Last weekend’s Melbourne Derby, the first between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City, had AFL media types creaming their pants over the atmosphere, Victory fans gushing like Yosemite geysers over their team’s performance and left a number of City fans in the throes of a deepening existential crisis.
As I detailed in my earlier piece – “Does an insect have a heart? The early evolution of Melbourne City FC” – the transition from little local Heart to little trans-national branch of Manchester City has been a difficult, confusing time for many fans. Yes, some have taken to it like sky blue ducks to water, but a good number of original members are still perplexed and bewildered. A derby win would have masked some of it like a good dose of Prozac, but there is nothing like being on the receiving end of a derby demolition to exacerbate the symptoms and water those little seeds of alienation.
The appearance at the derby of a few Manchester City fans, unfurling Man City banners and singing “Blue Moon” on the level above the City active section before the game only served to poke an already irritable bear.
The high point for the City fans during the derby was the scoring of their go ahead second goal. It resulted in the loudest chant of the night from the less than unified ranks. A call and response between the levels of how Melbourne was defiantly “red and white”. Then it all went pear-shaped both on and off the pitch after four unanswered goals by a rampant Victory.
To give you an idea of of how Heart/City fans are dealing with the transition I visited the Melbourne City Supporters Forum and had a look at the Melbourne Derby match thread. What I found wasn’t a post-game post-mortem, as would normally be the case, but a conflicted fan base debating more profound issues. While the mass media focus on the facile David Villa story to appease our ever shortening attention spans, a much more interesting, more important and longer narrative is playing out on the divided Melbourne City terraces.
I have pulled out for your perusal a sample of posts which I hope is somewhat representative of the opinions currently populating the divided City terrace. My intention is to provide the reader, especially those who don’t support Melbourne City, with a fan’s perspective on what happens to a club the midst of transformation, rather than the usual commentary from detached football experts, writers and hacks who normally fill media space. The voices of supporters who are living through this tumultuous period.
There’s righteous Swiss Toni who’s just after a little respect from the sky blue new guard.
Sorry gentlemen but I sense an element of an “Uncle Tom” neurosis on this thread. At both the Newcastle and Victory games this season I’ve witnessed Melb City fans and Man City fans respectively shouting down Heart chants with “City” and so on or signing Man City songs. To me as a fan of this club, a Man City fan shouting down Heart chants is no different to fans of any other club deliberately sitting with Melb City fans to shout them down. I accept Heart as in reality dead but passionate fans of the Heart won’t accept EPL wannabes disrespecting that legacy and trying to rewrite/whitewash our history out of existence. I strongly believe it is up to these new members to show a lot more respect and Heart fans do not need to go cap in hand to offer our gratitude that they are on board.
Meanwhile MHFCROB24 can’t be bothered empathising with dissenters and just wants to get on with the show.
Sick and tired of hearing people saying they want to leave, if you want to leave then go. FACT is Man City took over our club, SAVED it some would say. Why on earth people are against NEW fans coming in is beyond me, considering last few seasons we were the laughing stock of the league for fan numbers. I loved Heart. I loved going to the games. BUT reality is that’s gone now and a new chapter has begun. If you don’t want to be on board now then it is your loss.
Moraiwe’s riposte offers the sort of sage existential wisdom everyone’s favourite goalkeeper, Camus, would be proud of.
RUINED it others might say. If you don’t want to be on board now then it is also the club’s loss (this is worth remembering. CFG knew they would turn some fans away with their decisions.) There’s nothing wrong with either viewpoint really. Neither are based on pure logic, and when emotions get involved there’s rarely a single correct way of looking at things.
I’m fairly confident in the CFG (City Football Group) taking this club forward and turning it into a big success. But I understand it will take time, and after 4 seasons of mediocrity and not knowing what to expect next, I guess I can wait a little longer when I can finally see light at the end of the tunnel for once. I’ve been a supporter since day one, probably a lot longer than many of you here who are a resistant to this change. This complaining about colours and name etc… You either suck it up and get right behind this club and what it’s doing, or you can simply stop supporting it. The sooner you realise CFG will not give in to you, the better. This is an organisation who has won the EPL twice in the past 3 seasons, and has the resources and expertise to grow our crowds and membership numbers to a respectable level. Have a little faith in the transformation.
Unlike loquacious , melbournelad55 didn’t mince his words to those tortured Heart souls.
All the sooks who want Heart back, build a bridge, you’re so naive. We would have sank so you can be thankful to CFG.
Tortured soul Nate bit back and with a dose of cold, hard modern football reality.
It’s people like you who make us wish we had Heart back in the first place, who are you to come in here and tell everyone they should be thankful to an organisation who is using us for their broader financial investment? Do you think CFG acquired us because they love Melbourne football supporters? Many on here still identify with the Heart, so either be more accepting or kindly fuck off.
Nate was right in that sky blue Sydney FC was the original target for CFG in their unromantic quest to expand their operations to the antipodes. Then again, aren’t almost all football club takeovers these days done for money not love. But then again most takeovers don’t involve a wholesale identity change.
Which make following this modern football story so fascinating on so many levels. How will it turn out? Watch this space.
Wildlife photo of dueling Thompson gazelles supplied by David Bygott via Flickr
The root of the confusion really leads to our new owners, CFG. Soriano, at the takeover stated that he didn’t want to create a mini-Man City but appears to have done everything that would lead to the conclusion that CFG has done exactly that. The only reason that the team is not playing in sky blue is because FFA’s favourite child SFC objected to it, away jerseys are not available for purchase by fans, Heart logos have been Photoshopped out of photos. It does feel like a colonisation, so far without the promised benefits. Time will tell.
Certainly NYCFC spitting the dummy and withdrawing David Villa with almost no notice shows very clearly where Melbourne is in the pecking order.