Bluemoon goes into Meltdown

puNANI said:
United was the first team that I ever watched when I was about 6-7 years old. It was that game where we got trashed 5-1 or 5-0 by Chelsea. I didn't really understand football then and just liked them because of their jerseys. As I kept watching, David Beckham was a big reason as to why I loved united.

You do have a point though. A lot of supporters support United because they have been so successful over the past 20 years.
Click to expand...

Yep I don’t see a problem at all with it. I have mates who have gotten into American Football over the last 10 years or so and they support the best teams.

You have to start somewhere and often it will be a successful side you follow when you 1st get introduced to a sport that is not overly popular in a particular country.

If it was not for a huge influx of supporters from around the world we would simply not be as big a side as we are now.

It’s all good
 
Randall Flagg said:
erm... probably about 95% of Utd fans are glory hunters if you think about it on a global scale.

Pretty much everyone outside of Manchester and in some cases Ireland are glory hunters. Some of us Irish have an excuse due to support Utd due to family who would have moved there years ago and because a lot of top Irish players have played for us throughout the clubs history

For example why do people from London support Utd when they have a whole bunch of sides to support?

As for Americans, Aussies and Scandinavians etc... I can see no other reason why they support Utd except that we have been unbelievably successful over the past 2 decades.

Not a bad thing because it has helped the club become one of the very biggest n the world. But we can really not slag another side for having glory hunters.

That would just be silly

;)
Click to expand...
First game I went to was Chelsea away in 1985. We didn´t win much back then. I honestly don´t know why United became THE team for me since I live so far away. I only know that there is only one love for me in the world of sports and that will never ever change. I know this must be strange to the Mancs but it´s the way it is. Believe me I´d rather love a swedish local team which wouldn´t cost me a fortune to follow but my heart made its choice a long time ago and it won´t change
 
Randall Flagg said:
erm... probably about 95% of Utd fans are glory hunters if you think about it on a global scale.

Pretty much everyone outside of Manchester and in some cases Ireland are glory hunters. Some of us Irish have an excuse due to support Utd due to family who would have moved there years ago and because a lot of top Irish players have played for us throughout the clubs history

For example why do people from London support Utd when they have a whole bunch of sides to support?

As for Americans, Aussies and Scandinavians etc... I can see no other reason why they support Utd except that we have been unbelievably successful over the past 2 decades.

Not a bad thing because it has helped the club become one of the very biggest n the world. But we can really not slag another side for having glory hunters.

That would just be silly

;)
Click to expand...

:lol: So you are justifying your Irish Support because 'you would have had family that moved there' and Irish players played for the club.

Yet, London based reds that 'may have had family that moved there' or had players that played for the club, are dismissed.

And the same for Americans, or Aussies or Scandinavians etc.

Wrong thread entirely for this, but your justification is laughable.
 
The team you support should have nothing to do with where you were born. HTH.

You choose the team you want to follow based on the playing style and how you feel when watching them, whether you are excited by them or bored. You don't have a duty to support some team you dislike just because your mum and dad decided to get naughty in one particular spot that you have to be burdened with that team forever, like you had a say in where you were going to be born, bollocks. You pick the team that you get excited about.
 
MrBurns said:
:lol: So you are justifying your Irish Support because 'you would have had family that moved there' and Irish players played for the club.

Yet, London based reds that 'may have had family that moved there' or had players that played for the club, are dismissed.

And the same for Americans, or Aussies or Scandinavians etc.

Wrong thread entirely for this, but your justification is laughable.
Click to expand...

Why does he have to justify his support?
 
R_Nick said:
Why does he have to justify his support?
Click to expand...

He doesnt. He just is.

I dont believe anyone has to justify the support, and the same goes for City fans.

I was merely pointing out that based on what he said, you are not a glory hunter if your irish and your family originated from Manc..

Yet he dismissed the same for Londoners/Aussies/Scandi etc that may be in the same situation.

And thats what was laughable.
 
Randall Flagg said:
As for Americans, Aussies and Scandinavians etc... I can see no other reason why they support Utd except that we have been unbelievably successful over the past 2 decades.
Click to expand...
There's nothing wrong with starting to support a team because they are successful. As long as you stick with them when things start getting hard.

