It two weeks time, Manchester City will have to reflect on the 35 years that have gone by since they last won a trophy. 1976 marks the year when Abba were at the top of the charts with Mama Mia, the first commercial Concorde flight took off and Rocky was the most popular film at the pictures. To be a City fan who actually remembers seeing their team win a trophy, you’d have to be at least 40-years-old.

In this context, it makes sense that City fans would try and find something to cling on to, particularly in light of all the success United have had in this time. 11 League titles, 2 European Cups, 8 FA Cups, 4 League Cups, as well as the Cup Winners’ Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup and Club World Cup. Every year that passed where they won nothing and every year where we added another trophy to our list built up the resentment and bitterness our neighbours feel.

So when outside of Manchester, they told the lie that proper Mancunians support City. Anyone who lives locally to Manchester knows this is bollocks, but it is a myth that has done the rounds for a while. Famous blue, Jason Manford, was recently interviewed and had to come clean about the lie. “It’s one of those things where we’ve gone over the years ‘Yeh, there’s no United fans in Manchester’ but there is. There’s bloody loads of them.”

United have had higher attendances than City every single season since the 1940s, even when United were forced to play at Maine Road after Old Trafford was bombed. Even this season, with City giving away their tickets for a fiver in Europe (and £1 for under 16s), their stadium has been just over half full. Either there’s only a few thousand football fans in Manchester or those Berties are telling porkies.

So, whilst United get to sing about being top of the league, City fans were left to sing about their lie, “the city is ours”, during our victorious game against them yesterday. With 20,000 empty seats, are you fucking sure?

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STATS: United vs City – The Best Supported Club Since The 1940’s?
STATS: Which Fans Don’t Go To Their Ground?
PICTURE: Edin Dzeko Must Be Confused

Manchester United have been put in the same group as Glasgow Rangers, meaning a song which has dominated our European escapades over the past few years makes a comeback.

First heard sung this season at Old Trafford when we played West Ham, this is a song you’ll undoubtedly have stuck in your head for the next few weeks.

Here’s a bit of recent history on he song including several variations.

2009/2010: Rangers, European Cup group stages.
“Follow, follow, follow, cos United are going to Glasgow. They’ll be thousands of reds and we’ll be pissed out our heads, cos United are going to Glasgow.”

2008/2009: Porto, European Cup quarter-finals.
“Follow, follow, follow, cos United are going to Porto. There’ll be thousands of reds and we’ll be pissed out our heads, cos United are going to Porto.”

2008/2009: Celtic, Champions League group stages.
“Follow, follow, follow, cos United are going to Glasgow. They’ll be thousands of reds and we’ll be pissed out our heads, cos United are going to Glasgow.”

2007/2008: Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, European Cup final.
“Follow, follow, follow, cos United are going to Moscow. They’ll be thousands of reds and we’ll be pissed out our heads, cos United are going to Moscow.”

2006/2007: Celtic, European Cup group stages.
“Follow, follow, follow, cos United are going to Glasgow. They’ll be thousands of reds and we’ll be pissed out our heads, cos United are going to Glasgow.”

2003/2004: Porto, European Cup Round of 16.
“Follow, follow, follow, cos United are going to Porto. There’ll be thousands of reds and we’ll be pissed out our heads, cos United are going to Porto.”

1998/1999: Juventus, European Cup semi-final.
“Follow if we lose or we win, cos United are going to Turin. There’ll be thousands of reds and we’ll be pissed out our heads, cos United are going to Turin.”

1997/1998: Monaco, European Cup quarter-finals.
“Follow, follow, follow, cos United are going to Monaco. There’ll be thousands of reds and we’ll be pissed out our heads, cos United are going to Monaco.”

All in all, Pete was very impressed the compilation of songs readers of RoM came up with, although wasn’t too keen on the more obvious ‘Hey baby’ and ‘I love you baby’ songs which are used by fans up and down the country.

“The Wild World and ‘he’s tall, he’s thin’ chant are very amusing,” he said. “But the first chant is the clear winner in my opinion and I’ll be singing it on the coach to Fulham and at Fulham on Sunday.”

