What does it take to be considered a real City fan?

[Oystercatcher28]

I first watched City 10 weeks before I was born and have been everywhere with City since, I attend every training session and wear so much Blue I look like a smurf.

Simply to love City, is a start. Liking City is not enough.

 

[George Hannah]

quiet pride in the greatest football club on earth

 

[Lucky Toma]

Pessimism and class.

 

[zeddie]

Very good thread OP. I started supporting City after moving to Manchester from Dubai around 2003 for uni. Before this I wasnt really into footy and certainly didnt support anyone. Most of my mates at uni were rag supporters unfortunately and had a touch of arrogance about them. I knew blue was my colour.. After the take over i moved back to dubai where to my delight pretty much everyone who was into football was a blue. (more so because of the take over of course)

Im a blue member and every time i visit the UK for work, i do my best to attend matches. I doubt i have missed watching a city game yet, either on tv or at the etihad. They show every single premier league game here. After i got married last year, i made sure my wife was a blue.. she attended her first game last month and loved it. Boy would i love to move to Manchester again!! I wouldnt miss a game live. Anyone looking for a decent IT Support Analyst in the area,pls let me know..

Of course ive been called a glory hunter and all sorts.. but what did i do to glory hunt when i was a 23 year old at uni supporting a team that was then local to me and certainly not in the top 4 of the prem? I could have easily picked the other local team if i wanted to follow the crowd. I couldnt be more proud of what we achieved so far, but my pride has no arrogance. I walked around wearing my TOURE shirt this weekend with a sly grin, because nothing makes me happier than seeing us win. (Wife, if youre reading this then im sorry)

There is an immense amount of arab support for city here in the UAE for obvious reasons.. but in these parts, in terms of hard core passion, commitment and pure love of being a blue, no one here comes close! Im with you for life City, through the good times and the bad.

 

[Anonymous]

Very good thread OP. I started supporting City after moving to Manchester from Dubai around 2003 for uni. Before this I wasnt really into footy and certainly didnt support anyone. Most of my mates at uni were rag supporters unfortunately and had a touch of arrogance about them. I knew blue was my colour.. After the take over i moved back to dubai where to my delight pretty much everyone who was into football was a blue. (more so because of the take over of course)

Im a blue member and every time i visit the UK for work, i do my best to attend matches. I doubt i have missed watching a city game yet, either on tv or at the etihad. They show every single premier league game here. After i got married last year, i made sure my wife was a blue.. she attended her first game last month and loved it. Boy would i love to move to Manchester again!! I wouldnt miss a game live. Anyone looking for a decent IT Support Analyst in the area,pls let me know..

Of course ive been called a glory hunter and all sorts.. but what did i do to glory hunt when i was a 23 year old at uni supporting a team that was then local to me and certainly not in the top 4 of the prem? I could have easily picked the other local team if i wanted to follow the crowd. I couldnt be more proud of what we achieved so far, but my pride has no arrogance. I walked around wearing my TOURE shirt this weekend with a sly grin, because nothing makes me happier than seeing us win. (Wife, if youre reading this then im sorry)

There is an immense amount of arab support for city here in the UAE for obvious reasons.. but in these parts, in terms of hard core passion, commitment and pure love of being a blue, no one here comes close! Im with you for life City, through the good times and the bad.

If you have supported City since 2003 (and we were by no means great then even with Kevin Keegan in charge) you are a real City fan no doubt. Enjoy these good times and hopefully they will last for a generation. Continue to spread the word in the UAE and fingers crossed for these last 10 games we have, starting hopefully with you being able to see City win at Old Trafford tomorrow and the Emirates on Saturday.

Being a real City fan you will be nervous as I am for both games (Real City fans are nervous even when the team is in great form as we always have those slight doubts in the back if our mind that it can quickly all go so very wrong - "Cityitis" as they call it).

On a more general point, can anyone who has supported City for a couple of decades or more, pinpoint a specific period when they were always fully confident when going to see City, of City winning games no matter who the opposition i.e. a spell when for whatever reason logical or ill-logical you felt City will win. Is it just in recent times or can anyone remember distinct timeframes when they felt this. I starting following City in the 70' and for some reason the one time I truly felt when going to watch City they would always win, was oddly enough under the period when John Bond was manager up to the 81 Cup Final (which of course they eventually lost, but there was spell when Gow, Hutchison, MacDonald et al were playing that made me think victory would always be achieved.

Anyone super confident about beating Utd tomorrow ?

