Bring the Noise

[trevorriley]

To be honest, I’ve got a lot of time for all 3 - Mancini, Pellegrini, and Guardiola - but all of them have a limited shelf life.

For me, Pep is the best manager on the planet and we should enjoy him while he’s here because sooner or later he’ll be gone. However, he really doesn’t do himself - or us - any favours with these comments about the atmosphere. To be fair, the full transcript of what he said does praise the fans for getting behind the team but throwing his hands up in the air when he’s pretty much in front of the Tunnel Club - the most expensive corporate area in the ground - which his mate Soriano no doubt had a lot of input in is a bit rich. Asking City fans to turn up in numbers at CL games when we’ve never had a gate for a CL group game anywhere near as low as the 22,000 who turned up at the Nou Camp for Barca v Shakhtar in Pep’s all-conquering first season as manager of Barca is another one that I find irritating.

Let’s be honest - we’ve got big issues with the atmosphere at our place at times, and I’ve done enough moaning about it myself, but we’re hardly alone in that. Much of it is down to the increased sanitisation of the English game, and while something needs to be done, it should be up to the fans to deal with it, and the manager shouldn’t be getting involved. United and Liverpool fans have no room to take the piss either because Mourinho and Klopp have had digs at the fans at both those clubs too. IMO all three should keep their beaks out and if they want great atmospheres, go and manage in Eastern Europe or Greece or Turkey, but we know that would never happen because none of the clubs in those countries could afford to pay the kind of salary that all 3 would demand.

that's bang on that, nicely summed up.

What I would also say is every year it becomes easier to put your opinion about on social media to a wider scope. Therefore we have a lot of knobheads being shoved in our faces ( great example Leicester fan in pink jumper on YourMCFC ). As well as idiots like this we have the reporters / media / papers being able to pull snips from what pep might say and totally twisting it to favour what that reporter wants us to see. When really pepe will have meant something different, the media doesn't like pep's success on the whole so they search for anything to get a negative response. When you see a genuine sit down interview with pep he loves the fans and being at city. But it would be good if pep didn't slip up from time to time in comments as he should know more than anybody how it gets twisted.

On the whole Saturday the atmosphere was good, fans in the same block seem to have a different opinion. But noise and travel is an issue, I can honestly say I NEVER hear SS3 away fans sing, only away fans in 113 next to us. Probably fans in SS2 & SS3 here them a lot in away end SS3.

Personally I feel good about pep, Mancini was better as in fan related, Pellers I thought was flat

 

[Grealish’s Shinpads]

Agree with Mancini but Pellegrini, surely not? He won the league with Mancini's team when Yaya was on fire but one more season and he would have turned us into Arsenal faster than Wenger turned Arsenal into Arsenal. Total fraud in my eyes. That total surrender at Chelsea in the cup was totally unacceptable,

What was worse in my eyes was being 1-0 down at the Bernabeu late in the game after a 0-0 draw at home, needing just one goal to advance to a champions league final and not throwing the kitchen sink at them. It’s like he was fine with us losing 1-0 because it made it look tight

 

[Grealish’s Shinpads]

I don’t think it was any worse than usual on Saturday after we went 1-0 down (better than the derby). We had a 5 minute lull which is pretty normal I think after going behind. I also think it’s pretty normal for the crowd to be louder when we are winning as it naturally puts people in a good mood and they are more likely to sing.

There’s issues with the atmosphere in general but I think that is there regardless of whether we are winning or losing. Few games come to mind in recent years where we had a really good atmosphere, dippers last season and spurs in the CL being a couple of them.

I think the club needs to take more responsibility for the atmosphere and work with the fans to try and bring about initiatives that would help to get more people involved. Whether it’s singing more simple chants that everyone can join in with, using the screens to urge fans to make noise or creating a dedicated space for a singing section that is marketed as such (I know that 1894 is there but think the club should play a part in advertising it), it would go a long way. Not saying that these things would automatically fix the atmosphere, they’re just some examples of how the club could get involved to improve it. Ultimately it’s still down to the fans but I don’t think the club is doing enough

 

[dan136now036]

I thought the atmosphere on Saturday was quite good, with the odd occasion in the second half of it really picking up.

