Manchester United cutting Man City allocation rids League Cup derby of spice
- Tickets still on sale for Old Trafford with fears that away fans could buy them like Liverpool Europa League clash in 2016
- There should be 7,300 City fans but United have given them only 3,000 allocation for first League Cup semi since 2010
Almost eight thousand Evertonians were at Anfield on Sunday for their FA Cup defeat by Liverpool’s reserves, a suitably sizeable following for a massive local derby between two big clubs. The majority turned their backs when Liverpool fans sang You’ll Never Walk Alone before kick-off. That’s exactly the type of amusing, harmless, petty, enmity which you should see at derby matches.
It’s the Tromso fans chiding the Bodo Glimt fans because the colour of their shirt is yellow, the same as urine. In Rome, Lazio claim they are the true noble Romans while Roma are the team of the peasants. In Valencia, a legendary former player told me that while they are numerically inferior to Valencia fans, the fact was that each Levante fan was worth ten Valencia fans.
In Wrexham, they look across the border at the snooty middle class Chester fans who steal their girls, while Chester look back at what they consider to be Welsh neanderthals who drink too much. Blackpool fans called Preston fans Nobbers who like sheep, Preston call Blackpool fans Donkey Lashers. Perceived slights thrive and make derby games great.
In Manchester, City fans sing about United fans being from London and about how they could have scored 10 when they beat United 6-1 in 2011. They used to call United fans glory hunters and claimed they were the Pride of Singapore – they even flew a message behind a plane stating that. That was before they sought to raise their profile in as many countries as possible – including Singapore.
United fans sing about City fans being bitter, obsessed, from Stockport and not actually Manchester itself.