JMA wrote: "Why would a sane, mature adult need to enhance their love of something by manufacturing an attachment or support for a previous totally unrelated entity? It can only be for reasons of self delusion and self-aggrandisement."
While much of JohnMaddocksAxe's post is interesting and measured (not inflammatory in the least), I don’t buy the above quote.
Look, I’m an American who started supporting City in 2004. I played, coached and reffed football as a teenager. I don’t know exactly how I “picked” City as my squad, but it had something to do with (a) I love the physical city of Manchester; (b) the 04 FA Cup replay v. Spurs was the greatest comeback I’ve seen in any sport; (c) I detest United, the New York Yankees of the game; and (d) I loved Richard Dunne. Maybe there were other reasons. But not family, not a geographical tie. I’m not “ethnically” City. But it’s NOT manufactured, either. It just happened. Why do you meet someone and fall in love?
I don’t see how passion of any sort can be discounted. I get up ridiculously early – sometimes at 4:30 am California time – to watch matches. I’ve flown the 5,100 miles to Manchester at least once a season since 06 with the air miles I accumulate for work to be there in person (Everton last month, e.g.). My 7-year-old son taught his friends the Balotelli song (we substitute “full of class” for “fuckin’ class” though). My 5-year-old daughter named our cat “Manchester Kitty” (sorry). I’m outnumbered 40-1 with United, Chelsea and Liverpool fans where I live, and 10,000-1 with “Who gives a shit about soccer?” fans. I remember biting my nails, knowing if City had gotten relegated under Pearce, I wouldn’t ever see a game on TV again until City got back to the Prem.
Axe is right about the deep local ties of clubs, and I’m an outsider. I get the picture on city and family, but let me turn that around: what irritated me about liam’s original post was that he doesn’t realize how lucky he is. I envy the majority of City fans who live within walking distance, a train ride or a car drive of Etihad. If you so choose to spend your ducats, you can be there every match. You can hang in the pub with your mates every night and talk football. You can read and hear endless commentary about City daily in the prints and on TV. City is all around you. You live and breathe it. You grew up with it. Yes, I know I am lucky too because I can make it out to northwest England once in a while to follow the club, but it certainly comes at a high price in dollars and time, and the nearest rabid City fan I know lives 18 miles away from me.
At the end of the day, I think the passion, humor, loyalty and (previous) stoic bitterness-mixed-with-hope nature of old-school, born and bred City fans is unmatched among U.S. sports fans. The long-suffering among you more than anyone deserve this club’s success. But that doesn't mean those of us not raised 500 yards from Maine Road with a City dad and granddad can't feel at least close to the same highs and lows. Not the same, granted, but close.
PS. Personally, the NFL bores the living shit out of me. I’m not going to go glom onto the San Francisco 49ers – a club tied to my city and family – because they opened the season 5-1, or for any reason.
