Distasteful Chanting

One of the key issues omitted from last night's Ped Report was the fact that a number of those City fans occupying the Darwen End persist in singing songs which refer to Manchester United or it's fans as 'Munichs'.

A number of fellow Blues have actually come onto sites and blogs defending this as a collective means of describing United fans, but to me it goes deeper than that.

For many years as we know City have treaded in the slipstream of United's charge for trophies and titles. This has caused resentment amongst us and the 'Munich' analogy was born out of that as a means of getting at United fans. I'm shamed to say I have used that term myself, but only selectively against one single individual whose actions fit the archetypal definition of the word in the eyes of many City fans.

I was barely two years old when the disaster happened. My family who are all City fans stood at the junction of Cornishway and Shadow Moss Road in Wythenshawe when the coffins came home, heads bowed as a mark of respect. My old grandmother was in tears. I was in my pram not knowing much about it.

Over the years and particularly in recent times we have seen an escalation in the number of songs chanted at Maine Road and now Eastlands using the term. Terry Cooke wasn't one any more, Carlos Tevez is a Blue and hates them. Ryan Giggs is derided in another one and now Yaya Toure has put the ball into their net.

In some ways it is a sad indictment that they have at times sought to gain financially out of this and indeed impose memories of it on the footballing world year after year. There is little doubt that it has been the fulcrom for their perceived worldwide appeal.

We are moving into a new era with City right now and it might be said that our time either has arrived or is definitely in the process.

We beat them at Wembley, have reached the FA Cup final for the first time in thirty years and are on the brink of qualification for the Champions League with the possibility of finishing third in the table.

Let us enjoy all of that for what it is. Let us enjoy it for our football club and for ourselves as supporters of that football club.

We will have many opportunities to denigrate United fans over the next few years, I do not feel that we have to continually dredge up their most poignant misfortune. We have a whole generation of younger fans now who join in with this stuff but probably don't understand the history.

We are going to be better than them on the pitch. We already consider ourselves to better than them off the pitch. So let's prove it. It's time to call time on that kind of chanting.

And if there are some of you who disagree or don't want to grow with the Club, please remember one of City's greatest ever footballers, goalkeeper Frank Swift died on that plane. Lest we forget....

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