…For Just ONE Minute!

FEBRUARY 10th sees Manchester United play Manchester City at Old Trafford, a big local game in any season’s calendar but one that is given extra importance this season because it comes four days after the 50th Anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster.

The marking of one of the darkest periods in the football club’s history is important to both the fans and the management – Manchester United as a whole. Some have expressed concern that, given the opposition and the tension between the local rivals, any traditional mark of respect such as a minute’s silence would not be honoured by the visiting fans. Some argue that Manchester City fans would think nothing of ruining what is always a sombre moment. I wonder what people who expect the minutes silence to be disrespected by City fans, make of the latest developments from those in blue.

Manchester City’s own Supporters club have now thrown their hat into the ring and have suggested that the silence be changed to a minute’s applause. United officials to their credit have decided that the silence is the most appropriate course.

Periods of applause have been used to honour talented players in the past and it is in my opinion sometimes appropriate to show appreciation for a talented player and focus more on their particular gifts and the happiness they brought to the supporters. For the Munich remembrance however, I think silence is the only option because the loss was not just one player – it was the loss of players and officials, and the immense feeling of tragedy and grief that hit not only Manchester but the football world. Loss on such a scale in such circumstances should not be met with applause and I think Manchester United are quite right in their insistence that the silent remembrance stands.

Manchester City’s Supporters club seem to only be echoing the uncertainties of some Manchester United fans in that while they want the moment to be respected, they fear it will not be. However you have to question the wisdom of such a suggestion that applause is better as a mark of respect, it is not.

It is better for Manchester City Football Club because, as the City Supporters’ Club secretary says…

“In this way, any idiot who does not share these views (of respect) will be drowned out rather than highlighted.” – KEVIN PARKER, MAN CITY SUPPORTERS’ CLUB CHAIRMAN.

The Man City fan is clearly looking out for his own club. He is looking out for the blue half of the city. The minute’s applause saves Man City the spotlight that would be on them if ‘any idiot’ opens his mouth and the reaction that would follow. If many City fans will not go along with recognition of the disaster what is wrong with them being spotlighted? It will not reflect badly on our team or our club and says everything about them. We probably can expect a few choruses of that awful run way song, but in isolation their voices will not sound so boisterous.

There is of course the possibility that if the City fans start, some of ours will respond and the attempted mark of respect will crumble but I truly hope that does not happen and if there is noise from the away fans, then we keep it to the away fans. That says more than our own reaction would do.

What happens if there is disruption at this game? Will those that predicted it feel happy and content with themselves for making such an insightful point? Will they claim a morale victory? Of course there is a potential for upset at this event but being the first to acknowledge it or being correct in your assumptions will not make anyone cock of the playground, it will simply reflect badly on those involved which is why if City fans insist on being big and clever and making noise there should be a wider reaction against them.

What the Supporters’ Chairman is proposing smacks of self preservation for the club and on the face of it fails to appreciate the depth of feeling that our club have for this period.

Big changes are being made for the football match on this occasion, our own home shirts will lack sponsorship or any of the usual lettering and whilst I am not by any stretch of the imagination the biggest fan of our current club sponsors, I do think it is important to note that to remove such things for this game is a big thing. I don’t care about any ulterior motives that may or may not lie behind it, the simple fact is they agreed to it – they didn’t have to.

I have read today also about some anger about the display of the Babes’ final line up and the United Calypso being ruined by the sponsor AIG in the corner. It is a big deal for big sponsors to make such changes for the football match and it is somewhat naïve to think that they wouldn’t want their name somewhere in the tributes. It would be nice to think that they would be removed from everything and never seen again but in the real world football doesn’t work that way, they paid for the tribute on the front of our stadium and we should expect the sponsors name to be there.

A bigger error is missing the name Busby from the words to the song – in trying to get it right the error will serve as proof to some that our sponsors and our officials are miles away from a connection with this club. Mistakes like this only go to show that what actually makes this day, the Anniversary of the disaster, what it ultimately will be remembered for…is the fans.

The fans of Manchester United will mark the occasion, even in the event of or maybe even in spite of visiting fans not showing respect. Let City deal with City, United fans must be United and if we concentrate on remembering the occasion, the tragedy and the part it played in building Manchester United then surely that will be the most effective tribute we can pay to those that died.

“What is Past is Prologue.”

They Ruined My Headline

“Newcastle United are a massive club. Not in terms of success but they are a massive club.”

A Newcastle United fan shows that they aren’t in fact deluded.

