They’ll do what they want. They always have. They always will.
In the near 50 years since we first got to play Manchester United in my supporting career during the 1972-73 season, we’ve always been programmed to show due deference to The Busby Babes; The Biggest Club In The World.
In those days it was the twilight of the era of the great side of Bobby Charlton and the European heroes, but some of us recall their slide to Division Two, their triumphant return, their destruction of The Barclay, their expulsion (rescinded) from the Cup Winners Cup. We recall their fallow periods prior to the Ferguson era when they were just a ‘big club’.
But since the Premier League era, they’ve capitalised on all of the legends, all of the myths. Now they definitely are the biggest club in the world, up there with Real Madrid and Barcelona, sitting astride a mountain of monetisation and leveraged debt. When Stuart Webber bemoaned sending Daniel Farke to war without a gun, this is what he meant. The mighty Red Devils own more guns and bullets than is conceivable for a club like us.
And since their owners declared themselves keen to cash in further as founders of the (currently) ill-fated and short-lived European Super League, we’ve seen a fan backlash and a resurgence of the ‘Glazer out’ brigade – apparently triggered by a desire to ‘get their club back.’
Back from where? The pawn shop?
Yesterday, we saw them storm their own stadium, and successfully stop a fixture from going ahead. If you listen to the pundits at Sky TV, apparently these ‘peaceful’ scenes are meant to somehow represent all us fans in our quest to rid the game of all-consuming billionaires and return the game to us, the fans.
Well you know what? I’m not having it.
There’s much wrong with football at the moment, and much needs to change, but these people don’t speak for me, with their yellow and green scarves and a hankering for some distant heritage they’ve been happy to forget until the tiger they fed escaped its cage and started hunting them for lunch.
They’ve been happy to taunt everyone with their untouchable power and wealth. After a generation of watching them hoover up money and control, long before any Americans bought the trough, we’ve had to put up with the sense of entitlement a global army of plastic customers have around everything they do.
Whatever’s wrong with the ownership of their club, they’ve been happy to accept their club paying the biggest fees, paying the exorbitant wages and claiming the biggest slice of the cake; all while literally singing at us ‘We’re Man United, we’ll do what we want.’
You don’t speak for me.
Your behaviour doesn’t represent me.
Your interests have only ever been in your interest, not ours.
You’re supporting everything that’s ruined football for all of the rest of us. Are you going to disown all you’ve done because it’s tainted by wealth and the power that it buys? Of course you aren’t. You were happy to feed the monster until it threatened to eat you in the same way you’ve been happy to watch it eat us.
In my supporting career, we’ve been promoted ten times, five as champions. Saturday’s title was won in a climate of a club finally trying to live within its means, but within financial circumstances designed by the likes of you to ensure there is no level playing field, no equal chance, because your game was designed to exclude us and all like us.
Our latest success is different to yours, and is miniscule, but it’s real.
I don’t want you to speak for us, because you’ve never been us. You can’t comprehend what us, or those like us, want or believe in. All we want is a chance in the rigged system you helped build for yourselves and the other billionaires.
Well here’s your choice. Walk away. Let it fail. Keep your money.
Americans don’t like failure, they’ll get the hint. Maybe they’ll find some other superpower to sell it to who’ll continue to rinse you and treat you like an inconvenience as they market your dreams to foreigners while you reap the whirlwind.
Be like the rest of us and suck up some failure and insecurity for a while. Face up to football being so blo.ody precarious you could actually be facing administration or bankruptcy. Be like us, and factor in failure as part of the cycle of existence instead of just piling up cash to insulate yourself from our reality.
You’ve almost forgotten what football is actually like for the rest of us, and yesterday showed how you don’t get it.
Well here we are again, little old us, knocking on the door, giving it our best shot, in a way we’re comfortable to call ours. We’re back. We’re Norwich City. We’ll do what WE want going forward.
We’re not scared of our authenticity.
Maybe you should try some reality for a while – football has had enough of what you want, because of the damage it’s done to the rest of us.
Hi Dave
A great article that will resonate with many of us.
I know quite a few folks here in Norfolk who *support* Man U, Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea and I’d guess that over 80% of them have never, ever, been to those clubs’ home grounds. And most likely never will, of course.
Ironic as I’ve been to all four of them as a City supporter, plus the old Maine Road and to White Hart Lane around 100 times when I lived and worked in London.
Everybody is entitled to a peaceful protest, but some of the scenes from yesterday were disgusting as in: we want the Glazers out, let’s invade the pitch and postpone the match. Oh and while we’re here we’ll chuck a few barriers and bottles at the Police cos we’re Man Utd and we do what we want.
