How to fall in love with the club again?

Von Mistelroum

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90% of who? No real fan has stopped loving United. That's why it hurts when we're struggling.
 

Bosws87

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This comes across as the most glory fan opinionated thread ever!

Nothing changes i still follow United just as much as in the past and enjoy as much as ever, we have been incredibly spoilt in the 90's.

Going week in and week out to the games definitely helps keep up the passion.
 

Lastwolf

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Have a baby with it, a baby will fix all your relationship problems.

I dunno man, I find my self more connected when things aren't going as well, the struggle is more exciting than winning with ease.
 

kirk buttercup

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It's easy to love and stay in love with United ,Great fans ,great club. You should try falling in love with a team like my team in Ireland they are about to go into liquidation have told all there players they can look for a new club next week. Have only won two (significant) cups since 1942 and never won the top flight league. United are club going through a transition and will soon be back where they belong . It was always going to be tough post Fergie but United are simply too big a club to remain around 6th. I can't fall out of love with this team even though they are frustrating at times. I Will always love them.
 

Catt

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Nah, still going strong although Moyes' stint was like a wtf moment that lasted 9 months.
 

Shark

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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.
It was the end of the world under SAF because our standards were so high. Moyes and LVG completely lowered those standards to the depths of hell.
 

balaks

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OP should try being a Spurs fan - you have no clue what pain and disappointment is my friend.
 

roonster09

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It was the end of the world under SAF because our standards were so high. Moyes and LVG completely lowered those standards to the depths of hell.
Yeah, we have dropped so many points so I'm more used to it. Finishing 2nd means bad season under SAF, now it would be considered as good season.
 

OnlyTwoDaSilvas

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I feel more of an emotional attachment post-Fergie. It's a breeze supporting a club that was as successful as United were under him. The highs become constant and the lows are minimal.

The lows have increased, and it makes watching United a much more emotive experience. We win less, so when we do win, I don't take it for granted as much as I did under Fergie, where winning felt more of an expectancy than a hope.

I love the club more now than ever. It's weird.
 

dannyrhinos89

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I hated watching us under Moyes and lvg. I guess I found it painful because I love United that much.

Admittedly there were occasions when I turned off or switched channels because a lot of our games were so predictable.
 

roonster09

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OP should try being a Spurs fan - you have no clue what pain and disappointment is my friend.
You try being Sunderland, you have no clue what pain and disappointment is my fiend. Or try being a homeless person, again you have no clue what pain and disappointment is my friend.
 

buckooo1978

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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.
sorry but you sound a bit plastic there

my love for United was forged in the 80's, growing up reading books about players of years gone by and watching VHS tapes on the Busby Babes

the tough times (and the last few years couldn't be called tough relatively speaking) are as much a part of our history as the glory years
 

Randall Flagg

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never happened to me at all

I suppose losing got a lot easier though

It used to ruin my week, now I can brush it off very easily (mostly)
 

Rado_N

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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.
I must say mate this is very weird to me.

United is about far more than the here and now and as iconic as Fergie was he didn't define the club. As he himself would always say, nobody is bigger than the club.

It kind of seems like you and the OP align your emotional attachment with the club to the level of success at any given period, which is a bit odd. I appreciate many people will have been attracted to United in the first instance due to the success and the football on show but once you've cemented that attachment surely it shouldn't be dependent on those conditions staying the same?

As much as a hated what we were served up for most of LVG's time here and he made watching us a chore my love for the club and emotional attachment never dropped. It was a different type of emotion; anger/despair rather than joy/excitement but the attachment was every bit as strong.
 

balaks

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You try being Sunderland, you have no clue what pain and disappointment is my fiend. Or try being a homeless person, again you have no clue what pain and disappointment is my friend.
I think you have taken it and ran with it - too far. You could be a dead person, you have no clue what pain and disappointment is my friend.
 

roonster09

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I think you have taken it and ran with it - too far. You could be a dead person, you have no clue what pain and disappointment is my friend.
Exactly. So you can stop saying "try being xyz", he is what he is.
 

balaks

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Exactly. So you can stop saying "try being xyz", he is what he is.
I feel like what was a mildly humourous few posts has turned into me being told off. I'm reminded of a time in primary school when I was WRONGLY beaten violently on my little palm by a very solid wooden ruler because another kid claimed I ran into him in the playground. I haven't forgetten that slight against me and sir, I will not forget this.
 

