The Bemusings of a Football Fan...

SEANoftheDEAD

Ah my 1st post in the soccer forum. Thanks for the granted access as I want to share some of my thoughts on here, to see if some people agree or feel the same way.

Ok first off, I love the game, always have done, since I was a child right up to today. My father is an casual Arsenal and my mother is less than a casual Manchester United fan. I live in South Dublin. I raised with Manchester United bet into me. So I am a United fan.

There is a huge difference between been a fan and a supporter of a club, I claim to be a United fan, but in 25+ years I have only ever been to Old Trafford four times. But I watch em all the time of TV. The majority of my friends are the same.

My bemusings started a few years back, as I got older and learned more about football, rivalries, legends of the game etc... something was missing from me following football, and it was a connection to a club, passion for it etc... I tryed so hard to make this connection with Manchester United, threw learning everything about the club etc, but still didn't feel as if I belonged with it, nor not been local did it feel right about following them.

So I looked at our own league, their are 3 clubs based in South Dublin, St.Patricks Athletic, UCD FC and Shamrock Rovers. Pats and UCD are too far away from me, so it left Shamrock Rovers. I thought great, they had recently moved into Tallaght, which is a 10minute drive from where I live. Ok I thought, I'm gonna make an effort here with my local club. I spent two seasons following Rovers, I got a season ticket, posted on their forum, mixed with fans and sang the songs.
But as time went on, the die-hard League of Ireland fans drove me away from this club. As Rovers we're beginning a successful period, I was considered a bang-wagon jumper. Any interest in the EPL was shot down as an Barstooler and support your local club rants...

So my passion for an indivdual club local and abroad is gone to bits and I can't feel excited about football anymore... I grew up during the 90's when United we're beginning to rise under Fergie when football was still football and not this watered down money maken machine that it is today.

I'm wondering if anyone else on this forum has had a similar experience or advice on what to do? I'm a firm believer in once you pick your team, your bed is made so I have to lie in it, so trying to be a fan of another EPL or LoI club just won't work (even though I have soft spots for a few clubs)...

Is it possible to follow the game without having a club team to be a fan of or support?

GLaDOS

utopianruins wrote: »

Ok I thought, I'm gonna make an effort here with my local club. I spent two seasons following Rovers, I got a season ticket, posted on their forum, mixed with fans and sang the songs.
But as time went on, the die-hard League of Ireland fans drove me away from this club. As Rovers we're beginning a successful period, I was considered a bang-wagon jumper. Any interest in the EPL was shot down as an Barstooler and support your local club rants...

I find that a bit ridiculous. If you're going to the matches for 2 years, got a season ticket etc, who cares about your motivation for supporting them?

Snakeblood

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I find that a bit ridiculous. If you're going to the matches for 2 years, got a season ticket etc, who cares about your motivation for supporting them?

It'd depend on what was said, like if you weren't made to feel welcome, why stay?

I just got into football this year. It's great.

SEANoftheDEAD

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I find that a bit ridiculous. If you're going to the matches for 2 years, got a season ticket etc, who cares about your motivation for supporting them?

Well thats because I felt as if you can't just suddenly start supporting a club... i made an effort with my local club, but couldnt generate a love or passion for em.

Snakeblood

utopianruins wrote: »

Well thats because I felt as if you can't just suddenly start supporting a club... i made an effort with my local club, but generate a love or passion for em.

Why can't you suddenly start supporting? I got into football because it suddenly clicked for me. I've been forced to watch it for years on and off, never liked it until now, for some godforsaken reason.

GLaDOS

utopianruins wrote: »

Well thats because I felt as if you can't just suddenly start supporting a club... i made an effort with my local club, but generate a love or passion for em.

I started supporting Bohs in 2008, aged 17. Personally I always felt very welcome in Dalymount, made some good friends there who I see every Friday. Anyone who criticises you for starting to go to games, in the state our league is in, is a moron.

SEANoftheDEAD

Snakeblood wrote: »

Why can't you suddenly start supporting? I got into football because it suddenly clicked for me. I've been forced to watch it for years on and off, never liked it until now, for some godforsaken reason.

