Was out last night, missus and her brother were reminiscing about Villa away, NYD 1989. 3-0 down at half time, Fergie walking down the tunnel to a chorus of "Fuck off Fergie, Fuck off Fergie" from the away end. Shame he never took them up on their request.
It's ridiculous. My experience is that they are actually losing support. They picked up a hell of a lot of glory hunters and casual 'fans' in the Ferguson era, but a lot of them have melted away. I also know and have heard of longtime United fans who have become disillusioned, lost interest and drifted away from them altogether since their decline and the rise of Abu Dhabi PRFC as well as their arch rivals from Liverpool under Mr. Klopp. They have, and always will have, a solid hardcore, but they picked up millions of fickle types in their glory days who are either 'supporting' someone else now, or have, conveniently, lost interest in football all together.
In my experience, locally nothing much has changed,while the cost is pushing some away from actually going the match, the Utd Mums and Dads are still bringing up their kids as Utd fans, none of the kids are converting to City or losing interest in the team, City fans, especially where I live, are a small minority, so they will continue as the biggest club in Manchester for a long time - it's the kids from outside the area who are easily swayed and will just follow the winners, some will have been Utd fans, before switching to Chelsea and then on to City. However,the coaches are still turning up in droves at OT though to do the tours and stuff, loads of what appears to be supporters from the China/Japan/Singapore areas of the world and the hotels are still full over match day weekends.