Some of my favourite posters in the past and present about City have vastly different opinions to myself on the club.

 

Don’t believe me?

 

Ok… here we go…

 

Steve Atkinson loved Grant McCann more than I ever could.

 

Stu Wallis disagrees with most things I say.

 

I’d guess Tony Turner finds me far too serious.

 

Richard Gardham has a much more positive view of David Burns than I do. As does Geoff Bielby.

 

Luke Flanagan will never understand why myself and Rich Walker love wrestling so much.

 

Bentos pretty much only agrees with my music.

 

Listening to Brian Lee on the “This was Boothferry Park” podcast I think he believes in Adam Pearson a lot more than I would…

 

I could continue.

 

But here’s my point, maybe it’s a 2022 thing with the mainstream political behaviour of senior figures in more than one country, but disagreeing seems to have become so much more tribal than it once was. People just don’t discuss things any more. It’s too often a case of, I’ve said what I’ve said so I’m just going to stick to it when I look wrong and wait for something to change to prove me right again.

 

Tom Eaves is a lovely case in point. He’s almost never played in a two up front with good players crossing the ball, until this Autumn when injuries made Grant McCann go 3-5-2 and all of a sudden we saw the player that we’d been looking for over two years. My repost had been from day one that he simply wasn’t a player to thrive in a 4-3-3, he needed crosses and didn’t have the athleticism to cover the ground in GM’s preferred formation. Yet multiple Tweeters are still hanging on in there as part of the whole “Tom Eaves isn’t good enough” camp. It’s not a good look, he’s shown himself to be an effective option if we use him correctly. Saying otherwise makes you look a little silly, nobody is saying he’s prime Shearer but he’s also not 1995 Andy Brown either.

 

But don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a “I’m cleverer than you” piece, because sometimes dear reader, I talk twaddle, I get things absolutely wrong and I’d like to think I’ve shown some humility in that area. Go look at my pinned tweet for example. I thought that the long and direct game of Cardiff this autumn would break the winning streak we went on. Not only didn’t it, but it barely made a mark on us and we went on to deservedly win. So I’ve kept that tweet up top to remind myself. We all get things wrong sometimes and should embrace it.

 

How many players have we seen start badly and then rise up to be far better than we thought at first? Michael Turner did not start well, Billy Whitehurst couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a dustbin, Abel Hernandez looked like a dud, Richard Jobson did not rip it up and had a meltdown to boot, Paul McShane was all over the place. It might not be very vogue to admit you’re wrong but eventually we all are more than once.

 

Those who don’t ever put their hands up to ever being wrong just frankly begin to lose credibility and as a consequence look weaker also. This includes everyone, the media, the fans, the manager, the players. Grant McCann almost certainly showed humility towards his players but not in public which probably added to the vitriol against him. It doesn’t help anyone. Steve Bruce will be a popular manager for a lot of City fans but one of the main reasons I remember him well is he did exactly the opposite of GM. He rained on the parade of several interviewers by telling them how poor everyone was including himself. That’s refreshing and I respected him more. I think we can all think of a few “self-appointed experts” who think they are right even when they turn left and the only person that really impresses is themselves.

 

Now, there’s exceptions where you just can’t find common ground with the certain Absentee Fun Runners, Mail Order bride orderers or MBE bragging patronisers and I’m not asking you to attempt to debate with extreme cases. There’s no talking with these cretins, however I am encouraging you to have a civil interaction with a fellow city fan that doesn’t necessarily see things the same way as you. The discussion may just do you a little good and emerging from it without calling someone a “flag nonce” or an “oxygen thief” may also be good for the soul.

 

I like the fact that City fans come in all shapes and sizes, have a varied amount of opinions and backgrounds and don’t all think the same. There’s teams not too far away from Hull where if you’ve spoken to one fan, you’ve spoken to them all. (of course I’d never reveal the identity of these scarf twirling European champion pretending idiots because that wouldn’t be nice would it?) and you can’t say the same for us. Let’s not become like that club who are synonymous with small minded, petty and ancient opinions eh? You might not agree with every other fan but active and constructive disagreement is not only a good thing, it’s a necessary thing and it’s a sign of free thinking. I mean apart from Dave Fergus obviously….

 

Thanks for reading, I’m off to find a twenty something and explain to him why Peter Skipper was better than Michael Dawson… UTT