A very good, heartfelt piece.
Used to have this father and son sit near me . 18 games a season they would turn up in yellow and green, the other game they would be decked in red and white shirts and scarves. They did it for 2 seasons and got so much stick they moved their seats.
Dave, very well put! The images of Trafford yellow and green of yesterday such a lens for the ‘compare and contrast’ of MUFC and NCFC currently. Feels so good to support our club.
The violence towards the police and stewards at Old Trafford was simply disgusting so on that we agree Dave.
However I am in Gary Neville’s camp on this one because unless something is done next time there will be no warning.
The greed of the top 6 will not go away. First there was “Big Picture” and then there was “The European Super League”. Big Picture was testing the water, The ESL the clubs even signed up for it.
Next time they will just serve notice on the Premier League that they are just leaving. Gone.
The whole of European football would be devastated by this. The pyramid system for promotion and relegation allows clubs like us to dream. Who knows one day we may qualify for the Champions League ( We did 30 years ago, proof it is possible) but allow a ESL closed shop and it is gone forever.
So “something” must be done. That however is not attacking policemen or stewards, damaging property or throwing flares or beer cans at people.
But a peaceful protest by the Manchester United fans, even causing the match to be abandoned is fine by me. They need to know we do not want franchise football.
It won’t affect the Glazers but it will keep up the pressure on the government to go through with it’s threatened legislation. This must be kept in the news and not be allowed to be forgotten.
Manchester United are a strange case in all of this as they are the top club in the world, Real Madrid or Barcelona may rightly disagree but we have to be honest here. Go anywhere in the world and there are people wearing United shirts . But Arsenal ? Spurs ? really.
Whatever makes them think they have the right to be part of this ESL ?
Arsenal in truth have been awful for seasons now in the context of the Arsenal teams of the past.
Their audacity is unbelievable. All the good work done by West Ham and Leicester this season would have meant nothing if these greedy clubs had got their way.
I think now Dave all club supporters have to stick together and forget rivalries.
We have a common enemy and a common goal and that is to keep the integrity and fairness of the pyramid system throughout Europe for the generations of football supporters to come.
I’m just slightly perturbed by the grain of hypocrisy in the attitude of some of the big clubs. They’ve been happy to support a monster and to reap the rewards at the expense of everyone else, until too late they realised their monster is out of their control. They may eventually get their club back, but they’ll just need another monster to replace it, because they won’t accept a model like ours.
What I found surprising Dave is the high amount of money the Glazers have spent on players since they have been at Manchester United.
So I agree some of the United supporters wrath is due to the fact that they have just appointed poor managers since Alex Ferguson. Hypocrisy indeed.
I would love to see the top clubs stop the big spending at focus more on youth and more of a self-funding model. But it just won’t happen. And a lot of the reason is the high wage demands from players.
Players like Harry Kane etc deserve to earn what they do but the trouble is the amount trickles down to some very ordinary Premier League players on £50-100,000 per week.
Martin Peters a world cup winner earned roughly 5 times what my dad earnt during the time he was here. I bet even a Norwich squad player now earns 1,000’s more than the average man in the street.
I can understand why a lot of people on here would like Man Utd, Liverpool etc to b….. off to a ESL, trouble is that would leave our top game Everton V West Ham and Sky or anyone else for that matter are not going to pay the money they do at the moment for that. And that reduced income will trickle down to all the clubs in the country especially clubs like us.
I can still remember being that 7,8 year old kid who dreamed of Norwich City being in the top league of English football. To see the great clubs of the First Division as it was then at Carrow Road. I would hate to see that dream gone forever.
I much prefer those days. When the League and FA Cups meant so much, Resting players for these games !!! People would have laughed at such ridiculousness.
Teams like Forest, Derby, Everton could win the league.
The European cup, UEFA cup and Cup Winners cup were massive, special nights. No silly group stages, proper 2- legged knockout football.
But what we still have is worth preserving.
I have been thinking about your comment Dave regarding the United supporters
” you have never been us ”
True they have never in my lifetime been relegated to the third tier of English football as we unfortunately have. But they have, just like Chelsea, Spurs etc been relegated to the second tier.
I think they have been like us, I just don’t think the owners of these clubs want to be like us anymore. They want a guarantee against failure. They just want to sell the rights to their matches, which would be just glorified exhibition games, to the highest bidder themselves.
It is good to have this debate, others are quite entitled to a different view. I just want to save the present pyramid system with all its admitted flaws.
You mention Spurs and Arse-nal in the ESL they draw large crowds in the Middle and Far East when over there also TV audiences so large revenues that’s why they got invited.