CG1010

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I must admit that if we had another season of LVG like in 2015-16, I could have stopped watching football or atleast our games. It was so boring and pointless use of time! We hardly did much better in the league last season but were much much more easy to follow.
 

roonster09

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I feel like what was a mildly humourous few posts has turned into me being told off. I'm reminded of a time in primary school when I was WRONGLY beaten violently on my little palm by a very solid wooden ruler because another kid claimed I ran into him in the playground. I haven't forgetten that slight against me and sir, I will not forget this.
Of sorry for bringing all those horrible memories. :p
 

Bubz27

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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...
Okay, I agree with you. But I don't think anyone seen saying they're huge achievements, are they?

When we won the CL in 08 I reminisced about it all summer. Absolutely fantastic night and achievement. What a team.

We won the EL and my immediate thought was 'great, let's make sure this time next year we're celebrating bigger trophies.'

I get this point about the turnover of players, and Pogue made a good point in that regard. It is difficult but that was inevitable.

If we talk about style of play, I've said all year this year is about substance. We desperately needed to win and remind ourselves we can win. I read Jose has made sure us celebrating the EL and EFL celebrations have been put up in the corridors at Carrington. To show these players they won those things. Not the CL in 08 or 99. These are their trophies.

Ideally that wouldn't be necessary, but this isn't ideal. There is a mentality issue at the club's right now, but I'm here seeing that we're on the way to fixing that.
 

Varun

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Join me as a City fan for next year. Baldy as the manager, muppetastic front line, no fecks given when it comes to playing CMs and if all of this wasn't enough, Stones at CB to keep things exciting at the back. :drool:
 

devilish

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I never fell out of love with United. Its our club FFS. Having said that, anyone attributing our decline to SAF's departure is wrong. The rot started long before that. Great people like Harrison were replaced with no bodies, top quality players were never replaced with equal talent and old players were kept despite being way past their expiry date forcing top young talent to leave the club. There's no way that a young SAF would have allowed Pogba to leave just to keep an ancient Scholes or Cleverley happy. Moyes signing was yet another wrong decision taken by the 'value' administration who thought that they can replace top talent with tripe and still get away with it.
 

Pogue Mahone

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I must say mate this is very weird to me.

United is about far more than the here and now and as iconic as Fergie was he didn't define the club. As he himself would always say, nobody is bigger than the club.

It kind of seems like you and the OP align your emotional attachment with the club to the level of success at any given period, which is a bit odd. I appreciate many people will have been attracted to United in the first instance due to the success and the football on show but once you've cemented that attachment surely it shouldn't be dependent on those conditions staying the same?

As much as a hated what we were served up for most of LVG's time here and he made watching us a chore my love for the club and emotional attachment never dropped. It was a different type of emotion; anger/despair rather than joy/excitement but the attachment was every bit as strong.
You'll note that I didn't mention success anywhere in my post. I've supported United a long time and there were plenty of seasons in that period of time where we didn't win a single trophy, never mind two. I would have last season down as a reasonably successful one but it still left me a little cold. This is for a number of reasons; from my struggles to warm to our manager, to the uber-defensive way we closed out the season, to the way we saw relatively few opportunities for the kids, to the fact we spent such a stupendous amount of money the previous summer. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but definitely enough to take the gloss off our achievements. It's possible that none of this would have mattered to me if we'd won another one or two trophies. I'm not convinced that's true though.
 

yumtum

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Think you're just getting older and your priorities are elsewhere, I used to spend my Saturday mornings watching the youth games and be glued to MUTV most of the time, into my early 20's I started to watch less and less football in general as priorities shifted, and life of an adult took over!

I still love United, but I rarely find myself compelled to set a date to watch our games now, and that started before SAF retired, obviously still look out for results, and if I know I'm doing nothing that day I'll pop the game on (only United games really) but bad results don't put me in a bad mood until the next game like they used to! Don't think I'll ever get back to the days of having to watch United no matter what, unless I won the lottery and had an extra 10hrs a day to myself.
 

