Open arms for new fans !

[JohnMaddocksAxe]

Please ignore JMA, he can't seem to see the mass hypocrisy and massive gaping holes in his logic.

You are right, but if you want to be the first to have a stab at explaining (which the above obviously doesn't) then be my guest.

 

[Why Always Ste]

To Foreign Fans:
Why do you feel the need to justify your support of a football club?

The playground bully's shouting "you can't be in our gang because you don't look or sound local" are muppets and can go and watch Hyde FC for all I care.

Manchester is a multicultural City, one of the busiest airports in Europe.... Have any of you Maine Road Mafia actually walked around "Your" city centre recently?

It's a rarity to come across someone who speaks English as their first language....

if the general populous walking around the City Centre fancy a game of football then by all means come and watch this club....

We need safe standing with budget areas for local people.

 

[JohnMaddocksAxe]

Some of us did have to be introduced to the sport late and "pick" a club, but at least we picked right! I didn't have a club that I felt was truly mine for a long time, but from the time I started watching the prem, I always hated united, even though most people over here act like it's the only club that exists. City were rarely if ever on the tv here, so that made it even harder.

Genuine question.

Why do you feel the need to 'pick a club'?

Especially when it is a totally unassociated 'choice' that won't have any true relation to your real life, where you are from and the people you know?

I know that sounds antagonistic but I just don't get it.

I watch every bit of American Football on TV but I've never wanted to 'choose a team'. I just don't get it. I like/love/whatever the game but, for me, saying that I support a team and therefore expecting it to therefore become automatically true would just be so shallow and I'd feel a little bit pathetic for doing so. It'd feel a little bit meaningless. So I just enjoy the game for what it is.

Sorry, I shouldn't address that to a single person as it seems like a personal attack, so please don't feel compelled to reply. It just sums up why I can't get my head around it though.

People just wouldn't act that way in any field other than sport - especially football.

Fair enough, I really don't care if you think I have a personality deficiency or whatever. But lets think about this. I live in Arkansas. If I wanted to support a MLS team, the closest one would be probably Kansas City which is about an 8 hour drive. I have as much in common with Kansas City as I do with Manchester. Our reality over here is different. We don't have small communities packed next to one another. I grew up in a state not a country, a state, that you could drive 14 hours across and never leave the state. We are used to supporting teams that have zero locational relevance. When I was young, I HAD NO FOOTBALL to watch other than your league. Then the MLS came around and it was never on tv, the only way you could watch it for a few years was to drive there. Well, that isn't going to happen as a pre-teen. It is still easier to get access to premiere league matches than it is to watch MLS games. Is this making sense now? I "latch" on because it's fun. Which is the point in sports. Entertainment. It is no different that going to the movies, or going to the pub. It's an opportunity to go out and do something to take our mind off the struggles of day to day life. To have a good time, meet others, enjoy camaraderie. You know what else makes it fun? Having a horse in the race. I am ok with you having your view, but with the way this club is headed you are going to make things hard on yourself it sounds like.

To touch on the original question that was asked to me, and to agree with what the blue from Arkansas said; I think it's a bit different in America when it comes to sports teams and how and why they are supported. It's the most normal thing in the world here for people to support NFL teams from all over. Teams like the Steelers, Raiders, Packers, Cowboys, Giants, Jets, and Dolphins have massive fanbases in every state. You'd never hear people here slagging off "armchair fans" because that's not looked on as a negative thing here. Sure, the super-fans might have season tix (which are very expensive, especially with the introduction of PSLs and the like), but for a team like the Giants, my NFL team (I'm from New Jersey) the wait for season tickets is around 20 years. In Green Bay, people put their newborn babies on the 100-year waitlist in the hopes that even if the baby itself doesn't live long enough to obtain the tickets, they can be passed on to the nearest living relative. In that kind of environment, yeah, being an armchair fan is many people's only option, a fan is a fan is a fan. You'd never hear someone judging someone else over it. We all watch the games on TV and get tickets through friends or on a website like Stubhub here and there when we can. All that being said, I don't even particularly LIKE the NFL.. I mean I'm into it a bit, but to me it's a pretty dumb game on the whole. Other teams I support? Well, the Mets in baseball but there are so many damn games you'd go broke trying to leave the armchair for that sport.. The NBA? No interest really..

