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

Didsbury Dave said:
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.
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I think it is a football fan thing, their fans are just the same, the fans i know really really hate the 'This is how it feels to be City' song and dread us signing everyone left right and centre, after we laughed at Bebe they really werent happy and for many the level of bile and vitriol aimed towards City was staggering, some of their fans knowing about who we were signing or linked to more than i did (I got bored of being linked with everyone under the sun and stopped reading rumours etc). These are people who have won everything and are scared, constantly commenting on City, it cant be for the same reasons as City fans but its very similar result. If you read rag cafe many are thinking there is an agenda against them as well.

Liverpool fans are amongst the most paranoid about, just mention Louis Suarez to them and how they feel about the Terry case against his. Every club outside the top 4 thinks there is top or sky 4 bias. Championship clubs think Premier League clubs get decisions in cup games. Football in general, is a very one eyed sport, with fans finding it hard to see the other sides point of view, its the nature of the beast that they only see themselves suffering injustice and not another side they couldnt care less about. Whilst i agree we should be worrying about ourselves and not others, football just doesnt work that way...
 
I think you are doing a lot of us 30 something's a disservice. Sure, I watch Sunday Suppliment, but I'm not going to be anymore outraged than someone who remembers our late 60's/70's success.

I think people are going to be using the comparisons of results and the opinions of rags on our signings simply to berate our red neighbours. It's not about anything else other than to berate those horrible rags

My twopenneths worth anyway.
 
Great post that DD.

Its not just the younger fans who have the aversion though.

There are plenty of older fans who are obsessed with them lot and at times and after reading your post I realise that although I don't view myself that way, others may.

The only thing that used to get me was no-marks, knobheads, people who you knew had zero social skills, character or backbone....laughing at me and my club....simply because their success gave them a voice.

I don't think I go over the top now, i'm magnaminous in victory....but I never miss an opportunity to remind them that their days of dominance are over.

The consequence of them dominating is that they have no response, no wit, no charm or riposte.......you just don't get anything back, no banter.....just a clumsy...come back when you've got 19 or something stoopid like that.....you'll never be as big as ManU...etc etc.

They certainly don't like it up em though, and you can see the fear in most of their faces and hear it in their voices...!!
 
lancs blue said:
Mostly agree with DD but I would say that even 20 years ago there was an unhealthy obsession with what the rags were doing. That 4-0 thrashing of Leeds towards the end of 91/92 for example. Lots of supposed City fans moaning on the way out about our best performance of the season because it had "handed the title to the rags" (it didn't, Leeds won it anyway). Cheering goals against City at Villa Park because it might help stop the rags - pathetic.
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Agree completely. This so called 'obsession' with the rags isn't a new way of thinking, it's been happening for many years and won't stop anytime soon. They are exactly the same anyway, all I hear from United fans is how they compare to our squad, our support and so on.
 
lancs blue said:
Mostly agree with DD but I would say that even 20 years ago there was an unhealthy obsession with what the rags were doing. That 4-0 thrashing of Leeds towards the end of 91/92 for example. Lots of supposed City fans moaning on the way out about our best performance of the season because it had "handed the title to the rags" (it didn't, Leeds won it anyway). Cheering goals against City at Villa Park because it might help stop the rags - pathetic.
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but what I'm saying is we don't need to be like that any more. Sure, hate them. I certainly do. I despise their club because it's a money making machine followed by people with no soul. But we don't need to panic about every ticket sold in case it isn't a sellout. We don't need to look at every prediction made in case it isn't us. We don't need to worry about every song sung and every banner or atmosphere in case it's 'embarrassing'.

They are in our shadow now. Get your heads up and give it them with both barrels.
 
I know what the OP means, I had a string of texts off a mate flapping about how worried he was about the rags RVP signing. I gave my view that neither club particularly needed him. He then went on to say that the main problem is that they have now changed the Aguero - Phil Jones song. Give me strength, who gives a toss?
 
Didsbury Dave said:
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.
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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 some of what the OP writes, but part of it is that United are our most important rivals - They are our local rival, and because they were the main barrier in the way of FA Cup and League titles, and because worldwide, the bars have more United fans in them voicing their disdain about City. In Austin, the main "soccer" pub will have about 30 United fans on any game day. Not a single Chelsea fan showed up for the Community shield. Not one. About 50 United fans were there last year. You can't banter with opposing fans if they don't show up. Also, from my experience, United fans are SO much more fun to wind up than other fans... United fan groups seem to have a higher proportion of knobs who believe that somehow they have destiny on their side and that Ferguson has been touched by a deity, and any time they don't win everything there is something massively unfair going on. Plus - there is no other fan group last year that was singing "This is how it feels to be City, this is how it feels to be small... right up until about the 91st minute of the QPR game when they grew strangely quiet and started to slink off out of the back door.

I'm sorry, but I could take not winning the league this year if we finish above United. Watching them win it would be unbearable. That's how I feel.
 
I don't disagree with most of what you've posted, GDM. But we've just knocked the old twat off his perch. He's looking like Brian clough now. The time for fear and insecurity has passed.

We are the big story now. It really doesn't matter if we have 100 unsold tickets for Ipswich away.
 
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