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I’m back baby, oh yeah! This year, just like we are trying to freshen up the squad, I’m trying to freshen up these threads with something a little bit different. It doesn’t feel like that long ago when last season finished on a bit of a downer. Villa shit the bed in the last 15 minutes to give City the points they needed to retain the title by the slimmest of margins. 90-plus points again and it still wasn’t enough for us. Then followed the shitshow in Paris where the French authorities, the local sewer rats and UEFA combined to create chaos outside the stadium, and our players could not take their chances on the pitch and came unstuck thanks to an inspired Courtois in goal and a sucker punch from Vinicius. The parade in Liverpool the following day did wonders for lifting everyone’s spirits, but, like Jurgen and the team, I still feel a sense of what might have been, and a need to right some wrongs. We get an immediate chance to get back on the bike against one of those sides. In Leicester of all places. With that said: Control. Respect. Intelligence. Speed. Panache. Bravery. Organisation. Wiliness. Luck. I don’t ask for much. The two sides met in the Community Shield 3 years ago at Wembley, on 4th August to be precise. City had claimed a domestic treble the previous season whereas we had run them ridiculously close in the league, and claimed Number Six in Madrid for Jurgen’s first trophy in charge. The Hendo Shuffle was born. The Reds were disjointed in the first half and City were just about worth their lead, given to them by T-Rex Arms. A high ball to the left edge of the area saw our defence outnumbered and City with an overload. They won the aerial duel and the ball found its way to Sterling who scuffed a volley from six yards that Ali failed to keep out. For City, the upcoming season would see them have to do without Leroy Sane after he tore his ACL in this game. His pace and directness was crucial the previous year, and City would struggle to adjust in 2019/20. We were much better after the break, with Virg hitting a volley against the underside of the bar and the ball bouncing down on the line but not over it. He was again involved a bit later, with his measured volleyed cross emphatically headed in by his central defensive partner Big Bird. Mo had 2 great chances to finish it but couldn’t beat Claudio Bravo in the City goal. Even when he headed a rebound goalwards, Kyle Walker was on hand to acrobatically clear the ball off the line. Bit of a theme against City that, where the ball just doesn’t go over the line. It’s always millimetres. It went to a shoot-out. City scored all of theirs, and Gini was the one to see his effort saved for us. Still, no question that it geed up the players and they knew they had bigger fish to fry. There was a league title to try and claim, a first in 30 years. And claim it they most certainly would. The big film of August 2019 was the latest in the Fast & Furious franchise, with spin-off Hobbs & Shaw top at the box office. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham reprised their roles from the main series. Plenty of banter and bickering, plenty of dramatic stunts, plenty of ridiculous plot turns, plenty of corny dialogue. Typical of the franchise. The financial success of the Fast & Furious series clearly shows that it is beloved of cinema-goers, but truth be told it is very samey and forgettable as events all tend to merge into one. It’s just not memorable enough for me to know whether I’ve seen all of them or not. I’m sure I haven’t. The big news event on 4th August 2019? 9 people were killed and a further 27 injured in a shooting outside Ned Peppers Bar in Dayton, Ohio. Not the most positive of news events (the news is almost always about something shit that happened somewhere), but yet another example of why the United States badly needs gun control. The powerful pro-gun lobby and other generally right-leaning fuckwits never seems to be victim when this sort of thing plays out, but they don’t half get their noses put out of joint when any suggestion that things now need to change is put in front of them. Jurgen and his men will I’m sure be itching to get going this season, and get last season’s anti-climatic final week out of their system. Sadio, Div and Taki have made valuable contributions for us but all have moved on to pastures new, with Phil Mk2 and Charles (these names are works-in-progress by the way) coming in, and Lucho having already had 6 months to acclimatise. Mo has signed a new deal, and we still have Diogo and Bobby, but it’s a new-look attack for the first time since the fabled trio of Bobby, Sadio and Mo were doing their thing. City have done something of a squad overhaul themselves, releasing Fernandinho and selling Zinchenko, Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, and bringing in Phillips, Alvarez and Haaland. I’ve seen the latter described as a pure predator on account of his finishing skills and goal record, but he actually looks like the Predator when it takes its mask off. One ugly motherfucker is Haaland. It’s a game where the two sides’ firepower will be the main focus, but it’s the midfield battle that we need to win. We always, even when we do well against City, look light on numbers in there compared to them. It was more obvious in the season just gone when City effectively played without a striker and frequently used midfielders like Foden in the wide attacking positions. The game should not symbolise the fortunes of the teams for the season to come, but a marker needs to be laid down nonetheless. Let us be the ones to do so. We have the tools, we have the belief and we have a little added youthfulness. 2022/23, let’s make it ours!