You've got to hand it to David Beckham. He certainly knows how to make a little go a long way. Beckham’s rise to global stardom is, in one sense, bordering on the unbelievable.
Even in his prime he couldn’t outpace opponents or bamboozle them with his trickery. His heading prowess was conspicuous only by its absence.
He had just one thing going for him – the ability to thread the ball through the eye of a needle with an educated right foot.
And full marks to him. That one asset has brought him fame and fortune at a level which more technically gifted players could only dream about.
Off the field, Beckham has always struck me as being a genuinely decent human being even if his conversation is hardly of the sparkling variety.
So perhaps we should forgive him for the occasional daft statement like the one he made last week when he said that Manchester City will never be as big a club as Manchester United.
Well you can forgive him for that, but I won’t. Because on this occasion Golden Balls doesn’t know what he is talking about.
The blunt and undeniable truth is that United’s ‘noisy neighbours’ are on the march. And no-one on this planet – not even ‘Lord’ Beckham – knows where that march will take them.
What Beckham does know, I am sure, is that down the years a whole clutch of English football clubs have enjoyed their spell in the sunshine.
Readers of a certain vintage will remember Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa romping away with the first division title and adding the European Cup.
My fellow Blue Mooners will remember with affection the Joe Mercer/Malcolm Allison side of the late 60s and early 70s which landed five major trophies – including the first division title – in the space of four short years.
In that aspect Beckham’s assumption is bang on the button. No club in modern times, with the possible exception of Liverpool, have sustained the success which United have enjoyed under the stewardship of Sir Alex Ferguson for the past quarter of a century.
Where Beckham’s theory falls to pieces is that he clearly has no idea what is starting to take shape in a once deprived area of Manchester which we can now refer to as the Etihad Campus.
Beckham clearly believes that Sheikh Mansour and his family are ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ owners like so many before them throughout English football. He couldn’t be more wrong.
Let’s look at some of the other wealthy owners of leading Premier league clubs. What has Roman Abramovich done for Chelsea or the Glazier family for United? I am talking about off the field – not on it. The answer is nothing.
Now let’s look what the Mansour family are doing in east Manchester. They are not simply rebuilding a football club, they are investing countless millions on building a city within a city.
I was born a stone’s throw away from City’s current headquarters. The area, frankly, was a dump. You had to wipe your feet when you left it.
Now, I can hardly recognise the place. Building work is going on everywhere – the majority of it being financed by the amazing Mansour dynasty.
Mark my words, in five years time that once deprived area of Manchester will be the place to live. Families will be fighting each other to move to a district which, when I was a kid, was fit only for doorway dossers and rabid dogs.
As you watch all that work springing up, do you seriously believe that the Mansour family are ‘here today, gone tomorrow’ owners?
Of course you don’t. You’ll believe, as I do, that Sheikh Mansour, and his son, and his son, will be taking care of our club and surrounding community for decades to come.
That is what Beckham doesn’t understand. Mind you, he spends most of his time these days playing Mickey Mouse football on the other side of the Atlantic so perhaps his ignorance can be forgiven.
City won’t be a bigger club than United in 12 months. The Blues won’t have outstripped the Reds in 12 years. But they will get there in the end – of that I am convinced.
I doubt if I will be alive to see the Blessed Blues surpassing United’s trophy haul.
But with luck and a favourable wind I look forward to seeing the Premier League trophy and the Champions League cup paraded round the Etihad Stadium within the next two or three years.
And when that happens – and it will – this faltering old heart and befuddled brain will rejoice at the fact that it is not the completion of our journey - its only the start.
What do you think? Have your say.
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