ITT: Poster who doesn’t want to waste emotion returns with emotional buzzfeed essay insulting fans

Mainoldo

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No, the fans are to blame. If you stop standing up for certain values, principles and you glorify managers such as Mourinho in his current guise (peak Jose is a different story) then when the club is in its current predicament, and you're still oblivious to the causes and what are the right actions to take, then yes.. the fans are also complicit. They get what they deserve.
This was the best quote and still stands president now. As if we don’t get the right guy next summer(hopefully we do). The same thing will just happen again. Let’s learn from our mistakes.
 

Brwned

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Thought that this was worth bumping up. This piece was savaged when it was written but has IMHO aged very well.
It was savaged primarily because it was a grandiose, dramatic way to say "I'm fed up and I want to do something about it". Everyone felt that way. People were fed up with different things and thought about different solutions, but everyone was fed up. Most people didn't need to announce it at all, and almost no-one felt compelled to do it so dramatically. The reason for that is pretty obvious, hence the title.

What people decide to do about it is their call, but moralising about it is ridiculous. We're talking about football here. It's a game, and individual fans are an irrelevant part of it. Thinking your lone decision as a fan / customer can influence an organisation that isn't even aware of your existence is silly. Doing so about a game is childish. Wrapping it up in a novela with Nazi references is surreal.
 
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Red Stone

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The OP is right on the money about how I felt about Mourinho after the Sevilla games and onwards, but that's where it ends. As soon as it veered off into a left wing/right wing political simile it got way too weird and RAWKish.
 

SteveJ

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I think there is a discussion to be had about 'the bigger picture' regarding Mourinho's footballing mindset but...I'm too lazy to write it.
 

kaiz

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It was savaged primarily because it was a grandiose, dramatic way to say "I'm fed up and I want to do something about it". Everyone felt that way. People were fed up with different things and thought about different solutions, but everyone was fed up. Most people didn't need to announce it at all, and almost no-one felt compelled to do it so dramatically. The reason for that is pretty obvious, hence the title.

What people decide to do about it is their call, but moralising about it is ridiculous. We're talking about football here. It's a game, and individual fans are an irrelevant part of it. Thinking your lone decision as a fan / customer can influence an organisation that isn't even aware of your existence is silly. Doing so about a game is childish. Wrapping it up in a novela with Nazi references is surreal.
A bit over dramatic but at least he saw what's wrong and tried to do something about it. Evolution happened because of people like him. Sheep like us can help a little if he manages to convince us to bother. In my case, I have to say, he won't. Sorry, Jesus has tried.
 

Raees

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It was savaged primarily because it was a grandiose, dramatic way to say "I'm fed up and I want to do something about it". Everyone felt that way. People were fed up with different things and thought about different solutions, but everyone was fed up. Most people didn't need to announce it at all, and almost no-one felt compelled to do it so dramatically. The reason for that is pretty obvious, hence the title.

What people decide to do about it is their call, but moralising about it is ridiculous. We're talking about football here. It's a game, and individual fans are an irrelevant part of it. Thinking your lone decision as a fan / customer can influence an organisation that isn't even aware of your existence is silly. Doing so about a game is childish. Wrapping it up in a novela with Nazi references is surreal.
An individual fan can’t do anything on his own but can convince others to do something about a situation which can have a domino effect and lead to a wider movement to make something happen. Don’t think that happened in this instance as it led to most of the forum backing the manager even more but in principle groups of fans can definitely have a big impact on the running of their clubs especially the match going contingent. One of the reasons Jose was able to stay so long was because of the influence of that match going contingent - he still had their support and they do factor in to whether or not it is the right time to let go of a manager - imagine Woodward going to a game with a very hostile Old Trafford? It would be an incredibly uncomfortable experience and would force the boards hands.

As for the Nazi references - apart from the line using right and left wing as an analogy there is no explicit reference to nazism at all - I changed the title almost immediately as I realised it was in bad taste as a pun but other than that the only continued reference to politics is the current republican movement and that’s absolutely a fair criticism as much of the media commented on the similarities between Trump and Jose - difference here was it also needed to be pointed out that our fans were behaving like Trump supporters too and in light of recent events have been made to look like fools for their unerring support of him and wanting rid of guys like Martial.

Final point - football is indeed just a game - to the players. To the fans it is a mere form of entertainment if we want to put it in blunt terms. Therefore we are basically just a consumer and therefore we do have rights to complain if the entertainment is not forthcoming and it’s causing us misery.
 
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red thru&thru

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I never read all the original post but from what I gathered from thebits I read, Jose was/is a self centred c**t and there was only one way this was going to end.

Also, one fan can’t do much, however, fans who moan and don’t do jack all about it, should also not moan or vent in public. What is the point? If all the fans had accepted things and just got on with it, Jose would be still here bleeding his toxic fumes into the club. It could have had a long lasting damage effect on the club.

Ps, change the title! :eek:
 

fishfingers15

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YESHHHHH, We'll GOOO for it.
It was savaged primarily because it was a grandiose, dramatic way to say "I'm fed up and I want to do something about it". Everyone felt that way. People were fed up with different things and thought about different solutions, but everyone was fed up. Most people didn't need to announce it at all, and almost no-one felt compelled to do it so dramatically. The reason for that is pretty obvious, hence the title.

