A few weeks ago, Steve Lamb, holder of the season at Old Trafford for 32 years, received a “renewal communication” from Manchester United. In the emotionless language of the apparatchik, it looked a little like the prelude to an invitation to a stay in Siberia. And in a way, that was the case.
Steve is of Stockport. He went to his first united match with his father in 1971 at the age of seven. Going to Old Trafford, going home and far, has become a lifestyle. It was an obsessive. He is still. He and his two sons have had their season tickets for 32 years.
They are also good seats. Behind the canoe in the stand of Sir Bobby Charlton. Because they have had seasonal tickets for over 25 years, there are plates with the name of Steve and the names of his sons on their seats in recognition of their loyalty and their commitment to the club.
This appreciation of loyalty seems to have changed. And that has changed suddenly. The lust of money can do so at a club.
It is not only in United that it happens. It is part of the Premier League, where traditional fans are postponed for tourists or “companies”, who will pay more. This is what social engineering is like, the style of football.
“We have identified a small number of general admission tickets directly next to the house and the outdoor canoes which will be converted into reception seats this summer,” United Steve renewal communication told Steve.
The Manchester United fan, Steve Lamb, has been informed that he would lose the seats he has been for 32 years
The lamb reception seats were just behind the canoe in the stand of Sir Bobby Charlton
On the other side of the Premier League, fans are pushed back for tourists or “companies”, who will pay more for tickets
“This reflects the high value of this single location and will help increase hotel income to maintain prices for downward general admission tickets.
“Your current headquarters are included in this block, so we will have to find an alternative seat for next season.”
So that’s it. Thank you and good night. Thirty-two years, then Bang. Get out of the hell of these seats because you don’t give us enough money. Get out of hell because we can silence a first-rate business or a tourist from the United States or China or Dubai for much more than you give us.
And no matter these plates on your seats, these symbols of your loyalty, these symbols of what Manchester United once meant. We can bring people to these seats that will empty their portfolios to the club store and will leave the goods in a way that you will never do it.
What happens to United? What happens to a club that once appreciated its supporters, once proud of the affordability of its tickets?
He goes from the wrong step to the faux pas, the coarse, cruel and incompetent in turn. The omens for what awaits us, on and off the field, are not good.
Steve wrote to the club several times to highlight the injustice of what happens to him and what seems to be around 500 other seasonal ticket holders in the same “unique location” behind the canoes.
United, probably, saw what Manchester City has done at Etihad, where seats in a similar position have been transformed into an exclusive section for members of the Tunnel club, which pay an exorbital amount for their reception packages.
The lamb was encouraged after hearing Sir Jim Ratcliffe talking about the protection of “faithful supporters”
Manchester United once appreciated their fans and were proud of the affordability of tickets
They are so well treated there that they often emerge for the second half, in good humor, long after the start of the match.
In another email, Steve referred to his encouragement when he heard Sir Jim Ratcliffe, owner of the minority increasingly unpopular and raptor of United, interviewed by Gary Neville on overlapping last month.
“My advice to the management team,” said Ratcliffe, when he was pressed by Neville about prize hikes “is that we have to take care of the faithful supporters.
“The faithful supporter is the guy who has the season ticket. The faithful supporter is the guy who goes to the six best games, but he will also see the other games too. He not only chooses the best three games.
Well, “the management team” did not obtain the service note, Sir Jim was rather economical with the truth.
“We have to take care of the faithful supporters,” he said. Quite simply not these supporters, supporters like Steve and his sons and the 500 supporters around them, apparently.
Quite simply not these supporters with the seats in a privileged location that we could sell for more money. Pull the other, Sir Jim, there are book pieces on it.
But don’t fear. Everything is not lost. In another exchange with the club, Steve seemed to offer the prospect he could be moved to the “atmosphere section” to Old Trafford. You may have heard this term already, but I hadn’t done it. The atmosphere section? Really? This is the kind of sentence that injects dreads directly into your veins.
Either the Ratcliffe management team did not obtain the memo, or the co -owner was rather economical with the truth
It is not only United who does that – the shock of Man City’s house with Aston Villa had thousands of empty seats in a critical league game
The Old Trafford atmosphere section is located in Stretford End, it seems. It is designed for supporters who have become more and more dismayed to sit surrounded by excursionus and companies that have no idea of the club.
Football is a curiosity for them, not a passion. They will not remember the moment when English football fields were a giant atmosphere section.
It is the irony of this mess. Part of the reason why tourists and businesses come on the English field is to live the atmosphere for which English football is famous. And yet, the social engineering of the Premier League kills the atmosphere. They are busy destroying their own sales argument.
Again, it is not only Sir Jim and United who do this. There were thousands of empty seats at Etihad when City played Aston Villa in a critical league match last week. The cheapest adult seats were £ 71.
As we say in the language of one of the target markets of the city, go to understand. There were thousands of other empty seats in the city for their FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest in Wembley on Sunday. And it is the most prosperous club in the country, a club whose fans are bled. No wonder the supporters of more and more clubs are in open rebellion.
After being the victory of the title of Liverpool over Tottenham on Sunday, I returned to my car in the flooded streets of famous fans. When I arrived on the Lower Breck road, I saw a man celebrates his house on the terrace with a giant liverpool flag and a red and white bruant. Others, everywhere in the city, had already done the same.
These are the supporters, people like them, people like Steve and his sons, that the first flight of English football intends to leave so that they can goger even more money in the game in addition to the billions they already do.
They kill so much of what makes football special. Shame on them.
Location is a rare kind of man
Arne Slot is a rare type of man after thanking the predecessor Jurgen Klopp after winning the title
The Reds celebrated to become the most incontestable club in the history of English football
It takes a rare type of man and manager to do what Arne Slot did on Sunday in Anfield.
Slot took the microphone when he was offered to him in the field after the most proud moment of his professional career by leading Liverpool to their 20th League title, and the first thing he did was to thank his predecessor, Jurgen Klopp, for the team and the culture he had bequeathed.
The realization of slot this season in the management of the transition far from Klopp, whose ethics had crossed the club, the mark not only as a brilliant manager but as a man supremely emotionally intelligent.
Football is full of giant Egos and creeping megalomania. The absence of these traits in the locations augurs well for the defense of the title of Liverpool next season.