Do you remember the home derby against City in 2003? What about Chelsea home at the end of May this year?*
There will be some of you reading this who can conjure up detailed memories of matches at the drop of a hat, whether they were 20 days ago or 20 years ago. For most of United’s history, this knowledge belonged exclusively to those who went to the game. Even as little as twenty years ago, far fewer games were shown in England and football broadcasting outside the UK was still in its infancy. The Internet was still largely just online brochures. Twitter and iPhones would not exist for another four years, and it would be roughly a decade before smartphone use became a global phenomenon. In 2003, Internet forums were still fairly small and populated largely by those who had seen United play in person. Twenty years on, you can now “engage” with United “content” from the comfort of your own home, from any and every corner of the globe. With even the cheapest smartphone, it’s possible to stream every minute of every game. Ironically, the one country where you can’t see every game televised is Britain.
Assuming the figures from the Club’s surveys are at least vaguely accurate, the majority of our “fanbase” will never have been in the UK, much less attended a match. This is one part of modern football. I say this neither as a judgment nor a criticism. It is a fact, one that has a huge bearing on fan culture.
Another aspect of modern football is the excess, greed, and venality of club owners. Now, to be fair, the history of football is replete with men of questionable character whose actions have hindered success and even permanently damaged the teams they owned. Yet over the past twenty years this has taken an altogether different dimension. As I type this on Sunday morning, 11th June 2023, it has been ten hours since the team that benefitted from UK’s second great sports-washing project (the first being Chelsea) completed the Treble, winning the Premier League, the FA Cup, and the Champions League trophies. As journalist Nick Harris reminds us, this is the tenth trophy that Manchester City will have won since the Premier League opened an investigation that led to 115 individual charges of financial foul play. Tomorrow, I will attend what is likely the last Fan Advisory Board meeting under the Glazer family’s control of the Club. As they stumble their way through what we all hope is the end of their tenure, there is no longer any dispute as to how dearly we have paid for the privilege of their ownership.
In this context, it is hard to remain optimistic about the game, much less the fortunes of us as fans. Over time, the purity of emotion that we have as kids for football, as with other aspects of life, gives way to hard-eyed realisations that our heroes were never as perfect as we thought, and things aren’t as simple as they once were. And in a time when our experiences are increasingly virtual and mediated by screens, the idea of physically going to a game seems, well, quaint.
And yet despite this, we keep going. I know people who have given up hope…who look at modern football and say “sod it, I’m done” or “if City and Newcastle are going to be state-owned, then we need to not hold our noses if another oil state or oligarch comes in for us”. While I can sympathize, I just don’t see it that way. For if you give in to the belief that all hope is lost and that there is nothing we can do but to either pack it in or get as dirty as the rest of the pigs, then it’s a slippery slope to giving up everything that football and United are about.
Ultimately, the greatest thing about football is not the trophies the team has won, but the group of people you celebrate them with. It is the bleary-eyed excitement of early morning travel to far away places, the dread of those last minutes of the match as you cling to a narrow lead, the raucous conversations you have eight pints into the evening about the most ridiculous of topics. It is the camaraderie you share with people you may have never otherwise met, yet somehow spend an extraordinary amount of time (and money!) with.
The footballing world will remember this past season for Salt Bae’s Messi’s Qatar’s Winter World Cup, Pep’s Tainted Treble, and Ronaldo’s Saudi Sell-out. I would rather remember it for the people who remind us that football is nothing without fans.
(Just to be clear, my comments above aren’t arguments for Ratcliffe over Jassim. MUST has stayed studiously neutral on that because we simply don’t have anywhere near enough information to form a clear opinion. What we do know, though, is that this period of absurd delay does no good. Whether to build on the progress of last year or make needed investments, United need certainty in ownership. Whoever the new owner may be, we need to hear their vision and the plans for the Club, both on and off the pitch.)
The Historians
It is only a month ago that we lost our dear friend, Tom Clare. Too few people have read his work or heard his stories. But if you were one of the lucky ones, it changed you forever. Twenty years ago, Tom began sharing those stories with Red News, one of United’s two remaining fanzines. I first met Tom on United’s 2004 summer tour. My memories of that pub in Philadelphia are hazy at best (self-inflicted alcohol-related activities), but hearing him tell stories of his youth in Manchester and his adoration of the Busby Babes until the wee hours of the morning made you feel like you were by his side chasing behind Duncan Edwards as he rode his bike to the Cliff. Tom’s books remain essential reading for any Red.
I was worried that Tom’s passing, which we all feared since his first cancer diagnosis years ago, would result in a catastrophic loss of colour around one of the most remarkable periods of United’s glorious history. I was greatly relieved, though, by two things that happened this past year. One is that the Club itself captured these stories with multiple hours of videos with Tom. The other is that United fan and author Wayne Barton published Eternal, a marvellously written account of Duncan Edwards’ life from his humble beginnings to his tragic death in a Munich hospital. Wayne a prolific United biographer whose books recount the stories of key figures in United’s history—and he usually writes with the blessing and support of their families. Wayne has chronicled the lives of United greats from Jimmy Murphy to Wayne Rooney, Best to McIlroy to Cantona. I know that he became close with Tom, and I know he feels the same love and responsibility for preserving the heritage of our great Club. It is therefore enormously comforting to know that there is a genuine and supremely worthy heir to Tom’s legacy.
