Manchester City fans are having to put up with a lot of disgust being thrown their way as a pathetic number of the match-going fans decided to leave the stadium rather than wait and say goodbye to Manuel Pellegrini during his farewell speech.
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It was incredibly tough to watch. He looked upset in the speech, and then a video of him reacting to his "best moments" at City truly broke our hearts, so regardless over whether or not City have fallen below expectations this year, the man deserved better.
That has prompted one City fan to hit out at the fanbase he is a part of. A Reddit user by the name of MountingSea was commenting on a photo of the shocking crowd for Pellegrini's farewell which had risen to the top of r/soccer, and he described the worrying state of the current match going supporters.
He believes that City fans have become far too entitled, and many other City fans chimed in to agree with his views.
I'm a Man City fan. I've been one for over 30 years; was going in the third tier and am still going now. I'm extremely concerned with how our fanbase is changing.
And to stop the lazy stereotypes before they start, this isn't a tourist/gloryhunters thing. This is happening to people who were also in the third tier.
I think we're suffering from what is the real hangover from the takeover. Since 2008, we have bought our way to the top and failure was never punished. Because we didn't grow organically, we didn't fail. All we did was succeed the whole time.
Due to this, our fanbase has now become absolutely ridiculously entitled. Some people are saying that finishing 5th would be "a disaster", that the manager was "a fraud" and the players "shit".
To put this into context, finishing 5th would represent the joint 6th highest ever finish in the history of the Premier League for City.
"a disaster"..
What we're seeing now is a lesson to all of you rich parents out there. If you give your children everything they want when they're growing up, as soon as something doesn't go their way they turn into spoilt brats.
Over the past several months I've become more and more ashamed of our fanbase; something that I could have never envisaged myself ever saying in my lifetime. Our fanbase were why I felt so connected to City and to see this evolve into spoilt children throwing their toys out of the pram at our 6th highest ever finish is deeply disappointing.
The "spoiled brats" comparison is one that definitely will have come to the mind of those who watched the embarrassing events unfold at the Etihad on Sunday.
Expectations were high, perhaps too high, and the competitiveness of the Premier League is now at a level never seen before. The last team to retain the Premier League title were Manchester United in 08/09, and it seems unlikely that a period of dominance seen by Arsenal and Manchester United in the '90s and '00s will be seen again.
Standards are high, but the treatment of Manuel Pellegrini was just disrespectful, and there are City fans who have seen this coming. Whether or not the lesson has been learned remains to be seen.
[via r/soccer]
