It was very late on Wednesday evening when I first saw Jesse Lingard’s short video uploaded onto social media showing the Manchester United squad celebrating their Europa League victory in the dressing room by singing a derogatory song about their rivals City.My initial response was to assume this came courtesy of a City supporter retweeting an old post of Lingard’s – possibly from the revelry that followed last season’s FA Cup final win – and put up as a reminder that the Manchester ‘love-in’ that collectively greeted United’s Europa League triumph was getting a touch out of hand; a reminder that they were still the enemy.Assumption quickly turned to hope – the kind of hope that sparks up in a panicky way when someone you know says something very off-colour and there’s a chance you misheard them – and then there was confusion when reality set in. This was current. This was now. Now of all times.Elsewhere on my timeline Manchester City’s official account was being lavished with praise for responding to their neighbour’s continental victory by tweeting ‘#ACITYUNITED’ with each club’s badges beneath – reminding me of a civilised spell back in the sixties when Joe Mercer and Sir Matt Busby used to congratulate the other on their successes – while scores of Blues were receiving flak and plaudits in equal measure for declaring themselves pleased at the result in Stockholm. Additionally I’d seen a photograph of the United side, medals hanging from their necks, standing behind a banner that read ‘Manchester – A City United #prayformanchester’.
Then there was the rhetoric from the United camp pre-match and immediately after the game: Jose Mourinho’s dignified words following Monday night’s awful atrocity with the United manager saying, “I know, even during my short time here, that the people of Manchester will pull together as oneâ€. Paul Pogba stating on the Friends Arena pitch that, “We won for Manchester. We worked for themâ€.
Then came this, from nowhere this divisive antagonism of gloating that to City supporters who had publicly admitted that for one night only they were going to cheer on a hated rival must have felt like moving in for a hug in grief only to be punched in the gut.
Too far? No, the video was too far; a hypocritical, mind-melting misstep, and bizarrely timed insult complete with a gurning Lingard gleefully emphasising the line belted out in unison from the United players – “Why don’t City eff off home?â€
Home of course being Manchester, a city totalled in pain after two days earlier a despicable excuse of a human being walked into the Manchester Arena and killed 22 people – including seven children – at a pop concert. This complicated, swaggering and brilliant city had experienced many great hardships in its long existence but this was an evil impossible to comprehend.
Yet incredibly – and with a swiftness that reminded you that this was no ordinary metropolis – Mancunians reacted with love, togetherness and compassion. As DJ Dave Haslam tweeted alluding to the famous Joy Division song, “You’ve got the wrong city if you think hate will tear us apart,†and brews were made, free taxi rides put on, and sofas made available via social media. This sense of community and defiance to be united continues now; with vigils and charity events and smiles to strangers on the street as a tentative recovery begins.
For football’s part Yaya Toure and Wayne Rooney each donated £100,000 to the terror attack victims while Manchester City opened up the Etihad to act as a bereavement centre. For United’s part – in as much or as little as sport helps in such circumstances – it fell upon them to represent their city with pride and nobility as they prepared to face Ajax in this week’s Europa League final. And they did. From the build up to the game to their hard-fought victory to Ander Herrera’s commendable words after it they did in spades. That was until local lad Jesse Lingard decided to sour it all merely to bump up his Instagram following and mock a rival fanbase in great pain.
Even now, two days on, I am writing this while slowly shaking my head in disbelief at his stupidity. Not his actions. His stupidity.
It was such that even United supporters condemned the video though it wasn’t online for long. It was soon after replaced – presumably at the behest of the club’s frantic PR team – by a tweet containing a pictured message that read, ‘Let this City stand United’ in half red and blue and captioned with ‘Rivals on the pitch, united in tragedy. Manchester we did it for you’. Below it you’ll find hate, disunity and ill-feeling from Blues railing against the hypocrisy. So long brotherly love: it was good – and necessary – while it lasted.
I have heard it said since that in a similar situation it could easily have been City players misjudging their celebration. Even shoving aside all my bias as a City fan myself I find that scenario impossible to imagine: I mean literally impossible to even imagine City players two days after a terrorist attack on Manchester that had floored the entire city to then sing ‘Who the eff are Man United?’ or something of that ilk. And even then, should a young player have piped up individually Vincent Kompany would have slapped him a new one.
Yet noting the above could be conceived as points-scoring, on a subject it is wholly inappropriate to score points from. Which is why that night and the following day I vowed to not comment on it in print or, if I did, to come at it from a place of understanding.
Let the media condemn, I thought. Let them castigate with the same fury they unleashed on Lee Clark when the Sunderland midfielder was photographed with his Newcastle mates wearing a ‘Sad Mackem b*****ds’ t-shirt. Or Jack Wilshere when he led an anti-Spurs chant at an Arsenal trophy parade. Only more so, surely, as this was something else entirely. This beggared belief.
Only there was nothing, or as next to nothing as to prompt bewilderment. Manchester Evening News journalist Stuart Brennan highlighted the furore. There was one very short paragraph in the Mirror. That aside, there was only silence. Yesterday Andy Dunn in the Daily Mirror wrote that Lingard ‘did Manchester proud’ by ‘carrying on as normal’. I only hope his sycophantic spinning of the incident secures him further access to Mourinho’s posterior next season.
I was not only reminded of Clark and Wilshere. I thought back to February 8th 2008 when the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster coincided with the weekend of a Manchester derby and the media whipped up an imagined storm about the possibility of Blues disrupting the planned minute’s silence. As the game loomed City fans were found guilty before they could even be innocent as United came out with a strong pre-match stance and radio phone-ins had callers labelling us as ‘disgraceful’ and ‘disrespectful’. On the day – as was always going to be the case – Blues were impeccable ,for though the disaster greatly affected United the most, it was also a tragedy that hit the city. Manchester.
If City supporter’s behaviour that day was little surprise then perhaps so too was Lingard’s and United’s earlier this week. I could say more here, I really could. But now is absolutely not the time.
Instead I will quote a City forum member disgusted at seeing an immature, ill-considered, disrespectful video that tainted the togetherness this awful time had forged.
Referring to the players he simply said, “Not an ounce of class between themâ€.
You won’t read this in the papers mind.
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