19
I will say it again:
Nineteen
Title victories I have found tend to sink in over a two stage process. There is first the week after the weekend before. That warm glow. You’ve had a day and night on the lash…the hangover…the hair of the dog…and then the return to work stinking of vodka, an overtly large Sunday carvery, and the smell of success. Through the week you chat to your mates. You rip the Scousers you know. Tweet everyone who ever doubted United..and in general start to feel ever so…..smug.
The second part normally comes much later. Almost as a flashback. In those horrible non-footballing months that someone decided to call ‘The Cricket Season’ ..you think back to glorious split seconds. Rooney’s flying overhead kick. Berba’s hattricks. Nani’s early devastating form. And of course this season…the smile of a certain Mexican. You will glow warm for weeks to come as this fuels your life source
But hang on!
The season isn’t exactly over!
Oh yes…we have a Champions League final to attend to. And were at ‘The Home of Football’ (TM) playing ‘The Greatest Team To Play Football In This Galaxy’ (TM)
Allegedly the worst team to ever EVER win a league title (as i hear as a prelude by anyone in the press when they mention us) are to face the might of Lionel Messi United and his Merry Muskehounds. If The Faithful were allowed to actually write the script as to how this last few weeks had gone…then surely this would have been how it all ended?
Barcelona play some pretty astonishing football. I grant you that. They are the modern version of Dutch Total Football. Their DNA reeks of Cruyff (Johan not Jordi) and they make Arsenal look like a pub team from Staffordshire. Never before has a club side been so lauded by so many. Ajax had such kudos in the 1970s. Liverpool were very good at getting the job done. Milan’s many incarnations showed the guile of the Italian nature. Madrid held their own reality TV show called ‘The Galacticos’. And United ourself…well we didn’t do too bad in 1999. Many clubs of excellence. But not one of them to compare to this Barca team.
Pep G has showed what you can do with a bunch of players who are barely tall enough to get on the rides at Disney. A thousand 10 yard passes. 80% ball retention. Full backs who think they are wingers. Centrebacks who think they’re midfielders. Midfielders who can score in the blink of an eye. And then…………you have…………Messi.
Is it really worth us turning up at Wembley!???
Well yes of course it is. If only so we can say we got hammered by the best team in the world.
This Champions League final may well be held in our very own country. But it might as well be held at the bloody Nou Camp….Camp Nou…whatever. We have no chance. Zip. Nada. Nothing
AND I LOVE IT!
In real terms were very much the underdog. Good. Happy with that. Outside of the usual circles I’ve hardly heard anyone give us a real chance. And I understand that I truly do. How dare we even think that WE could beat such a team of such royal heritage as the mighty Barcelona. Don’t we remember Rome just a couple of years ago? When we were duly bent over and given the most painful big match rogering in recent memory. Well…there isn’t a Red alive that doesn’t remember that night and all for the wrong reasons. One thing many forget is that on the night we were actually the favourites. Barca were missing half their defense, and many MUFC fans were completely blase. “Barcelona can attack but they cant defend”…I heard that one about 18 times a day after we had given Arsenal a spanking in their own back yard. “And we have Ronaldo…AND HE’S BETTER THAN MESSI!”…I also heard that way too much.
Anyhow….after a midfield capitulation of epic proportions we surrendered the European Cup we had won 12 months before in Moscow and we waddled off home to lick our wounds.
How things change in just 24 months….or not as it may seem!
So its Barcelona v Manchester United again. Once again we will be wearing white. Once again we will probably pit Giggs and Carrick in there against Xavi and Iniesta. And once again we are both champions of our respective giant footballing nations. The polar core difference though to the game in Rome is this. That Man Utd cant win this one. No Ronaldo. No Tevez as insurance. And a team that has a personality complex whenever it plays away from Old Trafford. There is only one winner. And it ain’t us.
This zero expectation is without doubt in my mind our biggest weapon against Barcelona. The script says that the big dog will take down the ever so slightly smaller dog. It’s not quite Liverpool V Wimbledon Cup Final preportions…but you catch my drift. Never before have I followed United into such a big game where we were the 2nd choice of almost every pundit on the planet…….
