In the sixties we searched high and low for a player called Candle.
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City fan' letter in "Radio Times"
- Thread starter Big Swifty
- Start date
Your family doesn't go back to Hyde Road? JCLs!
That's quite a pedigree.
I'm quite curious about your dad having a letter printed in NME. Can he remember what it was about? In about 1971, I had a letter printed in Melody Maker. I remember buying my usual copy of it — I bought it every week, religiously, for about five years — and looking at the letters page, which I always did, I saw my own missive. I was acutely embarrassed to see that it was given pride of place on that page. They used to pick out one letter, put a black border round it, and put it right at the top. I'm glad I was alone, because I'm pretty sure I went beet red. I just didn't for one second think that it would be printed.
What was it about? Wishbone Ash. I was a huge, huge fan in those days. Saw them four or five times over a two-year period.
Good on your dad for writing to the Radio Times, by the way. I'm by no means certain that all the good readers of the RT are even very clear what Manchester City is, other than being a town in the north-west of England. Some of them, surely, must have been perplexed.
Ha! Yeah, isn’t it? He had loads printed in NME. Including one that was even quoted in the legendary Titanic Sails at Dawn: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/jul/31/mick-farren-nme-rock-titanic-sails
I’ve had a few printed in Uncut myself, chip off the old block.
There is an overall media bias. It was Utd for decades and now it is Liverpool. This exists in EVERY media outlet. I'm not one of the BBC bashers, it's boring. But also, what do I care? I thought dad's letter was a bit petty, lol. I'm happy with the team I have, don't massively feel the need for recognition from others.The most irritating thing about our national Broadcaster is even when you can prove unquestionable bias… the fuckers just say it’s our imagination and they are beyond rebuke. i recall the Bertie photo and a BBC senior Exec. Swearing to me that it was all a big coincidence and that we blues are too sensitive.
Perfectly put. Fwiw, I do believe that any company makes a doc about football thinking about viewing figures and there are millions of Liv fans so that is why they got that doc and we're not going to get one.Think it’s not just the number of fans but who the fans are.
Lots of people who work in the media are from the shires and Home Counties and they chose Liverpool or United as kids over their local lower league side.
They may have very little interest in or affection for Liverpool as a city, but they are biased towards the club in an instinctive way because of this Southern Red plastic mentality that being an English club in Europe generated.
Also the way the Scousers mobilised against Murdoch’s rags has the media scared of causing offence. I grudgingly admire Liverpool for their unity and resolve on that one, personally.
I don’t doubt Liverpool are ‘big’ but we’ll never really know how big because the media will always say they’re big regardless, for the reasons above IMO.
The constant jibe, particularly on Twitter, is about the size of fanbase. And I am constantly baffled by the idea that I should care about getting millions of tourist fans. I can't tell you how much I don't give a toss about that. All these fans, of Liv and Utd, jibe at how empty our stadium is and how nobody supports us etc. As if this metric should be desirable? As if I should WANT millions of fans. I do not.
A very high up Manchester rabbi wrote to the MEN when this happened speaking up for Bert. He wrote passionately about how that was just one man and you can't blame him for greater crimes and exhorted every Jewish blue to stick with the team and not punish him or them over it. It certainly worked with plenty of blues, but probably not all. I don't recall any issue with our fam, my dad just continued to love the team! And his dad never batted an eyelid. He had served in the army himself and knew what people had to do in war. We never considered changing. How could we? Blue blood isn't it.Lovely post. One thing intrigues me. As Jewish supporters your family lived through the Bert Trautmann controversy. Any tales from then? Did your family consider going over to the dark side? The Jewish arm of my extended family (long story!) certainly turned red then.
https://www.migrationmuseum.org/tag/alexander-altmann/ Rabbi Altmann wrote in support of Bert! Imagine what it took to do that? It was big, HUGE, that the rabbi did this at the time.As this thread has already been derailed enough by some right wrong uns....
I have always been told it was Jewish Blues who told Catholic/Protestant mancs that he should be accepted. By the sound of it, that's not the case !
Correct: https://www.migrationmuseum.org/tag/alexander-altmann/ Bigger story here: https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-a...rdom-thanks-to-a-refugee-rabbis-intervention/I think Colin Schindler's book described how the Chief Rabbi of Manchester made a plea for Bert's acceptance.
(yes, i know Schindler said some daft things later about the new & successful City but I thought his comments on Bert were reliable.)
I know Shindler (that spelling, not Schindler, like the film!) said some weird stuff after we got money. But that book he did is great. I wonder what he thinks now...
Thanks. That letter from the rabbi was published in the MEN and is available on line. A suitably worded Google will find it.A very high up Manchester rabbi wrote to the MEN when this happened speaking up for Bert. He wrote passionately about how that was just one man and you can't blame him for greater crimes and exhorted every Jewish blue to stick with the team and not punish him or them over it. It certainly worked with plenty of blues, but probably not all. I don't recall any issue with our fam, my dad just continued to love the team! And his dad never batted an eyelid. He had served in the army himself and knew what people had to do in war. We never considered changing. How could we? Blue blood isn't it.
Bert became active in the efforts at reconciliation.
The disappointment for me was that my first City hero lied about his Nazi past, denying it until near his death when he finally came clean.
PS I now see the letter has been posted above. Note to self: Don’t read threads backwards.
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Go on then, I give up...............?In the sixties we searched high and low for a player called Candle.
Chippy_boy
Well-Known Member
I agree with you.There is an overall media bias. It was Utd for decades and now it is Liverpool. This exists in EVERY media outlet. I'm not one of the BBC bashers, it's boring. But also, what do I care? I thought dad's letter was a bit petty, lol. I'm happy with the team I have, don't massively feel the need for recognition from others.
And BTW I think the pro Utd and pro Liverpool bias is entirely understandable and predictable. Because of the dominance of those clubs in the 80's and 90's they attracted the support of kids who have grown up to infest every nook and cranny of the media. Of course it is only amplified by years of Utd and Liverpool former players as pundits and commentators.
But it is changing, slowly. I expect we will slowly see this shift as more and more kids grown up supporting City. A CL win or two would cement that even more. But I was in a shop in Corfu the other day and they had 3 footy shirts (only 3) for sale, up on the wall:
Mbappe 7
Ronaldo 7
De Bruyne 17
Doubtless Haaland 9 will bring in a shed load of new supporters as well.