tomclare
10th April 2006, 19:03
A few months ago, I wrote a piece about football in general which contained the following analogy. It was about a man, who as a young boy, was given a penknife as a birthday present by his dad. Throughout his life, this person loved and cherished that knife which had been given to him on his thirteenth birthday. During the later years of his life things had happened to that knife. Firstly there came a time when he broke the handle, and after his initial disappointment and sadness at breaking it, he replaced that handle. Some years later, the blade broke, so he bought a replacement blade and the knife was as good as new again. The strange thing was, this person always referred to that knife as; ‘the knife that my father gave to me on my thirteenth birthday.’ In reality, it was anything but! In the cold light of day, that knife was totally different – both the handle and the blade had been replaced – no part of the original knife remained. For all of that, this person still loved that knife, believing it to be the one that his father had given to him as his birthday present all those years ago.
For most of us who preserve a deep love and affection for Manchester United Football Club, I feel we all relate to that analogy. I doubt that any of us can argue the fact that the Manchester United that we see today is NOT the same Manchester United that we first fell in love with. It is no longer what it was originally meant to be - a football club. Since the mid eighties, and certainly since the Club went public in 1991, and then with the advent of the Premiership, it has been propelled by a blaze of wheeler dealing, into the vast corporate monster that we see today.
Not only does that analogy regarding the penknife relate to Manchester United, it also relates to football itself because the game and how it is administered has changed drastically over the last fifteen years, and is once again totally different to how it was meant to be. However, the emotional attachment that we all feel for both parties will always remained unchanged. Manchester United and Football’s basic function, symbolism and, more importantly the power to dictate our feelings and affect our sentiments, remains unaltered. As in the story about the knife, our feelings of emotional attachment remain constant, even though the Club and football is almost unrecognizable now from how it was.
It’s that emotional attachment that is being tested to the full in these present, trying, times, and that is because we care so much about something that is entrenched into our lives, and for the vast majority of us, has been handed down to us through generations past. How we handle being tested is a difficult thing and as far as I see it, it is an individual choice. Whatever choices one makes, should be respected and it will do none of us any good in-fighting with each other regarding those choices made.
When the takeover actually occurred in May last year, I think that we all knew that we were in for the marathon and not the sprint. We knew that we were in for a tough, trying, testing time. We knew that we would have setbacks, and disappointments along the way. The people and the organization that we are fighting against are not amateurs, in fact they are cunning, deceitful, sly, and very, very obdurate. But at the end of the day, the biggest albatross around their neck is the debt – and no matter what spin they put on it, it’s not just going to disappear as if the Fairy Queen has waved her magic wand. They have had their setbacks this year, and they will suffer more to come, so it’s not all one way traffic. We will see peaks and troughs during this fight, and we have to show the resilience to ride those. Believe me, there WILL come a day of reckoning eventually. Maybe not in the immediate future, but it WILL come, of that I am more than convinced.
Unfortunately, in today’s game, it has bred a large proportion of fans who do not give a toss about the Club, as long as the team is winning. Winning is what matters to them most of all, and they will take any price or cost for that win. The way that the Club is run does not matter one iota as long as there is success. They have no conscience at all and couldn’t care less about things like redundancies, price hikes, the Club’s name being dragged through the mud by people who are only interested in profit, the dismantling of what we knew as “the United family”, and they couldn’t give a flying fig for the foundations, traditions, and history upon which the Club was built. All as long as the team are winning. But these same fans will be the first to stay away in the lean times, and will be the first to whinge when the going gets tough.
We have a game that today, has been hijacked by non-football people, in it for careers and quick profit. We now all too often hear the words “consumer”, “punter”, “product”, “marketing” etc. etc. They care not a blink about the game and the fans. Their sole object is money, and they have no soul, and again no conscience. You see them each match day, sat alongside the managers, chewing gum and expounding about football matters, when in reality, what they really know about the game could be written on the back of a postage stamp. It breaks my heart to see them being allowed to bring the game down which is what they are really doing. Why people cannot see the long term damage that’s being done to the game bemuses me. The goose that lays the golden egg will not live forever, and again, there WILL be a day of reckoning within the game, because the bubble will eventually burst as it always has. God forbid that there is ever another recession in Britain, because if there is, the domino effect that it will have on football and the industry will be so swift and devastating that the fall out is incomprehensible. And then who will be left to pick up the pieces?
We have to keep the faith and believe in the Manchester United Supporters Trust. I can understand people’s frustrations, but remember, we’re not even a year along the road since the takeover yet. MUST has come such a long, long way, in such a short space of time. We do have great leadership and the work done by Nick, Duncan, Sean, JD, Paul, and the rest of the Committee has been of a staggering volume, and so much of it unheralded. They work tirelessly on our behalf and in my humble opinion deserve our support. The easy thing is to walk away from a battle, but I know that all of us joined MUST for one common reason – the return of the Club who we love so much, to the fans. That won’t happen if we take the easy way out. It takes courage, determination, stamina, resilience, doggedness, tenacity, and yes a certain amount of stubbornness, but most of all, the will to win, to succeed in a battle – all qualities that are here within MUST. It is a fight that won’t be won in the short term, and we have to be patient and play the right hand. We can’t go in like a bull in a china shop, and we have to adopt the right strategies to deal with given situations. Any militant action will not do us any favours and will just give ammunition to the “wait and see” brigade, and certainly would have a detrimental effect on MUST. We don’t want nor need that.
