As the finale of the football season nears, Manchester will be transformed whether City or United are crowned champions
A strange thing has happened to Manchester City fans this season. They have taken to quoting Brian Stimpson, the headteacher played by John Cleese in the film Clockwise. "I can cope with the despair – it's the hope that's killing me."
On Sunday, one way or another, they will be put out of their misery. The English football season reaches its climax and if City beat Queens Park Rangers (barring Manchester United winning by eight more goals than City do) Manchester's perennial underdogs, the club that was relegated to the third tier 14 years ago, the club that invariably snatched defeat from the jaws of triumph, and whose former manager Joe Royle coined the phrase Cityitis to describe just that phenomenon, will be crowned champions – and the Clockwise quote will be consigned to oblivion.
Ellis Steinberg was trying on a smart green dotted jacket in the City store in the centre of Manchester. The only thing that made the jacket a City product was the club logo on the breast. It's a sign of how far City have come in the world of merchandising – City babywear, City stationery, City rubber ducks are all on sale here. Steinberg is a 63-year-old socialist, with a touch of the Woody Allen about him. "I'm very excited. Very nervous." He's worried about Cityitis? "Yeah." He gulped. I know what he means. I've been a City fan for 40 years.
Four years ago City were taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group (a worrying name if there ever was one), which was almost the same as being taken over by Abu Dhabi. Overnight the club went from the verge of bankruptcy to being the richest in the world. Last season City won the FA Cup, their first trophy in 35 years. Since its inception in 1992, United have dominated the Premier League, winning it 12 times.
Did Steinberg think there had been a power shift in Manchester? "Yes, definitely. It's all oil money." How did he reconcile this with his socialism? "Having had years of misery, I've got to say I'm fine. Anyway, when United fans have a go at me, I remind them they paid the highest fee ever for a teenager in Wayne Rooney, and Rio Ferdinand was the most expensive defender in the world."
For decades City fans have been singing surreal songs of denial. The most famous is "We are not, we're not really here, just like the fans of the invisible man we're not really here." They used to sing it because they could not believe how bad things had got. Recently, it's been sung with a new kind of disbelief.
This is not simply a story of one local club toppling another. More important for the city is that whatever happens on Sunday Manchester will have the Premier League's two most successful teams this season – and many people expect it to stay this way for a long time.
Amid the gothic grandeur of the town hall, the council leader, Sir Richard Leese, was sitting at his desk. "In terms of international marketing, economic development and so on, it is unquestionably the case that Manchester United until recently made a much more significant contribution." But not now, he said.
What does that mean for Manchester? "Having two massive clubs means the hotels are full every weekend rather than every other weekend." But, he said, it's far more significant than that. "We can go from Manchester to almost any place in the world and there will be recognition of Manchester the place because of the association with the football. If you're trying to build economic links of any sort, it opens the door, it gets you to first base."
The recent derby between City and United drew the biggest worldwide audience for a Premier League match – an estimated 650 million. Leese said there were any number of people trying to calculate how Manchester's footballing success can be monetised, from industry to tourism.
Not least at Eastlands, City's home, where the statistics were coming thick and fast – 34% more registered members since the beginning of the season, 216% more international registrations in the same period; a 50% increase in international website visits since last season; commercial revenues up by 182% since 2008; the fastest growing club on Facebook with 2.5 million fans, and a 200% rise in global broadcast coverage since 2009. Make no mistake, this is big business.
At the town hall, the council leader said he had something to show me, and whipped out a blue-and-white scarf from his desk drawer. Leese, who hails from Mansfield, has had a season ticket for 13 years. What difference does footballing success make to daily life? "Not much, except I think the Blues are a bit less miserable."
As he led me through the Victorian corridors of power, he talked about the arrangements for whichever Manchester team wins the title. "We've got contingency plans for two different victory parades … but we're only planning for one."
At City's stadium all was sky blue – the concrete, the stalls, the seats. A group of French pupils were touring the ground and said they had no time to visit United's stadium at Old Trafford. Another sign of the times.
At the reception, hydrangeas nuzzled up to lilies in a tall vase – City blue and white. The former goalkeeper and local hero Alex Williams, who runs the club's community programme, passed by.
He talked about how City used to be regarded as a comedy club and how that has changed. "We're getting to a stage where other teams, including our local neighbours, believe we are now the real deal." Did he call them neighbours because he could not bear to use the U word? "No … not necessarily."
When City joined the nouveaux riches, some fans displayed an unappealing hubris. They had money to boast about back then, but not success. So they taunted opposition teams with the chant: "We'll buy your club, we'll burn it down." These days the fans are more dignified about the wealth, and the songs are more ironic than triumphalist.
A few years ago when United fans suffered a bad result, they sang: "This is how it feels to be City/ This is how it feels to be small" to the tune of the Inspiral Carpets song. Now City fans sing their own version, with a mocking reference to the fact that it is the Blues rather than the Reds who can buy the top players. "This is how it feels to be City/ This is how it feels to be small/ You sign Phil Jones/ We sign Kun Agüero."
In the City shop, two skinheads were discussing what to buy. Darren Statham pulled off his top to try on a City shirt before deciding it was not quite him.
How long had he been following City? "Thirty-five years." How old was he? "35." Yes, he said, of course they had bought success – that was the only way. "I'm going to buy one of the old retro shirts and I'm going to put on it 'Champions 2012', and on the back I'm going to put 'We bought it, and what?'"
Andrew Mather did not have a ticket for Sunday, but he will be watching on a big screen outside the ground with an estimated 10,000 supporters. And what would happen if…? He didn't let me finish the sentence. "I'm not saying it. No, you can't just say it."
"You just can't." Statham echoed. "Cos it's going to happen. They're going to win … Aren't they?"
A Norwegian film crew, recording a programme about City's rise, was hunting for the first division championship trophy City won in 1968. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, before the drought, the club won every domestic competition. But it was nowhere to be found. Journalist Jonas Bergh-Johnsen said: "We went to the stadium, the dressing room, the directors' boxes, everywhere. But nobody seems to know where it is." The one thing the club forgot to build when it moved into the City of Manchester Stadium in 2003 was a trophy room. Back then it wasn't a priority.
Across the road at the Maine Road Chippy, Lynn Warburton, a United fan, believes City's success has been good for her estate. "The club is investing around here; it's great for the community. There's a new swimming baths coming soon," she said.
Sal Pardkh, who owns the chippy, handed Lynn her curry and chips. "D'you want to know how confident I am of City winning?" He goes to the back of his shop and returns with a big smile on his face and a keyring in his hand. It says Manchester City Premier League Champions 2012. "That's how confident. They cost 50p each. I've had 200 made for my most loyal customers."
Manchester United v Manchester City
United capacity: 75,811
City capacity: 47,805
Traditional song:
United: "We are the champions."
City: "We always lose at home/ and we always lose away/ We lost last week/ and we lost today."
Nickname of ground:
United: Theatre of dreams
City: Theatre of base comedy (© commentator Stuart Hall)
Celebrity fans:
United: Zoe Ball, Eamonn Holmes, Angus Deayton, Mick Hucknall
City: Eddie Large, the Gallagher brothers, Bernard Manning (RIP)
Trophies won over past 36 years:
United 41
City 1 (FA Cup)
Number of managers over past 25 years:
United: 1
City 17 Read More
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