City fan Lawrence Booth yearns for comedy‑club days after scandal
MAN CITY FAN VIEW My club's relationship with financial skulduggery has left me yearning for the comedy club days, writes Lawrence Booth. For those of us who supported Manchester City long before they were accused of financial skulduggery, it has been a strange few years.
City were completely inoffensive back then – the comedy club who once kept the ball near the corner flag because they had been wrongly told a draw would spare them relegation. For years, the fans survived on scraps, clinging to hope despite limited success.
The near miss in the 1981 FA Cup final, when a freakish Tommy Hutchison own goal robbed City, still haunts supporters. The Full Members’ Cup final of 1986 ended in a 5‑4 defeat to Chelsea, and the mad play‑off comeback against Gillingham offered a brief thrill.
From comedy club to courtroom
When money poured in from Abu Dhabi, a strange conundrum emerged. The club now faces the fallout of being found guilty of all but one of the 115 charges, a verdict that brings grim clarity. The fear of titles being retrospectively stripped, reminiscent of Russian athletes at the Olympics, looms large.
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The idea that Sergio Aguero’s last‑gasp title‑winning goal against QPR in 2012 might be null and void is hard to stomach. Financial penalties, points deductions or even relegation would be tolerable, but an asterisk on that triumph feels unbearable.
Money, trophies and fan sentiment
Booth admits he disliked City attracting censure rather than affection, and he resented trophies being labelled ill‑gotten. Yet he could not cut the umbilical cord; money does not automatically guarantee success. Manchester United prove life isn’t that simple, and spending wisely matters – Aguero, Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Ederson and Manuel Akanji were all high‑profile purchases.
The column, published in the CRICKET section on September 25, 2026, notes that last season felt oddly relaxing, with Arsenal finally getting over the line. Winning the league no longer thrills as it did when Aguero scored, and draws are no longer disasters.
Life felt a bit more normal again: defending was occasionally comical, just like the old times. Perhaps one day fans will learn to love City again, though Booth concedes that may only happen if the club is banished to the Enterprise Rent‑A‑Car National League first.