Who is your main Man Utd rival besides Liverpool?

Leeds.

Grew up in West Yorkshire in the 90s, it was a nasty rivalry back then, the Utd Vs Leeds games I went to felt much more heated than games Vs Liverpool during that period. Both were feisty, but those Leeds games had a real edge to them.

I'd say they have a much more loathsome fanbase than any of our other rivals too.
 
Castia said:
This is something us fans say to cope with our rival being one of the best teams in Europe.
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Well maybe for you but I mean it. Of course with unlimited budget you will win the league. It's as meaningless as a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition match.
 
Liverpool
City
Leeds

I'm from Manchester so City aren't just local rivals to United, but I know quite a few City fans. The oil money makes me want to see them lose more, not less. If the Qatari bid goes through it's going to be difficult for me.

Leeds - Old school Lancashire/Yorkshire war of the roses Northern stuff. I don't know any of their fans personally but they don't come across well. Intense matches with this lot in the past.

I think I'm parochial because the teams down south don't bother me much at all. Might as well be in a foreign country.
 
PoTMS said:
You're the one claiming that all United fans dismiss City's success as a way to cope. Some of us genuinely could not care less. Granted, I'm from London and City are a minor irritation to me, I don't even know a single City fan. Meanwhile, I know tonnes of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and even Spurs fans.

And for your quoted part, that's fine but don't speak for the entire United fanbase when it's clearly rubbish, especially with fans from outside of Manchester who don't feel the rivalry with City the same way you do.
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See that’s where we differ because half of my mates are City fans and the last 10 years have been murder!

With you being down south you probably get just as much shit from the Arsenal fans so I understand.
 
glazed said:
Well maybe for you but I mean it. Of course with unlimited budget you will win the league. It's as meaningless as a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition match.
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We’ve spent similar numbers and completely failed though
 
glazed said:
I don't really count City - they're just a financial artificial monstrosity.
Which is actually the biggest problem if we go the same way. It won't feel real.
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Even if we have that sort of owner we won't be artificial. We already have the status, they didn't.
 
glazed said:
Well maybe for you but I mean it. Of course with unlimited budget you will win the league. It's as meaningless as a Harlem Globetrotters exhibition match.
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You need more than just money to win. Have you not paid attention to our last decade or so?

And if we do go to City/Chelsea/ Newcastle levels/potential levels of spending, we still need to outflank them too.
 
LARulz said:
Arsenal

Your "typical United fan from the South" here. My school days were all out war between Arsenal fans
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Yeah, same, the arse.
I don’t really care about Leeds as I’m not a local Manc. But I do get the point made by some about hating local rivals, and am happy to hate them as and when required. Beyond this, I tend to despise game raisers and anyone who actually beats us. But Liverpool are the prime object of my loathing.
 
Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool
Chelsea
Arsenal

I started following United in the early 80’s when Liverpool was dominating and later came the battles with Chelsea and Arsenal. Many of my friends are Liverpool fans and the last years after they came crawling out from the rock they had been hiding under have been absolutely terrible. I am so glad that City and Real Madrid was there to keep their trophies to a minimum.
 
Chipper said:
Liverpool
City
Leeds

I'm from Manchester so City aren't just local rivals to United, but I know quite a few City fans. The oil money makes me want to see them lose more, not less. If the Qatari bid goes through it's going to be difficult for me.

Leeds - Old school Lancashire/Yorkshire war of the roses Northern stuff. I don't know any of their fans personally but they don't come across well. Intense matches with this lot in the past.

I think I'm parochial because the teams down south don't bother me much at all. Might as well be in a foreign country.
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This is what I said and is correct answer.

Arsenal were never true rivals of ours until Wenger rocked up. It was competition where that came from.

Liverpool, City and Leeds are our historical rivals and that will never change.
 
Castia said:
We’ve spent similar numbers and completely failed though
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We spent it badly because of our flawed business model built on debt and bullshit. A truly unlimited budged doesn't have those flaws. We talked about this.
 
Sandikan said:
Even if we have that sort of owner we won't be artificial. We already have the status, they didn't.
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If I keep saying it will I eventually believe it? Not working so far.
 
always_hoping said:
Manchester City was before they sold their soul. None now.
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I'm seeing a lot of this. Are you lot daunted by the juggernaut City has become? Its easy to enjoy the rivalry when your team is infinitely more successful.

But not the City's owners have cheated the league to give them major advantages while United's owners have cheated their own fans and club to line the pockets, the City rivalry means less because they are illegitimate?

Honestly that's a cop out in my opinion.

