Supporting British teams

**Docboy** · 08/09/2006, 11:01 AM

When their team starts to go into decline, go into the doldrums, get relegated, they will be seen down the local Champion Sports or Lifestyle buying the new champions replica jersey. And then the same bullsh*t again.
[/QUOTE]

Mate I have to say that I think that comment is absolute cack. My father moved to London when he was 9 in the 1950's. Instead of supporting one of the successful london sides he plumped for WBA cos he liked their strip when he saw it in a mag. When he could he would travel up to the midlands or else see them play play in London. He also watched the successful Spurs team of the day as they were just up the road.

When i was 8 he brought me to see spurs when i was over in london visiting my gran and 20 years later they are still my club side. I've often joked over the years that he could have at least brought me to see the gooners so i could have had some success.

The point being, the team picks you and not the other way round. My da still follows WBA with all their ups and downs. Maybe if the EL had got more young people down back in the school days thing would have been different, but hey that's life.

**NY Hoop** · 08/09/2006, 11:28 AM

Originally Posted by Partizan

When I take a glance over at dangerhere.com and watch as the self-appointed Irish soccer Alan Hunter-esque fans quibble and salivate over the lates goings on in England, the more I agree with NY Hoop. To me a football club is part of the community. Like your family, its a vital component of who you are, your surroundings, city, environment, your upbringing. Its your identity. I couldnt for the love of me support a foreign side because 1) I wasnt born there and 2) I have no connection to there so how cold I support them. It would be like supporting Kerry in the bogball. What connection to I have with Kerry, none.

It perplexes me to see all those eejits lined up at Dublin airport spending thousands on the development of English football yet they slag off eL for being ****e. Do you know that the native fans in England despise these clowns. How could people go for this overmarketed, processed package. Its so artifical it would make Quash orange look like the Real McCoy with the juicy bits.

Call me elitist (now the eL can hardly be described as such) but for me eL is where its at. After all, why would you drain your dick over every hardcore site on the net when you can settle for the real stuff.

Exactly. Its about community.

Jebus and plastic paddy you are completely missing the point. Dont take everything so literally. Cant believe I have to explain this but if you're Irish and live here you should support your local side. Obviously if you live abroad its hard to go and see your team play

I lived in cark for 2 years and missed one Rovers game and while in NY came back for European games and the last Cup Final.

Go to any game in any country and you will see locals supporting their own side. They dont ignore it by sitting on a barstool and cheering on club teams from a country they say they hate.

Talk of elitism among EL fans is absolute and complete tosh.

A guy got killed by his best friend here in Dublin cos he was wearing a blackburn jersey and he got into an argument with his friend who was a manyoo "fan". That is beyond pathetic.

There is no football culture in this country. And people complain that there's no atmosphere at lansdowne? How can there be when 90% of those there are used to watching games in a bar ffs? Saw guys wearing english club jersies in Stuttgart last weekend

KOH

**BohsPartisan** · 08/09/2006, 11:34 AM

Originally Posted by Partizan

After all, why would you drain your dick over every hardcore site on the net when you can settle for the real stuff.

Yeah but some people like to do both!

**Partizan** · 08/09/2006, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

There is no football culture in this country. And people complain that there's no atmosphere at lansdowne? How can there be when 90% of those there are used to watching games in a bar ffs? Saw guys wearing english club jersies in Stuttgart last weekend

KOH

You hit the nail on the head NY. I was at the Holland game in Lansdowne and the absence of any atmosphere and passion was so apparant. It was like going to Mass, everybody just sitting there expecting something to happen. The vast majority of people that attend Ireland matches are used to the processed artifical package that comes with Sky Sports. They have no idea on what supporting a team really is. There was no chants, no singing....nothing and the amount of tricolours I saw with 'Bolton', 'Chelsea', 'Sunderland' et al just had to be seen to be believed.

I couldnt care less if Ireland finished bottom with San Marino and Cyprus just as long as the Blues stay up which I think they will.

