Why are Manchester United scum?

[CHAPPERS]

Ders Lynam spent his formative years in Brighton at Varndean school. Anyway, why can't people who move to the area support the Albion, surely at this time when thousands of 'non-locals' are moving to our town we should be encouraging them to watch us? f*** sake.

Anyhoo, I don't hate Man United and I find the anti-United stuff extremely boring. Do people feel the same about the Old Firm, Real Madrid, Barca, Chelsea, Arsenal? It surely can't be ALL because of when they FAIRLY beat us in '83?

 

[Simster]

Ders Lynam spent his formative years in Brighton at Varndean school. Anyway, why can't people who move to the area support the Albion, surely at this time when thousands of 'non-locals' are moving to our town we should be encouraging them to watch us? f*** sake.

Anyhoo, I don't hate Man United and I find the anti-United stuff extremely boring. Do people feel the same about the Old Firm, Real Madrid, Barca, Chelsea, Arsenal? It surely can't be ALL because of when they FAIRLY beat us in '83?

What he said.

(Except I DO hate the Old Firm)

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Sorry but having years of my childhood ruined by knobheads constantly ramming it down my throat that "us" and "we", a team 300 miles away (or whatever it is) are the best team in the world, double winners etc while my beloved team were languishing at the bottom of the football league has totally tarnished my image of them.

So yeah, I f***ing hate them

 

[Shegull]

But as he's lived in England for years, he's now English.

That obviously explains why every other Irish person who made it big in England is automatically considered to be English

Oh and you can keep Terry Wogan

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Oh and how many Man United shirts do you see around town these days? I see much more Albion shirts in fact. Funny that!

 

[REDLAND]

Oh and how many Man United shirts do you see around town these days? I see much more Albion shirts in fact. Funny that!

Thats a FACT and a very good one too.

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Maybe all these devoted, life long Man United fans who's grandad once went on business to Manchester and brought them back a Bobby Charlton t-shirt which started their endless love affair with the club have all just gone into hiding

 

[maffew]

there were an absolute shit load of chelsea shirts about yesterday, see more of them than utd definately now. nice shirt actually.

not got a problem with united myself, raised more decent english talent through its youth system over the last 12 years than chelsea or arsenal and usually quite entertaining to watch

 

[Herne Hill Seagull]

Every time I start to think that there's a slight danger I might be warming to them (when they play good football, for example) something happens that reminds me why I hate them so.

Examples? 1997/8 Charity Shield, I was walking up Wembley Way, there was a Barnet fan there trying to canvas signatures for their petition to their council, seeking a new stadium (sounding familiar so far?) I didn't see a single Utd fan sign, though plenty of Chelsea fans did. One Utd fan went over to bloke with clipboard, asked him what it was all about, and when told it was for Barnet said 'Nah, they're shit' and walked away. That kind of billy big-bollock, don't give a shit about the rest of the game attitude absolutely epitomises everything I dislike about them. (I accept that other clubs, particularly at the top end of the Premiership, are going the same way).

In modern times, there's the rampant commercialism (removing the words 'football club' from your badge, FFS), Rooney's posturing, Ferguson's complete absence of good grace and outraged reaction when it turned out there was now a manager in the league who could play the 'mind games' as well as he does, their poaching of kids from other clubs' academies (flying them to Manchester to bend the 1 hour travel rule), I could go on....

There's always Whiteside, in '83 aswell, dirty c*nt. Won fairly? They did what they always do when things ain't going their way - kick somebody out of the game (copyright Whiteside, Keane, Solskjaer v. Liverpool etc etc) and intimidate the ref (copyright whole bloody side and manager). If all else fails, there's always the 'accuse the FA of being biased towards your main rivals' to fall back on, eh Fergie?

In any case, while I accept that there are die-hard Utd fans, going to every game, sick of the 'tourists', Palace also have die-hard, turn-up-every-week supporters, and it seems to be OK to dislike them, doesn't it? I can't see why it's unacceptable in some eyes to not like Utd, whatever our reasons - ain't that what football support and its attendant tribalism is about? Who said it had to be rational?

 

[elbowpatches]

It does sadden me to see so many kids wearing premiership club shirts in Cambridge. No-one supports the local club, they are now conference, but still. Kids who support Ipswich and Norwich though in Cambs I can understand, but Newcastle/Man Utd/Liverpool etc? Jesus wept. Whenever I ask kids in the school I teach at why, it is 'because they are good'. Really angers me.

However, there is a girl I teach who wears a Leeds shirt because her dad is a die hard supporter, that I can accept, if I ever have any kids they will support the Albion no matter where we live!!!

