sir baconface said:
I dislike "glory hunters" as much as the next person. But let's not kid ourselves; it's a knee-jerk reaction with no real logic in the modern context.
Try a little quiz. How many of the following were born, raised or have family connections in Manc?
- The owner
- The Chairman
- The Chief Exec
- The Director of Football
- The manager
- The first team squad
- Past legends, e.g. The King, Bert Trautmann, Kinky and the Goat?
Answer: three fifths of fcuk all. Substitute England for Manchester and we might find a couple of cuckoos in the nest. Because we are just a ship sailing under a flag of convenience. The only connections with Manchester are the ground location, the traditional fan base and the leasehold on club history.
Now someone please prove me wrong because it pisses me off to make this post.
I'm Chilean and I have no shame in saying I'm a fan because of Pellegrini. As I told other blues from the forum, it's really great for to (finally!) watch the Premier League from a non-neutral point of view. I've followed Pellegrini's managerial career since the 90s and I haven't liked all of his teams (much less becoming a fan) but I plan on going to the Etihad on February and maybe even sneak at Stamford Bridge to the see the blues beat the chavs.
I hope visiting Manchester will be a great experience, I really do. My girl is coming with me (we're both huge fans of The Smiths) and it would break my heart if we don't enjoy our short time there because someone might believe we're "glory hunters" or our English is not good enough. It's short sighted. I lived in Argentina for a while (the same thing goes in Brazil believe me) and people would openly ask me which club I supported (River obviously). They expected me to follow one of their clubs, as simple as that. And the main reason is because this or that Chilean player had a connection to this or that club. These tourists described on this board might be fans of a particular player and they'll remember how they were treated and how great a time they had supporting the club.
That's why great clubs like Madrid or (gasp) Barcelona continue to be popular globally. When I visited Madrid's museum a while back they would still talk to me about Zamorano, despite the fact it was almost 20 years ago he played there. Same for Salas in River Plate. That's how you build a brand and, believe it or not, loyalty (!) outside the M60.