Sorry mate, I find that impossible to believe. The problem is out of say 45,011 only 45,000 are interested in SAFC, whilst the other eleven are much more interested in Daimler. A good example is Palace, not a club famous for loud support, which can very soon get it when performances improve.
Our home performances have been dreadful, but so has our home vocal support...It is easy to support a team that is playing well and scoring goals, but it takes effort and will power to back a side that is not....We have now reached the point of no return where it is surely time to back the team from the very start to the very end..
Sorry but it's the other way around with the fact that the atmosphere in both the Chelsea and Newcastle games was good before the games even started - so the CROWD gave the TEAM the support it needed to play like that (which they haven't in most other games this season) rather than the TEAM giving the CROWD a reason to be noisy. Definite in both cases that the atmosphere from the first whistle (or, in the case of the mags game, 20 minutes before) to the end of the game was fantastic - positive and noisy - how do you explain that? If you turn up to work and, without having even clocked in, your boss is on your back and your peers are vocally slating you, how well are you going to perform? The money thing only matters to us because we earn what normal people do and not the millions per year - they are human beings after all as has been said.
Curious as to why it takes 40,000+ working class-middle class people to fill a stadium for players on a minimum of £15k a week for them to play well... Not only this but why is it when we are right at the end of the season and facing relegation that these players NOW want to start playing and get themselves out of trouble? Where has the effort been all season? Is a serious mentality problem at that club and there must be some figureheads that cause it, unfortunately we need a rather large clear-out in one go and to get some half decent players in. Problem with that being resale value on our current team is pennies...would need a good £30-40m to build a half decent team but then theres the problem of getting them to gel, however Southampton didnt have this issue...? Whilst I want us to stay up, personally I believe that getting relegated could help with the getting rid and rebuilding process IF we had the right manager in and he was given the time
So by some people's reckoning we shouldn't cheer the team out onto the pitch. Because they have yet to produce anything to cheer for. I remember roker park and the Ready to Go era at the stadium of light. When those players were nearing the time to come out onto the pitch the entire attendance were anticipating it. As they emerged they had to attention of every fan in the stadium and the second they stepped out the place would irrupt. Now most the stadium is empty because folk don't turn up on time, and a lot of the people who have don't even look from their smart phones. How is that going to help? Can anybody explain to me who that is helpful to the team? Fact is down to us to set the atmosphere, all this **** about the players not giving us anything to cheer about is nothing but bollocks. They need us before they've kicked a ball. Unless of course some folk are holding a previous performance against them which would have to be the most childish view i'd ever read on here. Besides, a spirited performance against the mags was met with the usual sterile, lazy, can't ****ed pre match atmosphere we usually have to endure. Punish out club for bad players is cutting nose off to spite faces. We go down and these players walk into premiership clubs while we're still crying into our Championship beers. It's our club not theirs. They're chasing paychecks, while we're there out of love for the club, apparently. So neither fan nor player step up to the plate, who's the real failure? Who's really letting the club down? It's the people who's 'unconditional' support has now become conditional, not the people on the salary. I will cheer my heart out, and if we go down I'll look around the ground and this forum and I'll hold these conditional supporters in the same disdain as the players. My head will be held high but I'll never ever forget the time players and fans alike flushed 8 years of top flight status down the drain and threw our club into financial uncertainty, just for being childish stubborn people, who 'won't cheer unless they have something to cheer about. As big a cancer to our club as the waste of space on the pitch. We can get shot of the **** on the pitch. Chances are we've got these half arsed supporters for the rest of their life.
Doing what you say in this last paragraph is a massive gamble my friend!!! There are too many comparable clubs have gone down and stayed down. And the biggest thing about getting back into the PL is that 2 of 3 invariably go straight back down at the end of that season. We HAVE to stay up. The consequences of going down don't bear thinking about.
Oh I know that, even in my few years I've seen us go up and down However I do believe that if we were to go down then it would help clear out and rebuild! Doing that in the Prem is an even bigger challenge imo
You'll have to get rid of most of the board as well to have any chance of rebuilding our club to anything remotely sustainable in the PL.
The reasons are irrelevant imo ...... it's our club not the player's. They're only the current bunch of mercenary shirt fillers as far as I'm concerned, I cheer the shirt & the club, my club.
Fenerbahce vs Galatasaray - wipes the floor with both of your examples, as well as the Wear/Tyne thing. Olympiakos vs Panathiniakos as well, you've seen nothing if you think horse punching and a bit of a roar is as venomous as it gets. These guys go ****ing nuts. I'd also put Schalke vs Dortmund up there and the Madrid derby is way ahead of 'El classico'... there's not so much 'venom' in El Classico, it's more media hype and handbags.
