Bernstein had become chairman just over a year earlier and despite taking over a club on the fast-track to a first-ever season at this level, he saw only opportunity. The club he took over was in a “terrible state”, as he recalled, but the extent of the problems created possibilities as well. They would have become impossibilities had City become stuck in a division they should never have been in in the first place.
As Bernstein looked across Wembley and saw the Gillingham fans waving their dark blue flags, his mind was whirring. ‘What are we going to do now?,” he thought. ‘This is going to be really hard next season, much tougher than this year we’ve just been through’.
The rest, as they say, is history, recounted by Bernstein himself in his book We Were Really There, looking back on his stewardship of City between 1998 and 2003. That promotion set the wheels in motion for a period that is key to where the club now finds itself, at the pinnacle of European football, with Pep Guardiola in charge and a team of world-class players dazzling in a stunning stadium.
“It was the most tense, nerve-wracking sporting experience I’ve ever had, or ever will have. The scale of the importance of the result was huge,” Bernstein told the Manchester Evening News.
“Had we not gone up, it is possible that we could never have done the new stadium deal and if we hadn’t done the stadium deal then I don’t think the Abu Dhabi people would ever have come in and history would be totally different.
“So that much was vital, then of course to be two goals down with one minute to go and then to win the match was just quite extraordinary, I’ve never quite recovered from it. I think that is without question the most important match in the club’s history.”
Denne historien er fra February 29, 2024-utgaven av Manchester Evening News.
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Denne historien er fra February 29, 2024-utgaven av Manchester Evening News.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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