Good question and I can't honestly answer it, for me, I feel as if I shouldnt have the right to follow United cause I live all the way over here and watch them on a tv screen and with Rovers, I reckon the timing was wrong, cause I felt as if I was jumping on a band-wagon...

SEANoftheDEAD

ScienceNerd wrote: »

I started supporting Bohs in 2008, aged 17. Personally I always felt very welcome in Dalymount, made some good friends there who I see every Friday. Anyone who criticises you for starting to go to games, in the state our league is in, is a moron.

It wasn't that bad, i didn't get abuse or anything, I just couldnt develop a love or passion for my local club

SEPT 23 1989

My father has loved the game for 50 years and he does not support one team

Glico Man

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

My father has loved the game for 50 years and he does not support one team

Same as my old man. He goes to both Pompey and Southampton games as often as he can as they're the closest to him. Supports/follows neither but enjoys the local-ness of it all. Has been to a few Lyon matches (my aunt lives near there) as well. Watches any and every game he can on the tele, be it championship, league 1/2, EPL, SPL, La Liga, Bundesliga etc etc

SirDelboy18

I think you can enjoy without supporting, but I'd believe more enjoyment is to be found in having a team to support.

I have a similar problem with LOI. In the English Leagues, I support Man Utd as my father does and as his father does, dating back to the Munich air disaster.

I just took it as granted that I was to support them and over time I developed a real affinity and am now a season ticket holder. Even the rivalries, I often used wonder if games vs Liverpool/Man City should carry the same meaning for me, as a guy from Cork, that they do for other supporters. I think many struggle with having a connection to foreign clubs at some point. However, over the past 2 or 3 years I have definitely grown to dislike those clubs and enjoy the rivalries as I should. Not quite sure how this happened but happy that it did.

I would also like to support a club from the LOI, obviously Cork City would be most appropriate considering that they are 10-15 minutes away, but I can't seem to find the connection, despite them being my home town club, so certainly understand the feeling.

I don't think that there is a problem in changing your allegiances, in the situation you are in.

My recommendation would be to find a lower league club. Maybe one in the Championship or League 1. That way a lot of the money element is taken away, and you get to see the club potentially grow. Furthermore, you won't get any hassle from people, and if anything you would probably be respected if that is a concern.

What might help is finding an underdog like club, which will help you to enjoy the success of that club even more, as it will be limited.

If you are worried about the emotional connection, throw 50 or 100 euro, basically something small that you can afford, on that team to win the league or get promoted. That way you already have an investment in them and a greater connection should naturally spawn from that.

stovelid

utopianruins wrote: »

As Rovers we're beginning a successful period, I was considered a bang-wagon jumper.

By who?

stovelid

SirDelboy18 wrote: »

My recommendation would be to find a lower league club. Maybe one in the Championship or League 1. That way a lot of the money element is taken away, and you get to see the club potentially grow. Furthermore, you won't get any hassle from people, and if anything you would probably be respected if that is a concern.
.

So because you're brought up with United, you can't make a connection to your home-town club but if you want to ditch United, you randomly pick some team lower in the English league structure from a city you've never been to or have no connection with to support?

Starting to smell a rat on this thread to be honest.

I know a few people that just like football btw. They just like watching it and going to games but don;t have a particular favourite team.

SirDelboy18

stovelid wrote: »

So because you're brought up with United, you can't make a connection to your home-town club but if you want to ditch United, you randomly pick some team lower in the English league structure from a city you've never been to or have no connection with to support?

Starting to smell a rat on this thread to be honest.

I know a few people that just like football btw. They just like watching it and going to games but don;t have a particular favourite team.

Thanks for the attack.

I was actually trying to relate it to the OP who has made it clear that he wanted to have an interest in the English game. I tried to make suggestions which might help him.

I then attempted to relate to him, through my own experiences with my local team, who I have made clear that I would like to support.

I also stated that it could be enjoyed without supporting but expressed an opinion that it would be better with supporting a specific club.

joshrogan

utopianruins wrote: »

Is it possible to follow the game without having a club team to be a fan of or support?

