Overseas support

[ell]

I doubt the Anti IRA chants were directed at yourselves, I heard plenty over the course of the few days and I cant recall hearing a single Irish accent

 

[lazza]

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.

and...

I think I might get away with one of the museums and the game but not both. I'm not travelling alone and given the girl and I both are fans of The Smiths it'll be a negotiation over what we do.

As for the weather I'm counting on proper winter. We're heading to Edinburgh immediately afterwards and I need the break from an already scorching austral summer.

Your English, sir, is quite possibly better than mine!

Enjoy your trip.... it's one hell of a long way to come, so I hope it doesn't turn out "typical City" for you!

 

[smudgedj]

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.

and...

I think I might get away with one of the museums and the game but not both. I'm not travelling alone and given the girl and I both are fans of The Smiths it'll be a negotiation over what we do.

As for the weather I'm counting on proper winter. We're heading to Edinburgh immediately afterwards and I need the break from an already scorching austral summer.

Your English, sir, is quite possibly better than mine!

Enjoy your trip.... it's one hell of a long way to come, so I hope it doesn't turn out "typical City" for you!

His English is going to be better than his Spanish as well.

 

[Bill]

I would love for one of these morons to bump into the lads who come up from Cheltenham area every match, do all the aways and Europeans. Have been following City for years. Most have West County accents. Their combined harvester is parked outside the Townley for all home games. So if you hear anyone slagging off people from outside Manchester tell them to go and have a word with these lads.

edited for accuracy.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

I can understand why people loathe the IRA and hate Celtic but to link the City fans both north and south of the border with them is ridiculous to put it mildly. The shit that these fans have put up with over the years at the hands of their fellow countrymen who follow the 'ugly sisters' i.e the rags and Liverpool must have been colossal yet they have followed City over land and sea for years even when we were at our lowest. They are the complete antithesis of a plastic or glory hunting fan unlike the easy option taking 'cowards' who' follow' those in red, they have my admiration and respect and long may they continue crossing the Irish sea.

I don't want to get political, because it doesn't really have a place on a football forum, in my opinion.
However I can understand Mancunians hating the IRA, believe me I loathe what they have done as much as you. I certainly don't believe they have done
anything in my name though, or the majority of Irish people for that matter. As far as Celtic go, I think they are a great club with a rich history, but have never understood a lot of Irish people's allegiance to them. I know they have an Irish connection, but I see them as just the other side of a totally sectarian Scottish or Glaswegian society issue. It shouldn't be in sport whatever your background.
I welcome your comments about what it was like for us through the lean years, over here. It must have been bad for you in Manchester having to live with them every day, but at least you had numbers, when the piss takes were being dished out.
I'm not making out that it was the same here, but generally you would be totally outnumbered. During my football years I wore my City jersey like a badge of honour and took whatever was thrown at me. The only real downside for me was that they were always on the television and City were very rarely on which made them hard to see regularly.
Being from Manchester you at least had the option of going along every week and supporting, and you did that brilliantly.
What goes around comes around and City supporters deserve everything we get now.
But if the club are as ambitious as they seem to be, the only way to achieve it is to go global, so you may get used to a more diverse following.
Just be glad that you were there from the start and sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

[BongoBlue]

Ireland is an interesting example:
You can't take all of the best players out of a country - usually before they've even had a chance to play in their domestic league and then say "no, you piss off and support the leftovers, Paddy. You're not welcome here - only your best players are."
Life doesn't work like that and, to be fair most locals accept the situation for the way it is.

I was going to answer an earlier post a few pages back, but you've summed up nicely the situation with Irish Football.
The earlier post was asking a genuine question about why Irish people follow English football teams. His train of thought was that the League of Ireland would be much stronger if we followed our own. I'm not so sure about that.
A lot of people over here follow both although I would say more just follow English football without any great allegiance locally.
Ireland is not a big enough country to support a professional league. My opinion is that there are already too many teams for a city the size of Dublin.
St.Pats., Shelbourne, Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers.....
You make the point of the cream leaving the country for trials in Britain anyway. This is certainly true, although I'm not sure what we send over now are of the standard required to make it in the premiership. Feeder Clubs like Home Farm and St. Kevins Boys over here hoover up the best kids from the local teams, most of which don't even make their first teams. The parents seem to see it as a way of being seen by a Premiership scout.
Most kids who do get a trial in Britain, come back disappointed. Some stay in football here but not all.
This is one problem. Another is the shambles of a governing body call the FAI. Soccer (I'll call it that to distinguish it) competes over here with Gaelic Football and Hurling (The GAA) throughout the country and now also with Rugby.
The GAA is the amateur body governing the Gaelic Games over here but for all their faults they are running a far more professional outfit than the FAI who are utter amateurs. They have the Infrastructure and support in the community, in every parish North and South of the border. The facilities that they have at local level leaves Football (Soccer) in the pox'n'poverty place.
A lot of our really talented athletes don't end up playing high level Football, they play Gaelic Games.