The fact is that (probably due to geography and cultural differences) there aren't hundreds of clubs all smashed into a small country with strong local followings and stigmas against outsiders and glory hunters. Yeah, nobody likes people who jump on the bandwagon, but we pretty much pick our teams in every sport. It's influenced by our parents and family, yeah, (I can remember being a little kid and being carried around Shea Stadium by my dad and grandfather - who was from Queens.. so yes, I understand the idea of family and geographical ties to a team) but we are basically free to pick our teams in most cases (although being a fan of any philadelphia teams was out of the question). I can only come to the conclusion that it must be different in England because of how close together everything is, along with the fact that well over 100 years of tradition and rivalries tends to heat things up a bit.

Why did I feel a need to pick? What else was I to do? Maybe if I had known anyone throughout my youth who was into proper football, if I had any family or friends to show me the way, then I could've cut my palm and squeezed holy blood over the ritual stone of a hallowed club badge at the age of 4..

But as it was? My journey was such that I had to discover the game (the real one, not the ones that most Americans play when we are 6 years old and then stop and move on to other things), but real actual glorious football and you know what? It took a while! If not for a good friend and roommate in college, I probably would've been blissfully unaware for the rest of my life.. but my friend started introducing me to the game and I went from not understanding it and thinking it was boring to becoming wholly and fully obsessed with it. All the things Americans said they hated about it became the things I liked. I had to fall in love with the game before I could ever fall for a club. People in England don't understand what that's like I think, since football is a way of life there. Like most dopey americans, I too started by watching the world cup.. (I feel douchey even typing it) but it was that initial interest, combined with help from a friend or two who was "in the know" that got me to where I am today (which is nothing special, but IS informed). Now, it's club over country. Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey can go down in flames for all I care if it means City wins.

MLS has come a long way, but I started watching the prem before MLS too and that was my introduction. Sorry if I can't go balls-out for the "Red Bulls".. but it's not what gave me the bug. The passion we Americans know you in England (and others all over the world) have for the game is contagious! We know it matters to you and when I started to follow religiously and closely, it started to matter like that to me.

Bottom line: Why does it have to be a club in your backyard to inspire passion? If that's the connection you have with it, then fine. I'm jealous, actually. But as I said before, when your only choice is to choose, you choose. I can understand why wacky Japanese tourists holding up "We love U C. Ronaldo!!" signs make you want to puke. I have the same reaction, believe me. But many American fans are not that. Not by a long shot. (Many are, but that's another story for another post)

I chose a few years back not knowing where it would go. before long I began investing many of my waking hours into following this club. It wasn't long (in fact, it was almost immediate) before it took over. There will always be illegitimate fans. But don't paint them as such just because of where they are from.

You say you watch American football but don't "feel the need" to pick a club. Fine! But if you did? Americans would think it was fecking awesome that someone from England followed their team! I refuse to sit back like some "over-it" social scientist and "enjoy the spectacle" without throwing myself into it. Maybe it's human nature, I don't know. And what's more: you love real football (I'm assuming)! of course you can just casually watch the NFL when the thing you really care about is Man City. THe NFL is where I live and I couldn't be bothered for the most part. Like you, City is what I care about, so that has a HUGE RELATION to my life. You're right, 98% of the people in my life - it means nothing to them. Most of the people I know have no clue. How can I be a glory hunter when there's no glory to be had or accolades to gotten from anyone I know? No matter! This thing is not for them, it is for me. That being said I don't know why I am spending all this time trying to explain my POV.. I guess the reason is that I quite enjoy this message board. It's a way for me to be surrounded by people who care about what I do.. even if it is in a virtual way.

