I read Tim Parks’s “A season with Verona” some months ago and was struck by the simplicity of the tale, the rhythm of the seaon, the travails of the team, the club and its supporters.
With his model in mind, I decide to begin a blog that follows Manchester United for the 2006/2007 season. As I begin writing this blog at the tail end of yet another soft season, another “a season in transition”, I will be tempted to dwell on the falling apart of the year, to comment on the errors committed by management, the faults of the team, the fundamental flaws of the Glazer regime.
Reduced to feeble “hindsight”, outsider analysis, and marginalised: all part of the ignominy of the modern football fan. But even the modern English game, awash with its Russian Roubles, Sky money, international markets and celebrity “players”, has yet to totally discredit the larger tradition of which it is a part.
Over the weekend, Alan Shearer, that perennial hate-figure within Old Trafford, scored his 201st goal for Newcastle United, thereby breaking Jackie Milburn’s goal-scoring record. The Sentimental Machine wore down own cynicsm relentlessly as, in between grainy replays of FA Cup glory, we see Wor Jackie score.
Yesterday, too, was the anniversary of the Munich air crash. Not too much mention of this in the international press. Perhaps it was because this year was a non-decade (48th) anniversary. Still, there’s no better indication of modern day football’s short-sighted, now-ness than this exhibition of neglect.
