Cut from the same cloth

As a humanist at heart I have struggled to ever be convinced by any argument that suggests there is any intrinsic difference between two rival sets of football fans. I will acknowledge the depths of behaviour by individuals will vary massively but as groups of the populous red and blue are the same skin deep. I say this with confidence in the belief that there is more that binds two men on deeper levels than could ever be outweighed by the superficial learnt behaviour that comes with an attachment to a football club. I think those who believe it so, put far too much emphasis on the superficial. Any British soldier will confirm that the accent of a fellow soldier holds little baring on his reliability, shooting accuracy or you wanting him by your side in battle. I also say this knowing that the stories which depict the base and despicable behaviour of rival fans, are told by all fans.

As I write, as a long serving fan of Manchester united, we are in the middle of a football season which sees our neighbours and local rivals Manchester City appear out of nowhere in the football ranks as a result of significant financial endorsement by Sheikh Mansour.

This emergence has most definitely worked on three levels, with the club becoming more competent, the players having more swagger and the fans too now being able to play a completely different role in the conversations across the forums, work places and pubs of Manchester. For years the city fans have had to suffer with watching poor footballing sides fail to deliver anything close to the high quality football played up the road at Old Trafford. For years whilst everything about their red clad rivals has had sex appeal and class, the club they are so invested in has been the poor relation. In conversation United fans have been able to look down and belittle everything little City have failed to deliver and for years the fans have had to play the role of patsy and be humble. And how have the City supporters coped? Well, in any way they can. Denial, deflection, bitterness and out and out attacks with a continuing assault using the dead of the Munich air disaster as their main and most shameful weapon. Note, that this will be struck from the records in years to come, and it will be as though it never happened, or at best was always a small minority!

Even as I write this I start to question my opening proposition, but I know my reasoning will reconcile. The blue fans of Manchester many born into failure as football fans have had to deal with boastful, successful Manchester united dominating their landscape.

The city, country and Europe in footballing terms have been under the foot of United and to make things worse United have too controlled the world in the marketing of a prominent brand. So let us not forget that at a time when City's local rivals have enjoyed the fantastic highs that the sport of football can offer, City have at best been average and for most of the recent history they have been absolute rubbish, dropping down divisions and winning not a single trophy. Their rivals success has been on every bill board, news paper, TV show, and their shirts have hung off the bodies of Americans, Africans and Asians. It's not as if the average city fan has been able to avoid United's prominence. 

So now in 2012 as City emerge as a domestic rival to Manchester United, as I type this they are top of the Premier league, the City fan can quite rightly start to preen it's feathers. The posture is one of confidence, and not only because they could well win the Premiership, not just because the football they are playing and the players they have at their disposal are something that a footballing fan can be proud off, but because they can give United a dose of their own medicine.

So what of the United fans? Well the rivalry with City has been muted for some time. In my time Leeds, Liverpool, Arsenal and latterly Chelsea have been on the main our competition and the four clubs that we have competed against the most for the league honours. And whilst I would not suggest for a minute that the local derby has not always been a big date in the footballing calendar, we have always been spreading our footballing rivalry with the actual competition. To date in my life time this has not been Manchester City, but that is all changing. You can not easily go to war with the afore mentioned four clubs and their fans, at least not in a way that lets you stand toe to toe due to the geographical divide. The obvious plus side is in defeat most of us do not have to deal with them. Sure the phone in shows and message boards of the net allow interaction but two games a season does not come close to providing the platform for intenseness that a competing neighbouring club does. City are now very much competing. So my thoughts come to the United fans and we handle these new found times. What weapons do we draw from our armoury when we engage with our local enemy? Do we choose denial. Given that the money City has had injected is truly unfair, at least we made our own money. This one does have a similar ring to 'you don't come from Manchester' suggesting the illegitimacy of the teams rights. It would be easy to pick on City's lack of class in the same sense that the nouveau rich were always down graded in the class structure, but this would not make me feel any better. We could mock their fans for their moments of weakness, early departures, failure to buy tickets for televised games, suddenly donning shirts, but any united fan worth his salt knows these behaviours are endemic at our club too. I remember the naughty forty against Chelsea. United fans will always be able to point out the enormity of the gap between their club trophy haul and ours, in a similar way the Liverpool banner so memorably did to United fans. I don't think though that would take away the hurt from seeing "Manchester city pride of Manchester flags" around, after all this city is ours. 

It's going to be extremely hard to be a bigger man and to not be bitter and churlish. To set myself aside from these traits I would like to be be magnanimous in defeat. I will try to be congratulatory to the closest City fans I know, and hope to send on some heart felt messages that aren’t laced with sarcasm. I don’t see myself taking beers round to celebrate with them, though this might perhaps confuse or wind them up. When the day comes I am pretty sure of some things and they are that I will bury my head, not buy the press nor watch the opening credits of match of the day, not read the forum boards and not answer the door to any unexpected knocks. 

I genuinely believe that upbringing, families, class structures, education, jobs, religion, philosophical outlooks and race do more to shape difference in groups of people then any born allegiance to a football team will ever do. 

The council house lad from Liverpool who got his chance to go to grammar school could have more in common with me than 70,000 United fans in Old Trafford who were son to a father who was also a United fan. Incidentally My Dad never too me to see united, it was my brother. Perhaps we should take him on a European night, next year.

City fans are no different to united fans. In history yes, but not in make up, our make ups are all subtly different. If I am being overly humanistic, then lets bring it down to a footballing level. The things that bind most football fans are the same at a desire level. City fans wants the same things as United fans. Please note I cherish and am proud of our history.

I don't look forward to hearing bitterness towards City, should they win the premiership and really hope that some class and humour shines through. Perhaps a self funded banner down the Beetham tower from Sir Alex with the message "congratulation City on your premiership victory, you have our trophy but only on loan. See you next year when we take it back!"

I doubt it, as the song clearly divulges "we're a right bunch of b******s when we loose".

I still hope and pray of course that City do not win a title, at least not in my life time. Does that make me bitter?