[The following post is from the archives of my In Search Of Incredible blog, originally published on 26 September 2016]
5 December 2015, Saturday
It’s matchday! The day we had been eagerly anticipating for was finally here. In a few hours’ time, we would be watching Manchester United play against West Ham United at Old Trafford. With a 3pm kick off, we had a couple of hours to spare in the morning before heading to OT. A light drizzle had fallen over Manchester, giving sis and SJ more incentive to stay in bed longer, while I braved the chilly winds and wet weather to go to the town centre for a spot of early morning shopping.
My first destination was unsurprisingly, a record shop. It is my utmost mission to visit as many record shops as possible whenever I am overseas. Today’s priority was to visit Fopp, a small music and movie chain with only nine stores in the UK and Scotland. The Manchester store is located at 19 Brown Street, hidden in a small lane off Market Street.
Fopp isn’t as large as the HMV store located just a stone’s throw away at Arndale Shopping Centre, but it is comfortably spread out over two storeys (ground floor and a basement) and the range is good enough. I later realised that Fopp is somewhat affiliated with HMV after Fopp fell into administration and HMV came to its rescue, typical of record stores given the dismal state of the music industry.
As usual, I spent about an hour or so going through every single rack and left the store a satisfied customer. I then went back to the apartment and rejoined sis and SJ to get ready for our trip to OT.
In fact, this would be my third time watching a Man Utd match at Old Trafford, and I am fully aware of how fortunate I am to able to watch my favourite team in action more than once. The previous two times were in 2009 and 2014, against Bolton Wanderers (winning 2-1) and Cardiff City (winning 2-0) respectively. Interestingly, for this third match today, I would be watching the team play under a different manager yet again – in 2009, it was Sir Alex Ferguson in charge; in 2014, the ill-fated David Moyes was at the helm; today, it would be Louis van Gaal in the manager’s seat.
For the October 2009 match, my two friends and I managed to get really good seats just a few rows away from the pitch. We were almost at the pitch level and we could see the players clearly whenever they came by our side of the pitch. On this occasion, we still hadn’t got our tickets with less than one month to go before the match. But thankfully, there were still good seats available when we signed up to join the official One United fanclub membership in order to be entitled to buy the tickets. The membership then cost £30.00 (approx. S$68.00, based on the exchange rate of £1=S$2.27 at the time) and the ticket itself cost £43.00 (S$100.00), so the total price of our ticket to watch the match was £73.00 (S$168.00). It was comparable to the amount I pay to watch a concert. For the seats that we got, it was worth it.
For the January 2014 match, my friend and I went through the same process to get our tickets. We signed up for the membership in early November 2013. Despite there still being two months to go before the match, the good seats were gone and we could only get seats high up in the stands. The membership price had increased to £32.00 (approx. S$67.50, based on the exchange rate of £1=S$2.11 at the time), and the ticket price was £44.30 (S$93.50), so we paid £76.30 (S$161.00) altogether.
For today’s match, we weren’t so lucky. When we seriously planned for our trip in end August 2015, all the regular tickets were already sold out and the only way we could get tickets was to buy the expensive Matchday VIP package, which guaranteed tickets and promised some of the best seats in the stadium. The VIP experience also includes a 3-course meal, Q&A with a former player, a matchday programme and gift, 10% discount voucher for the Megastore and complimentary parking upon request.
There are few types of Matchday VIP packages available, and obviously, we chose the cheapest one available, which was the Red Café Pre Match package. Still, it cost £199.00 per person. Mind you, that price listed on the website is before an additional 20% VAT charge, so it actually cost £238.80 for one package, and you only see this figure when you reach the payment page. It’s quite sneaky.
(Update: I just noticed that the website has been revamped and the prices that are now being displayed include VAT. Maybe they received too many complaints about this issue and decided to make it more transparent.)
Based on the credit card exchange rate of £1=S$2.23 at the time, it translates to S$532.43 per person for one Red Café Pre Match VIP package. Ouch! But we had no choice, as it was sis’ dream to watch Man Utd in action at OT, so we just sucked it up and bought it. So the big question is, does the Matchday VIP package experience justify its hefty S$532.43 price tag?
According to the website, the VIP experience begins three hours before kick off. So we set aside ample time to reach OT so that we could squeeze out every ounce of our VIP experience. Like the day before, we took the Metrolink tram to OT, the only difference being that there were a lot more people sporting Man Utd jerseys today and there was excited chatter about the upcoming match in the air.
After we alighted, we were accosted by many people selling matchday scarves. We bought a scarf each for £10.00 just to keep them from pestering us further, and also because it was a good souvenir. There was a carnival like atmosphere in the air, as unofficial merchandise booths displayed their wares and food stalls sold hot dogs to hungry customers.
When we reached OT at 12:15pm, we had to undergo a bag check as security was tight. We spent only a short time taking photos outside the stadium as we had already taken many pictures yesterday. We then proceeded to queue up to enter the Red Café and saw a long line already being formed. There were easily 100 hundred people or more in line. Suddenly, we didn’t feel like VIPs anymore.
