What do Manchester City fans make of the club’s dire run of form?

A video circulated last weekend showing Manchester City fans singing along to Status Quos Rocking All Over the World.

It is a song thats been in their repertoire for a while now, one used to celebrate their run of consecutive Premier League title wins.

But, following the 4-0 home defeat against Tottenham on Saturday, the lyrics were changed.

Advertisement They had to be tweaked earlier this year too, ticking up one from Citys won three in a row, after Pep Guardiolas side made history in May by becoming the first mens team to win the English championship in four straight seasons.

At the weekend, the supporters were singing about five in a row but five defeats, as the Spurs loss followed City also being beaten by Tottenham (in the Carabao Cup), Bournemouth , Lisbons Sporting CP and Brighton in their previous four matches.

More recent fans of the sport might wonder if such a thing has ever happened to this storied club, but this is City, so of course it has: in 2006, they did it under Stuart Pearces management.

There was plenty more where that came from, too: the season after that, City scored their final home goal of the campaign on January 1.

And still finished 14th in the Premier League.

Times like those make for a more nuanced fanbase than you would find at many of the games top teams.

You will not find many City supporters, for example, who are actively hoping the club are relegated as a result of the Premier League charges against them.

At the same time, you can be sure there are plenty who would not mind going back to following City in the lower leagues.

It is why those match-going fans can appear so comfortable in what has to be considered a time of crisis for their team, even singing about their own misfortune.

Many of them will have been in Istanbul to see City complete the 2022-23 treble but also at Wembley 24 years and one week earlier to see them scramble a penalty shootout victory in the play-off final in what is now League One , the domestic games third tier, against Gillingham.

There was a song sung by City supporters that day, too.

It went: Were f***ing sh*t.

You get the idea.

Emotionally, it is an interesting time for Citys followers.

Speaking to some of them over the past few days, it appears that the temperature on social media appears to be significantly higher than in the real world one well-followed City account on X has wondered if manager Guardiola might be sacked if they do not beat league leaders Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday but still there were boos at full-time of the 3-3 home draw with Feyenoord in the Champions League on Tuesday, a game which was, in some ways, worse than any of those five defeats.

Advertisement So, what do City fans really feel regarding this increasingly perplexing run? Im pretty realistic about it, says John Robinson, 63, speaking outside the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night.

His wife, Andrea, 60 they got married at Citys home ground adds her view.

If you talk to true fans people whove been in League One, people whove seen Gillingham, the people whove done all that this is like, Weve never had it so good, she says.

Things must come to an end at some point, and it might not even come to an end this season, it might be that we win the Champions League, we might still go on a run in the Premier League and sneak it if Liverpool fall off or get injuries or Mohamed Salah upsets people by saying hes not staying.

Everybody has an opinion on why things have been going wrong the Robinsons see a lack of leaders without the injured duo of Ruben Dias and Rodri , combined with the loss of other players to the treatment room and Guardiolas desire to work with a small squad.

This is like the perfect storm, really, Andrea says.

And its the physical and emotional strain of doing what theyve done for the past four years and all that adrenaline going up, up, up up, and then they just crash.

Its just human nature.

James Ingram, 37, from Macclesfield, south of Manchester, wants to see money spent in January to put things right: We may have to overpay, but this is the price for two very poor summer windows.

My overall feeling is resignation, and its Anfield on Sunday, James adds, darkly.

Where do we even start? I was messaging a friend during the Feyenoord game and said it felt like deja vu.

I thought we looked really good at times, but then again we did against Sporting, Spurs and Brighton before we conceded terrible goals and crumbled.

It all just feels very inevitable at the moment.

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I suppose the biggest irony of all would be to go to Anfield on Sunday and get something in this form compared to the previous times going there in great form and never managing to get something, says Danny, 44, from Cork in the Republic of Ireland.

I would never, ever write this group off.

How could you? Theyve never let you down.

