They stood United and
THERE was no referee’s whistle, no announcement. Slowly, of its own accord, the aptly named Friends Arena fell into a reverential silence.
The players were lined up around the centre-circle already, but the period of remembrance was a curiously natural process. 50,000 voices from all over Europe suddenly stilled.
A couple of idiots tried to ruin things by shouting obscenities. It merely highlighted the pathetic insignificance of an individual loser against the unified determination of the people.
When the call for silence belatedly came over the Tannoy, Manchester had different ideas. United fans, joined quickly by their Ajax counterparts, went instead for applause. Followed by cheers. “Manchester! Manchester! Manchester!”
They were not here to mourn the lives – old but mainly young – that were lost at the Manchester IN STOCKHOLM Arena. That will process will happen in far too many private tear-filled ceremonies around the region in the coming days.
Instead, they were here to celebrate Manchester, being Mancunian and all that involves. United’s participation in the final had merely given them a world stage on which to do so.
Sadly, the club itself is no stranger to tragedy and the appalling Munich air crash in 1958 remains as relevant in the hearts of fans today as it ever has.
Banners at Old Trafford and wherever they travel convey that reverence, but sentiments such as “Forever and ever” and “We’ll never die” had added poignancy last night. Outside the stadium, fans had continued their usual pre-match libations under a banner of “United Against Terrorism – Lest We Forget”. The unspoken horrors of what happened on Monday were fresh in the minds, but this was people going about their lives and – why not? – enjoying themselves. Around the city, sporadic chanting had been heard all day from pockets of Stockholm’s 17 islands littered across the sparkling blue water of Lake Malaren and the Baltic Sea. Events like Monday’s bombing do change things, however. In an unforeseen way, the ghastly context of this game actually helped ease the mood. Around bars and squares, there was an amiable confidence among locals and rival fans that nobody would be crass enough to overstep the mark and cause trouble. So it was that, as those