Manc' Rant

"Wouldn't it be great if Salford City beat Hartlepool and we get to play them in the FA Cup?" a fellow Ram asked me in rhetorical fashion. My response was not full of expletives but I am sure that you would have forgiven me if it were. My reaction was quite negative and I'll try to explain why. We'll start at the beginning.
Manchester is a fantastic city of culture and importance. My favourite musical acts hail from that great city, those being namely The Smiths, Joy Division and New Order. As such you will understand that I am not anti-Manchester. Neither am I anti-Manchester United per-se. It is great that football fans from Manchester and the immediate area have a fantastic club to support.
"As you are from Bristol and you are a football fan, are you Rovers or City?" I asked a colleague. "Neither, Manchester United" he replied. And here is the crux of the issue.
Some football 'fans' are supporting teams (usually by buying merchandise, rather than actually going to games) that contribute nothing to their place of abode or birth. Local clubs, whether they be small or large, are active in the local community, developing the football skills of youngsters and undertaking charitable works etc. So why would one give money to a club that does nothing for the place you call home?
I understand that one likes to watch good football, but to call oneself a 'fan' of a particular team that you have no connection with, just because they are successful, is beyond me. I am not a psychologist but people do seem to like being associated with success. This is playground mentality, "my dad is bigger than your dad" kids say in school. Some outgrow this, some never say this and some continue to have this mentality by being 'fans' of successful teams that they have no connection with.
Every year dozens, if not hundreds, of small local community based football clubs disappear because of lack of funds. The 'glory-hunter fans' don't care. As long as they have the new £80 shirt of 'their team' that's all that matters, as they can stroll around demonstrating to others that they are associated 'personally' with success. I would prefer to spend the £80 going to several non-league games, buying a pie and a programme, knowing that that money is going to a club that is working in the local community with kids and youth teams and the like. In any case, in many ways non-league matches are more enjoyable an experience than big Premier League games. Many people have written about this and so I will leave that there.
In this way football 'brands' have developed while the grassroots suffer. It is the issue of the Manchester United 'brand' which is troublesome in this case.
When the Glazer's took over Manchester United some of the team's followers protested and went to the extreme length of setting up a new football club, FC United of Manchester. In this way they were showing loyalty to the Manchester United 'brand' but not it's roots. It's roots lie in a team called Newton Heath. Newton Heath was one of two clubs founded at the locomotive-building works of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the other team being Horwich Railway Mechanics Institute FC. Horwich RMI became Leigh RMI. Newton Heath became Manchester United. One can clearly see that Leigh RMI is (was) the true sister club of Manchester United.
Leigh RMI was struggling financially at the time of the Glazer's takeover of Manchester United but instead of the Manchester United 'fans' supporting their sister club they allowed it to struggle on and decline into the obscurity of the South Lancashire Counties Football League Premier Division as Leigh Genesis. Well, at least as they have two clubs with Manchester and United in their names to cheer for.
Another Manchester United 'brand' spin-off is the celebrity football club known as Salford City. A Singaporean businessman and investor and five former Manchester United players own the Northern Premier League club with the ambition of making it a Tier 2 team. Pumping in money and attracting the home grown players from other local teams is a way to do this.
One sees that they don't want to make it a Premier League team as that would mean they would actually have to compete in the league against the real Manchester United.
Because of the celebrity status of the owners of the club the BBC thought it fitting to do a TV documentary about it.
So, it won't be great if Salford City beat Hartlepool and we get to play them in the FA Cup.
1) I don't want my home town team associated with a Manchester United 'brand' spin-off;
2) I would hope that we get to play a good old fashioned real team; and
3) Derby County and Hartlepool(s) United share a common bond, the genius management duo of Brian Clough and Peter Taylor.