RoM has published the thoughts of Andy Mitten, Pete Boyle, Pete Shaw and Paddy Crerand ahead of the derby tomorrow and is today pleased to share Terry Christian’s opinion on the rivalry.
Scott the Red: Where do you think our rivalry with City ranks amongst that with Liverpool and Leeds?
Terry Christian: The rivalry with City has an altogether different dynamic to that of Liverpool or Leeds. It’s still based on the same thing, which basically boils down to sheer jealousy of Man United, but Liverpool had such a fantastic collection of trophies, as they liked to remind us, and yet somehow that glamour and fame and Je ne sais quoi that United had completely eluded them. They suffered from never having had three players in a team like Best, Law and Charlton and other than the Kenny Dalglish managed side that won the double, they never had an exciting all out attacking team to watch with real flair. As a neutral you’d have rather watched Tommy Docherty’s United in 75-77 than the Liverpool side of that era. The sheer gung ho nature of that Docherty side took your breath away in an era when the only other attacking teams in the top division were Man City, Ipswich Town and QPR. Liverpool fans are aware that we’ll always be more famous than them, always be the biggest news story and always have an unattainable glamour that goes beyond winning trophies, and now that we are winning trophies all the time it must kill them. When I was first going to matches in the late 60’s early 70’s , Everton seemed bigger rivals.
With Leeds , they are basically still annoyed about us beating them on goal difference to the Championship in 1965 with a better goal average, and to compound things they then lost the FA Cup final that year to Liverpool. They’ve always been incredibly bitter towards United and still smart over the fact that when they had a good side they didn’t win as much as they should have and had a reputation as being dirty and cheats. Just a small town mentality really, I’ve never really given them much thought, but enjoyed watching them lose various FA Cup and European finals in the 70’s. They’ve given me a lot of pleasure over the years.
Man City, probably a bit more of a rivalry in the late 60’s and throughout the 70’s. But again they spent three years in the 1960’s wallowing in Division 2 while we won two titles and when they did win the first division title in 1968, we were runners up by two points and actually scored more goals than City that year despite Denis Law missing a lot of the season injured. Then we eclipsed them by becoming the first English team to ever win the European Cup, George Best won Football Writers’ Player of the Year and also became European Footballer of the Year. City won the FA Cup the following year but were knocked out of the European Cup by Fenerbahce of Turkey – in the days when Turkish teams were of the standard of an 8-0 drubbing, and United were cheated out of another European final by a dodgy referee when we lost in the semi-final of the European Cup to AC Milan. All in all , they’ve never ever really measured up to United, certainly not in my life-time, frantically spending fortunes throughout the 70’s and early 80’s trying to be a big club, never really going to happen. Their fans define themselves more by hating United than by the football their own team play. A shame really. Their obsession with United cost them the league in 1971-72 season and this FA Cup semi may cost them that Champions League place this season whether they lose or win the weekend’s game.
STR: What’s your favourite ever derby day?
TC: There have been so many really, but I loved the one at Maine Road just after we’d been knocked out of Europe by Galatasaray on away goals, they were 2-0 up at half time and hadn’t been beaten at home that season. It’s the only time I’ve seen United two goals down and not felt worried as we’d been the better team really. There were about 10 of us in the City end trying to keep quiet but as Cantona scored two and we equalised we just went mental and then when Roy Keane scored the winner we were jumping round all over the place, and you could see in all the so-called home supporters bits of Maine Road thousands of reds doing the same, all over the ground. Very funny.
STR: What your favourite ever derby day goal?
TC: So many great ones, but you’d have to go a long way to see one as good or as important as Wayne Rooney’s goal this season.
STR: Where abouts did you grow up and what was the red/blue divide like?
TC: I grew up in Old Trafford and there were a few City fans amongst my mates, although I’d say they were the minority by a long chalk. Probably out of 40 -50 boys in my year at primary school there were probably 7 or 8 City fans, at a push 10. We had taste, although I used to enjoy going to watch City back in the day.
STR: Do you think City’s half empty grounds with £5 tickets this season in the FA Cup and Europe have shown people outside of Manchester that the blues have been lying about who the city belongs to?
