The Strange Ways of Manchester United Fans

I guess this one was long overdue!

An explanation on why I am not a big fan of Manchester United fans and why I can say without a doubt that even if Arsenal never happened to me, I could never have ended up as a Manchester United supporter.


Here's why...


Instance 1

So a friend talks to me on Facebook after almost a year of not being in touch. He needs a survey to be filled, which I duly do. And this is a friend from my non-football craze phase; when football for me began and ended with Christiano Ronaldo (because he was really hot). This friend was a Manchester United fan and had very not-so-discreetly shared pictures of an almost clothes-less Christiano Ronaldo with me! So I happened to mention to him that while Ronaldo was probably still hot, I was now a Goonerette and had surrendered to the hotness of Olivier Giroud and cuteness of Aaron Ramsey!

His responses, "The process or an instance of supporting arsenal is called brainwashing ...priyankaaaaaa noooooo"

"since u already a goon i'll just say ek do match jeetne se koi dabang nahi ban jata hai ...still 35 matches to go..farcenal wont keep up with the big boys..take me home united."

"i am not sure if u'll be able to see..u'll be traumatized by the end of this month ..haha totally always been fun chatting with you"

Instance 2

I put up a picture in my new Arsenal jersey on Whatsapp...and some bits of the attention it garnered went thus:


Friend who hadn't spoken to me in a year. Didn't ask me what was up, how I was, or what I was doing...but had this to say:

"Priyankaaaaaa...what is wrong with you...since when did you become a gooner? What have you done to yourself?"


Instance 3

This was a childhood friend who is in London now and was going to watch a Chelsea home game, live.
And since I realized what a great moment it was for him, our conversation went like this:

Me: Hey! While we are rivals when it comes to football clubs we support, I am still you friend. So I hope you have a really really good time watching today's game.

(And I swear to God, I really, genuinely meant it)

Friend: Hey! Hi! Thanks! And btw...Gooners are playing really well too. Cheers!

I was so happy, I really wished that Chelsea won the game, just because he was so nice about me supporting Arsenal! Didn't happen though! Chelsea lost at home :(


See the difference?

Supporters from other clubs will just accept it with a yeah whatever, or ok then, peace, or too bad then, when they find out you support a club other than their own. But they will leave you and your decision alone.

Tell a Manchester United fan you support any other club, and they will most certainly start talking like jilted lovers! They'll do whatever it takes to make you feel like you are making the biggest mistake of your life by not supporting Manchester United. And I am not kidding when I say they take it very very personally if you don't support their club!

 You lose an important game, they'll have a field day making fun of you. You make fun of them when they lose a game, and they'll come back with a video/picture of an older game that they have won against you. Because, well, f**k logic!

If they win the game, it's a really important game they won; but when they lose the game, then what really matters is a game they won last week, or the week before, or the week before!

If they are on top of the table, like they were, when the Premier League began, "On the top baby, right how it's meant to be"; and now when they are not, "We'll talk in May. That is when we judge."
 Ok then! :D

Your club has a bad day. You comment on how terribly they played. And that's the only time Manchester United fans will acknowledge your thoughts and opinions on the game, and agree with you. I have my doubts if the same kind of agreement will be forthcoming when you talk about a terrible performance by them or mock one of their players. Because Hello! They can do no wrong, OK!  :D

And to be very honest, inspite of the irritation, I don't hate Manchester United. It's not like I am against the club or anything. I know they're one of the biggies, I know they've probably won more games and titles than Arsenal, but I cannot tolerate that the fans can't be mature or respectful about someone's choice of supporting another football club!

That, and I hate the general attitude of, "Not arrogant, just better." Seriously? As current standings go, they are clearly not better (in playing fair and playing classy, we win hands down; and as of today, we are better even in terms of being ahead in the League!) but they are very very arrogant!

 Obviously, not all of them are like that. I'm not saying there are no Manchester United fans who are respectful of other clubs and their fans without being patronizing or sly or condemning. I'm just saying I haven't met any. :)

As far as me and my football craze go, Manchester United fan friends are more than happy to ignore it (not without making their displeasure felt), or ridicule and mock me for supporting a supposedly 'loser' club, or make me feel like a fool for not understanding the game (and this is the only criticism I don't hold against them because they're right).

The Arsenal fans I know may not be thrilled about fans and supporters of other clubs, but don't make a big deal of it. I have never heard an Arsenal fan giving someone grief for not being an Arsenal supporter. Not to say that we won't mock other clubs, or won't have a field day celebrating our wins; we just won't be sore losers or jilted lovers when we don't!

