Football Myth Debunk: United Are Not In Manchester, Who Are Ya?

Greater Manchester is a collective mass of 70 local government districts controlled by 10 separate County Borough's as shown in the map above. Each borough is governed by it's own County Council, governed by a single council. The GMC 'Greater Manchester Council' as they are better known are the 10 councils who share power over Greater Manchester, to my knowledge at least 8 of these boroughs partly share/shared the Manchester Postcode M.

For far too long now I've heard and read about the Red and Blue Half of Manchester? In most of those cases it has been suggested that both clubs represent Manchester. If that's the case how can Manchester United claim to represent the entire Greater Manchester area as Manchester 'United' or Manchester even when a Manchester City FC already exists? Or when Bolton, Wigan, Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale or Bury etc all have their own official County clubs.

Back in 1878 Newton Heath was a neighbouring Lancashire town, Manchester had a smaller area back then until the City of Manchester expanded to include the likes of Newton Heath among other area's. By 1890 Ardwick, as in Ardwick Association FC aka Manchester City FC were already inside the boundaries of Manchester 3 years before Newton Heath.

In 1894 Ardwick Association FC were renamed Manchester City FC and announced as the representative club of Manchester by Manchester City Council and recognised by the Lord Mayor of Manchester.

In January of 1902 Newton Heath's very own club Captain Harry Stafford scoured Greater Manchester for 4 local business men who all paid around £500 each to save the club in exchange for shares after receiving a Winding up Order due to a large amount of DEBT. In April of 1902 those businessmen decided they needed to change Newton Heath's name to Manchester United to try gain more prestige due to being over shadowed by Manchester City FC.

In 1904 Manchester City won Manchester's first nationally recognised honour by winning the FA Cup after winning the Second Division title in 1899. By this time Manchester City were truly recognised as the City of Manchester's true representatives.

In 1910 Manchester United moved out of Manchester and into the neighbouring Borough of Trafford to date, that's currently almost 105 years (14/09/2015) that they have been outside the walls of Manchester. In my opinion they represent a myth, a lie and disrespect to Manchester City and the rest of Greater Manchester, their claim too Manchester or Greater Manchester is both invalid and hollow.

In the early 1960s a large population of Manchester supported both United and Manchester City, my father included supported both clubs as a child up until United became bankrolled and more successful by which time most Manchester schools boys betrayed City in favour of following the majority in pledging allegiance to United, despite this Manchester City still pulled in an impressive amount of support as documented by history, yet Manchester City FC refused to go away too this very day.

Last year I asked a United fan to explain to me what 'United' stood for, I reminded them that Manchester already had a club before United even existed aka Manchester City, and that it can't be that they represent Greater Manchester as a whole because the borough's also have official clubs themselves. They replied by saying 'United' represents their global fan base, I quietly chuckled under my breath.

I felt obliged to type this out after an article titled There's another Teenager in Manchester making headlines this weekend? referring to Anthony Martial of Trafford United and Kelechi Iheanacho of Manchester City FC. that's right Trafford, NOT Manchester.

In my opinion the argument over whether Manchester is red or blue is just hollow and pointless, what does matter is that Manchester City FC hold the honour of being Manchester's only true representatives and that Manchester City still hold a huge amount of local support. Despite decades of financial trouble, despite decades of  uncertainty and relegation and despite having to watch our unwelcome neighbours buying glory and goading every other club around with their wealth and success.

I can only hope our new age support currently growing do not do the same as the rags, for that to come about we need to help educate them if they stray from the path that our club and fan base have long walked. A path of level headed humility and pride, our sensibility and respect for those who we believe deserve respect. Not once have I met a fan of another club outside the established elite with a bad word to say about a Manchester City fan, that speaks volumes for our fan base as it stands.

We've long been branded as the bitters but we all know this was never the case, I myself went to school with a lot of United fans in the late 1980s and early 1990s and not once did it ever bother me what they said or what their club achieved. It always seemed to be them doing the mouthing off but I have to say the fact we were for a majority of the time in different leagues meant I hardly paid them any attention at all, it was like they never even existed until Derby day that is. I admit I had a healthy level of envy but that was about as far as my emotion went, after all Manchester City were my love and what happened elsewhere had no real interest for me.

I've always been of sound mind that they are bitter at the fact we represent who they falsely try to represent, we stand for what they want to stand for and that our very existence proves their clubs foundations, clubs current name are based on a myth.

Rant over.