As an Australian, there was only one premier league game shown a week in the early 90's. Obviously the more successful teams were the ones shown the most often. So invariably any kid growing up at that time will start supporting one of those teams, and the better football a team plays and more successful they are, the more likely a kid is going to start feeling an affinity for them.

I have no idea when exactly I started supporting Utd. My first Utd memory was coming home from school one day and my Dad telling me Blackburn had beaten us to the title. But I, and I'm sure a large amount of the worldwide supporters, certainly won't start supporting another team if Utd fall down the table. I'm lucky enough that I've never had to prove that since I've started supporting us (well, we did have that little slip from 03-05 but three years is nothing).

A glory hunter is someone who'll swap teams, trying to fullow success. Those who do that deserve our contempt. But as City get more successful I have no doubt they'll start building a proper fanbase who will actually stick with them (just as Chelsea have), and I have no problems with them. Well, besides the fact that they are City fans of course.
 
Randall Flagg said:
erm... probably about 95% of Utd fans are glory hunters if you think about it on a global scale.

Pretty much everyone outside of Manchester and in some cases Ireland are glory hunters. Some of us Irish have an excuse due to support Utd due to family who would have moved there years ago and because a lot of top Irish players have played for us throughout the clubs history

For example why do people from London support Utd when they have a whole bunch of sides to support?

As for Americans, Aussies and Scandinavians etc... I can see no other reason why they support Utd except that we have been unbelievably successful over the past 2 decades.

Not a bad thing because it has helped the club become one of the very biggest n the world. But we can really not slag another side for having glory hunters.

That would just be silly

;)
Click to expand...

It's also the club with the greatest exposure abroad, which is a result of the success and also helps. While I casually followed United from like 2002(mostly because they were my FIFA team), I was able to follow them better because of the internet and increased appearances on TV. It would be hard to support a club that's never on tv, which is why Arsenal and United have the broadest support base in the US and probably other countries.

It's a bit of a chicken/egg thing.
 
Zarlak said:
The team you support should have nothing to do with where you were born. HTH.

You choose the team you want to follow based on the playing style and how you feel when watching them, whether you are excited by them or bored. You don't have a duty to support some team you dislike just because your mum and dad decided to get naughty in one particular spot that you have to be burdened with that team forever, like you had a say in where you were going to be born, bollocks. You pick the team that you get excited about.
Click to expand...

Traditionally, it would have absolutely everything to do with what team you supported. It used to be about local/regional pride. It used to be that the local team was the only team you'd see and that was one of the other major reasons - you simply had no option to see a range of other teams and choose.

It still should be mainly about what your parents bring you up with, unless they are not interested, in which case it is understandable in the age of global communications and hundreds of matches every week being shown all over the world that millions of people will have chosen a team after watching them on TV. I don't really see how it would ever be any different in the future. People who are born in London and whose parents are, for example West Ham fans that the decide to support United are the type of people I'll never understand. If in future United go into a serious decline and a long trophyless streak and my lad, who I am bringing up about a mile or two from Old Trafford knowing about the team I support grows up and decides to support some other side (with the exception of his mother's team perhaps), I will consider that as a failure in parenting.
 
Randall Flagg said:
erm... probably about 95% of Utd fans are glory hunters if you think about it on a global scale.
Click to expand...

Not sure about your percentages there.

There are sure to be a lot of people abroad who have links to Manchester.

Then there are those supporters who grew out of the Munich sympathy.

There are those who supported United because they saw players like Best on tv, even after 1968,

It would be a high percentage, but not that high. Imo.
 
@ Randall, that's a shit analogy.

Based on that you can't have religion because you don't live in Middle East , and got no relation to you whatsover, you can't like certain actors/actress because they are in no way related to you, you can't say you enjoy "chinese/western" food because you're not originated from there.

I've said this again and again, we're all F'in Glory Hunter, you me and everyone of us in here, why in the world we want to support a club without glory, but then again glory doesn't always translated into trophies, it could have manifested in the forms of value, virtue, playing style, ethics, good guy image, etc etc.
 
Zarlak said:
The team you support should have nothing to do with where you were born. HTH.
Click to expand...