* hopes to share some laughs but also silently prepares for hate comments, popcorn-worthy arguments, and scoreboards/videos/images of every match Arsenal has ever lost to Manchester United *

P.S. - No posts on fans of other clubs because none have annoyed me as much!

Dealing with losses...who's doing it right?

Oh yes! Losses happen! And a loooooooooooooooooot of times!
Even to a once-Invincible team. Because even though the team in invincible in your head and heart, life couldn't care less about either!

And that's not a very nice or easy thing to deal with. Because as a fan you love your team. You want to see your team win no matter what. Even when they play like this:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=585476861507765&set=vb.217066871682101&type=2&theater

Post by Goalie Times.

You want to believe that they played well even if it clearly didn't look like it. You want to be able to blame the referee for wrong decisions. You want to go out and proudly wear that Arsenal jersey and give sly, smug looks to supporters of other clubs. You want to be able to say Arsenal is the best football club in the world (it obviously is) and not be laughed off. But awesomeness doesn't happen always!

Didn't happen for a few matches until Arsenal's game yesterday. And as far as winning silverware is concerned, awesomeness hasn't happened for 8 years now; and there is no saying when it will! Till then, and even after winning, losses will still happen and they will need to be dealt with!

 My personal opinion is that in the current situation, Arsenal's new fans (like yours truly :D) are much better equipped to deal with losses than more veteran fans. The simple reason being that we have only heard of the angst of losing for eight years. We have not truly felt it. We have not seen the repeated cycles of losing focus mid-season...getting THIS close but not winning. Our stint with Arsenal has only seen them play reasonably well, as a result of which we don't really give that much importance to losing one odd game. Of course that's not to say that we are fine with losing. We feel terrible. We hate it. But we just don't end up thinking it's THAT bad. We are blessed with the inherent optimism and hope of victory that comes with not having had to live through a series of losses. And I think that makes us a very very very important link in the collective chain of Arsenal supporters. It's the only thing that can, if at all anyhing can, balance out the cynicism that a lot of veteran fans end up feeling after a loss.

They say, "Damnit, it has always been this way. This is always the time we lose focus." We say, "This year is going to be different." They say, "There are arguments among team members. The unrest won't do us good." We say, "This is the worst of the unrest. Our team will be back soon." They say, "This is bad. And it could get worse." We say, "This is bad. But it could get better!"

And I'm not making these up. These are real conversations I've had. The more I have them, the more I am convinced that new fans are less disturbed by a loss. And it's not because they care less. It's because their eyes are more full of dreams than experience! Which by the way is not a bad thing at all!

The world has always worked that way. There are dreamers and then there are realists. You would expect dreamers to stick with dreamers and realists to stick with the realists. But more often that not, the opposite is true. Because dreamers need realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun and without the dreamers, well, the realists might never get off the ground.

It's us new fans who are the dreamers and veteran fans turned cynics at times, our realists! We need them to keep our feet on the ground and they need us for their hopes to soar a little higher than what seems rational!

When conversations begin with us asking, "So, this Group of Death that Arsenal needs to face in the Champions League, on a scale of 1 to 10 how bad is it?" and end with them answering "9.5 if we are lucky and worst case we might not even make it"; we know they are doing their bit very well!

And when conversations begin with them saying, "I am really worried about team morale. We need more than faith now. We need goals and wins." and end us saying, "I will pray for wins and goals. And 3 goals against City is not bad at all. Hi-5!"; or begin with them saying, "We got 2 out of a maximum 9 points. 2nd does not make you champions." and end with us saying "My sweethearts, Giroud and Ramsey, losing their magic, is just to make way for your sweetheart Podolski to come show some magic"; we know we are doing our bit well too!

That's how it will always be! Some of us might not be as dreamy eyed next season, or some of them might get deliriously optimistic and dreamy, depending on how this season goes forth; but there will always exist a perfect balance of love for Arsenal between those who abandon all care in the world, plunge into proclaiming Arsenal Invincible Forever; and those who think, worry, and gently push open a parachute of real statistics and facts, so we land safely on the ground!

Once a Goonerette, always a Goonerette!

If you've read previous blog posts you know how and why the love affair with football came about; and if you were one of the few who read carefully enough to figure out I had said nothing about why I picked Arsenal over all the others, this one's for you!

So well, football happened. And I could give you a great story about how I went all crazy, watched reruns of football games day in and day out, read about the clubs and their achievements, compared players' records, and came to a logical conclusion that Arsenal was the best team to support. But I will spare you all that ball talk; I mean why talk when you can play with it, no?! ;)

Truth of the matter is that I did none of the above. In fact, even after I declared undying support for Arsenal (yes...undying...because contrary to what one might expect from a non-serious fan...I never even considered the option of changing the club I support); I didn't know who the players were or what their achievements were. All I knew was the 8-year spell of no titles.