I don't really have an English team I support, just always support the underdogs. My father supports Celtic so I suppose I have a soft spot for them but I wouldn't consider myself a Celtic fanatic and would rather just watch good football.

SEANoftheDEAD

stovelid wrote: »

By who?

All League of Ireland fans other than Rovers ones. Before the move to Tallaght, Rovers could barely pull 1000 to their games, they get an average gate of nearly double that since the move and recent success. So therefore it was considered a band wagon jump on...

I suppose thats part and parcel with a club going threw a successful period, the gates swelling an all, but for me, I felt like a forgiener, I did nothing before that club moved to Tallaght

SEANoftheDEAD

SirDelboy18 wrote: »

Thanks for the attack.

I was actually trying to relate it to the OP who has made it clear that he wanted to have an interest in the English game. I tried to make suggestions which might help him.

I then attempted to relate to him, through my own experiences with my local team, who I have made clear that I would like to support.

I also stated that it could be enjoyed without supporting but expressed an opinion that it would be better with supporting a specific club.

Cheers man, helpful stuff ye posted.

GLaDOS

utopianruins wrote: »

All League of Ireland fans other than Rovers ones.

Well of course fans of other teams are gonna give you a bit of abuse, that's what happens in football!

meriwether

My interest in soccer fluctuates.

This year, i'm very much engrossed in Arsenal, as things were bad for a while, and also the team is more likable and identifiable with than it has been in a long time.

I got sick of the Adebayor/Nasri/Arshavin aspect of Arsenal we had going for a time.

As alluded to ny the OP, the money aspect of the game turns me off too. If Arsenal was owned by the likes of Abramovich, I'd pretty much jack it in. To that end, Ushmanov (still minority shareholder) worries me.

SEANoftheDEAD

ScienceNerd wrote: »

Well of course fans of other teams are gonna give you a bit of abuse, that's what happens in football!

I know that man, haha, I'm well used to the banter... but this wasn't that, it was a true point.

stovelid

utopianruins wrote: »

All League of Ireland fans other than Rovers ones. Before the move to Tallaght, Rovers could barely pull 1000 to their games, they get an average gate of nearly double that since the move and recent success. So therefore it was considered a band wagon jump on...

I suppose thats part and parcel with a club going threw a successful period, the gates swelling an all, but for me, I felt like a forgiener, I did nothing before that club moved to Tallaght

Barcelona look like a good up and coming team to get behind. They're a workers collective and their players weave water baskets with their own hair to give to starving sub-Saharan orphans.

SEANoftheDEAD

stovelid wrote: »

Barcelona look like a good up and coming team to get behind.

There already up, so id only be jumping on yet another band-wagon

CSF

Look just forget all this Adrian Molesque philosophical diarising and become a Shels fan. You get to hate everyone. Literally everyone. It's great.

Rhys Essien

utopianruins wrote: »

All League of Ireland fans other than Rovers ones. Before the move to Tallaght, Rovers could barely pull 1000 to their games, they get an average gate of nearly double that since the move and recent success. So therefore it was considered a band wagon jump on...

I suppose thats part and parcel with a club going threw a successful period, the gates swelling an all, but for me, I felt like a forgiener, I did nothing before that club moved to Tallaght

Well if you start going over to shout your head off for Peterborough United,it will make no logic and you will be a foreigner.

No wonder the league of Ireland is fcuked when fellas are recommending you follow a Championship or League 1 club.

I snapped out of "following" an English club when I was about 16 when I thought to myself,shur would following a club from Mongolia be any different,when its not really "your" club.

I do have a great interest in soccer overall though.

dreamers75

I work with someone in the same predicament as the OP. Supports Rovers this season, he works in an area where 90% of the workers are Pats fans (guess who is in charge of recruiting ).

Should i be nice to him and nurture his new found love of Rovers? Should i abuse him and call him a bandwagon fan?

hmm maybe i should get my own thread about my predicament.

