Abhranil Roy
Old Trafford is recognised as one of the greatest stadiums in the world , and rightly so. It has a capacity of nearly 76,000, and almost always remains full when Manchester United have a home game, no matter who the opposition is or what the competition is. The Stretford End, The South End, The Sir Alex Ferguson End and The Sir Bobby Charlton end — the four stands at the stadium make up the majority of the vociferous home support, with banners like “Adored”, ” Tearing you apart since 1991″ , ” The Impossible Dream made possible” making the atmosphere all the more intimidating. Although the glory days under Fergie now seems a distant memory, yet the Mancunian faithful have never backed down from supporting the club no matter how poor the team may have been playing. That was, until recently.
The game v Crystal Palace
United had an important home league fixture against Palace on Wednesday, and the world was shocked to see an almost half-empty Old Trafford for the first time in as long as one could remember. Even Andy Mitten, the respected ESPN United journalist, tweeted saying this was the lowest turnout at The Theatre Of Dreams for as long as he could recall. Although some parts of the stadium were closed during United’s Europa League games this season, reducing the capacity to 65,000, but that was due to the fact that the second tier of the European competition isn’t as appealing as the Champions League is, to many supporters. However, last night the empty seats were a shocking sight to behold, and Twitter went abuzz with the fact as to how Saturday would see two sets of supporters ( United and Everton) seeking for the sacking of their respective managers ( Louis van Gaal and Roberto Martinez) during the FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley.
Should it be a cause of concern?
No, it shouldn’t be. The United website showed that 75,277 tickets were sold for the game, but many probably didn’t turn up as it was a late, midweek game and the M16 highway was stuck with traffic. A lot of sources also suggested that most of the missing audience were season ticket holders, who deliberately skipped the game to show their displeasure with van Gaal’s team and tactics. In fact, a combination of the two aforementioned reasons, with the 2nd probably being more important, was why there was such an unusually low turnout. In fact, the Emirates too saw a low headcount during Arsenal’s game against West Bromwich Albion last night, due to the same factors.
I am sure that supporters will turn up in droves to cheer for the Devils come the next matchday, but the management should address their concerns regarding the manager and his playing style as soon as possible to prevent further recurrences of this scenario.
