A defiant Manchester City fan has taken a 21st century stand against manager Manuel Pellegrini – by promising that he won’t tweet again until the Chilean has waved ‘adios’ to the Etihad.
Mat, more popularly known to his Twitter followers as Big D, is a 19-year-old City fan from mid-Wales, and has been a Blue for most of his life.
But a mixture of what Mat deems ‘disappointing signings’ and ‘poor tactical displays’ have pushed him to a social media strike.
Last ever tweet until Pellegrini gets sacked. #PellegriniOut
— Big D (@Zabology) March 1, 2015
Along with his City-mad dad, Mat regularly travels to games and has a season ticket reserved for next year.
But if he had it his way, that season ticket would be for a Man City side under new stewardship, as his patience for the title-winning man in charge has expired.
Speaking to MM on whether his tweet ban is the real deal, Mat said: “I am serious, despite me knowing it will have no effect on anyone or anything, but I feel good.
“It’s a win-win situation, seeing as I can’t tweet I will do other stuff!
“I was inspired by other similar tweets such as ‘Not tweeting again until MCFC score a corner’. He hasn’t tweeted to this day – a few RTs here and there but nothing major.”
The league champions have been in unremarkable form of late, being dumped out of the FA cup on home soil by Championship side Middlesbrough, and now face an ominously uphill struggle to overcome Barcelona in the second leg of their last 16 Champions League tie.
Some fans have grown tired Pellegrini’s tactics, and Mat insists his non-tweeting vow has been building up for some time.
“I lost patience a while ago, but stuck by him because every manager has bad patches,” he said.
“We have made overrated signings that I thought were going to be top class. Fernando is a massive let-down and Mangala is no better than Lescott.
“He plays the same formation week in week out. Even in the Champions League against Europe’s elite. It doesn’t work. I’m fed up with his bluntness. I won’t disrespect him but he is not the man to take this club forward.”
Twitter allows fans to discuss and analyse football on a larger scale than ever before, and in many ways brings them closer to interaction with the players and coaching staff than they have been for decades.
While Mat admits that his campaign alone is unlikely to cause too much of a stir in the City boardroom, he thinks social media does empower fans to vocalise their feelings in new ways.
“It lets us have a fair bit of power, because the likes of big company’s like Sky Sports and BT always interact with fans via polls,” he said.
“They are always asking for views and it’s a good platform. It also has negative power though. We can easily abuse players in excessive amounts and numbers and it’s disheartening.”
He vows to keep his word on the Twitter blackout, regardless of results, but like probably any fan of the game, is willing to admit he can find it in his heart to forgive the manager if he brings home a trophy to the Etihad’s growing collection of silverware.
Mat says he would love to see the club tempt Diego Simeone to Manchester next, but until then, he is adamant that he won’t post a single tweet. Not even once in a blue moon.
Image courtesy of Carl Racine and Action Images, with thanks.
