Open arms for new fans !

[Why Always Ste]

Please ignore JMA, he can't seem to see the mass hypocrisy and massive gaping holes in his logic.

You are right, but if you want to be the first to have a stab at explaining (which the above obviously doesn't) then be my guest.

Sorry, I wanted a bit of back and forth to try and make the point, Ill try and make it without audience participation. These are my main points:

All initial football emotion is manufactured. The timing of cheering, the songs and the booing is all a social norm that is inherited by attendence. Supporting a football club as a child often comes from peer pressure, desire to commit to parental tradition and is initially hollow. I have never met a 8 year old who genuinely loves the club, yet I've met plenty who profess to. People cheers goals at this stage because they believe they should, not as an outburst of emotion. This is the manufactured emotion I alluded to.

To quote Doc Brown, you aren't thinking four dimensionally, Marty. People were only originally considered proper fans who attended because as you know, games were not televised thus performance couldn't be judged at all. This then warped into only local fans who attend are proper fans, which completely ignores the rise of globalism, TV and more recently social media.

Lastly, sport is competitive. People enjoy this aspect of football thus want to root for a team. Due to fanaticism and tribalism, added to things like Bluemoon, these fans do become just as part of a social group as those living next door to the ground. They communicate with City fans all day, which surely is your argument for community based emotion? The rooting for a social institution?

You have trouble empathising because you already have your social group formed and you cannot see places like forums and small networked communities as being an adequate replacement.

Wow, couldn't put it any better Damocles... Well said.

I remember as a teen listening to Rap, always getting stick off African-Americans on msg forums saying how because I wasn't from the hood, I had no right to listen to "their" music and so on... I shouldn't dress how they dressed, spoke how they spoke etc etc...
Reminds me how some blues are acting with people who live thousands of miles away from Manchester and are willing to embrace what's been part of our culture for so long.... I think it's cool actually, nothing makes me more proud of this club and where I'm from than reading about how someone with no previous connection whatsoever wishes to embrace the club and Become a part of it...

 

[coley_ctid]

i support City. I have never felt like I chose them, from day one it was love and i dont know why or how but it seemed right. this was about a year before the sheik came and i understood we wouldnt be as successful as my friends who supported the bigger clubs. i didnt care.

i cant go to games but i try to be the very best supporter i can. and if you cant handle me supporting City because i wasnt born under the Kippax well then fuck right off! Who the fuck are you to tell someone who he can or cant support?

That is it in a nutshell!

How anyone on here can think they have the right exclude anyone, be they a full time 'supporter' or a casual 'fan' is beyond comprehension!!!

I have been a fan of and supported City for nearly 40 years, my 14 yr old stepdaughter who is originally from Devon is now also a City supporter. She wasn't even a football fan until I took her on against Wigan earlier this season. Is she any less deserving than someone from the Manchester area?

I myself don't come from a family of blues, they are all Preston supporters, I chose City because I liked Peter Barnes, he was my hero, does that make me a lesser fan? I think not!

I welcome every new fan be they 'plastic' or not, the more the merrier if you ask me.

 

[unlikelyfan19]

You are right, but if you want to be the first to have a stab at explaining (which the above obviously doesn't) then be my guest.

Sorry, I wanted a bit of back and forth to try and make the point, Ill try and make it without audience participation. These are my main points:

All initial football emotion is manufactured. The timing of cheering, the songs and the booing is all a social norm that is inherited by attendence. Supporting a football club as a child often comes from peer pressure, desire to commit to parental tradition and is initially hollow. I have never met a 8 year old who genuinely loves the club, yet I've met plenty who profess to. People cheers goals at this stage because they believe they should, not as an outburst of emotion. This is the manufactured emotion I alluded to.

To quote Doc Brown, you aren't thinking four dimensionally, Marty. People were only originally considered proper fans who attended because as you know, games were not televised thus performance couldn't be judged at all. This then warped into only local fans who attend are proper fans, which completely ignores the rise of globalism, TV and more recently social media.

Lastly, sport is competitive. People enjoy this aspect of football thus want to root for a team. Due to fanaticism and tribalism, added to things like Bluemoon, these fans do become just as part of a social group as those living next door to the ground. They communicate with City fans all day, which surely is your argument for community based emotion? The rooting for a social institution?

You have trouble empathising because you already have your social group formed and you cannot see places like forums and small networked communities as being an adequate replacement.

I don't want to get into what defines 'loving' a club. It's a word, often overly used, that I could make a very good argument for being totally misplaced when referring to a sporting institution. Does anyone actually ever 'love' a football club? Depends what you mean. I'd prefer to see it in terms of feeling connected.

