Pride As City's Blueheart Makes The England Plane

The chastening 2006 World Cup exclusion that Shaun Wright-Phillips was dealt after leaving City for Chelsea can now be forgotten as the MCFC Academy star goes to South Africa...

Against numerous odds, the never say die Blues winger who suffered a mid season dip in form in the last campaign amid protracted contract wrangling which was publicly fronted by his stepfather, has been selected by Don Fabio Capello in the shrewd Italian's 2010 World Cup squad.

The Chelsea benchwarming backfire can now be forgotten as the player who has so often been half kicked to death by rival players who recognise him as The Citizen's heartbeat when on song finally gets his international reward.

Upon this bedrock, here's to 28 year old Shauny looking ahead to finishing his career at Manchester City in style.

SWeeP's inclusion in the England World Cup Squad today alongside Gareth Barry and Joe Hart is cause for great pride for everyone associated with Manchester City.

Spare a thought for the quicksilver City wing dynamo Adam Johnson. He will be disappointed, yet at the same time secure in the knowledge that should he continue to progress at this meteoric rate, he will be an England mainstay for the decade to come.

The unsavoury aspect of today's protracted squad announcement has been the way Don Fabio's squad reduction was drip fed out to the internet by 'in the know' Street of Shame hacks. The English Football Association have again been found embarrassingly wanting and players who have allowed the news to leak out in the way it has done before an official announcement have also lacked class.

Yet above all else, today's squad announcement underlines just how far our club has come since we battled back from English football's third tier a decade ago.

Three Blues matching three rags in the 2010 England World Cup squad. Manchester City are well and truly back on the planet's football map.

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