Credit the fans for City’s new style

THE Luton game was a joy. Two-nil down and with the away fans chanting: “We are unbeatable..” The ultimate conclusion was nigh on perfect.

When Earnie notched the third The Man almost combusted with excitement, those Luton fans had tempted fate, and it had turned around and bitten them on the backside.

However, at 2-0 down The Man had felt the mood of the crowd turning.

At certain points during the game last season's angst seemed to be on the verge of resurfacing.

In this respect The Man would urge patience. Let's not be in any doubt; the team has started passing the ball because of the pressure we applied last term.

Nutty Nigel was not sat on a beach during the summer break where a vision of Ian Crook appeared to him and said: “Pass and move, my son.”

He's rebuilt the team to play the way we wanted it to, we asked for this. It is our creation.

Therefore we need to give the team the time to settle down. Such a transformation (and it is that) of the way we play cannot be achieved overnight.

There will be times, such as the first 60 minutes against Luton, when it does not go our way.

This appears to be a new era - bear in mind I'm writing this before Derby away - let's not hound the players out of it before it has begun.

t THANK goodness for that - Mr Green has finally left the building.

Greeno has been like an irritable teenager at an elderly relative's birthday for the past year.

He clearly did not want to be here, and boy did it show.

So finally we have banked a decent fee for him, although I'm sure Doomcaster will say it's worth far less to the club than the media makes out.

Despite the fact I thought his attitude was appalling last season, The Man wishes him all the best.

I'm mildly irritated that we've sold another one of our players to the odious Alan Pardew, although I was far more upset about losing Ashton.

I'll keep quite about how I feel about Deano's recent injury, needless to say, what goes around comes around thinks The Man. On a separate note, it was interesting to see that Mr Pardew was trying to claim Ashton's ascent to the England set-up as his own achievement.

Apparently DA was the wrong “body shape” when he moved to the East End from Norwich and Parjudas (as called by Reading fans - both of them) worked hard to change this.

Doubtless West Ham utilised an infinitely more willing Ashton better than we did last season, but The Man refutes the fact his inclusion in the England squad was solely down to AP's mentoring.

I don't like a lot of teams - but I really don't like West Ham.

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t WHERE NOW FOR LEON?

HE scored against the s**m, it's all he's ever done? Harsh words you may think, but where now for Leon?

The Man likes the guy's work-rate and perceived enthusiasm, but handing in a transfer request just three games into the season has not lifted LM's esteem in The Man's eyes.

We have a wafer-thin squad but still Leon thinks he's not going to get a decent run-out this season. . . grow up.

I understand his frustration about not being in the starting line-up at the start of the season, and at 28 he feels he is at his peak.

But a key component in any successful campaign is having players that will bide their time and then come in to fill the void when needed - clearly something that is going to happen with Leon - probably sooner rather than later.

Then it's a case of scoring a few goals and holding down a place.

If Leon wants to move somewhere that guarantees him first team football then maybe he needs to consider the sacrifice in the standard of club he plays for to achieve that.

If he'd rather be playing every week for Brighton than being part of our squad then fair enough - but it wouldn't be for The Man.

He may promote himself as being passionate about NCFC, but Leon's transfer request throws that into doubt. I hope it can be sorted out.

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t ENGLAND NEED TO DO IT WHEN IT MATTERS

SO yet another new dawn was ushered in by England this week, but The Man couldn't really give a stuff.

Do not get me wrong, I like it when England do well, but I can't see myself getting excited about an international fixture for at least two years.

The World Cup really took the biscuit for me.

The Man did not get sucked in by any of the pre-tournament hype - I knew we would not win it - but I still found the whole experience benign.

In a sense it is not the players' fault, but every time I watch England the sheer difference between the esteem in which the first XI are held, and the performances they subsequently put in, becomes painfully apparent.

Frank Lampard is a case in point.

“The best midfielder in Europe” we were told. Yet he was dreadful in Germany - a bottler.

Lo and behold up popped Frankie to score against Greece during the week - the man for the not-so-big occasion.

No doubt he'll rack up another 15 or so goals this season as he notches against the likes of Watford and Wigan.

But I digress.

The Man's basic point is that I'm not really going to take an interest in England until we turn up in the quarter-finals of the next major tournament; at which point I may just flick over from Big Brother to see how we are getting on.

I actually think McClaren will do all right, I'm just not going to join the ride until the home straight this time.