My friend asked me why I didn’t care about United anymore and I wrote this in response. Not sure if any of the non-Comrades will care but hey, it’s my blog:
In all honesty I still support Man U. I watched the Wigan game on TV and cheered when United scored and was happy when they one. However my reaction was certainly far less than it would have been a while ago.
I did make a deliberate decision to start supporting United less. I grew gradually more ashamed of supporting them as my reason was just ‘because I do’ and I wished that I hadn’t grown up supporting them. But I felt like I was justified in saying that I hadn’t really chosen to support them, I now support Maidenhead United as well, so there that is.
Then when the Glazer’s took over I became even more disillusioned. I wondered what it means to support ‘a club’ and having previously been delighted that United was a well run club that played good football it appalled me that the Glazers were taking such a massive risk. The vast majority of fans hadn’t wanted them to take over but they had anyway. United suddenly seemed the epitome of everything wrong in football.
I decided not to buy any United merchandise (in fairness partly because it’s expensive) as a protest against the Glazers. But I still felt that it was somehow wrong to carry on supporting United. And as my support for Maidenhead United grew I just naturally care less and less about United.
It’s now got to the point where my mood is slightly affected when United do well or badly but not very much. And I wish that it didn’t. I’m not so sure about whether you ‘should’ support your local team, certainly not at all costs. But the thing is I don’t want to support United. I feel like they’ve got nothing to do with me. It seems ridiculous to care about whether they win or lose.
Whereas with Maidenhead OK I didn’t really have an impact but it was possible. In my own small way I could contribute to the running of the club and therefore it’s success. Obviously you can do that in a big club by buying merchandise but your effect is so close to zero as to feel minimal.
And when you are in the crowd at Maidenhead you can feel like a real part of the support. On my birthday I started the chanting a couple of times. No way could I have done that at Man U.
So that’s a ramble about my feelings about Manchester United. I’ve kind of lost interest in football generally basically by doing other things but I still like playing and watching it. And if I was in Maidenhead full-time I think I’d get involved there. But with Man U – I just care less and less and I think if I replace all my United merchandise as I’d like to then I’d eventually completely stop supporting them.
I’m Maidenhead till I die, I’m Maidenhead till I die, I know I am, I’m sure I am, I’m Maidenhead till I die.
