For the first time since I came to this fine country I spent the Saturday evening away from the house as I was dragged out to a restaurant where one of the in-laws was performing (professional singer and guitarist in Thailand). Thankfully, because Thai's cannot live without TV, there was a big screen that was showing our game at OT, so I sat down and watched. After 40 minutes I was still optimistic that we would snatch an unlikely draw if we could keep defending as we had done up to that point. No-one else appeared to very interested in the game until Utd scored the first goal and the whole place just erupted! From nowhere, 40 (apparent) Man Utd fans started cheering, clapping and generally getting on my tits and of course with each goal it got worse. It was obvious, by my pained look, that I was a Norwich supporter (not wearing colours) and this just encouraged them to make more noise and cheer every touch by a Utd player. To be honest, this really started to piss me off big time. It is bad enough sitting in a pub in Norfolk with Man Utd fans goading you but to have them in Thailand is just too much! I would put money on most of them not even knowing where Manchester is on a map! I got home feeling really, really pissed off, not because of the score but the plastic fan base over here taking the piss. I swear I will now always stay at watch the games on the PC, I really could not endure watching us play Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal at a Thai restaurant ever again.
I feel for you, Thai. If it's any consolation - and it won't be, those jubilant scenes will have been replicated across most of the UK and large chunks of the world. I'd imagine Norfolk, Merseyside and areas of London were the only ones not celebrating "their boys" inflicting a perceived hammering.
CC - Other than the fact City were toothless going forward I actually quite enjoyed the game, watching RVP taken off without troubling our goal a great deal. Rooney blasting most shots high, wide and handsome made me chuckle a number of times (world class my arse!) His one on target was not bad though What I could not understand is why some Utd players felt they needed to dive. They were easily far, far better and had no need to do that but I can recall a few blatant dives that resulted in bookings. I was hopping mad and just could not believe 1. The officials "bought them" and 2. Utd needed to do it - they didn't but were very good at it.
You will always get the plastic glory hunting 'fans' I'm afraid Thai, there are two Chelsea 'fans' where I work in Norwich, both with bloody Norfolk accents. What really fcuking winds me up bigtime is when they refer to the Chelsea team as 'we' They have no reason whatsoever to 'support' them as they have no ties to West London at all FFS. I asked one of them the other day who he was going to follow when Chelsea were no longer winning trophies and he was insistent that he would always be a Blue. Well as it looks as if Chelsea are on the slide, we shall see
They were showing the Chelsea game on the other TV (yes 2 TV's in the restaurant - they REALLY like TV) but no-one was watching that game as far as I can make out (although I kept looking to see the latest score), I did think that was odd and when they scored no-one celebrated. I have seen loads of shirts for the "big 4" here and until Saturday it didn't bother me that much, but watching these gits with no affiliation of any kind rubbing my nose in it was a step too far for a drunken and hurting Englishman
When we beat the Gooners earlier this season I was in Turkey. We watched the game in a restaurant , and we were the only City supporters in there.Even the fecking waiters and bar staff were cheering for the Gooners. What a great moment when we scored,and at final whistle.
See, Thai. there's always a flip side to these stories. If only your in-laws had chosen to perform at the Carrow Road fixture instead, you could have been the only person in the restaurant - no, make that the entire country, with a massive, cheesy smile on your mush
Similar story for me. In October 1985. I was in Peniche, a fantastic little fishing town a few miles North of Lisbon. I was in a restaurant in the town and Germany hosted Portugal in a world cup qualifier. In those days, I had some hair which was bleached by the sun and the locals in the bar assumed I was German. Portugal won 1 - 0 which secured qualification to the finals in Mexico. Once they realised I was English, not German, then that was it - I was an honoured guest all through the night and not allowed to buy myself or anyone else a drink! I even 'adopted' Portugal after that and in their first match in Mexico, they only went and beat England 1 - 0!
I get pissed off by all the Aussie man utd, chelski, arshole, liverpool and man city fans and try to get them to support norwich..... it's a hard task, but some follow them as their second english team now!
I guess it just shows how popular the Premier League is around the world. These foreign football fans adopt the better teams as their team. Although I do remember going to Dubai a few years a go. I saw a match in the bar so asked who were playing and what the score was. They told me Arsenal were playing Manchester United. When I took a closer look I discovered it was actually Arsenal against Burnley. As you know, United wear claret and blue!
Lived in Hong Kong for some time and used to live on a sleepy island where the local "fishermen" would stake enormous bets on football. This was before football betting became legal in HK. As such the dealings were done in dodgy bars packed to the rafters with enormous support for the big teams since these were the ones who gave these boys healthy returns week in week out. Healthy because they would bet a month's wage on one game. Four times a night. It was no wonder to me that the big teams attracted such "support" but only because it underpinned their gambling habit. I was watching the game vs. MUFC and one younger punter asked me what I thought the score would be. I told him (nervously)2-0 and that Mckenzie was likely to be a scorer. The young lad swiftly called in a bet and was on my shoulder the whole game. He walked away with about 4.5K that game as the odds were massively against us. I was forever known as "Norwachhheee" by the locals on the island and in some way raised the profile of the team. That was until the awful loss to Fulham that is.
I rather feel that supporting a team simply because they are 'the best' rather defeats the point of supporting a team at all. My brother was a Manchester United fan in his youth (I supported Norwich all my life) for the exact reason above but as he got older I guess he realised the angle we all see such things from and now is a Norwich fan. IMO, English plastics are bad enough but foreign plastics are the scum of the Earth!
Most of my work colleagues are Manure 'fans' and I wind them up over the fact that I have been up to Old Trafford more times than they have and I bloody hate Manure!
i really feel sorry for you Thai. you could always give up the sun and Singha and return to the Kingdom of Norfolk.
i have a feeling he is not being polite towards me. still, once my house is sold i shall be joining him in the far east, Philippines, though there will be few plastics there as they have no clue to real football. they are totally Americanised.
Very astute Sheesh! you are not wrong. I bumped in to a few Philippian girls the other day when we were in Laos. If you closed your eyes and just listened you would be so sure they were Americans! Was scary.
