This, just posted on Ajay's thread, is just as relevant on here.
Why are you so concerned about whether City fans are viewed by other fans as 'the best fans in the world'. A childish, cliched and ridiculous notion clung to by clowns supporting every major club in the world.
Sorry, Ajay, I enjoy reading your posts and see them as both informative and considered at times.
However, I honestly believe that this is as low as it gets.
If there is one sort of statement that riles me its those that see the deliverer attempting to paint themselves as 'more loyal' or as 'a bigger blue' than others. And thats what this sort of 'just shut up and blindly follow the team' message stinks of to me.
It stunk of it when people were saying the same thing about the doomed Shinawatra regime and it stinks of it now.
To suggest that people with another point of view to yours should temper their opinion just because you personally feel it will be better for the club is arrogance beyond belief. Who's to say that you, with your trust in the manager and belief that he is going to turn things around is not the one who is doing long term damage to the club. I'm sure when Alan Ball was the manager there were people spouting the same line about just supporting the club whilst others felt he should go before Christmas. I suppose 'the moaners' were proved to be correct on that one whilst the 'shut up and support' brigade got there way and were proved incorrect.
Why is it so hard to understand that this could be the case in many situations, possibly including this one? (That's not to say that I believe it is but I support anyones right to voice what they belive is best for the club and will not support them being silenced just because some delicate flowers like to wrap themselves in the cliched 'this is how good football fans behave', 'we are true fans' rhetoric.)
I cannot buy this assumption that not voicing negative views is always the positive thing for the club and anyone with any notion of history can drag up numerous examples of when clubs would have benefitted from more negative opinions about a situation being voiced, just as you can drag up opposite examples.
I haven't read through the whole thread but I note that on the first few pages it is moomba coming in for criticism for being one of the so called 'negative' voices. Now, I know for a fact that he was certainly more in the 'happy clapper' camp than the 'doom monger' camp when the arguments about Shinawatra dominated here during last season. Therefore its totally unfair and arrogant to brand him as some sort of morbid poster just because he might take a different view on the abilities and prospects whilst Hughes remains as manager. He has a view on the situation and it happens to be different to your. So what?
In fact, the evidence so far would seem to be stacking up in his favour. Who knows whether he or you will be right in the long term but who has the right to tell him to silence his views just because they might embarrass some more delicate people.
The club is currently woefully below any reasonable expectations this season and, if reports from numerous sources are to be believed, riven with splits in the camp. Any reasonable person with any basic grasp of human behaviour must surely realise that there is going to be significant criticism in the face of this.
In fact, if you take a look at the threads on here then you will see that there are alos a huge amount of threads that are just as repetative as the 'negative' ones with their constant calls to 'give him time' or 'get behind him'.
Some, like this one, are eloquently put, others are cliched nonsense. In that respect they mirror the so-called negative ones. Some of them are well argued and intelligent. Some are total bollocks and by idiots who have nothing more to contribute than 'Hughes out, rag twat'.
That's the nature of the public. Some are intelligent, some are idiots. However I know for a fact that there is not some sort of correlation towards one view or another in terms of intelligence (or even in terms of 'support for the club'). People just differ on their opinion as to whether keeping Hughes will be the better option for the club or not and their are shrewd people and idiots on both sides.
This is the biggest issue facing the club at the moment. At present the management team is failing dramatically by the only measurement that counts for anything - the league table. It staggers me that people can honestly believe or suggest that debate on that matter should not completely dominate this board in that situation.
Finally, if you really are so concerned about how others club's fans view City then I would view that as evidence of this ridiculous oneupmanship that stupid fans all over the country get involved in, desperate to somehow prove this daft notion that one set of fans is 'better' than another and taking it as a personal afront if anyone suggests otherwise.
To be so concerned about the views of other fans is both childish and ridiculous imo.
Saying all that, as I have begun by saying, I really like your usual stuff so none of the above is personal.