Sunday, 12 May 2013

Goodbye Fergie: 1
Why football, why Manchester United







Ujpest Dózsa






Manchester United match day programme






Gwil W said...

I see that Paul Scholes is hanging up his boots and Wayne Rooney has the sulks. I wonder if Moyes can hold it together. Alex could charm the birds off the trees. And he never criticized his team. It would always be the referee or a bit of bad luck or even the wrong colour shirts. A veritable genius when it came to football psychology.

James said...

Yes, fathers. My own stepfather, of whom I was very frightened, was responsible, in the very early '80s, for all of the United matches I've attended. Thrilling, of course, to see Coppell, Jordan, McQueen & co. draw away at Leicester, but what sticks in the mind more is that sense of "being among the men" which all boys yearn for,and that smell of cigarettes, sweat and beer. The silent car journey to and from: the exotic walk to the ground: the stalls and the post-match Pink. And the fan violence during the game, because this was already a burnt-out, washed up sport, not the golden age fools reflect on. Before the end of my teens, too, the stepfather would be gone. I've never seen him since.

George S said...

Burnt-out and washed-up are pure film noir qualities. I rather like them. There never was a Golden Age though some years and eras were rougher than others, though those years were not in the least dissociated from the state of affairs outside football grounds. Among the men? Yes, quite.

And Moyes will have a hard job but I'm rather looking forward to it. It will be a new adventure and if it sturtters at times that's part of the long story, not just the last twenty-six years. The younger supporters will have to get used to mortal frailty at times. They won't like it but that's part of growing up too.