As much as some people might raise their eyebrows to this, im not particularly bothered about most things connected to United! There are a couple of things i actually proper hate to the pit of my stomach about them but overall our rivalry with the Rags is only a minor rivalry to be honest - and if you think its anything more than just a local rivalry then you are massively overestimating it!
Biggest derby in England is probably Sunderland v Newcastle! they are different towns which means different people loving a different place altogether, and these different places have a rivalry going back centuries when they were fighting on different sides during the English civil war!
Big derbies in other countires include:
-Rangers v Celtic: Protestant v Catholic, there has been war/battles over the religions!
-Sevilla v Real Betis: the rich v the poor, people in Seville who are in good jobs/well paid/rich support Sevilla and those who are low paid/poor/in poverty support Betis!
-Galatasary v Fenerbahce: the European side of Istanbul v the Asian side of Istanbul, nuff said!
-And what i consider to be the biggest derby of them all - Barcelona v Real Madrid: There have been civil wars in Spain between the two groups, the Catalans and Castillans/the royal family/Facists. Plus Di Stefano (classed as one of the best players of all time) started out as a Barca player was taken from Barca without their say so and made to sign for Real by the Facist party and Barca could do nothing about it, with him Real won 6 European Cups and about 8 league titles! To this day Barca fans say Real are the club of the Spanish Royal Family and Catalonia is not Spain!
City v United is basically a friendly, local rivalry compared to those above! Ive got very good mates and family members who are United fans and they are really good people! I dont hate them in any way, i dont agree with some of the things they say sometimes but i dont agree with half the things some of us City fans say on here half the time neither!
However, as i said at the top, there are cetain things i absolutely HATE about United: the way Fergie gets away with basically everything he does which any other manager gets repremanded for- cheat and bully!; the arrogance of some of their fans who think they are above everyone else, think they know more about footy just cos their team win more trophies, the hypocricy of the way they want to kill people if anyone mentions anything to do with their air disaster yet take any opportunity to mock other sets of fans for their tragedies; Garry Neville, what a twat; and Roy Keane! But thats it really, and its not a lot when you think about it! We try to take the piss out of them for having loads of fans who arent local, but i think there were 11 teams with a higher percentage of seasoncard holders within 30miles of their ground than us last season (there is a stat online if anyone can find it)!
And before anyone starts moaning at me on here, no, im not a Rag! Not even a tiny little bit! I sont support them just like i dont support Spurs or Daganham&Redbridge, they arent City just like anyone else! Yes derby day is our biggest game of the season cos its good to get one over on mates and family members to take the piss and have a laugh with for a few weeks! But i just dont hate them as if my life depends on it! Some blues have fabricated this hate for United, even if it has been subconsciously, where if they dont think/say/act as if they hate United as much as they do, they will dissolve or something! But theyre just local rivals, nothing more, nothing less!
We need to make more of other rivalries with other clubs because they way some people think they hate United so much puts us in the embarassing position where we only have one good atmosphere a season - yes i know all derbies have a tense atmosphere but our other games atmospheres are so bad i sometimes think while im sat at the ground, trying to get some noise going; "oh my God, we've got as shit a home support as anyone in the Prem! THIS MUST CHANGE!