Theres a clip in the 80s of the players getting off the coach into Anfield, and the mass Munich chants they walk into is disgusting. Bold as brass
The history of United rivalry with Liverpool
- Thread starter golden_blunder
- Start date
They had "Munich 58" banners at Heysel in 85. The great Irish Sports writer, Con Houlihan, reporting on the United v Liverpool Cup semi draw in 85 while praising the game for being an epic contest wrote that his enjoyment of the occasion was ruined by the vicious animosity between the rival fans and the Pool fans chanting about Munich.
Growing up, they’ve always been so incredibly bitter and full of hatred that you end up reciprocating it to an extent. I just wish I’d been a gobshite when I had the chance, because lord knows they’ve been massive, massive gobshites since doing well for a couple of seasons.
Manchester supported the South as well, the factory owners and the Guardian newspaper. It was the Manchester factory working class that supported the North thanks to the Lincoln letters.I lived in Liverpool in the' early 70s and had no problem as a United fan, it was just a normal rivalry. By the late 70s it was changing to hatred, fortunately I'd moved by then. The heart of it was our resentment of Liverpool's success, and Liverpool's fury at our insistence that we were the bigger club. 'but we've won blah blah', yeah, but we're the bigger club. Come Fergie and it was their turn to resent us for our success. We were still the bigger club of course.
The ship canal is historically true but not relevant. The American civil war was another one, Manchester supported the North, Liverpool the South, with Liverpool paying reparations at the end of it. That wouldn't be relevant to the 70s/80s either, which was football.
I remember a time when there was certainly no rivalry with Liverpool as they were playing in the 2nd Division of the football league.
pretty much this and Dante’s post that you replied to
My grand dad worked on the docks and it didn’t make much impression on him at all, though my old fella mentioned the shipping stuff, (three generations of us from Ordsall Lane area - 5/10 minutes walk to the dock gates) he said it was relevant enough in its day, but had little lasting effect, other than people digging it up to find reasons. Maybe it didn’t bother us from this end too much as we got the upper hand. Theyd have been pissed off about the outcome more than us, you’d think.
There was definite rivalry beginning in the 60s when fans started to travel to away grounds in bigger numbers and both clubs took turns in winning titles for a few years with the odd cup thrown in as well. Agree that it really took off in the 70s whilst we nosedived as a team, as they prospered, yet we still remained buoyant with amazing support at its historical best. We were always in the news, good or bad and I remember doing my apprenticeship college training with a few of them on the course and they couldn’t cope with the publicity we got. They just wanted to sink us on and off the pitch but it never happened. There was always resentment on our behalf how they’d ambush vulnerable fans in Stanley Park who got slashed and worse with the media hardly giving it a mention but if they applauded an opposing keeper, they were the worlds best supporters. Their coppers always turned a blind eye to them overcoming small isolated groups (Vs any club tbf) yet there was rarely a coming together with Uniteds main core. I was always acutely aware of it at the sharp end and was surprised it took so long to manifest on a broader scale. Always rankled that the tv companies‘ cameras focussed on them YAWNING, practically begging them to put a show on every week, so they could call it their song, when it actually was sung at every ground in the country. Media currently hard at work giving them a patent on The Reds while we no longer are referred to as anything but the Red Devils. Have you ever heard any United fan call us anything but The Reds or United ?
cnuts.
Better have a lie down :/
I do wish the rivalry wasn’t quite so toxic. I took an American friend to OT to watch Liverpool match and he thought it was quite pathetic how all of their fans and a lot of ours ignored the match, and just goaded each other for 2 hours.
Agree with this, I have some liverpool mates and really drive me mad. They talk as if they have been successful for the past 10 years, only team that can win a league title, the best buyers, the best run club.. etc.
I cannot wait for Liverpool to feck up.
I think growing up being called a glory supporter by Liverpool fans from the south who are only fans because their dads started supporting them when they were winning was enough to make me bitter.