I know you used the word "pathetic", but did you ever think for a moment that it just might be a touch admirable? You see me as an idiot an ocean away who think's he's a part of something he's not. I see myself as sharing in a common passion with a group of people even though it's so out of my world as to be almost unatainable. You have the one thing that makes being a fan easiest: access. Me? While the excellent web presence of City and the increase in resources that make the EPL easier to get for foreign fans do help, I'm far away from the one thing I want most, which is to walk into a pub, or City Square, or a train, or any damn place, have it be full of blues who feel as I feel, and break into Blue Moon at the top of our lungs. Even to walk into a place where I could sit down and have an intelligent conversation about football (and City especially) with someone who knew their ass from their elbow would be such a thrill for me! I guess in a way, I'm starting to look more pathetic by the second...

I wouldn't be an entitled dick if I met you, I'd be the guy shaking you down for information, stories, and tales of the club. I'd be the student. Most of all I would have great respect for you.

Anyway, just be thankful! But know that with your priviledged position comes a responsibility to respect those of us who have heard the calling from afar.
Hope this helps you get it.

It does actually. I still won't ever manage to get my head around what you refer to as the American way of just latching on to whatever massive team (and it is always a massive team) takes your fancy and trying to be part of their reflective success. But it explains the cultural difference quite well.

(Although I'd question why, if you disagree with my point of view, you feel compelled to do exactly the same thing with Japanese fans. That seems to suggest that you do actually recognise a bit of the absurdity that I suggest is at the centre of it all)

But, regardless of the cultural aspect of why people choose to latch on to successful clubs and why that might not be as prevalent in the UK (it is with many though), I still cannot rationalise the need/desire to have to manufacture being part of it. And how you justify to yourself that just one day saying "I love this club" then automatically becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. To me it is self delusion and not what being someone who really enjoys the sport is all about. Enjoying a sport and wanting to convince yourself that a lifeless sporting entity from miles away is emotionally connected to you just flies in the face of logic (but I may be too logical, granted). It wouldn't happen in any other walk of life or with other interests outside of sport.

Anyway, good reply. Cheers

 

[Stroszek]

Why do you feel the need to justify your support of a football club?

I generally don't feel that need, but it's just irritating as hell when I tell someone here in Finland I support Man City the first question back 9/10 times is "oh yeah, since the Arabs came to town, eh?" And the answer is always the same: "No, since ten years ago."

 

[Shaelumstash]

Some of us did have to be introduced to the sport late and "pick" a club, but at least we picked right! I didn't have a club that I felt was truly mine for a long time, but from the time I started watching the prem, I always hated united, even though most people over here act like it's the only club that exists. City were rarely if ever on the tv here, so that made it even harder.

Genuine question.

Why do you feel the need to 'pick a club'?

Especially when it is a totally unassociated 'choice' that won't have any true relation to your real life, where you are from and the people you know?

I know that sounds antagonistic but I just don't get it.

I watch every bit of American Football on TV but I've never wanted to 'choose a team'. I just don't get it. I like/love/whatever the game but, for me, saying that I support a team and therefore expecting it to therefore become automatically true would just be so shallow and I'd feel a little bit pathetic for doing so. It'd feel a little bit meaningless. So I just enjoy the game for what it is.

Sorry, I shouldn't address that to a single person as it seems like a personal attack, so please don't feel compelled to reply. It just sums up why I can't get my head around it though.

People just wouldn't act that way in any field other than sport - especially football.

Fair enough, I really don't care if you think I have a personality deficiency or whatever. But lets think about this. I live in Arkansas. If I wanted to support a MLS team, the closest one would be probably Kansas City which is about an 8 hour drive. I have as much in common with Kansas City as I do with Manchester. Our reality over here is different. We don't have small communities packed next to one another. I grew up in a state not a country, a state, that you could drive 14 hours across and never leave the state. We are used to supporting teams that have zero locational relevance. When I was young, I HAD NO FOOTBALL to watch other than your league. Then the MLS came around and it was never on tv, the only way you could watch it for a few years was to drive there. Well, that isn't going to happen as a pre-teen. It is still easier to get access to premiere league matches than it is to watch MLS games. Is this making sense now? I "latch" on because it's fun. Which is the point in sports. Entertainment. It is no different that going to the movies, or going to the pub. It's an opportunity to go out and do something to take our mind off the struggles of day to day life. To have a good time, meet others, enjoy camaraderie. You know what else makes it fun? Having a horse in the race. I am ok with you having your view, but with the way this club is headed you are going to make things hard on yourself it sounds like.

