How to fall in love with the club again?

Maciej

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Okay, that's something which (has) happened to, I guess, about 90% of us.

Watching United after Ferguson's retirement hasn't been the same and there was a time when you realised that. You didn't feel the magic, you felt that it's not your team.

How to get rid of that feeling? How to fall in love with the club again?

Under Moyes watching United was simply hoping that those guys could still play just like they had done under Ferguson, we all wanted to see the change and to see them getting the results they had got under Sir Alex. It didn't happen. It was pure frustration.

Under van Gaal it was painful, really painful. I just couldn't stand watching United, even though we sometimes got some nice results. Tactics, philosophy and some strange idea for that group of players didn't help.

Mourinho is different, but it was his first season. Obviously, we can't rate him after just one season. He got his results, he gambled with UCL qualification, but he got us three trophies. Watching United is still a bit painful sometimes, but it's not like under LvG. And Mourinho has proved many times that his second seasons are better.

There are many new players, bought by Ferguson's successors, which doesn't help. When I see Pogba and Lingard, I feel as old as Pogue sometimes is when he talks about people nowadays. Is it just me? Do I moan too much? I just can't feel the relationship between me and the players anymore.

I know that I can't expect this club to be exactly the same as it was under Ferguson, but I wanted to ask how you got rid of the feeling that it's not your club and how you fell in love again.
 

AngeloHenriquez

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I fell more in love with the club as I think you need these times to appreciate the Ferguson's last 20.. you sound quite fickle to me
 

KM

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Not happened to me to be honest.
 

Maciej

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I didn't say that I stopped loving the club, I would simply like to fall in love again.
 

Womp

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I didn't say that I stopped loving the club, I would simply like to fall in love again.
I'm sure a lot of people would like to fall in love again with things they're committed too, unfortunately that's not how the world works.
 

pocco

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I don't think i ever stopped, I just embraced the change. Not going to lie though, I would have hoped we'd continue some of what Fergie did but it seems all that has been forgotten. I've even made peace with signing certain Madrid players and paying huge fees for players, which is something I hated in the past.

I think winning a league title will help too.
 

2 man midfield

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I didn't say that I stopped loving the club, I would simply like to fall in love again.
We won two major trophies last season and we're back in the champions league. I'm more stoked for the new season than I have been since 2012, so if this hasn't done it for you then it might be a bit deeper than that.
 

Sky1981

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You moan too much.

Many of posters talks about united is about romance, about munich, about value, about culture, and never about trophies.

4 years of rough post saf and you're talking about losing the love for the club?

Take a look around you : liverpool has gone 26 years without trophies, juve getting relegated, milan in shambles, barcelona got knocked of their perch by madrid, arsenal getting stagnant under wenger, leeds getting relegated, city once owned by thaksin, and many others teams with worse and bleaker patch than us and you don't see them losing the love for the club even at rawk.
 

kouroux

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I personally felt that watching United became more of a bore and an obligation (like an addiction) than any real form of pleasure in most parts of last season (it was worse under LVG by far). The summer break is a blessing for me because it allows my central nervous system to format itselt sort of and the excitment and hope comes back for the new season.
The fact that I felt like that had nothing to with winning matchs, with winning trophies, don't get me wrong, those things are absolutely great but I watch football because I love the game and I love United, if United plays terrible football (no matter the results) then I cannot be as satisfied as I can be. The football under SAF was successful yes but towards the last few years, it got worse and worse.
 

SteveW

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I'm sure when they start winning PLs you'll fall in love again :rolleyes:
 

Maciej

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I fell more in love with the club as I think you need these times to appreciate the Ferguson's last 20.. you sound quite fickle to me
Fickle? Nah, that's too strong. Just because it's not the same attitude like yours it doesn't mean fickle is the right word. I'm just disappointed it takes so much time to rebuild? To be fair, I prefer not to watch games. I love the atmosphere of supporting the team, all week is amazing, but then, for those two hours, I feel like a masochist.

I don't think i ever stopped, I just embraced the change. Not going to lie though, I would have hoped we'd continue some of what Fergie did but it seems all that has been forgotten. I've even made peace with signing certain Madrid players and paying huge fees for players, which is something I hated in the past.

I think winning a league title will help too.
Of course it would help, but even a good season when we finish second or third and fight for the trophy till April, not October, would be great, too.

We won two major trophies last season and we're back in the champions league. I'm more stoked for the new season than I have been since 2012, so if this hasn't done it for you then it might be a bit deeper than that.
Sorry, but I just can't say that League Cup is a major trophy and Europa League is exactly what League Cup is, but in Europe. Liverpool were laughed at when they won their Mickey Mouse treble and now I'm supposed to be really satisfied? It's a nice result, but it's not something that I'm extremely proud of... come on. See the difference.
 

