Source: Telegraph
Manchester City's glory days are returning says hero of 1968 Mike Summerbee
"Like we're on the brink of something very big. I'd love to be out there playing. I'm hoping one of the perks of this job is that they give me a game."
Back in the late Sixties, the last time that his club won the title, together with Francis Lee and Colin Bell, Summerbee formed City's very own triptych, their version of the one lording it on the other side of town for United - Law, Best and Charlton.
"Ours always trips off the tongue a little better, though," says Summerbee. "Lee, Bell and Summerbee: I think it's because of the rhyme."
And this third of City's golden triangle is perfectly placed to make a comparison between today and his own trophy-laden era.
"I don't think there's any arguing, this weekend's derby is the first time since my day that both clubs are in serious contention," he says. "We could always win a derby even when we were in the doldrums. And don't forget we did the double over them two years ago. But this is the first time we're both in with a decent shout for, yeah, 40-odd years."
Summerbee was the first of City's big three to sign for the club, bought from Swindon in 1965. "I was on £35 a week and [club manager] Joe Mercer said, 'Look, we're skint, I can only give you £40.' Lucky I said yes. Imagine what I might have become if I'd said 'Forget it'. But the fact was I knew I was coming to a club that – just like now – was going places."
These days, City's upward trajectory is fuelled by oil money. Back then, Summerbee suggests, the momentum came from one man: Malcolm Allison.
"Best coach this country has ever seen and ever will see," he says. "He made me an international footballer and I'd come from Swindon."
Allison, he claims, was the first football man to use sports science.
"He sent us off to Salford University and we were put on a conveyor belt - well, I say conveyor belt, it was a chugging machine, we had a mask put on our face, our blood was taken, everything was tested to see how fit we were. They always did it on a Monday morning, which was difficult if you'd had a heavy weekend. We did athletics training too.
"Well, as you can imagine with a bunch of footballers, we didn't stop moaning. Especially as he made us wear these plastic suits. After a workout, it was so stuck to you, you'd have to get the groundstaff lads to peel it off you, the sweat literally poured out. But boy did it make us fit. And we all worked for each other.
"It was a love affair for all of us and the man we were mostly in love with was Allison."
Under this regime, City shot up the league. And Summerbee himself was propelled into an entirely new orbit, one that was certainly not available in Swindon.
"I became George Best's best mate," he says. "I first met him in the Kardomah coffee shop in Manchester. There he was, on his own. I think he was doing some studying - of this very good looking girl on the other side of the café. He didn't know me from Adam, but I knew him. So I introduced myself and we hit it off immediately."
Soon they had opened a boutique together, forming what was known as the Best Set, a pair of men-about-town; figures whose cultural reach extended way beyond football.
"Yeah, we lived it a bit," he smiles. "We were both in digs - single players had to in those days. But the trouble with digs was, you couldn't take girls back. So we rented this flat together where we could do our entertaining. There was only one bedroom there, so there was a bit of competition to see who got there first. No there wasn't, George always got there first."
The camaraderie extended right through the two dressing rooms: as Manchester became the country's footballing epicentre, so both sets of players regularly socialised, attending each other's functions, buying each other drinks.
"Actually, we didn't buy that many," he recalls. "It was such a football mad city, George and I could go all night and not pay for anything: not a meal, not a drink, not a taxi."
Not that any friendship had any bearing on attitudes in the derby - in those days the biggest game in the division.
"We kicked lumps out of each other on the pitch," he says. Which was not always a wise thing to do, as both teams had their hard men.
"I remember once I slid in on this United player and all I'd seen were this pair of red socks. I clipped him, sent him flying. As I was lying there, I suddenly realised it was Nobby Stiles. I thought, 'Oh God, what have I done? I'm for it now.' He looked me up and down and he seemed genuinely surprised. 'What did you do that for, Mike?' So I said: 'I didn't realise it was you, Norbert. I wouldn't have done it if I'd known.' And he said: 'Well you better get up and start running, Mike. And you'd better keep running'."
And Mike Summerbee was still running when City won the championship in 1968, beating United into second place.
"The start of that season we weren't fancied at all, you could have got 200-1 on us," he recalls. "I got 20-1 on us the following March when we were in the top five. We came from five furlongs back, the perfect run. And I can feel it happening again, really I can. Just you watch."
