No doubt Manchester United is a great club and i have great respect for some of their players such as Giggs, RVN, Ronaldo. Eventhough they were winning numerous titles and cups back in the 90s i didn't really bother much about as i only perceive Man u as another good football team just as i think of Barcelona, Inter Milan, Ajax or Madrid back then.

Things, however changed drastically in 1999. After their shocking last gasp victory over Bayern Munich in CL Final that year, the MAN U fanboom exploded and the hype was spreading like wildfire. Some of my friends who doesn't know jack shit or watch football suddenly begin supporting Manchester United. And yet the appalling thing is, they couldn't even name more than 3 players in their favorite team. They will tell you Cantona is from Spain. They start asking you what jersey color is Man u players because they can recognize their team. They couldn't differentiate between Butt, Scholes and Solskjaer because all three of them have the same haircut. And the next minute you know, Beckham with his Armani looks, starts to pull the girl audience into football. People who don't like football suddenly likes football by swearing their short allegiance to Manchester United. Manchester United jersey become the latest COOL toy to have among youngsters and schoolboys alongside Nike AIR JORDAN and Sony playstation.

Soon after, commercialism creeps in and Man U cafes, Man U TV, Man U shops started to mushroom one by one all over the world. In fact, without realizing it, Manchester United has bring EPL to the mainstream and transformed the club into a cultural icon. Not a bad move from the finance perspective as other clubs follow suit. More and more Man U fans appeared out of nowhere with more than 70% of them still doesn't know who the heck is Alex Ferguson and yet they claimed that they support Man United.

That is when i realized that it is the prawn sandwich fans that is making my blood boil not the team itself. Of course, having said that I believe there are a lot of "genuine" Man Utd fans out there who support the team wholeheartedly and not just in for Beckhamania or Ronaldo's flashy stepovers. Sad but truth but  this is what Manchester fans have become nowadays.....just my 2 cents.

Actually, they were at it before hand, George Best was the first pop star footballer, and before Beckham, Giggs was the poster boy for Man U, and before Giggs, there's a certain Lee Sharpe who was the poster boy. Still it didn't beat Beckhamania and now Charliemania (Charlie Ronaldo, after I got ban numerous time for calling him C*** Ronaldo, now I prefer Charlie, or if you prefer, crybaby, after last night's tantrum). If I get ban for calling him Charlie

In a way, I do agree with you, the popularity of Premier League has let to many people making good "investments" when they get good "returns" from staking the kids' college funds (or the months' allowance for younger ones) on it, which also led them to "follow" the teams, whomever it may be, which also leads to them "following" different teams as lately different teams has won the league. Which is also a reason you see lots of people wearing Blackburn shirts after 1995/96 season when they won the league thanks to Uncle Jack's (for those who don't know him, there's this things called Wikipedia and google) money and Shearer's goals.

The main thing that gets me, honestly, that these glory hunters (again, not targeting anyone) do not bother to look up information of the club. I mean, with advancement of technology, all it takes is to sit in front of the PC for about an hour, look it up in Wikipedia (or the club site, but that might be too long and difficult, some of these glory hunters have problem reading long sentences, which makes this post safe) and all you need to know about the club in a nutshell will be there, then maybe, they will somehow find a connection with the team and become a true supporter.

If a girl can do that and learn about Liverpool, then tell me that she cannot consider herself a Liverpool fan after reading about the club in Wikipedia, because of the connection and passion she read so much about the team, and can talk to me about things concerning the club and even discuss it. Then where does it puts these so called glory hunting fans?

"Followers" that is, that's what they are, they just follow, without knowing anything.

I suppose it's just the easiest thing to do lah... especially to those who barely watch the sport... they just want to pick a team for the sake of being "in the crowd". A strong, winning team is a reason good enough for many. I guess only the more dedicated fans will take the trouble to find a deeper reason to support a team and to learn more about them.

This not only applies to football... there were also a lot of Ferrari "fans" some years back and they know nuts about cars except that Schumacher wins every race!

In general I've nothing against glory hunters, coz they will always be around. The only thing that gets me is the gloating lah - what gives you the right to make so much noise when you barely know your own team, while I've supported my own team through thick and thin for over 15 years!

Comon, altogether now, sing with me!
"Glory, glory, glory hunter... glory glory glory hunter..."

Funny to add, maybe i am just a moron. When i first saw the tittle glory hunter i knew it would be directing to Manchester United fans and also particularly started off by a liverpool fan, i called it DejaVU.

