the gods to decide.

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