On Emile Mpenza

It's easy to get complacent about the club's current status. Splashing out £19million on a Brazilian striker, days away from starting our UEFA Cup campaign, rated 50/50 to sign a former Champions League, World Cup and Ballon d'Or winner and joint sixth favourites (with PaddyPower) to win the Premier League this year: we're a club on the up.

But none of this would be possible without Emile Mpenza. When he arrived in February 2007, we were in a pretty bad situation. Dropping steadily d0wn the league table, we were a team out of sorts. We lacked any real quality going forward: Dickov, Samaras, Corradi and Vassell managed ten league goals between them. Without Distin and Dunne at centre half we would have been losing every match by a cricket score.

The nadir came in early March. On the 3rd, Wigan Athletic came to Eastlands and beat us 1-0, Nicky Weaver failing to come for a cross and being beaten to it by Caleb Folan. The following weekend was our long anticipated FA Cup final at Ewood Park. The league had been going badly but this was our refuge. And we got a disgraceful performance: before the 8-1, the worst of the 2000s. Images of fans abusing players were harrowing. In midweek Chelsea breezed past us 1-0. A Carlos Tevez inspired West Ham were on the up. I thought we were going down.

On March 17th we went to Middlesbrough. Distin put us 1-0 up, (assissted by Mpenza), but it never felt safe. And then with sixteen minutes to go, Barton put in Emile Mpenza, making only his second league start, who put the ball past Schwarzer. 2-0! Not until the 2-1 at OT was I more surprised by a City win. A fortnight later City made a similar trip, to Newcastle United. Another tense game, but with ten minutes left Michael Johnson (his third ever match for City!) slid the ball through to Mpenza. Speeding past Oguchi Onyewu, he slammed the ball into the net. Consecutive wins! Away from home! Confidence regained, five points from the next three games and City were safe.

No Premier League football, no takeover, no Eriksson. But even in the very different atmosphere of 2007/08 he managed to make a contribution. Of his comrades from the Pearce era, Corradi, Samaras and Dickov were loaned out. Rolando Bianchi failed to settle and Valeri Bozhinov broke down. And by only the fourth game of the season, Mpenza, in some ways the archetypal Stuart Pearce player, was making the first eleven again. A goal at Ashton Gate in the Leage Cup was followed by our best string of performances of the season, in late September and early October. We never played better under Eriksson than when Mpenza was leading the line and creating space for Elano to work in. Goals in the 3-3 at Fulham and 3-1 defeat of Newcastle were just rewards for his efforts.

He may not have been the most talented centre forward I've seen in a City shirt. Rosler, Wanchope, Anelka, Quinn and even Fowler were all more able. He was not successful enough to attain the cult status of Goater or Dickov. He scored fewer goals for City than Macken or Huckerby. But in the spring of 2007 we needed a saviour. There was talk of a takeover but no-one would want to buy a debt-ridden Championship club. And without those two wins in the north east, relegation would have been a genuine possibility. And who knows what next. But we stayed up, and you all know the story from here. So, for saving us at that dark moment, and thereby making all that followed possible, Emile Mpenza deserves the thanks and good wishes of City fans everywhere.