To touch on the original question that was asked to me, and to agree with what the blue from Arkansas said; I think it's a bit different in America when it comes to sports teams and how and why they are supported. It's the most normal thing in the world here for people to support NFL teams from all over. Teams like the Steelers, Raiders, Packers, Cowboys, Giants, Jets, and Dolphins have massive fanbases in every state. You'd never hear people here slagging off "armchair fans" because that's not looked on as a negative thing here. Sure, the super-fans might have season tix (which are very expensive, especially with the introduction of PSLs and the like), but for a team like the Giants, my NFL team (I'm from New Jersey) the wait for season tickets is around 20 years. In Green Bay, people put their newborn babies on the 100-year waitlist in the hopes that even if the baby itself doesn't live long enough to obtain the tickets, they can be passed on to the nearest living relative. In that kind of environment, yeah, being an armchair fan is many people's only option, a fan is a fan is a fan. You'd never hear someone judging someone else over it. We all watch the games on TV and get tickets through friends or on a website like Stubhub here and there when we can. All that being said, I don't even particularly LIKE the NFL.. I mean I'm into it a bit, but to me it's a pretty dumb game on the whole. Other teams I support? Well, the Mets in baseball but there are so many damn games you'd go broke trying to leave the armchair for that sport.. The NBA? No interest really..

The fact is that (probably due to geography and cultural differences) there aren't hundreds of clubs all smashed into a small country with strong local followings and stigmas against outsiders and glory hunters. Yeah, nobody likes people who jump on the bandwagon, but we pretty much pick our teams in every sport. It's influenced by our parents and family, yeah, (I can remember being a little kid and being carried around Shea Stadium by my dad and grandfather - who was from Queens.. so yes, I understand the idea of family and geographical ties to a team) but we are basically free to pick our teams in most cases (although being a fan of any philadelphia teams was out of the question). I can only come to the conclusion that it must be different in England because of how close together everything is, along with the fact that well over 100 years of tradition and rivalries tends to heat things up a bit.

Why did I feel a need to pick? What else was I to do? Maybe if I had known anyone throughout my youth who was into proper football, if I had any family or friends to show me the way, then I could've cut my palm and squeezed holy blood over the ritual stone of a hallowed club badge at the age of 4..

But as it was? My journey was such that I had to discover the game (the real one, not the ones that most Americans play when we are 6 years old and then stop and move on to other things), but real actual glorious football and you know what? It took a while! If not for a good friend and roommate in college, I probably would've been blissfully unaware for the rest of my life.. but my friend started introducing me to the game and I went from not understanding it and thinking it was boring to becoming wholly and fully obsessed with it. All the things Americans said they hated about it became the things I liked. I had to fall in love with the game before I could ever fall for a club. People in England don't understand what that's like I think, since football is a way of life there. Like most dopey americans, I too started by watching the world cup.. (I feel douchey even typing it) but it was that initial interest, combined with help from a friend or two who was "in the know" that got me to where I am today (which is nothing special, but IS informed). Now, it's club over country. Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey can go down in flames for all I care if it means City wins.

MLS has come a long way, but I started watching the prem before MLS too and that was my introduction. Sorry if I can't go balls-out for the "Red Bulls".. but it's not what gave me the bug. The passion we Americans know you in England (and others all over the world) have for the game is contagious! We know it matters to you and when I started to follow religiously and closely, it started to matter like that to me.

Bottom line: Why does it have to be a club in your backyard to inspire passion? If that's the connection you have with it, then fine. I'm jealous, actually. But as I said before, when your only choice is to choose, you choose. I can understand why wacky Japanese tourists holding up "We love U C. Ronaldo!!" signs make you want to puke. I have the same reaction, believe me. But many American fans are not that. Not by a long shot. (Many are, but that's another story for another post)

I chose a few years back not knowing where it would go. before long I began investing many of my waking hours into following this club. It wasn't long (in fact, it was almost immediate) before it took over. There will always be illegitimate fans. But don't paint them as such just because of where they are from.

