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Booing Man City 'may well only bring more pain'
 Liverpool fans display a banner reading "Look Back In Anger Shamchester"

How will fans from other clubs react to Manchester City this season?

Unsurprisingly, Liverpool fans were not impressed at Anfield on Sunday.

Liverpool have good reason to feel aggrieved, having lost as much as anyone to Manchester City over the years while the boundaries of financial probity were stretched longer than the M62 motorway that separates them.

Will all other fans feel the same fury? Some will never forgive City if they are found guilty post appeal for nearly a billion pounds worth of financial chicanery.

Others will feel the pain of lost glories they could have had.

What about the players that might have been tempted to sign for their club too had City not been splashing the cash so exorbitantly? Imagine if just Erling Haaland had gone to Arsenal, Liverpool or Manchester United instead of City. How different would the football world look now?

Many do not like where the money has come from but others simply admire the brilliance and beauty of City's play. David Silva is my favourite ever Premier League player, and I'm not even a City fan.

They undoubtedly raised the standard in the league and, under Pep Guardiola in particular, changed how football was played in England.

If they do feel that opprobrium raining down on them every week from every set of fans, how will it affect them?

Here is the bad news if you are not a Sky Blue: it will probably not impact them at all.

It might even affect performances positively. They will develop a siege mentality, stick together as a group and feed off the energy, even if it is negative.

Footballers are ultra-resilient and City's players might even learn to enjoy it. As Liverpool discovered, there is a certain exquisite pleasure in silencing your critics by beating them.

Tempting though it is, it is probably safer not to rattle that particular cage.

The big take: Booing Man City might come naturally to many, but it may well only bring more pain.

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