Utd heap

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I'm sure when they start winning PLs you'll fall in love again :rolleyes:
Seems to be the case.

Fallen into the overseas fan stereotype here unfortunately. (not labelling you all...)
 

2 man midfield

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Sorry, but I just can't say that League Cup is a major trophy and Europa League is exactly what League Cup is, but in Europe. Liverpool were laughed at when they won their Mickey Mouse treble and now I'm supposed to be really satisfied? It's a nice result, but it's not something that I'm extremely proud of... come on. See the difference.
Yeah I mean I'm not going to pretend it was on the same level as our other trophy winning seasons, but even so we lifted two trophies. 50% of all the competitions we entered, we won. You can only do the best with the tournaments in front of you. I get the idea that to you football isn't worth bothering with unless we're winning the CL year in, year out. It's the attitude of a glory hunter if I'm honest. With football the enjoyment comes from the chase as well as the catch, and if you can only see the joy in the latter then you might as well follow Madrid, Barca or whoever else is on top this year.
 

Maciej

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Yeah I mean I'm not going to pretend it was on the same level as our other trophy winning seasons, but even so we lifted two trophies. 50% of all the competitions we entered, we won. You can only do the best with the tournaments in front of you. I get the idea that to you football isn't worth bothering with unless we're winning the CL year in, year out. It's the attitude of a glory hunter if I'm honest. With football the enjoyment comes from the chase as well as the catch, and if you can only see the joy in the latter then you might as well follow Madrid, Barca or whoever else is on top this year.
And this is what I wrote in the first post.

Seems to be the case.

Fallen into the overseas fan stereotype here unfortunately. (not labelling you all...)
Don't you remember similar threads some time ago? Of course supporting a team from a different country is different, but it doesn't mean that I can't do what I can to support them. I've missed about 10% of games since Ferguson retired and it was usually because there was something important. Not that I didn't want to watch it. I'm talking about the feeling towards the team, the players and the feeling I get when I have to watch them play sometimes.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Dunno why OP is getting grief. Results aside, it's not easy to get used to supporting the club through a procession of different managers when you've spent over two decades supporting a club whose identity was so wrapped up in the personality of the man in charge. Favourite players could come and go but Fergie was always there, doing his thing. It's only natural for such a radical change to affect our relationship with the club. I define feel a lot less emotionally engaged than I did when SAF was still in charge.

The relentless turnover of players hasn't helped. It's hard to get used to when you spent so long watching a team where a bunch of first team regulars have come through the ranks and you followed their career since they were kids. Again, it's only natural that this will weaken the connection between the club and the fans.

So yeah, I absolutely feel less passion for the club than I did a few years ago. It would be nice to get that back. Mind you, I'm starting to accept that might never happen. We should appreciate being part of such a unique and special era and start getting used to being "normal" football fans supporting a "normal" club. That's just the way it is now and will be for the forseeable future. Ho hum.
 

Bubz27

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Okay, that's something which (has) happened to, I guess, about 90% of us.

Watching United after Ferguson's retirement hasn't been the same and there was a time when you realised that. You didn't feel the magic, you felt that it's not your team.

How to get rid of that feeling? How to fall in love with the club again?

Under Moyes watching United was simply hoping that those guys could still play just like they had done under Ferguson, we all wanted to see the change and to see them getting the results they had got under Sir Alex. It didn't happen. It was pure frustration.

Under van Gaal it was painful, really painful. I just couldn't stand watching United, even though we sometimes got some nice results. Tactics, philosophy and some strange idea for that group of players didn't help.

Mourinho is different, but it was his first season. Obviously, we can't rate him after just one season. He got his results, he gambled with UCL qualification, but he got us three trophies. Watching United is still a bit painful sometimes, but it's not like under LvG. And Mourinho has proved many times that his second seasons are better.

There are many new players, bought by Ferguson's successors, which doesn't help. When I see Pogba and Lingard, I feel as old as Pogue sometimes is when he talks about people nowadays. Is it just me? Do I moan too much? I just can't feel the relationship between me and the players anymore.

I know that I can't expect this club to be exactly the same as it was under Ferguson, but I wanted to ask how you got rid of the feeling that it's not your club and how you fell in love again.
No winning with you then, is there? Moan about new players, complain about youth players that SAF would've had a hand in developing and nurturing.

We're clearly on an upward trajectory right now. No the EL and EFL cup arent prestigious, but they are trophies and they are breeding a winning habit. And however people want to romanticise the past, winning is the United way. Fergie himself would (and did) sacrifice style for substance on many occasions.
 

