YOUR VIEWS NEEDED - PRE MATCH BUILD UP
A couple of us met some officials from the club yesterday. The fixtures are out and we gave notification of our plans for the first few home games.
We also put to them our views - on some things that have been working and some wish we think haven't. We firmly believe getting mood right in the ground, geting the 10-15 minutes before kick off right can really set the mood and help us with what we do too in terms of getting the songs going.
We want a situation where people are taking their seats 10 minutes before kick off.
We have said to the club don't alter their great innovations such as City Square but in the 10-15 minutes just prior to kick off can we have club anthems and a real focus on football INSIDE the stadium and not the constant mentions for corporate sponsors or trying to cram in too many items prior to kick off. We say let the atmosphere build as we have seen last season at grounds such as Moenachengladbach, Juventus, Seville etc and in the season before last , Roma.
We just want your views on the build up INSIDE the ground before kick off. We can pass these onto the club over the next few days.
The club, like us, are determined to get the atmosphere sorted once and for all. We share the same objectives as the club and they do get stung by things they see on social media and forums from time to time so we always try and keep things constructive. We have given them praise for some of the things that have worked ie the Real Madrid display pre-game and build up on the PA for that game together with the way they used players at the right time to get the fans thinking about the atmosphere more.
For example , people always mention the loudness of the PA system but that we are assured is getting sorted once and for all !
In a nutshell what we said to them :
Keep the 10-15 minutes before kick off sacred as time for the atmosphere to build, no matter who we are playing no matter what time the kick of is. Once we hit 10-15 to go City Square feed goes off on the main screen and they play club songs. ie boys in blue or blue moon. If they have a special guest to introduce onto the pitch do it 10 mins beforehand. read out the teams 15 mins beforehand and not again until teams are out. if the club want they could try and do the euro thing where the announcer says the players first name and we say the surname. They could play blue moon and encourage a wall of scarves each game like we see at certain other clubs. MCFC keen to know which version of Blue Moon people like ? Marcels, Ella Fitzgerald ??? Unfortuanately for legal reasons the Supra version cannot be played anymore so we cannot have this back. But it gives us an opportunity for something new. They recorded a new version of Blue Moon but have not gone all out with that as they want to really take fans 100% with them on atmosphere issues, so let's hear those views.
For that build up time inside the ground we said the club should also go for a consistent approach - not try something for 6 games then swop and do something completely different.
We can then encourage fans to take seats earlier and get involved with displays waving flags, raising scarves etc. Often we do displays and the ground is still half empty. We are looking towards doing 9 or 10 large scale displays next season rather than one every game. More money spent on those individual displays so they stand out more.
We passed on feedback from a lot of fans that the club consider we kick towards family stand first half and south stand second half. This is on the table to consider by the players when they return.
By having our team come out and warm up in front of our fans first half means - Joe Hart gets to build rapport with fans immediately, players can see our display immediately and we can go through players names one by one and sing their song individually like we always did in the old days. Fans are then already singing without them knowing it. fans and players can clap each other pre-kick off, players could do huddle in front of our end etc like in stuart pearce days or whatever gets crowd going.
Games are usually tight until half time then won in the 2nd half so as the game changes the noise goes up as the fans see the ball coming their way again. It means each game starts loud and stays loud.
At the end players may come towards south stand to applaud the fans - or whatever, all ideas on the table.
Those of us in south lower - we have discovered that tiers 2 and 3 south stand cant hear us. We will instruct people in 115 to sing dircetly towards 110-111 at certain times instead of towards the pitch and hopefully we can bounce off each other more. Displays will be spread out to include 110-111 corner and also across 116-119 more regularly.
We asked to club to stop the "we play for you we sing for you "and "this is our city" type nonsense. Too loud and kils the atmopshere. Good as a one-off but not every week. Club agreed and have knocked it on the head now.
We tend to favour Boys in Blue, a version of Blue Moon, Hey Jude from time to time and maybe one or two other City songs being used during the build up - at half time and at full time. What would you like to see and hear ? What would entice you into the ground early.
We think it will be a good season. Away fans paying less means more away fans which means if they sing we sing more. Also with Guardiola we'll get a honeymoon period and some better football and with the biger home games coming durting the 2nd half of the season we think we'll get good home performances and then we take this momentum into the bigger games later on.