What makes what you've described even more tragically comical is that certain united fans refer to Forest and Leeds as 'proper clubs' without any hint of irony that it was their club that consciously thrust the knife into those clubs' very existence as a leading footballing force. They talk nostalgically about their rivalry with Leeds United, like a wife-beater talks about the early days of his courtship with his battered and bruised missus. It's even more ironic given our place in the footballing firmamant at that time, which was considerable.
To some, football exists within a comically narrow and foolish prism. united, as a footballing institution, are hugely guilty in that regard. If they'd been on the ball between 2008 and 2011 the footballing landscpace would be very different today. They were too focused on dismissing and belittling us, to advance what they stood for and represented.
But they weren't. Their bloated arrogance allowed us to conquer, within a decade, the same mountain they'd taken a whole generation to climb. united fans love to try and use where we were a decade ago as a stick to beat us with, but the reality is it should be us that are taking the piss out of them for that. That we've been allowed to slip so seamlessly into the very heart of the European footballing establishment without any signs of meanwhile resistance should give them cause for serious self-examination, but it won't. They'll keep on telling themselves how good they are at pulling rabbits out of the hat and how their history will always trump whatever anyone else can bring to the table, but the rules of history aren't fixed like the laws of physics or chemistry.
Let them dream. A sinking man will always cling to whatever wreckage floats his way. It doesn't have any bearing of the...errr.....massve currents that are coming his way. They can thrash and complain all they want; the tide has turned and it's just a matter of time before the inevitable happens.
Hope dies last.
