It dawned on me towards the end of last season that whilst loads of the songs sung by United fans are timeless, and will be sung forever more, some, by way of a contrast, are, well, quite frankly shit. Ok, ok, not shit, but sometimes neither particularly appropriate or pertinent. Oh, and don’t get me started on those songs which really should have been strangled at conception……
To my point. Yeah ok, singing about the thing we most like doing is ‘kicking a Blue’ is alright for seven months of the season, (or longer if we’re not in a Moyes-inspired waste of a season, and actually challenging for silverware ourselves), but in the title run in when we were actually imploring City to not fuck up, and to not hand the Scousers the Title, so this song became less and less appropriate, certainly to this particular Season ticket holder who counts himself as pretty vocal at every match. On the one hand ‘we hate you because you’re our local rivals’, but on the other ‘please do us a favour and just win your last four games, because we hate them Scouse bastards a whole lot more than we do you’.
A wee case of double standards going on there methought, so I temporarily refrained from singing it.
Bottom line was that actually NOTHING was more satisfying than seeing the Stevie Me inspired Mickeys implode, and blow possibly their best ever chance of laying their hands on the English Premier League. In truth what we ACTUALLY ‘liked most’ right there was not kicking a Blue, but instead metaphorically kicking all Scousers while they were down, sinking deeper and deeper into their pit of despair. Glorying in their misery, in a season when yep, hands up, we ourselves had very little to shout about. Bloody great it was.
Ok, in an ideal world it would’ve been almost anyone but City (even Chelsea for fuck sake) that we were relying on, willing on to thwart Liverpool but hey, I think even some of the most anti-City fans going realised that ‘them’ winning it was the lesser of admittedly two very bad evils. And after all, with their financial backing, the realisation is that quite frankly they SHOULD be winning it just about every year anyway. Somewhat softens the blow that, I find. Still crap though.
And courtesy of City winning it, what fun we and the rest of the football world in general have had since in ridiculing slippy Steve and his band of nearly men. It’s as if the 2013-14 Title was less won by City, but more gloriously lost by Liverpool. FUNNY. AS. FUCK.
Moving on (but still inwardly chuckling), obviously the 2014-15 season starts with a clean slate, so ‘kicking a Blue’ will resume its erstwhile pertinence and yes I will join in again.
But what of other songs on the United fans’ hymn sheet?
Almost goes without saying that certain songs sung by United fans in recent years have been proved to have a definite shelf life. Yes we used to delight in paying homage to the Inspiral Carpets by affirming to City fans how exactly it feels when ‘your team wins nothing at all’. Shame they started to win things really, I quite liked making that finger and thumb gesture indicating the perceived size of City. Little things please little minds.
Likewise, the Tevez song faded from memory. As indeed as he himself. Shame. Argie twat.
The absence of Suarez this season (oh dear, how sad, never mind) will mean, I guess, less of a need to randomly break out at every match with constant affirmations of what an odious c**t he was. He’s gone, and I’d like to think he’s gonna be very largely forgotten. Except when Liverpool come calling of course. Then of course it’s just gonna be a free for all…. ‘Wheres your racist gone, where’s your racist gone??’
Another song that’s bitten the dust? Oh yes. ‘Come on Davie Moyes!..’ Erm, the least said the better about that methinks. Consigned to the rubbish bin…. Along with the song.
So, full circle to my earlier comment re timeless songs. Some may disagree, but perhaps the major standout good thing to emerge from Moyes’ short lived tenure was the magnificent away support in particular last season. In an almost circling the wagons gesture, it was as if United fans on the road determined that bollocks to whatever was going on on the pitch, NOTHING was stopping them from a) showing their solidarity to the team, very often through adversity, and b) having a right good day out! It was a recurring theme from home supporters that post-match they would tweet as to how awesome the United away support had been. Too many to immediately recall, but Southampton away immediately springs to mind. Ok it was the last game of the season when fans always make excessive noise to compensate for the lack of similar opportunities in the coming months, but this was something to behold.
Noisy, yes. Non stop, yes. Defiant, most certainly. And in the immediate aftermath, one particular Saints fan took time out to compliment the United fans. He wasn’t totally sure of all the words that he’d heard, or been subjected to, but he passed comment on the continual blaring out of what was actually the ‘United calypso’ song. He was seemingly genuinely moved, and definitely impressed, that for a massive chunk of the 90+ minutes, the away support was literally united in reminding everyone within earshot of the legacy that Sir Matt Busby had left. None of the Scouse bashing, the Suarez abusing, the City ridiculing etc, emanating from United fans, this was a song with meaning, a song EVERY United fan should know.
Manchester, Manchester United A bunch of bouncing Busby Babes They deserve to be knighted!
If they’re playing in your town Get yourself to that football ground Take a lesson come and see Football taught by Matt Busby,
OH MANCHESTER, MANCHESTER UNITED,
A BUNCH OF BOUNCING BUSBY BABES ….etc etc etc..
(and repeat until your throat gives in)
And this is the essence I think of what I’ve been trying to say in this rambling little piece. Some songs will stand the test of time through thick and thin, while some others will have a definite shelf life. Some are appropriate however the team are playing, whatever the circumstances, while others probably just need to be knocked on the head sometimes, or dropped completely.
And finally? What last season proved above all, is that no one can rightly accuse Manchester United fans of only singing when they’re winning. It just happens to have been a fortunate coincidence that up until last season a complete generation of United fans ONLY knew what it was like to be either winning, or at the very least least of being in with a shout of winning.
Maybe Moyes served a purpose after all…… 🙂