The sense of purpose at the club goes well beyond Pep Guardiola’s squad, with youth sides and the women’s team showing the scale of the ownership’s plans
“It’s Mars Next Stop,” was the back-page headline in the Daily Express on 13 May 1968. Manchester City had won the championship and, though it was another 40 years or so before the term “noisy neighbours” was applied (copyright: Sir Alex Ferguson), it is fair to say they had no intentions of going about it quietly.
Their manager, Joe Mercer, set the tone in the week building up to the game at Newcastle in which they clinched the title, announcing to the newspapermen that he had already been practising the walk to Stretford to collect the trophy from Manchester United, the reigning champions. “I shall personally take great pleasure in walking down to Old Trafford on Sunday morning to pick up the trophy.”
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