After four months in Cuba and and a few months acclimatising to European conditions I’m back writing for the blog again!
And there’s a big surprise on the way. Let’s get cracking!
Hi everybody, I’m back!
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Category Archives: Blog posts
The Long and winding Road
No apology for using a Beatles line to describe our journey to Moston.
3 years ago we thought there was to be a home for FC in Newton Heath -the birthplace of Manchester United, but a mixture of circumstances and big business conspired against us and in a very stressful and angry meeting we discovered our dream was to be put on hold.
But our board and broader membership do not give up easily especially when it comes to finding a permanent new home. Working closely with a very compliant Manchester Council, before long a short list of potential new sites was examined and Broadhurst Park in Moston was deemed the pick of the pack. After several years and judicial reviews we have finally commenced work and with any luck will start the 2014 season in our new home.
Only a handful of people -Andy Walsh and Adam Brown being two of them will ever know just how demanding the last 2/3 years have been and how close we came to not realising our dream. Every FC fan today and over the coming years owes a huge debt of thanks for their indefatigability-or sheer bloody mindedness for never losing sight of the dream and constantly confronting complex issues head on and seeking ways around, over and under issues which would of defeated lesser people.
The day our team walk out on our pitch inside our stadium will be one of mind numbing emotion for all of us who have shared the journey -and pride will pour from every atom of our beings.
We are FC UNITED OF MANCHESTER-and doing the impossible runs through our DNA.
So anyone who has the privilege of visiting- do all of us owners the honour of sharing the passion by opening your mouths and contributing to what we hope and believe will be a very special home for a very special club!
It’s a beautiful day
The wait has been long, the process seemed never-ending. But finally, we’re here. Through countless efforts from countless people, we proudly proclaim:
We’re gonna build our own ground, we’re gonna build our own ground!
THIS is what it’s all about.
And here is a bonus (Article in MEN about the build)
MRE v Main Stand – abuse and banter
I have been asked on various occasions about a part of the fc matchday experience which is confusing to say the least for new visitors to Gigg Lane, which is our temporary home. FC United usually use two of Gigg Lane’s stands (one is called the Main Stand and the other is called MRE) and visitors can often hear the two stands abusing each other in a friendly fashion:
Main Stand v MRE
(During the last video the MRE was closed so the regular MRE-goers was also standing in the Main Stand)
There are probably two main reasons for this chanting between stands -which can take any form from the simple and harmless “WE ARE THE MAIN STAND -WE’RE LOUDER THAN YOU” to the somewhat surprising and more threatening chant which is a complete throwback to the 1970’s -“YOU’RE GONNA GET YOUR FUCKIN HEADS KICKED IN!”
The first and probably main reason is that a lot of the fans are of a similar age to myself and used to stand in the Stretford End in the 70’s and 80’s when the ground would fill up an hour or more before kick off and so to stop boredom the leftside, rightside or tunnel-(if you look at old photo’s of the Stretty you will see there was a large tunnel in the middle and above that was very small section of standing that used to be packed like sardines!) anyway we would all launch into “WE are the Tunnel” to get a response.
This also grew to include challenging other sections of the ground to sing such as the Scoreboard and Stretford Paddocks which were pretty large corners of the ground.
The Scoreboard in particular used to have a fair few nutters in there as they were next to the away fans and would give them at the very least plenty of abuse. Towards the middle and late 1980’s the United Road and k stand got a bit more lively as some guys grew out of the Stretford End mentality and wanted a bit more shall we say interaction with opposing fans.
So to bring things back to the present day we do sing at each other -but this is simply English humour, banter -if you look on people’s faces whilst we abuse our fellow fc’ers you will see at least a trace of a smile on our lips -we are ,making some noise and having a laugh -end of.
The second reason we do this -err- if you will pardon the expression -self abuse- is very few teams we play at our level bring any meaningful support i.e. ones we can hear sing -passion and naked territorrialism is one of the bedrocks on which football clubs have been built upon for 130 years – so until we get to a level where we can have banter and abuse with opposing fans -we shall probably carry on having fun and games shouting at ourselves.
One thing you will notice is there is much less of this at away games as we are once again truly -UNITED!
I look forward to bringing you some very exciting news regarding our new home in Moston later this week!!
Germany – Voelkerschlacht begegnung, Fussball und jetzt gut Zeit | Battle of Nations, football and just good time
Hi all guys! I’m just returned from Germany and positive feelings in me are just overblown, that’s why I decided to share with you about this AWESOME country.
But for the beginning – a small story of how I got there!