**Peadar** · 08/09/2006, 11:50 AM

Originally Posted by Partizan

I was at the Holland game in Lansdowne and the absence of any atmosphere and passion was so apparant.

That's a bad example because we had nothing to cheer about.
I can't force myself to cheer for a team that I don't believe in and since de gaffer took over, I've lost all belief in the Irish side.

Originally Posted by Partizan

I couldnt care less if Ireland finished bottom with San Marino and Cyprus just as long as the Blues stay up which I think they will.

We'll see what the committee has to say about that.

**BohsPartisan** · 08/09/2006, 11:52 AM

Originally Posted by Partizan

the amount of tricolours I saw with 'Bolton', 'Chelsea', 'Sunderland' et al just had to be seen to be believed.

.

I always have to laugh at that alright.
I'm just waiting for one with Rangers on it. Now that would be funny.

**endabob1** · 08/09/2006, 12:25 PM

The idea that English people support their local team is a complete fallacy, walk around any provincial own in Britain and you will see Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd shirts outnumbering the local teams.
I lived in London for 10 years and went to Spurs as a member/season ticket holder/casual fan in that time I met fans from all over the country & the world at games. My nephew lives in London, 'supports' Newcastle but actually is a season ticket holder for a smaller London club.

The idea that if you don't support your local team you are inferior to those that do is rubbish, support who you want, there doesn't have to be any ryhme or reason to it, go and see them as often as you can. If you can't go and see them go and see someone else if you fancy it.

EL fans telling me that I can't support Spurs or whoever because I wasn't born within a stones throw of White Hart Lane is as bad as Sky telling me I must support a premier league club or I'll be a social parriah and end up with no friends.
Use your own brain, use your own values and don't be dictated to by anyone else.

**Soper** · 08/09/2006, 12:33 PM

''the amount of tricolours I saw with 'Bolton', 'Chelsea', 'Sunderland' et al just had to be seen to be believed.''

And to think some people in the Ireland forum are actually moaning about Eircom League flags at Ireland matches!

**Magicme** · 08/09/2006, 12:34 PM

Mons comes first in our house but I love Liverpool too (was bred into me) and my youngest son is an anfield devotee...somehow my eldest went to the dark side when he was 7 & became a Manure fan. Am planning on taking them to Liverpool & Manchester for a weekend in the new year so that they can both visit their club grounds but always always its Monaghan United first & foremost.

**Soper** · 08/09/2006, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by endabob1

The idea that English people support their local team is a complete fallacy, walk around any provincial own in Britain and you will see Chelsea, Arsenal and Man Utd shirts outnumbering the local teams.
I lived in London for 10 years and went to Spurs as a member/season ticket holder/casual fan in that time I met fans from all over the country & the world at games. My nephew lives in London, 'supports' Newcastle but actually is a season ticket holder for a smaller London club.

The idea that if you don't support your local team you are inferior to those that do is rubbish, support who you want, there doesn't have to be any ryhme or reason to it, go and see them as often as you can. If you can't go and see them go and see someone else if you fancy it.

EL fans telling me that I can't support Spurs or whoever because I wasn't born within a stones throw of White Hart Lane is as bad as Sky telling me I must support a premier league club or I'll be a social parriah and end up with no friends.
Use your own brain, use your own values and don't be dictated to by anyone else.

You are missing the point.People support the big teams, granted.However they also follow their local teams.10 years ago Cardiff City were having attendences of 3000, now it's 18,000+, because they're doing well.These additional people are people who bum teams slike ManUre.

End of the day, football is a game from the grassroots, and if you don't support the grassroots, then you don't help football in this country.All these excuses about barstoolers 'not having a link' with Irish teams is fodder.Fair play if you're an EL fan who follows other teams, that's grand.Or if you live abroad, same.However, it is OUR duty to support OUR national league in whatever way we can, and not subsidise foreign leagues at the expense of our own.