Maybe its just me seeing it with blue tinted spectacles, but i think Kev & Pep both sensed the atmosphere picking up and wanted it to keep going, and Pep made the post match comments to gee up the crowd for the next match.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

that's bang on that, nicely summed up.

What I would also say is every year it becomes easier to put your opinion about on social media to a wider scope. Therefore we have a lot of knobheads being shoved in our faces ( great example Leicester fan in pink jumper on YourMCFC ). As well as idiots like this we have the reporters / media / papers being able to pull snips from what pep might say and totally twisting it to favour what that reporter wants us to see. When really pepe will have meant something different, the media doesn't like pep's success on the whole so they search for anything to get a negative response. When you see a genuine sit down interview with pep he loves the fans and being at city. But it would be good if pep didn't slip up from time to time in comments as he should know more than anybody how it gets twisted.

On the whole Saturday the atmosphere was good, fans in the same block seem to have a different opinion. But noise and travel is an issue, I can honestly say I NEVER hear SS3 away fans sing, only away fans in 113 next to us. Probably fans in SS2 & SS3 here them a lot in away end SS3.

Personally I feel good about pep, Mancini was better as in fan related, Pellers I thought was flat

Thought we were pretty good in SS3 314/315 against Leicester, sound never carries in the ground, very very occasionally I hear you guys below & even then it's muffled.

On top of all the problems covered we're also suffering from an acoustic issue being in a stadium built for athletics with both the 1 & 3 tiers added afterwards with little thought to atmosphere.

 

[Marvin]

In pursuit of the £ the club has to take a large share of the responsibility for the on-going erosion of the atmosphere inside the Etihad.

And I don’t mean the match day experience. That’s something different all together.

New executive, corporate and match day event seating areas have sprung up all over the stadium. 100’s, if not 1000’s of City fans have been affected. All 4 stands have been affected.

Areas that were once full of ordinary City fans who would get behind the team and create an atmosphere are now full of......(fill in as appropriate)

Yes, I know. It’s Soriano’s Job to drive revenue upwards, and one of the ways to do that is to create such areas inside the Etihad.

That’s where the revenue is. It’s not on a couple of pints of £4 Heineken.

Pep probably never gave it a second thought. After he flung his arms in the air, and pleaded with the fans to get behind the team against Leicester, when he turn around, did he look at the Tunnel Club behind and think......’I’m wasting my time’.

I saw a headline on mancity.com this morning about Pep praising the crowd but I didn't click it.

You describe two phenomena, the decline of singing at the ground and the club's search for corporate cash but is the decline in singing a consequence of the drive for corporate cash?

The basis of the singing culture was the standing terrace. What we have left is our memory and tradition. The number of ordinary fans who go to the games is greater than ever before but the difficulty of getting a joined up atmosphere at the Etihad has in my opinion got little to do with whether we've got 2,000 or 2,500 people in the boxes.

Fans from other clubs, and City fans away from home and in the concourse show that you can still create an atmosphere. When the Kippax was re-built into a seated terrace the core of singers re-formed at the back of the North Stand. I moved to the front of the North Stand and then when I realised that the singers had congregated at the back, next to the away fans I moved there. So did many others. By the time of Goater and Dickov there was a really vibrant little group there. The roof was right above our heads and you could create a really good din that would at times get taken up by the whole stand. This group was then re-mapped to the South Stand 2nd tier (216 and 217) but was broken up by Showsec's insistence that we couldn't stand.

I don't see why it can't be rebuilt.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

Daily mail reports.. Pep..Our fans need to back our team in the moments it's not going so well. He's having another whinge at us and rightfully so. We all need to step up

We’re good when things are going well. When we go a goal or two down we disappear across all four stands with only pockets of fans singing throughout.

 

[Deleted member 77198]

I saw a headline on mancity.com this morning about Pep praising the crowd but I didn't click it.

