Blue Moon Over Miami
Active Member
I know I don't post much, but I hope to contribute my "two cents" given my outsider perspective as a City fan from the States (i.e. no emotional ties to either the sectarianism/politics/Scotland/devolution/etc.)
It's quite obvious that outside City and the rags, the clubs that pop up the most in topics are the old firm, and given my "outsider" perspective I can see that the following applies to City fans.
a) There's a group of supporters who also support Rangers. They make up a substantial minority and will let their opinions be known. (Although it also seems that there are quite a few who don't necessarily follow Rangers, they take their side in any Old Firm arguments for one reason or another)
b) There's a group of supports who also support Celtic. They also make up a substantial minority, albeit perhaps smaller than the group of Rangers' supporters, but are quite vocal as well.
c) There are those who don't follow the Old Firm, although they might be more sympathetic to one or the other, but aren't as vocal in their opinions as the above two groups, or don't have as strong of an opinion.
d) There are those supporters who can care less about the Old Firm and wishes the whole thing would go away. Seems to be the majority to me.
Seeing that City supporters are a diverse bunch, I think it would be best to just leave all talk about Old Firm football out of the forums as much as possible. The ideal would be that anyone can bring up either the Gers or the Bhoys without resorting to accusations and one-upsmanship of who is worst or who did more damage to the city centre, etc. but seeing that City is neither a Rangers nor City affiliated club and that many if not most would rather not talk about either, in my humble opinion just leaving it out altogether out of respect for everyone might just be the best solution.
This is especially true, considering that although it might seem that City on first glance are a Rangers/protestant aligned club, it seems (at least to me) that these links are weak at best, dubious at worst. After all, there are plenty of City fans who are Celtic supporters (most famously the Gallagher Brothers) and City fans who are catholic (ditto). I understand that part of the reasoning for the City-Gers link is because of the perceived Utd-Celtic link, but then again I also understand there is also a supposed Liverpool-Celtic link, which would not fit well with the two red clubs, and I would also hesitate to think that this means there's a link between City Rangers and Everton (lol)
Finally I also want to reiterate that I have always felt that one of the strengths of Manchester City is that it represents the city of Manchester as a whole over any particular community or political group, which is why the nickname of the Citizens is so fitting. Blues are of every race and background, creed and political affiliation and I think this makes City stronger and an attractive club to support. Affiliations aside, we should make room for both Rangers and Celtic supporters who also support City (especially if you support one of those clubs as well), given that they don't bring their agendas to the forefront of what should be a City focused forum, and hey perhaps in joining together over love for the City might bring a shift in these group of Old Firm supporters/followers that could remove some of the vile that has been plaguing that Glaswegian derby for decades. One can dream, eh?
Given the heighten emotional baggage, old firm topics should be left for old firm forums; that's all I'm trying to say I guess. Even if the OP had pure intentions in exploring the possibility of a tie-in with Rangers, surely the OP should have known that this discussion would happen yet again.
Conceding that outright censorship is also unpalatable option, perhaps the other option would be to just ignore all old firm related topics and hope it just goes away...
It's quite obvious that outside City and the rags, the clubs that pop up the most in topics are the old firm, and given my "outsider" perspective I can see that the following applies to City fans.
a) There's a group of supporters who also support Rangers. They make up a substantial minority and will let their opinions be known. (Although it also seems that there are quite a few who don't necessarily follow Rangers, they take their side in any Old Firm arguments for one reason or another)
b) There's a group of supports who also support Celtic. They also make up a substantial minority, albeit perhaps smaller than the group of Rangers' supporters, but are quite vocal as well.
c) There are those who don't follow the Old Firm, although they might be more sympathetic to one or the other, but aren't as vocal in their opinions as the above two groups, or don't have as strong of an opinion.
d) There are those supporters who can care less about the Old Firm and wishes the whole thing would go away. Seems to be the majority to me.
Seeing that City supporters are a diverse bunch, I think it would be best to just leave all talk about Old Firm football out of the forums as much as possible. The ideal would be that anyone can bring up either the Gers or the Bhoys without resorting to accusations and one-upsmanship of who is worst or who did more damage to the city centre, etc. but seeing that City is neither a Rangers nor City affiliated club and that many if not most would rather not talk about either, in my humble opinion just leaving it out altogether out of respect for everyone might just be the best solution.
This is especially true, considering that although it might seem that City on first glance are a Rangers/protestant aligned club, it seems (at least to me) that these links are weak at best, dubious at worst. After all, there are plenty of City fans who are Celtic supporters (most famously the Gallagher Brothers) and City fans who are catholic (ditto). I understand that part of the reasoning for the City-Gers link is because of the perceived Utd-Celtic link, but then again I also understand there is also a supposed Liverpool-Celtic link, which would not fit well with the two red clubs, and I would also hesitate to think that this means there's a link between City Rangers and Everton (lol)
Finally I also want to reiterate that I have always felt that one of the strengths of Manchester City is that it represents the city of Manchester as a whole over any particular community or political group, which is why the nickname of the Citizens is so fitting. Blues are of every race and background, creed and political affiliation and I think this makes City stronger and an attractive club to support. Affiliations aside, we should make room for both Rangers and Celtic supporters who also support City (especially if you support one of those clubs as well), given that they don't bring their agendas to the forefront of what should be a City focused forum, and hey perhaps in joining together over love for the City might bring a shift in these group of Old Firm supporters/followers that could remove some of the vile that has been plaguing that Glaswegian derby for decades. One can dream, eh?
Given the heighten emotional baggage, old firm topics should be left for old firm forums; that's all I'm trying to say I guess. Even if the OP had pure intentions in exploring the possibility of a tie-in with Rangers, surely the OP should have known that this discussion would happen yet again.
Conceding that outright censorship is also unpalatable option, perhaps the other option would be to just ignore all old firm related topics and hope it just goes away...