The 1990s were different. It\u2019s almost impossible to think of English football in that decade without a soundtrack of New Order for World Cup 1990 or the Lightning Seeds in 1996. Ahead of Euro 96, The Football Association released an album entitled The Beautiful Game on RCA Records, featuring the likes of Blur, Pulp and Supergrass.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s clear that two cultures of music and football have never been so close,\u201d said Rick Blaskey, who had the grand job title of \u2018executive producer of music for Euro 96\u2019. \u201cConsequently, as this country has such a rich heritage in both, it seemed only right to use music to celebrate England hosting the European Championship.\u201d This was marketing speak, certainly. But the 1990s were the only time it would have made sense.<\/p>\n
The poster boys, of course, were Oasis. Liam and Noel Gallagher displayed their Manchester City fandom more visibly than any other rock band had ever considered. It helped that, throughout the 1990s, City\u2019s sponsor was a Japanese electronics manufacturer named Brother.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-1289033-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Brother: a key word for Manchester City in the 1990s (Clive Mason\/Allsport)<\/p>\n
The photographer who first pictured them in those shirts, Kevin Cummins of the NME, later had a more obscure footballing link for them. \u201cI was going to do a shot in an alleyway,\u201d Cummins said a few years ago in an interview with FourFourTwo. \u201cBut because we were up at the Oxford Street end of Soho, I knew Flitcroft Street was nearby, so I said to the band we\u2019d do it there instead. It was a nod to City midfielder Garry Flitcroft, and they loved the idea.\u201d<\/p>\n
By virtue of their two leaders being siblings, Oasis generally avoided the standard question in music journalism: \u2018How did you guys meet?\u2019 But Noel was a latecomer to Oasis, and the story involving the others is of relevance. When Liam conducted an interview alongside bassist Paul \u2018Guigsy\u2019 McGuigan in Los Angeles in 1995, they were asked that usual question, to which Liam had no real answer. \u201cI can\u2019t remember how we met,\u201d he said, as if he\u2019d never really considered it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe live in the same area,\u201d McGuigan clarified. \u201cWe\u2019ve known each other for about 12 years. We used to play football together. Soccer. Proper game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRound ball,\u201d Liam added.<\/p>\n
And McGuigan had originally met the band\u2019s original drummer, Tony McCarroll, because they played in the same football team together. The football came first. The music came after. The most overt use of football in Oasis\u2019 lyrics is in Round Are Way, the B-side to Wonderwall, and it\u2019s about playing, rather than watching.<\/p>\n
The game is kicking off in around the park
It\u2019s 25-a-side and before it\u2019s dark
There\u2019s gonna be a loser
And you know the next goal wins<\/p>\n
Oasis\u2019 attitude \u2014 or at least their analogies \u2014 were often shaped by football. When Noel was explaining the ambition behind his lyrics in a 1995 interview, he turned to housing. \u201cMy songs were not written for bedsits,\u201d he said. \u201cThink penthouse, not bedsit. Think mansion, not semi-detached.\u201d But Liam interjected with something different: \u201cThink AC Milan, not Tranmere Rovers\u201d.<\/p>\n
In a 1996 interview with Select Magazine, a section about their favourite records is interrupted by the sudden mention of Robin Friday, the heavy-drinking, rebellious centre-forward of the 1970s. \u201cFriday is Oasis\u2019 icon,\u201d the interviewer writes. \u201cUnderstand him, and you understand them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Oasis obsession with Friday was such that, during his time in the band, McGuigan co-wrote a book about the striker, entitled The Greatest Footballer You Never Saw: The Robin Friday Story. It\u2019s not a particularly substantive effort, mainly consisting of match reports from the time, and some personal testimonies from his family. You\u2019d struggle to consider it a biography.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-482889041-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Robin Friday\u2019s (pictured as a cartoon on the right) posthumous popularity was driven by Paul McGuigan\u2019s obsession with football (Michael Steele\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Still, it\u2019s a sideline you wouldn\u2019t expect from other rock stars, and McGuigan was a genuine football fanatic \u2014 even more so than the Gallaghers. \u201dI don\u2019t really do anything,\u201d McGuigan said in 1994 Rolling Stone magazine interview. \u201cWatching football is my main hobby. Watching football, watching videos about football, reading about football and talking about football. That\u2019s pretty much all I care about.\u201d Guigsy, like the Gallaghers, was a City fan.<\/p>\n
