"Wish you were here"
Pep: “I’d like more fans to come Saturday”
- Thread starter esmufc07
- Start date
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
I think that's just tribalism. Football fans have absolutely no problem to make any excuse they want or defend any behaviour when one of 'their' players is involved. The thing is City's brand simply didn't grow enough recently (and I think were there also higher expectations for NYCFC) for a combination of reasons and one of them is there are four bigger clubs in England, then another 8-10 big clubs in Spain+Italy+Germany+France so you're competing with so many other brands. I think second stadium expansion was planned for 2018 or 2019 but that didnt happen so clearly there were some targets and I understand why Pep's unhappy. When he joined City he compared them with Villarreal and now they're maybe somewhere between Atleti and Sevilla, I think.
I reckon Pep will one day be United manager. That'll be so funny if it happens.
I think some clubs give all the gate to the smaller club. But that's probably more when it's a non league club.
Wycombe are ok at the mo as we've just come off a championship season, but only a few years back a gate from one of these sort of games would have been a life saver.
The strange thing with Man City is that in the mid 90s, they'd be right near the top of average attendances. Yet these days are seen as some sort of meme for having no fans.
Having it as a rule would great, and I think most PL clubs would agree to it, especially the established ones.
I can't for the life of me remember the club, but I'm pretty sure there was a club that agreed, with the FA's blessing, to move a game from away to home so the lower league club, who were in dire straits at the time, could earn more income on the game.
And yet their official average season attendances (pre Covid) are regularly logged as comfortably over 50k (think max attendance is 55k?)
Theme song of the club
I was at the etihad when we beat them 3-2. I was in the City end and I swear there was this bloke right next to me who got a wee tripod out and stuck his phone on it to record the game. You could tell he was getting agitated when people were blocking his view. It was truly bizarre.
Makes me wonder why they didn’t go all out for Messi over the summer, surely he would have brought them some fans.
Makes the City fans scenes in Ted Lasso even more hilarious. Maybe they could hire them?!
Off to Bluemoon we go, then. I’ve seen some pretty hilarious spin on there over the years but this is gonna be good.
Thought they'd be queuing up down the A6 to see Grealish for 100m transfer record
Hopefully not only when he's past it though!
I think all clubs do attendances on tickets sold instead of those who physically turn up on the day, so on that logic, actual numbers on the ground can only ever be inflated from reality.
But there's a big difference between say 400 people not turning up as plans change, and the clear 1,000s of empties City regularly have!
You want some?
Tragic 
Yeah right like they are going to come out to see Southampton.
If you want some I'll give it to ya'.
Because their fan base is made up of old sad sacks who sit with their arms folded, waiting for Sterling to misplace a pass, so that they can hurl abuse at him.
I got a free ticket through work to go with colleagues 2 years ago.
Regretted it as soon as i sat down, it's a soulless club and hated every minute - left after 35 mins.
Regretted it as soon as i sat down, it's a soulless club and hated every minute - left after 35 mins.
Please clap!
Oil clubs.
50 pages on blue moons atmosphere thread since he made these comments. They're not taking it well
Young Boys fans were 1000x louder than their fans.
Tragic. It’s like he is sending an outlook invite, even telling the time, so people don’t forget it.
How many empty seats tonight Pep?
More than you believe.
More than you believe.
Don’t know If it’s been said but they were even advertising for £12.50 with a promo code. It encourages more neutrals to go but it’s what makes the atmosphere still drab because they don’t have actual fans there.
They are a Championship-sized club with a Championship-sized fanbase. In fact, you could argue had Sunderland, Derby. Nottingham Forest, Birmingham etc...been given their level of investment, they would be getting 60,000+ every single week.
And...this goes back to my point. Call me jealous if you like, I'm well past that. I'm a 32yo man who has been fortunate enough to see my club win everything there is to win, over and over again, very often live in the stadium. However, what City are doing to football is not good for the game.
City winning trophies makes 30,000 fellas from Stockport very happy, but disengages millions of fans from the traditional and historic 'big' clubs.
And...this goes back to my point. Call me jealous if you like, I'm well past that. I'm a 32yo man who has been fortunate enough to see my club win everything there is to win, over and over again, very often live in the stadium. However, what City are doing to football is not good for the game.
City winning trophies makes 30,000 fellas from Stockport very happy, but disengages millions of fans from the traditional and historic 'big' clubs.
Don't be so ridiculous mate....absolute garbage....you can't seriously think it's 30,000?
The fact is anyone could do what City have done. Fleetwood town could be bought by saudis and they could throw infinite money at it until it went somewhere.
It wouldnt give them an enormous fanbase though
It wouldnt give them an enormous fanbase though
Meanwhile, Manchester United have averaged 99% or more capacity at Old Trafford for every home game in the Premier League the last 21 years
Yeah that I doubt very much, these numbers sound like a Russian election night numbers.
Yeah, they count 'tickets sold' don't they, so I have definitely been to games like, for example, Stoke on a rainy Wednesday night, whereby you have maybe 2,000 empty seats dotted about. They will have been bought and paid for, but people possibly haven't travelled due to late kick-offs and having to get away from work etc...
In the main though, I imagine OT has genuinely been at 99%+ for every weekend home game in the PL era
They are directly from the Investor Relations information published by Manchester United.
Capacity also includes seasonticket holders. They don't have to be in the stadium to be counted as sold, since the seat is sold for the whole season.
When "number in attendance" is listed, the count is always for tickets sold.
According to Manchester United, the average attendance at OT over the past 21 years sits at 99% of capacity
I reckon when it comes out that City are paying him a salary in the UK but also a "consultancy fee" in Abu Dhabi, you'll be shocked at the actual number he is earning every week, wouldn't be surprised if it is more than Messi's earnings.
Soulless, plastic club. Imagine you're Jack Grealish and you play the first UCL game of your career where you score and assist in a nine-goal thriller and the atmosphere is akin to nonce's wake. Brutal.
Such a tinpot club. Embarrassing.
It's a shame that the football played is watched by so few. I bet it's easy to get tickets for the top 4 to 6 prem games. Try getting 1 for OT , you be very lucky to get 1. Soccer aid it was rammed.