You're joking aren't you? Do you not remember the Pearce era? The most dour, insipid brand of [Poor language removed] that I can remember seeing any City team play. I loved him as a player, but grew to hate him as a manager. We managed to score just 10 home goals in a season under him. He was responsible for losing more season ticket holders in a season that anyone before or since.
Aside from the odd anomaly, until the takeover we were terrible and had been for a long time. "We're [Poor language removed] and we know we are" heard it more than once, sang it a few times too.