What people decide to do about it is their call, but moralising about it is ridiculous. We're talking about football here. It's a game, and individual fans are an irrelevant part of it. Thinking your lone decision as a fan / customer can influence an organisation that isn't even aware of your existence is silly. Doing so about a game is childish. Wrapping it up in a novela with Nazi references is surreal.
We all remember the 'even if lvg never wins a trophy he has been a success' thread.
 

Brwned

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An individual fan can’t do anything on his own but can convince others to do something about a situation which can have a domino effect and lead to a wider movement to make something happen. Don’t think that happened in this instance as it led to most of the forum backing the manager even more but in principle groups of fans can definitely have a big impact on the running of their clubs especially the match going contingent. One of the reasons Jose was able to stay so long was because of the influence of that match going contingent - he still had their support and they do factor in to whether or not it is the right time to let go of a manager - imagine Woodward going to a game with a very hostile Old Trafford? It would be an incredibly uncomfortable experience and would force the boards hands.

As for the Nazi references - apart from the line using right and left wing as an analogy there is no explicit reference to nazism at all - I changed the title almost immediately as I realised it was in bad taste as a pun but other than that the only continued reference to politics is the current republican movement and that’s absolutely a fair criticism as much of the media commented on the similarities between Trump and Jose - difference here was it also needed to be pointed out that our fans were behaving like Trump supporters too and in light of recent events have been made to look like fools for their unerring support of him and wanting rid of guys like Martial.

Final point - football is indeed just a game - to the players. To the fans it is a mere form of entertainment if we want to put it in blunt terms. Therefore we are basically just a consumer and therefore we do have rights to complain if the entertainment is not forthcoming and it’s causing us misery.
I'm sceptical of the influence of matchgoing fans on this board, to be honest. No doubt United fans are a very forgiving bunch, and almost all English fans are a very forgiving bunch, while on the continent you see a lot more significant displays of discontent and even mutiny. But in somewhere like Spain you can see acts of mutiny for months without triggering any response from the board, and that's piling on top of a particularly invasive and brutal partisan media presence - so it's really hard to see how much of a difference it makes.

My guess would be that Woodward and co. would not be paying particularly close attention to matchgoing fans. I've worked with United in a couple of different contexts and they're far more concerned with the 75m United fans in Indonesia than the 75k fans in Old Trafford. That's not to say that fans from thousands of miles away don't want Mourinho out too, but they don't think exactly like matchgoing fans - it is a different experience of fandom, even if people are comfortable with that fact. I think they probably did research in all stretches of the world to find out what the fanbase are thinking, and ultimately much of their decision making was guided by the kinds of things current and potential partners are thinking. They just see it as a business - really.

So I totally understand the notion that it could cause a ripple effect, but thinking you can be the trigger in a movement is a bit self-important which is always kind of amusing. I say that bluntly because I had exactly the same mindset in this thread. It would be great if we could trigger a movement, and I'd have been delighted if the movement you wanted to trigger had happened, because I totally agree Mourinho had created a toxic situation. I'm about 90% certain he intended to self-destruct and create a toxic environment to get that pay off as soon as he didn't get his way in the summer. I just think the pseudo-moralism and grandiose political references and all of the embellishment that created this very long, very personal announcement wasn't ever going to achieve that goal because it was just a bit silly.

We all remember the 'even if lvg never wins a trophy he has been a success' thread.
Erm...I'm glad? I'm not sure what this means. But if it's you saying if it gives you a chuckle, that's great, that's one of the beautiful things that comes from this place. Even if it's wrapped up in weird passive aggression. If you want to trigger some more memories of the thoughts of some anonymous stranger on the internet, feel free to browse through my threads - there's loads that were more embarrassing than that. I don't think I ever wrote a novela on what it means to be a fan, but I did some seriously silly stuff when I was first here as a late kid so I wouldn't rule it out. I did at one point write a 2,000 word essay on Jack Rodwell. Jack Rodwell, for christ's sake :lol: I don't remember any thread you've ever written, which I suppose in that context is a good thing?

I honestly wish we stuck with LvG. Switching to Mourinho meant those years of building a different footballing identity were totally wasted. I don't know whether he ever would have gotten us to the place he got Bayern to, but I think it was a definite possibility. It was pretty boring though.
 

Moonred

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I guess the intention was correct. Unnecessarily and gloriously extravagant nonetheless with huge amount of pretension. But some of the mocking responses still oblivious to the situation probably deserves the bump. Never ofcourse read it past the title but that’s just me.
 

Fingeredmouse

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I guess the intention was correct. Unnecessarily and gloriously extravagant nonetheless with huge amount of pretension. But some of the mocking responses still oblivious to the situation probably deserves the bump. Never ofcourse read it past the title but that’s just me.
The replies, in the majority, mocked the "extravagance and pretension". I'm not sure that his position that Mourinho played right wing football and is Donald Trump has particularly been vindicated...although given you didn't read the post you may simply think it was a standard "this is going horribly wrong with Mourinho" point made at unusually great length.