When you say you are a loyal fan, or when you support a club (Man City, Man Utd, Barca, etc.), what do you really mean?
Disclaimer: there's no right/wrong here, I just curious what do you think.
Case 1) You are a fan of the club because of players: it means that because the club has your favourite players (such as KDB in Man City, Bruno in Man Utd, Messi in Barca, etc.), then you become a fan of the corresponding club. And it may also mean that if your favourite player moves to another club, you may as well support the new club?
Case 2) Because of managers: it means that because Man City has Pep, you support Man City; or Liverpool has Klopp, then you support Liverpool; and similarly, when a manager moves to another club, you also follow the new club. As long as the manager stays in the club, you don't care which players will come and go, you don't care who's the owner, you just support the club because of the manager.
Case 3) Because of the board members: it means that you don't really care who are players in the club, who are the manager of the club, you just support the club because of its board members.
Case 4) Because of the club itself? now, you may say you support the club just because of the club itself, it doesn't matter who's the owner, manager, players, the vision, the direction, you still support the club. But what does exactly "the club" mean? Does it mean the "name of the club", the popularity, the history, the culture, or the location of the club? What do we really mean here?
Case 5) Because of the vision/idea of the club: it means that doesn't matter who are the chairman, owner, director, manager, players; doesn't matter what's the location, the victory historical, the money have they spent/save, etc. doesn't matter! The only thing you care about is whether the vision/idea/decisions made by people in the club help the club, the football to improve or not. For example:
- An owner, a director, a manager may make good decisions in the past, but if they are not good enough anymore, then you won't support them anymore.
- A club may be in Manchester in the past, but if moving it to London will help us to improve more, help football to improve more, then go ahead, you still support it.
- A club may change its name from Manchester City to Man London City, but if that brings benefit, then fine.
- A club may be rich in the past, but if spending all of its money on something else, to make it good for human beings, for football, then go ahead.
So, where do you put your support?
Note: sometimes there's no black and white, just a spectrum of grays.
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This is my personal way of "supporting a club":
- When I was a teenager, I support a club because of players: I followed Ronaldo (Brazil) from Inter to Real Madrid, then I supported Real Madrid because of him, Raul, Figo, Zidane, Beckham, R.Carlos, Carsillas... hell, what a team!
- But then, when I grew up a little bit more, I realized Perez treated managers like dirt; they could be sacked right after the champion celebration, then I don't support Real Madrid anymore.
- Then Mourinho appears in Chelsea: at that time, I realized managers is the one who can make a team better than its sum. So I supported a club because of the manager, and don't really care who are players. And I supported Mourinho until I realized he's too toxic; especially with the appearance of Pep. Since then, I support Barca, Bayern, and now Man City (yeah, to be honest, I don't support Man City because of Man City itself).
Now, I support a club because of... somewhere between the manager, board, and the vision/idea (blending between case 2, 3, 4, 5):
- When Mourinho left Chelsea, there's no way I can support Chelsea because Abrahimovich is not much different from Perez, and I don't see the long terms in his decisions. But if Pep leaves Man City, I may still support Man City because of the board, the decisions we made, the vision and the strategy. Just to be clear, I may still follow Pep when he leaves (maybe to Bresica if he chooses Italy).
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Oh, hi mod, could you help to move this thread to the "General Thread", I think it's more suitable?