This was a chant suggested by Stretford End Flags. Pete had his own variation on this Bébé chant.

“Six foot two
Eyes aren’t blue
Used to sell the big issue
No more sleeping on the street
Bébé scores with both his feet”

Pete Boyle’s new CD, ‘How low can you sink? – United We Sing 9′ is out on PeteBoyle.co.uk from September 20th and will be 80 minutes of class United songs and chants.

Stretford End Flags have asked Roberto Mancini to attend the official banner changing at Old Trafford, whereby the ticker will move on to 34 years, after the City boss earlier promised to take the banner down. As yet, they have heard no response from City.

Sunday will mark 34 years to the day since City last won a trophy.

The families of the 96 have every right to be fuming and sickened with the South Yorkshire police after their inept behaviour lead to the deaths of so many people. The idea of seeking ‘justice’ for their deaths is one we can all understand. I fucking hate the police regardless and if one of mine had died at Hillsborough I’d be as nutty about getting justice as the families of the 96. By failing to accept responsibility they are denying the families the chance to grieve properly.

Likewise, after Heysel, your club denied any responsibility for the deaths of the 39. John Smith (the chairman) blamed Chelsea fans and said it was nothing to do with Liverpool. This was a front your club kept up for 20 years until you met Juve again. You said sorry and put on a big fuss and their fans turned their backs to you, stuck up their fingers, and whistled. 20 years too late and 20 years of pain for the club, fans and families of those that died.

Without Killing Anyone we won it three times is not mocking the dead (like Munich and Hillsborough songs do), it is confronting your fans and club with something you denied for 20 years, something you blamed on Chelsea.

The very fact that your die-hard fans, the ones who were able to get tickets for Liverpool away at Goodison (so not some jonny-come-latelys from London, but season ticket holders with plenty of loyalty points), were singing “2-0 to the murderers” makes your campaign against me entirely pointless. Your own fans refer to your club as “murderers”.

It was sick for your club to deny Heysel was your fault, it was sick for your fans to mockingly refer to themselves as “murderers” but it is not sick to confront your fans with your past, a past you denied for 20 years. Would Juve fans want attention brought to the behaviour of your fans that day? Given how much attention Liverpool fans have wanted drawn to the South Yorkshire police, I’d argue yes.

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The chant isn’t in good taste, certainly, just like so many chants up and down the country, but it shouldn’t be lumped with singing about Hillsborough and Heysel. United players were singing it after we won in Moscow and whilst that was picked up in the press, there was little to no fuss made about it. If they had been singing about Hillsborough though, it would have been a completely different matter, and rightly so.

Whilst I imagine the Liverpool fans who were there that day have a heavy heart about what happened and several of the fans involved were prosecuted, the fact is Liverpool FC’s official stance was it was nothing to do with them, and it took them 20 years to say otherwise. Had they accepted their responsibility, instead of pointing a finger at Chelsea and the stadium, the chant probably never would have been created, but that’s not what happened. You could argue that because Liverpool FC accepted blame four years ago when the clubs met, the song should no longer be sung. But now it is more about our European Cup record, winning our third in 2008, than anything to do with Liverpool or Heysel. I can’t imagine many people who sing it are doing so in reference to the actions of Liverpool fans, rather see it as a song which celebrates how many European Cups we’ve won.

You could also argue that Heysel has nothing to do with us so we have no place to sing about it, but I disagree. Firstly, I think that any footballing tragedy has an effect on football fans. Whilst we don’t know what would have happened if our fans had been at Hillsborough that day, we do know that better performances from United could have meant we were there that day. It’s something you can relate to. When the anniversary took place last year and you saw parents of children who died at Hillsborough, you’d be a monster not to feel any compassion for them. When you’re a football fan, an incident doesn’t have to happen to your club for you to have a reaction to or opinion of it. Secondly, they are our rivals, and football fans sing about their rivals. Liverpool fans sing about Chelsea not having any history, but what’s that got to do with them how many trophies Chelsea have won? Thirdly, Heysel denied us, amongst many other English clubs, the opportunity to play in Europe, after their fans got our clubs banned.

