Andy Mitten M.E.N Success comes at a price

bluemanc said:
Morrissey may have grown up a mile from Old Trafford, but when he wrote: ‘We hate it when our friends become successful. And if they’re Northern, that makes it even worse,’ he didn’t have football in mind. The lyrics have rung true for United over the last two decades though, not that City fans would ever describe United as friends. City had few friends among fans of other clubs, but lots of sympathisers who loathed United more, who were the top dogs, the team to beat, the club everyone loved to hate. United’s success created millions of haters – the rise of the internet and blanket TV coverage gave them a platform and rubbed their noses in it. Their team couldn’t beat United, so they jibed that all United fans were glory hunters from Surrey who’d never been to Manchester, let alone Old Trafford. Twenty years on, some people still repeat this, still think it’s funny. City’s success will continue to bring changes for match-going blues. I met a Blue relative (by marriage, not blood) outside the Etihad before the derby. He was enjoying City winning, but explained it came at a price. He’d looked around City’s away end at Arsenal and Chelsea and cringed as he saw hundreds of people he’s never seen at the match before – gloryhunters and tourists. Rich ones who go and see United (or now City) in London but never venture north of Tottenham. Tourists who’ll happily pay £300 on the black market for a one-off match in London, thus inflating the price for any genuine fans without tickets. And City are now classed as a category ‘A’ opponent, which means higher tickets prices for home – and away fans. So while your opinion of Fulham may not have changed in five years, theirs certainly has of you and they will sting you for the privilege. For capital ‘Cat A’ games £56 tickets are the norm. Don’t expect the hosts to roll out the carpet either. They won’t laugh along with the ‘typical City’ or the ‘cups for cock ups’ comments any more. And what is typical City these days? Winning every week, boasting that you buy anyone you choose. Click here to sign up to our new free Fantasy Football game where £100,000 is up for grabs Success brings increased expectations – and they can bring out a less edifying aspect of fandom, one where nothing is ever good enough. I listened to one Red moaning the day after United won the treble. It’s a new dawn for City. Being called a ‘noisy neighbour’ by Sir Alex Ferguson will seem like a compliment compared to the abuse at away grounds where everyone wants you to fail. Will you be ‘ABC’ to United’s ABU – (Anyone But United)? Away fans may begrudgingly admire David Silva’s brilliance or Vincent Kompany’s peerless authority, but they’ll seldom show it. Players will be labelled mercenaries and worse, but the fans will bear the brunt of the changes, the price rises, the hangers on, the constant shifting of games for TV. Reliving City winning the league at United’s expense is not something I’ll make a habit of, but I saw a photo a few weeks after that mind-numbing afternoon which remains vivid. It was a Facebook image of a Wythenshawe Blue celebrating with his brother in a Barcelona pub. The lad has been going to City for years and had waited a long time for that title. There was more emotion in that lad’s face in that single photo than any celebrations I saw on television. You could see that it meant the world to him. On his way home that night, the Blue saw a man in a City shirt across the street. He went up to him thinking they’d have much in common and perhaps an impromptu celebration. After all, they were both Blues. Except the lad in the City shirt wasn’t even a fan, just someone who ‘liked’ the shirt. The Blue was befuddled. Welcome to your new world, where more people than ever like you, and even more hate you.
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Mittens a writer for the rag fanzine utd we stand,a bit like asking Ric to write an article on utd but Ric couldn't come close to anything like that.
That being on our City page is very poor.



Read more at: <a class="postlink" href="http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/sport/football/s/1583407_andy-mitten-column-success-comes-at-a-price-as-manchester-city-fans-will-find-out" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://menmedia.co.uk/manchesterevening ... l-find-out</a>
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Maybe we shouldn't have challenged the world order by becoming joint CHAMPIONS with nited?
 
Very poor article. The angle is fair comment but the way he has written the piece shows both poor and biased judgement.
The MUEN just don't seem to care anymore. This particular paper should remember that to alienate a large section of your potential readership is foolish, especially when you may not always face a competition free market.
 
Mitten despite being a United fan is a pretty decent Football writer and their is little in that piece that hasn't been said a hundred times over by City fans in our own threads on here reference our fan base changing with our new found success.

I didn't buy that Barcelona/City fan/I just like the shirt line though, made up for dramatic effect.
 
ifiwasarichfan said:
Mitten despite being a United fan is a pretty decent Football writer and their is little in that piece that hasn't been said a hundred times over by City fans in our own threads on here reference our fan base changing with our new found success.

I didn't buy that Barcelona/City fan/I just like the shirt line though, made up for dramatic effect.
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Considering the **** has lived in Barcelona for the past 10 years, you shouldn't be that surprised!
 
On his way home that night, the Blue saw a man in a City shirt across the street. He went up to him thinking they’d have much in common and perhaps an impromptu celebration. After all, they were both Blues. Except the lad in the City shirt wasn’t even a fan, just someone who ‘liked’ the shirt. The Blue was befuddled.
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Who else thinks this is bullshit?
 
The perfect fumble said:
" Players will be labelled mercenaries and worse"

LOL! That's been a constant theme since ADUG took over, we didn't need to win the league to unleash that old chestnut. Rags and Rag media have been blathering on about that for years.

" but the fans will bear the brunt of the changes, the price rises, the hangers on"

No they won't, that's the Utd way, squeezing every penny to the max and filling the stadium with the well heeled "prawn sandwich" crowd, a club driven to service the Glazer debt, milking the franchise, scrabbling around to raise £100 million in a flotation quoted in the Economist fit only for "fools and fans". While all the time pretending nothing has changed in the Utd family, a big fat lie at the centre of the club.

Will ADUG do the same, the answer is no, not because the Sheikh is the very essence of all that is good and decent, he's a good owner but a canny businessman, canny enough to know he can't squeeze the regular fans too much, they don't have pockets that deep. He'll build his corporate boxes and squeeze them, but I can live with that.

No, in the end it's not success that breeds contempt, but the manner of that success, if City wins stuff with attractive free flowing football, if the manager and the owners behave with dignity and respect and the fans stay grounded free of the curse of "entitlement", we might be envied, but we won't be hated.

What marks out a true winner, is not just to win, but to do it with style and good grace, that is something, somewhere down the line, Utd and her fans simply forgot.
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perfect
 
ifiwasarichfan said:
Mitten despite being a United fan is a pretty decent Football writer and their is little in that piece that hasn't been said a hundred times over by City fans in our own threads on here reference our fan base changing with our new found success.

I didn't buy that Barcelona/City fan/I just like the shirt line though, made up for dramatic effect.
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i don't buy the 'decent writer' schtick, he's clearly subjective in everything he writes and has a far from balanced view.
He's scum through and through and knows fuck all about football and the 'real fan'.

To say we weren't happy on that day is a complete joke.

Furthermore the assertion you make that City fans are thinking the same about 'new' fans is wide of the mark, the few threads on here are started by WUMS

PS it's there not their
 
So other fans hate us for winning the title do they mitten well unless iv got shit in my eye and you tube is lying i saw sunderland fans celebrating at sol like crazy when we scored also qpr fans after the match told me they wanted us to win it over the scum
 
Bizarre as it sounds he's telling his fanzine followers he's been cherry picked to write on City.
I could be wrong but "regular column"?,not on us surely,i really can't see that being true
He believes the rags have only been hated since the 1990's, but it's 100+yrs if he cared to look at the History of his club
 
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