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As a West Ham supporter I am always frustrated that they always clock off in the 87th minute. They have new managers and super signings but remain consistently rubbish.
I've enviously watched how Brighton have turned themselves into a good club that play til the ref blows the whistle.
My dad was a Brighton supporter and soon they will be my nearest club. On paper I feel I would qualify to be one of their supporters but is my heart forever destined to be broken by those lazy gits in East London?
Tell me your tales about jumping ship.
Man U supporter here (and I don't live in Manchester...). My son seemed to decide to support Man U based on my prejudices and now seems to be stuck with a shit team....😂😂😂
As an Ipswich fan, if only.
Honestly wish I could erase Middlesbrough FC from my mind like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the misery and pent up frustration of the last 20 years or so..... be happy not to be interested in football at all.
No you can't (don't read that in a cockney accent?)
I know nothing about football but isn't changing teams kinda like being a grass / nonce / paedo?
I can’t believe this is even a question?
You can, but only if your team is Rangers or Celtic and you wish to not have your football so inextricably conflated with Northern Ireland politics.
To be sung to the tune of The Red Flag:
Hello, hello, how do you do
We hate the boys in royal blue
We hate the bhoys in emerald green
So **** the Pope and **** the Queen
Sadly this song doesn't really rhyme properly anymore. Sad times.
It's a pretty odd concept that you can't change. If you support them long enough then it'll be a totally new team with a different manager, playing a different style of football. You are basically liking the team name and the shirt colour.
It’s just some blokes kicking a football about. If you want to change just change. No harm will come from this.
I'm not a fan, so in my ignorance this may be a daft question. Does being one remove your free will and the ability to make your own choices?
It's a pretty odd concept that you can't change.
It's a pretty odd concept that you should support a team in the first place. Taken to its logical conclusion, everyone should just support the team that is most likely to win in any particular game.
Saying all that, you can change your team but you should expect to attract the scorn of any of your friends who also support football teams.
If you have no friends, that's kind of sad. But also, you can chop and change who you support at will.
Taken to its logical conclusion, everyone should just support the team that is most likely to win in any particular game.
Not really. I'd say neutrals generally support the underdog.
If you were doing it logically you'd pick a team.playing the sort of football you like. Then stop supporting them when they stop playing like that. Watching a team playing football you don't like is not logical
You won a footy team? Wow! Changing is easy. Sell it and buy another. Another weird bit of society I don't get. It is a team. Why support them?
We don't do it for anything else do we?
If you love KFC and they stopped selling chicken you'd go elsewhere, if you like Tom Hanks films and he started making episodes of Mrs Brown's Boys you wouldn't have to watch that. If you like Santa Cruz and they started only selling shoppers you wouldn't feel compelled to go mountain biking on one.
But if you like a football team that's it for life. No matter who takes over, how they play, how dire they get. That team you picked when you didn't even know where you lived is yours now
No matter who takes over,
To be fair, your team getting bought by someone who likes to commit genocide in their spare time is a relatively recent phenomena.
Standard responses from non football fans. I've suffered a lifetime of being an Everton fan. It's a community, something I've shared with family and friends since as far back as I can recall, and part of my identity.
I appreciate and even enjoy watching other clubs that are better run, play better football or win trophies, but my team are my team and that could never change.
Interestingly I follow rugby as much as football but have never supported a professional team.
It's all illogical but that's the way it goes.
There's no rationale or logic to it, and trying to explain one is no easier than explaining why whenever there's a football thread some people feel obliged to join in and make the same tired old comments.
To the OP - yes, you can. I did, and I'm not ashamed. I've spoken many times about having my own home team club, but also a love for my Mum's home town team, who were the first team I saw and I fell in love with that day. Actually, that's a lie. Because of course the first time I saw them there was another team on the pitch, so they were equal first. And that other team, was who I had originally been taken to see.
