The Albion v The Special One

[El Presidente]

On Saturday against Orient I set off at 8.30am, parking cost £8.50, train fare £25, tube £6.30, £20 match ticket, £20 on drinks and £5 on food. Total cost £84.80. I've lost all my work in Russia, Prague, Paris, the US, and London, so can't really afford to go. Didn't get home until 10pm, dejected, miserable after another defeat.

Today I'm off to see United play Inter Milan. Ticket cost £0, food and drink cost £0, transport £4. Total cost £4, and the quality of the football probably a tad better too. I used to stand on the Stretford End every fortnight, watch United play both domestic and European fixtures, but somehow it left me cold, a voyeur (but not in an Arsene Wenger way), rather than a fan.

I suspect that when I come home I will have had better value for money watching the Albion, it defies logic, the only thing I can put my finger on is that despite the binfests, whinges and all round goonery, it's being in the company of the Albion fans, the pisstakes, singing GOSBTS, old faces, new bucks, reminiscing about great previous days out, that makes the day. I've seen far more defeats than victories, and therefore the victories somehow are greater, an achievement rather than an expectation.

I can't wait for Walsall next Tuesday, because it's better to be poor and belong, than rich and an outsider.

 

[bhafc99]

How do you get into Old Trafford for nowt, and get your prawn sandwich/glass of mediocre chardonnay for free too?

 

[Djmiles]

You'll get in for nothing tonight, and fork out £60 next week. Now THAT'S value for money!

 

[El Presidente]

How do you get into Old Trafford for nowt, and get your prawn sandwich/glass of mediocre chardonnay for free too?

I have contacts at MUFC! Teach some of the youth players.

 

[Mendoza]

Will you be wearing the same attire as you did on Saturday?

 

[El Presidente]

Will you be wearing the same attire as you did on Saturday?

As I inadvertently followed through when letting rip in the Coach and Horses, probably not.

 

[minnieme]

As I inadvertently followed through when letting rip in the Coach and Horses, probably not.

 

[Jim D]

On Saturday against Orient...parking cost £8.50....£20 on drinks.....

I hope that was something very expensive and non-alcoholic?

 

[The Auditor]

.

it's better to be poor and belong, than rich and an outsider.

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Gee. What a GREAT fan you are to reject the pleasure of Man Utd in favour of little old Brighton eh?

Nice way of showing us the lengths you go to to support the albion, and name-dropping the old Man Utd contacts.

I wish we were all as brilliant as you.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

There's an excellent sort-of-related article in today's Mirror by Oliver Holt which makes many good points well. It's a slow old bugger to load via a link, so here it is in full:

Why Manchester United currently embody everything good about football. By Oliver Holt By Oliver Holt 11/03/2009

Read Oliver Holt's column every Wednesday on Mirror.co.uk


I felt guilty last Saturday evening. Because Manchester United played a few miles away from where I live and I didn't go to watch them.

I listened to the commentary of their FA Cup tie against Fulham at Craven Cottage on the radio as I drove my daughter to a swimming pool in north London. The pangs got worse.

The commentators were raving about United. They were ransacking their minds for new superlatives. It sounded as if they were watching football poetry by the Thames.

Not that it's anything particularly new praising United. Sir Alex Ferguson's sides have dominated the game here for the last 15 years.

There have been great teams to watch, filled with great players. Too many to mention, really. A cast of stars.

But it feels as though there's something special about Ferguson's latest creation, as though what he has built at Old Trafford has taken another step forward in its evolution.

The way this United team play football, you want to take your kids to a game so that in years to come, they can say they saw them play.

Whoever they grow up to support, they can say they saw a United side that was chasing five trophies.

They can say they saw Ryan Giggs in his glorious autumn, Wayne Rooney growing into his prime, Cristiano Ronaldo in his pomp, the fiery majesty of Paul Scholes, the breathtaking passing of Michael Carrick and one of the best English club defences there has ever been.

And they can say they saw Ferguson (below) himself, standing watchfully over his charges in his Old Trafford perch, gazing down at his final achievement and the one that we may yet remember him by.

For all those reasons, it will feel like a privilege to watch United take on Inter Milan in the second leg of their Champions League second round tie this evening.

Seeing them take on Liverpool, the pretenders to their throne, on Saturday afternoon will be equally unmissable.

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It's possible, of course, that Inter will spoil this script by beating United tonight. How typical of their boss, Jose Mourinho, it would be to conjure a result like that.

But the evidence we have seen so far suggests that won't happen. The evidence we have seen so far suggests that Inter, like most other teams, are simply not in United's league. United were so much better than Inter in the first half of the first leg at the San Siro that the gulf was embarrassing. Inter were lumpen. United were brilliant.

Apart from all the individual talents the team possess, what is so striking about this United team is its technical accomplishment.

There is nothing traditionally English about their style at all. They have travelled a million miles, too, from the 4-4-2 orthodoxy that ruled their fantastic Treble-winning side of 1999.

They are fluid now. So fluid they slip through your fingers. So fluid they're close to perfecting Total Football. Very close.

Their close control is fantastic. They play the ball into feet at pace into tight areas. They keep possession. They pass the opposition to death.

Their movement is like quicksilver. Players such as Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, dropping deep, pulling wide, are unmarkable.

Their speed of passing and their speed of thought is reminiscent of the Spain team that outplayed England so comprehensively last month in Seville. And compliments don't come much higher than that.

So I hope United wipe the floor with Inter tonight. Not because they're English and Inter are Italian.

But because this United team represents everything that is good about the game and Inter don't. And because their quest for five trophies is something to be marvelled at, even if, sooner or later, it may come unstuck.

If you can get a ticket for anything in sport, get a ticket to watch this United play.