Hmmmm...That doesn't read right to me that. I think it's the word should

You choose the team you want to follow based on the playing style and how you feel when watching them, whether you are excited by them or bored. You don't have a duty to support some team you dislike just because your mum and dad decided to get naughty in one particular spot that you have to be burdened with that team forever, like you had a say in where you were going to be born, bollocks. You pick the team that you get excited about.
Click to expand...

To be fair, no, this is probably how YOU've chosen your team. Saying people shouldn't support a team because of this that or the other based largely on your bias of how you want it to be perceived is always a dodgy place to go with this type of (rather frequent) "why do you support United?" argument....Someone could say the complete opposite and have just as a legitimate and understandable a point, whilst a fan of a lower league home town team could very reasonably look at that and laugh that "only a United fan would say something like that".

I'm an OOT, and I'm quite aware and comfortable with the knowledge that I have less natural reason to support United than someone who grew up on Sir Matt Busby Way.

HTH
 
Randall Flagg said:
erm... probably about 95% of Utd fans are glory hunters if you think about it on a global scale.

Pretty much everyone outside of Manchester and in some cases Ireland are glory hunters. Some of us Irish have an excuse due to support Utd due to family who would have moved there years ago and because a lot of top Irish players have played for us throughout the clubs history

For example why do people from London support Utd when they have a whole bunch of sides to support?

As for Americans, Aussies and Scandinavians etc... I can see no other reason why they support Utd except that we have been unbelievably successful over the past 2 decades.

Not a bad thing because it has helped the club become one of the very biggest n the world. But we can really not slag another side for having glory hunters.

That would just be silly

;)
Click to expand...

I love the way you shoehorn in an excuse for yourself there. Well done.
 
Bearded but no genius said:
He felt the need to so that, as an Irishman, he could slag off foreigners and OOTers who support United and yet be immune to his own criticism.

Comical stuff. A legendary post.
Click to expand...

Im blushing here thanks.

I didnt slag by the way. I see no problem with the club gaining a huge amount of new supporters for the past 20 years. Its a great thing.

I was really drunk when I typed that the other night. I cant believe there are only one or two errors in it.
 
Livvie said:
Not sure about your percentages there.

There are sure to be a lot of people abroad who have links to Manchester.

Then there are those supporters who grew out of the Munich sympathy.

There are those who supported United because they saw players like Best on tv, even after 1968,

It would be a high percentage, but not that high. Imo.
Click to expand...



To be fair, my support for United came in 1993 as an 8 year old, sitting with my Arsenal supporting family, all in their Arsenal shirts, asking me who i supported ... at the moment Eric was to take that Free kick (expecting me to bow to peer pressure).
As it flew in, i remeber saying i support that guy there. From then on i supported United, and was hooked on Cantona and never looked back ever since.
 
To be fair a national hero coming to a club can bring a lot of support, (albeit not necessarily through our success, but the players own success).

Solskjaer, Berg, Johnsen and so on enhanced our Norwegian fan base
Park - National hero in South Korea = Big South Korean fan base
Javier Hernandez - hero in Mexico = big mexican following

How many mexicans supported United before Hernandez signing?
How many shirts have we sold there since?

Stats worth looking into
 
I've always been of the opinion that people are often far too quick to label fans from outside Manchester as glory hunters. To me, a glory hunter is someone who consciously made the decision to support United simply because United are the most successful team (and even then I believe that, as long as such a choice was made at an early enough age, a glory hunting supporter can become true supporter as their support becomes more and more genuine over the years). More often though in my opinion, and as in my case, someone from outside Manchester (I'm from Rammy) will support United due to another, entirely valid, reason; i.e. the unavoidable influence of a United supporting father or other close family member/members. My brother and I were never given any choice as to who we supported, we were just brought up to be United fans, as might children with English speaking parents be brought up to speak English. On the flipside too, I think it quite possible for people who actually grew up in Manchester to be glory hunting United fans; if they're from a family of City fans and they instead support United, unless they have a decent excuse, then for me there's a good chance they were hunting the glory from our club. So the way I see it is that, it doesn't matter where you're from; whether you're from Manchester, London, Ireland or deepest Peru, what matters is solely your reason behind your support; if you consciously made a decision to support United because they're the most successful team, then you're a glory supporter, if not, you're not. Simple as that.
 
Randall Flagg said:
erm... probably about 95% of Utd fans are glory hunters if you think about it on a global scale.