But why were they City fans? \u201cYou just get born with it, don\u2019t ya?\u201d explained Noel in a Sky interview ahead of the 1999 Second Division play-off final. \u201cKnow what I mean? All my cousins, they\u2019re all United fans. For some bizarre psychedelic reason, Dad decided to take us to Maine Road first. Cheers, Dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
But a year later, in a column for the Guardian, Noel mentioned further details. \u201cThe reason is basically a family one \u2014 my dad hated his brothers. They were all Irish people who came over here and decided to support United. My dad chose City instead, just to piss them off. No other reason than that. Liam and I should, by rights, have been United fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NME editor of the time was supposedly reluctant to feature them in City shirts too often, declaring that because City were struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League, it didn\u2019t suit a band on the up. But beyond the obvious geographic connection, it\u2019s difficult to think of a more suitable footballing fit for Oasis than 1990s City. A band who were revelling in singing about, as on Bring It On Down, being \u201cthe outcasts\u201d and \u201cthe underclass\u201d became the country\u2019s most famous supporters of a struggling club, at precisely the moment their main rivals started to dominate.<\/p>\n
The catalyst for Oasis exploding into Britain\u2019s biggest band came when they were spotted by Creation Records boss Alan McGee at a Glasgow venue in May 1993, the same month United won their first Premier League title. Definitely Maybe was released the following summer, by which point United were top of the charts in a different sense. \u201cThe Manchester United Football Squad\u201d, backed by Status Quo, recorded Come On You Reds<\/a> as their 1994 FA Cup final song. It sold 200,000 copies and spent two weeks at No 1, having entered the charts on 24th April 1994 \u2014 one week after Oasis\u2019 debut single, Supersonic, which merely peaked at No 31.<\/p>\n But that was just the start for Oasis. And slowly, the football references crept in. The video for their second single, Shakermaker, features a brief shot of a signed Manchester City football<\/a>, and then a subsequent kickabout down the park. But, quite rightly, they have clearly sourced a second football before going down the park, leaving the signed City ball unblemished.<\/p>\n And then there was the album cover. Definitely Maybe\u2019s sleeve featured a prominent picture of City legend Rodney Marsh, and perhaps more surprisingly, a smaller picture of United hero George Best. This was due to guitarist Bonehead\u2019s affection for United, and, according to photographer Michael Spencer Jones, \u201cNoel and Liam allowed it, because Best sort of transcended football.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe United fans love him because he was such a great player,\u201d Noel later explained. \u201cBut City fans love him because he lived to have a good time.\u201c<\/p>\n Bonehead\u2019s request was supported by drummer McCarroll, also a United fan. But Bonehead himself, whose dad was a referee in amateur levels of the game, actually came from a City-supporting family. The first match he attempted was at Maine Road, and he admits he initially followed United as an act of rebellion. He later described being in a predominantly City-supporting band in the 1990s as \u201cNot too difficult \u2014 obviously they couldn\u2019t shout about much on a Saturday because they hardly ever won.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent years, incidentally, one of Bonehead\u2019s neighbours on the outskirts of Manchester has been United midfielder Casemiro.<\/p>\n The Definitely Maybe cover featured both Rodney Marsh and George Best (Alberto Pezzali\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n But a funny thing about Oasis \u2014 perhaps the most famous Mancunians of recent decades, and with songs based around ordinary life \u2014 is that their lyrics were entirely neutral geographically.<\/p>\n Other Britpop bands mentioned, for example, that their protagonists studied at St Martin\u2019s College (Pulp, Common People) or got the train to Walton (Blur, Tracy Jacks), giving some kind of reference to proceedings. The Beatles sang about locations in Liverpool (Penny Lane being the most obvious) and the Arctic Monkeys\u2019 debut album mentioned various places around Sheffield: High Green, Hillsborough, Rotherham, Hunter\u2019s Bar. But there\u2019s barely a trace of any geography in Oasis\u2019 lyrics. Noel acknowledged this in a 1995 interview. \u201cWe don\u2019t sing about London. We don\u2019t sing about Manchester. We don\u2019t sing about Sheffield. We don\u2019t sing about England. We\u2019re just singing about life.