Interesting Jersey buying experience which highlights our issues

FrenchRed

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So I have not bought a Utd jersey since the Glazers took over, pretty much out of principle (I bought my sons a CR7 strip when he came back, but that's been about it). I love the 3rd strip this year, and happened to be in a large sports store here in France buying some back to school stuff for my kids, when I saw the jersey section. Liverpool, City, Arsenal - 1st, 2nd and third strips. They had the United 3rd strip for 50% off... and a *stack* of United jerseys just sitting there while everything else was selling fast. The assisitant said that it had been the same the last few years and next years they wouldn't stock Utd as we are mid table and not top 4 any more - there is no demand.

I figured why not buy the jersey, high on the hope of beating Liverpool in a few days time... and the assisitnt asked what player name/number I'd like. I genuinely couldn't think of any player I like enough to have on my back. I have zero connection to any of the bunch, which made me hugely sad. I opted to have no number on the back for the first time ever for me on a jersey.

My 9 year old son picked a Mbappe/Real jersey as he is more of a player fc fan for Mbappe, and my daughter picked a Bellingham/Real jersey. I was more than a bit gutted. None of my 'but we used to beat them in the CL...' didn't cut it - my kids were born a long time after our golden era. We are a relic to them. Each of them could name a bunch of good players from Liverpool, City and Arsenal, but just struggled to find anything exciting about United and couldn't name any player apart from Bruno, who they recon is now past it! They asked who our top striker was... I was met with blank expressions when I said Hojland and Zirksee.

I realised that then and there, the Glazers job was complete. We have become an irrelevence to the young people today who have not been brought up to follow the club. I real fear for us unless we take hard and drastic action.
 
Well, you're right! It's still a very big club, but the attraction isn't there like it used to be.

I wish my kids, except from health of course, that they once will see a good United-side.
They still support them (mostly the older one who is 15), but I would understand if they didn't.

Just like city now have a lot of new fans, we lose them or at least get very few new ones.
It's really sad to see this downfall.
 
I'm teaching an 11-year old English and yesterday we had our first lesson after three months and we had a chat about football and I asked him who's the GOAT right now and he said Antony... and then began laughing.

We've become exactly what we thought of Liverpool 15-20 years ago and Arsenal 10-15 years ago.

And a few days ago I saw such a post on Facebook:

Crazy Antony stats that will never be broken

- Never lost a game that he won

- 34 games in 34 matches

- Was just 3 goals away from scoring a hat trick

- He is just one Ballon d'Or away from winning a Ballon d'Or

Ten Hag has created a monster.
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I'm struggling to get my 10 years old to have any interest in United. Got him a Ronaldo United shirt a couple of years ago, he wouldn't accept anyone else.

TBF I wouldn't wear a shirt with any of the current United players name on its back either. We simply don't any star quality at the moment that makes you want to pay to watch. I watch all United games out of loyalty, but I haven't really enjoyed a game in ages.

It's amazing that the club still makes a ton of money, the brand is just too strong to fade away easily, and Liverpool managed to stay relevant after decades of failure, but everything has its limits.
 
Maciej said:
I'm teaching an 11-year old English and yesterday we had our first lesson after three months and we had a chat about football and I asked him who's the GOAT right now and he said Antony... and then began laughing.

We've become exactly what we thought of Liverpool 15-20 years ago and Arsenal 10-15 years ago.

And a few days ago I saw such a post on Facebook:
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That post on Facebook is about as funny as haemorrhoids
 
Happened to watch the Liverpool game with a bunch of my sister's in- laws.

The father- in- law asked, if we have had in the last 5 odd years, any player who would get into the world XI...

Had no answer. We really are in a bad state...
 
DevilsOwn said:
Happened to watch the Liverpool game with a bunch of my sister's in- laws.

The father- in- law asked, if we have had in the last 5 odd years, any player who would get into the world XI...

Had no answer. We really are in a bad state...
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You’re a bigger man than me, there’s no way I could watch that with a scouser bragging in my ear.
 
FrenchRed said:
So I have not bought a Utd jersey since the Glazers took over, pretty much out of principle (I bought my sons a CR7 strip when he came back, but that's been about it). I love the 3rd strip this year, and happened to be in a large sports store here in France buying some back to school stuff for my kids, when I saw the jersey section. Liverpool, City, Arsenal - 1st, 2nd and third strips. They had the United 3rd strip for 50% off... and a *stack* of United jerseys just sitting there while everything else was selling fast. The assisitant said that it had been the same the last few years and next years they wouldn't stock Utd as we are mid table and not top 4 any more - there is no demand.

