Manchester - Capital of Football

[AV82EC]

Ah Edgbaston, one thing that does piss all over manchester from a great height is the current standing of the two cricket grounds.  Old Trafford CG is a shithole of the highest order.  I go past it on the tram everyday and snigger at the paucity of its ambition.

I have a client based next door to OTCCG and every time I get there I'm astonished someone signed off the design of that giant red shoebox.  It's horrific, and slightly amusing that they decided to call it 'The Point' and thereby tee-up the obvious 'What's The Point?' comments.

Try not to laugh but the plans for ground expansion I kid you not include another one of them!!!  Laughable.  Its like a really bad childs design version of the press box thing at Lords.

[Vanilla]

Sadly, Birmingham is awful, absolutely awful at promoting itself in anything. Slightly off track, but any metal lovers out there will know of Birmingham's Heavy Metal legacy, yet only after 30 odd years are they starting to appreciate it.
Compare that to Madchester.

Virtually all US bands who play live hear make reference to Black Sabbath coming from Birmingham, which sadly most of the crowd don't seem to realise.     

Birmingham spends to much time trying to feed off London, Manchester at least tries to forge it's own identity. 

[dave.woodhall]

As with just about every similar story, the whole truth is a bit different. By law they couldn't allow the RBL to collect unless the charities who had been granted permission withdrew their applications.

It would only have been unlawful because they'd already given permission to someone else and their own licensing rules only allow one charity a licence per day.  Rules they wrote.

Both giving permission to another charity for Remembrance weekend and coming up with that rule in the first place were pretty major cock-ups.  Cock-ups they can't blame anyone else for.

Or maybe they weren't cock ups in the first place. Maybe there were valid reasons for both.

Giv it another month and we'll have the first Winterval story.

[Jimbo]

Birmingham does a terrible job of promoting itself. And it's a great shame, because it had rather a big impact on history, not only in Britain, but throughout the world. I recall seeing a piece in the Post & Mail reacting to Barack Obama's speech to parliament in the House Of Commons. He said the industrial revolution had started in Manchester. Of course, it didn't.

The P&M raised no more than a metaphorical eyebrow at the claim, rather than debunking it completely, as it should have. It could have pointed to the industrial activity in Ironbridge, or the fact that there was a 'modern' factory in Birmingham before there was one in Manchester. A great industrial city? By all means. The birthplace of the industrial revolution? No chance.

The fact is, neither Birmingham nor Manchester is where the industrial revolution started. But only one of those cities would ever claim it started there. I kind of like the fact that, as Brummies, we don't bullshit about what we are. But sometimes, through all that self-deprecation, we almost forget what an important city we were, are and can be. And in this age of rabid marketing and self-promotion, you have to shout over all the other voices before anybody will take you seriously. Guess who's got the loudest nasal whine?

And don't get me started about the city council. Families of inbred hicks have had more intelligent members through the generations. The damage they have done over the years is enough to make me weep.
 

[Salsa Party Animal]

I wonder what do the hard core Manchester City think of their owners and manager and so many world class players but not A List World Class Players (Ha Ha)

[richardhubbard]

This is a debate that rears its head fairly regularly on H&V.  Whilst I agree with most of the points, all I'll say is that there's nothing stopping Birmingham promoting itself a lot more effectively than it does now, and that starts with you lot who live there.

Totally agree Birmingham in the 80s seemed to get it's act together, Manchester moved up another gear in self promotion and with BBC, 2 successful football teams and level internal investment , Birmingham gonna struggle in comparison

[Gazza1982]

Sadly, Birmingham is awful, absolutely awful at promoting itself in anything. Slightly off track, but any metal lovers out there will know of Birmingham's Heavy Metal legacy, yet only after 30 odd years are they starting to appreciate it.
Compare that to Madchester.

Virtually all US bands who play live hear make reference to Black Sabbath coming from Birmingham, which sadly most of the crowd don't seem to realise.     

Birmingham spends to much time trying to feed off London, Manchester at least tries to forge it's own identity. 