NUFC vs BHAFC. Div 2, 5/5/79. Brighton needed to avoid defeat, I think, to be promoted to Div 1. My Dad's from Worthing, and him and my football mad Uncle got my Grandad to get tickets for us all and some friends in the Newcastle end of the seats. So I was taken to this monumental game as a Brighton fan. And although Brighton won, 2-0, something about the atmosphere, the fans all shouting and singing in unison - well I admit it. I ditched my loyalty to my Dad's club there and then and was a Newcastle fan since.
So there you are. If you're under 10, you can have a second choice as long as it's made for good reason and within about 3 mins of realising you made a mistake first time. After that - nah, you're stuck with it.
Up until the age of 10 I followed Chelsea because my dad bought me the shirt, and he knows nothing about soccerball only GAA. Then for some reason I swapped with my best mate who also played for the school. I was also his best man. So he gave me Leeds and I gave him Chelsea. He passed away so we cannot swap back.
Then I worked out I didn't grow up in either places so switched to Reading.
Should have grown up in Barcelona.
Growing up in Manchester my mum saw a t-shirt in a sports shop bargains bin and bought it as it had United on the badge. So for a few weeks/months there was a happy hammer running around until I knew anything about football really. Ended up supporting the other United in the end but still have an odd soft spot for West Ham.
whenever there's a football thread some people feel obliged to join in and make the same tired old comments
Uwot uwot uwotuwotuwot
Born and bred in Ayr 40 miles from Glasgow . None of my parents were interested in football but I was. I went to Ayr United games with my pals as a kid from roughly age 12 or so. I should have been an Ayr United supporter. I have been a Celtic fan since I first knew anything at all about football at the age of 6 in 1968. You don't choose which club you support they choose you 😁
As an outsider looking in, given the vast majority of a football team staff, on and off the pitch, are essentially a group of bought in mercenaries on a transient journey club to club through their career,, fan loyalty does look a bit baffling.
For me there are two types of fan. Those that go to matches, go with friends, have a season ticket and sit/stand next to the same folk week in week out. They sing the songs and going to the ground or travelling as a group to away games is part of thier life. I get that - I wouldn't want it - but I get it.
Then their are the TV fans. Never go to watch matches, don't have an affinity with the club's location. They chose that club for.....reasons lost in time, but very likely because they were quite good when they were kids. It's just them, sat alone on the sofa with a Stella shouting at the screen. That's just moronic.
OP.
More Importantly..
Have you got a tattoo, and how easy would it be to change it.
As an outsider looking in,
means you have missed a third, and probably a few others. In which I characterise myself.
As above I chose / was chosen by my Mum's home town team. I have lived most of my life about 300 miles away which makes going to games very difficult, although as kids when we spent time up there I'd always get taken along when I could wear Grandad down enough. I chose my Univ in no small part to the proximity, and got to go to most home games. You could walk up and buy a ticket then. Impossible now, it's all loyalty points and season tickets, and the same with away games... it's been impossible to get a ticket for an away game for decades now, when your team has such a following they can sell their away allocation several times only, quite rightly to those that can go regularly.
And it's not "very likely because they were quite good when they were kids" - we've memorably not won anything for over 50 years and been for a large part of it, unutterably shite. NO, HANG ON!!!
Sure, there's a few type 2's that now support any club, there's thousands, in the global era millions probably of others that follow them with a genuine love and affinity but live away, overseas, whatever, and characterising anyone that doesn't have the opportunity to regularly see them live as moronic is pretty hurtful.
No, but you can have a second choice. Ideally they don't play each other.
very likely because they were quite good when they were kids
Sorry, I should have been clear.....reasons might have been they were quite good...or it could be it was your mum's home town 😁. Equally weird. My dad was born and grew up within earshot of Old Trafford so for decades it was suggested that should be 'my team' by people who I met who were incredulous when I said I didn't have one to the "so who do you support" question. I tried it for a bit - but I just wasn't bothered enough to care. My dad was never into football so couldn't give a toss either. Was your mum? I.e. did you inherit her love of the team or was it just that's where she grew up?
No - sorry, type 2 fandom always seemed moronic to me. Being a fan of something you only interact with at distance on telly and have never been a habitual attender in the past. It's perfectly possibly to enjoy sport as a neutral without the need to invent yourself and aliegence.
