A WORK IN PROGRESS

Quite what one declaring “This Is Our City” is doing in Rochdale is anyone’s guess. Perhaps they know their market…

From 4thegame:

Over the years the fierce rivalry between United and City has seen both sides claiming victory in the 'who has the most fans in Manchester' debate. Two weeks ago the Blues decided to up the ante with an advertising campaign claiming `This is our City'.

Hoardings, buses and even lampposts have been emblazoned with the sky and dark blue posters or stickers; other versions include `Pure Manchester', `Greater Manchester' and even `Real Manchester'.

There is one problem with this - the Mancunian United fans. A survey in 2002 carried out by the Manchester Metropolitan University revealed that Reds fans are as likely to live in the Manchester region as their Blue counterparts. Users of the most popular Manchester United fanzine Red Issue have decided to hit back, by daubing their own messages to the ones currently adorning the walls of the City centre.

The resultant graffiti may not look pleasant, but its what City should have expected when declaring war on the local Reds. Mistakes in the offensive have been made by the Blues and pointed out by United fans, as one of the 'This Is Our City' posters is displayed on Oldfield Road in Salford.

The advertising agency behind this campaign is a company Called Greys London, with the mastermind a City fan, Julian Douglas (of course a resident in the capital), who proudly states he's a Blue hailing from Timperley in Cheshire - not within the boundaries of Manchester.

[One of the posters:
http://img461.imageshack.us/img461/3484/cityposter2wz.jpg ]

Douglas said it was important that the campaign was not viewed as a commercial endeavour but struck the right note with the customary black humour of City fans in the face of United's recent dominance in terms of trophies. "It would have been really easy to go straight after United but we wanted a poster that, whether you're a City fan or a United fan, made you smile," he said.

It remains to be seen if City will launch another paper offensive. The big marker pen/paint brush is indeed mightier than the sword...

However, just in case City fans feel aggrieved, we are also happy to take the mick out of United fans too. While they did not sell out this week's Champions League clash with Lille, the club have hardly seen the kind of protests angry fans promised when Malcolm Glazer took over, with a bunch of them forming FC United of Manchester while the rest just seem to keep on going to Old Trafford as if nothing had changed.

If they want to know how to organise a proper protest, they should have tried to ask those Lille fans what they did at the weekend to let the club know that they aren't happy that their neither their traditional Grimonprez-Jooris stadium or current home at the Lille Metropole stadium have yet been developed to meet UEFA standards, meaning that they have to play their Champions League matches at the not-very-near Stade de France in Paris.

So, on Saturday, the team began their match with Monaco without a single fan in the ground. They all came in a minute into the game (though as Lille lost 1-0, they probably wished they hadn't bothered), but had certainly made their point. "It was very strange," coach Claude Puel said. "I really looked forward to fans coming back into the stadium.

RI in no way encourages criminal damage blah blah blah, even if it is carried out with the best of intentions.