You describe two phenomena, the decline of singing at the ground and the club's search for corporate cash but is the decline in singing a consequence of the drive for corporate cash?

The basis of the singing culture was the standing terrace. What we have left is our memory and tradition. The number of ordinary fans who go to the games is greater than ever before but the difficulty of getting a joined up atmosphere at the Etihad has in my opinion got little to do with whether we've got 2,000 or 2,500 people in the boxes.

Fans from other clubs, and City fans away from home and in the concourse show that you can still create an atmosphere. When the Kippax was re-built into a seated terrace the core of singers re-formed at the back of the North Stand. I moved to the front of the North Stand and then when I realised that the singers had congregated at the back, next to the away fans I moved there. So did many others. By the time of Goater and Dickov there was a really vibrant little group there. The roof was right above our heads and you could create a really good din that would at times get taken up by the whole stand. This group was then re-mapped to the South Stand 2nd tier (216 and 217) but was broken up by Showsec's insistence that we couldn't stand.

I don't see why it can't be rebuilt.

It wasn’t explained properly that the move to the CoMS should have seen all the singers move to SSL1 but some moved to NSL1 some to NSL2 and some to SSL2 so it fragmented it and we’ve never really recouped it.

Also small tiers don’t help, especially a small Level 1. If a song starts at the back of 115 it only has about 25 rows to travel down; imagine if it had 55 rows... more people hear the song in its vicinity of origin and the noise from that particular section is twice as loud.

 

[argyle]

Has this thread descended into who is more loved, Pep or Mancini? Christ, have people still not moved on from Mancini?

As for the atmosphere, we have an ageing fan base with many who are grumpy, Victor Meldrew types who sit on their hands and talk all the time of when we were rubbish and that we didn't need a drum in our day.

We don't have a full stand full of young lads, we have the away fans that splits our singing sections up and the stadium was designed for athletics and so that sound wouldn't travel far.

When we did have something good and got the whole ground going with the poznan, the too cool for school types scoffed at it.

 

[HelloCity]

Has this thread descended into who is more loved, Pep or Mancini? Christ, have people still not moved on from Mancini?

As for the atmosphere, we have an ageing fan base with many who are grumpy, Victor Meldrew types who sit on their hands and talk all the time of when we were rubbish and that we didn't need a drum in our day.

We don't have a full stand full of young lads, we have the away fans that splits our singing sections up and the stadium was designed for athletics and so that sound wouldn't travel far.

When we did have something good and got the whole ground going with the poznan, the too cool for school types scoffed at it.

The stadium was designed purely for football.

They just accommodated athletics in an unfinished version of the stadium with a temporary stand and no bottom tier.

The stadium is really loud when away fans are singing and our fans are on our game. The stadium shouldn’t be used as an excuse.

 

[casualdeyna]

The atmosphere has been an issue, apart from some big games, ever since we moved and I'm not saying Maine Road was always a cauldron, but definitely much better.

I noticed it again on Saturday that there are times the fans are trying to sing two or three different songs at the same time, or at different parts of the same song, and as a result they die out quickly.

We absolutely do not need a drum, loudspeaker, or anything like that, but a larger singing area, or has the reputation as being the "hardcore", that the rest of the crowd can follow on from would be a start.

At Maine Road we had pretty much the whole North Stand and Kippax, whereas here we have a small block next to the away fans and the South Stand that is dotted with tourists filming the away fans after they score (and yes that did happen on Saturday). If tourists are a part of modern football, don't put them in with the singing areas.

 

[argyle]

The stadium was designed purely for football.

They just accommodated athletics in an unfinished version of the stadium with a temporary stand and no bottom tier.

The stadium is really loud when away fans are singing and our fans are on our game. The stadium shouldn’t be used as an excuse.

Ah ok, I thought I remember reading that the stadium roof and acoustics was to limit sound and wind?

 

[Gingers Dad]

We’re good when things are going well. When we go a goal or two down we disappear across all four stands with only pockets of fans singing throughout.

