FALSE 10: And after all, you're my Wonderwall

Perfect imperfection.

That's probably the greatest virtue of a vinyl record, and that unique sound at the very beginning, in the moment when it starts spinning on the gramophone, as the needle hits the record, murmuring a bit before the actual song begins.

This particular one was a 12-inch, spinning at 33 RPM (revolutions per minute), and it was played for the first time thirty years ago, on November 6, in a world utterly different from the one we live in today.

(What's the Story) "Morning Glory" was the second album of the popular Manchester-based Britpop band Oasis. The third single on the A-side - "Wonderwall" - written by Noel Gallagher, then 28, and sung by his five years younger brother, Liam, took not just the United Kingdom but the entire world by storm.

Simple yet captivating, it glided on just four basic chords and Liam's Beatles-esque voice. This way, Noel and Liam, lifelong ardent supporters of Manchester City, became famous worldwide more than their favourite club, which was going through challenging times.

Opposed to their neighbours, Manchester United, who were slowly reaching the pinnacle of domination and fame under Sir Alex Ferguson's guidance, the Cityzens were struggling to stay afloat. By the time Wonderwall was released, Manchester City were at rock bottom, with just two points and no victories in the opening 11 games of the Premier League season, culminating in a humiliating 6-0 away loss to Liverpool on October 28 at Anfield.

The club's image was quite similar to their then-home, Maine Road, which was old and in a state of disrepair, with four sides of differing heights and construction styles. And while other Premier League powerhouses had some extraordinary foreign players - such as Eric Cantona and Peter Schmeichel of Manchester United, Ruud Gullit of Chelsea, and David Bergkamp of Arsenal - the Sky Blues had to settle for two relatively unknown foreigners.

German striker Uwe Rosler, who didn't earn a single cap for Die Mannschaft, and Georgian midfielder Georgi Kinkladze, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia's 20th-century cheeper prequel. Both Rosler and Kinkladze would become cult heroes among City fans in the years that followed, but the whole underdog aura surrounding them only serves to highlight how modest and limited Manchester City's capacities were in the 1990s.

It's impossible to fact-check such a thing, but we're pretty sure the Gallagher brothers (at least Noel, who has always been more of a football fanatic than his sibling) were present at Maine Road for a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Bolton Wanderers, their first EPL win of the season, just two days before the release of Wonderwall.

On the wings of it, once Liam's voice transmitted those legendary lines "... Because maybe, you're gonna be the one that saves me/ And after all, you're my wonderwall", Manchester City would kickstart a string of five games without a single loss, embellished with no less than four 1-0 victories. For a while, it seemed like November and Oasis grabbed Manchester City from the brink of the abyss and turned their horror into a genuine love story. A fairytale where everything is possible with the invisible support to hold your back when the dark times come.

Alas, by the time of Oasis's first live Maine Road concerts in late April 1996, the Cityzens recorded only five more wins out of 21 games.

On April 27 and 28, two nights in a row, in front of a sell-out crowd of 80,000 per night, Liam played an acoustic version of Wonderwall, in what would turn out to be a significant milestone for the band, marking their first headline stadium tour. To put things into perspective, Manchester City's average home attendance that season at Maine Road was 27,869 spectators. The highest number of 31,436 was recorded a few days after the Gallagher brothers' gig, on May 5, on the final day of the season, against none other than their Sunday's rival, Liverpool.

A 2-2 home draw against third-placed Reds seemed to have secured City's survival, but positive results and a better goal margin for the two sides directly above them - Coventry City and Southampton - brought back the horror in its cold-blooded fashion. Man City were relegated to the second division after seven years in the top flight.

The following year, they barely avoided a decline, but the inevitable drop was just around the corner. Despite bookmakers' odds, which saw them as joint second favourites to win the league next season, the Sky Blues were torn to pieces once the campaign started. In late October, Kinkladze crashed his Ferrari, sustaining a back injury that required 30 stitches and caused him to miss two matches. By November, the sound of the relegation bells spread over the Maine Road stands, and instead of Wonderwall lyrics, choruses of supporters were singing 'You're not fit to wear the shirt'.

