The damage done by 20 year's inferiority to Man United

[crystal_mais]

Through spending far too much time on here I honestly think that a large section of our younger fanbase have become permanently damaged by the club spending the last 20 years playing second fiddle to Man United. Us older fans remember City being more or less equals to United in terms of success and fanbase. We remember when City had legions of fans in Manchester, and were acknowledged nationally as one of the country's biggest clubs.

But for fans under about 30 there are a large section who are totally and utterly insecure. Totally paranoid. They see bias in everything. Everyone is accused of being "a rag". Now City have become successful they have become obsessively concerned with comparing the club to United. They are frightened to death that even though we have a better team, United might continue to dominate the headlines.

So you get these "Reds Under The Bed" paranoid blues sitting with the remote control in their hand, counting the number of City goals on the Match of The Day credits and going mad if there aren't more than United. You get people watching Sunday Supplement purely so they can get outraged at a bunch of professional journalists being paid to give a contraversial opinion. You get accusations of pro-United agendas everywhere from the MEN to the BBC to Sky to FIFA to the referees. You get every signing, or non signing, looked at in regards to how it will be perceived by Man United fans.

I can't blame you I suppose. For twenty years in Manchester the majority of kids are United. Most of them are fucking wankers brought up on gloating about a team they only have a passing interest in. It can't have been easy being a blue in a school full of these shallow tossbags.

But can't you hold your heads up and be proper champions? All they are now are an equal footing rival, like Chelsea. Nothing more, nothing less. Stop comparing everything we do with them because the days of City fans needing to do that are gone. They have no Sheikh, they have a Yank parasite. They have no Silva, they have an ageing liar. They have a silent stadium full of tools and are supported around the world by idiots.

We are fucking City. We are fucking champions. It's time some of you young blues got your heads up and acted like it. Stop looking over your shoulders all the time. Stop fretting and feeling insecure about stuff that really doesn't matter.

Cheers Dad!!!

Great post DD - I think I better start acting my age (40 in 10 days)

 

[tamworthblue]

When i was growing up there was 1 rag in my primary school class, at secondary school blues far outnumbered rags and we were better than them.


I cant imagine how hard it must been for many of under 30s fans, growing up knowing we were shit and the rags won everything. Fair play to everyone of them for sticking it out. I think the reason for the beliefs in agendas and such probably results from having to be so defensive over the years and i dont blame any of them for having such a mentality.

Its been hard enough for us old gits who remember some of the old glory days, who saw the King play, were alive when we won stuff, played in finals and such, so how hard it has been for the young ens i doubt we will ever realise.

Stick with it you young ones, if you hate the rags think there is agendas etc and it works for you, go with it because at the end of the day i think we all hate them twats and always will no matter how succesfull we are.

Good post that Rascal. I'm 51 and I found the OP to be a bit sanctimonious. Still, after a given time DD is usually found out to be clueless (see what I did there).

 

[Damocles]

I disagree with the reasoning here, and ironically, it's DD's obsession with trying to appear unconcerned by United that has shone through.

Every club has "that set" of fans. This is not something unique to City, every club has that set of fans that believes that all of the media and the refs are against them.

The funny thing is, in a search for reasoning about why that set act like they do, DD has come to the conclusion that it's because of 20 years of inferiority against United instead of accepting that this is a well understood part of any fandom; a desire to defend the object of affection against criticism that sometimes borders into the conspiracy. I think the OP says more about Dave than it does about any sets of fans we have.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Whisky nose is certainly obsessed with us at the moment. According to the bbc He is now bleating on about how van persie chose ambition over money in his programme notes and how in receny years players have chosen money over them! Needless to say we get the obligatory mention!

I wish that **** would have one final nosebleed so I can finally take the jelly out of the fridge!

 

[Unknown_Genius]

Through spending far too much time on here I honestly think that a large section of our younger fanbase have become permanently damaged by the club spending the last 20 years playing second fiddle to Man United. Us older fans remember City being more or less equals to United in terms of success and fanbase. We remember when City had legions of fans in Manchester, and were acknowledged nationally as one of the country's biggest clubs.

But for fans under about 30 there are a large section who are totally and utterly insecure. Totally paranoid. They see bias in everything. Everyone is accused of being "a rag". Now City have become successful they have become obsessively concerned with comparing the club to United. They are frightened to death that even though we have a better team, United might continue to dominate the headlines.

So you get these "Reds Under The Bed" paranoid blues sitting with the remote control in their hand, counting the number of City goals on the Match of The Day credits and going mad if there aren't more than United. You get people watching Sunday Supplement purely so they can get outraged at a bunch of professional journalists being paid to give a contraversial opinion. You get accusations of pro-United agendas everywhere from the MEN to the BBC to Sky to FIFA to the referees. You get every signing, or non signing, looked at in regards to how it will be perceived by Man United fans.