Two main reasons I ended up supporting Arsenal. One being the sly comment about no Arsenal fan tweeting about winning a trophy and the other being the fact that some of my best guy friends were Arsenal supporters!

Both so random, that they could have almost not even happened! And my life would have been very very different! I could have very easily not been around to hear that comment. I could very well have been absent the day my b-school friends won a bet against Arsenal fans. My best guy friends could have been Chelsea or Manchester City or Manchester United supporters; and maybe I would have ended up disinterested in football or a supporter of some other club. Becoming a Goonerette was more a matter of chance than anything else!

And I was quite happy taking it. Never gave it too much thought. Until life gave me a dose of poetic justice! And proved to me waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond doubt that The Universe does have a plan...always. And it ensures that it brings you to the right decision at the right time!

Was 4th of October 2013. Like any other day, my friend and I went for a walk after lunch. But unlike other days, today he decided to stop by and ask the price of an Arsenal jersey. And at that very instant I decided I wanted one! We did ask in a couple of shops, found a not-so-same looking jersey with Walcott on its back. Having had seen just 2-3 games and having known just Ramsey, Giroud, and Ozil; I wasn't too enthused about the Walcott jersey (things have changed now though). Never ended up buying that, but couldn't stay without buying a perfect replica of the original home jersey of the latest season (no away jersey because I'm not a big fan of Yellow and no original because my relationship with Arsenal was too new). One phone call to my sweetheart of a brother was all it took for the jersey to be waiting for me when I got home from office that day!

Now trust me...wearing the jersey for the first time is an EPICALLY MOMENTOUS occasion! To you for sure, and in varying degrees to others depending on the number of f***ks they give to you and your love for football (this is usually negligible).

So well, bad-hair notwithstanding, jersey was bought, picture duly taken and shared, and it was some happy gloating in the attention! Big shout out to Rishi, Nishanth, Hector, Naasir, Sheldon, Melroy, and Karishma! :)

But this was not it. My moment of truth came three days later.

7th October 2013, my Ajoba's birthday, and just a day after I watched Rahul Dravid play his last ever cricket match (was against Mumbai Indians and they won).

It was one of those moments that matter a lot because they define the end of something hugely important. Rahul Dravid has been everything right from my first innocent crush in standard seven to my reason for watching cricket, to my inspiration forever considering the human being par excellence that he is. And his last game got me in the emo/philosophical mode; owing to which I put up this Facebook status:

One of the response comments to that status was this:

That was it! The ecstasy I felt just CANNOT be put into words! My friend thought I had lost my mind. Even I think I really had, for the next 10 minutes. To find out that my most favourite sportsperson ever was a Gooner for reasons vaguely similar to my own, on a day when I was all emo about his last cricket match, which also happened to be the first day I wore my Arsenal jersey was just too WOW! And it was in that moment that I knew; no matter what, I'll be a Goonerette forever!

Even if I am not able to actively follow the season, even if I have lost interest in football, even if my favourite players move to other clubs (hopefully they won't), even if Arsenal sees tough times, I don't think I'll ever support another club!

Well, quite a memorable day that was! My friend and I went to KFC for a brownie sundae that day; him in Arsenal's original away jersey and me in my brand new not-so-original home jersey! And we both spilled chocolate on our jerseys. So the people at KFC must've got something to talk about! Two crazy people in animated conversation, both wearing Arsenal jerseys, both eating brownie and ice-cream, and both wiping chocolate stains off their jerseys while walking away!

Here's to Senior Gooner and Junior Goonerette!

Adios...till I return with  the must-have friend types for a newbie football fan-girl, insights on the species called Manchester United fans, and reasons why newbies are best equipped to deal with team losses! :)

From Nerdette to Goonerette

Yes!

Sounds Crazy...because it is!


Nerdette I've always been...straight 'A's all along, teacher's favourite generally, parents never called to the principal's office and all of that.

And like expected...

I found myself going from SSC to 12th Science, to a little detour into BMM (Advertising), and like every slightly above average person these days seems to be ending up, irrespective of where he/she began...there I was, in an MBA college.

How much I learned about business management is still a question mark and will always be, because I never cared enough; but the one thing that caught my attention in college was the football rivalry! Never before had I witnessed the craze, the seemingly stupid loyalty that people had for a football club miles away; that honestly couldn't care less about the support of these few people in the back benches of an MBA classroom.