TC: I think they know that Manchester is and always has been red. Again the jealousy about United and the whole ABU thing has gone almost global. I tried to make as many people aware of City’s poor gates for the two years I was on TalkSport. The reality is that their core support is around 33,000 and then another 15,000 who’ll go to maybe 3 games a season if City are doing well and it’s a big game such as Chelsea and of course United. Unless of course it’s on the telly, raining or clashes with Mothers’ Day, Yom Kippur, Ramadan, Divali, St Swithins Day etc. Any excuse not to go really.
STR: It was very entertaining to read the King of the Kippax editor blame their 20,000 empty seats on their game clashing with church the other day. You couldn’t make it up. Anyway, which City players do you think would get in to our first XI?
TC: David Silva
STR: Any regrets over Tevez leaving?
TC: Not really. He was good but I could see how he played too much with his head down. He put in great performances for Carlos Tevez rather than the team, although he gets stuck and runs about a lot. I always thought with him Rooney and Ronaldo in the team we lacked composure and wasted too many good opportunities.
STR: Is all forgiven and forgotten where Rooney is concerned?
TC: Who knows what really went on. All I know is that I’d put him straight into any all time greatest United XI from the players I’ve seen. And yes, that includes in front of Cantona.
STR: Wow. High praise indeed. What are your predictions for the game?
TC: I think it’ll be an awful boring game. 2-0 to United once we score and get them to actually try and come out and attack.
STR: Are we gonna win the league?
TC: Fingers crossed. I certainly never expected us to before the season started. I thought Chelsea would romp it.
STR: You weren’t alone mate. Roll on tomorrow! Cheers.
You can listen to Terry Christian’s show, ‘Northerners With Attitude’ on Sundays 6pm-9pm 104.9 Imagine FM or online from anywhere in the world. There’s the Manchester Unsigned Podcast too and his website TerryChristian.tv. Follow Terry on Twitter.
Man Utd News 24/7
Great Interview,nice job Scott.
Good interview. But Rooney ahead of Cantona?? Not for me i’m afraid!
can someone please settle/confirm something for me please…………………..my blue father in law is banging on that there are 44 coaches and 2 trains leaving from wastelands and apparently only 2 coaches and no trains from OT………………..this can’t be fucking right!!! Anyone who can point me in the direction of the actual facts would be a legend so I can shut the fucker up!
MANCHESTER IS RED
Load leaving from the Bishops, technically not Old Trafford!
the PFA awards standings so far:
Charlie Adam 8.39% (131 votes)
Gareth Bale 13.9% (217 votes)
Samir Nasri 20.82% (325 votes)
Scott Parker 7.05% (110 votes)
Carlos Tevez 7.82% (122 votes)
Rafael van der Vaart 4.23% (66
votes)
Nemanja Vidic 37.8% (590 votes)
@RED SAM
can someone explain to me, what the hell Bale and Nasri have done to win the award
Its disgusting Berbatov and Nani are not on the list
LOL @ that tubster Adam getting more votes than Tevez
Samir Nasri getting so many votes is an utter piss take…just goes to show how the media hype actually skews opinions….
@Berbatov
Your Father in law is clearly an idiot. There are more united fans in manchester than anyone else. We are the most supported team in the world and there will be as many united fans at wembley on sat. Who cares where the coaches are leaving from, whether it’s bishops or outside the ground. I use to live in Whythenshawe but have moved to Stockport (Known as a city town) and i can tell you there are more united fans in Stockport as well.
Can’t wait for sat, i’m starting to get that derby day buzz. This is how it feels to be city, this is how it feels to be smaaaaaaal, this is how it feels when your team wins nothing at all, nothing at all, NOTHING AT ALL!
hahaha
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/907197/owen-hargreaves-may-have-played-last-manchester-united-game?campaign=rss&source=soccernet&cc=5739
Looks like it is over for Hargreaves, for real this time. Shame, if true. We never seen the best of him, but I’ll never forget the part he played in winning the double in 2008.
That was the best interview by far. Loved listneing to Terry Christian on Talk Sport because he said it the way it was. He was still on when we won the league in 2008 and 2009 which pissed of loads of people who wanted a dig at him if we had lost. Never knew why he did not continue.