To be fair to him and the other Rovers fan in the job, they went to a work type party with us after the match on great friday and took quite a lot of stick this week.

kryogen

You can enjoy without supporting a team alright, but you will never taste the extreme highs or feel the bitter lows as much, this depends on you, whether you want the extreme emotions of the game or not I guess.

I support Manchester United and Waterford United. Two very different clubs obviously, two very different levels of success, or in the Super Blues case, abject failure

But I wouldnt trade it, I love watching and playing football, would watch pretty much any game on tv and love going to a game, and the connection I feel to Man United (for ancesteral reasons) and Waterford United (cause they are my home team) enhances all the emotions I get from football

CiaranC

utopianruins wrote: »

I know that man, haha, I'm well used to the banter... but this wasn't that, it was a true point.

Of course its just banter, every one of those clubs would kill for an 150% increase in gates

CiaranC

dreamers75 wrote: »

the match on great friday

Saint_Mel

utopianruins wrote: »

All League of Ireland fans other than Rovers ones.
...

Why would it bother you what fans of other clubs think of your support?

If you are considering supporting lower clubs so as not to be seen as a bandwagoner ... then your fortnightly €10 will be more than welcome in Athlone Town Stadium

dfx-

Saint_Mel wrote: »

Why would it bother you what fans of other clubs think of your support?

Particularly given the propensity for a lot worse to be aimed at Rovers fans than bandwagon jumper.. :pac:

AgileMyth

utopianruins wrote: »

All League of Ireland fans other than Rovers ones.

Fans of other clubs! Really!

Maybe you're just not cut out to be a football fan if you can't take that sort of stick.

AgileMyth

Saint_Mel wrote: »

Why would it bother you what fans of other clubs think of your support?

If you are considering supporting lower clubs so as not to be seen as a bandwagoner ... then your fortnightly €10 will be more than welcome in Athlone Town Stadium

No hes supposed to pick a random team from the English lower leagues. Sure Athlone would be too far away.

CiaranC

No point in bashing the lad, he went along for two seasons and gave it a go. Which is more than can be said for most on here.

SEANoftheDEAD

Well I put my neck out by starting this thread, as I'm not bothered by a bit of stick... and yes, altho, Athlone Town sounds thempting... I think id rather spend my money in the Flansiro

Na in all serious tho, I wouldnt be able to start following another team, I tryed it locally and it didnt work... So it looks like I'm doomed to a future of barstooling United and maybe get over 4 more times in my lifetime.

dreamers75

CiaranC wrote: »

No point in bashing the lad, he went along for two seasons and gave it a go. Which is more than can be said for most on here.

Would love to know what teams fans abused him tho


/please be Bohs :pac:

AgileMyth

utopianruins wrote: »

Well I put my neck out by starting this thread, as I'm not bothered by a bit of stick... and yes, altho, Athlone Town sounds thempting... I think id rather spend my money in the Flansiro

Ah yeah sure Longford are top of the league now! Bandwagon jumping again!

Seriously if you feel the timing was wrong when you went up last try going to a few Shams games again now, or check out one of the other local teams. Inchicore isn't that bad..

SEANoftheDEAD

AgileMyth wrote: »

Ah yeah sure Longford are top of the league now! Bandwagon jumping again!

hahaha I suppose I would be :P

SEANoftheDEAD

dreamers75 wrote: »

Would love to know what teams fans abused him tho


/please be Bohs :pac:

No one abused me... what I ment by what I said about all LoI fans was, I signed up to following Rovers at the start of a boom time, so in the eyes of every other fans eyes I owuld be a band-wagon jumper...

But thinking about it now, it's not just the LoI fans, it's all footy fans that I would and see... I always wore United gear ye know, then suddenly I'm wearing Rovers tops? Blow in...

CiaranC

utopianruins wrote: »

Well I put my neck out by starting this thread, as I'm not bothered by a bit of stick... and yes, altho, Athlone Town sounds thempting... I think id rather spend my money in the Flansiro

Na in all serious tho, I wouldnt be able to start following another team, I tryed it locally and it didnt work... So it looks like I'm doomed to a future of barstooling United and maybe get over 4 more times in my lifetime.