And the reason that people feel truly connected to a sports club is that it impacts on their daily interactions with people. Their relationships involve discussion of and a history of involvement with these institutions. It isn't the fact that they say they 'love' a club or that they type stuff on the internet about them or take the trouble to flick a switch on a tv every so often that makes this connection between an individual and a club. It is the fact that their friends, their family, their society is linked to this club/sport. That their real life features this sport and club as a constantly occurring reference point. That the people they know and the people they care for share a sense of feeling (good, or in the case of reds, bad - or even indifferent but knowing what it's about) for something that they all know.

It isn't buying a shirt or just saying so that makes something important to someone. It is experiences and, more importantly, shared experiences. Being exposed to something and being able to. That is central to the human condition. Whether it be sport or other interests. I'll caveat that there are many issues around the world that I consider to be important and they don't necessarily come from sharing the experience of, say, someone living under apartheid or something equally bad. That comes from empathy. Then again, I don't think anyone is crass enough to be able to equate such a circumstance with trying to make out you 'love' a football club.

So, you might have the seed of a point when you start to argue that a forum and media exposure are a replacement for genuine shared experiences and therefore the genuine impact and social manipulation that football in Manchester has can easily be matched anywhere around the world by logging on to here. I would strongly argue otherwise. Humans are social animals. We develop real relationships with people we see, interact with, live with and share experiences with. Typing 'I love City' and switching on a tv barely register as shared experiences. They are the equivalent of totally meaningless actions we do every day.

Let me ask this. At the ground on Monday can anyone really say that they felt that it was just an excellent footballing victory which brought the chance of a prize with it that they were celebrating. Certainly for almost every blue that I know it was something different. It was the culmination of decades of being looked down upon (not in real terms but in Manchester football terms) ending. A shift in how football will be discussed in Manchester for years. A reference point that will genuinely have (even though it isn't a genuinely important issue) millions of individual impacts on the way people in Manchester interact and converse with people when discussing football (and even when not, it could be argued) for the following days, weeks, months and years. Was that football match and what the result hopefully meant JUST a 1-0 victory over the current champions? Or did you find yourself thinking back to people you know, places you've been, discussions you've had and, as X Factor as it sounds, the journey of this club and your fellow supporters over the last 30 years?

And if the answer is yes, which I don't see how it couldn't be, then now think as to how on Earth that can be replicated by a 'sense of community' or a 'sense of feeling' that is at initially, maybe totally, fostered by typing and then pressing 'post' and turning on a tv. Whilst the rest of your community and real life relationships would struggle to differentiate between Manchester United and Manchester City.

It is the human decision to make the actual choice "I want to become part of that success" (whether that success is being Champions of Europe when you start claiming it or just being a team that is more glamorous or in a higher division than your local one) and then going out of your way to convince yourself and others that you are that interests me.

Why people would feel that? What motivates them? It isn't a love of the game as that is not specific to a single (almost exclusively) relatively successful club. And it isn't tribalism as the tribalism aspect in football is, despite internet United fans/boasters everywhere trying to convince you otherwise, defined by the locality and the impact it has on most relationships in your social and family circle. That's tribalism. Not arguing with a so-called United fan on the internet that 'your' far away club has just scored one more goal than 'his' then both logging off and returning to a world where Manchester United and Manchester City mean virtually nothing to most.

It's not tribalism, in my view. It is a desire to be able to boast. A desire for one-up-manship. And that, from my point of view, is not a very desirable characteristic. Especially when the tools that you are using for such boastfulness are not a matter of circumstance but a matter of choice. And when those tools have very little personal connection to your actual circumstances.

The next bit will probably sound quite out of place and dramatic. But I don't have time for certain characteristics. Boastfulness is one of them. As is desire to claim some sort of reflective glory from the achievements of others. I can stomach it in football because a) it is an unimportant issue in the scheme of things and doesn't (even though it feels like it does) genuinely affect the well being of families (removing the arguments about area investment, etc) and b) knock-about, less than totally serious competitiveness is a part of friendship and strong relationships. But most importantly, I don't see supporting a club that is part of the fabric of your relationships as being boasting or claiming glory. It is, in my view, about supporting them - a much different concept to trying to boast about their victories - and taking an interest in the aspect of your chosen sport that is rooted in your society and social circles. That has more of an impact on your society and your relationships than you being able to just say an isolated "Hey, my team won".

Anyway, got work to do. That has been typed really quickly and without checking. It probably doesn't get across what I am trying to.

;)

 

[stevenryals]

fine and dandy as long as they dont come to matches LOL
need to expand the stadium..

been hard enough getting tickets lately...

 

[MSP]

As someone already said - there are holes in logic of people who enjoy the current City status and want it to stay like that so they could put in front of their rag neighbours and mates regularly but don't want new fans.

