When the full-time whistle blew, it felt like the cheers at the sky-blue Waldorf pub in Manchester city centre would be heard at Wembley.
“We’ve won so much over the last 10 years,” grinned 26-year-old Tom Lucas. “But this is special. This is one we’ll be telling our grandkids about.”
On Saturday Manchester was a city where joy and agony went hand in hand. As its two great football clubs battled it out in the FA Cup final for the first time in the tournament’s 151-year-history, fans from both sides of the blue-red divide who could not get Wembley tickets gathered in pubs, bars and fan parks here. Hope, expectation and not a little trepidation hung heavy in the air. It was part carnival, part potential powder keg.
But only one team could win. And, as pundits had widely predicted, it was City supporters who were celebrating at 5pm after Pep Guardiola’s team beat United 2-1 in a tense game.
In the Waldorf, City’s goals were met with growing roars. Ilkay Gündogan, declared one fan, should be given the freedom of Manchester after scoring twice. Guardiola, another responded, should be made mayor. “Sir Johnny Stones,” shouted a third, referencing City’s reborn defender.
It was not always like this for City fans. “One of the first ever matches I went to, we were playing Macclesfield in the old division one,” said Lucas, a content creator. “We lost to Wycombe that season. Twice, I think. We were shit for 35 years. We were a joke, while United won everything, so this is perfect.”
Another fan, Brendan O’Reilly, was similarly joyous. “I’m buzzing. I’ve been hugging strangers since the first goal went in,” the 64-year-old warehouse manager declared. “Mainly, they’ve been hugging me back.”
Stood next to him, student Caoimhe Lennon said her boyfriend was at Wembley. “But I’m not jealous,” she said. “Manchester’s the only place I want to be tonight.”
Victory meant so much because at stake was more than just football and local bragging rights. So, too, was history. City’s triumph means the club is now on course for a historic treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup titles, a feat only previously achieved by (but of course) Manchester United, back in 1999.
The Sky Blues will now equal that landmark accomplishment if they can beat Italian side Internazionale in Istanbul next Saturday to claim their first ever Champions League. In some ways, it would be the crowning moment of a decade-long transition: one that has seen City overtake United as England’s pre-eminent club.
“I’m flying out for that,” said Brendan Lynch, a 64-year-old retired IT project manager. “What would it mean to win? I can’t even describe it. City doing the treble. I’ll tell you this, I never thought I’d see it in my lifetime. It’s fairytale stuff.”
For United fans in the Old Nag’s Head pub, across the city centre, the mood was the polar opposite: abject, despairing, devastated. When Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division came on shortly after the final whistle, it had the feel of a funeral anthem.
“Winning this would have made me happier than my firstborn arriving,” declared Deacon Augagy, a 31-year-old electrician, exaggerating only a little. “Can you imagine? Spoiling their dreams of a treble? We’d have been laughing about it for years.” But now? “I’ll be trying to avoid the subject for years, mate,” came the reply. “No TV or social media for a while.
Certainly, the idea that City might go on to equal United’s unique 1999 season is one that is now haunting Reds fans. “That treble is what makes us unique,” said Lesley Nolan, a 53-year-old nursery nurse. “It’s what makes United special. City shouldn’t be winning trebles.”
City’s astonishing success, of course, comes with caveats. The club – the world’s richest, according to Deloitte – has, this year, been charged with more than 100 counts of breaking financial fair play rules by the Premier League. Its Abu Dhabi owners deny all charges, yet widespread scepticism remains.
Even among City fans there is debate as to the merits – or otherwise – of a state-owned football club, especially when the state in question is an autocracy with an unenviable human rights record.
For United’s part, meanwhile, the club is now in the process of a controversial sale that could see it bought by members of Qatar’s royal family, after almost two decades of being owned by American tycoons, the Glazer family.
Yet on Saturday at least, for many (City) supporters, the sheer spectacle of the sporting occasion trumped all else. “It’s easy to get bogged down in money and politics,” said Lucas, back at the Waldorf.
“But as a fan, you just love a club and that’s that. I’d still be supporting Man City if we were back in the third tier.
He added a typical Man City touch of depreciation: Which one day, knowing this club, we might be.”
His friend, Alice Lodge, agreed. “Money has always brought football success, right through history,” the 24-year-old logistics manager said. “It’s nice it’s bringing City success for once.”
As for the future, there’s the little matter of that European cup final next week. But what then for the rivalry of these two giants?
Dr Gary James might have a better idea than most. He’s a Manchester footballing historian and author – and a City fan – and he suggests only one thing is certain: the balance of power will continue to ebb and flow between them.
“City and United have always been through peaks and troughs,” he said. “I suspect that will always be the case.”