Except that is…..in 1991
The European Cup Winners Cup final of exactly 20 years ago…..
In a Manchester monsoon of rain…..against……..
BARCELONA!
It was an epic night. Robson, Bruce and Hughes proved you could beat a team that many thought was the best in the world at the time. Some thought Ronald Koeman would beat us on his own! But we flipped up the apple cart…and all of Barca’s fruit came crashing down on to the pavement below. Smashing into a beautiful scented pulp. We lifted the trophy. We hopped back across the channel. And we put English football back on the map at our first go post-Hysell. We proved that as the underdog…that we’re rather good.
So roll on May the twenty eighth. Ive never felt so relaxed about a game in all my life. If we lose 5-0 everyone will simply say: “well, that Man Utd team isn’t that good is it?”…
If we battle hard and they pip us with some brilliance, people will eulogize: “Barcelona are the greatest…but credit to this not very good Man Utd team for giving them a game”……
But ….IF….WE….WIN….IT?
There will be no words
Except from us. The Faithful. As we carry home our 4th European Cup trophy.
Bring it on Barcelona. The Greatest Football Club In The World (TM) is waiting for you.
And so are we.
To quote Giggsy: “We’re a rubbish team”
Let’s see what our rubbish can do against these cheating diving primadonnas 🙂
This is probably The Best Football Blogpost Ever(TM)
love it cos it’s true, if UEFA can provide a strong ref who doesn’t buy the whole “you can’t tackle a Barca player cos they’r soooooooooooooo good” we should have a very exciting game with great (yet slow) buildup play from Barca and some pace, power and hard work from Park, Valencia, Rooney and that little Mexican guy that noone knows about.
i love thias blog
That night in Roterdam our name was on the cup, 2 goals from Sparky.
BELIEVE its on it again this time with 2 from the little P.
That boy Giggsys got 12 you know!
I think we can do it. In terms of individual player form, we have the edge. 1-0 Park
Fuck I’m pumped! Completely agree with every word! Time and time again, United make history. And I have a suspicious feeling we’ll do it again.
Anything can happen in 90 min, aresenal
beat them! It all depends on messi
if he turns up on fire he’s unplayable
but I couldn’t ask for a better end to the season…
Firstly, this comment has nothing to do with the author and everything to do with the content. I did not realize this was his blog until I had read the blog, which popped up in my feed through the @TheFaithfulMUFC Twitter feed. I haven’t had any contact with the author since he blocked me on Twitter, and whatever problems he has had with me in the past ought to be discounted when reading these comments.
“Tweet everyone who ever doubted United..and in general start to feel ever so…..smug.”
Odd that I should read such a statement in a blog post that does nothing but doubt Manchester United. Juxtapose the above quote with the below, and it gets just a tad more ironic:
“Man Utd cant win this one. No Ronaldo. No Tevez as insurance. And a team that has a personality complex whenever it plays away from Old Trafford. There is only one winner. And it ain’t us.”
“The Faithful”, as you call them, have no faith! I was intriuged to see whether or not this was an isolated incident, so I took a bit of time to look through the authors other posts, and couldn’t help but laugh when I stumbled upon this:
“Now I’m always one to profess to ‘support the team’ and to ‘trust the manager’…and all of that I do indeed practice with every MUFC game I go to. But I’ve developed a fear that I’ve not encountered for some time. As we watch the financial might of City strengthen at will, see Chelsea go blow fifty million on an out of form, yet with obvious talent, Spaniard. Witness Liverpool take huge strides forward in their strategies, …..and maybe..just maybe..watch Arsenal finally mature out of their kindergarten..It all feels like in comparison that we are standing……..still.”
Forgive me for saying so, but that sounds awfully a lot like doubt to me! Do you really think you have the right to be so “smug” now?
That’s not to say it is wrong to have doubt from time to time, I had my doubts at different points this season. We all do, but to read such nonsense as ” Tweet everyone who ever doubted United..and in general start to feel ever so…..smug” when you are clearly one of many who doubted, and continue to doubt, the quality of this United side, just reeks of pomposity. I don’t know why you would feel so “smug” in “tweeting everyone that doubted United” when you doubted them yourself. It’s a double standard, is it not?