Yeah sure, someone has invested hundreds of millions just to make you happy and fulfill your lifelong hopes..

Not anything worth to discuss actually, it's stupidity at it's finest.

 

[Damocles]

fine and dandy as long as they dont come to matches LOL
need to expand the stadium..

been hard enough getting tickets lately...

Maybe you should get some loyalty points?

 

[ClaudioDeyna]

I love hearing the foreign fans' stories, meself... mind you, I'm from Stockport.

 

[green pennies]

Genuine question.

Why do you feel the need to 'pick a club'?

Especially when it is a totally unassociated 'choice' that won't have any true relation to your real life, where you are from and the people you know?

I know that sounds antagonistic but I just don't get it.

I watch every bit of American Football on TV but I've never wanted to 'choose a team'. I just don't get it. I like/love/whatever the game but, for me, saying that I support a team and therefore expecting it to therefore become automatically true would just be so shallow and I'd feel a little bit pathetic for doing so. It'd feel a little bit meaningless. So I just enjoy the game for what it is.

Sorry, I shouldn't address that to a single person as it seems like a personal attack, so please don't feel compelled to reply. It just sums up why I can't get my head around it though.

People just wouldn't act that way in any field other than sport - especially football.

To touch on the original question that was asked to me, and to agree with what the blue from Arkansas said; I think it's a bit different in America when it comes to sports teams and how and why they are supported. It's the most normal thing in the world here for people to support NFL teams from all over. Teams like the Steelers, Raiders, Packers, Cowboys, Giants, Jets, and Dolphins have massive fanbases in every state. You'd never hear people here slagging off "armchair fans" because that's not looked on as a negative thing here. Sure, the super-fans might have season tix (which are very expensive, especially with the introduction of PSLs and the like), but for a team like the Giants, my NFL team (I'm from New Jersey) the wait for season tickets is around 20 years. In Green Bay, people put their newborn babies on the 100-year waitlist in the hopes that even if the baby itself doesn't live long enough to obtain the tickets, they can be passed on to the nearest living relative. In that kind of environment, yeah, being an armchair fan is many people's only option, a fan is a fan is a fan. You'd never hear someone judging someone else over it. We all watch the games on TV and get tickets through friends or on a website like Stubhub here and there when we can. All that being said, I don't even particularly LIKE the NFL.. I mean I'm into it a bit, but to me it's a pretty dumb game on the whole. Other teams I support? Well, the Mets in baseball but there are so many damn games you'd go broke trying to leave the armchair for that sport.. The NBA? No interest really..

The fact is that (probably due to geography and cultural differences) there aren't hundreds of clubs all smashed into a small country with strong local followings and stigmas against outsiders and glory hunters. Yeah, nobody likes people who jump on the bandwagon, but we pretty much pick our teams in every sport. It's influenced by our parents and family, yeah, (I can remember being a little kid and being carried around Shea Stadium by my dad and grandfather - who was from Queens.. so yes, I understand the idea of family and geographical ties to a team) but we are basically free to pick our teams in most cases (although being a fan of any philadelphia teams was out of the question). I can only come to the conclusion that it must be different in England because of how close together everything is, along with the fact that well over 100 years of tradition and rivalries tends to heat things up a bit.

Why did I feel a need to pick? What else was I to do? Maybe if I had known anyone throughout my youth who was into proper football, if I had any family or friends to show me the way, then I could've cut my palm and squeezed holy blood over the ritual stone of a hallowed club badge at the age of 4..

But as it was? My journey was such that I had to discover the game (the real one, not the ones that most Americans play when we are 6 years old and then stop and move on to other things), but real actual glorious football and you know what? It took a while! If not for a good friend and roommate in college, I probably would've been blissfully unaware for the rest of my life.. but my friend started introducing me to the game and I went from not understanding it and thinking it was boring to becoming wholly and fully obsessed with it. All the things Americans said they hated about it became the things I liked. I had to fall in love with the game before I could ever fall for a club. People in England don't understand what that's like I think, since football is a way of life there. Like most dopey americans, I too started by watching the world cup.. (I feel douchey even typing it) but it was that initial interest, combined with help from a friend or two who was "in the know" that got me to where I am today (which is nothing special, but IS informed). Now, it's club over country. Tim Howard and Clint Dempsey can go down in flames for all I care if it means City wins.

MLS has come a long way, but I started watching the prem before MLS too and that was my introduction. Sorry if I can't go balls-out for the "Red Bulls".. but it's not what gave me the bug. The passion we Americans know you in England (and others all over the world) have for the game is contagious! We know it matters to you and when I started to follow religiously and closely, it started to matter like that to me.