Noone said you had to bleed green and white overnight. Go to the odd game when you are at a loose end, go to the derby, go along to the European ties. Not everyone has to be a die hard turning up to Leinster Senior cup matches. The bug comes with time.

AgileMyth

utopianruins wrote: »

No one abused me... what I ment by what I said about all LoI fans was, I signed up to following Rovers at the start of a boom time, so in the eyes of every other fans eyes I owuld be a band-wagon jumper...

But thinking about it now, it's not just the LoI fans, it's all footy fans that I would and see... I always wore United gear ye know, then suddenly I'm wearing Rovers tops? Blow in...

A huge amount of LOI supporters were fans of EPL teams in their youth and teenage years before growing disillusioned with the idea (seeing sense :cool:)

You won't be judged for doing that. I'll be attending our game tomorrow with two people who have only 'converted' in the last two-three years. Those couple of years have been quite successful for us. That doesn't mean I see them as lesser supporters, I'm delighted to see the extra money coming in and the lads are happy to have found a team they can establish a real connection with.

As Ciaran says don't expect that connection to just happen overnight. Go to a few games if you're doing nothing else. Get a bus to an away game after a while, thats where you'll really meet the characters!

SEANoftheDEAD

Tryed it tho man, 2 seasons full... went to home and away games. Including White Hart Lane & Modena... Still wasn't enough to develope a love, it was kinda like an arranged marriage feeling, I should be loving this, but somethings not right...

The nail in the coffin, was the post match reaction to the Irish Spurs fans in Tallaght... the maldron was nothing but people bitching about the fact that these barstoolers where following an English team and not their own team...

AgileMyth

utopianruins wrote: »

The nail in the coffin, was the post match reaction to the Irish Spurs fans in Tallaght... the maldron was nothing but people bitching about the fact that these barstoolers where following an English team and not their own team...

That particular match drove home the ridiculousness of supporting English teams for a lot of people in fairness. Irish lads supporting an English team over an Irish team? What the hell is that all about?

Even I wanted Shams to do well in that one.

stovelid

If somebody told you about these threads, you wouldn't actually believe them until you read it yourself.

You don't get the bug overnight especially if you have a team like united who you can easily support as well as another team if you don't go to many games.

Still slightly unsure if this is all a windup to be honest.

On the spurs fans being ridiculed: if you're an Irish Liverpool or united fan, you see savage sometime borderline piss taking and trolling, whether in here or work or the pub or whatever. One relatively innocent jibe about being a barstooler, however, and there is floods of tears and wounded outrage. It's an effective piss take because, let's face it, it hits a nerve.

Zebra3

utopianruins wrote: »

But as time went on, the die-hard League of Ireland fans drove me away from this club. As Rovers we're beginning a successful period, I was considered a bang-wagon jumper. Any interest in the EPL was shot down as an Barstooler and support your local club rants...

utopianruins wrote: »

No one abused me...

So which is it? :rolleyes:

stovelid

Actually was a recent discussion on the rovers forum about newer fans and to a man, supporters are completely delighted about the increase in people going to rovers games.

If you're saying that you can't take a bit of stick from other supporters about the Tallaght bandwagon or any other football banter, I wouldn't advise following any sport club as you appear far too sensitive - assuming that this thread is even serious and not a wind-up.

eagle eye

Zebra3 wrote: »

So which is it? :rolleyes:

Just because they drove him away doesn't mean they abused him. Lots of people in the late 80s/early 90s just stopped going to games because of an element that was growing that they didn't like.

My own dad stopped going back then because some of those guys were so abusive/foul mouthed in the stands and there was a lot of alchohol involved which made it an experience lots didn't like.

Ashbourne hoop

I'm with Stovelid, post is either a wind up or the OP is too sensitive to be a football fan. No matter what team you support, everyone is a newbie at some stage. Most Rovers fans are delighted that there is 4-5k at games now, and if you're experiences in Modena and WHL didn't get you hooked, you should check yourself for a pulse!!!!