Date: 23rd September 2011 at 10:30am
Written by:

Fans are the heartbeat of a football club. The ones that turn up every week, singing til their throats get sore and jumping up and down til they can no more.

If those 76,000 didn’t turn up at Old Trafford every week, what would happen? Well, another 76,000 would turn up obviously.

But whoever it is that are sitting or standing in the ground on a match day, it’s these fans that make the players, the manager, the club.

Many become idols, fans’ favourites because of their skill, loyalty and passion shown to us.

Some play 5 games, some play 50 and a few are lucky and good enough to play 500, yet all are remembered for their own contributions.

But what of those that move on, venturing elsewhere to earn their crust, to feed their families or buy the new Ferrari?

Players such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Wes Brown are still sung about even though they now ply their trade elsewhere.

However, some that we did lovingly sing about are now loathed for one reason or another.

Take Owen Hargreaves, for example. He had some choice words to say about the medical staff, didn’t he?

These days pulling on the jersey of cross-city rivals Manchester City, Hargreaves has been savaged by United fans for making these comments. Not the cleverest of moves by him, but the propaganda ploy, which is exactly what it is, by City to get under our skin has worked a treat.

But how dare he join another club after being released by United, how dare he get fit after being injured for so long and make some dodgy home videos (not that type), how dare he celebrate after scoring on his debut!

Hold on a second, do we forget?

We’ve got a player pocketing thousands of pounds each week whilst warming the bench, one who doesn’t exactly have the most exemplary of medical records and most importantly, one who adorned the red jersey of Liverpool, kissing it’s badge.

And what of Carlos Tevez? One who gave his all for United, winning a number of trophies in his short time at the club, and who was admired by all the supporters.

He too went from red to blue after Fergie decided not to sign him up, despite the pleas of the supporters. The Argentine is now a hate figure at the club after his words about United and also cupping his hand to his ear having scored against us in the Carling Cup, but Gary Neville may have had something to do with that.

Hold it..do we forget?

“Play for Leeds? He wants to go right to the top with us, fill his sideboard with medals and trophies won in Leeds United’s name and appear in World Cups for England as a Leeds United player.”

These the words of Peter Ridsdale when asked if Rio Ferdinand wanted to join Leeds or not. Didn’t exactly work out that way, did it? Two year later he followed in the footsteps of the great Eric Cantona signing for United and has since gone on to wear the captain’s armband as well.

But how can we be singing about these players? They played for Leeds, and everyone knows what we think about them.

So why do fans hate some players for their actions more than others?

Peter Schmeichel is my United hero and I was devastated when he left in 99, but when he joined City, I couldn’t believe it, yet I still love the guy, I remember him for his time at our club but can’t bring myself round to hating him for playing for our rivals, why is that?

Are Tevez and Hargreaves disliked so much because they are at a club that are genuine challengers to our throne now? Are we scared of the image of the two lifting the Premier League trophy in City colours, just like they did in our colours?

How do think fans would have reacted had Fergie signed John Terry or Steven Gerrard?

As David O’Leary once said when he was manager of Aston Villa:

“Fans are a fickle mob who get on your back very quickly.”

His words couldn’t be any truer, but it still remains that without the fans, the players and the club would be nothing!

Let me know your thoughts.

Written by Shamoon Hafez

Follow me on Twitter for United ramblings: @ShamoonHafez

 

6 responses to “Are some United fans guilty of double standards?”

  1. wiuru says:

    Like you said about Blue Peter you judge each case on its merits !
    Tevez was trouble at the club nothing to do with ability.If we kept him he would eventually had an adverse effect on us .
    Hargreaves we accepted wanted to re ignite his career .I cant accept we are at fault in his treatment as far as i know he had the best. We needed to move on our youngsters had to come through.
    But did he need to stab us in the back ?Many fans were all for him albeit Citeh but they were willing to give him a chance . A great bit of PR on their part .
    Its another Louis Saha situation developing .

  2. United says:

    Look in the case of tevez, he said he wanted to go back to argentina after a few years in england. If the gaffer payed a big amount of money for that, then he would not get the resale value. And look at tevez now. Unhappy living in manchester. A good move indeed by SAF.

    For hargreaves, only time will tell. But he could have opted to play for west brom or other small teams to play regularly instead of warming the bench for city. Again only time will tell.

  3. Jacob says:

    erm it’s more to do with the manner they conduct themselves when they’ve crossed the divide. players move all the time anyway; if they don’t rooney would have to play for everton all his life and cr7 would’ve stayed in portugal.

  4. PIP says:

    I have no problem with Hargreaves playing for City. We did not keep him so let him be. His comments however are poorly made and disingenuous. The timing of them is poor but worse than that is the fact that they clearly ignore all the genuine attempts to help him during his time at Utd. To suggest otherwise is just plain stupid.
    He has lost my respect as an individual/

    P.s I’m sure he can deal with that, but badly done all the same.

  5. Hassan says:

    I think its not about the fear that they may hold the trophy with City one day, but rather the way that they act. I had no problems with Hargreaves joining City. Good for him! Seriously. Until that crap he said about United’s medical staff. Even after all the support the fans showed him… and after he pocketed every cent of his weekly wage. Tevez is a douchebag, what United fan wouldn’t hate him? As you said we dont hate Peter Schmiechel for joining City. And why should we? He never said a bad word about United. And as far as double standards go, as long as Owen remains commited I’m fine. Just like Rio has, and just like Cantona was and just like the likes of Rooney and Alan Smith have too. I think this should settle this argument. Double standard? Forgeddaboutit!

  6. Ami Roesser says:

    If you think you really might get that extra $1000 maybe from tips/bonuses at work, gifts from family, etc. then put it. It’s not like they are gonna check your taxes.