City’s Club Cat was bizarrely christened ‘Wimblydon’ by former conditioning coach Juan Carlos Osorio.

City’s Club Cat was bizarrely christened ‘Wimblydon’ by former conditioning coach Juan Carlos Osorio.

Shortly after the Blues moved from Platt Lane to Carrington, a white and ginger stray started visiting the new training ground, looking for the odd scrap of food and a saucer of milk.

While ‘Puss’ was initially the popular moniker, when Osorio mentioned in his South American accent that City were playing ‘Wimblydon’ – instead of Wimbledon – at the weekend, the faithful moggy happened to appear in the reception at the same time.

After the laughter over Osorio’s pronunciation had died down, it was suggested that it was the perfect name for the cat that had made Carrington its home - and so his legend was born.

Wimblydon has since become an integral part of life at City and once delivered a dead mouse to Kevin Keegan’s office – perhaps a gift or maybe his way of saying he didn’t think much of the football on offer!

After a decade of sterling service, Wimblydon is thought to be around 12 years-old and has caught an estimated 200 mice (and executed many of them), eaten 7,000 sachets of cat food and drank more than 100 litres of milk during his spell as Club Cat.

He was the first living creature Mario Balotelli met when he arrived at Carrington for the first time and his place in City folklore is assured.

It may not have anything to do with tennis, but ask the staff who see him every day – they’ll confirm he is the cat’s whiskers.