Aiya, glory hunter are MU fans lah, who else?

I would like to stress, DO NOT discriminate glory hunters. They are also human who deserve respect. They have done nothing illegal. They help to increase the popularity, income and support for the club.

My fren supports Real Madrid (his no 1 team). And about i think 5 years back he started supporting liverpool, coz they have spanish influence (he's crazy bout spain, be it in F1, tennis, football). And recently he said he supports Barca to win the UCL. Even when barca were playing in the semis. What do u call him ?

p/s: i think this is out of topic already, no ? lol

I suppose it's just the easiest thing to do lah... especially to those who barely watch the sport... they just want to pick a team for the sake of being "in the crowd". A strong, winning team is a reason good enough for many. I guess only the more dedicated fans will take the trouble to find a deeper reason to support a team and to learn more about them.

This not only applies to football... there were also a lot of Ferrari "fans" some years back and they know nuts about cars except that Schumacher wins every race!

In general I've nothing against glory hunters, coz they will always be around. The only thing that gets me is the gloating lah - what gives you the right to make so much noise when you barely know your own team, while I've supported my own team through thick and thin for over 15 years!

Comon, altogether now, sing with me!
"Glory, glory, glory hunter... glory glory glory hunter..."

Simple. You know a glory hunter is right in front of you when you know about the team he supports more than he does.

Funny to add, maybe i am just a moron. When i first saw the tittle glory hunter i knew it would be directing to Manchester United fans and also particularly started off by a liverpool fan, i called it DejaVU.

Simple. You know a glory hunter is right in front of you when you know about the team he supports more than he does.

I think for those outside of England its more likely that the club he or she supports is the one that's probably getting the most coverage in their home country. We don't have a particular affinity with any of the clubs there unless of course we spent a certain period of time in that particular city, but for those of us who are born and live outside England its alot easier to say, "Hey, I'm gonna support one of the big fours rather than Havant & Waterlooville whom I've got no relationship with." To me what counts is how a supporter chooses to study his club, and over time grow to realise that he can only have one love. Its easier to say that United fans are glory hunters over here becoz we are currently the club with the most recent successes, but Liverpool fans from the 80-90s era began supporting their club becoz they were the sensation back then. If a fan switches sides according to who's topping the table every week, then fairplay, you can call him a glory hunter. But tagging a United fan automatically as one is a lil harsh. Jonno hit the nail on the head by saying they are merely followers, while those who truly stand behind their team are supporters.

On the topic of glory hunting though, isn't it the same when a fan chooses to forgo the style and heritage of football his or her club is known for in place of more successes? Would you rather see the football taught by your forefathers continue, or would you choose to throw it all away for more league titles and trophies?

Talk about glory hunters, I believe most football fans outside of England started off as one, is you ask many of them, even those who started off following the team in the 80's because we were the top team then, and we were beating everyone left right centre. I also understand that there were others who were drawn by different reasons, but many "younger" (and I use this term loosely) fans would started off as a bit of a glory hunter. The difference, (the ones that I can see anyway) is that some bothered to learn about the team and the club and the history, and slowly become appreciate the club and the history. Unfortunately, not all share the same sentiment and would often bring out the " I don't need to know what's in the past" crap when confronted on, to me, these are the real glory hunter. There are even some who changes teams.

Whether their motivation is money through betting, or they found that it is not fashionable to support the team anymore, I don't know, but then again, it is not my prerogative to tell them that it is not on, as it their problem, I would only shake my head behind them and feel sorry for them.

Perhaps it's because they never really felt the sense of belonging when supporting the club, which prompt them to switch to a more fashionable club, I don't know, and to be honest, I don't give a flying fcuk.

However, please do not go around and start telling others how great your team or new team is just because they won some games or a few trophies. It's people like this who give supporters in this region a bad name, with many labeling us OOC (Out Of Country) supporters. Already it is hard to gain respect from proper supporters and these things happens.

I am not blaming anyone or telling anyone what to do, but I feel that perhaps other supporters of the same club could have a word to these fans and perhaps that would encourage them to learn a bit more about the team, if one listens then it's one less morons in the thread and hopefully one day they will completely disappear, I certain can only wish.

NOTE:
No clubs has been mentioned in my post, I am just generalising about fans. And to those glory hunters, call yourself "follower" not fans or supporters, because you are just following, not supporting the team at all.