For no reason at all I’m also a Triumph man. I’ve no interest in Nortons or Bsas and although I was in Australia for less than a year I probably lean towards Holden over Ford.
Regarding people who go to matches or watch on telly I’m neither.
My interest is purely watching the results come in. I guess the real drama and passion in football is all about avoiding relegation. A contest that West Ham can easily participate in.
And here was me thinking that you were a Goldwing man 😉 🙃
supported liverpool as a kid because well, you know, league titles, european cups etc. then questioned this reasoning in my twenties and decided that as i was born in oldham and they were sh1t, id support them instead, underdogs and all that. then they even went on to have 'glory days' themselves! i remember being the only oldham fan in our local for the semi-final in the early 90s, it was full of man utd fans (pretty much all of my mates). oldham winning with a few minutes left, they were all getting mardy, swearing and kicking furniture, then mark hughes equalised and all of a sudden it was a pub full of 'CHAMP-EE-OW-NI, CHAMPEE-OW-NI, OOH AY OOH AY OOH AY'. saw them in a different light after that, i thought are you really so fickle and idiotic?
i wouldnt say it was that game particularly, however it must have contributed towards it but as an even more 'reasoned' adult, i decided to leave football altogether. i had drifted into 'hating man utd' more than supporting a team itself, which i thought was just plain daft. it had been a big part of my life, my 'thing', but i questioned the 'fan mentality' of which i was part, the growing amount of cheating sportsmanship on the pitch, the insane amount of money in the game, and realised it just wasnt for me any more (jumpers for goalposts, norman bite-yer-legs hunter etc etc)
i honestly felt like a big weight had been lifted from my shoulders. no more caring about who wins a game, no more lost bets, weekends were free again, i seemed to have loads of free space in my head and i liked it.
never looked back. i rarely watch a game these days. i like to see forest doing well (lads got a season ticket) or my local team (lincoln) but it doesnt spoil my day now if they get beat.
still hate man utd tho and get an illogical small sense of pleasure when they get beat, knowing that my mates will still be swearing and kicking furniture (or the cat) somewhere 😀 (those old wounds must have been deeper than i thought!)
I worked with a bloke a few years back who was a spurs fan, he was fed up and started to half support Leicester too, it meant we could take the p*SS out of him twice as much and given Leicester's current form I reckon he's moved on again.
He was also half Irish so had a tattoo of half a shamrock & preferred to be addressed as Paddy rather than Stephen.
Was your mum? I.e. did you inherit her love of the team or was it just that's where she grew up?
Again, in between. As I said on other threads, she wasn't a fan as in attending games (she moved 300 miles away at 19yo), following every detail but she knew the big names in the team, was passingly interested in fortunes, but more than anything else never stopped being a proud geordie lass.
And whether 'people like you' understand it or not, the city and the team are inextricably linked, as are many other towns and cities. Estimated 300,000 turned out to watch a bus drive past a few weekends ago, from a city of nominally 800,000 people.
If you don't understand it that's fine, in many ways you're lucky. I'm too wise to kick furniture, cats or the wife whenever things go badly (that would have been a lot of kicking over the years) but doesn't mean I can't still be deeply invested without being a moron for doing it.
I don't go to footy any more and I don't really follow "my" team any longer but if you asked me who, it's them. (Yes @jonnyseven , when your club's most memorable season was losing 2 finals and getting relegated, you know you're in trouble ! Maybe that was what killed me off, though I'd already stopped going by then - never been to the Riverside).
I've been to matches of more local teams but it's not the same feeling (might be the age-gap I suppose; havent been to the boro for 35+ years). I could go repeatedly and probably really enjoy it but I wouldn't be a fan because deep-down I wouldn't care. If we moved to Teesside I'd probably start going again and it'd likely kill me !
As a United fan I will once again tune in this afternoon to watch the absolute dross on the pitch, as the battle with Spurs for 15th place hots up.
But I started supporting them in the late 70’s /early 80’s and we were rubbish then too, so the glory years were a very enjoyable blip.