We were invited to Leipzig as a delegation of Russia as participating country in the Battle of Nations which occured in October 1813 between Napoleonic army and allies (Germany, Russia and Austria). Those was invited to that meeting: Ukraine, Lithuania, France, locals from Leipzig as Germans, Hungary, and we Siberians as Russia 🙂
New matchday programme “FCUM Review” launched today
Good news about this season’s match day programme, called officially “FCUM Review” from now. Just ordered my digital “Season Ticket” for all this season’s matchday programme for just 30 Pounds. It’s a great opportunity to stay close to our club even from oversea.Read the full article here from the official FC page. Continue reading
New season is coming………..
After a few friendles during which manager Karl Marginson has tried out several potential new players the temperature was turned up with the visit of a Bolton Wanderers XI.
The official match report is below and I can only add that it was a very entertaining game with FC playing some very attractive football with the strong emphasis on playing with the ball on the ground with some great precision passing and movement. Ollie North in the midfield was immense -I just hope we can keep hold of him!!
The Sloop John B. on fc-utd.co.uk!
Our blog has become news on FC United’s offical website. Fantastic news for us and the feeling that the club is behind the blog is a great one 🙂
This Blog is Your Blog, This Blog is My Blog
“When FC United go out to play, it’s three o’clock on a Saturday”. And keeping in line with this well-known fact, this Saturday at three o’clock, we present to you: The Sloop John B.
What is The Sloop John B.?
The Sloop John B. is not only a classic song but also a new home for all those from all over the world who care deeply about what was once “the people’s game” but what has now become a multibillion pound/euro empire with passionate fans at the bottom of the pyramid – abused and ignored.
Our prime focus is to spread the word and philosophy of FC United of Manchester on an international arena. Here we will gather articles, videos and fan stories about anything FC from all over the globe, but anyone who wishes to contribute on “off the pitch” matters is welcome to enter an article or video as long as it goes along with the theme “Against modern football”.
The Sloop John B. is aiming to be international, which is why anyone can add their own posts in their own language so that other people from that country get to know more about FC United. The rest of us can google translate.
What do you mean with “This Blog is Your Blog”?
We mean that we want you to contribute as much to this blog as we do. This blog is meant to be interactive in the sense that everyone can add material to the categories we have here at The Sloop John B. The blog posts you create will be reviewed by our administrators and if it deems fitting into one of the categories we will publish it.
Explain the categories, please?
There are three main FC-related categories: “FC Articles”, “FC Videos” and “FC Travel Reports”. Each of these categories are multilingual in the sense that we have subcategories for every language present on this blog.
In addition to this there is also one category called “Against Modern Football” which is where you put all the content about the “Against Modern Football”-movement which is not FC-related. The category has three subcategories that will be explained in more detail further down.
FC Articles
Here you can publish links to any articles you find interesting about FC United. The language of the article determines under which language category the article will be posted.
FC Videos
Here you can publish links to videos or documentaries about FC United. You can also embed the videos straight into the blog post. The language of the video determines under which language category the video will be posted.
FC Fan Stories
Here you can write your own fan story. It could be a travel report from a trip to a FC United-game, or it could be about how you found FC United and how you came to love everything FC. Only your imagination and the theme is your limit. The language of the fan story determines under which language category the fan story will be posted.
Against Modern Football
Here you put all the content about the “Against Modern Football”-movement that is not FC-related. The category has three subcategories: “Blog posts” – here you can write your own thoughts on AMF. “Articles” – which is where you put links to articles.“Videos” – which is where you put links or embed videos about AMF. This category differs from the other three in the sense that you put your post under these three categories regardless of the language of the article, video or blog post.
That sounds awesome, but how do I do it exactly?
Well, it’s quite simple. If you’ve got a Facebook account all you need to do is login with that account to our site and then publish your material. You can create an account via registering your email-adress in case you don’t use Facebook.
You register and log in via the “Register / Login”-link which is placed on the right side of the blog just under the text about our blog. There you also find the link “Write an article” which will send you directly to the editing page.
Remember to keep a good tone and before you post read our “Commenting and posting guidelines”
So when do we start?
Right now! So hoist up the John B’s sail. We won’t be home for a while.
Warm welcome to all FC United fans all over the globe
This blog is intended to spread some words to all over the world about our supporter owned Football Club United of Manchester.
Everyone is welcome to read and contribute around all FC related stuff.
So hoist up the John B’s sail,
See how the mainsail sets,
Call for the captain ashore,
Let me go home, let me go home,
I wanna go home, I wanna go hooo-oo-ome,
This is the worst trip I’ve ever been on.