Essentially, the song may not be for you, I’m not trying to force it down your throat or tell you that you should sing it, rather I’m explaining the reason why it is sung by our fans. You may not agree with it and that is fair enough, but this song is not about mocking the dead, it’s remembering what Liverpool FC denied and celebrating our success in Europe.

Sections of our crowd seemed to like this chant, maybe because they’re simple folk and enjoy things that rhyme, leading to it being sung inside Old Trafford – never in great numbers or at a great volume, but I’ve heard it.

After we won the league last season I had a few crossed words with a pissed up kid who was singing it as we walked down Warwick Road. “Come on lad, we’ve just won the league, let’s not bring racism in to our repertoire of songs eh?” He had a puzzled expression on his face, before responding “fuck off, it’s not racist, and I’ll sing what I want!”

Why is it racist? Implying that parents in Africa are elephant washers and whores is racism. Seems a fairly simple concept to me. Making generalisations of inferiority about a person of a certain race is racism. People have come on blog claiming their dad washes elephants at the zoo, brilliant, but that’s not what this chant is about. The chant is claiming that because Adebayor is from Togo, his parents are an elephant washer and a whore. Maybe you’re a white lad from Chester and your parents have the same job, but nobody would make that generalisation about lads from Chester.

United fans, if rival fans were singing this about Senegalese-born Evra, you would say it was racism. Spurs fans, if rivals fans were singing this about Cameroonian Sébastien Bassong, you would say it was racism. It’s all fine and well trying to justify it but it’s bloody obvious what the chant is about. It’s saying because he’s African, his parents have lowly jobs like an elephant washer and a whore. Maybe your mam is a whore too, good for you, that doesn’t change the motive behind people singing this at Adebayor.

Pinching some racist Spurs song should be below us really.

United take on City in a couple of weeks time and City have voiced their concerns over this chant doing the rounds. The hypocrisy that comes with this, given they have sung about Munich every time the clubs have met for as long as I’ve been going to derby day (with the exclusion of the Munich Memorial game, where they even chanting for Frank Swift, something they’d never done before and something they’ve never done since) is of course massive, like their club, but I hope our fans take our board the warnings. They will chant about Munich, they always do. Their latest chant, ‘Carlos Tevez is a blue, he hates Munichs’ will be sung. But let them get on with what they want, we don’t need to sink to that level. Listen out for their Adebayor song, which goes: ‘Adebayor, Adebayor, he’s hung like an elephant, his wife’s a bit sore.’

There will always be sections of our fans who sing songs the majority don’t like, but I really hope we don’t come down to their level on derby day.

You wouldn’t want them singing stuff about our Paddy Evra, so pack it in!

To make him feel more like one of ours, RoM ran a competition to find a song for Owen. Fans of the forum voted as well as the staff of the Republik of Mancunia football forum. I got Pete Boyle, chant maestro, in on the action too, to cast the deciding vote.

Fans voted: One Michael Owen
Staff of RoM forum voted: Ow, Ow, Owen’s on
Pete Boyle voted: Ow, Ow, Owen’s on

- Original (“I’m not aware of other teams singing it”)
- The tune is easy to learn
- The lyrics are simple yet effective!

“I have my own Owen song but I don’t post on websites any more till I’ve had chance to get it going at a game! I will let you mine if it succeeds or fails!”

Check out Pete Boyle’s website for new album ‘Best of Boyle 1-4′ which will now be on CD for first time, which includes a 2009 mix of Eric the King as featured in ‘Looking For Eric’ and You Are My Solksjaer. Available from August 1st.

The winner, Jason Carley, now gets to choose a shirt of his choice from the Republik of Mancunia shop.

If you want to watch Manchester United train for free the day before the Community Shield, be sure to enter our latest competition. The results will be announced during tomorrow’s liveblog for our match against FC Seoul.