I support United on the Frank Skinner geographical theory, that Old Trafford is the closest ground to where I was born. my dad was a lifelong Liverpool fan, but I had no interest in following him down that road.
The one concession I’ve made is that last season was the first one where I never went to Old Trafford for a match. I decided that enough was enough and I wasn’t going to carry on shelling out to watch this garbage and continue to line the pockets of owners who I despise.
Change clubs? Just no! You’re stuck with them no matter how bad it gets
I do have a soft spot for Burnley though after spending a great summer working at Turf Moor a few years ago, looking out of my ‘office’ window on to the pitch every day. The club just had a great atmosphere about the place and the people there were lovely. I’ll be chuffed to see them back in the top division next season
Hello, hello, how do you do
We hate the boys in royal blue
We hate the bhoys in emerald green
So * the Pope and * the Queen
This right here is one reason why I don't like football. It's often not about the team you follow, it's about which team you hate the most. That's a rash generalisation I know, but you don't get many snooker hooligans.
I followed British ice hockey for a couple of years, I 'supported' Manchester Storm. We'd all shout at Sheffield Steelers fans, but then both sets of fans would go for a pint together afterwards. It was friendly rivalry rather than a need to round off the evening with eight pints and a glassing because your team lost.
Prior to that I followed American football. At school my little group all picked teams to support, fairly arbitrarily. I chose the Denver Broncos, them having just lost to the Giants IIRC in that year's Superbowl. What was it someone said earlier about picking the underdog? I still watch the 'Owl, but I'll randomly pick a side to cheer on in the likely event that Denver hasn't made it again. If I can't decide, I'll go AFC.
I can't see myself switching allegiances, it's great if your team win and in their heyday Storm won a lot (Denver not so much), but I simply don't care sufficiently. I wouldn't go to a rock concert to see my band "win," it's the journey to the encore and lights up.
TL;DR - if you want to switch then do it. Many spectator sport fans are tribal, it rather depends on whether you want to be part of that particular tribe or whether you want to win. I can't imagine it being much fun in a pub full of supporters of team X when you're supporting team Y.
Nah, you can head off to Brighton or wherever, but deep down you'll always be looking for the West Ham result first on the classified check.
As someone who supported a deeply mediocre side through multiple relegations in the 90s, and now watching with amusement as 5th or 6th in the Premier League is considered the end of the world, you should know that nothing is permanent, there will likely be good stuff sprinkled among the bad.
Anyhow, you won a European trophy recently, did you not?
My dad was a Brighton supporter and soon they will be my nearest club. On paper I feel I would qualify to be one of their supporters but is my heart forever destined to be broken by those lazy gits in East London?
Tell me your tales about jumping ship
I'm a Gooner. Have been from the age of ten, always will be. It's my last emotional connection with north London where I grew up. My dad was a Liverpool fan - scouser - and my brother followed in his footsteps. As a result I went to some epic European nights at Anfield when it was in its pomp and sort of adopted Liverpool as a convenient second team, we also used to go and watch QPR at home a fair bit when Gerry Francis et al played for them and they were a good watch.
I could sort of buy into both Liverpool and QPR as second teams, but I don't really care deep down in the way I do about Arsenal.
It's pretty obvious that Sky TV coverage etc has sort of broken the geographical link to allegiance quite emphatically. These days kids often grow up supporting the winningest (sic) team regardless of where they're from, which I regard as fundamentally wrong. My neighbour comes from Wolverhampton but supports Arsenal for no particular reason bar the Wenger years I guess.
Anyway, football's about the highs and lows isn't it. Supporting the team regardless. Hating Spurs unconditionally. Once you have a visceral connection with a team, that's it, hence the horror of, say Newcastle United being taken over by the Saudis. You can adopt a second team, but I'm not convinced it can ever be the same. And of course the whole point of football is that it's completely meaningless and, at the same time, in the moment, means everything 🙂
Swap to a team in a different sport - one without vastly overpaid premadonnas who can't string a coherent sentence together fall over like they've been machine-gunned down after a blade of grass tripped them up.
Or as most call it, Rugby.