You say you watch American football but don't "feel the need" to pick a club. Fine! But if you did? Americans would think it was fecking awesome that someone from England followed their team! I refuse to sit back like some "over-it" social scientist and "enjoy the spectacle" without throwing myself into it. Maybe it's human nature, I don't know. And what's more: you love real football (I'm assuming)! of course you can just casually watch the NFL when the thing you really care about is Man City. THe NFL is where I live and I couldn't be bothered for the most part. Like you, City is what I care about, so that has a HUGE RELATION to my life. You're right, 98% of the people in my life - it means nothing to them. Most of the people I know have no clue. How can I be a glory hunter when there's no glory to be had or accolades to gotten from anyone I know? No matter! This thing is not for them, it is for me. That being said I don't know why I am spending all this time trying to explain my POV.. I guess the reason is that I quite enjoy this message board. It's a way for me to be surrounded by people who care about what I do.. even if it is in a virtual way.

I know you used the word "pathetic", but did you ever think for a moment that it just might be a touch admirable? You see me as an idiot an ocean away who think's he's a part of something he's not. I see myself as sharing in a common passion with a group of people even though it's so out of my world as to be almost unatainable. You have the one thing that makes being a fan easiest: access. Me? While the excellent web presence of City and the increase in resources that make the EPL easier to get for foreign fans do help, I'm far away from the one thing I want most, which is to walk into a pub, or City Square, or a train, or any damn place, have it be full of blues who feel as I feel, and break into Blue Moon at the top of our lungs. Even to walk into a place where I could sit down and have an intelligent conversation about football (and City especially) with someone who knew their ass from their elbow would be such a thrill for me! I guess in a way, I'm starting to look more pathetic by the second...

I wouldn't be an entitled dick if I met you, I'd be the guy shaking you down for information, stories, and tales of the club. I'd be the student. Most of all I would have great respect for you.

Anyway, just be thankful! But know that with your priviledged position comes a responsibility to respect those of us who have heard the calling from afar.
Hope this helps you get it.

Great post, and an interesting story of how you became a City fan that is probably very different from 95% of local fans on here. Most level headed intelligent City fans from Manchester who I speak to welcome fans from all over the world. There are a few closed minded nationalistic and even regionalistic (if that's even a word) idiots on here who are scared of any kind of change, who might resent fans born outside of the M post codes. I assure you, these are not the sort of people you should be seeking any kind of acceptance from.

For fans born and raised in Manchester, in a high majority of cases, we have been brought up with absolutely no choice of who we support. The cliche of football being like a religion in the UK probably stems from the fact that dads, grandad's, uncles, brothers, mothers etc decide what team you are going to support before you are even born. We are brought up on stories of years gone by at City, stories of the scandals and misfortune of our rivals. We are then taken to the ground from a young age and in teenage years begin going with friends, and by the time you are an adult, it is a complete way of life.

Every day we read articles, see news stories and have conversations about football. The default conversation topic when you meet a stranger is football. It is not sport as entertainment as it is in America, it is sport as culture, as religion.

This is probably why you, and other people from outside traditional footballing nations are so in awe of the passion of football fans. We have been brought up with that passion from birth, and our fathers and grandfathers in many cases have lived their life with the same passion. It is part of who we are, and for many people, after their familes, their football team is the most important thing in their life.

That's why the thought of "changing team" or "deciding who to support" is such a distasteful and absurd concept to most City fans. You don't choose where you are born, your family, or you team.

However, for an American such as yourself, you have not been brought up with that culture. You have not been brought up by your father and grandfather to be, let's say a Fulham fan, but because they are mediocre you decided to support City instead. So as far as I'm concerned it is completely different. The only way you can support a team is to choose one. If you have chosen City and you obviously have an affection for us, and want to learn more about us and become part of it, then welcome to the gang, tell your friends, the more people following City the better as far as I'm concerned.

As I've said before though, no matter how bad things get, no matter how low we might drop, you can never support another team. Once you're a blue, you have to be a blue for life, that's the deal.

