Express & Star

Wolves column: Manchester City prove you can’t buy atmosphere

The grass is not always greener in the bigger, smarter stadium.

Published
Last updated

Any Wolves fan who braved the M6 to visit the Etihad on Monday night will tell you that, writes Joe Edwards.

The ground is a spectacle, a sight to behold as you walk over the bridge to it from the state-of-the art academy building just over the road.

But when you go inside the Etihad, the lustre is not there. The seats may have been a light shade of blue and there were banners pointing towards the club’s history, though none of it seemed distinctly City.

It just lacked identity. By the way, this is not me bashing the stadium. I’m just pointing out what I saw and felt.

A lot of City supporters will class themselves as lucky to be watching such a star-studded team do their thing at such a swanky home, and a lot of supporters of other clubs may be craving a slice of the pie.

Ask yourselves this though, is a bowl stadium seemingly designed as much for corporate guests and tourists as much as the normal fan really what you want?

The lack of atmosphere at City has been spoken about a lot by Wolves fans over the last few days, even prompting Bob Lawton to come up with a cartoon which conveys the feelings of the old gold faithful.

City’s supporters, of course, are not robots – many still support them after much darker days at Maine Road – but the sentiment stands. Wolves fans were not keen on the Etihad, and who can blame them when they are used to such a unique stadium in Molineux?

With its four separate stands, albeit the Stan Cullis being much bigger than the others due to a redevelopment being put on hold, it truly stands out as a ground that brings something different to the top flight while not looking out of place in it.

Just a short walk away from the city centre, it provides an experience which the likes of City cannot match.

There really are some things which money, something Wolves are not short of, cannot buy.

But it is not just Wolves who can learn lessons from the Etihad as they seek to enhance their home – and that gladly appears to be Fosun’s plan, to improve what they have rather than start afresh somewhere else.

Everton appear to be on their way out of Goodison Park, one of the most recognised, traditional footballing homes in the country.

The Toffees are expected to submit proposals for their £500m Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium later this year, and fans’ groups have welcomed contingency plans for safe-standing areas in the new stadium that could increase its capacity by 10,000.

Maybe that is the key to Wolves retaining that special feel in the coming years at a refurbished Molineux, and the thing that could give City’s Etihad a new lease of life.