\u201d<\/p>\n Indeed, Noel actually turned down the offer of writing a club song for Manchester City in the mid-1990s. \u201cThey wanted me to write their new theme tune, but even though I\u2019m a fan, I\u2019m not going to sweat blood over a song unless it\u2019s for myself,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m a selfish bugger and, anyway, what I am going to get to rhyme with \u2018City\u2019?\u201d On the basis of their performances at the time, that one was an open goal.<\/p>\n But refusing to actively sing about their team, combined with the fact their team were constantly struggling, made their fandom relatable. It helped, too, that Noel was always an insightful speaker about the game. Perhaps the peak was when City signed Georgi Kinkladze, a wonderfully talented Georgian playmaker who scored some wonderful goals in the Premier League but struggled to fit into Alan Ball\u2019s system. Noel described him as \u201cEither the most frightening thing I\u2019ve ever seen or the best thing I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d and said he would \u201cEither win us the European Cup or get us relegated to the fourth division.\u201d<\/p>\n That sounded extreme, yet it wasn\u2019t a million miles off: City were relegated to the third tier within two years, by which point the Georgian had been signed by Ajax, who had been European champions a couple of years earlier. Incidentally, City supporters\u2019 chant for Kinkladze was to the tune of Wonderwall, featuring, \u201cAnd all the runs that Kinky makes are blinding,\u201d then \u201cAnd after all\u2026we\u2019ve got Alan Ball.\u201d<\/p>\n These days, the Britpop era is boiled down to a battle between Oasis and Blur, which is essentially the \u2018Steven Gerrard v Frank Lampard\u2019 debate of the 1990s (Pulp would be Paul Scholes). And while there have always been rivalries between bands \u2014 the Beatles versus the Rolling Stones \u2014 there was something about Oasis vs Blur that felt particularly football-y. There was genuine needle. Digs in interviews felt like \u2018mind games\u2019. The battle naturally played out in the charts: Blur\u2019s Country House famously beat Oasis\u2019 Roll With It to No 1 on the opening weekend of the 1995-96 season. Oasis would have loved it if they beat them. Loved it.<\/p>\n One of the iconic photos of the Britpop era \u2014 Liam Gallagher and Damon Albarn at Mile End Stadium (David Cheskin \u2013 PA Images\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n But the battle also played out on the football pitch. At Mile End Stadium in 1996, a celebrity six-a-side tournament also featuring the likes of Jarvis Cocker and Robbie Williams pitched together the lead singers: Blur\u2019s Damon Albarn playing in a blue Chelsea beanie hat, and Liam inevitably in a light blue bucket hat. And therefore the defining photo of Britpop took place on a football pitch, with a goal in the background to confirm the surroundings. For the record, Albarn\u2019s side won 2-0. Noel didn\u2019t play, despite rating himself a good centre-back, because \u201cI don\u2019t like anyone in showbusiness\u201d. But on the small evidence available, Liam seems a better player: there\u2019s footage of him scoring a good goal and then celebrating with Noel in a mid-1990s Goldie documentary<\/a>.<\/p>\n Around the same time, there had been a rumour in NME Magazine that Blur and Oasis were set to collaborate on the official England song for Euro 96. \u201cOver my f***ing dead body,\u201d Gallagher said in an interview with Hot Press magazine, before referencing the FA chairman of the time. \u201cSir Bert Millichip probably asked the office junior at the FA who the \u2018happening bands\u2019 were at the moment and thought, \u2018Right, that\u2019s another few quid in the coffers\u2019\u201d. He also turned down the chance to sing the national anthem before England\u2019s semi-final with Germany at Euro 96. Oasis were clearly unlikely to take up the offer to sing God Save The Queen at Wembley, perhaps unless it was the Sex Pistols track.<\/p>\n In terms of international football, Noel has generally expressed more affection for Ireland than England, because of his Irish heritage. When asked to choose between the two in an Irish Times interview in 2015, he replied instantly. \u201cOh, Republic of Ireland; I don\u2019t consider myself to be English at all.\u201d Accordingly, he has more than a soft spot for Celtic, describing the moment the PA system played Roll With It before an Old Firm match he attended in 2000 as \u201cthe greatest thing I\u2019ve ever seen in my life.\u201d It helped that Celtic won 6-2.<\/p>\n Noel Gallagher and Paul \u201cGuigsy\u201d McGuigan pictured at a Manchester City game in 1995 (Mike Egerton\/EMPICS via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Noel\u2019s annoyance with England supporters was particularly pronounced when he condemned the supporters who had rioted at Lansdowne Road in 1995. \u201cIreland could have gone 6-0 down at Wembley and their fans\u2019 reaction would\u2019ve been, \u2018Ah, f*** it, we\u2019ll have a drink\u2019, but our lot had to riot because they have this ludicrously misplaced sense of patriotism,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s also the small matter of the England team being shite at the moment. They only beat Japan 2-1 and afterwards you had Jimmy Hill saying, \u2018You have to realise they\u2019re not the soft touch they used to be.