Football Poets

Woe United

¶ 1 Leave a comment on verse 1 0 Oh it used to be the Theatre of Dreams
And yet now spirits are restless
In the wings
Where Coppell and Hill lived
And thrived
But now
Off stage and in the dressing room
Haunted and thwarted
Never flaunting in the
Way Sir Matt would have demanded
Angst, anguish and altercation
At Manchester United
In fact twisted turmoil
Rather than blood
That somebody in football
Was once heard to utter
United crippled with divisions
Dire warnings
Behind the scenes fury
A hint of both accident
And emergency
Almost a medical apocalypse
What on earth would pass
The lips of Fergie
Yesterday the Seagulls
Of Brighton came to Old Trafford
Treading those boards
Magnificently
While the lead protagonists
Almost froze on stage
Several pennies for thoughts
Sir Bobby Charlton and Denis Law
The knights of distinction
Where once Viollet, Bent, the
Beautifully blessed Duncan Edwards
Lives snuffed out tragically
By Munich airport runway
Also claimed Tommy Taylor
Roger Byrne
Yes the Busby Babes
What would they have made of
This modern day Greek tragedy?
United racked and rocked
By the Glazer family
Old Trafford girders and
Cantilevers,
Tottering and teetering
In early autumnal gusts
Of wind and rain
The Stretford End
Now threatening riots
On the streets of Salford
The empires built by Sir Matt
and Frank o’Farell
Smashed to smithereens
Then the philosophical Dave Sexton
Too nice for football management
Before Ron Atkinson discovered
Flamboyance in United’s back catalogue
Whiteside, Hughes, Robson, Strachan
It could have been so much more
But now United in the land of
Agonised struggling, striving
And scrimping
McTominay still fresh and possibly
Poised for greater things
But not a Beckham, Giggs or
Butt, most certainly not
Football genuinely grieves
For the pitiful plight
That now faces Manchester United
Whose landscape once boasted
European Champions nights
Of bold but now cold
United were always our
Second favourite team
Since their football
Pushed back all frontiers
And broke record breaking boundaries
Sir Matt the pioneer,
Of the Red Devils resurrection
Now though Erik Ten Hag
Drowning in sorrows
Clinging desperately onto
Life rafts not at the ready
Yet at their disposal
If needed but not yet
But sinking in the quicksand
If they’re not careful
Five games now into the birth
Of another Premier League
Season of see saws
Manchester United woe for
A while at least
The neutrals wish the very best
For you and yours
Since United were the best
Of the rest
When Bestie’s snake hips
Shuffled, darted, dummied
Humiliated and then hurt
Nutmegged with carefree glee
The opposition at any
Given moment
What a tease were those
Twinkling Irish feet
And yet in the class of 2023
United are languishing
The laughing stock of
Football’s comedy club
But not here
United reaching out for
Something to hold onto
Of course the legends
In everybody’s estimation
And respect rubber stamped
In our affections
Manchester United
A force for good
And everything that
Football finds favourable
And beneficial to the soul
Hopefully a temporary blip
Here and now
But football needs
A Manchester United
In command of their gifts
And arts
Where the sciences of
The game will always reside
Shaped and refined
Manchester United
To a samba beat

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