I loathe RM/Barcelona. Even giving it a stupid name. Its embarrassing. Do you think British derbies are actually rather tame due to stereotypically the people are more reserved than those from other countries?
No mate, I'd still put yours up there with the best in Europe for passion, the quality of football is probably a different debate. The Old Firm as well, I'd say is a fire pit for 'passion', for want of a better word, a more degrading word if possible. There's not many others though, some are laughable, such as Arsenal v Spurs and Birmingham v Villa. El Classico is a bunch of fans, singing loud, whistling when their team doesn't have the ball, it rarely ever reaches fever pitch, off the pitch.
Something you'll not find anybody arguing with your fans or Newcastle fans about, you might be on a drought for silverware, but you could count on one hand probably the amount of clubs who'd match your levels of commitment despite years of failing to find any trophies.
Generally though I find British derbies rather tame. Like you Villa/Birminghams, Merseyside. Like when you see teams fans in Poland and Germany etc Poznanning etc all in unison or in Argentina with all the ticker tape and flares, etc. I dont know if its just the visual impact plus my lack of knowledge of foreign football, Im sure there are plenty of QPR/Chelseas, or Bradford/Leeds'. In my naivety its only really the big foreign ones I'm exposed to compared much more to the domestic ones.
Rules regulations, red tape, seating, corporate marketing, fear of embarrassment, customary British politeness, so many things it could be mate. Yanks go mental for stupid sports... It's just us mate, way too rigid with our inhibitions and rules. I'd love to go to a Boca Vs River game, it would be mental.
So if a game had to be played behind locked doors for some reason, only half the team would be bothered even to turn up because they can't play without loud support? There are pub team players around this country that bust a gut in front of a crowd of two dozen. And one of the most talked about teams in Scotland this season has been playing in front of average home crowds of 2,000. They've played Rangers four times this season - won 2, drawn 1, lost 1. How do they do that? People like me are a cancer in your club (it's never been my club - they've always charged me to get in)? Don't give it another thought mate - I can easily cure that. I'll just not come. Well, let's face it, I won't be missing much will I? And you won't be missing me. Sorted.
Well you don't seem that bothered, Mean no offence but it's just the way it looks. All I'm saying is the crowd can give those useless ****s a lift and that refusing to get behind the team 'because they're not worthy' or they're 'over paid ****ers' or what ever is just spiting ourselves. Like I said, they'll leave, walk into a prem club while we're left with a devolving club in financial meltdown and you never know, it could be the death of SAFC. If that happens we'll have sure showed the players won't we?
No offence taken at all mate. I don't seem that bothered? Well, that's the awkward thing, In some ways, this whole thread has been on an uneven playing field. Let me try and explain. For over two decades, I went where I was sent. I changed homes like I changed socks! Since that ended, I've lived away from Co. Durham, and am now in my 70s, retired in Yorkshire with a gammy leg and an adequate pension but not an immense amount to spare. So it hasn't been possible for me to be an 'every home game' supporter in nearly forty years, These days, I go when I can afford it and when my leg's behaving itself, but there's no way in the world can I feel the attachment to SAFC that guys like yourself, MrRAW and co. clearly feel. It can't be expected, can it? So we've all been talking at cross-purposes in some ways (and kept it civil, so congrats to all involved). I respect your feelings, because when I did live in the area, I was just as Sunderland daft as you lads. But I can't feel it any more. It's been too long. Would I be bothered if I don't go to another game this season? Well, it certainly wouldn't be the wrench to me that it would be to you week in and week out fellers. I still care, but not like you.
Fair play mate, completely respect that. I've struggled to afford to see the lads, this is my first season card in a long time. I went to virtually every home game from the 88-89 season to the 99-00 season. Stopped the season ticket when my dad died and was uneasy about attending for a while, but the club quickly got under my skin again and I've packed in every match I can afford ever since with the odd season card in here and there. I suppose I've had a sort of rebirth. I still feel sick in the days running up to the match my hairs stand on end as step through the turnstiles. I understand your reasons entirely fella, taking what you've said in mind I must say you're not sort of fan I'm talking about. But I'm seeing lads my age who only open their mouths at the game to hurl abuse and it mortifies fella. I feel their anger, I'm watching the same ****. But if I did that to my lass every time she didn't something that irritated me or she did something wrong my relationship could have been over a million times by now. I love my football club even if I detest the shower of **** playing on the pitch. It gets my goat the way some fans treat our club. It's not just a club to me, it's the spirit of my relationship with my dad, some of the happiest memories of my life was spent with him watching the lads. Besotted with the club. I'd go to every game home and away if I could. Unfortunately next season I'll be restricted to about half a dozen games.
