An Open Letter to Manchester United

Hey Manchester United,

When I was barely in kindergarten, my uncle lent me his copy of FIFA 09 on the PlayStation 3. It was my first true entrance into soccer; I’d watched the final of the 2006 World Cup between Italy and France when I was barely a toddler, but I didn’t remember much (if anything, at all) about that match at the time.

When I first booted up the game, I managed to find my way into the “exhibition match” screen, in which I was told to select the team I’d be playing and the team the AI would play. At the time, I didn’t understand the concept of clubs. All I knew were nations.

Luckily, my dad happened to know a bit about the elite clubs in Europe, so for me, he chose a team with an orange and red badge crest that depicted a devil holding a pitchfork. He made the AI play a team that had a crest depicting a golden eagle with the letters “M.C.F.C.” in the center. My dad told me that both of these teams were from the same city, but that the one he chose for me was actually good.

When I got into the match, I noticed a sequence of changing names on the bottom left — hand corner of my monitor. Ronaldo. Rooney. Scholes. Ferdinand. Carrick. Van Der Sar. Giggs. Evra. Neville. Vidic. Tevez. When I accidentally opened the team management window while in the middle of the match, I found even more names. Ji Sung Park. Berbatov. Fletcher. Hargreaves. Nani.

That kind of star power was what propelled me to a 1–0 win in my first ever match of FIFA. It also made me a Manchester United fan at the mere age of 5. For perspective, I wasn’t a USMNT fan until a year later at the 2010 World Cup.

By all accounts, you were the reason why I, along with many others, that I got into soccer. And yet, nowadays, I question why I’m still a fan at all.

You’re a club that, by all measurements, seems finished. That team with the “golden eagle” is now superior in basically every way from both upper management to coaching to player quality. You’re a team that hasn’t won anything in the past 4 seasons; for a team that holds the record for most top division titles won in England, I’d say that recent form is not looking good.

Yet, despite all of that, you have one of the most loyal fanbases of any team in the world. With new players and coaches coming in basically every transfer window, we always somehow convince ourselves that things will get better, that the old Manchester United confidence of superiority will return.

And yet, it really hasn’t. I mean, for a team that’s appeared in 5 Champions League Finals and won three of them, it says a lot when the only trophy we might win this year is the Europa League — then again, we probably won’t. Our last two tries didn’t end so well.

Then again, the Europa League may be our only chance of getting into the Champions League. We’re in 6th place, and we’re behind both Arsenal and West Ham. Just let that sink in. Even Arsenal and West Ham (which is coached by David Moyes of all people) are doing better than us. That’s when you throw in the towel.

It also says a lot when our club goal is just to get into a tournament that we used to take for granted, but I digress.

Alas, maybe it will get better. But false hope can only hold out for so long.

Cheers,

William

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