Right. Like I said, that won't win you anything in the modern era. I don't think anyone could ever call one of Ferguson's sides 'dignified', what with their constant haranguing of the referee, their sly fouls, their fans roaring at Old Trafford when a decision went against them, their manager fuming and spewing at the final whistle if the result wasn't what he wanted. But they will go down in history as possibly the greatest collection of sides any single club has had in the English game, with him going down as the greatest manager England has ever seen and Manchester United going down as one of the most successful sides England has ever seen.
We, on the other hand, will likely go down as the perennial underachievers, who have rarely won anything of note, rarely lasted the whole way over the course of a campaign, and rarely if ever had things go our own way. Will history remember that we were 'dignifed' in the way we conducted ourselves on the field? That we exuded 'quiet anger', but controlled ourselves because of our desire to be seen as the better men? That we only ever had loyal, faithful, ever-true fans instead of those evil glory-hunters?
Bull****. History will remember that we failed, and failed miserably: that is all history will remember.
I would take glory-hunters in our fanbase, I would take constantly angry upstart stars hounding the referee over the slightest error, I would take a manager unafraid to savage referees and officials post-match, and I would take our lads being called 'dirty' and 'classless'. I would take it all as long as we played a footballing style that excited our fans, and one that stayed true to the 'pass and move' philosophy we helped create. Do you know why? Because all those things would merely prove that we had become successful: that we were a team that made opponents tremble, one that made referees quiver, one that made opposition fans resort to smears and sneering laughs about our 'lack of class' because they had nothing else to rile us about.
I would exchange our dignity for passion, for relentless determination, for a pursuit of the three points or the win that goes far, far beyond what is considered 'proper' and 'dignified', because that is what every other top team (every team, from Barcelona to Bayern Munich) does to stay on top. I want us to get with the program.
I would take a bit of this, for starters.