Not everyone started supporting Manchester United when they were champions. Which is why I get rather angry when people say Manchester United were all about the money and they rose to the top just like Chelsea.

I can't really say why I started supporting Manchester United. Was it the players? The fans? The stadium itself? The red jersey? The name Manchester United? The fact that every joker around me supported Liverpool and Arsenal?

I cannot recall.

But I did start supporting them when they weren't anywhere near the top. And it's been one hell of a journey from being in the middle of the table to the top of the table. Now that's been the real enjoyment. Seeing your team, struggle, and end up being champions for a number of years, getting better and better. Of course, the hard times were around too. Losing the titles to Blackburn, Arsenal, Chelsea etc. But that's part and parcel of supporting a team. You don't jump ship when trouble arises.

20+ years and counting.

That's true. First of all, back in the day I only knew one guy that supported Chelsea FC and believe me. Chelsea FC sucked big time before the billionaire came about. They were a mid table team and would never get to the top 4 no matter what they did.

But this guy was a true fan. He wore the jerseys, he had the playing cards, he had the magazine, etc. He knew the history, the players, the managers, even the back room staff, etc.

That was a fan and he stuck to the club through thick and thin. Now I don't blame all the new Chelsea fans for supporting the club now. I mean fine, they saw a club with resources, buying tons of top players and they are now challenging for everything. It's not a bad thing, they're not a big club. They still don't come close to the top 4 in terms of history, tradition, and success, but you never know in the next 100 years things could change.

But, the fans now. You can go ahead and support Chelsea. But, if anything happened to Chelsea. If the billionaire disappeared, if he stopped buying top players, if Chelsea stopped challenging for the top competitions. What will happen? If the fans stick to the club then, I see no problems. But if they all suddenly leave in drones, then my suspicions are correct. That they're nothing but glory hunters and that they only supported Chelsea because of the wealth and resources that they had.

Myself, I don't see a change in club at anytime. Manchester United is what I grew up with and it's what I'll support till I die. It's absolutely impossible to even think of another club. My support might just be a tad different from the supporters in UK, in the sense that I'm unable to go to games, or buy merchandise from the mega store in the stadium, or even have that hate for the rival clubs because of my location.

But the way the rival fans behave here, it helps alot with the rivalry and hating.

We'll see, what happens in the future. Then only will we know who genuinely supports a club. Manchester United is doing well this season, suddenly there are tons more supporters posting in the thread. Posters that are going "great, fabulous, blah blah blah"

Where were they during the 4 years of transition? Perhaps they didn't come here yet. But we'll see the coming seasons if we stop doing so well.

This post has been edited by refnulf: May 6 2007, 01:18 PM

You're also forgetting Fletcher, O'Shea, Brown who are also playing in almost every game now.

Also, you're forgetting that we don't buy 20 players at once. We buy players as we need them. We don't go after galacticos or whatever just to win elections. Our upper management doesn't go around promising the fans certain players to get votes and support. We also don't go targeting players that are on top of their game, and keep on coming out with crap to unsettle them. We target a player we need for a certain position and we try our best to get him. Not because he's a galactico.

We have more home grown players than any of the top four in the premiership. We also have the least foreign players on the field.

This post has been edited by refnulf: May 6 2007, 07:48 PM

This is going way off topic. So I'm ending it here.

This post has been edited by refnulf: May 7 2007, 11:06 AM

Perez took over from Lorenzo Sanz and got rid of the debt. Although that was contradicted by Ramon Calderon. He was also quite the marketing genius. Still, his galactico purchases hasn't been that good since 2002 I think. And he hasn't handle several things properly, like Makelele. And Del Bosque's termination, etc. Galacticos haven't been doin well, etc.