TOM CLEVERLEY has revealed that he has to mute Martin Tyler every time he hears him commentate.
The former midfielder, who retired earlier this year, was part of the Manchester United squad that was pipped to the title by City in 2012.
On the final day of that season Tyler, now 78, produced one of his most memorable lines of commentary when Sergio Aguero scored City’s last-gasp winner.
Cleverley, now 34, travelled with the Red Devils for their match against Sunderland that day but did not make the bench.
The pain of losing that league title to City still hurts the United academy graduate.
Reminiscing on that day while speaking to Ladbrokes Fanzone, he said: “I was the 18th man, or whatever it was at the time, so I was in the stands.
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“We travelled with no expectation whatsoever of QPR getting a result at Man City.
“I just remember being in the Directors’ Box at the Stadium of Light, thinking ‘surely it’s not going to happen’, and then just starting to believe that it was happening…
“Then I was getting in the lift to go down to pitch side and I caught a TV screen where it showed [Edin] Dzeko had equalised, and I just knew. I knew. I knew what was about to unfold.
“I knew QPR would fold and I knew Man City would do it. Unfortunately that’s exactly what happened, and I have to put the TV on mute every time I hear Martin Tyler’s voice.
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“It’s the one iconic moment in football that really does hurt me. You know, I only played 10 games in that season, but the fact that it was Man City’s first title, and the fact it was the catalyst, and all of the significance that came with that moment… it’s a hard one to take.
“Listen, we might not have come out and won the league as convincingly the following season, had it not happened to us, but we had the title sewn up around March time that year, and we really let it slip. To lose it to your local rivals just made it even worse, of course.
“We had a run of poor results. I think we were 4-2 up against Everton and we drew 4-4, we lost away at Wigan and then we lost at the Etihad. Those three results completely shifted the momentum.
“It never seemed possible that we were back in the title race until the second-half on the final day, and that ended up being the cruellest thing about it all.”
Cleverley was part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s last title-winning team in 2012-13, before being kept around by David Moyes the following season.
He played once under Louis van Gaal before being loaned to Aston Villa, later leaving permanently for Everton in 2015.
After two years with the Toffees he signed for Watford, spending six years at Vicarage Road and later becoming captain before hanging up his boots.
Tyler, meanwhile, left Sky Sports at the end of last season.
Last week he revealed that he was “stepped down” by Sky and did not decide to leave.
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He can still be found commentating for various networks around the world.
While he made his UK TV return last week, working on Porto’s Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk for Discovery Plus.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