  SOMETIMES the team that has just lost their manager play their first game without him like they should have done when he was there. I have to admit, this was not strictly what happened today as we faced Newcastle, though for forty five minutes when the red United tried and failed to make the breakthrough, I did wonder if they would eventually have the last laugh. Newcastle United’s team had a strangely familiar look to it with Nicky Butt and Alan Smith in midfield. Nicky Butt seems to have gone through an on off love affair with the Newcastle fans and it seems they finally may now be taking to him. Although the Toon Army are a funny lot so maybe acceptance isn’t on the cards for Butty just yet, but they should admit that he does a job for them.    ”If you ignore the chances Manchester United had during the game, it easily could have been a draw!”

Given to Score  hero Alan Smith was back at Old Trafford. He got a well deserved welcome from the Manchester United faithful. They will always be grateful for the blood shed for the Old Trafford cause by that man, and many were sorry to see him go but football is like that and old loyalties were forgotten fairly quickly on both sides. The result makes the look one sided and in the second half it was, but that was only after chances galore failed to find the net. How Wayne Rooney did not bag a goal today is a question which he may still be asking himself. How the home team were not awarded at least one of the two stone wall penalties we could have had, is a question which Rob Styles can ask himself. We certainly asked him from our seats, along with the hail of words which I cannot repeat, I have a picture of my impressionable little brother in my wallet and familes read this website!  Steven Taylor certainly left his leg their for Ronaldo in the first instance, the Newcastle defender can be happy with his performance today when you consider that he was in the right place for goal line clearances in the second half. There were very few plus points for the visitors today and he was the only player to go and salute the visiting pogoing Newcastle United fans at the end of the game. Maybe another who would have applauded was Alan Smith, had he been on the pitch at the time.

Continue reading “They Ruined My Headline”

Newcastle Down Stale

YET again this season Manchester United met an opposition just after they had seen fit to rid themselves of a manager. Previously, Jose Mourinho departed Chelsea before his team came to Old Trafford, and now we met Newcastle United without Sam Allardyce.  Newcastle United fans have requested that fans of other clubs keep themselves to themselves and leave the opinions on the St James’ Park club, to those who know them best – the fans. They believe that Newcastle United are a special breed, a team apart and that during bad times they can be left alone to lick their wounds.

I don’t remember such ‘leave us to it’ reactions during the mid nineties when they were apparently Sky Sports’ favourite team and they were gunning for the title. They wanted all the attention then.  Everyone else has an opinion on the Newcastle debate and I will leave it alone once I have made three points. Sam Allardyce seemed to get the job at St James Park for working on a shoe string at Bolton, but also working out what the team’s strengths were and playing to those. It is perhaps then a little naïve to think that with a supposedly bigger club, he would change his ideas on how to play. Eventually Newcastle seemed to fight for free kicks and lump the ball from back to front. It was this display at Bolton that got him the Newcastle United job and it was the fear of this happening to the Toon army that meant he was never a fan favourite, apart from the opening day when they loved him. 

Newcastle United fans seem to be the most deluded ones in the league. They believe that simply because they haven’t had success or won trophies since the abacus was the hip new must-have product, that they deserve it. They do not. By that reckoning Bury FC deserves to win the European Cup this season. They believe they are special because even though they constantly disappoint their ever so demanding fans, fifty thousand of them turn up every week to see the poor show. THAT is loyalty, I will give them that. The fact that they are in essence a one club city has nothing to do with it, obviously.  As a side note it is worth remembering that the year United were in the second tier, Old Trafford saw the league’s highest attendances of the season. Newcastle United did not write the book on still supporting a football team during dark days. 

Finally, Alan Shearer is a clever man. It is very unlikely he will come anywhere near the manager’s job at the current time because I suspect he knows the task of steadying the ship is beyond him. Without experience, it is. Even those with experience are not dying to take the job. If Alan Shearer took it now and failed he would be yet another legend that returns to his old stomping ground, flatters to deceive and leaves the team and his reputation with the fans in a bad state. If Alan Shearer really thinks about it, the best time for him to ride in on a white horse and save the day would be following the Geordies’ relegation. Then the Shearer day can truly dawn! If Newcastle stop thinking that they are any kind of sleeping giant, they may have a chance. They are a small club with high expectations that they have no real right to possess.  If they accept that they are in trouble and need a manager who is good at that style of management, rather than the big name they demand then they can start to turn the corner. Unfortunately for them, they came to Old Trafford to underline the latest dark period in their history.

Today’s result can see them end that chapter and move on.