Manchester United - Why all the hate?

It seems everyone loves to loathe Man Utd these days. I just don't understand why: Some hate the fans, some hate their manager, some hate how lucky they apparently are and some hate how much success they have. Well I for one disagree with all the hatred, Man City fans and maybe Liverpool fans have an excuse but anyone else is just looking for something to despise.

Apparently ALL of their fans are from outside of Manchester and those that oppose this team fail to recognise  that even one of their fans is from Manchester. Its pathetic, of course a large number of the club's support will be from elsewhere, that's what happens when you a club as big as Man Utd. The fanbase starts in Lancashire, as they begin to get good and win trophies it expands through England picking up supporters without a club until the fanbase goes abroad, finding countries where football isn't so prominent meaning people just want to be able to support a football team. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal, Liverpool, AC Milan, Inter Milan - all have huge fanbases, not just in their own city but across the globe. Why do Man Utd get picked up on it? They have over 50, 000 season ticket holders, somehow I doubt that there are over 50, 000 people who drive hundreds of miles to see their team play each week, the only logical answer is they do actually come from the Manchester area. This may shock the general idiot who hates the club, but its true.

So what of the hatred of their manager? Sir Alex Ferguson has now been manager of this club for 25 years, I quite incredible achievement at any level but to spend 25 years right at the top level of the game is just staggering. He clearly cares about the club and it's fans, he hasn't accepted that he's won all there is to win and gone into retirement (which he fully deserves). Instead he has persisted to beat the already momentous record of 18 league titles set by Liverpool and won Man Utd their first two Champions Leagues. When Ferguson won one of his titles with Man Utd, Liverpool fans told their rivals to "come back when you've won 18".  They did and now Liverpool supporters are looking back embarrassed because of what this great manager has won. So he clearly cares about his club and is clearly superb at what he does. What's to hate? People say he can be moody after a loss and say things that are harsh on other clubs, but what other manager doesn't do that? Kenny Dalglish blames everything on anything that isn't Liverpool, Arsene Wenger blames the opposition, Steve Kean blames things that don't exist - all managers are idiots, Fergie is not as much of an idiot as the majority but is hated by many due to the team he manages.

There seems to be a common myth that Man Utd get EVERY referee decision. Am I missing an obvious joke here? Every team gets lucky and unlucky with refereeing decisions, some games you will get one go your way and then the next game you'll get one go against you. Its all about luck, no one gets any special treatment. Take our very own Stoke City for example, at the start of last season we went on a run of six or seven games where important decisions went against us, it costed us around nine points. Later on in the same season I remember we played a match where we won 3-2 against Sunderland, at least two of our goals were offside. Then take the goal that got us to that memorable FA Cup semi-final, in the build up to Danny Higginbotham's free kick Robert Huth pulled one of West Ham's defenders to floor thus providing a nice clear view on goal for our free kick taker, the ball flew through the now open gap and we were going to Wembley. You win some you lose some, its football.

And as for the easy run in every tournament arguement. In last year's FA Cup they played Liverpool, Arsenal and Man City as well as an away game at Southampton and a match against Crawley Town in which they could have easily lost. By contrast Man City played Leicester, Notts County, Aston Villa and Reading before meeting Man Utd in the semi-final - they beat Stoke in the final, in a match you could describe as easy if you're a side that has spent 200 million quid on a team. Once again, it happens to every club, some years you'll get lucky with who you play but other years you'll get unlucky.

Finally the jealousy of the huge amount of success they have had is a reason for the hatred they receive. Having won nineteen league titles, three European Cups/Champions Leagues, eleven FA Cups and four League Cups. They've broken record after record and left their rivals playing catch-up. So yeah, they are the most successful team in English football, why is this a reason to despise them? Unlike when Blackburn won the league and when Chelsea won the league and when Man City win the league, The Red Devils won their trophies through hard work and years of grafting for their success. Cast your mind back to 1958, the horrifying death of the majority of their team, Sir Matt Busby built a team from that point and they won the European Cup ten years later. This incredible story sums this club perfectly, sure they've spent money on players like Berbatov and Rooney (although this money has been created through success, not through rich ownership) but they have earned the success that now have through a superb history and a fantastic youth system that is constantly bringing in new talent.

So if you don't like this team, consider revising your opinion because I can almost guarantee it is wrong. Whatever your friends or the media say, this is a real football team. It uses it's academy frequently and isn't constantly trying to buy success by spending ridiculous amounts of money on players. I'm one of not many football fans who don't support Man Utd who actually respects them as a club, this is wrong, all football fans should respect them and hope for the sake of football that they don't let Man City be the new dominant team in the beautiful game.