Snooping Around Blue Sky Blogs

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Snooping Around Blue Sky Blogs

By Sammy The Snake

My father’s most favorite comment while I was growing up was “money doesn’t grow on trees”. As my childhood was spent mostly on and around trees, this was quite obvious for me, but that didn’t discourage the old man from saying it over and over again. As I shed my skin through the years, I heard that humans too keep repeating the same advice to their children, up to a limit that a latest UN poll suggests that this is the one universal parental advice through the ages and across races and species.

I come from a jungle not too far away from a land where money in fact erupts from the ground. This place has nothing but sand and oil, and sometimes gas. It’s ruled like it’s the Middle Ages (this to be discussed on another occasion for now, perhaps after my release from the local detention unit).

Anyhoo, oil is sold in really large buckets called tankers and shipped off to all parts of the world. In return, the rulers get gazillions of hard currency, ready to spend like a 5 year old on X’Mas morning. When everyone is tired of palaces, private jets, gold-plated super cars, and the like, they turn to prestigious hobbies. Buying a football club was the premier choice until it was trumped by staging your very own World Cup at 6PM on the 2^nd of December 2010, but don’t get me started on that one…

Which brings me to my topic of the day, Man-Sea-Of-Flops! Or was it Man-Sea-Of-Overpaid-Players? How are they coping with expectations following the promises made when the new owners/rulers took over? How are they handling the Tevez antics?

My magic Google ball shows me mancityblog.com, “the biggest club in Manchester” they claim (I already like this place!). What a nice corporate looking blog! Its neat and organized appearance makes me think this place is well managed, perhaps by the club itself. The writer is pro-Mancini, and he writes with a bit of humor, which is nice to see.

The articles are your usual stuff, generating only a couple of comments at best. As it had been suggested that some blogs may get the most comments on Facebook, I checked their page and found that assumption to be incorrect. In fact, they only have 69 Facebook “Likes”! Our very own Untold Arsenal has 362 such friends.

“Arsenal Exchange” is an article on this blog that grabs my attention. The blogger went to Arsenal-Fulham game to “Sit back and observe the soak up the atmosphere of a rival Club”. I’m starting to think this guy is a snake! Here’s a snippet:

“I found the Emirates a fantastic stadium… I found the game a good one to watch although while watching some fine football for me it of coursed lacked the edge of a City match as the feelings are not there… atmosphere was good non aggressive like what you see at the swamp… I found the Arsenal fans to be a good bunch of lads who were in fairness talking City up…”

I love you too, man! What a genuinely nice guy. Yes, we are a good bunch of lads. I just wish your English writing skills were a bit better, you know, especially for someone writing a blog. Moving on…

Totalmanchesterblog is decorated with a huge ManC emblem, too big to let you see anything else around here. Six articles in total, zero comments for all of them, no Facebook or other social networking links. A bit spooky! Again, I can only see honesty:

“Manchester City will be desperate to start winning some trophies this season, now they are the world’s richest club. It’s fair to say that manager Roberto Mancini will be under a bit of pressure from owner Sheikh Mansour and his wallet carriers. The club haven’t won a trophy since lifting the 1976 League Cup but this is definitely the best chance they’ll ever have.”

I’ve always said “we” when referring to Arsenal as I think of myself as part of the team, so I find it odd that a blogger would say “they” when talking about his team.

Another genuine headline is “Will transfer gossip allow City players to concentrate on football?”, which is a fair question if you ask me. Other articles show “hope” for silverware, but little “expectation”. I guess you can’t expect everything, even if money does grow on trees in your neck of the woods!

Interestingly, there was once a ManC blog called Bitter & Blue, but they closed shop on 5^th of Feb 2010. It appears as if they have their own version of our AAA, but had no audience, and hence went bust. Lesson to be learnt for Gooners? Perhaps.

Finally, I visit ManCity Issues, and I think I’ve seen too much light blue for one day! The hit-counter shows 399,171 but there are no or little comments here too. Can anyone explain for me if there are proper schools in the greater Manchester area? These guys obviously visit the site, and they must have opinions, but they probably just can’t write!

As my next task, I shall write a letter to Sheikh Mansour to ask him to set aside a few money trees to open a few elementary schools for poor Manchester residents, I hope their next generations can write their opinions about their clubs.

The snow’s a b!tch, ain’t it? What a total waste of a Saturday without Arsenal!

Sammy The Snake

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