The line moved slowly as there was another round of bag checks, which was even more stringent than the one earlier. When we finally reached our turn, the stewards refused to let me bring in my DSLR camera and I had to run to a booth at the next building to deposit my camera before they allowed me entry. My DSLR had just a normal 18-55mm lens and it couldn’t even zoom more than 3 times, and yet it was still disallowed. Disappointing. By the time we finally took our seats at the restaurant, it was already 12:55pm.
The Red Café was packed to the brim, with tables positioned so closely to one another it was hard to walk through. As we were being ushered to our table, we were offered a welcome drink. I chose a glass of Aperol Spritz, a traditional Italian aperitif cocktail. It was bitter and didn’t taste great.
When we reached our tiny table, we saw that it was laid out with three goodie bags and a VIP lanyard for each of us. Inside the goodie bag was a copy of the matchday programme and an A5-sized Man Utd notebook and pen, which was quite nice. There were also contest forms to predict the full-time score and to take part in the matchday quiz, which consisted of 20 questions and was difficult so we didn’t attempt it.
The meal consisted of a starter, a main course and a dessert, and there were options for each course. I chose the wild mushroom and tarragon soup with garlic croutons for the starter, the roast loin of Suffolk pork with crackling, sage mash, pea puree, pancetta and apricot bonbon with an apple cidar jus for the mains, and a selection of British cheeses crackers, chutney and grapes for my dessert. Sis and SJ chose the other items so that we could try out the different dishes. For drinks, I ordered a glass of orange juice. If I didn’t remember wrongly, the liquor was chargeable so I didn’t order any beer or wine. For the record, the food was actually quite good.
While we were enjoying our meal, the host brought out a former player for the Q&A session. We were hoping it would be someone we liked, maybe Ruud van Nistelrooy or Paul Scholes, but no, it was Dion Dublin. To be honest, I didn’t know who he was. The host questioned him about injuries (as Man Utd was undergoing a rough patch at the time with a whole slate of key players out injured) and Dion Dublin recalled the story of how his own career as a Man Utd player was hampered because of injuries, and how it affected him personally.
I just consulted Wikipedia and found out that Dublin played for Man Utd for just two full seasons (1992-1994) and made only 17 appearances as a Red Devil. He’s a former player all right, so the marketing materials for the Matchday VIP package did not lie, but you’ll have to keep your expectations in check…more likely than not, it’s going to be a Massimo Taibi or Eric Djemba-Djemba rather than a RVN or Scholesy.
Dion Dublin wasn’t the only former player that appeared during our meal. After revealing the winner of the matchday quiz and singing happy birthday songs for the guests who were celebrating their hatchdays here at OT today, the host announced that he was honoured to introduce to us a Man Utd legend. We waited with bated breath to see who this legend would be. Could it be Eric Cantona or Ryan Giggs??
Well, it was none other than…Alex Stepney! Erm, so who is he exactly? The host told us that he is one of the club’s most distinguished goalkeepers, but neither sis nor I had any clue who he was. Nevertheless, he was very gracious and came round to every table to chat with the fans and gamely posed for photos and selfies with us.
Similarly, I just consulted Wikipedia and found out that Alex Stepney is really quite the legend. He played 546 games for Man Utd between 1966 and 1978, kept 175 clean sheets, made a then-club record of 92 consecutive appearances and scored two goals, becoming Man Utd’s top scoring goalkeeper. His greatest achievement was winning the European Cup in 1967/1968, with Man Utd becoming the first English club to do so. Hats off to you, Alex Stepney, and a pleasure to meet you!
As our VIP experience winded down and we finished consuming the last bits of dessert, the host announced that it was time to take our seats in the stadium for the match. We were ushered out of the Red Café and to our special Matchday VIP Seating section at block N3408 of the Alex Ferguson Stand. Having paid a bomb for the tickets, we were expecting great seats that were close to the action. However, we were to be disappointed yet again as our seats were very high up and far away. I really expected better.
The line up of the day was: David De Gea, Juan Mata, Anthony Martial, Chris Smalling (Captain), Daley Blind, Marouane Fellaini, Morgan Schneiderlin, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Paddy McNair, Jesse Lingard and Matteo Darmian. Certainly not one of our best starting lineups.
The match turned out to be just as disappointing, as Man Utd struggled to create any decent chances and played languidly with their characteristic sideways and backwards passing under LVG. The substitutes were equally uninspiring and didn’t have an impact on the play – Gullermo Varela (who’s that?), Memphis Depay and Michael Carrick. I would have been okay with a draw had it been packed with end-to-end action and good play from both teams, but the match was tepid and painful to watch. It was the worst possible result as there were no goals for us to cheer about, and it felt like a great waste of money in the end.
(Update: LVG has since been sacked and Mourinho has replaced him. Maybe I can watch them play again…and it’ll be my 4thMan Utd match with a 4th manager in charge!)
As the match ended, all 75,350 spectators streamed out in an orderly manner. Actually, many people walked out before the match ended so the figure should be less than 75,350 by the end of the match. We queued up and waited patiently for the tram to take us back to the city. We then had dinner and spent the remaining hours window shopping at the city centre before calling it a night. It was a disappointing end to our Manchester stint, but life goes on. And we’ll be moving on to Berlin next!