We are coming to an important stage in Irish football, where the fossett of Irish players being developed is thankfully coming to an end, and so we will need a strong league,taken seriously by Irish people, in order to help us provide quality young Irish players for the national team.We will be like Lithuania and Estonia if people don't start supporting our League properly.

**Plastic Paddy** · 08/09/2006, 1:19 PM

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

Exactly. Its about community.

I think I'm going to be sick...

How can you expect young lads growing up in Dublin to be loyal to one club (SPA excepted) when they all either up sticks, or threaten to move, every few seasons? Your club are the epitome of the point I'm making - Milltown? RDS? Tallaght? But then there's Shels with talk of Santry; Bohs and their attempts to relocate (soon to be successful I see), the farce that was Dublin City... Need I go on? Community my arse.

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

Jebus and plastic paddy you are completely missing the point. Dont take everything so literally. Cant believe I have to explain this but if you're Irish and live here you should support your local side. Obviously if you live abroad its hard to go and see your team play

I'm not sure what point your original inflammatory post was designed to make. You can't expect to post something so deliberately provocative and not expect a comeback like the one you received. It's the least you deserved.

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

I lived in cark for 2 years and missed one Rovers game and while in NY came back for European games and the last Cup Final.

Bully for you. Those of us with lives outside football don't have the same options. But, fair play to you, you're the number 1 fan. I bow to your superior supporting skills and abilities at community-building.

PP

**jebus** · 08/09/2006, 1:34 PM

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

I lived in cark for 2 years and missed one Rovers game and while in NY came back for European games and the last Cup Final.

Talk of elitism among EL fans is absolute and complete tosh.

Really? Then why do you jump at the first chance to 'prove' how you're Number One when it comes to supporters? Fair play to you for having the cash to throw around to fly back and forth from New York, I and many like me don't have the cash or time to fly back and forth to Sheffield, nor do I have the time or money to travel up and down to Limerick, but hey it shouldn't matter as I'm not a local Sheffield lad, and I haven't lived full time in Limerick for quite a few years now so I'm not part of any community.

Plus if you read a lot of the posts on here in sequence you get a clear picture that apparantly a Rovers fan born in Dublin is a far better human being than a Liverpool fan born in Dublin

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

A guy got killed by his best friend here in Dublin cos he was wearing a blackburn jersey and he got into an argument with his friend who was a manyoo "fan". That is beyond pathetic.

Oddly I was walking through Dublin on a balmy March day this year when I came across a load of lads, with a sizeable amount of them in Rovers jerseys, tearing up O'Connell St and hurling anything they could find at the local guards because a group from the North wanted to march down the street. I thought it was pretty pathetic myself, but hey if they're part of the community more power to them eh?

**NY Hoop** · 08/09/2006, 1:44 PM

Originally Posted by Plastic Paddy

I think I'm going to be sick...

How can you expect young lads growing up in Dublin to be loyal to one club (SPA excepted) when they all either up sticks, or threaten to move, every few seasons? Your club are the epitome of the point I'm making - Milltown? RDS? Tallaght? But then there's Shels with talk of Santry; Bohs and their attempts to relocate (soon to be successful I see), the farce that was Dublin City... Need I go on? Community my arse.
I'm not sure what point your original inflammatory post was designed to make. You can't expect to post something so deliberately provocative and not expect a comeback like the one you received. It's the least you deserved.
Bully for you. Those of us with lives outside football don't have the same options. But, fair play to you, you're the number 1 fan. I bow to your superior supporting skills and abilities at community-building.

PP

Where do I begin? Firstly my original comment was not at all inflammatory. Its a fact. I'm not british. I was born and bred here. I have no connection with anything british. That IS the point.

Secondly Rovers is a southside club. It's not our fault that lucifer decided to cash in and sell Milltown. Rovers have numerous underage teams in Tallaght and have had for a decade. That is community.

