The Bore from N3404

“We support our local team”

Often sung by the legions of ‘day-release patients’ who (under-)occupy the ‘Away end’ at Old Trafford, “We support our local team” has to be the most tedious football chant in history.

Personally, it takes me around 35 minutes to get from my front room to ‘Block N3404’ on a match day, so United are pretty local to me. But that’s not my issue with it, I’m not taking the words of the song personally - I realise that United are ‘Global’ & not ‘Local’ & that ‘popularity’ is just a bi-product of being good at what you do. 

My problem with that song is…….

When the likes of Reading sing it, they’re basically standing there shouting “I live in Reading” -

WHO THE FUCK BOASTS ABOUT THAT?

I’ve been to Reading, I remember there being a few roundabouts & a ‘Poundstretcher’ but that’s about it!

You’d be better off turning up mob-handed & Singing “We support Reading, but we commute from Maidenhead”. 

You’d never hear Liverpool fans sing “We support our local team”.

Danny Welbeck.

It seems that there are a growing number of United fans whose desire to see the Reds win every game by a margin of 6 goals, is clouding their judgement.

These people seem clueless to what this young man from Longsight M13 brings to our side. I’m not just talking about your ‘Facebook fodder’ here either, I’m talking about people who shell-out well over £1000 every year to go to Old Trafford & watch the team play (not that ‘that’ automatically gives them any kind of knowledge of the game whatsoever).

Admittedly, he doesn’t score enough goals (yet) - but as a ‘Forward’, the boys talent & commitment to the team & his teammates is there for all to see.

Danny is a willing runner, the kind of player who goes in search of the ball rather than waiting for the ball to drop to him, he hurries defenders & forces them into errors, he closes down the ball, occupies space which opponents would usually have time in & drags defenders into positions that open things up for the likes of Rooney & van Persie.

With Welbeck around - there is no ‘time on the ball’ - it must be like defending against a young pit-bull terrier. 

I guarantee you if you ask any Premier League defender who they’d rather face on a Saturday afternoon - Danny - or a lazy lump like Darren Bent (a £20m forward, who spends 90 minutes trying to stay onside) they’d choose Bent - despite one historically scoring more goals that the other, the job that Welbeck does is much more difficult to curtail. The fact the he’s willing to spread himself so thin & work hard out on the flanks, shows that he’s selfless & would play anywhere just help the team. 

Last night, towards the end of the game Danny miscontrolled the ball which went out for a goal-kick, someone on the row in front of me went on a comical rant about how Danny should “Fuck off a join a Circus”.

The same pleb got the opportunity to rehash the same old bollocks a few minutes later (he was too busy being ‘funny’ to notice that the Reading defender had actually got a toe on the ball, and Danny had won a corner) & add “I can say what I want now that the ‘Danny Welbeck appreciation society’ had gone” (referencing someone who sits behind him & tries to drum some sense into him).

The oddest thing about his statement was the choice of the term ‘Appreciation society’? Isn’t that what we all are in a way?

If you can’t support your own player, a lad who’s been here since he was 9 years old, a United fan, you might as well fuck off to Stamford Bridge or Eastlands where you’ll never have that problem. We pride ourselves on bringing players through the system, nurturing them & turning them into first teamers. I can’t be on my own in feeling like a proud father whenever I see a kid who has been around for years make the step up & do well in the first team. It’s what being a United fan is all about & if we ever stopped producing our own players in favour of signing ‘a name’ for every position (mentioning no names… 2008 FAYC Winners Manchester City) I’m not sure that I could feel the same way about the team. 

You need that mix, ‘yes’ we all love our stars from around the globe - but you also need the United fans on the pitch to convey to the others just what it means to the fans.

This isn’t a computer game, players make errors, as long as they learn from them, work hard & grow - they’ll always have my support. 

So lay off Danny!

In the 3 months since I last felt compelled to write something, it seems that the lowly ‘Bloggers’ have been ‘getting it’ from all angles & now hold a similar social status to that of an old dachshund’s ball-bag.

Being a huge fan of irony, I can’t help but laugh at the people who take to ‘Twitter’ to defame Bloggers (people who spend all day projecting their thoughts via an electronic device, having ‘a dig’ at other people who spend all day projecting their thoughts via an electronic device).

If you don’t like it - don’t read it, it’s not fucking rocket-science is it? If you’re the kind of person who does something that they know they’re going to hate just so you can moan about it - there’s something clearly lacking! 

 I don’t consider myself a Blogger, I’m just a moany old twat who likes a rant every now & again, it’s either ‘this’ or getting escorted out of the cafe in Sainsbury’s for decrying the use of a high defensive line in the Champions League to a bunch of OAP’s (again).