It does make me laugh that any rag (known) you meet at work invariably say they “lost interest” in football or that they “fell out of love” with the game in recent years. Weird really!
We don’t have many Rag mates in our mates group, but all three of them are the same in that regard. “Football’s not as good as it used to be anymore”.
This is so true. All the guys who were flag wavers in the 1990s and were "propa fans" are now complaining about how bad they've got it because they might only finish sixth.
Forget the money, this is the very clear difference between City and United fans. We will never be as arrogant to pretend the sky is falling from a finish that almost every club in this country would kill to achieve. The "higher expectations" is just another excuse for people's entitlement.
We've been through the shit ourselves so we don't laugh at that. Nobody on here was laughing at Derby or Oldham or a host of other clubs who were in the thick of it. We are pissing ourselves though at the Barcelonas and the Man Uniteds of the world entirely because their mismanagement and falling skies have landed them as only one of the top sides in the country instead of the top side. We laugh at the unbelievable misfortune entirely because it's not an unbelievable misfortune to finish sixth but instead a respectable league position.
All these guys who have "lost interest" now that they're not winning every trophy; I think back to how adamant that they were about how their passion for their club would never waver and they'd get 70,000 in Division One, no problem. The way their fans are losing interest, they'd be lucky to get 700 at this rate.
The best thing about the last few years is that it has confirmed what we always said about United fans - they're not football fans. They don't sit and watch Southampton vs Brentford on a Monday night and be intrigued by the game. They're bandwagoners who found a cause to get behind to enrich their pathetic and miserable existences through reflected glory and success, and now the reflection is becoming dustier then they find themselves less attracted to it and looking for the next soulless entity to jump onboard. Not another football club, that's breaking the rules of support and they need to keep some form of thin support so if United ever do bounce back then they can claim the "hard times" scout badge for their sash. These are the same fuckers who love clapping for the NHS or got very excited for women's football that they'll forget about in six minutes time. How's the cricket going? Maybe that will be the next thing?
This isn't every United fan obviously, but it's a significantly higher proportion of them than any of their fans care to admit. Not guys in Indonesia but Mancs who are matchgoers aswell. Our support for our club was always about City, their support for their club was always about them. That is, and will always be, the difference between us.