City v Bruges: Must-Win or Better Off Out?
“A final,” says Pep, and it does have the feel of a game that could define our season.
After qualifying for the knockout stages every season since finishing bottom of the group (below Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax) under Bobby Manc in 2012–13, it’ll be a bit of an odd one if we don’t manage to finish in the top 24 of the new group format. But might it not actually be the end of the world?
Without further ado, here’s your handy guide to the pros and cons of not beating Bruges. Which is basically just an excuse to show a YouTube video of a game I’ve still not covered from, and reference Manchester’s best-ever band.
Must Win
We Could Win The Whole Thing
No, seriously, bear with... We’re currently seventh favourites at around 10/1, after Liverpool (4/1 ish), Arsenal, Real Madrid and Barcelona (all about 6/1) and Bayern Munich (about 9/1). That says the bookies are expecting us to make the quarter-finals, and aren’t they rarely wrong? Get to the last eight and, with Oscar Bobb back, the defence properly fit and the new signings settled in, who knows what could happen. Eh? You having that?
Financial Losses
Clubs trouser over £9 million for reaching the last 16 and, in true ‘better to go up via the play-offs’ style, add on another £1 million for reaching the knockout round. Win your last 16 tie and there’s another £10.5 million from UEFA. Chuck in additional TV money and matchday revenue of more than £3 million gate each home game and the difference between not qualifying and getting to the quarter-finals would be in the region of £30-40 million. Funds that the club could use to subsidise tickets for locally-based fans, say? Ho ho.
Theodore Theodoridis, General Secretary of UEFA: a comedy name AND he also looks a tiny bit like Mark Burgess, City fan and singer and bassist in The Chameleons.
Reputational Damage
“A group-stage exit is a massive blow to City’s European stature,” says somebody on Thursday morning. “It raises questions about their ability to compete at the highest level and harm the club’s credibility in Europe,” they’ll go on. “Just look at Barcelona’s back-to-back group-stage exits in 2021/22 and 2022/23 after years of being Champions League royalty, which marked a major decline.” Etc.
Loss of Momentum
Beat Bruges and that tees us up very nicely for a run of fixtures that looks, to say the least, a bit shit: Arsenal (A), Newcastle (H), Liverpool (H), Tottenham (A) and Forest (A). You wouldn’t want to be going into this lot on a low.
Jamie Carragher
Don’t give him the satisfaction, lads.
Better Off Out
Concentrating On The League…
That old staple from when we really were shit and had just lost in the cup to Shrewsbury / Halifax / Cardiff.
One thing we don’t need is a clogged-up fixture list (and treatment room). Not getting top-four this season would be catastrophic. More than the tens of millions lost in revenue, the likes of potential new summer signings such as Musiala and Wirtz wouldn’t touch us with a barge pole if we’re not in next season’s Champions League.
…And the FA Cup
It’s our only realistic chance of silverware. We’ve won it six times. A chance to make up for last season. Wembley Way. The Magic of the Cup. Jumpers for goalposts.
Avoid Humiliation in Knockout Stages
Getting gubbed by Liverpool in the next round? No thanks.
