Happiness is Man Utd
Sunday June 01 2008
Sir -- I make a point of reading Tommy Conlon's articles each week as they are normally accurate and funny. But his piece (Sunday Independent May 25, 2008) -- let's just say -- touched a nerve! In the piece he says that United fans "would be prepared to risk everything by signing up to a club that has won a mere 20 trophies in 18 years". Now to the uneducated that would seem like an easy thing to do but let's just dig into that little quote a bit further. It took United under Ferguson four years to win the FA Cup and seven years to win the Championship after a 26 year gap. Now that doesn't seem like an easy ride for a Manchester United fan after all does it?
Do you know what it was like to be a United fan back then and listen to that as soon as you told people who you followed?
I am 34 and when I went to school I had legions of Liverpool fans in class going on about this and that because my team couldn't win anything and their's was winning all around. There is another fact you may be interested in. On any given Saturday when United plays at home there are 20,000 people from Ireland in Old Trafford so somebody must be getting off their pub seat and going. I'm a season ticket holder in Old Trafford and I was brought by my dad to my first game when I was nine. I don't drink and I don't smoke. I get my enjoyment out of following my team. The reason I won't watch a match in a pub is because it is full of plonkers from all walks of life.
The fans from Liverpool, the recent Blue brigade who haven't got the slightest idea who Peter Osgood is but they know everything about United. And then there are the Dubs!
Now before you think I'm not from Dublin I am, born and bred, proud of it too. No doubt they will be out in their masses soon dusting down the jersey or tipping into Arnotts to get the new model. The majority of Dubs fans don't even know what the league is. But as soon as the championship comes around, it's off to Croker singing Molly Malone and blocking up the streets with their 80,000 seater stadium built in the middle of a housing area with parking for 100 cars. The gardai will never say or do anything because half of them are the backbone of the GAA. The only thing a good friend of mine who is a garda does say, is that he loves when the Dubs are playing as it means you won't get two things -- crime or a taxi -- as they are all at the game.
It's easy to jump on the bandwagon when a team is winning but this sort of thing has been happening since the dawn of time. Do you think if Celtic was Gretna and winning nothing they would have the following they do in this country?
Was I wearing my red jersey on Wednesday night? Yes and I did behave like a child when they won and I shed a tear because they couldn't do anything about it -- the ABUs -- it was ours and nobody could take it off us for a year now, even the oil baron who is slowly killing football. I don't tell people I am a United fan unless they ask if I follow football. You see happiness comes from within and what I got the other night sitting in the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow was a feeling, that as long as I live, nobody can ever take away.
Artane, Dublin.
