DREAMS CAN COME TRUE

Football has a knack of kicking you in the proverbials the minute you open your big mouth! There are numerous instances where individuals have made a bold proclamation only to wish the ground would open up and swallow them up with haste. One of my favourites and one I wish had never been said was Malcolm Allisons boast that 'City would terrify Europe'. And we all know that Fenerbache proved otherwise by beating us in the European Cup 1st round back in 1968. So bold statements can sometimes come back and bite ya arse! So it's a case of being guarded and not putting my head above the parapet and giving people the opportunity to have a target to shoot at.

So here goes - hard hat at the ready - be prepared they told me in the Scouts!! After years of watching mediocre football and dream after dream being shattered I really do feel confident that this year can be the year we do get as close to winning some silverware, something we haven't managed for far too long. Those halcyon days were special, but they are a long, long way back in the memory cupboard. It's really time to condemn the highlight videos of the past to the bin and come up with a new video of new and recent successes. It's time to place those Bell, Lee, Summerbee and co videos to the shelf to gather dust and replace them with a Tevez, Milner, Johnson and co videos.

The season has started well, played four and lost none and yet to concede a goal. Ok for starters. Of course it's early days and in no way am I going to get over excited. Premature excitement often leads to frustration! The manager has made numerous changes to his playing staff and it's fair to say he has strenghthened his squad with some quality buys and if that quality can extend itself to the managers match day eleven on a regular basis then maybe, just maybe, my dreams, your dreams, the clubs dreams can be realised. The performance against Liverpool was solid, professional and good entertainment. It was said Liverpool were not at their best - maybe true - but give City credit for nullifying whatever threat Liverpool attempted to muster. That nights level of performance should now become a benchmark that we strive to maintain for the remainder of the season. I would expect we need to achieve that level for at least 80% of the games we play if we wish to challenge for trophies.

The team will take time to gel make no mistake about that and as I've already said it's early days yet to get to animated about things. Remember how we opened our season back in 2007. A superb performance at West Ham winning 2-0 that left us purring but the bubble burst and we under achieved - again! So we need to be patient and keep our expectations in check but realise that a window of opportunity could very well present itself this season.

I will reiterate what I have said too many times - the players have got to believe in themselves. They must shake off that continual malady that has effected the club for years and that is bottling it when the big occasion arises. It's time that losing a semi-final to United is seen as a disappointment and not an achievement in having got that far. Oh how good it would be to be in a position where we finished runners-up or beaten cup finalist and be mega hurt by such a chain of events.

Chelsea under Abramovich have shown that money can bring success but the spending has to stop somewhere. We are almost carbon copying what the Pensioners did and if we can deliver with Mancini or A N Other then it will be the start of something good. Lets hope it's sooner rather than later.