8. They Were The First Manchester Club To Win A Major Honour
Success came quickly to the newly christened Manchester City, and in 1904 they defeated the mighty Bolton Wanderers 1-0 to win the FA Cup for the first time in their history. Of course, this was back when the FA Cup meant something, and winning the cup was a large achievement. In doing so they also became the first club from Manchester to win a major trophy. Manchester City were also incredibly close to winning the league in the same season, losing out on the final day to champions Newcastle United. This success came at a price however, and it turned out that Manchester City were the ones paying it. There was a £4 wage cap in position at the time, and although many clubs didnt exactly follow this Manchester City were the ones made an example of. Billy Meredith, the mainstay of the City side at the time, blew the whole thing wide open after being banned for attempted match-fixing himself. 17 players were suspended or fined, and the club was forced to sell its players at an auction in 1907.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