I figured why not buy the jersey, high on the hope of beating Liverpool in a few days time... and the assisitnt asked what player name/number I'd like. I genuinely couldn't think of any player I like enough to have on my back. I have zero connection to any of the bunch, which made me hugely sad. I opted to have no number on the back for the first time ever for me on a jersey.

My 9 year old son picked a Mbappe/Real jersey as he is more of a player fc fan for Mbappe, and my daughter picked a Bellingham/Real jersey. I was more than a bit gutted. None of my 'but we used to beat them in the CL...' didn't cut it - my kids were born a long time after our golden era. We are a relic to them. Each of them could name a bunch of good players from Liverpool, City and Arsenal, but just struggled to find anything exciting about United and couldn't name any player apart from Bruno, who they recon is now past it! They asked who our top striker was... I was met with blank expressions when I said Hojland and Zirksee.

I realised that then and there, the Glazers job was complete. We have become an irrelevence to the young people today who have not been brought up to follow the club. I real fear for us unless we take hard and drastic action.
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I agree.
Got a Utd jersey for $32.
My son wants a Real jersey, as he doesn't want to wear a "Rashford" jersey
 
Maciej said:
That's why you have 70k posts on a Manchester United forum and the kids find it hilarious, laugh at Antony and don't want to watch United.
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Excellent sentence. 4/10
 
Once you’re older than the players it’s a bit weird having their names on your back anyway, isn’t it?
 
Football is cyclical, we're not even in it at the moment, everyone is enjoying our downfall as the 30 odd year olds now are those who had their childhoods ruined by United - and they are now the ones bringing their kids up watching football. I see it all the time in Manchester over the last few years. Non footballing families buy their kids City shirts because they're successful and they want them to be happy. Unless you're from a United family, odds are you're not going to bring up any new United fans until we are at least on par with City again, success wise.
 
Cypriot said:
Football is cyclical, we're not even in it at the moment, everyone is enjoying our downfall as the 30 odd year olds now are those who had their childhoods ruined by United - and they are now the ones bringing their kids up watching football. I see it all the time in Manchester over the last few years. Non footballing families buy their kids City shirts because they're successful and they want them to be happy. Unless you're from a United family, odds are you're not going to bring up any new United fans until we are at least on par with City again, success wise.
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It's worse than that actually. There aren't going to be any young kids that'll want to be associated with United going forward. It's brutal in the social media era - the 5-0, 7-0 and many other humiliating defeats have left a permanent stain on the club.

I remember growing how brutal the 4-1 defeat to Liverpool was back in 2009, and these have been far more often, more highly publicised - and the best clapback we have is "we finished top 4 that season".

We're not just losing young fans to City, we're losing them to Liverpool too. They're by far the 2 most popular clubs in the country now among young people.
 
I told my new set of students today that I'm a Manchester United fan today at the beginning of the introduction session.

At the end of it, a student asked me who my favourite player was..

After scratching my head for at least 15 seconds; "maybe Amad Diallo or something"..
 
fps said:
Once you’re older than the players it’s a bit weird having their names on your back anyway, isn’t it?
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That's exactly what I've been thinking. Albo, I remember how depressing it was to see Macheda scoring vs. Villa. He's a few days younger...
 
There has basically been a whole generation that has not seen us play attractive football or win anything of note. we may have one of the largest fanbases for now but its only going to get smaller while we are in the wilderness and not attracting young fans. I imgine recruting will become harder still when merchandise or tv coverage is switched to more successful clubs, out of sight out of mind.
 
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Look on the bright side, the fact you mentioned Arsenal shirts are flying off the shelves tells you if we sort ourselves out we’ll be back up there in no time in terms of appeal. Arsenal were literally a banter club until they put in a couple of title challenges over the last two seasons. Now we have revamped the football structure hopefully it’s just a matter of time before that translates to positive results on the pitch. The sooner we change manager the sooner that process can begin.
 
I was in DC for the weekend, and a kid was dressed in a full City kit with Haaland at the back. You really have to be a big fan of the player or the team if you want to go the museum of natural history dressed in a full kit. It really struck me at the time that we have lost a generation of supporters, and we are continuing to fall behind further and further. Kids not from Manchester would want to be associated with teams that give them joy every weekend, and we have not been that team in their lifetime. We have been the team they have grown up making fun of.
 
