More than Manchester 不只是曼徹斯特 (中)
Talk to those who have studied United — or who just love it with a passion —
about what it is that makes the club special, and they keep coming back to
United's death and rebirth. I asked my friend Mark Hider, a fan and top
advertising executive in New York City who knows something about branding,
how important Munich and its legacy was to United's appeal. "The honest
answer?" he said. "A lot." The club, Hider argues, has "kept the stories, the
myths, the legends around the brand very live for the fans." (Go to the
club's website, look at the banners at Old Trafford that memorialize Munich,
see the statue of the Holy Trinity outside the stadium, and you'll see what
he means.) Charlton, now 73, is a director of the club, which since 2005 has
been owned by the Glazer family, which also owns the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in
the U.S.'s National Football League. More than that, says Hider, Charlton is
the club's conscience, a living link to a talented group of young men, his
close friends, whose promise was snuffed out.
如果和曼聯專家或是曼聯球迷聊天，聊聊到底是什麼東西造就了如此不平凡的曼聯，他們
都會說曼聯是如同小草般在狂風吹拂後能一次再一次挺立，這就是曼聯。
我問了一個在紐約當廣告品牌AE的曼聯迷老友，慕尼黑的空難事件在曼聯當前的光榮中
扮演了多重要的角色。他說『事實上，呃，滿重要的。這家俱樂部保留了許多活生生的故
事、神話還有傳奇給他們的球迷們。』(去看曼聯官網，去看看老特拉福每年到了五月一定
會掛上紀念慕尼黑空難的大布條，去看看球場前那傳奇的三位一體的雕像，你就會知道他
的意思了) 更扯的是，三位一體雕像中的博比．查爾頓爵士，73歲了，從18歲時為曼聯上
場比賽，歷經了毀滅性的慕尼黑空難，隨後也品嚐到歐洲冠軍的滋味，這位活傳奇目前正
在擔任這家俱樂部的董事。查爾頓爵士的榜樣讓有天份的年輕球員們了解到該如何自處。
而這正是他的好友，傳奇曼聯七號 - 喬治貝斯特無法達到的。
Put like that, of course, United's deployment of the Munich story as a brand
attribute sounds like a mawkish romanticization of death, a bit like those
statues of Confederate soldier boys wistfully gazing north that dot towns in
the American South. But there's more to it than that. The point about the
Babes is not just that so many of them died; it is also that they were young
and that they played thrilling, attacking football. It's the memory of that
youth and beauty, says Hider, that is the yin to the tragedy's yang.
這樣說好了，當然，慕尼黑空難造就了曼聯的悲劇特質也太浪漫化了(下面那句看不懂
暫時不翻)。巴斯比的寶貝們的逝去，不僅僅是肉體的灰飛煙滅，同時他們最擅長的進攻
足球也消逝了，年輕有活力的足球之美在那一瞬間毀滅了。這正是慕尼黑空難之所以如此
令人悲傷的原因。
He's not alone. Time and again, talking to people about United, those two
things — "We give youth a chance; we attack" — come up. And it's true.
Edwards was just 16 when he first played for United; Ryan Giggs, now 37 and
the team's evergreen midfielder, was 17. Charlton was 18, as was Cristiano
Ronaldo, now with Real Madrid, and the Brazilian twins Rafael and Fabio da
Silva. David Beckham, now with Adidas and sundry other sponsors, was 19 when
he first started a game. And all those — plus scores more who have passed
through United's system — were players skillful and exciting enough that
neutrals would pay good money to see them.
他不是一個人XD。隨著時間的流逝，人們口中那個年輕、攻擊的曼聯真的回來了。鄧肯．
華德華茲當初第一次替曼聯上陣時才16歲。吉格斯，這個現在依舊能在場上奔馳的37歲老
妖也是在17歲時首披曼聯戰袍，查爾頓爵士18歲、還有皇馬的進球機器C羅、連爹娘都分
不清楚的巴西雙胞胎兄弟和迷人的足球金童貝克漢是在19歲時就替曼聯攻城拔寨。
重用年輕人當然不止這幾個例子，還有更多曼聯培養出來的球員，一代一代地把曼聯刺激
且富有技巧性的足球傳達到世人的面前。
Ferguson, those who know him say, instinctively saw the importance of
United's brand attributes when he was appointed manager in 1986. (In the busy
period before the Champions League final, United politely declined TIME's
request to interview Ferguson.) A classic product of the west of Scotland
assembly line that produces football managers like western Pennsylvania does
quarterbacks, Ferguson took over the club after a period in which it had
fallen from grace — and employed some managers who, frankly, were an
embarrassment. When he arrived at Old Trafford, Ferguson "understood there
was a culture that had to be revived," says a man who worked closely with
him. Ferguson, he says, in the perfect phrasing, thinks of himself as "the
steward of the story — he has to keep the narrative going."