Kevin De Bruyne Is David Silva's Heir, Nasri Deserves More Respect Than He Gets From Outsiders

With the arrival of Kevin De Bruyne many have questioned where he will fit in and whether Manchester really need the Bundesliga's best player last season. It's made for some pretty bland reading, seems like the some authors of ignorant articles have only just started paying attention to City since 2015. Questioning where Manchester's goals are going to come from if our Sergio Aguero ends up injured?, forgive me but haven't we been the highest goal scoring club in the country for at least 3 seasons now?

As well as that pundits have been equally baffled and mesmerised  at our transfer power and player selection, all the talk has been about where Kevin De Bruyne will fit in and whether or not Manchester needs him. Some have naively claimed De Bruyne will have problems getting game time, stating with Navas being on form? (Is he?) and with Sterling and Silva taking the Premier League by storm that it looks like De Bruyne will end up on the bench for now.

To me it's all just ignorant and plain stupid, none of them have actually spent the time to analyse each player and compare, or researched where the players strengths and weaknesses compare. None of them have picked up on the real reason why Manchester have signed De Bruyne. For Instance:

David Silva is 29 but still in the form of his life and he has no defensive weakness, he can operate across the attacking midfield or as a second forward. So it's fair to say his position at center forward is safe, Merlin is in the form of his career and turning opposing defences inside out.

Samir Nasri is 28 can also play any position across the attacking midfield, however his strongest position is on the left wing. He is defensively weak but his finishing is OK.

Jesus Navas is 29 and only operates as an attacking Right Winger, he's defensively weak. His crossing and speed is his only positive contribution, he isn't strong in the air and his ability to finish is average. While he's been a positive recently after the arrival of Sterling, I feel underwhelmed by Navas prior to Sterling's arrival.

Raheem Sterling is 20 so still very young and has a lot of improving to do, he operates as a Left Winger but can also play across the attacking midfield and as a forward. It's quite exciting to see at aged 20 he's already as good as most of the other title contenders first eleven and could walk into any of their teams easily. Like Silva, his finishing is good, but he's way off being on the level of David Silva obviously. He's never going to be strong in the air due to his frame but he needs to improve on his crossing as a priority, his defensive contribution is OK but can also improve.

Now for the comparisons:

De Bruyne is only 24 compared to Navas 29, Silva 29 and Nasri 28.
De Bruyne can play in any attacking midfield position like Silva, Nasri or Sterling.
De Bruyne is stronger in Left Centre Midfield but can operate on the Left or Right like Sterling.
De Bruyne is Defensively weak as is Nasri and Navas but has youth on his side to improve.
De Bruyne is more like David Silva than any of the other three players City have.
De Bruyne is a better attacking player than Nasri, Navas or Sterling although Sterling has plenty of time to improve. He has more to his game as he's stronger at Shooting from range, Through Balls, Finishing and Set Piece taking, while being equally as good as or better in the other attacking area's.

So who is under threat from De Bruyne? and who was he really bought in to replace?

I believe he's the long term Heir to David Silva although currently no threat, he will add adequate cover for Silva.

I believe he's currently only a threat to Nasri and Navas as both De Bruyne and Sterling can operate of both wings, while Nasri can also operate in those positions he doesn't have youth on his side.

De Bruyne will for the time being compete with Navas.

Our club are plugging the gap between our first team and our academy, our under 18's are looking very promising indeed but I believe only a handful of our under 21's will make the grade. I believe in the next 5 years we will start to see the fruits of our labour.

Kevin and Raheem will have no fixed position and this will cause havoc and mayhem for our enemies with David Silva controlling the show backed up by two holding midfielders. It would be sad to see Nasri leave as he has given us a lot to be thankful for, the reason Arsenal fans are so so bitter about him is because they know he was a bigger loss than they let on. While we are a forward down I do think it would be crazy to let him leave this season but if a nice little bid came in at his age then it would be hard to turn down I guess. With all due respect to Navas he has been a good servant to our club over the two years he's been with us, while it wouldn't be an issue if he stuck around a nice offer coming in would also be hard to turn down, after all for Manchester no player is irreplaceable other than Hart, Silva and Aguero.

Final thought, it's always weighed heavy on my mind how we would ever cover and eventually replace Silva, it's a relief seeing our club wrap up a player capable of covering and eventually replacing our miracle boy Merlin aka David Silva seemed almost impossible until now. Under Silva's wing I believe De Bruyne will end up just as good if not better, what do you think?

Whether Samir Nasri leave's us or not, I will be thankful and happy. He's still a valuable player and has much to offer.