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FAN ARTICLES

Us and Them

By Liam Coulton :  23/04/2011 :  Comments (8) :
Old Trafford

I?d been once before for an England game a long time ago. The first thing that strikes you is its location. It?s essentially sandwiched in a corridor of retail parks. Its size and matchday operation demands space modern stadiums use expertly to make your day a wallet-lightening experience.

The game was a unique one. Manchester United at home to non-league Crawley Town. I boarded the tram at Deansgate for the three-stop journey to Old Trafford tram stop. Once on the train, a theme for the day was set. That was simply the noise from the Crawley faithful who had made the journey north. It was noise that would last all day.

I arrived at Trafford Bar, the stop before my intended departure. Here I decided to disembark in order to have a slightly longer walk to the ground, I had time to kill. Crawley coaches lined the roads of Stretford just south of the Stadium. Flags, scarves and broad smiles spilled out of every watering hole. It was a timely reminder of the magic of a competition, much maligned in recent years...

I stopped for a pre-match pint in Stretford Men?s Social Club. I?m not from Stretford. Alas, the name of the pub wasn?t a rule: I was in. The crowd was a good mix of home and away supporters. This was a working men?s pub, complete with working men. Very few however would actually be attending the game today. It was the first sign of what would follow once I entered the stadium.

After a rather swift two pints, I left the turbo charged social club and headed down past the Trafford Bar toward my meeting point. It was here were I think a trip to Old Trafford becomes glaringly unique. The general crowd is far more family orientated than I?m accustomed to. A large majority of this crowd treat every game like a tourist attraction, as for many it is. It?s a cliché, but a fair one. The amount of cameras made me feel almost celebrity like as I dodged past click after click.

It was somewhat fitting that I was picking up a season ticket in order to gain entry. Manchester United is very proud of the sheer amount of season ticket holders it has. The waiting list to get one is much talked about. It begs the question how many people like me, had picked up someone's ticket today?

The ground is what you?d expect from a large, generally modern stadium. There are no toilet queues and the beer and hotdog operation is military. The atmosphere in the ?belly? of the stadium was muted. The most noise coming from camera clicks that continued to rain down.

Not wanting to miss the players' entrance, I made my way to my seat. I had a small lad in front of me with his granddad. Free seats either side of me, and three twats behind me. Harsh? Probably... More on them later.

Once settled, I was blown away by the noise of the Crawley fans. This was without question their cup final, and they treated it as such. The array of songs more than matched the extensive songbook United fans pride themselves on. They matched United on the pitch too. Not that any one around me noticed. Far too busy in idle conversation to even engage in what was an intriguing cup tie. Wes Brown's opener was met with arrogant applause as the Crawley fans continued to dominate the off-pitch battle. You see the problem here is United expect to win every game they play. And most of the time they do just that.

Firstly there are now a generation of fans that have never experienced genuine failure. The have racked stacked and packed trophies for the last 20 years. The lads behind me have never seen a victory through adversity. Never felt the pain of a relegation struggle. The longest they?ve gone without a trophy is 18 months I?d guess. It?s hardly surprising the lack of respect they afforded a Crawley team out-performing itself. Ultimately, the width of a crossbar separated two teams 93 league places apart. Incredible.

I couldn?t help sitting there thinking of the 8-year-old sat in front of me. He should be staring to that away end with envy; I was. He?ll never experience football the way they will. The majority of the home crowd reeks of middle class faux enthusiasm. It?s a day out, and a sterile one at that. They see their team win a lot, but they?ll never feel attached to the ground they sit in, or the replica shirt they queue to buy. They can have all the trophies in the world, but they don?t have a football team like I have.

I don?t doubt that, once upon a time, United had what most other teams have. That magic that ensures eleven men you?ve never met can make or break your weekend. A stadium that feels like a home. Like-minded supporters who share your passion. We all share something, and we know we do. We support our club in different ways, but we share something. I?m not sure what, we just do.

When did United lose that? When did they become so big that the men in Stretford men?s social club stopped going to the game? When did they make the cost of going to the game prohibitive to the people who care most?

I left Old Trafford proud of whom I support and disappointed Crawley didn?t get the draw their fans and players richly deserved.

I?ve had some devastating moments at Goodison Park. Last-minute sucker punches. Teams who have come and outclassed us. I?ve had some highs too. Derby victories, battling performances and winning when everything says we have no right to. I even cried when we beat the drop in 1997.

When Goodison is bouncing, it rocks ? literally. When we feel aggrieved, the aggression scorches the air. The elation of a vital winner sparks moments so genuine you wish you could bottle it.

I long for the trophies United have. But give me all those trophies and Old Trafford or Goodison Park under the lights when our backs are against the wall and there?s only one winner. We have something they are never getting back and maybe never had.

Reader Comments (8)

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Lee Courtliff
1 Posted 23/04/2011 at 19:30:47
I agree 100% mate.

I suppose I do take some sort of pride in NOT being yet another glory hunter. As though, by saying I support Everton and have only seen us win one trophy in 20 years it makes me better than those armchair fans who only support teams who win things.

Like you said, Goodison under the lights when we have our backs against the wall is unbeatable. In fact, if I could choose my time to die, it would be there. Just as the final whistle blows and we have scored a last minute winner!

Nowhere else I would rather be!
Nigel Tilley
2 Posted 23/04/2011 at 21:16:21
I thoroughly enjoyed and agree wholeheartedly with that post, Liam. Good one!
Dick Fearon
3 Posted 23/04/2011 at 22:21:06
Pathetic defeatist sentiments if you ask me. A desperate search for something, anything, that makes our situation more bearable.
Trevor Mackie
4 Posted 23/04/2011 at 23:47:17
Liam, it pains me to say this ? but that's progress and if this club doesn't buck it's ideas up soon it'll go the way of the Sheffields, Preston, Bolton etc. Famous names who's localities are infiltrated with Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal shirts.

Goodison was built on success ? not failure.
Chris Bannantyne
5 Posted 24/04/2011 at 00:18:05
I live in Sydney, Australia. Born and raised. I suppose I first started 'supporting' Everton because my mum, and her family, are Evertonian Liverpudlians. My mum didn't follow football much, but my grandad certainly did. A blue till he died.

That's only how I started to watch Everton, but doesn't explain how I fell in love with the club and support them as passionately as I do. It would take a lot of emotive language to try and describe it, but that saying of Evertonians are born, not manufactured sort of sums up the way I feel about it.

Here in Australia, amongst the people that follow the English Premier League you will see a TON of Man U shirts, large amounts of Liverpool and Chelsea shirts, little bit less of Arsenal and (these days) a few Tottenham shirts floating around. Everton have a certain amount of supporters, but they are a relatively rare sighting. More common than say Stoke/Wolves etc but no more common than Villa/West Ham. Put it this way, we are on the 'endangered species' list.

The point I'm trying to make is just about everyone is a glory hunter, and in a lot of ways, fair enough... if you have no family/social/emotional ties to a certain area or club in England, but you like to watch good football, chances are you will 'support' a team that are good at playing and winning.

But all these Chelsea and United fans are just so false, such 'tourists' of the game. They just don't UNDERSTAND what it is to love a team. I was actually watching the game last night with one of my best mates, a United 'supporter', and at the end of the game, seeing I was visibly pissed off he said "comiserations mate, I get pissed off too when United lose". And that pissed me off even more. Yeah sure, I love seeing Everton win, but he just doesn't GET it.

I can handle losing if the boys put in a good shift and fight for this club, this name, this identity that I love so much. I get the shits when I feel like the manager/players just go out there for a draw, on one of the world's biggest stages like Old Trafford and play like shit, backs against the wall and not even TRY and show the world our spirit, our determination our PRIDE. A loss I can deal with, a piss-poor effort I cannot.

In response to the OP, great article, you've described Old Trafford to be just how I imagine it. A microcosm of the Australian EPL supporter. Just a bunch of know-all glory seeking bloody tourists.

Matt Traynor
6 Posted 24/04/2011 at 01:47:20
Stereotype much? This reminds me of the way Blackburn went, only on a much greater scale. Two games at Ewood within around 3-4 years summed it up for me. First time was when Blackburn were in the old 2nd Division, generally poor. and we whupped them 4-1 in a cup match. Fast forward a few years with the Walker millions, Shearer (and at that time Newell) up front, and the atmosphere had changed markedly. The fans (more of them) simply expected Rovers to win. Shearer scored 2 penalties that night, but Everton got 2 goals from Cottee and one from Warzycha to win 3-2. The "new" supporters couldn't believe it...

Utd are not that similar. Before relocating to Asia, my last game in UK was at OT on Boxing Day 2003. It was clear the amount of tourists, day trippers, that were scrambling for tickets outside the ground. We had a spare ticket that we ended up selling outside (to a tout I expect), and then an Asian guy was sat in the seat, having paid double for it. The London clubs have this as well ? even Fulham, but maybe less so West Ham. Liverpool have it.

We don't, and likely won't anytime soon. There are many other things that cannot be compared between the two clubs. OT is in an area where it was relatively easy for them to remodel the stadium.

Many of us (and believe it or not, but a fair few Mancs) can recall when they were utter shite in the 80s and early 90s, bar the odd cup win. Even during that time (which also was Everton's most successful period), the media never got on their backs, because of their popular and latent support. Cue Fergie's "luck" in the 1990 FA Cup Final, ECWC and the beginning of unprecedented success, the advent of the Premier League and their story is set.

Everton never had that media profile. Even if our path had been different, it's unlikely it would have changed significantly. The only way it will change in Manchester is if City truly become the dominant team there. If they do that, they'll likely be the dominant team in England. Despite their piss-poor performance in recent seasons, we've still struggled to finish ahead of Liverpool. Outside of Evertonia, who cares?

Finally, so what if they sell beer and pies efficiently? Is something that "simple" not something to aspire to for Everton as well?
Kieran Fitzgerald
7 Posted 24/04/2011 at 19:19:09
I know a lot of Man Utd fans, Liam, and they have a lot of the same types of fears and complaints as we do. When you listen to these complaints, and the passion with which they talk about them and about their club in general, these plastic fans you talk about seem as genuine as any Everton fan I know.

They worry about how Chelsea, Real, Barca and even Arsenal all have more cash than they do. That is where they are right now. We just happen to compare ourselves with teams like Spurs instead of Barca because that is just where we are at right now.

The Man Utd fans I know worry about the fact that, if their one star player, Rooney, doesn't perform, Barca or Real, with their two or three star players each, will play them off the park in the Champions League. We worry about players like Arteta and Fellaini and how the hell we will get to a League Cup Final or a sixth place Premier League finish. That is just where we are right now. A very different level but the same fear.

They worry about the huge debt the club has and about the effect that has nowadays in terms of £200,000 a week player contracts and drawing the big names to the club. We worry about £40,000 a week contracts and how our club debt can cope with this. That is just where they are right now compared to us. Different level but same fear.

Take the signing of Hernandez for example. Last summer, when they signed him, do you think Man Utd fans were delighted? Six million quid for some bloke from Mexico that they'd never heard of?!? Christ, that will have the Chelsea back four quaking in their boots. That was the reaction that I heard. For Man Utd, £6M was as much as they were prepared to spend last summer. For Man Utd fans, this was bargain basement stuff and very depressing. Everton fans last summer would have bitten your hand off to have had that money to spend on one player. Our bargain basement deal was Beckford from League Two for free and for us that was very depressing. Again, different levels but the same fear.

The Man Utd fans I know worry about how they're going to replace Giggs and Scholes and about how Ferdinand is only playing half a season through injuries and they don't have a lot of talent coming through. Do you see Gibson and Fetcher and Carrick as the long term successors to their midfield problems? It's more than just Man Utd fans who will say No. Us, we're selling half the squad every week in the mailbag here just to balance the books.

Given that the world and it's mother knows about the ageing squad that Man Utd have and the fact that they're only on top of the league this season because everyone else has been as crap, or worse, do you really think Liam that every Man Utd fan, even of the younger generation, are oblivious to this or any of the other points I've made above? They're not.

Being a supporter of Crawley, a non-league side, does not make you a dumb supporter just because you support a team who've never had any success. But it doesn't make you the world's best football supporter either, just because you haven't won anything and are used to having to make do with second best and saying that you are there because it is your club.

Just because you're a young Man Utd supporter doesn't automatically make you a idiot either. Yes, many of them do know only success. Yes, some of them swagger about like know-it-alls. But, as I have stated above, the majority of them all would still have genuine concerns about the squad and the club in general that you could also see an Everton fan or Birmingham fan or Blackburn fan have as well.
David S Shaw
8 Posted 24/04/2011 at 21:45:18
Everton have loads of middle class fans who go the game as well. Sorry but that article is shit. Goodison rarely has passion ? cue the excuses to justify this.

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