Let's try a little thought experiment. Let's say the situation was reversed. Suppose Sunday's game had been at Anfield. Liverpool had won 4-3 with virtually the last kick of extra time and, at various points of the match, the Kop had been singing songs mocking the dead of the Manchester Arena bombing which came over loud and clear on TV. How would we have been feeling on Sunday night?
I can only speak for myself of course, but any pleasure I'd have felt at the result would have been dwarfed by feelings of anger, disgust and shame at the behaviour of our supporters. I think I'd have been e mailing an apology to the Manchester Evening News, knowing that the apology wouldn't be accepted, that it probably wouldn't even be printed or displayed, but feeling compelled for my own self respect to do it anyway. I'd have also been calling on our club to identify as many of the culprits as possible and make sure they don't see the inside of Anfield again.
The most depressing thing about the tragedy chanting on Sunday wasn't so much the chanting itself, we've all heard those chants before, but the complete shoulder shrugging indifference of practically everyone connected with Man Utd. With the sole exception of Jim White in the Telegraph, I've seen nothing from any Man Utd journalist, nothing from any of their supporter groups, nothing from any of their ex-player pundits or Youtubers. Nothing at all, except the usual, tedious whataboutery on social media.
And today we have Jim Ratcliff calling us "enemies" and saying he doesn't care who wins the Premier League between Liverpool, City and Arsenal because he "hates all three". That's where they are now. This is their new leader. Their saviour. A man so lacking in any semblance of leadership or moral courage that he feels the need to curry favour with the knuckle draggers in the stands by tipping them the wink that they have boardroom permission to carry on 'hating'.
The fact is that singing about people being crushed to death at football matches is now an accepted part of Man Utd fan culture. Thousands of their fans chant that filth, and those that don't actually chant it themselves are apparently perfectly okay with it being chanted. To anyone who tells me that's unfair I'd just say fine. Show me the evidence to the contrary then. I haven't seen any.
It's actually sad to see what's happened to Man Utd over the past couple of decades or so. What was once a great football club and a great British sporting institution has now degenerated into a sick parody, with a culture that's utterly rancid from the top down.
The media keep calling Man Utd v Liverpool the greatest rivalry in football. There's no rivalry there at all as far as I'm concerned, any more than there was a 'rivalry' between loyalists and republicans in Northern Ireland. Rivalry requires at least a measure of respect, however grudging. Blind hate is not rivalry. In fact, it's virtually the opposite. And blind hate is virtually all they have to offer now.