Another great book that came out this past year paints a unique picture of Mancunian culture. Most of us know Nooruddean Choudry as the Bearded Genius, the artist whose devastatingly funny images and graphics have adorned many a United fanzine. His book, Inshallah United, traces the arc of that extraordinary period from the late 1980s and 1990s, where music, politics, culture, and (of course) United made Manchester the place to be…even if you were the son of strict immigrant parents from Pakistan! Inshallah United is funny, heart-warming, and proof that, as Ian Brown from the Stone Roses once said, “It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at“.
Bald is best
Unless you completely ignored all social media this past year, you will have come across a guy whose alternative videos and commentary of Manchester United games have quickly become part of United’s fan culture. There is no public photo of him: just his Twitter handle, @AlternativeMUFC, and the occasional picture of a pint in front of him. From Sexy Bruno to the Pastor, Mannequin Martial to “Walcott or Pele, Walcott or Pele, Walcott or Pele, 100% Never Doubted Him For a Second Marcus The Child Feeder MBE Pele”, the Chuckle Brothers to HEARTBURN! HEARTBURN! HEARTBURN!, his videos made us laugh when things were bad and cheer when things were good. But, for my money at least, his greatest accomplishment was giving us three simple words to describe what it was like to (once again) have a gaffer who gets United, cultivates youth, has a vision for the type of player physically and mentally he wants (and brooks no BS when they fall short), is tactically competent and agile, and exhibits real class in everything he does. Let’s hope Erik ten Hag gets the backing he needs to bring us back to the top. Bald is indeed best.
Our matchday crew
As I’m sure is the case with many of you, my matchday starts and ends with people I’ve known for years. Nowadays, the MUST crew is largely in J stand, though some are in the Stretford End. We are old and young, local and not, home and away. Our group is a perfect example of how lifelong friendships form amongst people who might have never met were it not for United. Geographically, I am the farthest flung of the lot, originally living in the US and now in France. And yet I count myself amongst the lucky ones who, on any given matchday, can walk across the forecourt and run into someone I know. I am grateful for the group I am with, and never fail to enjoy the time I have with them. I hope each of you reading this share the same feelings about the folks you spend matchdays with!
Ian Stirling and Beyond
I can still hear his voice. I first met Ian at a MUST meeting in 2007, though his involvement with Shareholders United dated back just before the Glazers took over. There is plenty you can read about him online. Everything that people have said about him—all those wonderful things—are all true. It is fitting that he has been recognised so prominently by the club, from the black armbands and wreath in his seat to the new award named in his honour that will be given annually to a fan for service to the Club.
It is too early still to talk about what his full legacy might be, but his presence is still felt. Ian was our True North…our compass in all things United. His wisdom, good sense, compassion, generosity, and patience gave him credibility with any group of fans, and with the Club as well. His passing has led to greater calls for unity amongst fans, and that’s something he always sought. We miss him terribly, and we think of him often.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Ian also believed that the greatest thing about football was the shared experience of being with your mates, through good times and bad. In a world of greed and shallow consumption, this was something real that was worth fighting for. Like so many of us, Ian never saw MUST’s work as naive or futile. He could point to things that we had accomplished—and that he personally played a major role in—that benefitted tens of thousands of United fans.
Thank you, and see you soon
I have the great advantage of being able to share my personal views in messages like this one. And yet, though I am the Chair of MUST, I am merely a steward of a group of so many thousands of Reds whose opinions and views I am obliged and privileged to represent.
I hope there is something in this message that has resonated with you, and that you have your own list of people who presence has brought you laughs and enjoyment this past season. I hope that you share my beliefs about how important it is for us to defend the legacy of this Club and the people who are its lifeblood. And above all, I hope you find something that inspires you to keep the faith.
I equally hope you share my patience as we wait (and wait, and wait) for the Glazers to decide whether to sell or stay. If there is anything the past eighteen years have taught us, it is that they will take their own sweet time. The momentum that we had built up through the 2021-2022 season has ebbed because of this, notably with the Fan Share Scheme. So much is up in the air at the Club that, apart from ticketing related matters, most strategic discussions have ground to a halt. We haven’t stopped, though. We know that this is a generational turning point in our club’s history, where what happens next will influence Reds for decades to come. Though there is little we can say or do publicly, whatever comes next, we’ll be ready. Whoever the owners may be, we still have the same goal: to build a future where the interests of fans are at the heart of everything that Manchester United does.
And finally, I hope you enjoy the close season. We have a few months until it all starts again. Whether you are in Manchester or Mumbai, Australia or Austin, Ireland or Indonesia, look after yourselves, and UP THE REDS!
Thank you, as ever, for your support. JD.
We won 3-1 on December 13, 2003. Scholes scored 2, Ruud scored one, and Shaun Wright-Phillips scored for city. We attacked the Stretford End in the first half that day, which was unusual. I was sat in the South Stand. As for the other game, we won 4-1 at home against Chelsea on May 25, 2023. Casemiro, Bruno, Martial and Rashford scored for us, João Felix scored for them. It was the game that guaranteed us a Champions League spot. I don’t have memories of that day, though, as I was unable to go or even watch the game live. I came in two days later for Tom Clare’s memorial service on Saturday and Fulham on Sunday
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