City fans - a frightening new insight...

[squirtyflower]

New fans will first be attracted by the team playing great football and winning.... Then they'll spend money on tickets and merchandise... and not spend that same money on other teams... and we'll have more money to spend on the team....

When people say "history" they really mean the last few years. They don't mean going back to 1850. No-one chooses allegiance based on real history. In this sense, our history is pitiful. What City has is "soul" and a core group of fans who are loyal and have a great sense of humour.

This is a football team, not a religion... There should be no "test" to follow City. Embrace newcomers and all opinions. We don't want to be elitist snobs. We want to be known for being loyal, friendly, and a really good time.

At least that's my opinion. And I'm old enough to realize that I'm not clever enough to have the definitive opinion.

like most people on here we welcome fans from far and wide to join 'our' club
however there are a number of us who don't see it as a religion but we do see it much more than a football team
we have followed our family members into the absurdity and wonderfulness of supporting city
their is little logic or they would have packed it up in 83 or then again 86
we could easily have severed our allegiance in 96 or more so in 98
but we kept on going, trying out new grounds like darlington and wycombe and despite all the prevailing sense telling us to go to the nou camp to watch the greatest team in the world (TM)
my personal low point was the final year with pearce and i was sorely tested to burn my card
but we keep going and the promised land my not be far away

not everyone can be a part of that club, the ones who are weathered and brow beaten, and i'm proud that i was there to see us throughout
but i'm equally proud that we have lots of fans who didn't have to go through all of that

so don't knock the furrowed brow blue who still remembers the bad times as much as no-one should knock the new blue (unless they are spouting shit lol)

 

[mart]

Unfortunately Tolmie, this is going to happen.

I was also hooked with City after going to my first game in '81 with
my dad. And so havent seen us win anything.
Been there, thick and thin. Or should that be thin and thinner?

Personally, I am proud of the history of this club.
I you know where we have come from, it makes it all the sweeter
to see where we go.

Its a little like my rant yesterday to get things into perspective.
We havent qualified for europe in our own right without the fair play
league for donkeys years, so I'd be happy with the europa league.
Unfortunately, this new breed of support want CL now and wont be
happy unless we get it this season. They want sucess immediately.




been saying this for a couple of years now we have to build up slowly or we end up like blackburn and leeds who couldnt sustain it

I've waited 29 years, since the age of 7 for some sucess, so I can
wait another year or two

;-)

 

[BillyMC]

Totally support your sentiments Tolmie.

Saturday...16 seater to Burnley with City lads Ive known for 30 years. Few beers, great craic, good sing song on into the evening. Be nice if we won the game, but it doesnt really matter. To the old lads its just the way it is. I couldnt really give a fuck if we are in the champions league or we spend £20m on some twat who drives a pink bentley. The worse the times the more fun we have...thats the City way and some of these new fans need to learn the rules of following City....beer, comradeship, humour and pride in the shirt...they'll get the hang of it if they stick with it when it all goes tits up again!

 

[allan harper]

Hope you've all learned a valuable lesson today and I'm glad the harper was the one to show you the road to salvation. Opinion is an opinion how ever it may offend you.
Frank Swift a legend, division 2 fucking embarrassing

 

[stanman]

I agree totally with the original poster.

I didn't join blue moon until the last few years though because i didn't know the forum existed (didn't have a good net connection so didn't browse much til then!).

But i was a blue from birth (clue of my age is in my name, and no i'm not 74!), i devoured every bit of history i could - i loved reading about city, as i grew up supporting Jim Tolmie and Mick McCarthy etc (ahh those early 80s days eh!) i lapped up all about the past, i met Roy Clarke twice and was more ecstatic about that than when i met Ali Benarbia!!!