 

[JohnMaddocksAxe]

To Foreign Fans:
Why do you feel the need to justify your support of a football club?

The playground bully's shouting "you can't be in our gang because you don't look or sound local" are muppets and can go and watch Hyde FC for all I care.

Manchester is a multicultural City, one of the busiest airports in Europe.... Have any of you Maine Road Mafia actually walked around "Your" city centre recently?

It's a rarity to come across someone who speaks English as their first language....

if the general populous walking around the City Centre fancy a game of football then by all means come and watch this club....

We need safe standing with budget areas for local people.

I don't particularly like the tone or suggestion of this post regarding 'your city centre' or 'English as a first language'.

Football is a nothing issue. Bullshit compared to numerous issues in life. I would stand my politics and attitude to the important things in life next to yours and most others and be quite confident that, when it comes to thoughts on these big issues, they are at least as, probably more, open, welcoming, multicultural, multinational and inclusive.

Don't confuse questioning why people feel the need to manufacture emotions on such a meaningless issue with attitudes towards important things. That is lazy in the extreme.

 

[tolmie's hairdoo]

My dad said from his doorstep, 'give em a cheer for me as I drove off on Monday night'.

He turned 60 last year and has been going fifty years, he can't afford a season ticket but we can get him to most games, a combo of favours sharing season tickets around.

However, got a glimpse of future when outside main entrance, well-heeled foreign visitors, a bloody singer from one direction!

Must admit, although new fans are most welcome blues like my old man can't afford to keep apace and it hurts to see and think of him at pub nursing his pint watching on box.

I have to remain hopeful the club acknowledge city fans of all ways and means in coming years.

 

[JohnMaddocksAxe]

There are a few closed minded nationalistic and even regionalistic (if that's even a word) idiots on here who are scared of any kind of change, who might resent fans born outside of the M post codes. I assure you, these are not the sort of people you should be seeking any kind of acceptance from.

Again, another post lazily assuming that questioning such an unimportant issue equates to thoughts on important issues. We should discuss politics sometime and then see which of us ends up looking like the nationalistic xenophobe.

(Which isn't to suggest that either of us would, not knowing your politics but I guarantee, on real issues, I certainly would not. Yet a large percentage of the population, almost certainly including a lot of 'a blue is a blue' people, hold some decidedly unpleasant and less than inclusive views on important issues. )

 

[KansasCITY]

Genuine question.

Why do you feel the need to 'pick a club'?

Especially when it is a totally unassociated 'choice' that won't have any true relation to your real life, where you are from and the people you know?

I know that sounds antagonistic but I just don't get it.

I watch every bit of American Football on TV but I've never wanted to 'choose a team'. I just don't get it. I like/love/whatever the game but, for me, saying that I support a team and therefore expecting it to therefore become automatically true would just be so shallow and I'd feel a little bit pathetic for doing so. It'd feel a little bit meaningless. So I just enjoy the game for what it is.

Sorry, I shouldn't address that to a single person as it seems like a personal attack, so please don't feel compelled to reply. It just sums up why I can't get my head around it though.

People just wouldn't act that way in any field other than sport - especially football.

To touch on the original question that was asked to me, and to agree with what the blue from Arkansas said; I think it's a bit different in America when it comes to sports teams and how and why they are supported. It's the most normal thing in the world here for people to support NFL teams from all over. Teams like the Steelers, Raiders, Packers, Cowboys, Giants, Jets, and Dolphins have massive fanbases in every state. You'd never hear people here slagging off "armchair fans" because that's not looked on as a negative thing here. Sure, the super-fans might have season tix (which are very expensive, especially with the introduction of PSLs and the like), but for a team like the Giants, my NFL team (I'm from New Jersey) the wait for season tickets is around 20 years. In Green Bay, people put their newborn babies on the 100-year waitlist in the hopes that even if the baby itself doesn't live long enough to obtain the tickets, they can be passed on to the nearest living relative. In that kind of environment, yeah, being an armchair fan is many people's only option, a fan is a fan is a fan. You'd never hear someone judging someone else over it. We all watch the games on TV and get tickets through friends or on a website like Stubhub here and there when we can. All that being said, I don't even particularly LIKE the NFL.. I mean I'm into it a bit, but to me it's a pretty dumb game on the whole. Other teams I support? Well, the Mets in baseball but there are so many damn games you'd go broke trying to leave the armchair for that sport.. The NBA? No interest really..

