Posts Tagged → On The Road
Daniel Harris – “On The Road A Journey Through A Season”
This isn’t simply a promotion of a book of any Manchester United fan book, or as it says on the back an ESPN blog of each Manchester United game but Old Trafford, its one fans review of Manchester United on the pitch but more importantly matters off the pitch. If your a match going fan, especially the away games, you will relate to this. You’ll also relate to this if you have a problem with the way the club is being run. If you still go to home games or not, it spells out what is wrong with Old Trafford, what is wrong with the club and why many fans back in 2005 couldn’t give football up but instead did away games only.
Daniel Harris speaks his mind in this book. They’ll be many 10,000s of fans in Pubs around Manchester on match day who will know exactly how he felt in 2005. There will have been many more since then and that group will be growing with each day that passes. That group will have grown during the summer just gone. If they still do away games or go watch a club in Bury, well that’s down to them but to me they all had the same feeling. To try and never step foot inside Old Trafford until the owner goes or something changes. Clearly a number of fans will go every now and then, which is acceptable but for some its more than that. Its that the Old Trafford experience changed from being a ‘the fan’ to the ‘being a customer’ match day experience. Those little plastic seats, stewards telling you what you can and can’t do, the flat atmospheres, those expensive seats which come with a meal in the corners and the expensive prices at the bar. There is even an executive section in the middle of Stretford End. There will still be many fans who still go, sat in many areas of the ground thinking, ‘this is awful and its not getting any better.’ but they can’t give it up. Its your football club, one you might have followed for 20/30/40 or more years. What Harris says is he doesn’t cry at night after giving it up and its lesson to many others out there thinking about. Its your choice. The right choice might not have been made yet. Some fans might call this ‘Anti-United’ without thinking but I could also say the same about funding Glazer and I already know the truth & the facts.
The book its self follows Manchester United game on game. Harris goes to the away games and comments on the home games. I haven’t counted or checked but am guessing its every game. It also goes into more depth about not just what happens on the pitch but everything off it. From the players, to the manager, to the way your treated at many away grounds by normally the ‘West Midlands Police’. Wolves, which isn’t mentioned is a prime example, Birmingham away another which is. I know, I went. Harris also follows the Anti-Glazer protests during the season from the very start to the end. Its strengths and weaknesses, to the facts and how the Glazers are damaging the club. The the fan following and the players United use are also hinted towards the Anti-Glazer argument in some areas. For me its not an argument for or against glazer. Its Harris talking the truth and sometimes the truth is a hard thing to take.
You can find and buy ‘On The Road A Journey Through A Season on Amazon for £6.48. Its not alot to pay to read our whole last season in depth, especially when no funds go towards Glazer. Like it or not, its a very good read. http://amzn.to/cSZEzF you can also follow Daniel Harris On Twitter. @OnTheRoadajtas
The book has also been given a number of independent reviews including Rob Smyth from The Guardian, Richard Kurt a United Author, a review in the fanzine Red News, Alyson Rudd from The Times, Patrick Barclay the Chief Football Correspondent also from The Times, Daniel Taylor from The Guardian and Mick Hume from Red Issue & The Times.
Stories Of The Week….
So far this week I’ve nearly seen it all, apart from Glazer leaving. Abit of FC United, Manchester United, Liverpools new American owners(where I think they are going) and one or two other pieces. I think I’ll start with last nights Rochdale Vs FC United Game for starters. I think all United fans will relate to this in some way or another. Am not saying your a fan(I am not myself, MUFC for me), but alot I’ve spoken too find it very interesting. Even the die hard reds. Unless you’ve been living under a rock or live on the other side of the world, which is possible if you’ve come from twitter. FC United have made it into the second round of the FA Cup, which to me is unbelievable. They won 3-2 with a injury time goal.
Here is a quote from me…. “I know its asking for alot and most FC United fans will say it won’t happen for many years, if ever but at this moment in time there is that tiny chance. Maths says a 1st round win, then a 2nd round win into a draw with Premier League sides.” …. lets change that to, 2nd round win into a draw with Premier League sides. I’ll leave it at that.
From my last review of Manchester United I’d say its been a slow start but we’re not losing which is always important. I might be the first to say this but could United be running into a small bit of form. Since the shocking second half against West Brom, United have won 5 on the bounce. Won 3 cup games and 2 League games. The game in Turkey the other night was the most impressive so far. I only say the start of form because they need to prove in the league they can do well in the next few games. These include Wolves tomorrow, which from fans I’ve spoken to no expect less than 3 goals from the strike force. The big one is City away. With City losing 3 on the bounce, am hoping we can get a good win today, then go and put a proper show of football on midweek.
One other interesting thing which is floating around is over in Anfield. You’ll likely want to hear something else but considering that another group of Americans have took over an English club. Its relevant when looking at owners as a whole. This time the Americans seem to be increasingly open talk to the press. I get the feeling they don’t really know what they are doing and in areas they’ve admitted that. This gives me a real insight into the people in the game. They’ve just got a new manager and now new owners. Dan Roan from the BBC asked them alot of questions yesterday. The ones that stood out to me were the 39th game question and language used. The term ‘EPL’ like ‘NFL’ was used alot. Later on there were other questions asked around the club its self. All I heard was ‘we want to increase revenues’. Where have we heard that before! The Glazers? Tom Hicks? Anyone. It basically means putting ticket prices up and selling more shirts. On the new stadium, I believe there is a strong possibility of a future ground share. Liverpool fans don’t want it? Tough. You wanted more American owners. You got em and if the Everton Kirby stadium was only going to cost around £78m for a 50k stadium as part of a larger £240m development, the new Americans will bite Evertons hands off. If they can half the cost with Everton, instead of spending a risky £300m development, they can spend possibly less than 1/3 of that and get the extra 10,000-30,000 seats they wanted to milk more cows. These Americans aren’t stupid and will milk them, like they are milking United. Theres one other thing, if your a Liverpool fan reading this (I don’t know why you would be reading this) at home feeling all happy about no more debt. First thing I’d be doing is digging to find out just where that money came from to buy the club. All of that will come clear over the next year or so, apart from the ticket prices. Yep, they’ll be going up.
One week ago we had the ‘United Against Glazer’ protest, an important article involving Jeremy Hunt midweek but I’ve also had one or two other interesting things come up. I won’t make them public just yet but they’ll come out during the week, so keep an eye out. Might not be big or that exciting but there interesting nonetheless. The protest and the Jeremy Hunt comments are very important and hopefully you’ve read the past blog posts, if not just go down the page. As ever my comments repeating the pressuring of your local MP, The Government, Number 10, The Sports Minster, The FA and PL all still stand strong. Go for it.
For any questions or comments you can follow me on Twitter @wewantglazerout