I can't blame you I suppose. For twenty years in Manchester the majority of kids are United. Most of them are fucking wankers brought up on gloating about a team they only have a passing interest in. It can't have been easy being a blue in a school full of these shallow tossbags.

But can't you hold your heads up and be proper champions? All they are now are an equal footing rival, like Chelsea. Nothing more, nothing less. Stop comparing everything we do with them because the days of City fans needing to do that are gone. They have no Sheikh, they have a Yank parasite. They have no Silva, they have an ageing liar. They have a silent stadium full of tools and are supported around the world by idiots.

We are fucking City. We are fucking champions. It's time some of you young blues got your heads up and acted like it. Stop looking over your shoulders all the time. Stop fretting and feeling insecure about stuff that really doesn't matter.

Whilst I broadly share your sentiments on this, I am slightly more towards the centre, so to speak.

Whilst I agree that some of the paranoia is beyond parody there is no doubt that the media favour united, albeit unconsciously a lot of the time.

This is mainly a function of them being at the top table for so long, rather than anything more especially sinister. A particular case in point is their manager. He is allowed to get away with far more than any other manager in the game. He is allowed to misrepresent ("united teams always try and win"); be petulant and downright rude (refusing to speak to the BBC); hypocritical ("I wouldn't sell them a virus"); make outlandish and wholly incorrect predictions ("not in my lifetime"); insult other clubs in a disrespectful way ("a small club with a small mentality") ; and bring destruction down upon his own club (the Coolmore fiasco).

He can do all these things without fear of the widespread ridicule and derision from the media that would be visited upon any other manager for the same things - Benitez's 'list' being a case in point.

He manages this through a combination of his longevity and success in the job - which granted should give him a degree of leeway; his ability to bully and impose his will upon the press - often resulting in many journalists being banned from the club; and a desire for the media to retain a degree of favour and influence within the one of the most powerful sporting brands on the planet.

Against that backdrop it is understandable that City fans feel there is an agenda of sorts. To what degree depends on each individual's view of how the world works I guess, but it is unreasonable of you to expect fans not to resent the way their local rivals (and by implication their own club) are perceived (and treated) , being dictated by a bully.

I agree with both of you, however this isn't something exclusive to City. For every football club, there is a large element of fans who believe the media, UEFA, Sky, MOTD, etc, have it in for their team. I've found United fans are the worst for this paranoia, and its an attitude fueled by Ferguson. Its far worse than what you'll see on here, because its an unpleasant, "we win too much, and they want to give someone else a chance", "no one likes us because we're the best" mentality, that just reeks off arrogance and self entitlement. Arsenal fans complain there is a media agenda, because they don't have many English players, and UEFA don't like them because of Wenger's fines, Chelsea because of Abramovich's money, and so on. If you look at Liverpool forums, Suarez is what Balotelli is on here, the media are always deliberately looking to pick on him, they don't like him because he's foreign and has an attitude, etc. This feeling isn't restricted to the big teams. Fans of smaller teams complain their side gets hardly any media coverage or credit, and is always last on MOTD. Football is a very one-eyed sport. Fans are usually very defensive about their teams, and often can't see the wood for the trees. Its just the tribal nature of it all.

 

[tamworthblue]

Yes it's a two way street this rivalry thing, it's not just us. Also, I work with two Everton fans and they hate United more than me, more than Liverpool even. They were made up after the 1-0 last week and chuffed to bits about the 4-4 last season. Explain that one to me.

 

[toddluvzgta]

i thought i would feel depressed reading the OP's post just like i was when reading about Johnno's transfer.

but i feel absolutely marvelous.

no guarantees we are going to retain it this season though. Sinclair and Rodwell will have to perform past 100% when they are on the pitch respectively. they were signed to fulfill that homegrown rule and perhaps for City to stay under that FFP bar

 

[Aguero_Element]

i wish i was one of those people who could be arsed writing down some thoughts, or even having them.....




all i know is i disagree with the op :D

 

[lordloverocket]

interesting post.
Ime an horrible blue i fookin hate the rags nearly as much as i love city i cant help myself its just the way i am.
When i first started goin to city 85/86 with mi mates from school i wasnt even that bothered about "following" a team ....but for some reason even at this point i hated ushited with a passion!! at the time we were all right little bastards who went for the smoking,getting a can of lager and hoping to see a big scrap oh n maybe a city win which in this era was pretty rare!
Now i go n hav a boat load of lager maybe the odd blast of wacky, dont see that many scraps but fook me the wins are a bit less rare!love being champions and rubbing the sad acts noses in it.

ohh n i still think 99% of the media tongue taggarts arse.

