So, you're a comic as well! Are you really saying that the handful of out-of-town posters, who disagree with you, are making a difference to the 16,500 who did turn out? So to have a life-long support of a club you must, according to Chazz, attend on a lifelong basis. Comedy Gold. You really are a bloody Barmpot. Try just giving your own view instead of trying to fight everybody through your keyboard.
No snidely remark intended, but how do you propose it possible to support a club without being there to give it?
It's funny how a few wind ups here can't recognise the difference between a normal loss which is at least fought over and a turdy loss (which most of those this season have been).
Bollox. 'Small club mentality'? Well maybe we are if we can't get more than 16,000 when the vermin, the Sheffields and Bradford are all getting bigger gates than us, and so many of our new fans pack it in if there PL faves are not on display. We're neither a small club or a big club right now. We have big club pretensions but some of our armchair manager type fans lack realism and maturity when assessing this club's progress and football in general. In short they know the price of everything and the value of nothing. That is a small- club small- town mentality, where the manager is always rubbish, especially with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight vision. How come Derby have sold 19, 000 season tickets when they imploded a couple of months back? Maybe there is more to following a football team than declaring yourself unhappy with the team manager's selections and tactics, ffs.
Might be something to do with the fact that its the only sport and team in Derby…. and there is **** all else to do there and they have a history of football success down the years…!!!!
I don't think it's anything to do with that, we were regularly getting bigger crowds in the 3rd tier than we're getting now. People - including me and loads of people I know - are just sick of wing treated like an unwelcome smell by the owners. Time after time it's one bad thing after another and companies are not meant to treat customers like that, otherwise they won't come back.
We are not Newcastle and never will be. I don't know how many squads in the 2nd tier cost £60m to assemble, not that an expensive squad ( and I would question this £60m price tag) guarantees success. If it did it would be Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea at the top of the Premiership and not Leicester. Of course I'm not content with failure but the season hasn't finished yet. So far we haven't been out of the top 6 all season, we went further in the League Cup then ever before in our history, beating two Premiership clubs on the way and we had a decent run in the FA Cup. On top of that we still have a very good chance of promotion to the Premier League where we have spent four of the last six season which in the context of the history of Hull City are quite remarkable times, not failure. We have no divine right to win anything.
Yeah and those people have been replaced by PL fans, Allamite families, who now sit in E4 and E5 and get uptight about the language, people standing and shouting etc The club have targeted this sector of the market at the exclusion of others.....then wonder why it's all so quiet and why there are empty seats.
Our expectations should be promotion back to the Premier League, although it isn't a given, far from it, other far bigger clubs then us would give their right arms to be in our position tonight. The season isn't over yet although that would be difficult to believe by some of the negativity on here. To those who accuse me of blind faith because we used to play Halifax.........and so on. We were at the bottom of the FL ladder for a long time for a reason and that reason wasn't that we are a massive under achieving club. We were bottom because our fanbase deserted us and the club was badly run. Grimsby Town were a bigger club then us for 20 years. Judge where we are in May. 112 year history, and this is only the third serious attempt at promotion to the top division and everyone on here has witnessed all three. Some failure that.
It's a good question and one I recall questioning myself, back in the HDM days. I recall asking what is the difference between a supporter and a fan; you might imagine there was a wide range of opinions on that - Filey and TOM might recall this thread, probably 4 or 5 years a go now. You might also imagine that there wasn't a universal agreement, but here goes: I think of a supporter as someone who gets behind the club - supports it. Teams, management and owners are temporary, the club is forever (we hope). Someone who never attends but forms a bond of allegiance, loyalty, pride and belonging is a supporter, just as is someone who attends all homes and aways - I think someone who attends all homes and aways are very lucky and I think most will like and associate with anyone who has restricted access. Is it buying merchandise, no, not for me. Is it having been in the last 40 years, no not for me either, is it someone who needs to qualify others as supporters, then maybe not, as they should appreciate anyone who will speak up for the club they support; why not? If there has to be a a distinction between Supporter and Fan then I believe it is someone who has a passing liking, might attend a game but really can't be that arsed if he or she doesn't - probably not being arsed to debate anything like we all do! But anyway, in the context of your question being on this (almost) anonymous board, who can be certain how everyone attends? I can tell you there are assumptions made, by some, about my attendance of games, but I don't put that right: why should I put anyone daft enough to get on their high-horse right? Who knows where posts are from (I don't mask mine)? Who is the judge and the jury? Really and truthfully, who the hell cares, have they no better focus in life? As an aside, is someone only a supporter when they are in attendance? Not a snidely question, not a snidely answer. What's your view, my millinery friend?
Nobody is saying its a given, but the expectation is measured on the strength of the team and manager. What else can you go on? The question was asked of why our expectations are so high, what's happened in the last century has no bearing on what we expect of this team right now. If you base what you expect of this team on where we were in 2000 then you aren't footballing properly.
and would you wouldnt want to be paying our players of today and only expecting them to achieve our expectations of 2000...(although they are having a good go at it )
I'd have defined a supporter as someone who supports the team in person by cheering the team on and getting behind them. With all the best will in the world shouting at a tv screen in a pub or your living room won't make a jot of difference to the chaps on the pitch. But, I think you're right and your definition is probably more accurate than mine.
Personally I don't give a **** what someone defines my interest in football in general, or City in particular, as. In fact I aren't even sure how I would define it myself. I don't like "fan" as fanaticism is I think an unwelcome characteristic wherever it appears. I wouldn't dare call myself a "supporter" as I consider that to be a more directly contributory relationship. Supporting as in paying money for attendance, replica kit, TV subscriptions, etc. It also suggests direct personal encouragement to the team which can only be by attendance. I don't do any of those. And "follower" just doesn't express the passion or importance of an interest that has outlasted in intensity that of booze, women, motorcycles, gardening and a hundred other once almost obsessive interests. Others can define me as whatever they like (I strongly suspect a four letter word beginning with c) but it will have no effect whatsoever on the pleasure or the pain I take from my lifelong feeling of attachment to the club.
