Dunne done?

By: Thad | June 12th, 2009

“I’ve been rich and I’ve been poor. It’s better to be rich.” I have no idea who said that, but someone did. And the saying applies quite well to Manchester City Football Club, a club in almost continual transition for over a decade, first down the ladder then back up, and now apparently poised for yet greater heights, financed by fossil fuel depletion. (No worries on that—the whole point of the UAE’s sheikhs investing abroad is to be diversified when the oil runs out. City will still be around when we’re all driving solar powered cars, or better yet biking around.)

Richard Dunne, committed as ever

Getting better players into the club means inevitably saying goodbye to some good ones—indeed, some very good ones. City fans now habitually snicker about the bygone days of Stuart Pearce and its famous toothless attack led by the likes of Corradi and Samaras. Fair enough, but the fact is, as former chairman John Wardle rightly put it, the ability of Kevin Keegan and then Pearce to keep the club in the Premiership until the dodgy Dr. Thaksin and then the deep-pocketed sheikhs came along was a significant accomplishment that made what’s happening now possible.

One player in particular played a vital role in keeping the club above water during that time period: club captain Richard Dunne, the four-time club player of the year, the solid rock of a defender who transformed himself from an immature youngster into a model professional, the man of a thousand vital clearances, well-won headers, and brave tackles in the box. Dunne has been at the club nine seasons, and has been the face of the club for the past five or so years, sticking with City through the last two summers of uncertainty when he could have headed elsewhere.

Unfortunately for Dunne his performances declined markedly this past season, and a late season revival of form was not enough to convince many City supporters that he should continue as an automatic first choice. Indeed, a puzzling feature of Mark Hughes’s first season is why the defensive partnership between Dunne and Richards that had been so successful under Sven teetered and collapsed, and why the club started leaking goals in a manner not seen since the notoriously under-achieving 2003-04 season under Keegan.

The latest rumours have City in for Joleon Lescott, possibly as soon as next week. If that happens, it’s hard to believe Dunne will not be available, and it’s hard to believe no one will want him. The only question is whether Dunne might refuse a move and fight for a place, and to be honest I would not want to see him reduced to going to one of the promoted clubs and battling relegation next season. After the Sisyphean struggle that playing for City in recent years has entailed, Dunne deserves better than that. But the likes of Tottenham and other clubs that figure to be in the top half next year are likely to come calling too, and if and when they do, the player will probably move.

That will be a bittersweet day, and while it will not command the headlines and commentary of Cristiano Ronaldo’s move this week, in the life of MCFC it will mark a turning point every bit as significant as Ronaldo’s departure is for United. The difference is, City fans will miss Dunne when he’s gone—as a player and as a character.