Rado_N

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You'll note that I didn't mention success anywhere in my post. I've supported United a long time and there were plenty of seasons in that period of time where we didn't win a single trophy, never mind two. I would have last season down as a reasonably successful one but it still left me a little cold. This is for a number of reasons; from my struggles to warm to our manager, to the uber-defensive way we closed out the season, to the way we saw relatively few opportunities for the kids, to the fact we spent such a stupendous amount of money the previous summer. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but definitely enough to take the gloss off our achievements. It's possible that none of this would have mattered to me if we'd won another one or two trophies. I'm not convinced that's true though.
It was your last paragraph that came across as being success related, but fair enough.
 

Pogue Mahone

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What are you trying to say?
That I'm really pleased Jesse is still at the club (and still scoring important goals) but disheartened by the way our fans (and manager?) seem to be constantly demanding even more expensive new signings as the only way to get better performances on the pitch. Which will inevitably be at the expense of homegrown players like Lingard.
 

SteveW

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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.
Dunno man. The last few years have been painful and there's truth in much of what you say but I can't say I care any less. I understand the slight disconnect with the managers who don't do things like SAF. My feelings towards all 3 have been negative a lot of the time but I still wouldn't miss a game. Maybe instead of an exciting new love United is more like a wayward relative who I just want to get back on track. The love is still there, it's just not easy and fun anymore. Always felt we were completely spoilt supporting a club like United. Perhaps all this "falling out of love" is the result of that.
 

Pogue Mahone

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It was your last paragraph that came across as being success related, but fair enough.
Ah. I can see how you read it that way. By "normal" I actually meant clubs where the managers change every 2 or 3 seasons and where homegrown players only very rarely get into the team. Which are scenarios I'm struggling to get used to.

So "normal" for a club with ambitions of CL qualification but not "normal" overall!
 

Rado_N

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Ah. I can see how you read it that way. By "normal" I actually meant clubs where the managers change every 2 or 3 seasons and where homegrown players only very rarely get into the team. Which are scenarios I'm struggling to get used to.

So "normal" for a club with ambitions of CL qualification but not "normal" overall!
Ah yea, I can understand that.
 

Bubz27

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That I'm really pleased Jesse is still at the club (and still scoring important goals) but disheartened by the way our fans (and manage?) seem to be constantly demanding even more expensive new signings as the only way to get better performances on the pitch. Which will inevitably be at the expense of homegrown players like Lingard.
Okay, yeah I agree. I thought you might've been being sarcastic.

I see players like Lingard as very important. I can't lie and say I see him as an integral starter for a title challenging team, although I'd love to be proven wrong. But he's a good player who offers something different from a lot of our current forwards (movement).

His intangibles are what I love. When Rashford scored the winner v City few seasons ago he got some stick from Demichelis and Lingard was there giving it back. Same on England duty.
 

Pogue Mahone

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Okay, yeah I agree. I thought you might've been being sarcastic.

I see players like Lingard as very important. I can't lie and say I see him as an integral starter for a title challenging team, although I'd love to be proven wrong. But he's a good player who offers something different from a lot of our current forwards (movement).

His intangibles are what I love. When Rashford scored the winner v City few seasons ago he got some stick from Demichelis and Lingard was there giving it back. Same on England duty.
I feel exactly the same way.

Did you see this?
 

RedTechsture

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Its actually the other way around for me a little.
I realised when Ferguson left that I/we had been very spoiled for many many years. Winning games (and in many cases trophies) I for one had probably been taking for granted for a lot longer than I care to admit. It was very blase of me but thats the levels that as a club we had reached. Expecting wins.

Now, never knowing where our next 3 points are coming from half the time, it leads to a much more intense interest in player health,tactics, statistics, lineups, etc etc Wanting to know where we are going wong and taking much more notice of parameters/performances/player ratings and the likes. With this in mind is a lot of the time why I actually respect Mourinho even more. Because he took on what in many peoples eyes would be deemed a slightly poisoned chalice. Taking a club that had peaked (on the pitch, not in commerical viability) and trying to reverse the dip and mould it back in to something that will challenge. (Look how long it took the dippers). This on top of people like 'yours truely'.... know-alls who have started taking a more active interest again. Well...... the guys got big shoulders. And I think he will bring it back round.

I love Utd more than ever. Feel like were on the cusp of something amazing and need a few things to click in to place for us after a few tricky years
 
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Stability, youth, and daring, exciting football are the answers for me. But ultimately Moyes and LVG were just bad appointments.