The fact is that (probably due to geography and cultural differences) there aren't hundreds of clubs all smashed into a small country with strong local followings and stigmas against outsiders and glory hunters. Yeah, nobody likes people who jump on the bandwagon, but we pretty much pick our teams in every sport. It's influenced by our parents and family, yeah, (I can remember being a little kid and being carried around Shea Stadium by my dad and grandfather - who was from Queens.. so yes, I understand the idea of family and geographical ties to a team) but we are basically free to pick our teams in most cases (although being a fan of any philadelphia teams was out of the question). I can only come to the conclusion that it must be different in England because of how close together everything is, along with the fact that well over 100 years of tradition and rivalries tends to heat things up a bit.

Why did I feel a need to pick? What else was I to do? Maybe if I had known anyone throughout my youth who was into proper football, if I had any family or friends to show me the way, then I could've cut my palm and squeezed holy blood over the ritual stone of a hallowed club badge at the age of 4..

But as it was? My journey was such that I had to discover the game (the real one, not the ones that most Americans play when we are 6 years old and then stop and move on to other things), but real actual glorious football and you know what? It took a while! If not for a good friend and roommate in college, I probably would've been blissfully unaware for the rest of my life.. but my friend started introducing me to the game and I went from not understanding it and thinking it was boring to becoming wholly and fully obsessed with it. All the things Americans said they hated about it became the things I liked. I had to fall in love with the game before I could ever fall for a club. People in England don't understand what that's like I think, since football is a way of life there. Like most dopey americans, I too started by watching the world cup.. (I feel douchey even typing it) but it was that initial interest, combined with help from a friend or two who was "in the know" that got me to where I am today (which is nothing special, but IS informed). Now, it's club over country. Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey can go down in flames for all I care if it means City wins.

MLS has come a long way, but I started watching the prem before MLS too and that was my introduction. Sorry if I can't go balls-out for the "Red Bulls".. but it's not what gave me the bug. The passion we Americans know you in England (and others all over the world) have for the game is contagious! We know it matters to you and when I started to follow religiously and closely, it started to matter like that to me.

Bottom line: Why does it have to be a club in your backyard to inspire passion? If that's the connection you have with it, then fine. I'm jealous, actually. But as I said before, when your only choice is to choose, you choose. I can understand why wacky Japanese tourists holding up "We love U C. Ronaldo!!" signs make you want to puke. I have the same reaction, believe me. But many American fans are not that. Not by a long shot. (Many are, but that's another story for another post)

I chose a few years back not knowing where it would go. before long I began investing many of my waking hours into following this club. It wasn't long (in fact, it was almost immediate) before it took over. There will always be illegitimate fans. But don't paint them as such just because of where they are from.

You say you watch American football but don't "feel the need" to pick a club. Fine! But if you did? Americans would think it was fecking awesome that someone from England followed their team! I refuse to sit back like some "over-it" social scientist and "enjoy the spectacle" without throwing myself into it. Maybe it's human nature, I don't know. And what's more: you love real football (I'm assuming)! of course you can just casually watch the NFL when the thing you really care about is Man City. THe NFL is where I live and I couldn't be bothered for the most part. Like you, City is what I care about, so that has a HUGE RELATION to my life. You're right, 98% of the people in my life - it means nothing to them. Most of the people I know have no clue. How can I be a glory hunter when there's no glory to be had or accolades to gotten from anyone I know? No matter! This thing is not for them, it is for me. That being said I don't know why I am spending all this time trying to explain my POV.. I guess the reason is that I quite enjoy this message board. It's a way for me to be surrounded by people who care about what I do.. even if it is in a virtual way.

