Psycho

It is not long since Stuart Pearce was made the manager at Manchester City towards the fag end of last season. He inherited an unenviable position. Witness what happened to Joe Royle and Kevin Keegan and there was also the inevitable sale of one of city's greatest potential youth products - Shaun Wright-Phillips. Few would have been as positive in picking up what appeared a broken poisoned chalice.

But looking back at this early stage it is testament to the qualities of this fiercest of former players that things are looking very good. The sale of Wright Phillips has given City the kind of boost that Wayne Rooney’s departure gave to Everton a season before. But whereas Everton’s trail of 1-0 victims saw them grind themselves up to the unfamiliar heights European contention City appear to developing an attractive brand of more open football with youth emerging in every department of the pitch.

Saturday I was at the City of Manchester stadium to see at close hand (well it was two or three rows from the back of the Colin Bell Stand, actually) what is making the city fans drool when in past seasons there has been that terminable sense of self-loathing that has been keeping them warm.

To be honest as a game it had all the qualities of an Everton 1-0 yawn from last season. Liverpool arrived with a neat passing game and fairly obvious desire to use Peter Crouch as much as possible. Gerrard was everywhere and a rusty looking Didi Hamann provided some Teutonic back bone to the midfield. City were a match for Liverpool’s clipped passing game but rarely showed the bite or passion shown in the home side’s technical area.

After the events of the previous home game against Blackburn Rovers where Pearce had twice came onto the field to inject some much need pace into proceeding, Psycho was choosing to imitate a deranged Marcel Marceau stopping himself violently at the point his body was about to leave his imaginary Blaine-like Perspex box. He really was like a caged animal and should be the subject of a small David Attenborough natural history series on the soon to be launched digital station BBC 9.

Obviously it is too early to be putting Stuart Pearce in the frame for the next holder of the England Manager’s post…. sorry I’m just getting a message in my left ear that it isn’t too early at all. In fact watch as premature media hype sends Stuart down the John Gregory blind alley of managerial oblivion.

Let’s just say, good manager, good values, good team and fingers crossed for the future.