Garbatellamike

No Deal - but how about Nasri and Fernando for Roo-knee and De Gea.

I saw Falcao performed to expectation - subbed off

Cainess

Just to clarify, that's not me....I started supporting United in 1977, and spent more than 15 years in abject misery watching them scouse b******s hoovering up every trophy going whilst we thought we had a decent season if we finished top 4 (how ironic...we're now back to that... ) and had a decent crack at the FA Cup. Teams full of swagger (well, we were managed by Big Ron for a good chunk of that time ) and panache, but once Robbo inevitably got injured, the rest couldn't punch their way out of a wet paper bag, so the title slipped down the East Lancs Road to Anfield again...

The rest of your post is excellent, Scamp, and sums up why I could NEVER support an American sports team- Americans don't understand the mentality of your team becoming a 'PART' of you, dictating your emotions on an almost daily basis. For them, if 'their' team starts performing poorly, they either switch their allegiance to another team or simply stop having an interest in the sport until 'their' team makes a comeback...it's so soul-destroying sad (and that's not even mentioning the 'herd' mentality they exhibit at the games, with chants being orchestrated by a PA system and no segregation whatsoever....aaarrrggghhh!!)

JamesM

Thankfully I've never seen the championship. There were a couple of seasons in the mid too late 90's when it looked like we might.

My first memorable Spurs season was 91 with the cup win against Forest and the magnificent semi against Arsenal. Sugar and Venables put together a deal to save the club from bankruptcy.

It went a good downhill for just over a decade from there. Sugar not really knowing how to pick Managers and money being badly invested.

ENIC and Levy have been better but never want to take the financial "punt" when it really matters.

It all seemed so easy in 91. Little did I do that was the most significant moment to date. Several League Cup wins and a Champions league qualification have been massively appreciated plus a few glorious performances here and there.

I was actually at the Dell in the early 90's when Alan Shearer came back for the first time with Blackburn.

JamesM

That's what I hate about Toronto.

The world's worst sports fans. Don't really care for any of their teams but the moment a team strings together a couple of months everybody is suddenly and expert and wanting to be at every game. It's worse when a team makes the Play Offs (rare).

pommybird

Falcao, Man U's version of Soldado.

Cainess

Ditto for Houston....for years when we first went back there to visit my out-laws on holiday from N.I. (2005-2010), you wouldn't have seen 3 Houston Texan shirts/hats in the entire city, because the team were dung. Then all of a sudden they win a few games, end up winning the Division, and suddenly the place is full of Texan 'fans', all 'talking it up', and I'm like: where the frig did all these people roll out from?! It was literally sickening to watch them indulge themselves as if they had been loyal match-going fans for years, when in reality they did give two shits about the team while they were crap.

As far as I can see, it's exactly the same wherever you go in the U.S.- here in Arkansas, the only sports team anyone is interested in are the Arkansas Razorbacks (college American football team), but they have been crap for years, and as soon as they (inevitably) start to lose, suddenly no-one wants to talk about sport..!!

Garbatellamike

Bit harsh on Bobby S aren't you? At least he was trying (in both senses of the word).

ededed

My first game was the '77 cup final. My Dad was a United ST holder for years and all we ever had to look forward to (until '91) was the odd FA cup. We were then what Saints are now. Hard to imagine, but for at least 10 years I used to love the fact we were a "proper" club, scrapping for a cup win and beating the Scousers and City (when they were in the first division, which wasn't often). All through school we had abuse for supporting a shit team while everyone (and I mean everyone) supported the Scousers. There were 2 or 3 of us that used to take them on - a few United fans (and an Everton fan) against the evil dippers.

Then Fergie - 3 years of shit, but we knew he'd be ok. He circled the wagons, made sure the champagne days were over and talked like we were the best. I know a lot of fans doubted him (as we're doing with LVG) but he seemed to get what being part of United meant to us.

Now we get abuse for being glory hunters - and sure, they were amazing years (especially '99) but I do hanker after those 1980s days. Going to Anfield knowing it was all or nothing. Not having a stadium full of foreigners with selfie sticks and wearing piles of official merchandise. The Streford end being so loud it made your hairs stand up. I miss those days.

United are now one of the biggest sporting franchises in the world. And I will die with them in my heart, but it's not the same as it was. Buying Di Maria, Falcao, Herrera etc (and another 3 or 4 to follow) seems like we've become something alien to me. It's like supporting the Harlem Globetrotters. I didn't realise it at the time, but Giggs retiring closed a chapter for me. I'll always be a fan. You can't change your team - but there are times I wish I'd picked a club that had retained its soul. We've even taken the words "football club" from our badge, for ****'s sake.

I still hope we beat the Scousers 5-0 at Anfield, but I won't lose 2 or 3 days of sleep if we get beaten - which I used to do when I was a lad...

Cainess

What Ed said...same for me, though I now accept that we have to buy 'big' to try to catch up with citeh & Chelsea. The club is a global 'franchise' (puke...) but to me they will always be the team I grew up with in the 80s, when you got crushed if there were more than about 40 people in the old 'United Souvenir Shop', tucked in a corner of the South Stand, beneath the Munich Clock...Health & Safety officials would have kittens if they seen the layout of that little thoroughfare!!

ededed

The more I hear of this Hillsborough enquiry the more I despair. It could have been any of us.

And now an admission of lies by the top cop.

Truly awful.

JamesM

It's alright lads. I don't regard you as Glory Hunters.

You have both grown on me like ugly warts.

JamesM

I remember reading a chapter on Hillsborough in David Conn's book "The Football Business" in 1999. It was about a man trying to pass his son over the fence to a police officer because he couldn't breathe.

The officer ignored him and just stared.

When they found the man and boy the man's knuckles were bloodied from trying to punch the fence.

It was one of the saddest/sickest things I ever read.

Ken Bates at one stage wanted to electrify the fences till some one pointed out that cooking your punters was not the smartest business move.

Margaret Thatcher should carry a lot of the blame.

Cainess

For me, Hillsborough was the worst tragedy to happen in my lifetime, simply because I can relate to the victims and their families in a way that I really can't with many other tragedies that have happened- it could have been United, it could have been a few years later when I was going over regularly, and our fans would have reacted to locked gates in the same manner as Liverpool fans did on the day: I'm late, I'm going to miss kick-off, get the gates opened so we can get onto the terraces. Absolutely blameless. They weren't to know what was going on within the ground ahead of them because it wasn't their responsibility to know those things and deal with them, and the people who DID know and DID have the responsibility to act and keep everyone safe and well (South Yorkshire Police) failed miserably, and have lied and lied and 'hid their heads in the sand' ever since, along with the political establishment of the day, who were only too happy to paint football fans as hooligans and drunkards who had caused the deaths of 96 people and then assaulted and robbed those trying to save the dying...

The families of the victims have been treated appallingly by those charged with finding & exposing the truth and bringing a sense of justice to this tragedy. I hope there is closure in sight for them, so they can move on with the rest of their lives, though for people like Trevor Hicks, I really don't know how that will ever be possible.

kimilseung

Thanks and all, but it still pisses me off that we took such shit for so long (not aimed at anyone, just in general)

kimilseung

What happened with Chelsea?
I check in at work for a minute and they are going through.
They are at home, going through, 10 men. 15 minutes to go.
I get home and they are out.