\u2019 Bollocks. We were crap and the thing that pisses me off is that we won\u2019t, as a nation, admit our faults.\u201d<\/p>\n The violent aspect of football fandom always irritated him. When Liam was arrested after getting into a brawl on a ferry en route to Amsterdam for Oasis\u2019 debut European tour, Noel was furious. \u201cIf you\u2019re proud of getting thrown off ferries, then why don\u2019t you go and support West Ham and get the f*** out of my band and go and be a football hooligan?\u201d, Noel said to him in a feisty 1994 NME interview that was actually released on CD<\/a>. \u201cBecause we\u2019re musicians, right? We\u2019re not football hooligans\u2026 getting thrown off a ferry isn\u2019t rock and roll. That\u2019s football hooliganism.\u201d<\/p>\n Noel was generally a far-sighted fan in the 1990s, expressing frustration that the English game remained behind the times. \u201cIt\u2019s no wonder that all these kids go round smashing up town centres when all the England players go on about is getting stuck in, standing your ground, working hard and being aggressive,\u201d he said once said. \u201cThe French players like ballet, man! Their supporters cause no trouble because the idols they look up to are artists. Not f***ing \u2018Get stuck in lads, they don\u2019t like it up \u2019em, foreigners.\u2019 F*** off. They\u2019re playing a different sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Noel has always had a particular appreciation for foreign playmakers with flair and craft. He backed Argentina to win World Cup 1998 because he was once mesmerised by Ariel Ortega. He became friends with Alessandro Del Piero, sitting next to the Italian\u2019s wife in Dortmund when he rounded off a glorious semi-final goal against Germany at World Cup 2006. He generally names his favourite City player as David Silva. \u201cFor me, he personified the word \u2018sublime\u2019,\u201d he said in 2024. \u201cHe was just brilliant, he made us tick, he changed the game\u2026 Kevin De Bruyne is more breathtaking because his passes are just incredible. But Dave was a beautiful, beautiful footballer \u2014 we\u2019d never seen the likes of him.\u201d<\/p>\n Clearly, City have had plenty of \u2018his\u2019 type of footballer in recent years, a far cry from the 1990s when he said the only City player he rated was right-back Ian Brightwell.<\/p>\n Notably, both paid tribute to Diego Maradona when he died in 2020. \u201cA proper rock-and-roll footballer, no f***er will ever come near,\u201d Liam wrote on Twitter along with a photo of them together. \u201cMet Maradona not once but twice and he was the real f***ing deal, scary but beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n Noel\u2019s tweet was more straightforward. \u201cBuenos Aires \u201997. What a life. What a legend. He was under house arrest at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n Maradona shakes the hand of God ! pic.twitter.com\/GfFxdvYi<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) April 30, 2012<\/a><\/p>\n Oasis\u2019 second album, (What\u2019s the Story) Morning Glory, was released only a year after the debut, in October 1995. The recording sessions, in a house-cum-studio in Wales, can be accurately dated to May of that year, by the fact Oasis were heavily distracted by that season\u2019s title race.<\/p>\n \u201cFootball, man. United are f***ing losing the league, mad for it,\u201d Liam is shown shouting into the microphone before a take for Champagne Supernova on the Supersonic documentary. He was more interested in watching Manchester United failing to defeat West Ham on the final day, therefore losing out to Kenny Dalglish\u2019s Blackburn. At full time, Liam stands in front of the television chanting Dalglish\u2019s name, before the other band members throw United fan Bonehead out of the house. The next clip is Liam having a kickabout in the garden.<\/p>\n The peak of Oasis\u2019 touring days is often considered to be the legendary Knebworth shows in 1996. But a more personal highlight came earlier in the year, when Oasis played two dates at City\u2019s then-home, Maine Road. \u201cI loved standing on the terraces; it was like a gig when all the swaying started up,\u201d Liam had previously said of his early visits. Noel had also seen the likes of Pink Floyd and Guns N\u2019 Roses at the ground.<\/p>\n The strange aspect about these gigs is that they happened on the penultimate weekend of the football season, in late April. Outdoor concerts in Britain at that time of year are extremely rare, because of the risk of adverse weather conditions, and the band were warned the gigs could be ruined by rain, although Noel pointed out that in Manchester, it rains all summer anyway.