Though our club may be named United, it is more than fair to say our fanbase certainly isn’t. As much as we all share a love for our football club to levels other fanbases struggle to match, there are many core issues and disagreements that separate us, as anyone who has ever been to a pub on match day or glanced at #NUFC Twitter will be able to tell you. Nowadays, there seem to be two core groups that best emphasise the divide in the fanbase, the so-called ‘Happy Clappers’, and the Cynics.
‘Happy Clappers’ is a term coined by the more cynical in our fanbase, used as an insult to the fans who are so happy with where the club is currently that they’re far more accepting of any problems or setbacks we may face. This section of the fanbase is so glad to be done with the torturous reigns of Mike Ashley, Steve Bruce and the like that the smaller issues fail to get them down. They’re certainly the more joyful side of the fanbase, at least on social media.
The Cynical side of our fanbase, who unfortunately don’t have such a catchy nickname, would argue that the Happy Clappers are unambitious and willing to accept mediocrity. As much as the cynics are equally grateful the Ashley era is over, they see it as a thing of the past and are sick of hearing about how much worse off we were before the takeover.
From their perspective, the happy-clapper mentality is holding the club back from true success. After years of suffering, this section of supporters is sick of waiting for success and wants us to cut to the chase sooner rather than later.
They are frustrated at the lack of signings, the messier aspects of the club behind the scenes, and in particular many of the tactics displayed by Eddie Howe last season. A smaller subsection of this group still wants Howe axed and replaced with a higher-profile manager, as they do not believe Howe is the man to lead us to trophies. The fans they label Happy Clappers would call these lot ungrateful and entitled, given how they seemingly underappreciate the undeniable leaps of progress the club has made in the last few years.
During the Ashley era there was a similar split, with many fans choosing to boycott, cancel their tickets and refuse to buy any club merchandise due to the hatred for Ashley. Of course, there was nobody in the fanbase who disagreed with the contempt for the man, but the other half of the fanbase continued to attend and invest due to their love for the club outweighing their hatred for Ashley. Both sets of fans displayed clear love for the club in very different ways, as one side was willing to miss out on seeing their club play for what they saw to be the greater good, whilst the other refused to stop attending no matter how bad we were suffering.
Despite the fact we all probably lean one way or the other slightly when it comes to these mentalities and the way we support the club, it is almost certainly the vocal minority who make the fanbase appear so divided. Most fans can display gratitude for our progress whilst also being able to criticise our flaws and mistakes, but we could all probably do a bit better at trying to do both in equal measure.
I’m sure I read this before a few days ago
PremAndUp(Quote)
Was posted in error at the time, so we rescheduled for today 👍
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
I have a good name for the set of fans who want everything yesterday and are constantly spitting out their dummies because we haven’t made massive signings already despite the fact we are prevented from doing so by rules that have been put in place to protect the so called big 6, “prospective man united fans”.
Dean Carlyle(Quote)
Benefits absolutely nobody having an ‘ambitious’ fanbase, ambitious owners yes, ambitious manager and players yes, fans no
Chris Parker(Quote)
Sure didn’t we have people attack the club and Bruno for us losing to City at the Etihad.
The “cynics” need a good shake. It’s mental. Just because you refuse to be a moany spoiled brat, doesn’t make you a happy clapper.
The club haven’t really made any mistakes outside of the PSR issues, and who was the DoF when we ran into that? Yep and he’s gone.
Let’s wait until we have a reason to complain before we actually start complaining.
Sure the amount of people moaning about articles on this site over last few days too, there’s a weird negativity in the fanbase. Maybe some of them are just conditioned to it from the MA days.
Toonali87(Quote)
The cynics fail to realize the club is ahead of schedule. Making Champions League in the first full season under new ownership gave the cynics too much ammunition when the inevitable step back happened last season – despite that being predicted by many experts who saw we weren’t deep enough to play so many matches. And the injuries proved the experts correct. I’ll call myself a realist instead of a cynic or a happy clapper and thanks for agreeing. 😀
Mike(Quote)
Although we’re not perfect, yet, I’m loving the ride at the moment and far more delighted to be numbered among the happy clappers (though I admittedly am still frustrated and disappointed when we don’t win) than be a constantly moaning miserable git. I suspect we ‘happy clappers’ have several nicknames for them.
Tonytoon(Quote)
Fans from every club will have differing opinions so to say there are only two groups ie cynics and happy clappers is nonsense.
Fans opinions will differ depending on results, the owners, players and management performance they may feel cynical one week and happy the next but they are united in the fact they all want their team to do well.
Joseph(Quote)
When you say “needless divide” do you mean that we should not allow free will at the club?
I suppose it’s a natural progression of being taken over by the Saudis.
BykerBill(Quote)
Click bait **** .. guy is pretending To write for the daily star ..
Mike(Quote)
I think our fanbase is far more diverse than this. There are subsections and subsections of those. Yes I gave up my season ticket and went on the marches but there are current aspects that delight me like the spirit and togetherness of the whole squad. Disappointed we lost our figureheads does not have me calling out for anyones head or changes in policy.
Excited for the new season wish we could upgrade one or two players faster but hey we are where we are and given an injury free run we are top 5 material once again.
Oh and we are now included in Sky’s Big Seven whatever that is worth.
Meerkat(Quote)
As a long-time Newcastle fan, I think this article speaks to the current divisiveness in the community. Everyone has the right to have different expectations, but it is unfortunate that we are turning to criticizing each other instead of uniting. I believe that if everyone supported the team in a positive way, Newcastle would go much further gunspin
Joel W. Charles(Quote)