Just because someone doesn't support their local side does not mean they are glory fans! As rightly put above, if that was a case then football wouldn't be the sport we all know and love! There are many reasons that people support other teams and sometimes it is for glory, but more often than not there are other reasons. For me, it was the simple fact that my family supported Liverpool, particularly my older brother. Ironically, that same brother has zero loyalty to teams nowadays (he's now 35) and as been known to support Man Utd, Chelsea and Stags at one time or another over the last decade, nor can he stand Liverpool any more! However, my heart was set from that early influenced age and I've never contemplated changing alliance, never will!
I was joking, but that seems to have been missed. Anyway the point is not about local match going fans, more the cheek of less local 'glory hunters' having a go at our 'glory hunting' contingent.
The fact that your attendances took a nosedive was nothing to do with 'the 80s', it was down to Chelsea being ****e at the time.
I'm a Chelsea fan because my father and grand father support them. I grew up in the 80's so am as far removed from a glory hunter as they come, but now very lucky!!
half the time boz even that doesn't make any dif. explain what i mean, my other halfs old man was born and brought up opposite Highbury, you would expect him to be a gunner right? wrong, he was a Spurs fan(hows that for a kick in the knackers) and when i met him guess who he supported? Arsenal lol, and he explained to me because Spurs at the time was a better team, and since they had become shiite he went back to his roots.
I'm a Liverpool fan because my father and my grandfather support them. I grew up in the 90's which has brought mixed fortunes but currently looking forward to seeing what our young manager can bring. My original argument was more aimed at Chelsea fans bringing up recent success without taking key facts in to consideration. "How many Premier Leagues have you won" is a ridiculous question. Team for team quality of the premier league is no different than the team for team quality of the old division 1. it's just had a name change. I can't hate Chelsea or Chelsea fans that much. My 3 year old is obsessed with you lot and it breaks my heart! (Seriously, I bought him a Liverpool strip and an England home strip (last kit before the red) - he now refuses to wear the any of the kits except the England shorts, which he calls his "Chelsea Shorts!!!"
If I could just interject....I don't see how someone from the Home Counties supporting Chelsea is any different to someone from Colchester supporting Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal or Newcastle. If it's not their local club then it's not their local club, simple as that. Why should someone from Bolton get grief for supporting United but a Chelsea fan from Reading is acceptable? Completely illogical. I was at Uni with a lad from Middlesbrough who supported Southampton. I worked with a guy from Mullingar who supported Sheffield Wednesday, his brother supported Colchester (ironically). Why? Because at some point in their early football childhood those were the teams that caught their eye. I don't know for a fact but assume that their dads didn't drag them to their local clubs and so they made a decision based on the colour of the shirt, the first player they heard of, copying a friend, the first match they saw on television, who knows what else. The point is they stuck with those clubs. I joke about Liverpool fans being fallen glory hunters but usually only in response to the tired old cliches about all United fans being glory hunters from outside of Manchester. People of my age who support Liverpool are far more likely to have made a glory hunting decision than I did as United were slap bang in the middle of a 26 year league title drought when I got into football and Liverpool were the best team in Europe! So the United cliche for someone of my age is also illogical but I do respect the fact that whilst their choice of club may have been based on a very normal childhood desire to support the best, they have stuck with the club for 20 years of relative disappointment. If they were glory hunters they'd be supporting Chelsea or City now (even for the most plastic of Liverpool fan surely a switch to United is impossible!?). Anyone from the Home Counties or even London who supports a "local" team that isn't the closest one to where they were born has made a decision on who they are going to support in the same way as any other non-local fans. Chelsea fans who have decided that the glamour of the PL is more appealing than supporting Brentford, Leyton Orient, Charlton, Crystal Palace, Millwall, Barnet or any of the other "less fashionable" London clubs are self-confessed glory hunters, fact, as their manager likes to say, as long as they maintain that the guy from Stoke who supports Liverpool or United is a glory hunter. The obvious exceptions are those following a family tradition. Chelsea fans trying to drag up a record attendance from decades ago doesn't change the fact that their ground is now largely filled with new fans and corporates. At the same time as bragging about their grand history of "local" and loyal fans they also like to brag about now being the 4th or 5th or 6th or whatever it is biggest club in the world. Get the irony anyone?
It wasn't about irony actually it was about Ba vs Sturridge until a Chelsea fan suggested Premier League titles are different from league titles pre Sky and attempting to put down Liverpools "poor trophy haul" so where were we...oh yes...irony...
Fully agree that old league titles compared to premier league titles is no different. I don't accept the same applies to the European Cup and Champions League (though that's for another day!!) as the competitions are now so different. Basically though Liverpool fans use the no history thing as the stick to beat us and we'll use the lack of a P.L title/title in the last 20 back. Even post 'sky' you've still won some major comps and always been competative and dare I say, we actually had some history pre Roman. It's all bollox really. Trophies are a bonus, supporting your club and watching games is the main draw surely?
That's gotta hurt!! My 2 year old lad is just into cars at the moment but he'll get the same choice over his team as I got...none!! That is if he ever wants to be taken to games that is!!
All banter aside, for genuine fans it is yeah. We had a whole host of people saying how grim we were last season and league wise we were awful but we still had 3 trips to Wembley (I missed the FA Final unfortunately but would have still loved the day out despite the result). Great memories as far as I'm concerned. The League Cup is so often scoffed at by certain fans but that was my first trip to the new Wemberlee and I'm grateful I got that opportunity. Most of us are in it through the wind and the rain as we say and that's not dependant on where you're from. I'm lucky to be able to walk to the match on a Saturday and in a way that makes it easier to be a fan because I get to go whenever. It's when you meet the fellas who come over regularly from different places that you appreciate how much harder it is to be a fan who has to make a massive effort to get to a game or worse never get the opportunity to go. That would drive me nuts.
Always said I'll let my boys chose who they want to support apart from Man Utd! However, my eldest (five) isn't even remotely interested in football despite previously watching it with me and shouting Liverpool / Gerrard at the TV! The youngest is only three and isn't interested in anything other than hitting things
It really pisses me off that I can't get to games, bloody family, mortgage, bills, etc! Could have gone to the One Call stadium but didn't feel right to take tickets away from the stags fans that go all year. Sure there was a lot more there than usual and half of them won't go again until the next big team rolls into town but that doesn't make it right IMO. I was hoping for a replay so I could go to that, plenty of people I know would have been going so there would have been plenty of coaches etc with space
So you were cursing Suarez like the rest of the world then eh You should come up to Anfield anyway sometime
I certainly wasn't, fed up with the amount of bollox I've had to hear! Had an unbelievable amount of bollox on my facebook and twiter timelines too I certainly plan to, just finding the time / cash
" ...we actually had some history pre Roman." Roman has bought ... erm ...you've won more trophies since Roman came than in your entire history prior.
