The identity of Manchester United Football Club has been shaped by innumerable matches, events, people and places across the club’s 144 year history. Countless players, fans and club associates have been and gone, leaving behind legacies which have helped create and shape United as we know it and the community around it. Many events both on and off the pitch have had lasting impacts not only on the club and it’s fans, but also on the wider social and cultural landscape of the football world and beyond. Glorious victories and devastating tragedies have been pivotal not only to the development of the team and our honours list, but also to the formation of the values of the club and it’s fanbase.
Remembering and commemorating the people and events that have shaped our collective history is hugely important to our sense of identity and community as fans. We all love a bit of nostalgia. Our next issue, “Remembrance”, will look at how we remember and mark our past and how we commemorate the people, places and events that have shaped our collective history. We will look at how songs, flags, fanzines, and other written and visual images are created by fans to remember and memorialise key people, events, and places. We will talk to individuals, groups and organisations dedicated to upholding the memory of those we have lost, and will look at how we collectively celebrate, mourn, remember and commemorate club legends and other fans, through both official and unofficial channels.
We are looking for contributions of all sorts to feature in the coming edition. We’re a written publication and we’d love people to write articles, personal reflections, historical pieces and other forms of written contributions, but there are loads of other ways you can contribute if writing isn’t your thing. We’d love to interview anyone with a story to tell. We’d love to hear about friends and family members who are no longer with us and their lives supporting United. We’d love to talk to you about your recollections of important people and events and write it up for you, to speak to your elderly relatives about their memories, to be put in touch with people with a connection to a player or someone else at the club. We want to hear about your project, flag, song, collection, organisation, or other way that you’ve created a memorial or way of remembering people, places and events. We would really love to see your photos and the stories behind them, and share them with a wider audience. We would appreciate being made aware of any heritage plaques, public artworks, statues, or other forms of public memorials related to United in Manchester and beyond. Please contact us at deepestredmag@gmail.com with any suggestions, snippets photos, ideas or contacts, we would absolutely love to hear from you.