We only sing when we're winning

 

[Cheadle_hulmeBlue]

Thought we were pretty good in SS3 314/315 against Leicester, sound never carries in the ground, very very occasionally I hear you guys below & even then it's muffled.

On top of all the problems covered we're also suffering from an acoustic issue being in a stadium built for athletics with both the 1 & 3 tiers added afterwards with little thought to atmosphere.

I think the stadium/ acoustic issue is a bit of an excuse. The spurs game last season showed that. The whole ground was singing as one.

There just isn’t enough people joining in. Away fans have proven time and again how loud it can be. I heard word for word every word Aris fans were singing from the other side of the ground

We need to stop with excuses and do something about it ourselves

 

[jrb]

I saw a headline on mancity.com this morning about Pep praising the crowd but I didn't click it.

You describe two phenomena, the decline of singing at the ground and the club's search for corporate cash but is the decline in singing a consequence of the drive for corporate cash?

The basis of the singing culture was the standing terrace. What we have left is our memory and tradition. The number of ordinary fans who go to the games is greater than ever before but the difficulty of getting a joined up atmosphere at the Etihad has in my opinion got little to do with whether we've got 2,000 or 2,500 people in the boxes.

Fans from other clubs, and City fans away from home and in the concourse show that you can still create an atmosphere. When the Kippax was re-built into a seated terrace the core of singers re-formed at the back of the North Stand. I moved to the front of the North Stand and then when I realised that the singers had congregated at the back, next to the away fans I moved there. So did many others. By the time of Goater and Dickov there was a really vibrant little group there. The roof was right above our heads and you could create a really good din that would at times get taken up by the whole stand. This group was then re-mapped to the South Stand 2nd tier (216 and 217) but was broken up by Showsec's insistence that we couldn't stand.

I don't see why it can't be rebuilt.

Count the new corporate sections in the stadium. Count the increase in season ticket prices that have forced hardcore and vocal fans to move to cheaper seats in the top tiers of the stadium. Count the constant moving about by fans relocating every season for numerous reasons, meaning they can’t build up relationships with fans around them. Count the over zealous stewarding, where stewards ‘are being watched’ to make sure they steward and do their jobs properly. Count the emphasis on the match day experience and everything that surrounds it. Etc.

Sometimes in life you stumble across a picture that sums up a situation. Perhaps it’s not obvious at first, but the more you look at the picture, the more you can relate to that picture and to that situation.

 

[jrb]

The atmosphere has been an issue, apart from some big games, ever since we moved and I'm not saying Maine Road was always a cauldron, but definitely much better.

I noticed it again on Saturday that there are times the fans are trying to sing two or three different songs at the same time, or at different parts of the same song, and as a result they die out quickly.

We absolutely do not need a drum, loudspeaker, or anything like that, but a larger singing area, or has the reputation as being the "hardcore", that the rest of the crowd can follow on from would be a start.

At Maine Road we had pretty much the whole North Stand and Kippax, whereas here we have a small block next to the away fans and the South Stand that is dotted with tourists filming the away fans after they score (and yes that did happen on Saturday). If tourists are a part of modern football, don't put them in with the singing areas.

This reply isn’t aimed at you in particular. It’s that bold and underlined bit.