The Glazers will make more mistakes and it’s my opinion that in the end, they will hang themselves. The debt will not just go away and eventually, something will have to give. Please keep the faith good people, support the Trust and the Committee, they deserve that. Keep your beliefs. Out of adversity comes triumph. Remember that Sir Matt in his darkest hours after Munich felt like giving it all up, and it would have been so easy for him to do so. But the sun shone once again for him, as it will do one day for us and we must keep that resolve going.
For most of us who preserve a deep love and affection for Manchester United Football Club, I feel we all relate to that analogy. I doubt that any of us can argue the fact that the Manchester United that we see today is NOT the same Manchester United that we first fell in love with. It is no longer what it was originally meant to be - a football club. Since the mid eighties, and certainly since the Club went public in 1991, and then with the advent of the Premiership, it has been propelled by a blaze of wheeler dealing, into the vast corporate monster that we see today.
Not only does that analogy regarding the penknife relate to Manchester United, it also relates to football itself because the game and how it is administered has changed drastically over the last fifteen years, and is once again totally different to how it was meant to be. However, the emotional attachment that we all feel for both parties will always remained unchanged. Manchester United and Football’s basic function, symbolism and, more importantly the power to dictate our feelings and affect our sentiments, remains unaltered. As in the story about the knife, our feelings of emotional attachment remain constant, even though the Club and football is almost unrecognizable now from how it was.
It’s that emotional attachment that is being tested to the full in these present, trying, times, and that is because we care so much about something that is entrenched into our lives, and for the vast majority of us, has been handed down to us through generations past. How we handle being tested is a difficult thing and as far as I see it, it is an individual choice. Whatever choices one makes, should be respected and it will do none of us any good in-fighting with each other regarding those choices made.
When the takeover actually occurred in May last year, I think that we all knew that we were in for the marathon and not the sprint. We knew that we were in for a tough, trying, testing time. We knew that we would have setbacks, and disappointments along the way. The people and the organization that we are fighting against are not amateurs, in fact they are cunning, deceitful, sly, and very, very obdurate. But at the end of the day, the biggest albatross around their neck is the debt – and no matter what spin they put on it, it’s not just going to disappear as if the Fairy Queen has waved her magic wand. They have had their setbacks this year, and they will suffer more to come, so it’s not all one way traffic. We will see peaks and troughs during this fight, and we have to show the resilience to ride those. Believe me, there WILL come a day of reckoning eventually. Maybe not in the immediate future, but it WILL come, of that I am more than convinced.
Unfortunately, in today’s game, it has bred a large proportion of fans who do not give a toss about the Club, as long as the team is winning. Winning is what matters to them most of all, and they will take any price or cost for that win. The way that the Club is run does not matter one iota as long as there is success. They have no conscience at all and couldn’t care less about things like redundancies, price hikes, the Club’s name being dragged through the mud by people who are only interested in profit, the dismantling of what we knew as “the United family”, and they couldn’t give a flying fig for the foundations, traditions, and history upon which the Club was built. All as long as the team are winning. But these same fans will be the first to stay away in the lean times, and will be the first to whinge when the going gets tough.
We have a game that today, has been hijacked by non-football people, in it for careers and quick profit. We now all too often hear the words “consumer”, “punter”, “product”, “marketing” etc. etc. They care not a blink about the game and the fans. Their sole object is money, and they have no soul, and again no conscience. You see them each match day, sat alongside the managers, chewing gum and expounding about football matters, when in reality, what they really know about the game could be written on the back of a postage stamp. It breaks my heart to see them being allowed to bring the game down which is what they are really doing. Why people cannot see the long term damage that’s being done to the game bemuses me. The goose that lays the golden egg will not live forever, and again, there WILL be a day of reckoning within the game, because the bubble will eventually burst as it always has. God forbid that there is ever another recession in Britain, because if there is, the domino effect that it will have on football and the industry will be so swift and devastating that the fall out is incomprehensible. And then who will be left to pick up the pieces?
We have to keep the faith and believe in the Manchester United Supporters Trust. I can understand people’s frustrations, but remember, we’re not even a year along the road since the takeover yet. MUST has come such a long, long way, in such a short space of time. We do have great leadership and the work done by Nick, Duncan, Sean, JD, Paul, and the rest of the Committee has been of a staggering volume, and so much of it unheralded. They work tirelessly on our behalf and in my humble opinion deserve our support. The easy thing is to walk away from a battle, but I know that all of us joined MUST for one common reason – the return of the Club who we love so much, to the fans. That won’t happen if we take the easy way out. It takes courage, determination, stamina, resilience, doggedness, tenacity, and yes a certain amount of stubbornness, but most of all, the will to win, to succeed in a battle – all qualities that are here within MUST. It is a fight that won’t be won in the short term, and we have to be patient and play the right hand. We can’t go in like a bull in a china shop, and we have to adopt the right strategies to deal with given situations. Any militant action will not do us any favours and will just give ammunition to the “wait and see” brigade, and certainly would have a detrimental effect on MUST. We don’t want nor need that.
The Glazers will make more mistakes and it’s my opinion that in the end, they will hang themselves. The debt will not just go away and eventually, something will have to give. Please keep the faith good people, support the Trust and the Committee, they deserve that. Keep your beliefs. Out of adversity comes triumph. Remember that Sir Matt in his darkest hours after Munich felt like giving it all up, and it would have been so easy for him to do so. But the sun shone once again for him, as it will do one day for us and we must keep that resolve going.