Well said, whether you like Sabbath or not, and personally I am a big fan (only the Ozzy version mind) Birmingham is indeed the home of a genre of music that pretty much spread all over the world and influenced countless others. Look at the job Liverpool do in marketing their link with The Beatles, they are unashamed and proud of it.We should be the same, Sabbath invented heavy metal but because its not seen as a fashionable type of music , it gets ignored.
If you added the Midlands in general you would also include greats such as Led Zeppelin, ELO. Look at the influence we had with UB40,Steel Pulse and others too.Its like we are too frightened to blow our own trumpet.....always baffled me, then again, I would rather be like we are than a bunch of arrogant show offs like the cockneys and mancs.

[brice jovial]

Rgards football tevez has no love for manchester, vidic too.

Modric ballack ronalindho ribery figo are just some players who had no intention of living in manchester.

Theres a certain world class inter player whos not interested in trading milan for manchester it totally doesnt compare.

No way is it a capital of football its over rated like the football teams.
I suggest dont get wound up by this manchester character you work with as really his views are biased and he would do well to experience life around world and also diversity of london.

On football level man city have only recently adopted lech poznan celebration - based on playing them not original and far from a leader when comes to football.

Hopefully manchester will come back to earth when olympics take place as they wont be able to take the london effect so well and realise there not capital of anything but the county.   

Ps tell ur work mate who may not have heard of mark twain that the legend didnt rate manchester that will shut him rite up.   

[Handsworth Wood Villa]

How many Villa or Blues players actually live in Birmingham?

And how many Man U or Man City players actually live in Manchester?

I seen that Tevez lives in Prestbury, Chesire on BBC News today.

[brice jovial]

Regards manchester exactly ! Who wants to live there!

I guess you're trying to make point that these players dont live in manchester itself.

Yet many cant stand the place
Never rains but it pours

ronaldo never use to leave his house had everything there

tevez doesnt like to leave house and gets zabelletta over for company

i think this place has overated itself and just trying to help the villa guy who first posted.

Anyway its not an issue they will never change climate or culture there.

[brice jovial]

Yeah and ask that city fan why in their first ecl game they could nt get full house. 5,000 fans missing ??

Think he wont be able to say much esp after 1-1 draw first real test which they failed

[wombat]

I find complete indifference to them winds them up... we have several plastic mancs (yes even some blue ones now) in the office.

Comments like 'Big night tonight' are met with 'You having spaghetti hoops for tea again then?'

'Youll never get into the champions league' with 'Good job I haven't watched it for the last 5 years I might have missed us play'

'Did you see yoo-naaaah-ted last night on the tv' with 'I didn't know Hereford were on Sky now, they have had an awfully poor start to the season'

'You are just jealous' with 'Maybe, but if we ever get there I do hope it doesn't turn me into a tw@t'.

I'll have a little fun today pretending I was watching Eastenders or shopping or something instead of watching the biggest event since the royal wedding...

[KRS]

Lets face it...Birmingham is a shithole. There have been a few improvements in the city centre but its constantly mocked for being crap...because it is and has been for a long time. Its going to take years of positive spin, promotion and rebuilding to convince the media and everyone else in the country otherwise.

...and yes, it does help if you have 2 of the richest football teams representing the city rather than one historically great yet underchieving club, plus one of the most embarassing clubs in the country. It also doesnt help when the majority of Brummies interviewed by the media on the street look and sound like clueless idiots.

[phantom limb]

Lets face it...Birmingham is a shithole. There have been a few improvements in the city centre but its constantly mocked for being crap...because it is and has been for a long time. Its going to take years of positive spin, promotion and rebuilding to convince the media and everyone else in the country otherwise.

...and yes, it does help if you have 2 of the richest football teams representing the city rather than one historically great yet underchieving club, plus one of the most embarassing clubs in the country. It also doesnt help when the majority of Brummies interviewed by the media on the street look and sound like clueless idiots.

I don't think Birmingham is a shithole. It's "constantly mocked" by arseholes who have usually never even been there.

[Chris Smith]

Let's face it...KRS clearly hasn't visited many places if he thinks Birmingham is any different to any other big city in having a mixture of good and bad.