If you're from Dublin support a Dublin club. Again I have to spell it out for you.

Dublin city were a joke. Much like barstoolers are.

Superior supporting skills? Oh dear

I was merely making the point that if you live away from home you do as much as you can to make the games. There are a lot of fans all over the country who travel hundreds of miles to attend a game.

Lose the chip pal.

KOH

**BohsPartisan** · 08/09/2006, 1:44 PM

Originally Posted by Partizan

After all, why would you drain your dick over every hardcore site on the net when you can settle for the real stuff.

Just thinking how bad an analogy this is. Surely the difference is between watching hardcore on the net and going to a live s'x show?
The real thing is analagous to playing the game.

**Plastic Paddy** · 08/09/2006, 1:55 PM

Originally Posted by NY Hoop

Lose the chip pal.

No chip on my shoulder. I do however resent the implication that, because you support your "local" team, you're a better kind of football fan.

PP

**NY Hoop** · 08/09/2006, 1:57 PM

Originally Posted by jebus

Really? Then why do you jump at the first chance to 'prove' how you're Number One when it comes to supporters? Fair play to you for having the cash to throw around to fly back and forth from New York, I and many like me don't have the cash or time to fly back and forth to Sheffield, nor do I have the time or money to travel up and down to Limerick, but hey it shouldn't matter as I'm not a local Sheffield lad, and I haven't lived full time in Limerick for quite a few years now so I'm not part of any community.

Plus if you read the a lot of the posts on here in sequence you get a clear picture that aapparantly a Rovers fan born in Dublin is a far better human being than a Liverpool fan born in Dublin

Oddly I was walking through Dublin on a balmy March day this year when I came across a load of lads, with a sizeable amount of them in Rovers jerseys, tearing up O'Connell St and hurling anything they could find at the local guards because a group from the North wanted to march down the street. I thought it was pretty pathetic myself, but hey if they're part of the community more power to them eh?

This must be a tag team.

I wasnt boasting just pointing out that you can support your club from afar with a lot of sacrifices.

Your last paragraph proves that you can write rubbish as well as read it. Pathetic is the word I'd use for the garbage you and your tag team partner write.

KOH

**NeilMcD** · 08/09/2006, 2:06 PM

There is no doubt in my mind that people who attend games on a regular basis often do have a better appreciation of football and the tactics of football than those that look at it through the filter that is TV Coverage.

**osarusan** · 08/09/2006, 2:16 PM

Originally Posted by Partizan

It perplexes me to see all those eejits lined up at Dublin airport spending thousands on the development of English football yet they slag off eL for being ****e. Do you know that the native fans in England despise these clowns. How could people go for this overmarketed, processed package. Its so artifical it would make Quash orange look like the Real McCoy with the juicy bits.

Call me elitist (now the eL can hardly be described as such) but for me eL is where its at.

How can you call the premiership "overmarketed, processed, artificial."

It seems to me that some eL fans have become so sick of people looking down on the league that they have began to see it as some bastion of purity, and anybody who doesnt support it is a barstooling barbarian.

To claim that the eL is in any way better that the top leagues in any major footballing country is ludicrous.

However I do agree that we should support our local teams. But not doing this , while obviously the fans choice, is also the fault of the national media for giving more coverage to other leagues than our own.

Choosing which team you support is exactly that, a choice, and there is no law saying it must be from any region.

**osarusan** · 08/09/2006, 2:18 PM

Originally Posted by NeilMcD

There is no doubt in my mind that people who attend games on a regular basis often do have a better appreciation of football and the tactics of football than those that look at it through the filter that is TV Coverage.

I agree if both parties are watching the same game, one on tv and the other in the ground.

I would say that a person watching Brazil on TV is likely to learn as much about tactics as a person watching a first division game live.

**Soper** · 08/09/2006, 2:20 PM

The atmosphere in a lot of the top EL teams matches is better than a lot of Championship matches, even Cardiff v Birmingham which was the first full house in years.