<\/p>\n Maine Road fills with Oasis fans in April 1996 (Peter Wilcock \u2013 PA Images via Getty Images)<\/p>\n Committed United fan Bonehead refused to pose for the picture used on tickets for the event<\/a>, while Liam wore a City player\u2019s sweatshirt on stage. \u201cI went backstage and there was some player\u2019s Umbro gear just sitting there and I thought, \u2018I\u2019m having a bit of that\u2019, tried it on, f***ing freebie innit and, and I f***ing pinched it and f***ing wore it\u201d. As simple as that.<\/p>\n But this created a trend. Umbro launched an updated version earlier this year, to much acclaim from the football fashionistas. \u201cThere are few moments and items in history that lay claim to being pivotal in the evolution of modern football culture,\u201d read the Soccerbible website. \u201cBut the Umbro drill top worn by Liam Gallagher on that April night at Maine Road would be one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n Liam at Maine Road in 1996, wearing a City sweatshirt (Pete Still\/Redferns)<\/p>\n Oasis were always unashamed in their ambition and bold about conquering the world, but they were staggered by the experience of playing at their club\u2019s home stadium. \u201cTo play at the ground of the football club you\u2019ve supported all your life is, without doubt, the icing on the cake,\u201d said Liam in 2017. \u201cIt\u2019s downhill after that. Even Knebworth doesn\u2019t come close.\u201d<\/p>\n Noel said something similar a couple of years later. \u201cI remember sitting behind the stage at the Platt Lane end in a box and watching them dismantling the whole thing, ending up with just an empty stadium,\u201d he said. \u201cI was taking the moment in, do you know what I mean? They were amazing gigs and it will never be repeated.\u201c<\/p>\n The following weekend at the ground, City hosted Liverpool on the final day of the season and drew 2-2, a result which confirmed their relegation. City had actually wasted time in the closing stages of the contest, wrongly believing a draw was enough to keep them up, which summed up their haplessness in this period.<\/p>\n But, away from City, Oasis understood the importance of football to their fans. In September 1997, when they played in Newcastle, the gig clashed with Newcastle\u2019s famous 3-2 Champions League win over Barcelona. Liam wore a Newcastle shirt on stage \u2014 it probably helped that they were Manchester United\u2019s regular title challengers at this stage \u2014 and relayed the score to the crowd between songs.<\/p>\n Oasis in the 21st century were a shadow of their 1990s peak \u2014 only a small handful of songs will feature on this summer\u2019s setlists. A rare highlight came with 2002\u2019s Stop Crying Your Heart Out, which soundtracked the BBC\u2019s montage of England\u2019s World Cup quarter-final defeat to Brazil. The single had only been released four days earlier; the Heathen Chemistry album the song was taken from was a fortnight away.<\/p>\n In a game played on a weekday morning UK time, and watched in schools and offices around the country, England\u2019s tearful exit was the best possible promotion for the track.<\/p>\n The montage ended with a shot of England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson; his death was announced the day before Oasis announced their reformation in late August last year. 22 years after this video, Oasis and Eriksson were on the front pages together.<\/p>\n That World Cup montage stuck in people\u2019s minds and probably contributed to the song\u2019s surprise emergence in 2019 as a terrace chant, initially by Leeds fans repurposing the song as \u2018Stop crying Frank Lampard\u2019<\/a> before being sarcastically adopted by Lampard and his Derby side after they defeated Leeds in the playoffs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oasis\u2019 breakup in Paris in 2009 was both a long time coming, and also very sudden. Liam has repeatedly referenced a former City manager when ridiculing Noel\u2019s decision to walk away. \u201cHe\u2019d had enough of this \u2018lad\u2019 thing, and he wants to try something new \u2014 and it\u2019s not having a dig at him, but I just think he\u2019s sort of turned himself into a f***ing fake,\u201d he said. \u201cI think he\u2019s done a Keegan.\u201d<\/p>\n In another interview, for the Supersonic documentary, Liam repeats the joke. \u201cI thought it was our kid just having his Kevin Keegan moment,\u201d he says. It is particularly good analogy as it could conceivably refer to Keegan\u2019s departure from Newcastle, England, or indeed City.<\/p>\n The Gallaghers\u2019 fandom of City has probably become more pronounced during the band\u2019s hiatus. Noel conducted the draw for the 2010-11 alongside Kasabian\u2019s Serge Pizzorno, a Leicester City supporter. Having joked beforehand that they\u2019d like to draw out their own clubs against one another, they promptly did<\/a>: Pizzorno drew Leicester as the home side, Gallagher drew City as the away side. There was a less than one per cent chance of them pulling that off.