whats happened to this place?

I dont agree with that personally. I think support for anything has nothing to do with locality as such. As a UTD fan you probably HATE city so kind of ****s up your argument IMO

Besides sport on a national level is one thing (IMO) but local teams are foreign in everyway. UTDs BIGGEST fan is probably SAF and he is from Scotland
Best player (arguably) is rooney (a scouser), Nani (portuguese) etc

I think the fan who spends thousands to see his team once in 5 years is a bigger fan than locals who watch it on sky but try and take the high ground

 

Up The Dons!!

 

Yes its about 40 odd miles

The point is though that compared to stoke it was 'multicultural' in the mid to late 70's. There was no fear factor (of course this may have been down to not knowing it as well as stoke).

How do you support a team that gets your head kicked in, despite locality?

 

I can understand that - if you go to the Emirates there's loads of people from Europe many of whom do nothing but take pictures and it sort of adds grist to the mill of those who say the place is devoid of atmosphere - presumably the same is true of OT - alas i wouldn't know as i haven't visited since 1987

 

Oh i quite agree Fan - a couple of my mates at Watford wouldn't go away to certain London clubs for the same reason. But whilst i entirely get your point, mine was that I don't think there's anything wrong with someone from Stoke supporting Man united - and even if i did it's not really any of my business.....

 

TBH you have touched on something that I think gets misunderstood by the 'english' to a degree

What that basically is that you judge everything based on an 'english' understanding

Let me explain. When referring to parents or prophets asians (south asian) use the word 'they' (plural) but dont mean many

so a pakistani kid born and raised here may say ' my mum, they said......'
this gets taken as bad english, lack of integration etc etc. BUT its simply respect. The equivilant of 'you' is rude and to elders and those looked up to it isnt used. The equivilant in urdu/hindi is translated as 'they'

In football (and other fields) its the same. Oriental fans culturally are not vociferous in the same way the english are. same with asians. when I take my lads to OT i get embarrassed by a grown man singing songs effing and blinding

 

sorry dan I wasnt 'having a go', if thats how my response appeared
I was addressing you but othrs at the same time and trying to point out that its not as simple as saying locality = affiliation

 

Thats my point. You can hate where you live and like somewhere else. doesnt mean nothing in terms of support

shouldnt you support wigan anyway?

As I said there are many reasons for supporting a team. eg I now have a soft spot for coventry city and I have only been there once for some IT training for work years ago.

But the lads and coaches came onto the childrens ward when my lad was at Birmingham Childrens and they spoke to us for ages gave him a signed football and posters/bags etc

I actually have a family member who is an everton fan, YES EVERTON

basically he wasnt into football but met one of the everton players in the 80's and voila been a fan since, knows more about the club than soem of the local 'diehards'

 

Nah - never thought you were having a go to be honest I totally agree that locality doesn't always equal affiliation. And here's a thing - if I chose to support Hartlepool for some odd reason and drove up there from London every week people would call me the most devoted fan in the country. If you do the same journey to old Trafford, Anfield, Emirates, Stamford Bridge or whatever then you're a glory hunter. I do think some of the banter at local derby matches may be better understood if you're from the area (especially for the smaller clubs) but given most of it is as intellectually stimulating as Beavis and Butthead you're not really missing out!

Finally I entirely agree about the effing and blinding in front of kids at matches - I would have included women but in my experience some of them can be among the biggest culprits!. I have a bot of a sewer mouth at times but if there's children in my immediate vicinity i try not to do it. one of the best things about all seater stadia is that aside form the costs you can bring kids without any fear - my old man would never have taken me to a game in the 70s and was none too pleased when I started going on my own in the 80s

 

cant disagree with that TBH

however my experience of UTD fans is more about singin 'we all hate leeds scum' when playing spurs in the league cup than vocal support
In fact that was a game I took one of my sons to and all the songs were about LFC LUFC etc. Thought it was pathetic TBH
My lad was going 'skitz' and shouting and encouraging the players and was getting weird looks off some of those around him and they defo were not foreign judging by their accents etc

 

same applies

 

Tonight, yes, most definitely. Think of all the fun we could have watching you run riot on the mopes board .

 

weird thing is the best atmosphere I ever witnessed was in the KOP at LFC with scouse mates, no swearing etc (or didnt hear any) and focussing on the match teams and players on the pitch

I got to be honest if I had kids in the early/mid 80's I wouldnt have been keen on letting them go to matches.

 

Yo missed the point somewhat. You support who you want, even though technically if you are in wigan then it doesnt matter how close you are to borders etc
I think I was born closer to India than Pakistan but I honestly am not Indian

My lads were born in stoke and are UTD fans due to me, I suppose same will be true for your kids (?). By the logic some apply (including you and the locality one) they wont be proper fans

 

wigan?

how often do you go to OT?

is locality now based on distance rather than where you are born?

one of my kids was born in merseyside, are they fook supportimg LFC