After the brave attempts by Mr J Uzzell Esq to make the South Stand sing, and the ace idea of young Bentos starting the "We built this City" chant was followed by the E3 blog where we witnessed the birth of the Greg Docherty song to "She's electric" (read the article if you get the chance) it seems we've started a discussion piece that's grown a little.

 

The super Scottish midfielder has given the chant the thumbs up and now  Di'Shon Bernard also has a song, although it's nowhere near as good as "I wanna be Bernard" to the tune of the Stone Roses, but beggars can't be choosers.

 

Undoubtedly lockdown took a toll on the new songs that were being sang and now we're all back and covid is over (arf!) we're slowly waking up from the coma we've been in, which, in my best Fast Show voice... "which was nice". Obviously if we do get new owners I'm personally looking forward to all these songs and more being sang in front of 20k attendances as nobody has any reason to stay away any more. (three jokes in one paragraph, stop it Palmer!)

 

Anywho... it got me thinking about songs of yesteryear and times when frankly the song was better than the player, there's plenty of choice here as we've had to make our own entertainment a lot, but here's my top 5.

 

1.  Jimmy Graham

 

"Jimmy Graham, Jimmy Graham!

Jimmy, Jimmy Graham!

He's got no hair but we don't care!

Jimmy, Jimmy Graham!"

 

Now it's hard to explain but mid-nineties this really was quite cutting edge. I'm not sure I'd heard the song before to explain male pattern baldness, just the usual "gets the ball and scores a goal".

 

Jimmy was a cult figure for us, as he looked fully 60, when in fact he was 24, wore the Rod Stewart leopard skin kit and wasn't crap. Which most of his team mates certainly were. But truth be told young James was just ok, workmanlike and solid but if he were at his peak today Kyle Walker could rest easy. Years later I'd nominate him for the twitter site "80's footballers aging badly" and he'd make it to the second round of their "old off world cup". You're welcome Jimmy…

 

2.Linton Brown

 

"Knees up Linton Brown, knees up Linton Brown!

ei ei ei o, up the football league we go!

Will we get promotion, this is what we sing

We all love you, we all love you, Linton is our king!"

 

Now, this song like most was a bit of a re-tread after being used for Nicky Brown a few years earlier, but Linton never knew that so no harm done. He, like Jimmy Graham was serviceable, and modern young fans need to appreciate that in 1994-5 that made you like prime Neymar to City fans. He was an off the shoulder striker that was a second goal threat next to Dean Windass who actually was like prime Neymar and because he had the one asset Deano didn't (pace) he had a really solid season and a half. Then 60 grand from Swansea was too much to turn down if we wanted running water and electricity, and that was that. Great song, alright player.

 

3.Delroy Facey

 

(to the tune of No Limits by 2unlimited)

 

"Delroy, super Delroy, super Delroy

Super Delroy Facey!!" (repeat with the odd shout of "techno techno techno!")

 

Peter Taylor god bless him regarded strikers like taxis. If one wasn't working out, hop off and get another one. Delroy looked the part and was a handful but truth be told it didn't really work for him at City and about 20 minutes after salvaging us an undeserved point in a snow storm at MK Dons, he was sent on loan to Huddersfield. Thus this nineties classic was instantly abandoned which was a shame.

 

4.Jackson Irvine

 

"Jackson Irvine,

Long hair never looked so good (so good! so good! so good!)"

 

If these were in any sort of order Jackson would be top. Despite the fifa hashtagging fan boys blaming him for pretty much everything bar global warming, Jackson was decent for us. He had a goal in him and you couldn't knock his effort levels. He faded and his last season was undoubtedly his worst, then leaving through the back door in the bizarre and horrendous 2020 re-start. He never did quite turn into the player that terrorised us for 30 minutes for Burton and then got sent off though.

 

But his song... was something else. When Nigel Adkins left him out of the squad before the last game away against Brentford in 2018 (he was in the world cup squad for Australia) the fans serenaded him for ten minutes as he tried to drink a coffee standing with his mates, it was the best thing that happened that day. What a song. But a mildly disappointing end to an ok city stint as a player.

 

5.Lazar Markovic

 

(to the tune of "ole ole")

 

"Ole ole, ole ole, Lazar Markovic, Lazar Markovic!!" (repeat)

 

Now I did consider other options here. There were about eight lads away at Halifax twenty years ago that sang "Michelle my bell" for "Clint Marcelle" and that was a close runner up mainly as it featured the line "Black and Amber shirt you wear it well, Clint Marcelle".

 

 I also thought about Paul McShane, but he really was very good for City (thus the song clearly told people not to sell him) and truthfully he was better than his song.

 

But Lazar gets the nod mainly as in the fun Marco Silva run it got sang in concourses from Stoke to Southampton and often alongside flares being let off and mass chaos. It was an ace song that probably only got delved out a handful of times.

 

As a player he was neat and tidy and scored a couple of good goals that didn't quite keep us up. I mean he'd probably be one of our better players now (and he's only 27) but the song was better than the player for me.

 

I guess we just have to find a great song for an ok current player now, mmmm, what rhymes with Longman?

 

 

Thanks for reading...

 

UTT