Football Fandom

[melonhead]

TITANGRAPH SAYS WHAT?!



just piss off and go then!
so you think youve grown up in someway that football is now beneath you just cos weve had a shit season?

well go then,see if we care.
fine.

dont need your sort here anyway

[melonhead]

(dont go!)

[winchester_royal]

I dunno about anyone else, but I support Reading because I enjoy watching football, and enjoy the highs and lows that come with supporting a team. Once I no longer enjoy doing it I will stop. I certainly don't stick around for any sense of 'community'.

[melonhead]

you can piss off n all!

[melonhead]

lets be fair though, if what you need from football is the feeling you once got when watching england play well in a tournament played in england during the rennaissance of british football......
then id just give up now. you wont recapture that, and comparing all football to that is going to leave you continually disapointed.

[Alexander Litvinenko]

For lots of people (*) support isn't unconditional - it's a two-way process where they have to feel that the club they support values them and gives something back to them. It used to feel like that at Reading - if not completely then certainly more so than at most other clubs.

But money corrupts and taints everything it touches, and as the Premier League is all about money we've seen that two-way process become more and more one-sided this season, with supporters even more taken for granted and "commoditised" than ever.

I'm clinging onto the hope that in the Championship we might see a bit more of what has always made Reading so "special" to support - but I fear it might have been lost for ever.






(*) Brendy excepted!

[Uke]

lets be fair though, if what you need from football is the feeling you once got when watching england play well in a tournament played in england during the rennaissance of british football......
then id just give up now. you wont recapture that, and comparing all football to that is going to leave you continually disapointed.

You cannot have a renaissance without a dark age first

I blame the Aussie and the Arab, Thai and Russian oligarchs

[Royal Lady]

If I had the choice, I'd go back to the Elm Park days, where 3,000 was a huge crowd and where we had more lows than highs but I thoroughly enjoyed every game I went to, home and away.

I've missed a few home games this season and hardly been to any away, which is most unlike me, but I just don't have the hunger for it anymore - whether it's down to the fact it's much easier to watch games on tv/pc stream, that I abhor the amount of money spent on players and their wages, that there are not so many players who are happy to stay at one club and have an affinity with that club and the town, I don't know - maybe it's just my age, but the slightest drop of rain or a bit of cold weather and I REALLY don't want to go. Yet in the past, I've stood in wind, rain, snow, hail to watch MY team. It just doesn't seem like MY team anymore now.

[Uke]

A lot of it could be to do with age, I was 14 in 1996 and I still dared to dream. Now I know that the world is a b*tch and everyone in it is a w*nker.

Also, I Don't feel social media helps. I am sure Shearer was smashing the back gate off half the slags in Newcastle - but because information wasn't so easy to spread so fast it was all just rumour among the locals. John Terry would be a saint to all, a heroic defender if it wasn't for twitter.

No, it's more than just an age related thing

I was 24-25 when I first started and it's only in the last few years that it's all gone awry

It's the disconnection with the team, the owner and the corporate greed. I don't think it's a coincidence that this began around the time that SJM decided he wanted to sell up and get out - he probably feels the same too.

[barelylubedcock]

Green was saying similar things last time we chatted.

I still get a buzz when I see the team live - West Ham last season, Cardiff away the season before. But being away from live games, only connecting to the club through the spazzboard. Nah, sorry, chaps but the heart's not in it.

[SmellyAli]

Let's get ready to Rumpole
Let's get ready to Rumpole
Get ready. Get Steady. And Rumpole
Everybody Rumpole!

[westongeezer]

Being a footy fan sorry Supporter, groups us in that bracket ( I enjoy my teeth being pulled out ) i love the post, sums up many peoples sentiments at this time...+1

[Uke]

Green was saying similar things last time we chatted.

I still get a buzz when I see the team live - West Ham last season, Cardiff away the season before. But being away from live games, only connecting to the club through the spazzboard. Nah, sorry, chaps but the heart's not in it.

There is still the buzz about going to a live game

Although I haven't dared try and see if I get the same buzz going to Peterborough or another non-RFC team.

There's just that smidgin of loyalty left...

[winchester_royal]

These is just a repeat of a thread that seems to be on a bimonthly loop.

Disconnection with modern football blah blah corporate greed blah blah money blah blah footballers are bellends blah blah

Didn't see too many of these threads around the time we were storming to a Championship title after Anton's money brought in Jason Roberts.

Football may be different to how it was 20 years ago, but so is every sport. Life is very different to how it was 20 years ago. If you no longer enjoy watching and supporting Reading FC then go. You'll be missed, but there are far more new fans joining the sport than old fans that are leaving it. Just because a minority dislike what it's turned into, that doesn't mean it's 'gone wrong'.

[TBM]

Summary of the OP please?!

[Uke]

Didn't see too many of these threads around the time we were storming to a Championship title after Anton's money brought in Jason Roberts.

Definitely wasn't the same connection with the team as the first time promotion though

The loss of personable characters like Murts, USA and even Kitson has alienated me more than I thought

[Uke]

Summary of the OP please?!

[TBM]

Summary of the OP please?!

"Don't enjoy football anymore, soulless, expensive and no loyalty. But, I am a weak ass little faggot and can't stop going."

Ah right - i stopped going for those reasons, i enjoy it much more now listening/reading/watching on Internet

[Extended-Phenotype]

Dunno about anybody else, but I think this post is pretty sad.

Poor analogy, really. Films over when the credits roll, f/ck all new is going to happen. Plus, the actors in the film can’t see you walk out and don’t rely on your support and encouragement to complete the film.

Everyone goes to football for different reasons and everyone has their own way of supporting – if you f/ck off before the end; up to you. But don’t burst into tears if people find that disrespectful; it’s a pretty reasonable disgruntlement.

You may not find much camaraderie, but then I’m not really surprised. Personally I’ve found the people I sit near, the fans on the bus and in the pubs afterwards to be on the main a welcoming and humble bunch, but then I don't suffer from such a superiority complex which makes me seem a bit of a smug bastard sometimes - maybe peeps aren't really into rallying around with someone like that?

If you aren’t enjoying it, then it makes sense – ditch it. But to tell others that their enjoyment is a farce is pretty ignorant; it’s a complete contradiction of your point – how can you say fandom is stupid for people preaching what fandom is, while preaching to people what fandom is???! Berk.

As for comparing it to an abusive relationship, I know plenty of unfortunate people who would disagree. Losing is losing, it’s part of sport and part of the enjoyment. Losing is what makes winning feel great. If to you it’s akin to being brutally beaten by your partner, perhaps you don’t have the adult mentality to deal with sport in general.

What a load of shite, really.

[melonhead]

lets be fair though, if what you need from football is the feeling you once got when watching england play well in a tournament played in england during the rennaissance of british football......
then id just give up now. you wont recapture that, and comparing all football to that is going to leave you continually disapointed.

You cannot have a renaissance without a dark age first

I blame the Aussie and the Arab, Thai and Russian oligarchs

sorry- but the horrible days of the 80s, with english teams banned from europe etc was clearly the dark age