Member of the Establishment or urban elite with an affected interest in Association
Football in order to enhance their credentials as a member of the working class made good. Their declarations of loyalty to a professional
football club,
based adjacent to the Manchester Ship Canal but started by a group of Yorkshire railway workers, increase in intensity in direct proportion to their distance from Salford Quays. For example, many of their most fervent supporters used to be found in London but recent marketing efforts suggest that Manchester United PLC considers its consumer heartland to be in the Far East.
The most
popular item on the menu at Old Trafford is believed to be the prawn sandwich.
Manchester United is simultaneously the best-supported football team in the world (due largely to its overseas fan base) and the most despised ( due largely to its arrogant assumption that it is the best supported football team in the world).
Generally held up as a shining example of all that is good about English
football, this American-
owned club is managed by a Scot and employs players from South America, Portugal and other far flung parts.
Genuine Man United supporters inhabit Salford and North West Manchester; for these individuals it is the most convenient
football club so might be considered local.
"Which team do you support?"
"I'm a Man United supporter"
"I didn't know you hailed from the
fair (though somewhat rainy) city of
Manchester"
"Where's
Manchester?"