It's pretty obvious that Sky TV coverage etc has sort of broken the geographical link to allegiance quite emphatically. These days kids often grow up supporting the winningest (sic) team regardless of where they're from, which I regard as fundamentally wrong. My neighbour comes from Wolverhampton but supports Arsenal for no particular reason bar the Wenger years I guess.
Very much this and to use my home town Wrexham as an example you would never see kids around the town wearing a Wrexham shirt but boy has that changed in the last few years. Back to back to back ole ole!
premadonnas who can't string a coherent sentence
Stuck with them, "however bad it gets". And it can get very, very bad. Yesterday was yet another low point, but not as bad as being asset stripped to extinction by a property developer and playing village teams for a couple of seasons.
Did latch on to watching another team when I moved to another country - largely because of the political and musical connections of the supporters. It was also John Peel's "other team". I always like to see whoever is playing the Milton Keynes franchise win, even if it is Shrewsbury.
These days kids often grow up supporting the winningest (sic) team regardless of where they're from, which I regard as fundamentally wrong.
That was the case back when I was at school, so many Liverpool fans during their glory years in the 70s.
vastly overpaid premadonnas who can't string a coherent sentence together
Oh, the irony
FWIW, rugby is a game of cheating. Of course rugby fans won't admit it but it's all euphemisms like 'painting a picture for the referee', a celebration that no-one has a clue what's really happening in the scrum and the fouls may as well be decided by rolling a dice, of getting away with stuff wherever you can.
I like rugby, and in most cases at least if you get caught with hands in a ruck or whatever there's an acceptance that you were caught cheating, but pretending it's all innocent is bollocks - tight games are frequently decided by who gets caught least.
https://www.ruck.co.uk/list-five-iconic-moments-of-rugby-shthousery/
And what's the equivalent of bloodgate?
Swap to a team in a different sport - one without vastly overpaid premadonnas who can't string a coherent sentence together fall over like they've been machine-gunned down after a blade of grass tripped them up.
Or as most call it, Rugby.
Thanks very much for your contribution.
*yawns*
I may pop over to the rugby thread and remind everyone about your first week at university where all the societies are touting for members, you could ask “i’m looking to join a club for the very worst people on the planet. Preferably boorish, braying louts who revel in homophobia, casual racism, prehistoric 70’s style sexism and misogyny, all while inexplicably drinking each others piss.”
Ah yes… the rugby club is right over there. I believe there’s an initiation ritual that involves bumming a dog 🙄
Once upon a time, many moons ago when we were young, my brother and I were watching a random match at someone's house. Had no idea about football but supported the red team because that was my brother's favourite colour. We found out at some point it was Man U vs Everton, so from that point on we supported Man U and hated Everton 😛
Oh for the glory years of '98! *wipes tear from eye*
Anyway, fast forward a few years and I now live in David Beckham's old house, being the proud owner of a pair of his old orthopaedic insoles which we found fallen behind a drawer 😂
The point of this post? I dunno. I don't follow football at all any more and couldn't really care about it. Does that count as changing teams?
premadonnas
Well, I guess there was Cher and Diana Ross. Not sure what that has to do with anything thiugh?
Diana Ross would be a Supremadonna, if we're being precise.
It depends on how much noise you've made about it. I could stop "supporting" Barrow AFC since I haven't lived there since the early 90s and change to the team that plays down the road from us where I live now, which my son supports, which has played in La Liga pretty much constantly and gets the odd Euro run, and nobody would know (or even care if they did).
But I just plod on, texting my nephew every weekend to find out how Barrow got on...
Or as most call it, Rugby.
I don't think I could ever support a sport where the only song the fans sing is a boring hymn about going to heaven in a chariot.
Simple answer is no you can’t change!
And you also have limited choice who you support….it’s either the team your dad supports or your local team.
When I was young my dad took me to watch Norwich play so that’s who I support.
Norwich is also the team all my kids now support even though we live in Leamington ….but they have often threatened to report me to the NSPCC for inflicting a lifetime of hurt and misery on them 😂
Simple answer is no you can’t change!