We weren't the most successful side for a good few decades between Busby and Ferguson, but we have always been the best supported. We now have a bunch of people becoming parents that were born around our golden era, whose kids will support us no matter what.
 
This is so depressing. This is why it is in our best interests to see City win as little as possible. If I were ten years younger than I am (I’m 25), I’d probably be a City fan.
 
It's a new world. Since our fall from grace, as it were, I've noticed more kids simply swapping teams.

I personally know of lads who were Chelsea fans for a while and now are City supporters.

I started supporting UTD in the 70's whilst most of my friends and relatives were Liverpool fans. It was hard being a UTD fan but you kept low-key and got on with it.

During our height my LFC friends and family kept low-key and got on with it.

Now though the amount of stick on social media and what kot from the younger ones is next level. Verges on bullying.
 
The writing was on the walls good few years ago, even before Ole got sacked.
After years of floundering under different managers, while the likes of City had become dominant and Klopp had revived Liverpool from years in the doldrums, it was pretty clear that the shine would start to come off the Utd "brand" and we'd eventually lose our appeal to youngsters and potential new fans across the world.
Now we have Arsenal, Chelsea and to a lesser extent clubs like Villa and Newcastle, starting to eat our lunch.
The effects will not only be seen in falling merch sales, but the club's ability to sign top level commercial sponsorship deals will be diminished.

As for the shirt sales; I'm in the south of England (Manchester born and bred) and when you go into the sportswear stores these days, Man Utd shirts are no longer the big sellers on display.
Apart from the local teams (Soton or Pompey), the popular team shirts given display prominence are Arsenal, City, Liverpool and Chelsea.
Utd have been bumped off to join the mixture of "other" clubs on the racks.
10 or 15 years ago, you wouldn't have found a City shirt on sale anywhere down here.

.
 
What a car crash of a thread. Some of the worst of redcafe :lol:

My kid will support Utd, cos I did, just like my Dad does, my uncle does, my Grandad did.

I've been to Wembley and seen us beat City, away with us in Europe to play Bayern etc in the last twelve months.

Oh how tough we have it!
 
It's entirely appropriate to start another moan thread. We're a poorly run club and although I appreciate that it's going to take time for INEOS to turn things around, we have yet another stubborn manager. What's the common theme among all the appointed (not interim) managers -- Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Ole and ten Hag? They are all ridiculously stubborn in their tactics and their personnel decisions. They all preferred to drive us off the cliff in an attempt to vindicate their tactics. So off a cliff we go, getting thrashed by the likes of Palace last year, beaten by Brighton this year and not even close to a scraping at home against Liverpool this year.

I was planning on buying the third shirt, which looks fantastic with a pair of jeans, but now that this season is already a write-off I really don't want anything from the club that will remind me of this season.
 
I have been concerned about this for years. At some point it will rake a serious toll on the club's competitiveness no matter who is in charge.
 
lex talionis said:
It's entirely appropriate to start another moan thread. We're a poorly run club and although I appreciate that it's going to take time for INEOS to turn things around, we have yet another stubborn manager. What's the common theme among all the appointed (not interim) managers -- Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho, Ole and ten Hag? They are all ridiculously stubborn in their tactics and their personnel decisions. They all preferred to drive us off the cliff in an attempt to vindicate their tactics. So off a cliff we go, getting thrashed by the likes of Palace last year, beaten by Brighton this year and not even close to a scraping at home against Liverpool this year.

I was planning on buying the third shirt, which looks fantastic with a pair of jeans, but now that this season is already a write-off I really don't want anything from the club that will remind me of this season.
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OGS tenure went to shit the second he started trying to change his tactics, not because he was too stubborn.
 
Roane said:
It's a new world. Since our fall from grace, as it were, I've noticed more kids simply swapping teams.

I personally know of lads who were Chelsea fans for a while and now are City supporters.

I started supporting UTD in the 70's whilst most of my friends and relatives were Liverpool fans. It was hard being a UTD fan but you kept low-key and got on with it.

During our height my LFC friends and family kept low-key and got on with it.

Now though the amount of stick on social media and what kot from the younger ones is next level. Verges on bullying.
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I remember I was bullied for supporting United back in S1, and that was in 2011-12.
USREDEVIL said:
I have been concerned about this for years. At some point it will rake a serious toll on the club's competitiveness no matter who is in charge.
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Yup. The scary thing is that it could be something from which we never recover. We could end up like Everton, although that’s probably unlikely.
 
Utd heap said:
What a car crash of a thread. Some of the worst of redcafe :lol:

My kid will support Utd, cos I did, just like my Dad does, my uncle does, my Grandad did.