Pretty much everyone outside of Manchester and in some cases Ireland are glory hunters. Some of us Irish have an excuse due to support Utd due to family who would have moved there years ago and because a lot of top Irish players have played for us throughout the clubs history

For example why do people from London support Utd when they have a whole bunch of sides to support?

As for Americans, Aussies and Scandinavians etc... I can see no other reason why they support Utd except that we have been unbelievably successful over the past 2 decades.

Not a bad thing because it has helped the club become one of the very biggest n the world. But we can really not slag another side for having glory hunters.

That would just be silly

;)
Click to expand...

I think the point is that its something City have always slagged Utd about and claimed that their support had always been Blue.

Its quite funny to now see some of them trying establish themselves as 'Top Blues', as its quite obvious their support is attracting more and more glory hunters.


As for the lads still carrying on the debate from about a week ago, carry on lads.... I'm sure your in a good mood today, nothing bad happened this weekend, what with it being the international break.
 
And you on the other hand must be in a pretty grim mood, lot of people died over the weekend.
 
Well I'd say I'm still effected more on an emotional level by what happened in Japan than I am about Liverpool beating Utd alright (there was an interesting documentary on about it last night actually), and an old mate of mine killed himself on Friday but I dont think I ever claimed to be an emotional sponge for everything in the universe.
 
Andersonsonson said:
To be fair a national hero coming to a club can bring a lot of support, (albeit not necessarily through our success, but the players own success).

Solskjaer, Berg, Johnsen and so on enhanced our Norwegian fan base
Park - National hero in South Korea = Big South Korean fan base
Javier Hernandez - hero in Mexico = big mexican following

How many mexicans supported United before Hernandez signing?
How many shirts have we sold there since?

Stats worth looking into
Click to expand...


Fookin hell I need to become a football star pronto
 
Oh yes, because I forgot, we all know that when you post a green smiley it makes it so don't we......
 
Oh right, its just that I thought there were still posts about it on this page.... I must have misread.
 
Andersonsonson said:
To be fair a national hero coming to a club can bring a lot of support, (albeit not necessarily through our success, but the players own success).

Solskjaer, Berg, Johnsen and so on enhanced our Norwegian fan base
Park - National hero in South Korea = Big South Korean fan base
Javier Hernandez - hero in Mexico = big mexican following

How many mexicans supported United before Hernandez signing?
How many shirts have we sold there since?

Stats worth looking into
Click to expand...

Blimey!

Didn't know he was that big over in his home country.
 
ciderman9000000 said:
I've always been of the opinion that people are often far too quick to label fans from outside Manchester as glory hunters. To me, a glory hunter is someone who consciously made the decision to support United simply because United are the most successful team (and even then I believe that, as long as such a choice was made at an early enough age, a glory hunting supporter can become true supporter as their support becomes more and more genuine over the years). More often though in my opinion, and as in my case, someone from outside Manchester (I'm from Rammy) will support United due to another, entirely valid, reason; i.e. the unavoidable influence of a United supporting father or other close family member/members. My brother and I were never given any choice as to who we supported, we were just brought up to be United fans, as might children with English speaking parents be brought up to speak English. On the flipside too, I think it quite possible for people who actually grew up in Manchester to be glory hunting United fans; if they're from a family of City fans and they instead support United, unless they have a decent excuse, then for me there's a good chance they were hunting the glory from our club. So the way I see it is that, it doesn't matter where you're from; whether you're from Manchester, London, Ireland or deepest Peru, what matters is solely your reason behind your support; if you consciously made a decision to support United because they're the most successful team, then you're a glory supporter, if not, you're not. Simple as that.
Click to expand...

Great post
 
decorativeed said:
Traditionally, it would have absolutely everything to do with what team you supported. It used to be about local/regional pride. It used to be that the local team was the only team you'd see and that was one of the other major reasons - you simply had no option to see a range of other teams and choose.

It still should be mainly about what your parents bring you up with, unless they are not interested, in which case it is understandable in the age of global communications and hundreds of matches every week being shown all over the world that millions of people will have chosen a team after watching them on TV. I don't really see how it would ever be any different in the future. People who are born in London and whose parents are, for example West Ham fans that the decide to support United are the type of people I'll never understand. If in future United go into a serious decline and a long trophyless streak and my lad, who I am bringing up about a mile or two from Old Trafford knowing about the team I support grows up and decides to support some other side (with the exception of his mother's team perhaps), I will consider that as a failure in parenting.
Click to expand...