Just out of curiosity, who are, “The Faithful”? Is that meant to be your way of speaking for all Manchester United fans? Or is this some sort of editorial, and you are speaking on behalf of all the people who read and comment on this blog? I certainly hope it is not the former because you certainly don’t speak on my behalf. That’s a serious question by the way. I have seen this blog use that term several times and it genuinely confuses me as to who or what group it refers to.
Barcelona are favorites, but we can win this game. Of that I have little doubt. That’s not over confidence, that’s not saying we WILL win, but if you believe this team “can’t win” then I am confused even further in regards to this “The Faithful” business.
You spend the whole blog telling us why United have no chance, and then conclude on this note:
“But ….IF….WE….WIN….IT?
There will be no words
Except from us. The Faithful. As we carry home our 4th European Cup trophy.”
So it’s okay for you to rejoice in any triumph United might have, despite your obvious doubts that this squad is capable of beating Barcelona, yet you feel “smug” when you “tweet those who ever doubted United”?
You give United not one iota of hope, yet you call yourself “The Faithful”? You will have to excuse me in saying that these two standpoints are mutually exclusive. By my definition of the word, if you were one of “the Faithful” you mention in this blog, you would have some semblance of expectation or conviction in United’s chances going into this match.
Keep The Faith indeed.
Firstly many thanks for reading MG91 and for taking such time to extensively comment on our article. Luckily for you I can answer every one of the questions you posed in your comment:
I remember saying to you on Twitter many moons ago that i thought you took things incredibly literally (I have a good memory i remember everything) Once again whilst reading this article you have done the exact same thing. This article is written from the perspective from the general public…who as it stands..gives us no chance. Maybe in Australia you are not privvy to the floodgate of covergae that we get here in the UK? This is all clearly defined in my wording but it appears you have taken snapshots to allow you to formulate an inaccurate viewpoint.
“Tweet everyone who ever doubted United..and in general start to feel ever so…..smug.”…
“Odd that I should read such a statement in a blog post that does nothing but doubt Manchester United. Juxtapose the above quote with the below, and it gets just a tad more ironic”
At no point have i personally doubted United in this article. You have your wires incredibly crossed
“The Faithful”, as you call them, have no faith! I was intriuged to see whether or not this was an isolated incident, so I took a bit of time to look through the authors other posts, and couldn’t help but laugh when I stumbled upon this: “Now I’m always one to profess to ‘support the team’ and to ‘trust the manager’…and all of that I do indeed practice with every MUFC game I go to. But I’ve developed a fear that I’ve not encountered for some time. As we watch the financial might of City strengthen at will, see Chelsea go blow fifty million on an out of form, yet with obvious talent, Spaniard. Witness Liverpool take huge strides forward in their strategies, …..and maybe..just maybe..watch Arsenal finally mature out of their kindergarten..It all feels like in comparison that we are standing……..still.” Forgive me for saying so, but that sounds awfully a lot like doubt to me! Do you really think you have the right to be so “smug” now?
Well done in obviously digging up an old article. Those are my words but from which article i have no clue. At times this season I have doubted United. Our away form dictates this. I would find it hard to find one of my fellow card carrying Reds to say they NEVER have doubted their team. At times we have been woeful away from Old Trafford..and im not one of those Reds that just likes to spout ‘BELIEVE’ at everyone as an answer to a bad performance!
“Just out of curiosity, who are, “The Faithful”? Is that meant to be your way of speaking for all Manchester United fans? Or is this some sort of editorial, and you are speaking on behalf of all the people who read and comment on this blog? I certainly hope it is not the former because you certainly don’t speak on my behalf. That’s a serious question by the way. I have seen this blog use that term several times and it genuinely confuses me as to who or what group it refers to.”
The fact that you pose this question above proves you have no idea about this blogzine or what we write. I could explain it to you but i refer you to the About section where you will get your answers.