Is the correct answer. Everything else is just noise.
I've wondered this at t imes. Then I read an article like this
And ...no, no I can't.
You need to do it by stealth!
Proudly proclaim that ‘big-league’ football is no longer for you. And that football has lost it’s soul.
Spend two seasons supporting (suffering) your local non-league club.
Then re-emerge supporting a new Premier League club and hope everyone forgets about your previous alliance!! 😀⚽️
I think if you put it into perspective, football is just business, and not really anything to do with where the team is based - so changing teams is no different to deciding to support Sainsburys rather than Tesco. 😲
I’d have to say ‘no’.
It's clearly tribal nonsense based on no logical selection criteria at an age where you are too young to know any better - much like religion. And just like religion you can of course change allegiance but the side you leave will consider you a traitor for ever, the side you go to may look at you with suspicion and everyone who is not religious will think you are mad for caring and the whole system is mad for making it seem like changing should be so important.
FWIW my FIL was a lifelong Rangers fan, often going to games before having kids and still going a few times even with kids despite living about an hour's travel from Ibrox. But by the 1990's he was fed up with it. He started going to his local "Junior" side matches, they represent the town he was born in and has spend his whole life in and the ground is walking distance from home so its quite logical to have some allegiance. He goes to ~60% of home games and travels to important away games. They will never play Rangers to he has no real dilemma.
No you cannot change. Its in your heart.
Rugby fan here supporting Edinbugh and Scotland.
I was born in the west country and could have been a Bath and England fan and won something now and then. Instead i get my heart broken by Edinbrgh and Scotland. I went to school and played rugby in Glasgow but when it come to the 1872 cap I want Edinburgh to win not those soapdodgers
I follow other teams but its not the same.
Its truely absurd. I can be shaking with nerves watching Edinburgh or Scotland. Ridiculous
I'm not a fan, so in my ignorance this may be a daft question. Does being one remove your free will and the ability to make your own choices?
It would certainly seem so. Personally, I’ve never understood the slavish devotion to a bunch of blokes kicking a ball around a muddy patch of grass.
Still, I’ve always operated on a presumption of free will being part of being a human being. 🤷🏼♂️
Its like "where is your home?"
Its an emotional connection. Its deep in your heart.
Its like "where is your home?"
Its an emotional connection. Its deep in your heart.
Maybe that explains why I don't get tribal football fandom. I don't really have a home that is "deep in my heart" in a geographical sense. I certainly don't feel a deep emotional attachment to any particular place. Perhaps I just don't have a "soul"? 😄
I left the town I grew up in 45 years ago and seldom go back. I've moved around lots since. My emotional connection is to people not places. There are places I like a lot, of course but constantly adding to that list, rather than focussing on just one from the past works best for me.
Apols for the slight derail
That was the case back when I was at school, so many Liverpool fans during their glory years in the 70s.
Round my way, kids were mostly Arsenal, it went with the territory. I suspect that if you come from an area without an obvious top rank team, it may have been slightly different. And then of course there are cockney Man U fans... 🤣 🤣
The only reason I’m in this position is because of a World Cup 70 colouring book.
As a 5 year old colouring in a picture of a man holding up a cup and knowing that his name is Bobby Moore .
Shudder about it now but when I was a young kid I liked Man U. My dad was a Leeds fan and took me to Elland Rd for some eufa cup games during the O Leary era, been Leeds ever since (though I hesitate to call myself a proper 'fan') I'd rather be riding the bike or playing about with cars than watching football tbh
It's clearly tribal nonsense based on no logical selection criteria at an age where you are too young to know any better - much like religion.
Of course it is, that's the point. It's both meaningless and really important. And it's 'important' precisely because t's meaningless. It's far better to hate Spurs and their fans than for those tribal underpinnings to manifest as racism for example. I know rationally that Spurs fans are perfectly normal, almost decent people, but 'hating' them is a kind of emotional deflection game - 'opiate of the people' and all that.
Of course some people are too stupid / too far dosed up on tribalism to see thar, but most sane fans deep down know it.