A staggering number of five different managers took charge of the team over the course of the season (three permanent and two caretakers), and none of them could save City. The darkness was palpable, as the club was relegated to the third tier.

It resembled the feud within Oasis, a few years prior, when Noel quit the band temporarily after Liam threw a tambourine at his head.

"And all the roads we have to walk are winding/ And all the lights that lead us there are blinding..."

It's May of 1999, one year later. Just imagine the audacity of the destiny which set up this scenery: just four days before Manchester City's second-division playoff final against Gillingham (May 30), Manchester United wins the UEFA Champions League by a shocking injury-time comeback against Bayern Munich (May 26). Your neighbour, your closest rival, your worst enemy, has just become European champion, and you're about to fight for a place in the second tier of the English football hierarchy against Gillingham.

Everyone turns their back on you at that point, right? Wrong. Wonderwall was there. All season long. The Manchester City fans stood by their team through thick and thin, with an average home attendance of 28,261, which was more than what five Premier League teams averaged last season!

"I said, maybe/ You're gonna be the one that saves me.."

FALSE 10: Ange lost the entire 21 grams in less than forty days

The whole world remembers how Teddy Sheringham and Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer netted deep into the added time at Camp Nou for the Red Devils' UCL trophy, but only Noel, Liam and a few tens of thousands of the Sky Blues could tell you about the equally dramatic finish against mighty Gillingham. City were 2-0 down in the dying minutes before Horlock and Dickov (who the hell, you probably ask yourself now, are those two?) secured the extra time, which led to a penalty shootout. And City eventually won to get back to the second tier.

From that moment on, it was a one-way road for the Cityzens - up.

They regained promotion to the Premier League in 2001-02 and have remained there since, as their destiny changed permanently following a 2008 takeover by new owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Then came money, then came glory (and, inevitably, glory hunters, too), then came Sergio Aguero's injury-time title-winning goal against QPR in 2012. And all that time, just like during the 2012 title celebration at their new state-of-the-art Etihad Stadium, one thing stayed the same. Fans were singing their unofficial anthem, "Wonderwall," a cappella.

They couldn't care less about the fact that Noel walked out of the band for good in 2000, midway through a European tour. A few years later, he would officially say 'screw you' to Liam after a physical altercation backstage in Paris. Liam then sued Noel in 2011, but dropped the lawsuit after Noel issued an apology. They reconciled and are back on tour again. However, all that is part of another story, which we're not interested in.

All we know is that Wonderwall has become an integral part of every Manchester City celebration, and there have been quite a few over the last decade. Especially since the arrival of Pep Guardiola, who can be seen with Noel from time to time, sharing their passion and love for the club.

The older Gallagher is even allowed and welcomed in the Cityzens' dressing room, where he sings the emblematic song together with Manchester City's players in the moments of utter jubilation.

The footage of ecstatic Jack Grealish, holding a can of beer, leading the Wonderwall players' chorus after their first and to this day only Champions League title in 2023, went viral. Unlike Ilkay Gundogan, Ederson and other foreign superstars who know every single line of the song, Phil Foden can be seen sitting unamused and texting. Although he's a Manchester boy born and bred, the prolific winger was probably born too late (2000) to understand that this is not just another song, one more adapted version of "Freed from desire" ('Rodri's on fire' in the case of Manchester City) or some other widely known tune.

This is an oath. Declaration of love, without saying the word itself. This is Manchester City's counterpart of Liverpool's 'You'll never walk alone'. The reminder of tough times. The only tie between a clueless wanderer and a lavish billionaire he turned to in the meantime.

And after all,

It's Manchester City's Wonderwall.

By: BOJAN BABIC