I've been to Wembley and seen us beat City, away with us in Europe to play Bayern etc in the last twelve months.

Oh how tough we have it!
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All this self loathing is fecking nauseating, the forums full of it.
 
We are a legacy club, most people supporting United these days are either of a certain age or it was passed down in the family. Most kids aren’t lining up to support the “banter” club and get cooked every weekend because a supposed big club keeps getting clobbered with 0-3 score lines against their “rivals” or losing 4-0 against the likes of Palace or something.

But we’re still huge and hopefully will correct the ship soon. Hopefully
 
FrenchRed said:
So I have not bought a Utd jersey since the Glazers took over, pretty much out of principle (I bought my sons a CR7 strip when he came back, but that's been about it). I love the 3rd strip this year, and happened to be in a large sports store here in France buying some back to school stuff for my kids, when I saw the jersey section. Liverpool, City, Arsenal - 1st, 2nd and third strips. They had the United 3rd strip for 50% off... and a *stack* of United jerseys just sitting there while everything else was selling fast. The assisitant said that it had been the same the last few years and next years they wouldn't stock Utd as we are mid table and not top 4 any more - there is no demand.

I figured why not buy the jersey, high on the hope of beating Liverpool in a few days time... and the assisitnt asked what player name/number I'd like. I genuinely couldn't think of any player I like enough to have on my back. I have zero connection to any of the bunch, which made me hugely sad. I opted to have no number on the back for the first time ever for me on a jersey.

My 9 year old son picked a Mbappe/Real jersey as he is more of a player fc fan for Mbappe, and my daughter picked a Bellingham/Real jersey. I was more than a bit gutted. None of my 'but we used to beat them in the CL...' didn't cut it - my kids were born a long time after our golden era. We are a relic to them. Each of them could name a bunch of good players from Liverpool, City and Arsenal, but just struggled to find anything exciting about United and couldn't name any player apart from Bruno, who they recon is now past it! They asked who our top striker was... I was met with blank expressions when I said Hojland and Zirksee.

I realised that then and there, the Glazers job was complete. We have become an irrelevence to the young people today who have not been brought up to follow the club. I real fear for us unless we take hard and drastic action.
Click to expand...

This is, sadly, bang on.

10+ years without a single credible challenge to the Premier League or Champions League will at some point have done significant damage. Even to such a huge brand as United.
 
FrenchRed said:
So I have not bought a Utd jersey since the Glazers took over, pretty much out of principle (I bought my sons a CR7 strip when he came back, but that's been about it). I love the 3rd strip this year, and happened to be in a large sports store here in France buying some back to school stuff for my kids, when I saw the jersey section. Liverpool, City, Arsenal - 1st, 2nd and third strips. They had the United 3rd strip for 50% off... and a *stack* of United jerseys just sitting there while everything else was selling fast. The assisitant said that it had been the same the last few years and next years they wouldn't stock Utd as we are mid table and not top 4 any more - there is no demand.

I figured why not buy the jersey, high on the hope of beating Liverpool in a few days time... and the assisitnt asked what player name/number I'd like. I genuinely couldn't think of any player I like enough to have on my back. I have zero connection to any of the bunch, which made me hugely sad. I opted to have no number on the back for the first time ever for me on a jersey.

My 9 year old son picked a Mbappe/Real jersey as he is more of a player fc fan for Mbappe, and my daughter picked a Bellingham/Real jersey. I was more than a bit gutted. None of my 'but we used to beat them in the CL...' didn't cut it - my kids were born a long time after our golden era. We are a relic to them. Each of them could name a bunch of good players from Liverpool, City and Arsenal, but just struggled to find anything exciting about United and couldn't name any player apart from Bruno, who they recon is now past it! They asked who our top striker was... I was met with blank expressions when I said Hojland and Zirksee.

I realised that then and there, the Glazers job was complete. We have become an irrelevence to the young people today who have not been brought up to follow the club. I real fear for us unless we take hard and drastic action.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have failed in your parental duties to me! it's up to you to educate and bring your kids up to follow the club rather than become glory fans

Despite being shite for a decade we still sell more shirts than City/Arsenal/etc on a global level
 
Those of us who grew up watching Sexton’s team followed by big Ron’s team followed by Fergie’s early years in the wilderness will be laughing at this thread…..you genuinely are silly to think that United will just walk into the wilderness with no fans going forward - we may be shite at present but give over with the self loathing - fair weather fans can do one anyway.
 
