This Is How It Feels To Be City - book review

This Is How It Feels To Be City captures the dramas and the emotion of following Manchester City, as witnessed through the eyes of two lifelong City fans, 40 something Will and nephew Martyn, 17 years his junior.

Will was raised in Devon and has no obvious connections to Manchester, but certainly can't be accused of being a "glory hunter". A childhood idolisation of Colin Bell saw him choose City as his team and he has followed the Blues, through thin and thinner, ever since. Martyn, meanwhile, first attended a City game in 1989 as a six year but his passion for football was ignited during the 1994 World Cup.

Strangely, only Will is accredited as the author on the cover (despite Martyn being referred to as co-author inside the book), and as a result the narrative feels slightly confused at times. You're never quite sure which person is writing at any one time, and the tendency to refer to themselves in the third person further complicates matters.

The book juxtaposes the Play Off winning season of 1998/99 with the Premiership winning season just gone, and serves as a useful reminder of how far we've come in 13 short years. The leap from Allsopp to Aguero has been a considerable one, and it's easy to forget just how bad things were as a City fan in the late 90. There is, of course, the ubiquitous mention of York away!

There are one or two factual inaccuracies in the book, but the authors' passion for City is obvious and reading their accounts of the climactic end to last season can't fail to bring a smile to your face. Whilst not the most in-depth book written about City, you have to credit their enthusiasm about the club and full credit to them for getting the book published.

This Is How It Feels To Be City can be purchased from Amazon.