弗格森爵士當他在1986年接掌曼聯兵符時就看出了曼聯的品牌屬性。(在歐冠決賽前夕這
個重要時刻，曼聯官方禮貌性地替弗格森爵士回絕了時代雜誌的專訪) 弗格森擁有傳統蘇
格蘭藍領階級的人格特質，他的執教風格就像美國賓州西部的四分衛一樣。在曼聯從70年
年後將近十數年的沉淪並不停地更換主教練，弗格森毅然決然地接手了曼聯這塊燙手山竽
從弗格森身旁的心腹口中得知，他到曼聯的當下就了解到必須要喚醒曼聯的文化、曼聯的
歷史，自己只不過是個曼聯傳奇的領航員，他必須要讓這個傳奇延續下去。
Talk to those who know Ferguson best, and unprompted they say how much he
likes working with young players like the da Silva twins and Javier
Hernandez, a 22-year-old Mexican who has just had a spectacular first season
with United. "He loves bringing players on," says Alastair Campbell, a close
friend of Ferguson's and a onetime top aide to former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair.
跟弗格森的好友們聊天就可以得知他有多愛跟年輕的球員相處。就像是da Silva兄弟和
他近十年最獨具慧眼的買賣，也就是22歲的小豆子赫南德茲。Alastair Campbell，這位
弗格森的好友同時也是前首相大人TonyBlair的助手說到『弗格森他超愛帶這一票球員到
處跑的』。
Not that anyone has ever accused Ferguson of being a soft touch. A player who
displeases him is likely to get what has famously become known as the
hair-dryer treatment, with the Boss yelling into a star's face from close
range. But then, when he arrived in Manchester, Ferguson needed to be tough.
His fans were fed up. United had not won a championship in 19 years; in that
time, Liverpool had won nine of them. Though Liverpool and Manchester are
only some 60 km apart, for all intents and purposes part of the same
metropolitan area, they have long had different cultures. Manchester
millworkers held rallies for the Union during the U.S. Civil War, for
example, while Liverpool was the most pro-Confederate city in Britain. The
rivalry between them is intense. Each city thinks itself superior to the
other; my father brought us up to intone, "Liverpool gentleman, Manchester
man," while United fans delight in dreaming up chants and songs that bait
their Merseyside rivals. (The best draws a link between United's Korean
player, Park Ji-Sung, and the supposed dietary habits of Liverpudlians.)
但弗格森也不是那麼好相與的，只有要人膽敢觸怒這位曼聯的老佛爺，立刻就會遭受到
弗格森最知名的吹風機式怒吼，就算你再大牌也一樣，立正站好手貼褲縫。這種球隊管理
完全是必要的，因為弗格森知道，曼聯太需要一個冠軍了。他初到曼聯時，曼聯已經渡過
了19年不知道冠軍是什麼滋味的漫長歲月；同時，曼聯永遠的宿敵利物浦拿下了九座冠軍
獎盃。曼徹斯特和利物浦這兩座城市只相差60公里的路程，一般來說，他們在同一個都會
圈內，但是兩個城市的風格可是相差的天南地北。曼徹斯特的礦工們曾在美國南北戰爭時
聲援過北方聯軍，但利物浦可是英國境內支持南部聯邦的重要城市之一。在英國，每個城
市都有著優越感，我老爸就曾經因為受不曼聯球迷一直酸人而在我耳邊碎碎念說『利物浦
的男人都是紳士；曼徹斯特的男人真沒禮貌』。 (最好的例子就是曼聯的朴智星之歌)
(譯註：現在立刻來首 Song of Park
『朴智星，不管你從哪里來，你們國家吃狗肉？
那也沒關系。比吃老鼠的利物浦隊員好多了』)
(待續)
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