I also think there's a fundamental difference between people who've always supported a team from childhood and adults who've become attached through something vaguely like a rational process. My oldest mate has started 'supporting' my team, Arsenal, obviously, because his employer has has a corporate ox at the Emirates - a dead, soulless place to watch from btw, I've been - and he really doesn't 'get it'. He doesn't remember the George Graham years, or early Wenger, I'm not sure he would even know who Liam Brady was, let alone, say Frank McClintock or Charlie George, possibly not even Denis Bergkamp.
He was lucky enough tobe at the Madrid home leg, one of the great Arsenal European nights, and his main observation was that beer was BOGOF on the concourse before the game... OK, that's a bit of an extreme example, but I do think there's a difference.
I think you can when you're little, based on I did - don't tell no-one, but I supported Villa at little school because they won something in the early eighties and Peter Withe came to our school. Never had any interest in football beyond kicking it myself though, never watched or went to a match - when I got to high school though, many of my friends were Birmingham fans, so started actively following them and going to a few matches.
Interestingly (ish), I stopped following them and going to matches under the previous regimes - they were still my club, but I wasn't willing to put my money into a club when the owners were seemingly just throwing that money into a binfire. Now that we have good owners, Mrs Pondo and I have started going, did 25 matches this season between mens and womens, and we're considering season tickets for next season - I think she enjoys it more than I do! 🙂 Am I a plastic fan, for not going when we were pants? I'm sure some people would think so, but I don't really care - I have no guilt about not spending money on something I don't enjoy. I think I've also outgrown the local rivalry thing, a bit - Villa will always be the team I want to see us beat the most (you should have been more interesting, Peter Withe!), but the arbitrary visceral hatred thing just seems so pointless now.
I’ve never understood the slavish devotion to a bunch of blokes kicking a ball around a muddy patch of grass.
It's ok to like different things. In my case, my dad is a Hammer. My grandad was a Hammer. The other side of the family are Spurs but we don't talk to them. Obviously, I was the only one in my class, growing up in Lancashire, but it meant I could always get the Panini stickers I wanted.
Anyhow, you won a European trophy recently, did you not?
That's the amazing thing about STW. Lurking in the shadows there's guaranteed to be someone who has done some awesome things or has serious experience of the subject under discussion. But having a top flight footballer in the mix is in another league ( so to speak)
I’ve never understood the slavish devotion to a bunch of blokes kicking a ball around a muddy patch of grass.
If you need any enlightening about why football is the most dramatic, exciting and addictive sport to watch and follow go watch a replay of the last 30 mins of the Man U - Lyon UEFA cup quarter final.
Of course it is, that's the point. It's both meaningless and really important. And it's 'important' precisely because t's meaningless. It's far better to hate Spurs and their fans than for those tribal underpinnings to manifest as racism for example. I know rationally that Spurs fans are perfectly normal, almost decent people, but 'hating' them is a kind of emotional deflection game - 'opiate of the people' and all that.
Of course some people are too stupid / too far dosed up on tribalism to see thar, but most sane fans deep down know it.
Mmm... my experience is that we indoctrinate young people into hating the otherside without any logical reason and by making that sort of behaviour normal or even desirable they are quite likely to embrace tribalism in other dividing lines they identify: religion, race, nationality, politics. It may well be that some clubs are just about friendly banter, but there are plenty where it is not a substitute for those things but actually a catalyst for them.
I think you can, but only for the right reasons. Used to support Juve as a kid, but got disillusioned with the match fixing / alleged doping etc so stopped following them. Could also understand Newcastle fans etc deciding to do the same for moral reasons, given their owners.
Any other circumstances (We used to be good, now we're sh*t etc) aren't acceptable. If you (not any of you specifically) are in a bit of a bad patch in life and the footy is bringing you down then just go out for a ride / keep busy during games. I find if I'm less invested if I don't actually watch my team and just see the result.
There seem to be a few Newcastle/Brighton things going on here. Me too.
As a kid I supported Newcastle, like my dad, uncles, and grandparents. I lived mostly in the south, so I rarely got to see them play.