I distinctly remember, to this day, year 2010, was a match between Arsenal and Chelsea; and Chelsea had won it. As was a bet made the previous day, the losing team had to wear the winning team's jerseys and walk from one end to the other end of out computer lab (it would not have been more than 50-60 steps...maximum). And I kid you not, and I exaggerate not, when I say that the Arsenal fans behaved like they were being paraded in the nude! That's HOW distressed and embarrassed they were. I never got it back then. But I really felt bad for them.


While I never ended up supporting any club, I think sub-consciously, at the back of my mind, there was that little supportive feeling for Arsenal. The fact that our Manchester United fans were forever looking down on the rest, and their behaviour didn't exactly endear them to me, made it very clear that no matter who I supported, it could never be Manchester United!


That was that. The tryst with football in MBA ended like that and I found my way into a job at Ethinos Digital Marketing. I joined in January 2012, a friend, a die-hard Arsenal supporter joined in February. He had Arsene Wenger on his desktop and a lot of my happier afternoons then involved gay jokes about how he was into older men. That was my first introduction to Arsenal, and that's how it stayed till the whole of next year!


2013; was when it was all slated to change! February saw another friend join the gang at Ethinos, a die-hard Manchester United supporter! And sometime, somewhere, I heard him slyly read out a tweet to my Arsenal fan friend; mocking Arsenal for their 9 years without a title.


Twitter is 7 years old. That means no Arsenal fan has ever tweeted, 'We won a title.'


That was it! That was when Manchester United went a notch lower and I found my supportive feeling for Arsenal return!


Sometime around August/September that year, we realized that everyone at Ethinos was getting really fat and the boys decided to play football every week. Thanks to that fact that I had pretty much bonded with the guys over many inappropriate conversations, become really good friends, usually had a blast with them, and had absolutely no personal/social life that asked for my time; watching them play football became one of those fun things to do after work.


The football watching evening saw me get interested in the game, figure out a couple of rules, cheer away, click pictures of the net, then learn to click nice pictures through the net, and enjoy the gay references being shouted out!


Put it in men, put it in fast men, you're so slow, give me head, my ball...now imagine sweaty guys shouting these to each other! Entertaining, right? Even if you couldn't care less about football!


That was it then. Bitten by the football bug had happened!


Here's the Ethinos team that made it happen!

And one fine day...I went up to my Arsenal fan friend and told him, this time Arsenal fans will tweet about winning a trophy. His happiness reached mad levels and he promised me a large Cocoberry Krazy Cup if that happened! Was more than I could ask for! Next step was telling my good friend from MBA class about this latest development! Again, I exaggerate not when I say he was thrilled to bits! Was more than enough that, and I went from Nerdette to Goonerette!


With a miniscule knowledge of football, infinitesimal knowledge of Arsenal, but an enthusiasm that could give any fan a run for his/her money! Was a big deal to me; inspite of the fact that the rest of the world gave zero f**ks! Since football season was just beginning, in September, it was the perfect time to jump in the madness! Head on!


But this was just the beginning...I still had to begin facing the pressures of being a newbie fan! I still face them, and I've kinda reconciled to them now! Hopefully I will reach a stage when I can confidently spew gyaan and talk about nice passes, and tackles, and saves, and misses, and understand positions and all, but for now, I'm happy! I am not doing too bad for a complete beginner!
  

Luckily for me, I've found friends who make the ride worthwhile!


Nishanth, Rishi, Hector, Zahid, Zubair, Naasir, Melroy, Sheldon, Supam, Karishma...thank you for everything!

More on them in my next blog post on The Survival Kit For A Newbie Female Football Fan!


Wait for it... ;)



   

Starting from the start...

It's not often that a girl who has never played any sport or been interested in any games whatsoever, gets hit by football mania!


But when it happens, it's one helluva ride! Not always fun, but worth every bit!


So while I'm on it, I've decided to document it...serves two purposes. A little narcissistic one where I dream of reading through this a smiling to myself a few years later; and the more important one, I can voice out what I really think and feel, hopefully without being judged!


Yes. Considering I'm still a newbie, I steer clear of football debates with guys who live, breathe, and love football! I'm kinda sure they'll judge me!


But I'm getting better, having a good time, and would love some company on the journey!


A little bit about me...


Crazy dreamer with an extremely lame sense of humour, a little cheesy, forever in love, forever lost in a book, love to eat, hate exercise, love to travel, sing, play the guitar, write poetry, and when I get time from all of this, I work as a content writer.


Goonerette forever and for always!


Dream to write a book...books actually, travel around the world, have a conversation with Rahul Dravid, touch Abdul Kalam's feet and seek his blessings, sing/play the guitar in a band, watch Coldplay perform live, dance with Ronan Keating, watch Arsenal thrash the opponent team in a match at Emirates...live!


More about how the football mania began...in my next post! :)