Terrace Talk: What Manchester City achieved has been remarkable. What comes next is anyone's guess

Irish Examiner

17-05-2025

Manchester City versus Crystal Palace has often presented an opportunity for poignant goodbyes and Wembley 2025 will be no different.
In November 1979, the opening fixture of the season pitted City and Palace together in a battle of wits between two tactical maestros, Malcolm Allison and Terry Venables.
It also marked the end of an era, as Allison swept out the old and welcomed what he foresaw as a brave new world.
Farewell it was to stalwarts Asa Hartford, Brian Kidd, Mike Channon, Dave Watson, Peter Barnes and Gary Owen, players who had been the bedrock of City's success in the 70s.
This time it will be Kevin de Bruyne bidding goodbye before he is ready, after a full decade of the highest quality midfield work the Premier League era has witnessed. At least he gets a chance to go out on the biggest stage of all.
Back in 1979, City's stars had been unceremoniously offloaded by Allison, who seemed in a rude hurry to reinvent. Morale was low but the fixture between the two sides produced an exchange between the respective managers that brought a smile to TV viewers.
Having delivered unprecedented success between 1968-1970, Allison's second attempt was beginning to look like the wild tinkering of the chemist who has become befuddled by one too many gas leaks.
Allison had arrived in South-east London to face his old Crystal Palace protégé Terry Venables with Barry Silkman, Michael Robinson and Steve Daley as his new-fangled experiments.
Palace prevailed on this occasion, however, owing to a mistake by one of the few trusty old hands that had not yet been jettisoned, goalkeeper Joe Corrigan.
Indeed, it was precisely Corrigan's hands that were the after-match focus, as Brian Moore brought the two managers together in the changing rooms for London Weekend Television's The Big Match.
'It was such a shame for Big Joe,' Allison proclaimed to his counterpart straight-faced. 'He's got such beautiful hands, he really has, but the ball just seemed to go straight through them.' Cue uproarious laughter from both managers.
This latest Palace-City encounter will afford little opportunity for giggles. Too much rests on the outcome. For City the chance to capture a trophy in what has been a troubled season of hurried transition. For Palace, the opportunity to win the famous old pot for the first time.
Two generations back, the much-heralded Team of the 80s were set to sweep all before them, Palace's brief flickering raw potential never really taking concrete form. Allison's earlier innovative coaching had already brought City victory against Leicester in the 1969 final. He would never reach such heights again. Venables too would jump ship to fulfil his own destiny, taking Barcelona to the European Cup Final (images show ballboy Guardiola dancing wide-eyed behind Barcelona's Cockney coach) and, later still, England to the semi-finals of Euro 1996.
Their modern-day successors also possess a tactical trick or two, imbuing in their teams the kind of bright, crisp, tactically fresh football that has brought them to this great occasion. 'There is still hope for this grand old game,' wrote James Mossop in the Sunday Express of November 1979, 'as long as men such as Malcolm Allison and Terry Venables produce teams prepared to play with the kind of enthusiasm, skill and sportsmanship which delighted 30,000 people at Selhurst Park…'
A far bigger audience awaits this year's protagonists at Wembley. Pep Guardiola, having revolutionised English football, has secured his legacy, as has his on-pitch lieutenant De Bruyne. Yet still, this feels like a fresh challenge for the Catalan that carries high risk. For the Belgian too, the risk of failure as farewell does not bear thinking about.
City's decade of dominance is at the crossroads. Many giants have failed in the past at similar junctures. Stout hearts and cool heads are needed as the new build begins on the club's next generation. You get the impression Guardiola relishes the challenge. He would have appreciated the bravado, the bravery and the tactical guile of Big Mal and El Tel. They may be separated by two generations of football philosophising, but they are kindred spirits in the enlightened environment of pushing football boundaries to see what can be achieved. What has been achieved has been truly remarkable. What comes next is anyone's guess.
It is these entwined histories of what was and what might have been that form football's fascinating mosaic of relationships and coincidences. May the next chapter be written in bold capital letters by Guardiola and Oliver Glasner at Wembley today.