Maciej

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Dunno why OP is getting grief. Results aside, it's not easy to get used to supporting the club through a procession of different managers when you've spent over two decades supporting a club whose identity was so wrapped up in the personality of the man in charge. Favourite players could come and go but Fergie was always there, doing his thing. It's only natural for such a radical change to affect our relationship with the club. I define feel a lot less emotionally engaged than I did when SAF was still in charge.

The massive turnover of players hasn't helped. It's hard to get used to when you spent so long watching a team where a bunch of first team regulars have come through the ranks and you followed their career since they were kids. Again, it's only natural that this will weaken the connection between the club and the fans.

So yeah, I absolutely feel less passion for the club than I did a few years ago. It would be nice to get that back. Mind you, I'm starting to accept that might never happen. We should appreciate being part of such a unique and special era and start getting used to being "normal" football fans supporting a "normal" club. That's just the way it is now and will be for the forseeable future. Ho hum.
Thanks for that, Pogue.

This club means so much to me that I used such words like "to fall in love again".

And the massive turnover of players hasn't helped indeed. I'm also older, so these players are not idols for me anymore, they just play for my club.
 

SoCross

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It's a bit hard to identify with the players TBH.

The Scholes's, the Brown's, Evra, Ferdinand, Park...I get what OP is saying in that sense. But I guess younger posters might feel different.
 

Pogue Mahone

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No winning with you then, is there? Moan about new players, complain about youth players that SAF would've had a hand in developing and nurturing.

We're clearly on an upward trajectory right now. No the EL and EFL cup arent prestigious, but they are trophies and they are breeding a winning habit. And however people want to romanticise the past, winning is the United way. Fergie himself would (and did) sacrifice style for substance on many occasions.
Thank feck for Lingard, that's for sure. Which makes all the shit the club got over that new contract all the more depressing.
 

roonster09

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Never happened to me but I don't feel so angry when we drop points now. More used to it now but with SAF in charge it was the end of the world.
 

Maciej

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We're clearly on an upward trajectory right now. No the EL and EFL cup arent prestigious, but they are trophies and they are breeding a winning habit. And however people want to romanticise the past, winning is the United way. Fergie himself would (and did) sacrifice style for substance on many occasions.
But I admitted in the first post that it's good that we won these trophies and credit to Jose, because football is about winning trophies. Later, I said that we can't say that it was a huge achievement, though, because they're not those serious trophies. Great that we won them, but we should have forgotten about them a few days after the Europa League final...
 

togg

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My goodness. For those of us who have supported United since the 70's I can tell the others that haven't we've been through much worse that this. I mean we just won two cups ffs! That was often a pipe-dream back them. The bond with a club goes much deeper than the sum of it's success...in my opinion anyway as real fans of teams throughout all the leagues prove every week.
 

Thisistheone

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It will never be the same again. How can it? Not just winning, but dominating. Winnig back to back leagues, winning three league titles in a row.

Not just that but doing it in style with attacking football. And on top of all that, doing it with local lads from the academy...

Fergie was a once in a lifetime manager and the games moved on.
 

Maciej

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God, I just hate that you know how old I am and where I am from.

We can't discuss, but you're only teaching me that it used to be different and worse (before Ferguson) and I'm a glory hunter. Pfff.
 

prath92

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To be fair I have watched us more often than under SAF. Under SAF if I didn't watch a game it wasn't that big a deal since we would most likely have won. Now you never know. The starting lineups, the performances etc are more of a suspense than under SAF.

Maybe it's because now all teams have gotten stronger and come to play us with a bit more courage than a few years back
 

Andersons Dietician

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Dunno why OP is getting grief. Results aside, it's not easy to get used to supporting the club through a procession of different managers when you've spent over two decades supporting a club whose identity was so wrapped up in the personality of the man in charge. Favourite players could come and go but Fergie was always there, doing his thing. It's only natural for such a radical change to affect our relationship with the club. I define feel a lot less emotionally engaged than I did when SAF was still in charge.

The relentless turnover of players hasn't helped. It's hard to get used to when you spent so long watching a team where a bunch of first team regulars have come through the ranks and you followed their career since they were kids. Again, it's only natural that this will weaken the connection between the club and the fans.

So yeah, I absolutely feel less passion for the club than I did a few years ago. It would be nice to get that back. Mind you, I'm starting to accept that might never happen. We should appreciate being part of such a unique and special era and start getting used to being "normal" football fans supporting a "normal" club. That's just the way it is now and will be for the forseeable future. Ho hum.
Great post. I think a lot of what you've said probably rings true for most.

I felt it this year, I do love united and as some said I wake up and I check the papers and look for any news on united but at times this year it was a right struggle to watch as there just didn't seem to be that connection.

I personally preferred LVG's 2nd season to this season and felt more of a connection with that as it had some of the club values in it but I guess I'll have to adjust to the new regime and no matter who is in charge or how we play I'll always love united.