This run is probably due, maybe its just a case of this group playing a game every three days for seven seasons.

Unlike Liverpool and Arsenal , this group havent taken a season off and finished fifth or sixth, theyve been going to the last stages of every competition.

The City fanbase is not just one that wrestles with their clubs largely underachieving past compared to its hugely successful present, but also the trappings that come with it.

It is common to hear complaints, for example, by fans from the Manchester area that they do not get the same opportunities to meet and greet City players as overseas supporters do during pre-season events in the Far East or the United States, and there are the usual grumbles found at most top clubs about tourists and day-trippers pricing out people who have been going to matches for years in Citys case, before they would have had any interest in coming to see them play.

City are emerging as one of the biggest clubs in football in terms of their U.S.

following.

While the clubs domestic support can enjoy a bit of gallows humour, does that approach to this startling run of form translate across the Atlantic? Yes, as it turns out.

Andrew Zetterburg, 32, who follows every game from California, is content at least that he will still be able to do so should the club be relegated not because of the charges, but because of their results.

I think we can get every Championship game here, he says.

Advertisement I dont think Pep will ever make me p***ed off, because he knows a lot more than I do and they know what theyre doing.

As far as the five losses, its not that big a deal.

Were probably going to be 11 points behind Liverpool by the end of Sunday.

Im not expecting to win the Premier League at this point, and thats maybe because, even before Rodri got hurt (in September), they were physically and mentally gassed.

We cant control a match without Rodri.

And, with that midfield, I dont know where were headed.

It is similar for Nathan Money, a 30-year-old from New York.

Im a little resigned, because its very hard to see how it gets better from here.

In fact, its very easy to see how it gets worse, he says.

We were laughing at (Manchester) United about the 7-0 at Anfield (in May 2023) and we might be there (come the weekend).

GO DEEPER Manchester City's 13-minute collapse against Feyenoord encapsulated their defensive woes I think a part of me is actually a little grateful.

You know, how people are starting to do that coping thing on social media by posting all of these compilations from the treble season and 2017-18, and its like, Wow, we really have been at an incredible level, sustained for so long.

So I guess it makes me a little grateful for that, but thats because Im resigned.

For example, last year when they went through a run like this (one win in six league games in the November and December) I was angry, because I felt the team was better than this, that those players are not playing up to where they could be.

I dont feel that way this year.

That, Nathan says, is because of injuries, and the struggles and ages of key players Ilkay Gundogan (34), Bernardo Silva (30) and Kyle Walker (34).

I think the fact that Im not sad or upset is an indictment of the team, he adds.

Based on what Im seeing, I dont have any expectations, like they shouldnt beat Tottenham or Liverpool, which is a crazy thing to say.

What makes City fans different to a lot of supporters at the worlds biggest clubs is the self-deprecation that comes from moments like, say, time-wasting on the final day of the 1995-96 Premier League season in the mistaken belief that they were mathematically safe from relegation (they were not, and went down).

Ajay, also from New York, shares that mindset, albeit from other sources.

GO DEEPER Forget everything you thought you knew about Manchester City Im not used to this run of results with City recently, but I follow the Chicago Cubs (in baseball) and the Buffalo Bills ( NFL ), who are known for being perennial losers, he says.

So when I speak with City fans who were around in the 1990s, 80s and 70s, I relate to them a lot.

It has genuinely made me more connected to the team.

Advertisement I think theres a lot of anger and all the different stages of grief going on with City now, but ultimately well bounce back.

In a months time, if weve steadied the ship, well still have half the season to play.

I would also say having been a fan of so many teams that just lose all the time and are just known for losing and characterised by losing last year, when I was talking to people about what I expected in the post-treble season, I just felt so grateful that Id even got to watch the treble at all.

And then we won the league again.

So if you tell me that this year its not going to be five titles in a row, its like...

OK, you know? (Top photo: Carl Recine/Getty Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.