Old Trafford is devoid of any character and is dying.

MUFCgal

We already get enough stick off opposition fans (and ABU's). The introduction of a songbook is another bullet to fire at us and big fucking bullet at that. Can you imagine how it'd look if they did that? Somebody starts the Anderson song, and all of a sudden you have 70,000+ people getting their book out, flicking furiously to the correct page and standing there holding their book like they're in church. Sorry, I just don't like the idea. Get on the net, watch videos or go on United sites with song lyrics on them. Learn the songs (get familiar with the tune then the words follow), sing it over and over to yourself again and hey presto, it's done and it's easy.

ralphie88

And rightly fucking so. Heapy deserved the award last year but I've put in the hours this time around and wear my crown with pride. :crown:

Rood

In an ideal world MUFCgal that is exactly what would happen but unfortunately it isnt happening so it seems to me that some of the 'new lazy fans' need more encouragement to join in.
Yes it is sad that it has come to this but Im afraid that is the reality of the situation.

As for the ABUs, I've been ignoring them for years so Im not arsed what they think - plus if it works then you can be sure they will be giving out songbooks all across the country to try and get some atmosphere going. It is a problem everywhere, not just OT.

Rood

I think i voted for you Ralphie

Edit: actually i just realised that I forgot to vote at all this year

Rood

Where do they sell songbooks? in the megastore?

Although I was more talking about printing up some A4 sheets and handing them out prematch.

ralphie88

Yeah I forgot to vote (was going to go for you as Poster of the Decade). And forgot to look at the results.

But I am reliably informed I won Top Red. I was going to take the piss out of Heap about it at Birmingham but, guess what, I'm going and he's not. Top Red! :topred:

Rood

Save it for the next decade

MUFCgal

Well, if there's fans out there who can't be bothered to take a small amount of time to learn 4 lines in a song, then why should others go to the bother of making it easy for them by handing out books with songs? It has to work both ways IMO, a bit of give and take.

theimperialinn

I've not felt like taking my own life before.

Heap does make some valid points tbf and he's more accustomed to the away circuit so the lad knows his onions when it comes to atmosphere.

B Cantona

Fixed

theimperialinn

We could do with more like you Gal.

That's genius .... if not a bit scary

Let's hope you have learnt your lesson

I heard you are the cock of Chorley high.

They are licensed to United or something. Another branch of the same shit tree.

I agree 100%

Same as here. I find most of them have never been to a football match either. When I speak to matchgoing fans of other clubs I usually find they don't have this hatred for us and can actually hold a conversation without calling us manyou or manurinal.

I bet all the naughty words have been covered up.

My 'old man said be a city fan' and I said 'Rubbish you're a rotter'.

phelans shorts

i know this is completey unrelated but i hate the away tickets situation, applied all season and so far got basically nothing

theimperialinn

It might be flawed but in the main, apart from the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea, etc, the tickets end up with the vocal fans. Seems to be loads going around for tomorrow. I can't wait it's my first away since Barnsley gate.

phelans shorts

I would say opposite the vocal fans must be using contacts in executive or the TO itself, I give my all and get fuck all all season it's a joke

I wouldn't even mind if they seemed to get spread around but they don't, which seriously pisses me off

theimperialinn

Well our away support speaks for itself.

Moriarty

Songbooks? We don't need no stinking songbooks. Fuck me, I've heard it all now. Apart from the regular chants, you used to get a few that were made up on the spot, usually after an incident during the match.

I can't imagine turning up for a match in the 70s and 80s to be given a songbook at the turnstiles. We're a bloody laughing stock these days. United Road, canned music and a fucking mascot.

Sir A1ex

What about the ones up by the Trafford? Surely the club has no hold over them?

Rood

Erm ... because they want to improve the atmosphere?
I guess you missed the entire point in the thread


NEWSFLASH: It is the year 2010 - a few things have changed in the last 40 years.


Thats actually pretty funny (for you)

londonredmaniac

spot on

jojojo

Just some random thoughts.