Anyway, I'm not trying to make excuses. The way it was when I was growing up, everyone loved football but we weren't even allowed play it, in the Christian Brother School that I went to. We could see MOTD and The Big Match at the weekend on television. You never saw League of Ireland matches.
That was back in the early 1970's. Kids now are saturated with football globally on Sky and BT Sports, Setanta etc.

Why in 1970, as a seven year old, when asked to choose by my brothers and neighbour kids, I chose City, I don't know. There were actually a few of us on the road back then, as well as the usual mix of UTD/Liverpool and Chelsea and Leeds were big then also.
One thing I will say is, that people of my generation would not class themselves as glory hunters, even the RED followers. When you picked your team for whatever reason you stuck with it. Naturally with Utd winning so much in the premiership era, you had a whole generation that latched onto them and all they know is the premiership years. From the time my young lad was about 5 or 6 he was in his City jersey (because of me, initially) and was being slagged in school and on his football team. I told him to keep calm. Their days were numbered. Your time is coming.
The best moment of his life so far was being behind the goal when Sergio scored on 93:20 against QPR. He's hooked. Is he a glory hunter? Some of you might say so. He only endured 5 years or so of mild slagging in school. I've told him about the lean years and that City were a great team back in the seventies but went down through the leagues and back up. He knows there was football before the premiership.
We only get over to about 2-3 matches a year because of the cost, but it's a real highlight and buzz for him. He loves Manchester and every time we are over we are always treated very well by everyone. I've never experienced any negativity from anyone I've talked to, about us coming over from Ireland.

The only place I've ever read negativity about it, is on the forum. This was one of the reasons it took me so long to actually post and not just read.

Nice one eamo. I can absolutely relate as I grew up in Cork in the 60's/70's - chose City after the 1968 OT derby which we won 3-1 of course on the way to the Championship and have remained steadfast since then - through the lean years which made my love for City all the stronger even though I have only made it to a handful of games mainly due to the fact that I now live in the US. I too endured the slings and arrows from all the United, Liverpool, Leeds (at the time) and Arsenal fans as the only City fan in the entire county it seemed. I did however follow the now defunct Cork Hibernians in the old League of Ireland at the time as well but City were my first love.

Now my American-born son is as Blue as can be - and like his dad, shed a tear when Sergio scored. He did start following City pre-takeover too but of course before the surge of popularity of the Premier League over here in the US, no-one really knew what he was talking about so he never had a hard time at school simply because no-one knew. I keep telling him how lucky he is...now he is in college with a rabid Arsenal fan - from Abu Dhabi, strangely enough...who tells him how popular City are now all over the world.

We have been to see City play a few times over here and we are planning a trip to Manchester next year. I too met so many great people, especially on my last visit and drank the night away with them. Unbelievable hospitality from everyone I met. I even got my name called out on the tannoy at the stadium; welcoming me from Boston...;) I guess at the time I was a bit of a novelty; flying all the way from the US to watch City under Stuart Pearce, in fairness... Maybe it's different now post-takeover with all the day trippers; I don't know. But that is the price of success I suppose. Anyhow, I am very much looking forward to my next visit and bringing my son. I keep banging onto him about how great and hospitable Manchester is and I know that I won't be let down on that score. Can't wait. In the meantime, we will watch every game on TV no matter the time, occasionally hit the MCFC Supporters Club bar here in Boston and count the days...

 

[davymcfc]

I'm 25 years old. Been a city fan all my life and I welcome all blues to the etihad and to this forum. Regardless of religion, race, gender, sexuality, nationality, we are all blues and that is the only thing that is important.

 

[mancity2012_eamo]

Ireland is an interesting example:
You can't take all of the best players out of a country - usually before they've even had a chance to play in their domestic league and then say "no, you piss off and support the leftovers, Paddy. You're not welcome here - only your best players are."
Life doesn't work like that and, to be fair most locals accept the situation for the way it is.

