Have many of our “fans” become entitled?

[Cobwebcat]

OP is correct of course and it is a shame.

There isn’t one overriding reason but certainly social media plays a big part.

I think people have always been this way it’s just now they have a bigger voice than before. The bottom line is people think they know best whatever the evidence to the contrary.

To a certain extent that’s what a forum is about, a lively debate and exchange of opinions designed to challenge our preconception. However the extreme and personal opinions are definitely worse and shocking and often it’s not the younger generation on BM either.

In particular the comments I read about Pep on BM after a defeat are astonishingly bad. There is a thread on here called does Pep get enough credit. I would say that he does in general but not on BM. If we read the comments elsewhere we would be up in arms but on here it seems OK for some reason.

If Blues can have a go at Pep they will never be happy unless the joy of watching City is waiting for a defeat to moan.

 

[BELFAST_BLUE_BOY]

Society as whole appears to have become more entitled, many reasons media, reality TV, social media, extreme wealth, living standards up and footballers today are multi millionaires at highest level.....CITY fans just reflect the society we live in.

But I still feel the vast majority of people and CITY fans do care about others, they dont hate and have a positive outlook generally and are grateful for the pleasure and joy football brings us on pitch and off pitch with our friends.

 

[iwasthere1968]

l remember Cliff and and his long legged sliding tackles being a complete contrast to his predecessor Roy Little so we've both had our fill of the good, bad and ugly with City, especially when the bad and ugly times were right in the middle of the good times. It's part of City and part of me and l daresay most long term fans not to be overly optimistic.
So l was pissed off to get some unpleasant comments when l ruminated how bad it would be if we had had a 'typical City' moment.and fallen away and the rags had won the title.
It wasn't a serious worry and thankfully it was unfounded. Some of the attitudes from the modern Blues were also unfounded.

Yes I have to think twice posting , for fear of adverse reaction .

 

[Man_City_Loyal]

I come back from a long, difficult absence toward the end of another amazing season in which the club has again achieved things beyond my wildest dreams as a young lad and what do I find?

Far too many posts on here and elsewhere calling players “shitebags”, complaining about players’ commitment, criticising Pep’s management, and just generally moaning about the club.

After one loss in a dead rubber with one of the single worst (read: bent) refereeing performances I have seen in three decades of supporting City, a few weeks before our first ever Champions League final!

And on Twitter I see many abusing our players (some racially, especially when it comes to Sterling) after less-than-stellar performances or runs of form.

How have so many of our “fans” become so ****ing entitled, bordering on ragish. Or abhorrent, full stop. I know it’s not everyone — there are plenty admonishing and rebuking these impish idiots (at best). But there are still too many of these “fans” for my comfort. They are not what our club is about. They aren’t representative of our values. Perhaps United’s or Liverpool’s, bit not City’s.

Am I seeing more than are actually there? Am I falling in to just another trap of football tribalism, except creating more “us v them” amongst our own?

That could be the case and I am happy to be convinced I am.

But as of late, it seems like there has been a surge of the worst sort of “fan” in our ranks and I worry that the various aspects of the pandemic (isolation, shift to online engagement, return to the hooligan culture for many disaffected in order to find community/purpose/lost power, etc.) has them quickly taking over. At least the most visible, vocal realm of our support, anyway.

What do you think? Am I exaggerating the issue? Is it really that bad? Or is it just a prominent minority of “fans” that will eventually be drowned out as things get back to whatever “normal” is once the virus is under relative control?

I won’t be able to respond to all posts, or quickly to any, but I do appreciate everyone’s thoughts as I have been ruminating on this for some time, especially in light of the recent ESL debacle.

I think the general reaction of supporters — especially those in Manchester — really showed who we are and what we want the club to represent, but I also saw plenty of questionable stances among those claiming to be City fans. And I wonder what would have been the response of the club if the seemingly “entitled” contingent, who mostly appeared to love the idea of the ESL, had more time to rise in the ranks. And whether that means a similar situation in the future, if things progress as they are in my view, may result in a very different outcome.

Perhaps this is all down to my loss of sympathy for those that don’t know how good they have it. Maybe I’ve become even more of a miserable **** than I was before.

Regardless, although I can only mostly read threads these days, @Ric, it’s probably best to remove my mod privileges as seeing these daft, entitled, ragish posts throughout, it’s only a matter of time before I muster the energy to wildly swing the hammer. And, at any rate, I can’t really properly moderate any more, and have shed most of my diplomatic skills, so best I go back to being limited to addlebrained contributions like this.

Up the Blues!

Pep out

 

[Bluesince1979]

Lots. Im probably one. Ive been a match going supporter since early 80s so i certainly remember the shite times

but with investment expectations change. So whether im entitled or not i dunno, but i sure expect us to be challenging year in year out

 

[melrose40yarder]

i use to like vassell haha

So did i.It was Darren Wassell i wasnt keen on

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I

Lots. Im probably one. Ive been a match going supporter since early 80s so i certainly remember the shite times

but with investment expectations change. So whether im entitled or not i dunno, but i sure expect us to be challenging year in year out

I completely agree that we should have increased expectations these days. We're a completely different club to the one from the League 1 days so I don't see the point of hankering back to the days of Bury, York, Lincoln and Macc.

But I've found that extreme reactions are definitely worse among non-match going fans under normal circumstances and we've all been in that category for over a year now.

 

[Mike Cledford]

Yes, Mike. Born and raised in the South West, but I've now long since lived in London. Exeter are my home town team

I was right a rare occurrence nowadays.
I recognised your style from 'the long form' views you expressed;)

 

[Mike Cledford]

Yes I have to think twice posting , for fear of adverse reaction .

Different opinions are fine. I've had plenty of them on the way to matches and in pubs and never any nastiness with fellow Blues over opinions.
That's the lnternet Way.

 

[BillyShears]

@SebastianBlue

Ric's right a version of this thread has appeared in nearly every season since the takeover. But I think that in and of itself is very instructive because our success has grown in the last decade, and it seems exponentially alongside it has grown a need to complain.

I see a lot of usernames in this thread for example, who are desperate to defend their right to an 'opinion' without really seeing the bigger picture. I see the same extreme argument with people talking about how we're no longer the club we were 20 years expectations have changed etc. as if that is somehow an excuse for talking about the club today in the same harsh tones that we talked about it twenty something years ago.

Absolutely we're better and our expectations are higher. But a very loud minority have taken that to an extreme. As you and other have pointed out, the player 'discussion' forum is probably the most instructive. It's a disgrace and it's populated by quite a few people whose opinions aren't worth the cost of the bandwidth and who just seem to take their "he's shite" dog and pony show from one thread to another depending on a player's form.

The key thing for me though is that they're a minority. They're just really fucking loud and post all day in all manner of threads thus giving the impression that the whole forum is full of entitled clowns. I've found being generous with the 'ignore' button helps clean the mess up.