When I moved to Brighton I began going to watch them just for fun (ha!) and because they were going through a desperate time. Despite watching the seagulls a couple of dozen times per season I would still have called myself a Newcastle supporter ... until the day Brighton played Newcastle in the FA cup. It suddenly dawned on me that I wanted Brighton to win more.
I have now moved to Scotland, so once again I live hundreds of miles from my club and never get to see them. Bollocks. Maybe I'll start to support Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic.
Coming from Devon, everyone had a (now) Premiership club to support as there was nothing within 100 miles of where we lived (we did have Plymouth Argyle 50 miles away, and Exeter City were nowhere). All my friends chose MUFC, so I picked Liverpool. I still follow them, but that's bit too easy. So I also support Brentford because the club is local to my old office, I like the community atmosphere and the ethos of the club. Of course, we closed that office last year, so now I suppose I should support Tottenham (Court Road).
My parents were anti-football, they were total snobs about it for no reason.
As a kid, I went to watch Wolves play and I'm not sure why but it left me cold. A few weeks later I went up the Albion and it was entirely different. So fast forward 40 years and I still have a season ticket, my 16 year old daughter has a seat next to me but usually wanders off with the kids at the top of the Smethwick. We have a few beers in the pub and it's a good chance to catch up with mates.
I couldn't tell you anything about the team though, I don't really follow it outside of match day. It's just another hobby that enriches my life...the result will never have an impact on my mood.
Nobody who is an actual football fan will say swapping teams is acceptable unless you're happy being called a plastic fan etc (see Man City with their football tourists who stand and wave their 50/50 scarves and still can't fill a stadium). Its generally a hereditary condition that is passed down from generation to generation that you learn to live with through the ups and the downs. You support the club which is far more than the players on the pitch, the staff on the sidelines etc who yes, a lot of the time will be mercenaries who'll jump at the merest sniff of a bigger pay check elsewhere.
Having said all that, my brother is an exception to that rule. Long, long family history of being Leeds fans and my brother decided to support Arsenal when he was little. I think the only/main reason being it had the word arse in the name. Good job for him his vocab at the time didn't extend to certain words or he could have ended up supporting Scunny.
Generally, no. But, you can have a 2nd team you follow, and sometimes you end up closer to that 2nd team.
My mate was always a Liverpool fan, but he now has a Villa season ticket. Why? Well, it's close to home, his mates all go and he can take his kids. He'll still cheer Liverpool on when they play Villa, but has much more interaction with Villa.
A lot of people will have a lower league team they follow too. I'm a Villa fan, but have much more interest in my local non-league team, and see them play a lot more too.
My dad was a Brighton supporter and soon they will be my nearest club. On paper I feel I would qualify to be one of their supporters but is my heart forever destined to be broken by those lazy gits in East London?
Tell me your tales about jumping ship.
The worst case of changing teams I have known, was a Leeds supporter in his late 20's I worked with.
He was a Marine Engineer that attended college in South Shields and liked it so much he moved there.
He was a serious football man, followed a lot of competitions and was previously a Leeds season ticket holder.
Ended up going to Sunderland a few times and over the course of about 5 years, shifted his allegiances to them.
A strange choice, swopping the misery of Leeds in the 90's, to the absolute misery that is SAFC.
If you need any enlightening about why football is the most dramatic, exciting and addictive sport to watch and follow go watch a replay of the last 30 mins of the Man U - Lyon UEFA cup quarter final.
Sorry, but if, after seventy years I haven’t developed the slightest bit of interest in football, do you think thirty minutes of something I have no interest in is going to make me want to now?
I’ve just spent nearly as long as that searching for the rat’s ass I couldn’t give, and couldn’t find that, either.
OP.
More Importantly..
Have you got a tattoo, and how easy would it be to change it.
I do, but football is a completely insignificant part of my life now it barely registers. Even thought 'my team' have just won the Premiership, it got barely more than a glance on BBCs website. Once upon a time we'd have been going to the open top bus etc... but now, nah, just nah. I won't be changing team as such, but the sport i grew up with and loved isn't the sport it was and doesn't excite me...