 

[Idontpullout]

Very good thread OP. I started supporting City after moving to Manchester from Dubai around 2003 for uni. Before this I wasnt really into footy and certainly didnt support anyone. Most of my mates at uni were rag supporters unfortunately and had a touch of arrogance about them. I knew blue was my colour.. After the take over i moved back to dubai where to my delight pretty much everyone who was into football was a blue. (more so because of the take over of course)

Im a blue member and every time i visit the UK for work, i do my best to attend matches. I doubt i have missed watching a city game yet, either on tv or at the etihad. They show every single premier league game here. After i got married last year, i made sure my wife was a blue.. she attended her first game last month and loved it. Boy would i love to move to Manchester again!! I wouldnt miss a game live. Anyone looking for a decent IT Support Analyst in the area,pls let me know..

Of course ive been called a glory hunter and all sorts.. but what did i do to glory hunt when i was a 23 year old at uni supporting a team that was then local to me and certainly not in the top 4 of the prem? I could have easily picked the other local team if i wanted to follow the crowd. I couldnt be more proud of what we achieved so far, but my pride has no arrogance. I walked around wearing my TOURE shirt this weekend with a sly grin, because nothing makes me happier than seeing us win. (Wife, if youre reading this then im sorry)

There is an immense amount of arab support for city here in the UAE for obvious reasons.. but in these parts, in terms of hard core passion, commitment and pure love of being a blue, no one here comes close! Im with you for life City, through the good times and the bad.

I started supporting around the same time. in the years to follow. we had to witness a john macken and antoine sibierski strike partnership. but i think the one that takes the cake was when stuart pearce said that bringing steve wigley in as an assistant would be our signing of the season. fun times.

 

[SaddleworthBlueRhino]

That knowing look of recognition that City fans share when they meet or pass a fellow blue.

 

[Pigeonho]

That knowing look of recognition that City fans share when they meet or pass a fellow blue.

That's one that is bang on the money, well played sir.

 

[gordondaviesmoustache]

It’s pretty common to see posters questioning whether someone is a real City fan or not, but it’s a pointless debate unless everyone has the same understanding of what being a real City fan actually means. Not that we’re ever likely to come to a consensus, but just out of interest to see the range of opinions, what’s your definition? (it's trickier than you might expect, when you try to spell it out)

For me, the simplest definition is someone who would want City to win in any game we could possibly play. You might like City a lot, but if you have stronger feelings for another team, then I don't think you can call yourself a real City fan (this seems a bit harsh if you follow City as well as, say, a lower division team, but I can't think of any way around it - if the two teams played and you didn't want City to win, it's hard to consider yourself a real City fan). I don’t think it matters where you were born, or how many games you’ve been to, how many generations of your family have supported them, or how long you’ve supported them. If City are your number one team now, you’re a real City fan in my opinion.

Think you are correct in what you say.

If you are a City fan you have no second team, or a soft spot for another team such as Bury, Wigan , Stockport etc (particularly with the fact that we have lost to such teams at various times) or follow another team in Spain, Germany , South America etc.

As a City supporter you want the first team to win every game and all the reserve\youth teams and now the Womens' team also. If New York City now represent the City family also, you want them to win the MLS (especially beating any team from Miami and also the LA Galaxy).

You want City to win every trophy, none of this prioritisation nonsense, and in particular win every Derby match.

If City are winning 4-0 you want them to put the opposition to the sword even more,5-0, 6-0 etc, no easing off (as we did when 4-0 up against Utd last September)

Imagine a scenario (hopefully it will never come true), but City were playing Liverpool who were chasing the title with Utd, and a City win would hand the title to Utd. If you support City you would still want City to beat Liverpool.

As a City fan you are aware of the History of the club not just the recent 3 years of winning but also the 1937 and 1968 title winners and the FA and League cup wins in 1904, 34, 56, 69, 70, 76 and thus far, our 1 European win in 1970, and aware of Citys' players (past and present from Eric Brook and Frank Swift to Sergio Aguero and Joe Hart) and are aware or have memories of the dark days from 1977 - 2010 when we won nothing at all and had to endure embarrassing defeats to Halifax, Shrewsbury, Brighton HA, Bury, Oldham, Stockport (which made the recent Cup defeats to Wigan even more sensitive) and losing 8-1 to Middlesbrough etc, and the brief chinks of light i.e. 10-1 v Huddersfield, 5-1 v Utd, 5-1 promotion day v Charlton, 4-1 promotion day away at Blackburn, Play off win v Gillingham, 4-3 comeback v Spurs in the FA Cup, 3-1 win v Utd in the last Maine Road Derby, 4-1 v Utd in the first Derby at the Etihad etc.

 

[Juan King]

You have to be one of the 50k that was at York away!