EastMidlandsBlue
Well-Known Member
It's been a bad week for atmosphere don't get me wrong, but this past year or so we've seen some fantastic games for atmosphere. Arsenal, Madrid, Bayern, Liverpool(April)...We need to face it, generally speaking the 50 odd thousand people on any give day at the Etihad simply cannot be arsed singing, or they feel it inappropriate to sing or show any emotion apart from when we score. Expecting them to bother to turn up early to welcome our bus on mass will end in disappointment.
I am a lifelong blue who went to hundreds of games at Maine Road and have held a season ticket from day 1 at this stadium, the difference in the past 10 years or so is astonishing.
I'm not going to suggest the reasoning, as everyone will have their own theories (tourists, prawn sandwich eaters, tickets being too expensive for Joe Bloggs etc) What I can say though is most games at the Etihad, the majority of people in that stadium may as well be at home or down the pub watching as they add absolutely nothing to the proceedings. The insult to injury is the habitual late shows and early leaves (much discussed on here).
The players and manager (and footballers in general) have said many many times that the fans and the atmosphere they create can make all the difference to how the team get through games. Over the years this team and manager have given us everything and more and yet look at us now, probably quieter and less fanatical than we were in division 2.
We may have the best fans in all the land and all the world but sadly most of them aren't in that stadium.
It really isn't all doom and gloom, and the truth is that those home games back at Maine Road in the 80s were nowhere near as good as people on here like to say they were