I despise Man Utd, despite my dad being a fan. But to be fair, he did actaully grow up in Manchester rather than your usual fans from Surrey.
That old chestnut. Having grown up in Manchester (with family still there) it is my opinion that
there are almost as many City supporters in the conurbation as there are United fans.
It think the comment is more about the number and proportion of fans that are not from Manchester than the ones that are. When I lived in Manchester I far preferred to go to Maine Road. Much more passion and loyalty than at Old Trafford, which was full of cynical expectation. Maine Road generally laughed at itself (and hated OT, of course )
Grew up in Moss Side (Claremont Road, in front of Alex Park), for those that know the area.
Our family should have been City supporters (used to go into Maine Road on match days when
they opened the gates 15 minutes before the end to let supporters out). I remember from
1969* to 1974 United were rubbish, but felt sorry for them, as teams regularly used to put 3
or 4 goals past them. I remember Ron Davis (Southampton), Francis Lee (City) and Martin
Peters (Spurs) all scoring hat-tricks against United at Old Trafford in 4-1 victories for their teams.
Oh, and my eldest sister and her school friends all fancied George Best and Willie Morgan, so we
also joined her in support for United.
*United did reach the European Cup semi-final in 69 and lost in League Cup semi-final to Cityin 70, and a FA Cup Semi-Final to Leeds in the same year.