More football moments to follow up as I head down to Manchester for the 19th title bus parade. Manchester City had held theirs earlier last weekend for their FA Cup win, so there is no way United is gonna let this opportunity pass after permission to parade the Double in 2008 was denied. In the morning, I missed my intended booked train as I had overslept past my alarm. Arghh! £5 ticket wasted and another £10 on-the-day ticket needed to be bought. When I reached Manchester, it was already drizzling. Looks like today’s parade is gonna be very wet. It was quite early when I arrived so I took the opportunity to scout ahead for the parade route and decide where would be the best place to stand. I took shelter under the bridge for an hour from the rain and then proceeded to stand near the main road when the time for the start of the parade drew nearer.
The rain certainly did not draw a big crowd to wait at the side of the road. It’s quite a hassle to hold the camera and the umbrella at the same time. It was only around 11am that the bus started to move from its starting point in a small crawl. As it draws nearer to where I’m standing, the crowd surrounding it began to grow larger. I managed to get clear glimpses of the Da Silva twins, Park, Nani, Berbatov, Ferdinand and Hernandez as the bus moved right in front of me. The good camera that I have enabled me to get a few good close-up shots. Instead of just standing there as the bus begin to pull away, I followed the crowd to march alongside the bus. It’s pretty much like looking at the incoming crowd and getting swept away by the incoming torrent. Because the bus is moving so slowly, I had the opportunity to circle it a few times to get various angle shots of the bus. On the other side which I did not capture initially was van der Sar, Vidic, Owen and Scholes. I saw Bebe perched in the centre beside the trophy and I’m sure many watching the parade will ask,”Why are you there, Bebe?!” Lol. One of the noisiest among the bus crew is Evra who’s like cheerleading captain who rouses the crowd below to do a couple of chants.
There were a couple of times when I was in danger of lagging behind because of the crowd blockage in front but I make several detours from time to time to keep up. The bus then went to the highway connecting the city centre with Trafford. The drizzle intensified a little but the crowd marched on. There was once when one of the MUTV video camera seemed to be pointing my direction..lol. Looks like I’m going to be on video after all! It finally came to a point where I can’t tail the bus anymore because a large crowd was already waiting in front of Old Trafford. The chasing pack with the bus was redirected to another road where we saw the team disappear into the waiting crowd in front of the stadium. Ahhh, that ends my walk in the parade. I can’t believe that I’ve walked an hour from the city centre to the stadium! Because of all the excitement, I didn’t know how far I’ve walked too.
In any case, I can’t walk back the same way so I took the standard tram back after buying some stuff at the official merchandise shop. I kinda placed my train a little too late ahead just to ensure that I don’t get caught out. Since I’m there 2 hrs early, I just sat down at the seats and dozed off. When I woke up, I left my seat and forgot that I bought a poster from the Man Utd shop. Darnnnnn, when I realised that, I went back to find it but apparently someone took it away. Gahhh, that’s 3 pounds down the drain! Despite my several minor mishaps today from missing the train to losing my poster, it’s still a memorable rainy day. Yet another milestone achieved in England itself, and it’s a feat which may never be repeated by other Malaysians – to march alongside the Red Mancunians under the rain for 19th title parade.
Just a little reflection here, considering that I didn’t blog about the historic milestone given that the trophy ceremony fell very close to my exams. In knocking off Liverpool from their perch, United can be officially considered now as the most successful domestic English side. But cynics have noted throughout the campaign that this 19th-title winning squad is one of the weakest that Fergie has fielded. There was discontentment to deal with from Rooney, and the general perception was that the team lacked the star power. Looking back, it’s quite amusing really to see that the other rivals ended up performing worse than this so-called lousy team..haha. In the end, this team also made it to the Champions League final, something which a certain Spaniard striker failed to do for his new Blue team. It’s not a star-studded team, but it’s certainly one which worked hard. Ultimately in the end, Fergie knew he had to inject in new talent. Teamwork is already there. Now there’s a need to reinstall individuals that can make things happen. The current team has the traditional values of an English team, hardworking and determined but it fell short of the star power requirements in elimination cup games as shown by the two defeats in the FA Cup semis and CL Final. With Paul and Edwin retired, it’ll be interesting to see who’s coming in next to Old Trafford.
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