United View: Protests Unite Fans Amid Troubling Times

Fan protests, another Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick, and the crowd booing one of their own players.

Old Trafford produced a fair share of talking points in a 3-2 win over Norwich City. 

The day began with around one thousand passionate United fans boycotting the opening 17 minutes, in protest of the Glazer family’s ownership of the football club. Fans surrounded the Munich Tunnel leading to the closure of hospitality and the Megastore with various chants showing distain towards the Glazer family and solidarity in their love for Manchester United football club. 

Cristiano Ronaldo scored early on but was kind enough to treat fans who missed his first goal to another as United looked like they were cruising to victory against the club sat bottom of the table. But poor defending allowed Norwich to sneak one back just before half time. 

United started the second half poorly and conceded again thanks to a smart finish from Finnish international Teemu Pukki. At this point an already agitated crowd began to turn hostile as the performance began to show the same ugly traits as the defeat to Everton last week. However, Ronaldo was on hand again to complete his 60th career hat-trick to spare United of their blushes and pick up all three points. 

Moments prior to the decisive goal the tensions reached their peak as Paul Pogba was substituted to a chorus of boos from a selection of the home crowd. He was booed again as he left the field at full time before he reacted to the crowd by cupping his ear ironically. 

I don’t agree with directly booing one of our own, regardless of what opinion you may have of Paul Pogba, to publicly chastise a Manchester United player is not something I wish to see at Old Trafford. But this isn’t the first time that Paul Pogba has been jeered by the home fans, with a similar situation taking place after a 2-0 defeat to Cardiff in 2019. 

In hindsight, United should have looked to offload Pogba at that point in time, but instead he is likely to depart at the end of his contract in the summer. Rightfully so, as the relationship between him and the fans is so fractured that its best for all if he plays his football elsewhere. 

Pogba has not been great this season, but neither have most of the squad, so to target one person just feels like scapegoating when the issues at United run deeper than one man. 

Amongst all this commotion United are still somehow in the top four race, I said last week that Spurs were my favourites to claim top four only for them to make me look foolish after their defeat at the weekend. I still stand by that prediction, even though I would love for United to prove me wrong and conjure up a turnaround of drastic proportions. However, I feel this will only paper over the cracks of this season, but I would not turn down the possibility of Champions League football. 

At the time of writing this, United have yet to face Liverpool, a game that I am admittedly going to watch between my fingers. Liverpool was ruthless against City in the FA Cup semi-final and have already put five past us at Old Trafford, so please forgive me for not holding out much hope for United. 

United should hopefully be fired up to get revenge from their 5-0 humbling to Liverpool earlier in the season and to stop Klopp’s side looking to surpass the achievements of the 99’ Treble winners, as they chase down a quadruple. An achievement which may cause me to change my name and move to a place where football is less popular.