Fergie quote, “”It is a derby match in London, which is unusual in itself…”you have to give it to the man – never misses an opportunity to stick it in
‘Their fans define themselves more by hating United than by the football their own team play.’ Fairly sums d bitter fuckers up.
Where is everyone?!
@ Berbatov. one coach for the team, one for the fans, and the remainig 42 coaches will be full of snoods,gloves.hot water bottles,5 fingered hats,’bag-o-jellys’ grass allergy meds and a road map.
lol Scott caught u there never thought u were doubting United’s capability to win the league. But to tell u the truth …
Even I was not sure. I just watch and try to take a game as it comes. What I liked the most were the fighting spirit. Down and away to Stoke we fought back. Drawing with Wolves (and they looked like settling for a point) at home – Park turned up and scored 2.
What I didnt like so much was our wobbly defense but all in all – the 29 games unbeaten record did us quite a favour even though we didn’t win so much and our away records suck – we didnt lose – thus a point in every draw. Who would know that at the end of the season all the seemingly awful draws would be to our advantage!
United for the 19th!
@Raizzen: The best comebacks for me this season were against wolves (becos it was last minute) and Blackpool (becos they were really all over us in the first half, and my favorite Utd player of all times, Ryan Giggs was instrumental in making it happen). WestHam was never much in doubt – as soon as Rooney scored the first, it was pretty much a case of “writing on the wall”.
The worst draws for me this season were WBA and Everton. WBA becos of VDS’s blunder and everton because a) I hate Moyes b) Berba played a blinder that day, and didnt deserve not to win and c) because they did an “United” on us in injury time. Last but not the least, for both games, I had planned a special night out with fellow Indian Reds who hapened to be in town. I have decided that I wont be watching United games at pubs anymore!
best of the interviews in my opinion. He appreciates Rooney too!!!
Berbatov is a Rolls Royce says:
can someone please settle/confirm something for me please…………………..my blue father in law is banging on that there are 44 coaches and 2 trains leaving from wastelands and apparently only 2 coaches and no trains from OT………………..this can’t be fucking right!!! Anyone who can point me in the direction of the actual facts would be a legend so I can shut the fucker up!
MANCHESTER IS RED
Well I know there are 29 official coaches, I can tell you there no official trains, what a blurt.
I know there a 5 leaving from St Helens, I could go on but what does it matter, btw Id like to see evidence of 44 for the bitters
Impressive grasp of club history from Terry; I wonder how many fans of other teams know their club’s history as well as he does?
@bettathedevilsweknow
More like the remaining 42 coaches all carrying identical stuff, in the hope at least one gets the route right! Some will get lost, and some will just get lost anyway since they’ll get paid anyway. Some may even get really tired of driving and become homesick. Some others may have driving bustups over who is the better driver. And at least one may simply fail to clip on his safety belt and can’t seem to put the key into the keyhole, no matter how many times he try. Eventually, he’ll get some help but realise he got into an unloaded coach and have to shift to another one, only for the whole thing to start all over again.
Sounds awfully familiar eh.
Ladies and gentlemen, here we go the Manchester Derby!!
fabulous read for all the reds : http://www.thehardtackle.com/index.php/the-manchester-derby-love-will-tear-us-apart/
God I miss him on talksport. Clearly didn’t fit in with the abu mentality. Good interview again.
Rooney in front of Cantona?
Let me say this
Cantona in front of anyone and I say that because in my time he was something else
Long live the King…
Jeet,
Yeah Blackpool is somewhere at the top of this season’s comeback. What with Berba proving his critics wrong yet again when they said he always came up short with important goals bla bla bla it was just that my stream was so bad that night (it was around 3-4 am here in KL, MY) I missed those important goals. Other than that that deserves one of this season’s best comeback, if not the best.