I was going to answer an earlier post a few pages back, but you've summed up nicely the situation with Irish Football.
The earlier post was asking a genuine question about why Irish people follow English football teams. His train of thought was that the League of Ireland would be much stronger if we followed our own. I'm not so sure about that.
A lot of people over here follow both although I would say more just follow English football without any great allegiance locally.
Ireland is not a big enough country to support a professional league. My opinion is that there are already too many teams for a city the size of Dublin.
St.Pats., Shelbourne, Bohemians, Shamrock Rovers.....
You make the point of the cream leaving the country for trials in Britain anyway. This is certainly true, although I'm not sure what we send over now are of the standard required to make it in the premiership. Feeder Clubs like Home Farm and St. Kevins Boys over here hoover up the best kids from the local teams, most of which don't even make their first teams. The parents seem to see it as a way of being seen by a Premiership scout.
Most kids who do get a trial in Britain, come back disappointed. Some stay in football here but not all.
This is one problem. Another is the shambles of a governing body call the FAI. Soccer (I'll call it that to distinguish it) competes over here with Gaelic Football and Hurling (The GAA) throughout the country and now also with Rugby.
The GAA is the amateur body governing the Gaelic Games over here but for all their faults they are running a far more professional outfit than the FAI who are utter amateurs. They have the Infrastructure and support in the community, in every parish North and South of the border. The facilities that they have at local level leaves Football (Soccer) in the pox'n'poverty place.
A lot of our really talented athletes don't end up playing high level Football, they play Gaelic Games.

Anyway, I'm not trying to make excuses. The way it was when I was growing up, everyone loved football but we weren't even allowed play it, in the Christian Brother School that I went to. We could see MOTD and The Big Match at the weekend on television. You never saw League of Ireland matches.
That was back in the early 1970's. Kids now are saturated with football globally on Sky and BT Sports, Setanta etc.

Why in 1970, as a seven year old, when asked to choose by my brothers and neighbour kids, I chose City, I don't know. There were actually a few of us on the road back then, as well as the usual mix of UTD/Liverpool and Chelsea and Leeds were big then also.
One thing I will say is, that people of my generation would not class themselves as glory hunters, even the RED followers. When you picked your team for whatever reason you stuck with it. Naturally with Utd winning so much in the premiership era, you had a whole generation that latched onto them and all they know is the premiership years. From the time my young lad was about 5 or 6 he was in his City jersey (because of me, initially) and was being slagged in school and on his football team. I told him to keep calm. Their days were numbered. Your time is coming.
The best moment of his life so far was being behind the goal when Sergio scored on 93:20 against QPR. He's hooked. Is he a glory hunter? Some of you might say so. He only endured 5 years or so of mild slagging in school. I've told him about the lean years and that City were a great team back in the seventies but went down through the leagues and back up. He knows there was football before the premiership.
We only get over to about 2-3 matches a year because of the cost, but it's a real highlight and buzz for him. He loves Manchester and every time we are over we are always treated very well by everyone. I've never experienced any negativity from anyone I've talked to, about us coming over from Ireland.

The only place I've ever read negativity about it, is on the forum. This was one of the reasons it took me so long to actually post and not just read.

Nice one eamo. I can absolutely relate as I grew up in Cork in the 60's/70's - chose City after the 1968 OT derby which we won 3-1 of course on the way to the Championship and have remained steadfast since then - through the lean years which made my love for City all the stronger even though I have only made it to a handful of games mainly due to the fact that I now live in the US. I too endured the slings and arrows from all the United, Liverpool, Leeds (at the time) and Arsenal fans as the only City fan in the entire county it seemed. I did however follow the now defunct Cork Hibernians in the old League of Ireland at the time as well but City were my first love.

Now my American-born son is as Blue as can be - and like his dad, shed a tear when Sergio scored. He did start following City pre-takeover too but of course before the surge of popularity of the Premier League over here in the US, no-one really knew what he was talking about so he never had a hard time at school simply because no-one knew. I keep telling him how lucky he is...now he is in college with a rabid Arsenal fan - from Abu Dhabi, strangely enough...who tells him how popular City are now all over the world.

We have been to see City play a few times over here and we are planning a trip to Manchester next year. I too met so many great people, especially on my last visit and drank the night away with them. Unbelievable hospitality from everyone I met. I even got my name called out on the tannoy at the stadium; welcoming me from Boston...;) I guess at the time I was a bit of a novelty; flying all the way from the US to watch City under Stuart Pearce, in fairness... Maybe it's different now post-takeover with all the day trippers; I don't know. But that is the price of success I suppose. Anyhow, I am very much looking forward to my next visit and bringing my son. I keep banging onto him about how great and hospitable Manchester is and I know that I won't be let down on that score. Can't wait. In the meantime, we will watch every game on TV no matter the time, occasionally hit the MCFC Supporters Club bar here in Boston and count the days...

Nice one Bingo. You have to educate the young uns.
Can't have them going over to the darkside. It must have been a nightmare in Cork during the Keane years.

 

[sir baconface]

Some great posts here from overseas Blues. Welcome!

 

[Ascetic]

Your English, sir, is quite possibly better than mine!

Enjoy your trip.... it's one hell of a long way to come, so I hope it doesn't turn out "typical City" for you!

Thanks lazza, it depends quite a bit on how many pints I've had.
I certainly will enjoy it much more if we beat Hull that weekend.