Any fan, new or not, but any fan who say they dont care about our past as "it's the past", or even worse they use the excuse that it was "before they were born" so they "don't know" - those fans just do my head in, they really do :(

But on the subject of glory seeking etc and the them and us mentallity that seems to be seeping in amongst are own fans.. here's a tale -
I go to every match with my mum, always have, we're not part of some big group and don't know many people, only the regulars who sit around us would know we have been going for donkeys years. Because of this, and the fact that my love pf photography means i have been taking pictures at city for around 20 years (before every tom dick and harry had a cameraphone and tiny digicam etcetc!), i have been called a "gloryseeking newbie" twice by different groups of fans as they walked past me outside the ground! And that upset me. Just because i am a woman, just because i have a camera in my hand - why does that give anyone the right to assume i am a newbie?! Go to the mcfc flickr group and one of my pictures is todays photo of the day - and it's from 1995! i like to try and take intersting and unusual shots while at the ground, i like to take pictures most places i go so why shouldn't i at city?! I go to support my team and i watch the match, but what i do before and after - why does that make me a "newbie" in some eyes?!
Do we really have to get shirts with "fan since (and insert your year as the number)" on the back?! I hope not.. :(

We'll have to embrace the new fans.. if they embrace our history as well. Give and take.

I agree with everything you said and would love to see some of your photo's. I have been a supporter for over 40 years and I understand to a degree the resentment some people show to new supporters. However.. If we want this club we all love to become the giant that it can be when it awakens, we need to accept new supporters with open arms. I WANT to see an illegal Man City store in Hong Kong Or Bankok I WANT to see Kids wearing City shirts in Africa and the middle east, I WANT to be the biggest, best, richest and most supported football club in the world. Most importantly I WANT, no, NEED us to be the most succesful football club the world has ever seen. When that day comes the newbies will be part of it and will then hopefully embrace the past because they too will have blue blood in their veins.

 

[MCFC87]

too true mate.

I was thinking to myself the other day who my favourite every city player is and with how much i love players like Tevez and i can just never forget the days of Uwe, Kinky and Ali even though we were shite in them times, these players made it a not so miserable childhood lol!

This for me, feel exactly the same.

 

[Stiss]

Born and bred a City fan.

I am 21 years old, I remember going to my early games when I was around 6/7 years old. So I appreciate that number of years pales in comparison to some of you guys but here is my thoughts:

I have always remained loyal. I would have been 10-12 years old when we went through the relegations and promotions blitz. At that age I guess many young City fans supported another team because their friends did but I stayed strong and never doubted. My brother was a City fan, he now supports United and made the change when he was 9 years old, so at the time when we were being relegated so it just goes to show my point...

Us younger fans may get stick but just remember we were young and weak at that stage of ours lives and the clubs recent history so to remain loyal is impressive.

 

[lancs blue]

I'm in my 50s and I've been lucky enough to see City winning trophies and being regarded as one of the top 3 clubs in the country and I hope I'm lucky enough to see us winning trophies again soon.

While I welcome all new fans I do think some of the comments in the Robinho thread that the OP refers to are way out of line. I grew up with my parents telling me about:

- the days of Trautmann, Swift, Doherty, Brook.
- the whole street crowding into the one house that had a radio in 1934 to listen to the Cup Final commentary of City winning the Cup and the subsequent parade through Manchester and the huge crowds
- my grandad telling my mum about Billy Meredith and the first great City team of the early 1900s.
- how United were a "nothing" team in the early 1930s

I loved all that as a kid because in my mind it cemented the club's position in the history of English football.

As a new fan I don't believe you can just ignore what's gone before because - as others have said - what we are today and in the future is because of what we were yesterday.

 

[Sky Blue]

Needed to be said Tolmie. Saying that, this place is infested with reds pretending to be blues, you can normally find them on attendance threads. ( I know AH isn't one but still shit comments on our history)

 

[JULES]

Needed to be said Tolmie. Saying that, this place is infested with reds pretending to be blues, you can normally find them on attendance threads. ( I know AH isn't one but still shit comments on our history)

nuff said