Funny tho the fact that we’re having this conversation, to begin with, is because we always seem to put ourselves in unnecessary predicament when we should’ve kill the game off. But all in all, pretty good season + us fans got to enjoy those adrenaline rush moments. Not so good on the hearts tho
Costas,
Yes yes couldn’t agree more Rooney, apart from his idiotic ‘ambition’ antics, is brilliant. But no never in front of Cantona. He was our leader. Our catalyst. Charisma. Practically everything good that could’ve been said about a leader. Yes even his temperament. The fact that we won 4 PL in 5 seasons with us said something. The only season being when he kicked the hooligan’s ass.
Its Diwali.
@MG
sorry mate but Giggsy > Cantona … he deserves it … Sir Ryan
@Chicharitoooo
Giggsy is on a different planet to everyone
well, he relegated every legend on the list and made no.1 his and his alone
sorry Bestie, Cantona and Scholesy
Sir Ryan Giggs, King Eric Cantona and Paul Ginger Prince Scholes.
All are legends!
Let us not please use such signs as > when comparing United legends. Our opinions may vary as to who we think is the best of all time, but legends at United are just that… Whether its Giggs, Scholes, Cantona, Best, Law, Robson and co they are ALL UNITED greats
Cedars,
Agreed!
Cedars – Spot on mate. There all legends.
*They’re*
Another tremendous interview, thanks Scott the Red! And, thank you, Terry Christian!
Great work Scott, Hope you knuckled him in the balls after the Cantona/Rooney comment! long live the King.
And thank YOU smartalex for being a RED
And my eternal thanks to you, CedarsDevil! Truthfully, a truest Red!
Missed you every day, my friend!
Interesting debate about Rooney and Cantona. Eric was a cool finisher and an influential player for United. Rooney can score goals, but he also creates goals for others and is a fantastic player to play with. Just ask Tevez and Ronaldo, among others. It’s tough, but I agree with Terry here. As much as I love Eric, I’d give the edge to Rooney. I think I’ll be in the minority. Just my opinion, of course lads, don’t shoot me!!!!
Cheers buddy
*cocks gun*
am shooting someone. definitely shooting someone tonite
Terry Christain, the best interview so far. Except for Scholies. Ha ha ha.
Completely down to earth. Loved his points on ‘pool and leeds. Rivalry? Not really.
@Cedars. Agreed mate.
If you worry too much about order, you just diminish this great club and the truly exceptional characters that have graced us with a game for the better years of their lives. Love your thinking really. You should talk that up a bit more as we are all going on about our favorite 11 or whatever. Who needs to say what Giggs has done. Just go on any site of United stats and it is as plain as day. Just as it is as plain as day that Ruud has the best goal per game ratio of any player that played more than 10 games for us. Each should be valued for what they contributed, what they helped us win, and the memories they inspire in the fans who saw them play.
No one will shoot you Willie, except Cantona of course! lol
Your opinions are respected my fellow RED, thats what we are all about mate
FletchTHEMAN
Hi mate, no need to talk up really…. The thing about United is that we have such a rich history which in turn brings so many opinions…
Only thing I will say is, United are far bigger than some of our fans realize
Sorry, sent the last post off a bit early. Ahemmmm.
Most of us who were around then would agree that Saha was somthing brilliant and more recently Hargreaves. Forlan as well. But their fitness or the culture kept them from recieving the proper due for the fleeting brilliance that they showed.
Coooeee Cedaars
bin busy all week ….but back home now awaiting tomorrows game…..
Second Cedars no need to > over any United player
A great interview from a great Manchester lad. I was fortunate enough to meet him at the Ritz one night. I got talking to him at the bar and when he realised I was Irish that was it for the next 4 hours as his family is Irish too. We spent the whole night chatting away. About Ireland and our beloved Manchester United. A genuinely nice guy!
well, Manchester United FC does have a rich history where we’re all blessed with so many great players … well at least we’re WAYYYY better than Citeh … lol
Ferguson also had another slight dig at Rooney’s agent, Paul Stretford, when asked if United’s hopes of a treble were a convincing retort to claims the squad was on the wane, aired at the time of the striker’s contract dispute last year. He said: “I shouldn’t really need to sell that. I don’t think he actually really meant that. I think he was prompted on that one. Probably thought he could make me angry.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/apr/16/sir-alex-ferguson-manchester-united-city