When Channel 4 used to show Serie A games a friend of mine told me he had watched the first half-dozen or so but had then given up "because, apart from Juventus, I don't really know who I want to lose". This is a common feeling for many football supporters, among whom Gore Vidal's adage "It's not enough that I succeed, others must fail" is more or less a defining philosophy. To those of us who fall into this category attending a football match as a genuine neutral, it is as baffling a concept as watching a horse race on which you haven't placed a bet.
Back in the 90s an article in When Saturday Comes raised the issue of "un-supporting". The writer suggested, quite correctly, that just as there are results we look out for in a positive way, so there are those teams whose progress we track purely in the hope of seeing them stumble and fall.
Sadly, life is not always so simple. There is a fine line between love and hate. During the reign of a singularly useless manager the fan's feelings towards the team he supports and the teams he un-supports may begin to merge. Soon, subconsciously at least, his fear of disaster has become a longing for it and he starts to take a bitter delight in his own side's every mishap, seeing it as another step towards change.
Are the Liverpool supporters who chanted for the return of Kenny Dalglish not now just the tiniest little disappointed by the back-to-back wins under Roy Hodgson? If Roberto Mancini is going to get sacked, wouldn't it be better to get it over with quickly and humanely via a few 7-0 hammerings than let the thing drag painfully on till Christmas with a string of dull draws and the occasional 1-0 win?
When exactly it becomes acceptable to want your team to lose is a massive philosophical question, one that surely demands the creation of a chair of Football Fan Ethics at the University of Leicester. Suffice it to say, it is not a step any supporter takes lightly. After all, only a fool would expect his or her relationship with their football club to be easy, in fact, quite the opposite. Most of us take pride in suffering. Anybody could love a sex-bomb like Chelsea. It is the soft option. Because it clearly requires greater moral integrity to remain steadfastly faithful to Mark Corrigan than it does to devote your life tending to the needs of George Clooney. Nevertheless, there comes a point when patience ceases to be a virtue.
Such a realisation does not come overnight. It is a gradual process. At first the fan still feels the sharp pain of each defeat, but draws consolation from the fact that it may represent a turning point, a moment when the scales finally fall from the gaffer's eyes and he realises that he needs to switch to 4-3-3, or drop that spineless Brazilian he paid £7m for in the summer.He may perhaps begin a campaign of passive resistance.
For a number of years during the chairmanship of Sir Alan Sugar a friend of mine waged psychological warfare against Spurs by boycotting Match of the Day whenever they lost. Some players' careers began and ended without him ever hearing Gary Lineker make a pun based on their surname, but sadly it had little impact on the hierarchy at White Hart Lane.
To assuage feelings of treachery the fan may also attempt to disguise his sabotage operation. He will scan the internet hoping to see the manager linked with vacancies. And if they are, he will announce philosophically that, "Well, it's a fantastic opportunity and he did play three games for them back in the 1970s".
A poor run of results for England would create a vacancy with the national team. This time it has to be an Englishman. How many more catastrophic derby defeats will it take before Sunderland fans are voicing the opinion that "Steve Bruce would do a fantastic job with that group of players. Be sad to see him go with the job only half done here, but it would be wrong to stand in his way and the country needs him"?
When such measures have failed it becomes obvious to most fans that the time for pussyfooting around is over. The club needs to be taught a harsh lesson for its own good. Once the supporter has arrived at this state, all normal reactions are reversed. His catchphrase at home games becomes "There you are. What did I tell you?"
He listens to radio reports on a defeat with grim satisfaction. He cackles cynically at fluffed chances, begins to regard the deflection that sends his goalkeeper the wrong way not as wicked or cruel but as merciful and just.
For any supporter who wants changes in the dugout, the next two months are crucial. Losing streaks must be well timed. Too early and they will not spread the necessary panic in the boardroom, too late and, well, only a madman would cheer their team to defeat in late-March when they are hovering around the drop zone. Not even the most selflessly devoted fan wants relegation, they just want to use the threat of it for leverage. It is the brinkmanship of the drop and this is its season
GStar said:DD said:Do you enjoy the one-paced boring football we are playing? Do you enjoy the fact that we play with no tempo, that we don't attack teams and we don't put them under pressure?
I'm not having a go here, it's just a question that all Mancini apologists seem to swerve.
