Manchester United fans are not special or unique and Zarkezi's excess proved it.

One of the many joys of watching the Manchester United crisis is that so much coverage and response to the Manchester United crisis has been orchestrated in a way that hasn’t happened in the last 10 years.

Gary Neville’s repeated chants of “This is Manchester United”, combining weary resignation with a bemused air of disbelief, have certainly achieved meme status by now, but he is merely the most visible example of the trend. And there is an audible example that is strongly connected at this time. Long, long gone.

Constantly expect that this time Manchester United To sort ourselves out properly and become good again – of which we are as guilty as anyone – is a powerful testament to the power of pre-existing beliefs. How difficult it can be to let go of ideas that have long ceased to apply.

sure, Manchester United’s dumbf*ckery under Ruben Amorim is absolutely astonishing.but it certainly can’t be more of a shock to anyone that they haven’t been able to instantly and magically become good.

We are now at least past the time when people will insist in all seriousness that Manchester United is a club that sticks with managers, all the while in an uncharacteristically modern convention of chopping and changing coaches. Refuses to bow down. It took some good managerial turnover before starting on the last few holdouts that United didn’t cut and change managers like everyone else because they had the best players in the world and possibly for two decades. There were excellent managers.

But the importance of this apparently very obvious point is only partially understood and absorbed.

That was very evident in some of the reactions to last night’s none-more-2024 sh*tsh against Newcastle to cap off a truly awful year of Premier League success for the fallen giants of English football.

When Joshua Zarkezi was soon cornered and subjected to abuse that was quite uncomfortable to watch, As he became the focal point of the growing frustrations of the home fans, more troubling was the generally ‘not nice to see’ sentiment: the idea that somehow Manchester United supporters are not behaving like that. This is Manchester United fans we’re talking about. It’s a new one for us, but apparently they’re famously loyal to themselves and will never turn on their players.

We are in no way specifically criticizing United fans here. We are not saying that they are worse than any other, just that they are not better either. It’s obvious, really, because the idea that any large fanbase is in uniquely prevalent possession of a certain quality is inherently ludicrous.

It’s always very strange when entire fanbases are attached to these specific attributes. While the United fans were acting out of character in cheering their own player, the most important aspect at Old Trafford was the Newcastle fans – the best fans in the world, of course – getting on after that time. Which they deserve. It’s never been adequately explained why this is, beyond a notable tendency to go shirtless in winter.

Again, not a criticism of Newcastle fans, a group no better or worse than any other major fanbase. There is just a general confusion over the idea that they are different or more deserving than anyone else.

Liverpool and Arsenal fans suffer/take advantage of similar treatment based mainly on the undeniable fact that they are in possession of the loudest supporters on the internet – in good times and bad. And the loudest people are a) rarely the ones worth hearing, and more importantly b) rarely remotely representative of the whole group for whom They want to talk.

But back to United. We were really quite put off by the idea that they treat the players differently there. We’ve never seen any evidence for this, beyond – and this seems significant – two decades of unprecedented dominance in which a bad season meant a second-place finish to the best Arsenal or Chelsea sides. It seems like it can be easy not to show your whole ass when everything is so good.

More on Manchester United mess from F365
👉 Manchester United’s Amorim was included in the worst XI alongside the cruel West Ham trio
👉 Carragher slams Amorim as Man Utd trio ‘can’t run’ One star was described as ‘terrifying’ and ‘terrifying’
👉 Manchester United’s Mays left Ashworth ‘laughing his head off’ at home ahead of Southgate’s appointment

Much of United’s coverage is rooted in the fact that the joke is true in many ways. For a few generations of football fans, United really ruined our childhoods. The scale and length of his success has indelibly colored how we all think of him. And this applies to both internal and external.

They were so good under Sir Alex Ferguson for so long, so seemingly effortlessly able to develop and rebuild new equally successful teams whenever necessary, that it became easy to imagine. That it was just the normal of things.

United has always been successful and always will be. That United fans and staff are somehow different and special. That this club has some unique right and claim to greatness.

But that’s not really true, is it? Step back a bit and the Fergie years are indeed the exception rather than the norm at a club of great stature but with only relatively rare success before and after. Ferguson’s first title with United was their first since the 60s, a span of more than 25 years that included numerous spells in the real wilderness and real relegation.

This is not new or unknown information. But in our wider vision of what Manchester United is or should be, it is only provisionally understood.

Which is a big, historic and successful football club. But by no means unique, up to and including his fans’ ability to get absolute ass when things go wrong.

Source link