Nostalgia ain't wot it used to be, United in the 70s had some great days and some truly bloody awful ones - not just on the pitch, but in a kind of melancholic depression on the terraces as well. After not going for a few months in the early 80s, I remember how grim I found my first match back (on the pitch and off)

Games over Christmas/New Year are often bad ones for fans. I've been to boxing day matches when people looked like they'd been made to go into work on their day off - and to be honest, the excited little kids at their Christmas present game usually make the adults grimmer. I've even got memories of a bleak mid-winter game in the early 90s against Leeds (when everybody "got" the rivalry) with United fans mostly huddled up against the cold, shaking their heads groaning when the Leeds fans took off their shirts and waved them round their heads at halftime.

It was surprising that the crowd weren't up for it against Leeds, but the team weren't either and that was a chicken and egg surprise as well - normally loud away fans help get the place going.

Which is another problem - U-ni-ted doesn't get the place going. It's too hard! 3 shouts and it's done - by the time the crowd hear it, it's already fading away. Sadly, when Ron left we lost 3 great (easy to sing, great for winding up away fans) songs. Even Ar-gen-tina had a certain rhythm as well as wind-up quality. 12 Cantonas is all very well, but loses its novelty value.

Getting a critical mass of singers clustered together would help, amd may even be something the club could be receptive to, it's not as if they've got anything to lose from it - but beyond that it's hard.

MarylandMUFan

Outstanding post.

londonredmaniac

Interesting perspective there

Moriarty

Like Old Trafford turning into a fucking morgue for one.

theimperialinn

The atmosphere was fine until Leeds scored. WE struggles to get behind the team after that, which is all too common at OT.

Rood

Well exactly - so what realistic ideas do you have to rectify that?


This is another issue - one is that not as many people sing but nowadays it really does seem to be a case of 'we only sing when we're winning' - if we are losing there is always a real nervous tension around the ground

Moriarty

Well handing out songsheets isn't one of them. I would like to see the return of terracing in a section of the ground, as they do in Germany, where fans who want to sing and bounce around can do so without being manhandled by goons.

Rood

Yes we would all like to see that but it requires the club to want to do it and they are not interested so what else?

Moriarty

Does that mean that fans who want this shouldn't lobby for it?

Rood

No but it means that we need to come up with something else in the meantime plus possibly look at different ways of lobbying for it

Crumpsall Red

My sentiments exactly.

Both in respect of the fact that it wasn't always 'rocking', there were good days and bad.

Moriarty

Sure, but even in 73/74 there were some high points. Even when we got banjoed at Palace in '72, we didn't stop singing. Maybe that was because somebody spotted Tommy Docherty in the stands but it made the defeat bearable. One of the most subdued days I can remember was the 0-0 draw against Stoke when we lifted the title in '67. Everyone expected a repeat of West Ham but the game itself was dire.

Some of the best matches I went to in terms of atmosphere was in the 2nd Division. That was perhaps more because of the novelty value but those of us who went regularly to matches when the Doc was managing will tell you that he usually managed to get the supporters going just by standing on the pitch and waving. Tommy Kavanagh used to trot past the Stretford End geeing everyone up too.

OK, so I may look back through rose-tinted glasses a bit but if you've never experienced the thrill of standing in a packed Stretford End singing at full voice or celebrating a United goal, it might be hard for you to understand why I'm contemptuous about song sheets and the "Theatre of Dreams."

I understand where Roodboy's coming from though. He's perhaps a bit more sensible that I was and realistic about the climate that football's played in today. I suppose if songsheets were to create a better atmosphere, then so be it but it's indicative to me of the lack of soul in the game in general and United in particular.

Eriku

Too right... I'm a bleedin' out of towner myself, but I could still pick up songs over the course of my first game, and join in.

I doubt songbooks'll help.

Maybe if we only use that "shits on Fabregas" line as our only chant... seems to get people going, even if they don't give two shits about the rest of it.

MarylandMUFan

I know I have posted this before but I really believe this could work. Clear the first 10 rows around the pitch and make them safe standing areas. Have a break between the standing areas and the seats so they don't block the view of the older supporters who are unable to stand all game. They started it at Duke University where the students stand around the basketball court and the older fans sit behind them and it's fantastic. Other universities have since followed:

Twigginater

The song books were being sold by the same type of people who sell Red Issue outside the ground.

Biscuit1871

If you want atmosphere come to the Mad Stad lads.