“You spend the whole blog telling us why United have no chance, and then conclude on this note:
“But ….IF….WE….WIN….IT? There will be no words. Except from us. The Faithful. As we carry home our 4th European Cup trophy.”
Your answer is actually in that paragraph above. Does it sound like i personally think United cant win???
“So it’s okay for you to rejoice in any triumph United might have, despite your obvious doubts that this squad is capable of beating Barcelona, yet you feel “smug” when you “tweet those who ever doubted United”?”
I spend £1000s a year following United. I rejoice because i pay my dues..do the hours in the car..and have followed my team for longer than the 19 years you have been on this mortal coil.
“You give United not one iota of hope, yet you call yourself “The Faithful”? You will have to excuse me in saying that these two standpoints are mutually exclusive. By my definition of the word, if you were one of “the Faithful” you mention in this blog, you would have some semblance of expectation or conviction in United’s chances going into this match.”
Once again…you incredibly antagonistic in the extreme. If you are an MUFC fan and do not know or are familiar with the term ‘The Faithful’ then I summise you support our club through a TV screen maybe? And not standing with fellow fans. Geography and terminology are your problem. Not mine.
I thought I would publish your comment as I have a policy of always doing so whether comments are positive or not. You have had a good yet unsuccessful attempt at deconstructing this article into something that its not. Regualr readers have left comments that reflect the actual sentiment of the piece
And just to answer your sub questions to finish: I blocked you on twitter for exactly the reason here of your comment. I nicely tried to explain to you a few things previously to which you continually answered back in true teenage fashion with excessively long winded and unfounded comments. In the end I blocked you. Which was better than me calling you names and getting angry with your vitriol and quasi intelligence
To end: Did you believe Ryan Giggs on the pitchside when he quoted “Man Utd..yeah we are rubbish?” I do believe the man, like us at The Faithful, have a sense of humour
Glory glory. Red til Dead
RB
I’ll be honest with you Matt, your comments sound like a personal attack and nothing to do with his article.
I’ll be honest with you, MadManc78, it wasn’t, it was a response to the contradictions I felt existed within the article and with previous writings. Like I said in the earlier comment, I had no idea this was even Badger until I had finished reading the article. I spent a good few hours deliberating whether or not to leave the comment because I wanted it to be taken on it’s merits, and not judged simply on the basis that it was me who had made it. If it had nothing to do with the article, I would not have mentioned the article, I would not have quoted the article and I would not have opined on the content of the article.
I take things as literally as they are there to be taken. I am very much aware of how little chance we are being given by the media and people who aren’t Manchester United fans. That’s fine, they don’t have to rate us, but there are parts of this article that are clearly your opinion.
“The polar core difference though to the game in Rome is this. That Man Utd cant win this one. No Ronaldo. No Tevez as insurance. And a team that has a personality complex whenever it plays away from Old Trafford. There is only one winner. And it ain’t us.”
To me, that sounds like you are speaking. You said that YOU have zero expectations. If it is not true that you have no expectations of Manchester United heading into this game, then state it in the article. I can only read what’s there. I can see that you are taking the piss out of the media and their atrocious analysis of this United side throughout the season in your opening paragraphs, but no matter how many times I read the article I get to this paragraph:
“So its Barcelona v Manchester United again. Once again we will be wearing white. Once again we will probably pit Giggs and Carrick in there against Xavi and Iniesta. And once again we are both champions of our respective giant footballing nations. The polar core difference though to the game in Rome is this. That Man Utd cant win this one. No Ronaldo. No Tevez as insurance. And a team that has a personality complex whenever it plays away from Old Trafford. There is only one winner. And it ain’t us.”
and I just don’t understand how you can say that this is not you speaking. If the last part of the paragraph is not your own opinion, then separate it from the part that is your opinion. You can hardly accuse me of taking what you have written too literally if you are mixing up what is your own opinion and what is written “from the perspective of the general public” is mixed up in the same paragraphs. I don’t read blogs for the quality of English, but I think it is pretty uniform to expect that separate points and separate opinion will be dealt with in separate paragraphs.
