Energised by angry United fans

Energised by Green and Gold Trafford


Paul Flynn
Red Devil

IN a week when Old Trafford sees its 100th anniversary as the great citadel of Mancunian pride, an increasingly swashbuckling United side comes a cropper against an enterprising Everton. And all of a sudden, the retention of the Premiership looks like being a much tougher task. Chelsea have their noses in front with 11 games to go and it’s going to take another great red and white (or green and gold) fightback to peg back those sleazy rotters.
There have been some vintage United performances of late and one man in particular seems to be playing his way into legend yet to be written. Rooney is, without doubt, the best United player since Cantona and in this form, stands comparison with the very best Old Trafford has seen in its 100 years. Rooney’s goals aren’t the whole story, either. Look how he brings others into the game; appreciate his willingness to defend and to fight every seemingly lost cause. Now take him out of the equation and admit that the team looks decidedly ordinary without him.
He was the wrecking ball that demolished City’s Carling Cup dream, the springboard of all United’s classic counter-attacking play as United sucker-punched Arsenal, and against AC Milan he was just unplayable. The Italian football press are not given to unwarranted hyperbole, yet the pages of Corriere Dello Sport cascaded with praise for this ‘phenomenon’. We should be grateful he’s in a red shirt.
Before battles in Europe and in the league are rejoined, there’s another trip to Wembley, or ‘Old Trafford South’ for the Carling Cup final against Villa. Will Fergie go with fringe players and rest our top lads, or take it seriously? Don’t be surprised if forty-odd thousand United fans turn the place green and gold rather than red and white in a savvy and righteous protest against the disgusting, craven greed of the Glazer family, whose hired goons will be powerless to police our protest.
Fan power is always susceptible to schism and can even be stifled by success on the field. But the supporters should be commended for the ingenuity of the ‘green and gold ’til the club is sold’ campaign; green and gold being the original colours of Newton Heath LYR, as United began life when Old Trafford wasn’t even a drawing on the back of an envelope.
The United support has been energised: galvanised, in a way not seen since the vilification of Cantona and Beckham in the 1990s. The Glazers dare not show their ugly mugs in our great stadium – a stadium they think they ‘own’. And I bet they won’t be at Wembley next week either. I don’t care if United win a Nobel Prize under their ownership. Being a United fan is all about how you comport yourself; style, swagger, enterprise, a little class ... We may fail to live up to it on a daily basis, but the credo of United since the days of Matt Busby is what we aspire to.
Winning has never been enough. Making money has never been enough. We cannot let these goblin accountants riddle us with debt as they siphon millions out of our club in ‘consultancy fees’. What can a nest of New Jersey spivs possibly teach one of the best-run sporting institutions in the world at a cost of 20 million pounds per year?