On Enjoy the game BB.. Really vilifying holebas for his interaction with an abusive 'fan'.. Sent from my G3121 using Tapatalk
Enjoy the game - a somewhat ironic title for the group then. Speaks volumes about the mentality if they are there for enjoyment. Idiots abound everywhere I suppose.
From what I read Holebas was one of the better players and at least he came over to try and clap the fans - not all the players do that. And certainly Kabasele is somebody who I think does his best and cares - again more than others in the squad!
Unfortunately we have drawn a chav element in recent years. Maybe one of the negative sides to being in the Prem. We now have a solid support base of 18,000+, compared to 12,000 about 7 years ago - which means that one out of three fans is a Premiership fan ie. has come to the club because of its success (I'm trying to avoid the expression 'glory hunter'). These are fans who were not there in the time of Bassini, who do not remember players taking pay cuts as in the time of Ray Lewington - they have no frame of reference compared to older fans, and cannot remember rainy nights in Tranmere. One of the prices of success I'm afraid. Every real fan knows that supporting a club involves failures and successes, ups and downs, and Southampton fans know that as well as anyone - you have to be prepared for both in football.
Of course a lot of fans are much more fickle now with social media too...all that instant reaction and chance to write something in the "heat of the moment" And in a way because footballers are paid so much more whilst fans pay high prices for tickets the relationship between club and supporters is more negative I feel if the team are doing poorly.. Had we been on a decent run and lost yesterday no-one would have been too fussed and certainly there would have been no arguments with the players. Its almost as if the longer your in the Premier league the higher the expectation gets and disappointment with losing comes. Only have to look at the likes of Charlton and Birmingham in the past - their fans got itchy feet demanding more progress and now they are a long way from the top flight.
Very true. I wonder how many would have stuck around had they been one of the 4-5 thousand who attended when we were 92nd in the league?
Good point..compared to a lot of clubs we've had it pretty fair over the past 30 odd years with a few hiccups and close shaves when we actually tried to push ourselves more than we probably should have done due to fans demanding ambition being shown and big money being spent (Vialli era) But we've only been outside the top 2 divisions for two seasons since the 70s and had some decent cup runs/promotion seasons. Not bad for a club who only generally got 25k even in our "glory days" under GT.
I was looking on Brighton/Huddersfield forums and even on there are some negative comments about the manager and players to an extent - "we need to do this and that" and "this isn't good enough" In fact its probably only Man City and Burnley fans who are happy with their positions in the whole league I suspect! Fans are never satisfied once the team start losing I guess - maybe as I say due to the cost of prices v player wages and just the general demand of instant results as social media is a 24/7 platform. Some like Stoke and Swansea seem have more hope now with new managers but that can all change very quickly... In the 70s/80s unless you went to the game or spoke to mates I wondered how fans could tell how a *team was really performing unless - certainly no 606 giving in-match updates and live text messages/emoji's! * I know you had the results and match reports but sometimes that can mask the real truth - a bit like our league position of 10th!