I'm not as fed up as a lot i speak to with you play; at the begining of the season we kept possesion with a purpose, we wore teams down and we forced them into mistakes. I thought it was the next step on the evolutionary scale of where football was going since the Arsenal gung ho style seems to have been thwarted somwhat in recent years.
I'll always remember Arsenal away last season, their spine were all out and we should have gone there and battered them; Silvestre and Sendaros i think was there back two and we managed 1 shot on goal.
It does seem to be a feature creeping back in, the don't lose then look to win.
I keep telling myself that we ahven't had our first team out this season, let alonwe given them all time to work together on the pitch.
We're deffinately not the finished article, but i don't think we can judge Mancini at this point in time now. Not only because its 'too early' but also the effect it would ahve on any other future manager.
GStar said:We're deffinately not the finished article, but i don't think we can judge Mancini at this point in time now. Not only because its 'too early' but also the effect it would ahve on any other future manager.
Didsbury Dave said:K.Reeves right foot said:Yet another deluded [apparent] City fan. Nice lecture by the way. Us fans who can see Mancinis ineptitude are naughty little boys for voicing concern. We will stand in the corner and be spanked! [maybe you'd enjoy that thinking about it]..We will never speak and stand quietly while you all glorify in Mancinis master tactics, team selections, continued repeating of the word 'important' and silky hair [which never moves it has so much hairspray in].
For your info, it's not 3 games in a row, it's most of last season when he cost us 4th place with negative 0-0 draws at Arsenal and home to Scousers, threw away our chance at a final v Scum due to negative tactics. It's continuing despite vast money spent, better players and more hype.
The excuses are boring now, what next? er..'we a played a good a game, this is importaaaant, but er...er....sorry what was the question?..'
Take off the blue glasses and see what's happening in fornt of your eyes my friend.
-- Fri Nov 05, 2010 10:54 am --
DD we must all be Gay Spackers as we see an inept manager for some reason throwing away this glorious opportunity at success. Maybe we need therapy then we will see the mancini light of glorious attacking football, players in correct positions and substitutions which positively effect our play so we win..or..could be we actually see reality, unlike some.
Get bedind the manager FFS
We're 4th FFS
10 years ago we played Lincoln FFS
Fuck off to the swamp FFS
so called fans like you make us a joke FFS
Rome wasn't built in a day FFS
There. I've saved you tubthumpers the bother.
Now you don't need to tell the rest of us off as we debate the problems at our club.
Didsbury Dave said:AntonDonJuan said:I'm not arsed about the code of conduct to be perfectly honest after reading your posts.
You take great pleasure in watching Mancini fail, which i find pathetic and quite sad
If you'd have heard my wife bollocking me last night for shouting at the kids and marching round with a scowl on my face you'd know that that was not true.
I'm gutted and horrified at what I see before me.
There's something uniquely.....desperate....about you tubthumpers who have run out of arguments so resort to comments claiming thinking City fans somehow want the club, or manager, to fail.
It smacks of intellectual poverty if I'm honest.
TVI said:Didsbury Dave said:If you'd have heard my wife bollocking me last night for shouting at the kids and marching round with a scowl on my face you'd know that that was not true.
I'm gutted and horrified at what I see before me.
There's something uniquely.....desperate....about you tubthumpers who have run out of arguments so resort to comments claiming thinking City fans somehow want the club, or manager, to fail.
It smacks of intellectual poverty if I'm honest.
Sorry but that just seems way over the top. You're horrified?
I wasn't happy with Mancini's team selection or a number of players last night and, on back of the poor 70 mins at Wolves, I'm not a happy bunny.
But horrified? Come on.
Didsbury Dave said:AntonDonJuan said:That's right, because anyone who doesn't agree with Dickhead Dave is young, stupid, from a shit upbringing and devoid of any sense of humour.
You're such an arrogant, self righteous prick it's laughable
You're making a right arse of yourself here mate ;-)
DD said:So do you believe that he is ever going to shake off this defensive minded rubbish, and continue playing at a downbeat tempo that is completely unsuited to our league? Unfortunately, I can't ever see that changing. He is a square peg in a round hole.
We can't have our first team out every week. Nobody does. It's a squad game; that's why we have spent so much building it up; so having one or two players out is no excuse.
This is what we are going to have to live with for the rest of the season; inane boredom at matches.
One consolation is, we either attain the Holy Grail of the Champions League or he's gone at the end of the season. For me, that's a win-win situation in a sort of way.