So watching Andy Mitten's fantastic interview with Joe on Stretford Paddock, it suddenly occurred to me why I am going through an extended period of fan channel fatigue, particularly during the transfer season. So many of these channels (United Stand, United View to an extent, Alice Talks Football, FUTV) are simply servicing the same obsessive pulses that fuel my social media addiction. They are serving up oral clickbait, which the Youtube algorithm then leverages to push me on to the next video (I know this isn't exactly a profound take.)
So why did the Mitten interview change that? Because the very reason I started watching the United Stand during the pandemic was that it offered me a virtual (albeit non-participative) chance to engage in the fan discussion and debate. For a Canadian United fan who has never set foot in Manchester, it was nice to be able to eavesdrop on the kind of discussions I always imagined taking place in the pubs after the game. This is why I still like to watch the fans forum on United Stand, where the likes of Ricky (despite some outlandish takes) discuss what they've seen on the pitch (tellingly Goldbridge is never part of these.) It's why I check out Talk of The Devils (despite Anka and Mitten being hard watches at times.) Hearing Mitten talk today about the difficulty in choosing the greatest 25 players was fascinating; a window into the thought process of a life-long fan, the likes of whom I never get the chance to meet in person. When he talked about the joy of producing his magazine, it came across as 100% authentic.
The transfer updates on the aforementioned channels offer none of this nuance; instead it's Alice recycling the words of parasites like Romano, or Beth chatting with Ben Jacobs, who basically spends the whole time saying that he gets the fan frustration but that he has nothing to report (so why get him on the show?) It's Goldbridge spewing manufactured rage with increasingly forced analogies. It's the same watching those channels where fans of the big 6 (Abby Summers, Flex, Rory, etc.) just relentlessly banter each other to the point where you feel like you're watching a live-action reenactment of an IG comments section.
A while back I started to alter my Instagram habits, clicking on recipes, guitar videos and cute pet clips, in an attempt to game the algorithm. Recently, I have been trying to do the same with United online content; more Talk of The Devils (and Stretford Paddock when the the likes of McKola and Howson aren't on); less United Stand. Anyways, apologies for the long, self-indulgent post!