We asked for a larger singing section. We got block 115. The majority of fans in 115 don’t sing.
1894 have been given up to 50 seats at the front of 115 for CL games. The fans don’t fill those seats.
1894 have been given 3 back rows in the away block in SSL1 for the FA Cup games against Port Vale, we’re struggling to fill those seats.
The fans aren’t interested. If they were, all those seats for those different games would be full of City fans desperate to sing, to create an atmosphere, and to support the team.
Do you honestly think anything would change if safe standing was brought in and City set a block aside for a new (1894) singing section?
The same scenario would play out again. It would be full of singers and non singers, just like 115 became and still is.
How many more times are 1894 going to go to the club and ask the club to set aside x amount of seats knowing they won’t get filled because City fans can’t be arsed relocating for 1 match.
What must the club keep on thinking? Apart from not looking good on 1894, even though the club know how committed the 1894 lads are, they must have come to the conclusion by now that there is little or no appetite from the fans to create a proper and lasting singing section and an atmosphere at the Etihad..
That’s right. We can forget a megaphone. We can forget a drum. We can forget flags. We can forget banners. We can forget surfers. We can forget about relocating to a singing section for 1 game. We can forget anything and everything that might improve the atmosphere at the Etihad. Why? Because there's no point. There you go, I’ve posted it. City fans aren’t arsed. They don’t like change. They don’t like initiatives. They don’t like ideas to be trialed. They just like complaining, moaning, taking the piss, being abusive, and keeping things exactly as they are, even though they clearly aren’t working. As a set of fans, and as a fan base, we’re old, getting older, we’re tired, we’re stuck in our ways, and we’re boring. Know doubt I will have pissed a few of you off. I’m not going to apologise because it’s the truth.

Merry Christmas in advance.

 

[Man_City_Loyal]

This reply isn’t aimed at you in particular. It’s that bold and underlined bit.

We asked for a larger singing section. We got block 115. The majority of fans in 115 don’t sing.
1894 have been given up to 50 seats at the front of 115 for CL games. The fans don’t fill those seats.
1894 have been given 3 back rows in the away section for the FA Cup games against Port Vale, we’re struggling to fill those seats.
The fans aren’t interested. If they were, all those seats for those different games would be full of City fans desperate to sing, to create an atmosphere, and to support the team.
Do you honestly think anything would change if safe standing was brought in and City set a block aside for a new (1894) singing section?
The same scenario would play out again. It would be full of singers and non singers, just like 115 became and still is.
How many more times are 1894 going to go to the club and ask the club to set aside x amount of seats knowing they won’t get filled because City fans can’t be arsed relocating for 1 match.
What must the club keep on thinking? Apart from not looking good on 1894, even though the club know how committed the 1894 lads are, they must have come to the conclusion by now that there is little or no appetite from the fans to create a proper and lasting singing section and an atmosphere at the Etihad..
That’s right. We can forget a megaphone. We can forget a drum. We can forget flags. We can forget banners. We can forget surfers. We can forget about relocating to a singing section for 1 game. We can forget anything and everything that might improve the atmosphere at the Etihad. Why? Because there's no point. There you go, I’ve posted it. City fans aren’t arsed. They don’t like change. They don’t like initiatives. They don’t like ideas to be trialed. They just like complaining, moaning, taking the piss, being abusive, and keeping things exactly as they are, even though they clearly aren’t working. As a set of fans, and as a fan base, we’re old, getting older, we’re tired, we’re stuck in our ways, and we’re boring. Know doubt I will have pissed a few of you off. I’m not going to apologise because it’s the truth.

Merry Christmas in advance.

good post. Glad you've said it.

 

[Squidward]

The atmosphere has been an issue, apart from some big games, ever since we moved and I'm not saying Maine Road was always a cauldron, but definitely much better.

I noticed it again on Saturday that there are times the fans are trying to sing two or three different songs at the same time, or at different parts of the same song, and as a result they die out quickly.

We absolutely do not need a drum, loudspeaker, or anything like that, but a larger singing area, or has the reputation as being the "hardcore", that the rest of the crowd can follow on from would be a start.

At Maine Road we had pretty much the whole North Stand and Kippax, whereas here we have a small block next to the away fans and the South Stand that is dotted with tourists filming the away fans after they score (and yes that did happen on Saturday). If tourists are a part of modern football, don't put them in with the singing areas.

Bang on.

Younger supporters will be attracted to a more hardcore group and swell numbers. In my experience younger lads love to feel part of a movement. You hear folk talking about stewards telling them to sit down and shut up. You bet they wouldn’t dare say that to a larger group of “hardcore supporters” if you can put it that way. It doesn’t need to be a full on Ultras section with drums, megaphone etc but the Ultras mentality is needed.

 

[GortonBlue62]

This reply isn’t aimed at you in particular. It’s that bold and underlined bit.