 

[Yoda]

With my generation their reputation has been ruined by growing up with kids who "supported" them avidly, had the Man United full replica strip, watch and jockstrap while we were rotting in Gillingham.

Remember when we played Man United in the league cup at The Goldstone? At school the next day EVERY kid who went sat in the away end and were cheering that they won!

And who remembers when Birthdays in Western Rd had an upstairs devoted to Man United? In the middle of Brighton!!!

I think all the little kids supporting them because they win all the time has passed and people are growing up.

I nipped out at lunch for about 15 minutes and saw 5 people (adult & children) with football gear on. 1 Everton, 2 Chelsea and 2 ALBION!!!.

 

[El Presidente]

Rooney sums up all that is good and bad about United. Excellent player, but scored against the club he used to be a ball boy for and who gave him his chance in football.

What does he do, quietly pops back to the half way line and shows respect to the fans who used to revere him OR slides on his arse with a big gormless grin and starts giving it large?

 

[Oleg_McNoleg]

Seems perfectly natural that people don't like Man Utd - pushed football further into the over-commercialised, predictable, and increasingly lifeless world than any other club. The fact that others like Chelski and Arsenal have also joined doesn't change that. The club spends more time working out how to fleece new 'supporters' in the far east than the looking after loyal ones down the road.
And what is it with these Cockney Reds, Brummie Reds, etc? Don't see Manchester-based Spurs fans making such a song and dance about supporting a team from the other end of the country, do you?
And all this is before you take 1983 into account (and, yes, I do also dislike Notts County).

 

[Meade's Ball]

I hate them partially because i'm jealous. They have everything and because they have so many fans, it's all i'd hear about at uni. There was no real competition for them in the 90s and that made them just like Pete Sampras, and i hate Pete Sampras and Steven Hendry and Steve Davis. Until they stop winning all the time. I hate them less now. It is was painfully predictable and i wanted it to end.

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

Rooney sums up all that is good and bad about United. Excellent player, but scored against the club he used to be a ball boy for and who gave him his chance in football. What does he do, quietly pops back to the half way line and shows respect to the fans who used to revere him OR slides on his arse with a big gormless grin and starts giving it large?

The Everton crowd have given Rooney serious abuse on the occasions that he's returned there with Man Utd. So how is he supposed to react when he scores?

 

[Herne Hill Seagull]

By scoring, he's already made his point LB. By gesturing to the crowd you're also gesturing to everybody in that section who hasn't made any abusive noise, and, in his case apparently, a section (Gwladys St. end) which contains members of his extended family to this day.

For me, being booed does not give a footballer carte blanche to make gestures at a crowd which could incite the more idiotic among them to kick up something considerably worse than some bad language. Utd have a history of it - remember Beckham at Chelsea? Rooney at Anfield, as well as Everton. Hardly likely to endear them to an already less than adoring public, I think.

 

[Kent Seagull]

In the same way as you don't choose which country to support, I mean to say, who'd support France just because they won the World Cup (apart from the frogs)?

The same applies to club level, you support a local team that you actually can go and see, not the team that wins the league or FA cup or whatever. It's just not right to pick a team to support just because they happen to be good or you think their shirts look nice. There's a clue in the name of the club, it's all about where you come from. Football is a local sport for local people!

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I've quite liked ManU for the last couple of years, have to admit, ever since the News Of The World ran a two page article on how shares in that esteemed PLC were cheap as chips at 128 pence. So I bought some. I'd have much rather bought some shares in the Albion, through a Supporters trust, but the offer wasn't there. Twice a year ManU sent me cheques big enough to cover the cost of an Albion match ticket and a Saturday's worth of beers. Once a year they sent me this big glossy annual report which offered much insight into the nuts and bolts of how a club is run. When they sold Beckham to Real Madrid they sent me a hundred quid cheque for no reason at all, so far as I could see. Then they made me sell me shares on to Malcolm Glazer for three quid a throw. Would seem rather churlish to call them scum under the circumstances

 

[Kent Seagull]

The Everton crowd have given Rooney serious abuse on the occasions that he's returned there with Man Utd. So how is he supposed to react when he scores?

What did Rooney say just before he moved to Man U? Once a blue always a blue? What bollocks. Fat overpaid twat.

 

[Hungry Joe]

Thing is, to hate them you have to give a shit so no, I don't hate Man Utd because I don't give a shit about them. I don't understand how any Brighton fan can be that passionately anti Man Utd seeing as we haven't had any kind of competition with them in over a decade. 1983? I was there, get over it. We were slightly unlucky not to win the first game and were shit in the replay and soundly beaten by a better side. Now Reading......