The future Manchester City fan

[yankcitizen76]

I've been an American Man City fan since 2006 and I can honestly say that glory hunting or "only cheering when we are winning," is the last thing
I experience. As someone who loves football culture and discussing the sport online, the one thing I can say that comes with being a City fan is ABUSE. I go to one of the of the few football pubs in my town, somewhere to watch MOTD on NBC, or maybe some late City match, and "Boooo," is all I get from the massed Liverpool or Celtic faithful, Just try changing the channel!
If I go into a IRC or other online chat room, I am always the only City fan in there and always receive the biggest amount of crap from other fans. It is
almost as if the accepted subject in chat includes Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool (and sometimes. Porto for some weird reason.)
I am a fairly fanatic City fan, wear club patches on all my clothes, own several kits, and sport a tattoo and I almost never miss a game.
Winning is nice, but the club wasn't wining trophies when I became a fan. Can most American Man City fans from small towns understand where I
am coming from? You're friends give you crap for liking 'soccer?' Feel ostracized? Feel like part of a small minority? I sure do!

 

[dronefromsector7g]

I've been an American Man City fan since 2006 and I can honestly say that glory hunting or "only cheering when we are winning," is the last thing
I experience. As someone who loves football culture and discussing the sport online, the one thing I can say that comes with being a City fan is ABUSE. I go to one of the of the few football pubs in my town, somewhere to watch MOTD on NBC, or maybe some late City match, and "Boooo," is all I get from the massed Liverpool or Celtic faithful, Just try changing the channel!
If I go into a IRC or other online chat room, I am always the only City fan in there and always receive the biggest amount of crap from other fans. It is
almost as if the accepted subject in chat includes Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool (and sometimes. Porto for some weird reason.)
I am a fairly fanatic City fan, wear club patches on all my clothes, own several kits, and sport a tattoo and I almost never miss a game.
Winning is nice, but the club wasn't wining trophies when I became a fan. Can most American Man City fans from small towns understand where I
am coming from? You're friends give you crap for liking 'soccer?' Feel ostracized? Feel like part of a small minority? I sure do!

Fuck em, you're better than them.

 

[lloydie]

It will change, but I have a feeling it will have to change for us to be a world wide 'brand' that our owners want to be.

You look at big clubs, United, Munich, Barca, Madrid... They have this winning mentality that is shifted from the stands to the pitch. Confidence/arrogance what ever you want to call it is what brings ruthlessness, and that's what we need to be to replicate success these other clubs have shown.

Don't mean to be disrespectful but how long will this take? 3 of the clubs you mentioned were huge in the late 50's the other in the early 70,s ,don't think I,ll be around for the ride,considering I was at the Utd / Madrid game in 68.

Bloody hell!

You have , you really have, just done the "Not in my lifetime" speech.

I'm in awe.

*applauds*

 

[Gary James]

"Plastics" are easily denigrated but do they really swap allegiance at a whim? Or is it the case that the team of the moment attracts a high proportion of new supporters, who then stick with their team just like anyone else?

I think it is mostly this. Generally people stick with their club even if the bad times come. Red Dippers haven't exactly monopolised the trophy haul over the past 20 years and you still see fans of them in great numbers all over the world.

I do notice that some aspects of the our culture seep slowly but surely to newer fans. Be it from visiting these boards, or reading Gary James' books, or just from exposure to the worldwide pestilence of rag fans. So in the end I think these matters will sort themselves out well enough.

Thanks for the comment. I really appreciate that. I've always tried to get to grips with what it's like being a City fan throughout history as I know my own personal experience will vary from my granddad's, dad's, children, and those in 1880 who lay the groundwork for what became MCFC. By trying to understand those periods I hope to build an impression of what it's like to be a Blue (hopefully Farewell To Maine Road was the one book of mine that did this best) and so I really do appreciate any positive comments like these. Thanks.

On 'new' fans... for me the best example of what can happen is our Scandinavian support. Back in the early 70s Norwegians predominantly had British football on their TVs and various supporters groups began to spring up for the leading clubs. If this was to happen today we'd probably call them plastic fans or something but back then we just accepted the new interest as a positive thing and, for City, the Norwegian Blues were founded. Since the mid 1970s that group has remained intensely loyal - even though we've endured our worst years as a club - and anyone who spends even ten minutes in their company cannot be anything but impressed at their knowledge, interest and love for the Blues. In many ways they have proved to be more dedicated than many fans living within a couple of miles of the ground.

If the majority of 'new' fans around the world follow the example of the Scandinavian Blues (who have now been officially a supporters branch for around 4 decades!) then we will have a truly great supporter base with passionate fans around the world.