| UFL, Mountain Lions season, advertising campaign kick off Advertising agency BBDO New York is launching its branding campaign for United Football League teams, including the Sacramento Mountain Lions. feeds.bizjournals.com |
NFL union seeks authority to decertify The NFL Players Association has begun handing out voting cards that would allow players to authorize the decertification of the union, a move that could prevent the NFL from locking players out when the collective-bargaining agreement expires in March. feeds.bizjournals.com |
Defending Eastern champion Boston Celtics feeling the Heat The Boston Celtics won the Eastern Conference last season, and they didn't lose much from a team that took the Los Angeles Lakers to seven games ... rssfeeds.usatoday.com |
Manhattan Construction to build Dynamo stadium The Houston Dynamo organization has selected Manhattan Construction Co. to build the team’s 22,000-seat, Major League Soccer stadium. feeds.bizjournals.com |
David Lacey: City's success usually fleeting History suggests United have eras of dominance whereas City have merely interludes of successJust now Manchester United supporters of a certain age must be feeling that they have been here before. United have hit a sticky patch in the league and some of the team are getting on a bit. The player most likely to keep things going as the side is turned around went broody amid reports of problems off the field. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Manchester City are threatening to steal their thunder.In short, for 2010 read 1972 and for Wayne Rooney read George Best, to whom United were looking for continuity as Bobby Charlton and Denis Law approached the twilight of their careers. Old Trafford looked in vain. Already haunted by alcoholism, early in 1972 Best failed to report for training and was dropped by Frank O'Farrell, then the United manager, for a home game against Wolves, who won 3-1.Best soon returned to the team but could do little to halt a slide in which O'Farrell's team lost seven matches in a row. Having led the league at Christmas, United steadily slipped out of the reckoning while City, under Malcolm Allison, headed towards their second title in five seasons. Maine Road was cock‑a‑hoop at the prospect, but then Allison signed Rodney Marsh from Queens Park Rangers to give his team an extra swagger down the home straight and they promptly stalled, leaving the league to be won by Brian Clough's Derby County.Most of these comparisons are superficial. Best was an alcoholic whereas Rooney, in form, is a workaholic. Allegations about Rooney's private life pale behind Best going awol to shack up for a week with Miss Great Britain. At his peak Best was a footballing genius, perhaps the greatest player ever produced by the British Isles. Rooney is gifted, but not that gifted. He may have chosen to stay at Old Trafford but Manchester City still have a chance to put one over their neighbours. The process may have already started given that City are lying second in the Premier League, three points ahead of fourth-placed United, and are at present taking their cue from Carlos Tevez, a former United player.For all the millions spent on it, however, Roberto Mancini's team do not yet look the finished product. Tevez's ebullient form and his sharp eye for a scoring chance prevented them dropping points needlessly at Blackpool last Sunday. The attack is functioning well but the defence still has flat spots. Money can buy good players but it cannot buy the tactical discipline and understanding good defences need.Tomorrow's game against Arsenal will provide an early guide to the direction in which City's season is heading. Mancini's heavy spenders will be meeting Arsène Wenger's more prudently assembled product. Arsenal are largely foreign seeds which have blossomed in English soil, City are more about expensive potted plants seeking to put down fresh roots. How things change. At the start of the 1971-72 season all but seven of Manchester City's squad of 33 players had come through the club's youth system and well over half were born locally. City still grow their own occasionally but there was a Manchesterness about the team that achieved success under Allison and Joe Mercer which United have also had, though rarely to the same extent.Once it was known that Rooney wanted to leave Manchester United it was assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that he would join City simply because they are the biggest payers around. Certainly they do not lack the ambition he claimed was missing at Old Trafford. Yet is the ability not only to achieve success but build on it long term really in Manchester City's genes? History suggests that whereas United have eras, City have interludes. They won the league in 1937 but were relegated in 1938. Even the Mercer‑Allison period was fleeting.With only Chelsea of the recent elite still looking indomitable, there is room for another nouveau riche club to join the Premier League's plutocracy and City are the obvious candidates. Four straight league wins, including a victory over Carlo Ancelotti's champions, suggest that they are starting to achieve some sort of consistency.Sunday's performance against Arsenal may show whether or not such thinking is just more pie in the sky blue.Manchester CityManchester UnitedCarlos TevezDavid Laceyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |