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I used to be a fan. Played very regularly, but very casually, as a teenager. Just got bored of the direction the game was going, about 15 years ago. I'm now 43. I understand the passion. I just see it as a platform to advertise gambling to kids now.
Quite funny that it’s Man United supporters, the club which was the first to really embrace commercialism, who are now realising it’s not all it was cracked up to be.
They've been protesting against the Glazers since 2005 - hardly a new thing. Some of them even formed their own club:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F.C._United_of_Manchester
Indeed. And the protests were most vociferous during arguably the clubs most successful period, in 2010 with 3 back to back premiership titles and a champions league
I never thought I'd be on here sticking up for Man U fans!
Why not just go to a grass roots game ???
I do, at least did when things were open. I've been to Knaphill, Westfield and Guildford City games several times, but only as a diversion, for some Saturday afternoon entertainment (also because that was the sort of standard I played BITD). I can't raise the same interest in who wins as I can for my home town club (Reading, truly my team as an ex ST holder, followed them home and away when I was younger and had no commitments, etc) or my true first love (NUFC - my mum's home town and hence the games above with my Grandad)
I never thought I’d be on here sticking up for Man U fans!
It must have got a lot easier since we stopped winning stuff 😉
It must have got a lot easier since we stopped winning stuff 😉
It does help! Interesting article by David Conn about the Glazer protests:
So why stick with that club when its no longer the same club?
Why not just go to a grass roots game ???
Why not ask formula 1 fans why the don't just stand on motorway bridges watching the traffic go by? Why not watch middle aged men walk their bikes through rock gardens instead of watching a world cup race? Seeing anything done at its highest level is very different from watching amateurs having a go.
And I am sure you know that but you would prefer to contribute to the bottom half of the internet.
Cheers for that, fella. It's absolutely bang on. We all knew how this was going to play out when they started hoovering up shares. And so it has.
It was a hostile takeover. Nobody wanted it other than the Glazers and those lending them the cash to do it at extortionate interest rates.
The part of all of this I have never understood is the level of obsession that fans have. You just don’t see it in other sports and I don’t know what it is about football that drives this obsession
Really? Never discussed American football or Baseball with someone from that side of the pond? Never met a Ferrari obsessed F1 fan who have never driven nor is likely to drive a Ferrari?
Probably some evolutionary psychologist would attribute it to tribal mentality and feeling the need to belong. I'd suggest its not unlike religion (and indeed in many parts of the country is tied in with religion) where your club is chosen not by you, but by your family, and is blindly followed no matter what, and other clubs are the "enemy" especially if they seem to be being more successful than your club even if there is very little to separate them.
Whilst easy to confuse with a plotline from Peaky Blinders, the Glazers only managed to buy Manchester United because the Manager fell out with some Irishmen about a horse.
I'm old enough to remember that before it was a PLC, united were owned by one man (Martin Edwards) so private (or public) ownership isn't the issue, more the financial instruments and the lack of owner rules that allow the purchase by debt leverage.
I'm not a football fan but it's quite surprising that the loyalty isn't understood - ask me to stop watching the tour de france during july and I'd have the same reaction of 'xxxx off' . To further the comparison, do I like the ownership of teams like Ineos, Bahrain Mclaren or Astana? No I don't but I can't do anything about it... and I'd imagine that Binners' dislike of the Glazier family is probably the same as his dislike of the Kroenkites or MikeAshley
This looks to me like splendid news....
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/08/manchester-united-lose-200m-training-kit-deal-over-fans-anti-glazers-campaign
Very interested in your view @binners et Al?