We asked for a larger singing section. We got block 115. The majority of fans in 115 don’t sing.
1894 have been given up to 50 seats at the front of 115 for CL games. The fans don’t fill those seats.
1894 have been given 3 back rows in the away block in SSL1 for the FA Cup games against Port Vale, we’re struggling to fill those seats.
The fans aren’t interested. If they were, all those seats for those different games would be full of City fans desperate to sing, to create an atmosphere, and to support the team.
Do you honestly think anything would change if safe standing was brought in and City set a block aside for a new (1894) singing section?
The same scenario would play out again. It would be full of singers and non singers, just like 115 became and still is.
How many more times are 1894 going to go to the club and ask the club to set aside x amount of seats knowing they won’t get filled because City fans can’t be arsed relocating for 1 match.
What must the club keep on thinking? Apart from not looking good on 1894, even though the club know how committed the 1894 lads are, they must have come to the conclusion by now that there is little or no appetite from the fans to create a proper and lasting singing section and an atmosphere at the Etihad..
That’s right. We can forget a megaphone. We can forget a drum. We can forget flags. We can forget banners. We can forget surfers. We can forget about relocating to a singing section for 1 game. We can forget anything and everything that might improve the atmosphere at the Etihad. Why? Because there's no point. There you go, I’ve posted it. City fans aren’t arsed. They don’t like change. They don’t like initiatives. They don’t like ideas to be trialed. They just like complaining, moaning, taking the piss, being abusive, and keeping things exactly as they are, even though they clearly aren’t working. As a set of fans, and as a fan base, we’re old, getting older, we’re tired, we’re stuck in our ways, and we’re boring. Know doubt I will have pissed a few of you off. I’m not going to apologise because it’s the truth.

Merry Christmas in advance.

Needed saying.

 

[trevorriley]

This reply isn’t aimed at you in particular. It’s that bold and underlined bit.

We asked for a larger singing section. We got block 115. The majority of fans in 115 don’t sing.
1894 have been given up to 50 seats at the front of 115 for CL games. The fans don’t fill those seats.
1894 have been given 3 back rows in the away section for the FA Cup games against Port Vale, we’re struggling to fill those seats.
The fans aren’t interested. If they were, all those seats for those different games would be full of City fans desperate to sing, to create an atmosphere, and to support the team.
Do you honestly think anything would change if safe standing was brought in and City set a block aside for a new (1894) singing section?
The same scenario would play out again. It would be full of singers and non singers, just like 115 became and still is.
How many more times are 1894 going to go to the club and ask the club to set aside x amount of seats knowing they won’t get filled because City fans can’t be arsed relocating for 1 match.
What must the club keep on thinking? Apart from not looking good on 1894, even though the club know how committed the 1894 lads are, they must have come to the conclusion by now that there is little or no appetite from the fans to create a proper and lasting singing section and an atmosphere at the Etihad..
That’s right. We can forget a megaphone. We can forget a drum. We can forget flags. We can forget banners. We can forget surfers. We can forget about relocating to a singing section for 1 game. We can forget anything and everything that might improve the atmosphere at the Etihad. Why? Because there's no point. There you go, I’ve posted it. City fans aren’t arsed. They don’t like change. They don’t like initiatives. They don’t like ideas to be trialed. They just like complaining, moaning, taking the piss, being abusive, and keeping things exactly as they are, even though they clearly aren’t working. As a set of fans, and as a fan base, we’re old, getting older, we’re tired, we’re stuck in our ways, and we’re boring. Know doubt I will have pissed a few of you off. I’m not going to apologise because it’s the truth.

Merry Christmas in advance.

you are going to get some flack for that I guess Jrb, but well said. Some of the things might sound a bit harsh but cant beat passion for wanting a good atmosphere.

If we took note and listened to a few things in that post, plus as "racecar" said club needs to do more ( but I mean club from the very top not the good guys 1894 speak to ) then we will make more noise.

Squidward knows the score to, good post there also.

merry xmas to you to jrb, enjoy your mince pie and sherry !