I know you used the word "pathetic", but did you ever think for a moment that it just might be a touch admirable? You see me as an idiot an ocean away who think's he's a part of something he's not. I see myself as sharing in a common passion with a group of people even though it's so out of my world as to be almost unatainable. You have the one thing that makes being a fan easiest: access. Me? While the excellent web presence of City and the increase in resources that make the EPL easier to get for foreign fans do help, I'm far away from the one thing I want most, which is to walk into a pub, or City Square, or a train, or any damn place, have it be full of blues who feel as I feel, and break into Blue Moon at the top of our lungs. Even to walk into a place where I could sit down and have an intelligent conversation about football (and City especially) with someone who knew their ass from their elbow would be such a thrill for me! I guess in a way, I'm starting to look more pathetic by the second...

I wouldn't be an entitled dick if I met you, I'd be the guy shaking you down for information, stories, and tales of the club. I'd be the student. Most of all I would have great respect for you.

Anyway, just be thankful! But know that with your priviledged position comes a responsibility to respect those of us who have heard the calling from afar.
Hope this helps you get it.

It does actually. I still won't ever manage to get my head around what you refer to as the American way of just latching on to whatever massive team (and it is always a massive team) takes your fancy and trying to be part of their reflective success. But it explains the cultural difference quite well.

(Although I'd question why, if you disagree with my point of view, you feel compelled to do exactly the same thing with Japanese fans. That seems to suggest that you do actually recognise a bit of the absurdity that I suggest is at the centre of it all)

But, regardless of the cultural aspect of why people choose to latch on to successful clubs and why that might not be as prevalent in the UK (it is with many though), I still cannot rationalise the need/desire to have to manufacture being part of it. And how you justify to yourself that just one day saying "I love this club" then automatically becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. To me it is self delusion and not what being someone who really enjoys the sport is all about. Enjoying a sport and wanting to convince yourself that a lifeless sporting entity from miles away is emotionally connected to you just flies in the face of logic (but I may be too logical, granted). It wouldn't happen in any other walk of life or with other interests outside of sport.

Anyway, good reply. Cheers

just stop. You have no idea what its like to support City while living in America, so how could you say whether we're trying to convince ourselves we love your club? If I didnt love City i wouldnt fucking wake up at 5 am on a saturday morning would i? would i take a sick day to watch a team that i didnt /REALLY/ like? i've spent at least $200 dollars on City in the past few months, would i do that if i didnt REALLY love the club? We go through the highs and lows of City just like you do, where you live has absolutley nothing to do with it. You're talking shit on something you know nothing about.

 

[johnbmcr]

After what will probably always be know as "that night" and as mentioned elsewhere our fan base is probably going to swell in a big way soon, so I think we should be ready to welcome them with open arms and not start all this "where were you when we were shit" rubbish, those of us who have supported this team all of our lives will know who we are but the time has come for us as fans to move on as the club/team itself has, more fans around the world = more revenue = more cash available for top draw players = more trophy's = more fans around the world, we build a dynasty and become the new Barcalona, #together

Boi, just look at what you started interesting post!!

sat through many games this year in all comps when there were many empty seats so I guess some points occur to me :
The "where were you when we were shit" or as I name them the blessed orthodox were busy doing other things hence the empty seats maybe turning tourists back @ every street ?

MCFC is a bit like a big shop you might not like or if you ran it you would bar certain customers but without them there is no business

MCFC will be happy no matter where money comes from

Unless we have a glorious fan led revolution ( lead by fans with the right and verified antecedence of course ) then it’s a free market provided you pay your money and keeping on purchasing

Had a sc in two different sections in the Eithiad, this debate is bit like all the Politicians who spout about the ‘real issues worrying the public’ I have never once had a conversation about real or plastic fans invading the ground and driving out the orthodox simply because it’s not a problem in the ground

Too much of the "where were you when we were shit" seems to be a excuse for envy and covetousness both pretty shitty values best left in the bin or maybe its just a Blue Moon thing because there not much you can do about changing times by moaning


And for the "where were you when we were shit" my first match, sometime in 1964 I was five cannot remember anything about it but am assured that my Dad and older brother took me so weren’t born a fan became one does that qualify me? Who cares ....