To the Souls That Support MUFC: Chins Up, My Brethren

Sometimes, supporting a big club is an easy thing to do. On other days, though, it can be a real bitch.

It's easy when your team lifts the Premier League title for the tenth time. It’s a piece of cake when your squad defeats its closest league rival in a European final on penalties after being behind.

But when you let your fiercest rivals get the double over you (absolutely thrashing you at your own den) and follow it up with another disaster against a team that hasn’t beaten you at their home ground since your dad was born, life's a bit screwed up. And when two of your most influential players get sent off with another tough game soon to come, yeah, it's kinda hard to stay chipper.

Fans of lesser clubs can deal with getting knocked out of the FA Cup by their city rivals, or out of the Carling Cup by a team almost two divisions below them, but we have a very high standard to follow. And that’s what sets us apart from any other group of fans in the world.

This is Manchester United Football Club we are talking about. A damn plane crash couldn’t stop us from becoming the first English European Champions, so what are two back-to-back defeats?

We still lead by a minimum of one point with a game in hand, and our most dangerous title rivals (or at least our most consistent title rivals) lost an inter-city derby today. It could be far worse, you know!

Now is not a time to panic! We are leading the table and have an extra game to play against Portsmouth at home, which we can be counted upon to win. We have drawn FC Porto in the Champions League. We are in the FA Cup semifinal against a dangerous-looking Everton, which will be one of our major games from here on, but we're still favoured in that one.

Yes, all these games being on the docket means we will play more than any other team in the league. But for Christ’s sake, we had played almost twenty more games than Fulham when we took them on today!

That’s what makes these defeats worth it. We have bigger things to worry about than crying over spilt milk.

Overall, it boils down to keeping our heads in this time of crisis. Obviously, the best way is to take a positive approach towards our troubles.

Let’s look at Vida’s absence as a chance for young Johnny Evans to cement his place as our second choice centre half and first choice once Rio gets onto the worse part of 30.

Let’s look at Rooney’s (unnecessary) sending off as a chance for Tevez to get some good games in while he is still in good form.

Let Anderson play to prove his worth in Scholsey’s absence!

And we can all look forward to the return of Gary and Rafael to relieve Sheasy of all his troubles. I don’t quite think the Irishman knew he was signing up for so many games in just one season!

The return of Rafael will certainly add pace on our right flank, something we have been missing throughout this season due to Brown’s continued absence. This is going to make us so much more lethal on the counter-attack.

In fact, the dismissals are hardly going to affect us. We don’t have a single player in the team who brings the team’s quality down, and Tevez, Evans, Anderson and Rafael are certainly welcome additions to any team in the world.

All in all, let’s kick back and enjoy the ride. It’s gonna be a rough one, probably including a few more disappointments; it'll certainly have amazing thrills, very close encounters, and hopefully a few Ronaldo goals. We are the only team in the history of the Champions League to get past the knock-out stages a season after being crowned champions, so there is one "voodoo doll" already laid to rest.

There are cracks in this team, you cannot deny it. We aren’t the invincible squad the media made us out to be. But the truth is, I never believed we were. We were just the best team in England, Europe, and the world, with trophies in our cabinets to prove it.

Sixty games in a season is bound to take its toll on a player. Evra, Van Der Sar, and Ronaldo are three players who have played most of these games, apart from Vidic and Ferdinand, of course. So it’s understandable that these guys have a few off games.

But writing off any of these guys is a huge mistake. Our duty as fans is to get behind them; let us not forget that. These are the times when our team needs us. Let us not be the "glory hunters" we are often accused of being. Let us just believe we can still do it, because there is nothing pointing to the contrary.

But above all, just let us all get on with life as supporters of the best damn team in the world. And like it.

Ciao, hope to see you in Rome!