Post duplicated as I intened it to be a thread of it's own but I f u c k e d up Remembering the writings of, as far as I am concerned, the greatest journalist in my 54 year lifetime: the Guardian's own true blue Manc, David Conn, who now describes himself as an Ex-Man City fan, got me wondering if many of us now fall into the 'Ex' camp. For many here and other message boards the passion has faded, but from a personal point of view, even though the Premiership has bled the enjoyment from my veins I really don't think I could ever be an Ex-Hull City fan. Even though I have a season pass for City and I therefore choose my matches at the Circle accordingly, I do attend North Ferriby regularly, but whilst sat at Church Road (I ve even been known to endure Bootham Cresent), I always have one eye on the Circle or wherever City are playing. So I reckon that even though its not in the blood, it's always in the heart, so is it really possible to change clubs (so-to-speak) for any other reason than practicality. Stands back and lights the blue touch paper, whilst hoping that once the usual facepainters finish slinging the insults, the above can invoke some serious debate?
If he is now an Ex-fan, he was never a proper fan in the first place as his club still exists in the same name, location and legal entity as it was. You never lose it.
Come on, this is just set up for the Ipswich joke, surely? I used to be an Ipswich fan, but not any more. I'm an ex tractor fan. Bdmmm tsh.
"For many here and other message boards the passion has faded" That part you wrote more or less sums is up in my case but it goes deeper than that, throw in disgust at the amount of money in the game perpetrated mainly by southern clubs and forcing lesser well off clubs to have to follow suit. And now you have Manchester City, Manchester Utd, Livepool and Everton joining the madness just to stay in the hunt for honours but what happens to the rest? I could quote Leeds Utd and Portsmouth as once top league clubs now seemingly permanently in the mire and I not sure how the Hull City finances are these days having spent a fortune on 2 players the amount which would keep me and the rest of my family in luxury for life. But the rot set in for me with the transfers of Steve Daley and Trevor Francis era, and sad to say one of those transfers involved my all time favourite manager, Brian Clough. And it went downhill from there to the point where the likes of Ronaldo, Messi, Rooney, and many other players have contracts the size of a small countries GDP, and I suspect it will escalate to even more ridiculous levels in the future, and before anyone starts to compare with pop stars, movie stars, or any other stars for that matter we are talking about 22 guys who kick a bag of wind about on a football pitch, some who have more acting skills than football skills these days. As I have said before I am an armchair supporter these days, I can keep up online or just do what I have always done, watch MOTD, and having been to the KC I can't say it filled me with excitement or maybe that's the trouble with me, football died, and Hull City AFC also the day Boothferry Park finally closed its doors, that's the day I went from being a fanatic to a passive fan. And yes Hull City are back playing on their original ground, after playing at the Boulevard, but even I wasn't around in those days.
I asked on another thread what peoples threshold was, the point at which it no longer becomes "my club". Filey had stated as long as they were called Hull, playing in Hull, in black and amber he would support them. To some it will be the name change, I didn't realise anyone stopped after BP closed.
Maybe you mean football is now ****, but loyalty to HCFC is forever even if the sport is now ****. No one can deny admission prices/wages are disgusting, and that the game is a grotesque perverted parody of the simple people's game it used to be. We need to be at the top table regardless of whatever state the game is in. The lower leagues lead to atrophy, loss of local fanbase (unfortunately we are fickle round here) and decline. We know all about that with receivership in 82, last ever game v Cardiff etc. Let's hope there is still an HCFC to support and the current owner's spiteful initiative is thwarted by the FA.
The way the game is structured now, City pretty much completed their highest achievable goal on May 24th 2008. After that, the passion goes because what can they achieve? There's next to no chance of a top 4 finish (who really cares if we finished 4th anyway?), there's slightly more chance of a cup win but what would it mean to beat a bunch of 18-21 year olds? People may mock American sports but, in the NFL through the 48 years that the Superbowl has been running, of the current 32 teams that compete 17 have won their "cup final" and all but four have reached the cup final.
Hopefully the money balloon will burst soon, the trendy middle class ****s who infest the West Stand and corporate areas will **** off to another trendy pastime, and sanity will reign again. When that happens and even if it doesn't, we need to be at the top table. This discussion should really be about football not City's status in it.