 

[Didsbury Dave]

Through spending far too much time on here I honestly think that a large section of our younger fanbase have become permanently damaged by the club spending the last 20 years playing second fiddle to Man United. Us older fans remember City being more or less equals to United in terms of success and fanbase. We remember when City had legions of fans in Manchester, and were acknowledged nationally as one of the country's biggest clubs.

But for fans under about 30 there are a large section who are totally and utterly insecure. Totally paranoid. They see bias in everything. Everyone is accused of being "a rag". Now City have become successful they have become obsessively concerned with comparing the club to United. They are frightened to death that even though we have a better team, United might continue to dominate the headlines.

So you get these "Reds Under The Bed" paranoid blues sitting with the remote control in their hand, counting the number of City goals on the Match of The Day credits and going mad if there aren't more than United. You get people watching Sunday Supplement purely so they can get outraged at a bunch of professional journalists being paid to give a contraversial opinion. You get accusations of pro-United agendas everywhere from the MEN to the BBC to Sky to FIFA to the referees. You get every signing, or non signing, looked at in regards to how it will be perceived by Man United fans.

I can't blame you I suppose. For twenty years in Manchester the majority of kids are United. Most of them are fucking wankers brought up on gloating about a team they only have a passing interest in. It can't have been easy being a blue in a school full of these shallow tossbags.

But can't you hold your heads up and be proper champions? All they are now are an equal footing rival, like Chelsea. Nothing more, nothing less. Stop comparing everything we do with them because the days of City fans needing to do that are gone. They have no Sheikh, they have a Yank parasite. They have no Silva, they have an ageing liar. They have a silent stadium full of tools and are supported around the world by idiots.

We are fucking City. We are fucking champions. It's time some of you young blues got your heads up and acted like it. Stop looking over your shoulders all the time. Stop fretting and feeling insecure about stuff that really doesn't matter.

Whilst I broadly share your sentiments on this, I am slightly more towards the centre, so to speak.

Whilst I agree that some of the paranoia is beyond parody there is no doubt that the media favour united, albeit unconsciously a lot of the time.

This is mainly a function of them being at the top table for so long, rather than anything more especially sinister. A particular case in point is their manager. He is allowed to get away with far more than any other manager in the game. He is allowed to misrepresent ("united teams always try and win"); be petulant and downright rude (refusing to speak to the BBC); hypocritical ("I wouldn't sell them a virus"); make outlandish and wholly incorrect predictions ("not in my lifetime"); insult other clubs in a disrespectful way ("a small club with a small mentality") ; and bring destruction down upon his own club (the Coolmore fiasco).

He can do all these things without fear of the widespread ridicule and derision from the media that would be visited upon any other manager for the same things - Benitez's 'list' being a case in point.

He manages this through a combination of his longevity and success in the job - which granted should give him a degree of leeway; his ability to bully and impose his will upon the press - often resulting in many journalists being banned from the club; and a desire for the media to retain a degree of favour and influence within the one of the most powerful sporting brands on the planet.

Against that backdrop it is understandable that City fans feel there is an agenda of sorts. To what degree depends on each individual's view of how the world works I guess, but it is unreasonable of you to expect fans not to resent the way their local rivals (and by implication their own club) are perceived (and treated) , being dictated by a bully.

I agree with both of you, however this isn't something exclusive to City. For every football club, there is a large element of fans who believe the media, UEFA, Sky, MOTD, etc, have it in for their team. I've found United fans are the worst for this paranoia, and its an attitude fueled by Ferguson. Its far worse than what you'll see on here, because its an unpleasant, "we win too much, and they want to give someone else a chance", "no one likes us because we're the best" mentality, that just reeks off arrogance and self entitlement. Arsenal fans complain there is a media agenda, because they don't have many English players, and UEFA don't like them because of Wenger's fines, Chelsea because of Abramovich's money, and so on. If you look at Liverpool forums, Suarez is what Balotelli is on here, the media are always deliberately looking to pick on him, they don't like him because he's foreign and has an attitude, etc. This feeling isn't restricted to the big teams. Fans of smaller teams complain their side gets hardly any media coverage or credit, and is always last on MOTD. Football is a very one-eyed sport. Fans are usually very defensive about their teams, and often can't see the wood for the trees. Its just the tribal nature of it all.

I totally agree that an element of all football fans in all countries believe the world is conspiring against them. And forums give an outlet to the most extreme of these. The blinkered, the biased and the bullshitters...all can be heard on forums everywhrere. And of course all clubs have their rivals as a pantomime villain, especially two club cities.

But I can't think of another club anywhere who has had such a period of failure transposed against such a period of worldwide success across town. And this summer sections of Bluemoon appears to have 'jumped the shark' with a total obsession with the way the club is perceived externally. Its because we've finally toppled them.