Neville had some good ideas but condoning a supporters up rising knowing what the repercussion would be is just plain stupid.
A few people cause trouble they are cowards throw a bottle then dive back into the crowd let someone else take the blame, throwing barriers at the hooves of horses can get other protesters injured.
Someone said the innocent protesters get blamed sorry there are no innocent protesters, you protest and you know just being there stirs up trouble with people that have different views
I am sorry Alex I protested in the days of Robert Chase and I do not regret it one bit, I did not attack the Police, stewards or god forbid the Police horses.
Chase was trying to destroy our club, he had to go.
Peaceful protest is the right of every supporter from whatever club.
During my time in the 70’s I got roped into a few protests mainly trying to marshall them and Protesting is a god given right but their is always the idiot element out to cause mayhem and usually are only there for that reason, their is a coward policeman hitting a protester on the floor while his mates are trying to arrest him and he is still in custody so the violence is on both sides I hope that this policeman gets reprimanded for his behaviour he is there to stop trouble not cause it
Absolutely Alex, violence from a protestor or a policeman is totally wrong.
In fact violence from the police in these instances is worse because it can inflame the situation.
I just don’t think you can say there is no such thing as an innocent protestor.
In the days of “Chase out” I would say it was 95 % peaceful.
And I can assure you that had we not done that I very much doubt the club would be were it is now.
I do agree that unfortunately in many protests “rent a mob” do infiltrate and give so many people a bad name.
Nicely said Dave, now will we see a points deduction for the ESL arrogance and a further points deduction for yesterday’s mess. Personally I don’t think the powers that be have the balls for it. But its what they deserve.
Brilliant article. Well written and to the point. They are not like us – why does the media insist that all football fans think the same thing?
I genuinely can’t wait for the so called bigger clubs to form their Super League. I don ‘t care about them or their plastic fans. They can take VAR, huge TV contracts and lucrative player deals with them. They can have the ex-players who still think they should be famous. They can have all the egotistical billionaires and brain dead armchair supporters. While they’re at it they can have Twitter and Insta too.
Just give us the game back that we played and fell in love with before the Premier League was ever thought of.
Hi Dave
Last night if you listened to I Know it all Neville he was condoning the so called Peaceful Protester but as we all know their is no such thing and never will be.
You reap what you sow so they say some very rich ManU supporters called the Red Knights tried to buy them and said that the Glaziers would sell but surely if the bought the all the IOU from the back then that would put pressure on them to sell.
Many supporters want their clubs to be successful and aren’t bothered how they get it and want the owners to spend, spend, spend.
When you are paying players £500k aweek then it puts pressure on clubs to do deals with the devil then there is the amount clubs pay agents a % of any transfers so again money going out of clubs.
The biggest problem is reorganisation of football ⚽️ supporters will never have the finance’s to buy a controlling interest in the bigger clubs can the government force owners to sell 51% stake in clubs like in Germany or make clubs a members society like in Spain.
Having a regulator might work but how long would it last till supporters protested against their clubs being restricted in what they spend a very large can of worms 🪱 was opened by the ESL and is it too late to close that can.
If we can foment the anti-Glazer protest over the summer we could witness an entirely green and yellow Old Trafford stadium when we play there next season. At least then they will get a chance to see what a real football club looks like!
“True” MU supporters have for years been happy to take the cash generated by stopping sharing match day receipts, and foreign TV monies not forgetting the instigation of the Premier or expansion of the Champions League. Then arrogantly demanding the purchase of any player they may have fancied or a reduction in the number of teams in the league to improve their chances of glory (and money). Even during the Glazer years they have continued to turn up and enjoy the fruits of their dominance.
Without the Glazer’s would more money passed down the pyramid? Dream on.
People who want the Government to get involved, or for football to be ‘regulated’, need to be careful what they wish for. That old cliche holds true, “there are few problems in life that Government intervention can’t make worse…”
Great piece..
These supporters seem to forget how the Premier League was formed in the 1st place. Just the big clubs wanting more money, they were happy to support it then.
Quite how the ESL managed to mess this up so badly is beyond me, but it will happen eventually. The hypocrisy of the football fan never ceases to amaze me.
Because im not british my opinion about that is different. Lets just say that english clubs should have never been involved to esl idea. I still believe its going to happen and hopefully happen, but without english clubs. After that english clubs can forget better european players, because then those players have no reason to leave because of money. Spain and Italy are already main target for south american players and african player markets are very much in hands of european clubs. MLS is league which should rise, I can understand that many european players are willing to play there if they would pay better salaries.
People want to blame foreign owners. Of course there were far more foreign owned clubs condemning it than there were in it.
