Blog of the Orkut Man United Charity.

Manan Pathak talks about his life as a Red Devil, and tries to answer THAT question, Why Man United?

“Why do you support man utd ?” A million fans. A million different answers.Each one will go on and on for hours about the greatness of the club,but will still end by saying that they cant possibly put it in words.

 My friend put that question to me on the eve of my 12th  board chemistry exam and considering i had spent more than 1500 hours watching them play in the past 3 years he expected quite a long answer .But shocking as it may sound , I really had no answer for him. Now,don’t get me wrong. Its not as if i could not have given him the usual monologue about the Treble ,the dominance, the players, the manager and countless other things. I pride myself on being a competent speaker and could have let him have it for asking such a stupid question. It might sound very dramatic to some but something unexplainable was stopping me. The surge of emotions i felt was too personal to put in words. I did not say anything and my friend having read my expression didn’t push it. As i went to sleep that night I thought about that question. Why could I not answer him? I admit,this question gave me many a sleepless nights.

 Its been almost two and a half years since that day and although I still have no answer for his question,I am beginning to understand why I could not answer him. You see, in some ways the love for MAN UTD is like the love for your country. The answer lies deeper than just because you were born there. Its too close to your heart to say it out loud. But still,I have decided that I will give it another try. Chances are i will fail more miserably than last time,but this time i have the comfort of knowing i am speaking to fellow fans who will understand my plight.

 As supporters of Man Utd, we are lucky enough to be cheering for a club that actually delivers (unlike some other clubs,wink wink ). The no. of trophies that adorn our cabinet are a just gauge of the dominance we have had over English football in the recent decade. Considering the no. of times we have chased down big leads in the table or come back to win the match after trailing ,shows how determined to win our players are. No matter how bad our form is,no matter how many players we have injured we never let that be an excuse in our never ending pursuit of excellence.Since the inception of the Premier League we have won 16 titles and 11 FA cups. But even this was not enough.In the magical season of ‘99 we topped everything. We became the first English club to win the treble. Who can forget the now legendary lines
~”Manchester united have entered the promise land.”

 But it is not just recent success that sets our club apart.Historically our club is second to none. Our long and illustrious history is marked by incidents both proud and profoundly sad.The Munich tragedy. Just thinking about that horrendous tragedy is enough to move any fan to tears. Feb 6th,1958–In one moment,a whole club was torn apart and the whole footballing world was brought to a standstill. We lost 8 players of our squad–a squad that would have surely conquered the world if it was not for the cruel turn of fate. “The flowers of Manchester” as they were justly called included some of the best talents in the world at that time. Such a terrible tragedy would have been enough to destroy any other club.But did we bow down to our miseries and give up?? No,that is just not the United way. The way we rose from the disaster like a Phoenix out of the ashes under the Leadership of the legendary Sir Matt Busby is the stuff of legends. It was the perfect reward for our perseverance that in 1958 we became the First English club to win the European cup beating Benfica 4-1. “We are Man Utd,and we will never die”.

 The greatness of MAN UTD lies not in what it has achieved ,but the way in which we have done it. Our trademark style of playing football has never left us, i.e ; fast and attacking. No matter how much the chips are down we never stop going for goal. It can perhaps be defined best by saying “If you hit 3,we will hit 5″. This is no surprise considering the players that have been a part of our squad. From Duncan Edwards,George Best, Bobby Charlton, to Eric ‘The King’ Cantona,Captain Fantastic Roy Keane and the golden generation of Giggs,Scholes,Beckham we have always battled  to be the best. Perhaps that is the reason,why so much is expected of the current Light Bearers ie; Rooney,Ronaldo,Brown,VDS et al. And it makes me very proud to say that I am yet to be disappointed.

 Since the day I joined the 2939,my experience and perspective has grown in leaps and bounds. I have met many fans most of whose knowledge of the club is far more than mine. Whenever i talk to them, i find every reply of theirs oozing passion for the club. They would literally do anything to see united win. There are people from India,Pakistan,UK,Canada,Brazil and many other countries. Some are as young as 13 while others are happily married with flourishing family lives and jobs. So much diversity and yet amazingly they get along perfectly well. People accept the authority of the moderators without knowing them just because they get an opportunity to discuss something that they love. Its not like they don’t argue among themselves,but heaven save any rival who speaks ill of the club. The camaraderie that the club inspires among fans is mind-blowing.

 No fan can deny the feeling of immense pleasure felt seeing Rooney score from a perfect Ronaldo cross or watching  O’shea score the winner in the dying moments. The euphoria after such a win lasts for days making you smile whenever you think about it. Or the gut wrenching feeling of watching us go down 1-2 against city or watching Scholes being sent of just 11 minutes into the game. Or the profound pride felt watching Ole Gunnar Solskjaer walk down Old Trafford amidst thunderous applause from crowd and squad alike.This capacity of affecting millions of lives is nothing short of Magical.

 This is why I love MANCHESTER UNITED,the Greatest football club. Period.