City have enjoyed their ill-gotten success. Im raring to see United legitimately knock them off their plastic perch...I hate them even more now.
 
Liverpool.

City and Leeds are rivals for the local(ish) area, but can become irrelevant when they're having a bad season. It's a hatred that extends beyond the pitch, but that also can lose intensity depending on the circumstances.

Then you have the footballing rivalries. For example, Newcastle are rivals for 90 minutes tomorrow. Brighton and Tottenham are rivals for league position this season. Wenger's Arsenal and Mourinho's Chelsea could be described as rivals for a generation.

What makes Liverpool different is that it's a rivalry never ends. Not only are they local(ish). Not only are they usually around the same position in the table as us. They've also been going toe-to-toe with United for over a century. 20 titles to 19. 18 cups to 17. We've been at it forever and probably will be forever more. No other rivalry will come close until they can catch up to us on silverware.
 
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It is interesting that if based in England the rivalry changes depending on the region you live in.
For foreigners like me and many others it basically means who ever is our main competitor in the league.

What was it like in England mid 90s when Blackburn and Newcastle were rivals for the league title?
 
Ted Lasso said:
I'm seeing a lot of this. Are you lot daunted by the juggernaut City has become? Its easy to enjoy the rivalry when your team is infinitely more successful.

But not the City's owners have cheated the league to give them major advantages while United's owners have cheated their own fans and club to line the pockets, the City rivalry means less because they are illegitimate?

Honestly that's a cop out in my opinion.

City have enjoyed their ill-gotten success. Im raring to see United legitimately knock them off their plastic perch...I hate them even more now.
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No I grew up watching the Manchester Derby when it actually meant something and that included sitting in the Main Road watching United get hammered 5-1. If it was more earned City success I'd tip my hat to them and would look forward to knocking them off their perch but they sold their soul and other laughing at them failing to buy Champions league nothing they do is any interest to me anymore.
 
Arsenal ….would love to see them blow the prem
 
Now just Liverpool as Leeds have been irrelevant for decades. Even with Liverpool I don't care that much anymore as football is so different now compared to when it mattered to me a long time ago.
 
Liverpool
City
Leeds

That's it really. Arsenal was very much a situational rivalry in the late 90s/early 2000s.
 
Results are driven by age, what matches they get to, who’s being successful and lack of historical and cultural knowledge about Manchester

for me it’s (and always will be)

liverpool
City
Leeds
Then whoever flavour of the month is
 
Liverpool
City
Arsenal
Are the top 3, Chelsea in 4th. I can imagine Newcastle claiming that 4th spot though, their fans are incredibly annoying.
 
I may have been born in Belfast, but my parents moved me to burnage in Manchester when I was 1 and lived in Manchester until I was 10. Back then Manchester City where the team I wanted to beat even more than Liverpool.

We moved back to Belfast and it changed to Liverpool soon after as the main rival, that was as much to do with City getting relegated and not knowing any city fans and starting to know many Liverpool fans.

So for me in this order

Liverpool
City
Arsenal
Leeds
 
It’s really a coin-toss between City, Chelsea & Arsenal for me with neither clubs feeling like a proper rival. City probably would’ve if we hadn’t become shite so early in their era of domination.

Leeds as an outside option but I only saw a Leeds fan live once in my life, I believe.
 
Newcastle. They tried to take us before and they are coming at us again. In a few years they could Man City us easily with the cash they have. Plus they are a bunch of backwards hillbillies with no right to winning anything. Even now they are seen as this clever club that are building slowly and wisely but in reality they are spending loads. Even the Cup final coverage I thought was heavily on their side.

People thought they would just go out and buy Mbappe and Neymar but that's just unrealistic. They still have FFP and they cant attract that level of player - yet. But they will soon and then we will have 2 Man Cities. Fake plastic clubs with loser supporters pretending they are better than us.
 
Before 2010, my ability to watch European football was very very limited, it was too late on school nights for me to watch and I mainly got to see only weekend Premier League games - so I grew up seeing us battle Arsenal & Chelsea the most. The city was just creeping up and becoming a thing, Liverpool was a mess and miles behind really.
 
Leeds
Scouse
Chelsea
City
Arse
Geordies
 
Arsenal or City.

Arsenal being the more significant rivalrly in my lifetime, where (not being from Manchester) I generally didn't have any real reason to care about City.

On the flip side I look back fondly on those pre financial doping SAF/Wenger years in the PL and dislike Arsenal less as a club, whereas there's less to respect about the empty (and cheating) vessel that is City.

So at this point probably City, as I have more ill-feeling towards them.
 
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