<\/p>\n And while celebrity fans thankfully have a minor role to play in British television coverage of football, Noel has been the clearest exception. He played the role of Football Focus interviewer with Mario Balotelli in 2011 (at a time when no one in the media got an interview with the Italian) appeared on Match of the Day 2 as a pundit in 2015, then on Sky Sports as a pundit for a Manchester derby in 2017. Perhaps the highlight of that arrangement actually came, when, by way of promoting Gallagher\u2019s appearance, Paul Merson was given a charity challenge to slip in as many Oasis song titles into his Soccer Saturday punditry as possible, which he carried out remarkably smoothly.<\/p>\n Noel was also given the honour of conducting Pep Guardiola\u2019s first interview as City manager<\/a>. His prominence reached new heights last year when he was used as a co-commentator for TNT Sports\u2019 coverage of City\u2019s defeat in Lisbon to Sporting \u2014 which did feel a bit much \u2014 and he also had the ultimate honour of being interviewed in The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, there was a surprise starring role from Eric Cantona in Liam\u2019s video for his single Once, released in 2019. The video consists of little more than Cantona sitting around in a countryside mansion, drinking wine and lip-syncing to Liam\u2019s vocals.<\/p>\n Cantona, according to Liam, refused any offer of payment, or assistance in travel or accommodation. Given the United-City connection, it took some time to get your head around; but then, just like George Best on the Definitely Maybe album cover, Cantona transcended both United and football.<\/p>\n Throughout the period where they never spoke, the nearest thing to bringing Liam and Noel together was football. In 2016, both were insisting they hadn\u2019t been in touch since the breakup in 2009, with one near-miss. \u201cI think it was a football match in 2013 or 2014,\u201d Liam said in a Radio X interview, when asked the last time they\u2019d been together. \u201cIt was a a City match. He was in one box and I was in another box, and I went into see him and I pinched his nipple and kissed him on the ear. I don\u2019t think we spoke.\u201d<\/p>\n Whereas Liam used to watch City in a box rented by former midfielder Stephen Ireland, his fandom has waned slightly in recent years. \u201cI don\u2019t go and watch them anymore. I don\u2019t really like the Etihad,\u201d he said to the NME in 2020. \u201dI don\u2019t dig it, it\u2019s like going and watching the f***ing opera.\u201d<\/p>\n But you can\u2019t escape Noel. He popped up in the City dressing room to sing Wonderwall with the players after the Premier League title victory in 2019. Four years later, City\u2019s players sang the same song in the dressing room after their European Cup final win over Inter (sadly without the lines about Kinkladze or Ball). City\u2019s next game against Inter also featured Oasis \u2014 their specially-designed Puma kit was a curious cream-blue number that was inspired by the cover art for Definitely Maybe<\/a>. You\u2019d probably have struggled to spot the resemblance had you not been told. But it completed a neat cycle: the album cover featured a player in a City shirt, and now a City shirt was inspired by the album cover.<\/p>\n Noel also apparently had a role in designing the font for the back of City\u2019s shirts last season. He\u2019s still on good terms with Guardiola, and his refusal to join in the \u2018Poznan\u2019 a couple of years ago away at Fulham proved very popular and led to, it must be acknowledged, some excellent puns. \u201cHe sees things they\u2019ll never see\u201d worked particularly well.<\/p>\n Noel has formed a close relationship with Pep Guardiola (Michael Regan\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Oasis\u2019 initial demise coincided almost perfectly with City\u2019s rise. The band\u2019s last gig was on August 22nd 2009, the same day as City\u2019s first home match that season \u2014 the first full season of the current ownership, when they ultimately ended in fifth, at the time their best finish in the Premier League era.<\/p>\n On that final tour, Oasis played three dates at Wembley Stadium. The previous time City had played at Wembley was a decade earlier, for the memorable win over Gillingham. That was in the third tier, and at the old stadium. (Even accounting for the seven-year rebuilding period, City wouldn\u2019t have been at Wembley in that time \u2014 they never played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.)<\/p>\n Noel Gallagher speaking ahead of Manchester City’s play-off final against Gillingham. pic.twitter.com\/KQNX4I45je<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2170068201-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-829753404-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-650104964-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-829850762.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-2180952482-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/GettyImages-955339402-1-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n