No, it should be your choice entirely... if you get relocated to London by your business does this mean your kids have to support Chelsea?

I think the whole notion is rubbish and a silly way of chest beating / trying to convince yourself you're better than another fan (not you, just generalising) as you had no say in where you were born, and just because your parents decided to shag in a travel inn in Scarborough doesn't mean you have to support them when it's United that excite you and get your passionate when you watch them...
 
Mockney said:
I'm an OOT, and I'm quite aware and comfortable with the knowledge that I have less natural reason to support United than someone who grew up on Sir Matt Busby Way.

HTH
Click to expand...

You've missed my point completely, I wasn't referring to it affecting people born locally, but rather to show how someone who is OOT has a right to support an OOT team and doesn't have to watch a team they despise because they are closer to the place their mum and dad decided to have sex one night. This doesn't make them any less of a fan.
 
Why would you despise a team?...Most people start supporting teams very early, or at least before they've decided which ones they "despise"...which is usually decided AFTER you've chosen a team and in relation to it....So it's an odd thing to mention. Most people support the team their parents follow, which is quite often their local one in many cases, and they become obsessed and grow into that love over time...I didn't despise any teams until at least 6 or 7 years of consciously supporting United.

Basically, I didn't really "choose" the team at all, more of grew into being aware of supporting it, and then actually growing to support it. Choosing implies you've been watching football for a while, decided which teams you like and don't, and then chosen a side. The vast majority of people don't do it like that, so your point about "shouldn't have to support a team they despise" makes no sense... To me at least. It's unlikely you'd "despise" a team before you've chosen one/been weened to support one anyway.
 
Mockney said:
Why would you despise a team?...Most people start supporting teams very early, or at least before they've decided which ones they "despise"...which is usually decided AFTER you've chosen a team and in relation to it....So it's an odd thing to mention. Most people support the team their parents follow, which is quite often their local one in many cases, and they become obsessed and grow into that love over time...I didn't despise any teams until at least 6 or 7 years of consciously supporting United.

Basically, I didn't really "choose" the team at all, more of grew into being aware of supporting it, and then actually growing to support it. Choosing implies you've been watching football for a while, decided which teams you like and don't, and then chosen a side. The vast majority of people don't do it like that, so you're point about "shouldn't have to support a team they despise" makes no sense....To me at least.
Click to expand...

Most of these internet hardmen talk out of their ass
 
Zarlak said:
No, it should be your choice entirely... if you get relocated to London by your business does this mean your kids have to support Chelsea?

I think the whole notion is rubbish and a silly way of chest beating / trying to convince yourself you're better than another fan (not you, just generalising) as you had no say in where you were born, and just because your parents decided to shag in a travel inn in Scarborough doesn't mean you have to support them when it's United that excite you and get your passionate when you watch them...
Click to expand...

I said that traditionally it was about where you were from or where you lived. In the past (say fifty years ago) if someone moved with their family, then the kids might well grow up supporting whoever the new local team was while the parent would retain their allegience to the team they left behind - even if they could no longer watch them play.

It's not about chest-beating. I'm not trying to say I'm a better fan than anyone else either. I'm saying that a person's club should still have a lot to do with who they were brought up to support by their parents, rather than a choice made by watching TV (if the person's parents are football fans of course). I quite clearly state that in the post you quoted.
 
Andersonsonson said:
To be fair, my support for United came in 1993 as an 8 year old, sitting with my Arsenal supporting family, all in their Arsenal shirts, asking me who i supported ... at the moment Eric was to take that Free kick (expecting me to bow to peer pressure).
As it flew in, i remeber saying i support that guy there. From then on i supported United, and was hooked on Cantona and never looked back ever since.
Click to expand...
What was it like sleeping in the garden shed until you were 16?
 
I'm from Derry, dad's from Tyrone (the counties have rival gaelic teams) so we've always been sporting rivals from an early age, so when I began to follow soccer, aged 8 or 9, dad supported Newcastle so it made sense to support united. Thank god he wasn't a Derry man!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.