The reality is that the English owners who opened Pandora’s box with the creation of the Premier League and made Football a business first, sport second.
I also find it very strange people complaining about foreign ownership in the English Football Leagues, while they cheer a Welshman, who hired a German coach, with German coaching staff, who trained a Dutchman to pass to a Spaniard, who passes to an Argentinian, to feed a Swede. All while advertising a betting company. With the goal of going back to the Premier League, the land of money from foreign TV rights, or SKY TV and their constant gambling commercials.
But it’s okay, because Delia’s English.
Ok, I give up. Who is the Swede?
One of the vegetables at Colney ?
I thought Pukki was Finnish??? (Or am I missing the point??)
O T B C
Whoops. Of course, Finnish.
I could have accidently picked almost any other European country and had it still make sense.. .France, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Greece, Norway. Bosnia.
Not to mention Cuba and USA,
A well written piece Dave.
It’s on days like yesterday that I’m exceptionally proud to be a supporter of NCFC and what it stands for.
I suspect that many of those so called protesters are the same people who are already writing on their anti-social media platforms that NCFC do not deserve a place in the Premier League, because they will not spend enough to survive. OK guys; your owners maybe have done that, but at what cost to you, their supposed fan base?
Our owners have their faults, but at least we can say that they are FANS in the truest sense of the word, and unlike most owners in the Premier League, do attend all matches, home and away.
Can any of the supporters of the supposed big six make that claim about their owners??
I wonder what Martin Samuel thinks about us and our plans and aspirations now??
O T B C
Dave, a great article. You’re right they don’t speak for us, but your well written article does.
The Premiership was the beginning of the end of football being any kind of level playing field.
A relatively small club like Burnley in the 60s could compete in the old Divisions one, they were owned by Bob Lord a local Butcher.. what are their chances to truly compete these days.
Man City lost £120m last year, this week they had players worth £300m on the bench.
Here we are once again in the PL, we already know the season will not have anywhere the excitement we have seen in our last two promotions. Like this season we will be looking over our shoulder, this season watching who might catch us, the coming season counting how many are below us.
In the first year of the PL we managed to finish the season in third place, since then the playing field has progressively got more and more uneven.
The totally ridiculous amount of money paid in wages, transfer fees, agents fees and the cheating, and so on has killed the game that us older fans loved.
However I still love football itself, but not what it has become..
UEFA just need to ban all ESL teams from European competition for 2 seasons, loss of income and exposure would be damaging.
I think Man Utd have been in decline anyway as a brand.
Certainly I like the ethos of ‘We’re Norwich City we’ll do what we want’
One from the heart, and I empathise with most of it, The truth is that we, the fans, don’t own Norwich City however deep our emotional attachment to it and the length of our support and we are lucky(?) that we, as a club have had our recent successes by ‘doing it the right way’ – self-financing model etc. When, as seems likely we struggle again in the EPL some of our supporters will be saying ‘Farke out’, ‘new model needed with outside investment’ and so on. We have I think, been very fortunate in our appointments – Webber and Farke and I hope that we can follow them up with wise appointments.
I don’t know what the answer is. Many people refer to the German model of 50 + 1 of ownership but do the fans really have a say in those clubs? With Bayern Munich Addidas and Audi hold a significant amount of shares. Barcelona is owned by its fans or membership but this hasn’t stopped them getting into almost catastrophic debt and still, apparently being a part of the European super League (along with Madrid).
Good to see Man Utd fans protesting – but the violence and invasion of the ground were not justified. It will be interesting to see if they are docked points for this (imagine the outrage if it was Millwall).
An ESL may still come about (it has probably been kicked into touch for 2 or 3 years). Meanwhile in 2024 the UEFA Champions League format has changed, guaranteeing 10 games minimum to all competitors with some automatic places from these mini leagues in the knock out stage and just in case one or two big clubs slip up a number of 2 legged playoffs to get to that stage. For most fans it’s all meaningless.
If there is another attempt to form a European Super League my view is good riddance to the clubs that want to join it. Ban them from the EPL and Football League and I’d be very wary about allowing them to compete for the FA Cup.
I wouldn’t trust the Tory party re reforming Football either with news coming out that Ed Woodward (recently resigned CEO of Man Utd) apparently consulted Johnson/Johnson’s staff before the ESL announcement: https://thepeoplesperson.com/2021/04/26/ed-woodward-and-boris-johnson-what-really-happened-in-european-super-league-meeting-224017/
and of course we know that Johnson condemned it, probably after quickly seeing which way the wind was blowing – typical of that lazy incompetent without principles.