Utd heap said:
What a car crash of a thread. Some of the worst of redcafe :lol:

My kid will support Utd, cos I did, just like my Dad does, my uncle does, my Grandad did.

I've been to Wembley and seen us beat City, away with us in Europe to play Bayern etc in the last twelve months.

Oh how tough we have it!
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This is what I more or less what I was going to post. My son is a red and it’s been passed down since my great grandfather. Although my son was close to tears Sunday evening and he’s 16. :annoyed:
 
Red00012 said:
This is what I more or less what I was going to post. My son is a red and it’s been passed down since my great grandfather. Although my son was close to tears Sunday evening and he’s 16. :annoyed:
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I don’t blame him. I’m nine years his senior and I was close to tears as well.
 
I think to make sense of all this we need to start by accepting the fact that kids are daft by nature, they find peculiar things appealing, like eating sand or paste in the yard, you know.
Their imagination trumps their complete and utter lack of understanding of reality so they come up with their own interpretation of the ways of the world to make sense of their absurd existence on this floating structure through space.

So I’m wondering what could possibly be appealing to them in the clubs you folks have mentioned.

Arsenal - there’s this weird cartoonish guy who looks to be consistently on the verge of a mental breakdown running up and down the touchline, they find this appealing because in their imagination he might just go up in flames at any given moment or just do something totally insane, which is obviously exciting.

Did they win anything? No.
Will they win anything? Probably not.
Let these kids know they’re setting themselves up for eternal disappointment supporting this club, its not worth it.

Manchester City - Another weird guy on the touchline, and a really huge weird looking dude on the pitch, and they actually win stuff, they win a lot, but do these kids know about 115 charges? You should tell them, actually nah, don’t tell them.

What a shame that would be when their beloved little club gets punished and liquidated as a result, I would enjoy laughing at their wee faces, i would taunt them as they cry.

Liverpool - Klopp, another spastic weird looking dude on the touchline, holy molly I’m seeing a pattern here.
They won a few trophies and even played good football, but have these kids ever been to Liverpool?
Take them on a trip to Liverpool, see how they like it then.

Chelsea - I have no idea why would anyone find Chelsea appealing, not even a kid who eats paste, I’m totally stumped.
Like, there’s no redeeming qualities about that club at all, there’s just nothing there, a void of anything that is good, just silence.
I don’t even remember the last time I seen them play good football, maybe when Zola was there, that was before these kids dads were born, so it can’t be that.

That club is the footballing equivalent of the aftermath of Chernobyl, the event, it’s just horrific through and through.

Barcelona - yeah, I get it, I really do, there’s always something appealing about Barcelona, everything from the colors, to the badge, the football, the wonderful players who played there, but do these kids know the club is factually broke? And as a result they treat La Masia children like a sweatshop in China, these poor kids are falling apart man, its not right.

Real Madrid - This is a club that was well on course to become what Manchester United became since SAF retired.
They’ve done 2 things to prevent it from happening:

- They’ve had the greatest transfer window in the history of football (2009)

- And just as important if not more, they have hired the only person who could’ve driven Pep to not just leaving Barcelona’s managerial position, but to make him leave the damn country.
That was Jose Mourinho at his most psychopathic peak.

Real Madrid supporters should build a statue of Jose outside the Bernabeu.
Because in a very realistic alternate “no Mourinho” reality, Pep stays at Barcelona for years if not decades, by 2013 maximum Ronaldo gets tired of getting smashed by Barcelona every year, he gets tired of winning nothing, he leaves, a few other stars follow him.
Real Madrid goes through several random managers, they sign the likes of Fred and we sell them washed up Casemiro for 70m, they end up hiring Raul as interim manager at some point, they win a few Lana del Rey cups and maybe the Europa League, with de Gea smashing the decisive penalty in the final against West Ham in the top corner, he celebrates it by doing an “Adebayor” in front of David Moyes’ gormless face (in this timeline, the fax machine worked).

The End,

Also, have these kids heard about General Franco? You should tell them.
 
I always buy home jersey every season without any number at the back.

Its just for collection purpose. Maybe at some point in 2060 my kid will be able to sell them much higher. Thats all theres to it. Either as a collection or loadsa money, nothing in between. I dont expect them to be into football let alone football clubs. Freedoms and all that and no Im not american.

People seem to forget football is both the now and the then. But of course most fans only care about the now. So if at some point the club gets their shit together new fans will be flocking towards the club. So i just let it happen naturally.
 
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