Source: Daily_Mail
Manchester is new footballing capital
ShareMemo to those looking to drive through Manchester city centre in the coming days and weeks. It's going to be busy. [LNB]Manchester City will parade the FA Cup through town next Monday. United will follow with the Barclays Premier League trophy a week later.[LNB]Supporters of both clubs may resent the presence of the other. After all, nobody likes to share the limelight.[LNB] Messy! Joe Hart celebrates Manchester City's FA Cup win over Stoke[LNB]Nevertheless, it's time to see the wider picture. These are, after all, great times for a great city.[LNB]Manchester has grown up and changed an awful lot in the 10 years I have covered the fortunes of its two football clubs. [LNB]The city is no stranger to sporting achievement. [LNB]United are the country's most successful club and City have won the English title before. We even used to host decent Test matches before they started being farmed out to places like Wales.[LNB]Now, though, Manchester stands on the threshold of a golden period the like of which it has not seen since 1968 when George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law entranced European football and [LNB]Mike Summerbee, Colin Bell and Francis Lee helped City beat United to the Division One title on the last day of the season.[LNB]Before the first Manchester derby of last season, Summerbee told me over lunch at Deansgate's El Rincon restaurant about the feeling of optimism that engulfed the city back then.[LNB] It'll never catch on: Caros Tevez dons the FA Cup after captaining City to victory[LNB]'It was the perfect place to live,' enthused Summerbee. 'The football was the best in the country. So was the music and the nightlife.[LNB]'People here thought they were just as cool as those in London. I agreed with them.'[LNB]Summerbee an enthusiastic raconteur tells all his stories with a twist. Too much time spent with Best. [LNB]But who is to say he was wrong and who would argue that it is any different now?[LNB]Manchester has endured its share of low moments over the last 30 years. Like all northern cities it has had to reinvent itself to deal with the decline of the industries on which it was built. Physically, it had to rebuild itself after the IRA bomb that ripped through Corporation Street in June 1996.[LNB]I was in Manchester that particular day, heading to town to watch England play Scotland on TV. It was difficult not to wonder if the city and its people would ever recover.[LNB]Fifteen years on, though, Manchester is bigger, better and stronger than ever. New shops, new restaurants, new industry. [LNB] Our time has come: City fans celebrate after their club's trophy drought came to an end[LNB]The BBC arrive down the road in Salford soon (Salfordians will remind you that theirs is a city in its own right, of course) and we even have a Harvey Nichols, although there never seems to be anybody in it.[LNB]Against this backdrop of revival and new beginnings, Manchester's football is leading the way.[LNB]There has always been a strong rivalry off the field. As City's fans have recently sung in reference to their three-and-a-half decades of trophy starvation: '35 years and we're still here.'[LNB]For the first time in many years, though, their presence as a genuine rival on the pitch is real.[LNB]Winning the FA Cup on Saturday hasn't done that by itself, of course, although beating United in the semi-final certainly helped.[LNB]City, fuelled by Arabian petro-dollars, have been stalking United for two-and-a-half years. They haven't caught them yet. Let us remind ourselves that Portsmouth won the FA Cup in 2008.[LNB]Nevertheless, their threat now is genuine and growing.[LNB] Can't bare to look: Jon Walters (right) shows his disappointment after Stoke's defeat[LNB]My choice was a difficult one last week. Head to Blackburn to witness United finally establish themselves as Liverpool's superiors by clinching their 19th title or travel to Wembley to see if City could bring an end to their own pain.[LNB]Wembley got the call in the end, but it was close and that is very much the point. Last summer I went on pre-season tour with City. The previous eight had been spent with United. [LNB]After all, when I arrived back in the north in 2001, City were in the old Division One and playing at Maine Road. At times, I couldn't get them in the paper. Certainly Wembley was a rare old place to be on Saturday.[LNB]It wasn't a great game. Too many of Stoke's important players didn't perform well and that was a shame.[LNB]Nevertheless, it was a defining day in terms of the changing landscape of English football. [LNB]We had feared United's triumph would overshadow City's own achievement. We had quite rightly set up the Football Association as the feckless fall guys.[LNB] Record breakers: Manchester United celebrate clinching the Premier League title[LNB]In the end, though, it all played rather well to an emerging theme. That of Manchester's place at the very heart of our game. [LNB]United will not have given their neighbours a second thought as Wayne Rooney's penalty ripped past Paul Robinson at Ewood Park. Equally, those in blue thought only of their own bright future as Yaya Toure did his best to take the net off at Wembley two hours later. Now, though, as the hangovers begin to subside, what is clear is that things have changed for the foreseeable future. [LNB]It is Manchester not Liverpool or London that is home to the country's most newsworthy football clubs. It is Manchester that is showing everyone else the way.[LNB]Are we as Summerbee says as 'cool' as London? [LNB]Well, we listen to better music and we wear better clothes.[LNB]And here is something else to consider: This season is the first since 1995-96 that a team from London have not won the Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup or Community Shield.[LNB]If you want to know where it's at then come to Manchester. Just don't come in your car.[LNB] Manchester City 1 Stoke 0: Yaya the hero again as Blues end 35-year wait for trophyBlackburn 1 Man Utd 1: Rooney holds his nerve to seal record 19th titleAll the latest Manchester City news, features and opinionAll the latest Manchester United news, features and opinion [LNB] Explore more:People: Paul Robinson, George Best, Denis Law, Wayne Rooney Places: Liverpool, Manchester, London, Scotland, United Kingdom, Wales Organisations: Football Association
