Post by Scott on May 30, 2006 16:55:53 GMT
From the MEN:
NOT every football fan in England is hanging on every word about Wayne Rooney's metatarsal.
In fact, it's fair to say that a sizeable chunk of the Red half of Manchester is praying that the Scouse sensation does NOT recover in time for the World Cup.
Sir Alex Ferguson insists that his staff are doing everything they can to give Rooney a fighting chance of making it but the United boss is adamant that he will not risk his star player's future by allowing him to be rushed back too soon.
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For many United fans, the matter is simple. Rooney has to be fit for the start of the Premiership season - otherwise the Reds risk another campaign of vainly chasing Chelsea.
But the indifference of many United fans to England, an indifference which sometimes breaks out into outright hostility, goes way beyond the tug of war over Rooney.
The hardcore of United's support does not "do" England, for reasons which have all kinds of historical, cultural, geographical and footballing roots.
Authority
Mancunians have always been a feisty lot, never afraid to question authority or stand up to injustice - hence the Peterloo massacre, or the mill workers' refusal to handle Confederate cotton during the American Civil War, in solidarity with the slaves.
It is a city proud of its own identity and tradition, and suspicious of the motives of the capital city, whether that be the Government or the Football Association.
And the fact that Manchester has always been an immigrant city, with waves of Flemish, Irish, Jewish, Levantine, German and Italian people settling here since the 14th century, has perhaps caused many of us to have a suspicious view of patriotism.
The old Stretford End banner reading "Republic of Mancunia" perhaps sums it up - Manchester has tended to see itself as a city apart in many ways, in football as in culture and politics.
United's support drew heavily from the city's Irish immigrant population in its early years, and many of its modern Mancunian support are second and third generation Irish, hardly conducive to supporting England.
The 1966 World Cup was celebrated by the nation, but the mood had started to change in Manchester by the Seventies, when England was starting to be perceived as just another southern team - and not a particularly good one. United fans watched United, and most match-going England fans were from London and the south, with virtually all home games being played at Wembley.
Injuries
An England under-23 match at Old Trafford in 1976 had the Stretford End cheering when one of the five United players in the team touched the ball, and booing when any other England player did. They ended with a plaintive chant of "We'd rather watch United..."
If that jaundiced view of England was setting in during the Seventies, it was reinforced in the Eighties, when it seemed that no United player could go away on international duty with England without sustaining serious, and sometimes career-ending, injuries.
Gary Bailey, Steve Coppell and Neil Webb all had their careers cut short through injuries they received playing for their country, while Bryan Robson also suffered.
By the Nineties, United were the biggest thing in English football so any doubts that United supporters might need a second-rate second team had been blown away.
Add to that the increasingly strained relationship between United and the FA, and the divorce between United's core support and England was just about complete.
England are the FA's team, rather than the nation's, and the FA is heavily influenced by anti-United forces, not least Arsenal and David Dein, who is a vice-chairman of both. So the reasoning goes.
Sir Alex Ferguson has helped to fuel that particular fire by accusing the FA of singling United out for harsh treatment.
For many angry Reds, England and the FA are indistinguishable, all part of the Establishment.
Of course, the situation is not black and white. There are United fans who will be in Germany supporting England, and there are those who will be desperate for them to get knocked out as soon as possible, and in between there is a mass of supporters who will want England to do well or who could not care less.
Most of those in that middling group would not want England to do well if it meant risking Rooney for United next season.
NOT every football fan in England is hanging on every word about Wayne Rooney's metatarsal.
In fact, it's fair to say that a sizeable chunk of the Red half of Manchester is praying that the Scouse sensation does NOT recover in time for the World Cup.
Sir Alex Ferguson insists that his staff are doing everything they can to give Rooney a fighting chance of making it but the United boss is adamant that he will not risk his star player's future by allowing him to be rushed back too soon.
Advertisement your story continues below
For many United fans, the matter is simple. Rooney has to be fit for the start of the Premiership season - otherwise the Reds risk another campaign of vainly chasing Chelsea.
But the indifference of many United fans to England, an indifference which sometimes breaks out into outright hostility, goes way beyond the tug of war over Rooney.
The hardcore of United's support does not "do" England, for reasons which have all kinds of historical, cultural, geographical and footballing roots.
Authority
Mancunians have always been a feisty lot, never afraid to question authority or stand up to injustice - hence the Peterloo massacre, or the mill workers' refusal to handle Confederate cotton during the American Civil War, in solidarity with the slaves.
It is a city proud of its own identity and tradition, and suspicious of the motives of the capital city, whether that be the Government or the Football Association.
And the fact that Manchester has always been an immigrant city, with waves of Flemish, Irish, Jewish, Levantine, German and Italian people settling here since the 14th century, has perhaps caused many of us to have a suspicious view of patriotism.
The old Stretford End banner reading "Republic of Mancunia" perhaps sums it up - Manchester has tended to see itself as a city apart in many ways, in football as in culture and politics.
United's support drew heavily from the city's Irish immigrant population in its early years, and many of its modern Mancunian support are second and third generation Irish, hardly conducive to supporting England.
The 1966 World Cup was celebrated by the nation, but the mood had started to change in Manchester by the Seventies, when England was starting to be perceived as just another southern team - and not a particularly good one. United fans watched United, and most match-going England fans were from London and the south, with virtually all home games being played at Wembley.
Injuries
An England under-23 match at Old Trafford in 1976 had the Stretford End cheering when one of the five United players in the team touched the ball, and booing when any other England player did. They ended with a plaintive chant of "We'd rather watch United..."
If that jaundiced view of England was setting in during the Seventies, it was reinforced in the Eighties, when it seemed that no United player could go away on international duty with England without sustaining serious, and sometimes career-ending, injuries.
Gary Bailey, Steve Coppell and Neil Webb all had their careers cut short through injuries they received playing for their country, while Bryan Robson also suffered.
By the Nineties, United were the biggest thing in English football so any doubts that United supporters might need a second-rate second team had been blown away.
Add to that the increasingly strained relationship between United and the FA, and the divorce between United's core support and England was just about complete.
England are the FA's team, rather than the nation's, and the FA is heavily influenced by anti-United forces, not least Arsenal and David Dein, who is a vice-chairman of both. So the reasoning goes.
Sir Alex Ferguson has helped to fuel that particular fire by accusing the FA of singling United out for harsh treatment.
For many angry Reds, England and the FA are indistinguishable, all part of the Establishment.
Of course, the situation is not black and white. There are United fans who will be in Germany supporting England, and there are those who will be desperate for them to get knocked out as soon as possible, and in between there is a mass of supporters who will want England to do well or who could not care less.
Most of those in that middling group would not want England to do well if it meant risking Rooney for United next season.
