Hey folks... do ya like the sports? Do you like the soccer? We rarely cover the sports or soccer here at AICN (except to talk about Stallone, Caine, and Pelé in VICTORY), but Amazon Prime has a can't-miss documentary on right now, ALL OR NOTHING: MANCHESTER CITY, that details Manchester City's triumphant 2017-2018 season, narrated by Sir Ben Kingsley.
As documentaries go, it's incredibly well done, with cameos from City's biggest supporters, including Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Johnny Marr of The Smiths. If you've ever been remotely interested in the English Premier League's history and the current action, this is something you're going to want to catch.
Two of the most prominent football teams in the world reside in and around Manchester: Manchester United, in Trafford, just south of Manchester--arguably the most popular team in the world-- and Manchester City, nestled in the Northern part of the city, the long-struggling other team. For decades, United dominated Manchester as the pre-eminent team, with a long dynasty built by Sir Alex Ferguson ("Fergie"), their Manager (coach) and architect.
The Manchester Derby (City playing United) was often a dread event for City fans, and added to that was an element that the FA (Football Association) preferred and protected their Manchester United heroes. There's a reason the phrase "Fergie Time" exists; it's the seemingly endless injury time Manchester United would often receive from referees, allowing them to equalize or win long after the clock should have stopped. And the Manchester press, until about 2013, was very much a United-centric press, that jeered any team strong enough to challenge United whilst excusing United's defeats.
Fortunes changed in 2008 when Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, owner of Etihad Airlines, bought the team, bringing in new money and a commitment to building City into a powerhouse, building on their long-standing rivalry with United. As the Manchester/national narrative to support United above the other clubs began to buckle for the first time since Ferguson's electrifying class of 1992, he made a comment about his rivals over the road that would come back to haunt him:
"Sometimes you have a noisy neighbour. You cannot do anything about that. They will always be noisy. You just have to get on with your life, put your television on and turn it up a bit louder."
For three years, City or United won the Premier League back-to-back in fierce competition. With Ferguson's retirement, a series of Managers were introduced, but few could stand in Ferguson's shadow and build a second dynasty. Equally, City had trophy-winning Managers in Mancini and later Pellegrini, but neither was the dynasty builder that they'd hoped for.
When Josep 'Pep' Guardiola, soccer legend and trophy-winning Manager of Bayern Munich, announced his interest to manage a Premier League soccer team, the two rival clubs fought for him. Pep ended up at City, and one of his chief rivals, the highly-regarded Jose Mourinho (a.k.a. 'The Special One'), left Chelsea F.C. and took over at United. Both teams struggled in their first year to make a mark, with United coming out better, winning three minor trophies.
ALL OR NOTHING begins as Pep's reputation is in question. He and the team itself have much to prove, and there's a general sense that odds are stacked against them. Over the course of the season, you'll see City players savaged on the pitch with late tackles. You'll see questionable calls and tension with referees. You'll see the attack on the City bus that preceded the Champions League game against Liverpool, and Guardiola ejected from the pitch by the referee. You'll also see some of the locker-room chemistry that helped them overcome it and to go on to win the Premier League. The big events are great... and there are some nail-biters here... but some of the best moments are about the team coming together, in victory or in defeat.
The show's arguably best episode, "Noisy Neighbors", deals with the United rivalry and the clash of these two Manchester titans. Mourinho, knowing that Guardiola has come to win, plots a strategy to frustrate him, which in soccer is known as 'parking the bus'-- which, when said witheringly in Ben Kingsley's rich voice, is not a strategy most fans appreciate. It makes the games boring and slow, lacking the spirit people expect in the Premier League. Needless to say, the team rallies and overcomes Mourinho's strategy to win.
This show does a great job of pulling Manchester City out of the branding shadow that United have cast, even influencing major teams on other shores to call themselves United (ahem, Atlanta) without being, y'know, UNITED by the merger of smaller clubs... but I digress...
Importantly, it should be noted that ALL OR NOTHING is both a documentary, but like the best documentaries, it picks a side and tells a narrative. Don't expect to come away feeling warm and fuzzy about City rivals Liverpool, or their fans... or the Football Association, for that matter. Like "The Real World", a narrative was crafted from real events and edited to give a specific story. It's a true story, but carefully note that word STORY there. There's a fuller story to be heard, naturally, if you also followed the other teams and heard what their locker room halftime talks were like. This happens to be City's story.
Full Disclosure: this sock-puppet is a Mancunion. I spent 6 years in the city of industry, doing a BA and then an MA. I've been a Florida Gator football fan since I was six, and I thought I knew what bitter rivalry was, from watching the Gators take on the University of Georgia Bulldogs every year in a neutral location (replete with knifings)... and then I came to live in Manchester. The rivalry is beyond bitter and moves with class lines and religion, as well as regions. On the first week of my arrival in 2009, the couple who were hosting me informed me that their house was a house divided: he supports Manchester United, and she supports Manchester City. I would have to choose which team to support. I gave them each a task, to describe their team in one word. He chose "Glory", the perfect word to describe United by both supporters and detractors, that references their storied history of pitch successes and their tendency to dine out on that earlier success. She chose "Heartbreak", a reference to the team's curse of getting an advantage and giving it up until they are behind, and also because of the odds always seemingly working against City. Being a Gator fan, I naturally chose Heartbreak. City 'til I Die.
-- Precious Roy
