De Jong letting his feet do the talking

WHEN Nigel de Jong is mentioned, the average football fan is immediately drawn to the two milliseconds of negativity surrounding the player rather than the endless good he has done for Manchester City; endless good that he hopes to produce again this afternoon.

A borderline comical chest high challenge on Xabi Alonso in the World Cup final last summer was followed up by a leg-breaker on Newcastle United’s Hatem Ben Arfa last October, painting de Jong as the pantomime villain of English football.

However, one of City’s longest serving players — despite just 27 months’ service — is confident that he is slowly but surely changing his perception with the man on the street after a series of performances this season that have anchored City’s midfield, delighted their fans and helped get them to the coveted position of facing their oldest enemies from across town in the FA Cup semi-final.

“I think so,” he responded when asked if he thinks the memories of those two bad challenges are drifting into the ether of people’s memories. “If you see how people are talking now this last couple of months, it’s been a lot more positive. You have to let your feet speak on the pitch. I’m pleased obviously because it’s better to be a positive than a negative.

“The thing is, I’m still the same player, I’m still committed to the game. I still give 100% in every game. Big game or small game, I always try my best for my club or country. I love football, it’s the best thing out there.”

De Jong’s commitment to City’s cause is there for all to see and he will not change his über-committed style for anybody and especially not at Wembley, with so much at stake.

And, refreshingly enough, he is more than willing to accept as well as administer the rough stuff should it come to that this afternoon.

“If you give challenges, you have to expect challenges back,” he said. “It’s not like I only give challenges, and then cry about it when I get a challenge back. I’m not like that. You have to pick yourself up and dust yourself down. If you make a good challenge, shake hands and that’s it.

“That’s my perception of English football and that’s why I came here. I watched 10 or 20 years ago how the culture was here and I loved it as a small kid when Roy Keane went in to win the ball in a hard tackle, or Paul Ince or those guys. They’d get up and dust themselves down and continue.”

And what of the United and City dynamic? United have all the silverware but City have all the money.

For how long will this continue? And can de Jong be one of the generation of players that history will remember as being responsible for breaking United’s Manchester monopoly on success?

“I don’t think it’s fear, I think it’s healthy rivalry,” de Jong said. “We’ve been rivals since back in the day, so I don’t think it’s jealousy.

“The rivalry has only got bigger. They don’t have fear but they’re cautious because we’ve grown stronger. It’s not fear. United don’t fear anybody, but they are getting cautious because we’re getting bigger by the day.

“It’s difficult to buy a lot of new players and then in one year be champions. It takes time. You don’t have a lot of time at City because everybody’s expectations are so high, but it takes time and if you compare it with last season, we’ve got a better team.”

Whether they have done enough to underline their progression by beating United today remains another matter.

What is certain is de Jong will walk off the Wembley pitch having done everything in his power to make that happen.