The fans get the team they deserve…..

Article by e-Manchester United Correspondent Noel Hutchinson

Follow e-Manchester United on Twitter here!

My Grandad would often tell me, as we walked away from Old Trafford on a Saturday tea-time (they always played at three on a Saturday afternoon in the old days) that in the end, the fans always get the team they deserve.

He would tell me stories of fans of other clubs that would boo their team off at half-time at the slightest hint of a bad performance, he told me that it had even been heard of that some fans of some clubs would pick on certain players and shout abuse at them whenever they touched the ball!

Neither of us could really believe that to be true though. How could it be? As United fans we knew that our job for the club was to make sure that when our boys were out on the pitch they had a constant wave of unconditional vocal support. We knew that this was critical for any team if they were to scale the heights of the football world.

We knew that our lads, some as young as seventeen, might be talented football artists but were still actual people with sensitivities. We knew that to express oneself without inhibition in front of thousands of people is a terrifying thing to try to do, however good at your thing you are. Bobby Charlton is famous for throwing up before most games he played. Stage fright is such a well-known phrase. Everybody who has ever had to do a best man’s speech knows that sick, edgy, nervous feeling. Job interviews do it to some people, cooking for a party does it to others. Have you ever seen somebody forget their words on stage? It’s so horrible that the audience themselves feel ill!

So, armed with that basic knowledge of human frailties, my Grandad, my Dad, my brothers and I would play our part in giving the lads in our club’s colours the platform of confidence they needed to perform upon.

And so to today. On Sunday we watched our lads go down to our arch-rivals by three goals. But as the third one went in when we were down to ten men, our chant never missed a beat. When the Liverpool fans danced in delight at their deserved victory we didn’t notice. We were too busy singing our defiance at the gods of football fate for everything they have done to us this year, our support for David Moyes and our support for our lads out on the pitch.

People around the world saw United fans at their best then. The common refrain is that at any other club Moyes would have been sacked by now, and that may be true. When we chanted Rooney’s name instead of slagging him off when the rumours abounded that he wanted out of the club, Mourinho was amazed at this special club.

Next up is West Ham, then City and very soon the best club in the world in Bayern. The gauntlet has been well and truly thrown down at United fans feet-and the world is watching.

United fans are the best in the world- and in the end, the fans get the team they deserve.

© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football