The article I took that quote from is this one: http://thefaithfulmufc.wordpress.com/2011/02/22/whats-left-in-the-tank-is-mufc-a-timebomb-waiting-to-go-off/
Like I said in my post, I do not care that you doubted United this season. Like you say, every fan did. I took issue with you saying you felt “smug” when you “tweeted everyone that ever doubted United”.
I’m not sure what relevance my age, geographic location or the amount I spend on travelling 51 hours on a plane to have the privilege of maybe seeing maybe two games a season has to do with anything I have written in response to your post. These things are out of my control and have no bearing on me as a supporter, yet you refer to them continuously.
If, as a 19 year old Australian, who takes everything too literally, who doesn’t spend as much money as you on the club, who doesn’t hold a season ticket and who doesn’t stand with the fans, my opinion is worth nothing to you, then fine. I didn’t write my comment for your approval, I wrote it in response to what I saw in the article. The amount of your comment you have dedicated to criticizing myself personally, as a fan, instead of dealing exclusively with the points I have made is, quite frankly, a joke, and I won’t be biting the bait. You accuse me of antagonizing you, then write a comment like this:
“If you are an MUFC fan and do not know or are familiar with the term ‘The Faithful’ then I summise you support our club through a TV screen maybe? And not standing with fellow fans”??
Cute. I wonder how your overseas writers feel about a comment like that?
Ask Sleepy Nik, one of the lads who have commented on this piece, about the quality and depth to the discussions we had while I was in Manchester. Ask him if he thinks I am just some lackadaisical half wit of a fan, who just watches United on TV and takes no interest in the other issues surrounding the club. I don’t have to prove my support to you or anyone else, but thanks for taking the time to try and judge me anyway.
I know full well what the term “The Faithful” means, I just do not care for the way it is used in this context, as though you represent all “The Faithful”, because you don’t. If that is not how you intend the term to be read, then don’t use it in such a broad context.
I didn’t ask you to explain why you blocked me on Twitter, there was no “sub-question”. My comments were in direct response to the content of the article, yet you have spent half your reply trying to criticize me in an equally long winded response that you seem to think is typical of teenagers. Hello kettle, this is pot!
PS: Don’t try and patronize me on the part of my age, then go on Twitter and call me an “idiot” when you know full well I cannot see what you are tweeting, like some sort of gossiping school kid. If you want to take that route when someone posts valid criticisms of your work you can do that in here.
This is exactly why u are blocked from my Twitter. Because of your elongated arguments about nothing. I’m not cutting u another long reply because you’re clogging up our website. And the comment about u watching us on a tv was directed at u and solely u..not to other knowledgeable Reds from abroad. So back off under your stone where u belong please. This is a website for adults. Not pedantic kids.
Another lesson in the subtleties of class and maturity. You have taken what was meant to be a discussion about some of the points made in your article and turned it into a slanging match, completely dodging the bigger issue at hand by attempting to belittle myself and my points on the basis of age and location. Congratulations on being the bigger man.
May I suggest you implement a filter that prevents anyone under the age of 25 from viewing your blog? I would hate for more “petulant kids” to come on here and degrade the enlightening and extremely mature debate you conduct with such tact on this website with reasoned coherent criticism, which, I must say, you handle terrifically well.
I apologize for my obvious lack of maturity and I will be sure to learn from your undeniable tact and class, attributed which you have demonstrated beyond repute through your replies to my comments.
Once again you seem to think im addressing our audience rather than just you. My response was about you alone. We have people under the age of 25 from all over the planet who write excellent and informed articles here on TF. And if youve read anything else ive written over the years you will know my clear thoughts that MUFC is a global club and as Reds we all stand together.
So once again…it is only you that my comments were directed at as they are only true when refering to yourself. Thanks for the apology about your lack of maturity…should i take that as a literal comment?..(or as this article is….not literal?) And if you knew me you would know that I do not have any tact or indeed…..class. Congrats on being the first ever reader of TF to be engaged in this manner on our comments section. Now as I asked you a year ago…please go away (and thatll be JUST you and not every teeneager on Planet Earth)
Many Thanks