Bottom line: Why does it have to be a club in your backyard to inspire passion? If that's the connection you have with it, then fine. I'm jealous, actually. But as I said before, when your only choice is to choose, you choose. I can understand why wacky Japanese tourists holding up "We love U C. Ronaldo!!" signs make you want to puke. I have the same reaction, believe me. But many American fans are not that. Not by a long shot. (Many are, but that's another story for another post)

I chose a few years back not knowing where it would go. before long I began investing many of my waking hours into following this club. It wasn't long (in fact, it was almost immediate) before it took over. There will always be illegitimate fans. But don't paint them as such just because of where they are from.

You say you watch American football but don't "feel the need" to pick a club. Fine! But if you did? Americans would think it was fecking awesome that someone from England followed their team! I refuse to sit back like some "over-it" social scientist and "enjoy the spectacle" without throwing myself into it. Maybe it's human nature, I don't know. And what's more: you love real football (I'm assuming)! of course you can just casually watch the NFL when the thing you really care about is Man City. THe NFL is where I live and I couldn't be bothered for the most part. Like you, City is what I care about, so that has a HUGE RELATION to my life. You're right, 98% of the people in my life - it means nothing to them. Most of the people I know have no clue. How can I be a glory hunter when there's no glory to be had or accolades to gotten from anyone I know? No matter! This thing is not for them, it is for me. That being said I don't know why I am spending all this time trying to explain my POV.. I guess the reason is that I quite enjoy this message board. It's a way for me to be surrounded by people who care about what I do.. even if it is in a virtual way.

I know you used the word "pathetic", but did you ever think for a moment that it just might be a touch admirable? You see me as an idiot an ocean away who think's he's a part of something he's not. I see myself as sharing in a common passion with a group of people even though it's so out of my world as to be almost unatainable. You have the one thing that makes being a fan easiest: access. Me? While the excellent web presence of City and the increase in resources that make the EPL easier to get for foreign fans do help, I'm far away from the one thing I want most, which is to walk into a pub, or City Square, or a train, or any damn place, have it be full of blues who feel as I feel, and break into Blue Moon at the top of our lungs. Even to walk into a place where I could sit down and have an intelligent conversation about football (and City especially) with someone who knew their ass from their elbow would be such a thrill for me! I guess in a way, I'm starting to look more pathetic by the second...

I wouldn't be an entitled dick if I met you, I'd be the guy shaking you down for information, stories, and tales of the club. I'd be the student. Most of all I would have great respect for you.

Anyway, just be thankful! But know that with your priviledged position comes a responsibility to respect those of us who have heard the calling from afar.
Hope this helps you get it.

It does actually. I still won't ever manage to get my head around what you refer to as the American way of just latching on to whatever massive team (and it is always a massive team) takes your fancy and trying to be part of their reflective success. But it explains the cultural difference quite well.

(Although I'd question why, if you disagree with my point of view, you feel compelled to do exactly the same thing with Japanese fans. That seems to suggest that you do actually recognise a bit of the absurdity that I suggest is at the centre of it all)

But, regardless of the cultural aspect of why people choose to latch on to successful clubs and why that might not be as prevalent in the UK (it is with many though), I still cannot rationalise the need/desire to have to manufacture being part of it. And how you justify to yourself that just one day saying "I love this club" then automatically becomes a self fulfilling prophesy. To me it is self delusion and not what being someone who really enjoys the sport is all about. Enjoying a sport and wanting to convince yourself that a lifeless sporting entity from miles away is emotionally connected to you just flies in the face of logic (but I may be too logical, granted). It wouldn't happen in any other walk of life or with other interests outside of sport.

Anyway, good reply. Cheers

You are right, but if you want to be the first to have a stab at explaining (which the above obviously doesn't) then be my guest.

Sorry, I wanted a bit of back and forth to try and make the point, Ill try and make it without audience participation. These are my main points:

All initial football emotion is manufactured. The timing of cheering, the songs and the booing is all a social norm that is inherited by attendence. Supporting a football club as a child often comes from peer pressure, desire to commit to parental tradition and is initially hollow. I have never met a 8 year old who genuinely loves the club, yet I've met plenty who profess to. People cheers goals at this stage because they believe they should, not as an outburst of emotion. This is the manufactured emotion I alluded to.

To quote Doc Brown, you aren't thinking four dimensionally, Marty. People were only originally considered proper fans who attended because as you know, games were not televised thus performance couldn't be judged at all. This then warped into only local fans who attend are proper fans, which completely ignores the rise of globalism, TV and more recently social media.

Lastly, sport is competitive. People enjoy this aspect of football thus want to root for a team. Due to fanaticism and tribalism, added to things like Bluemoon, these fans do become just as part of a social group as those living next door to the ground. They communicate with City fans all day, which surely is your argument for community based emotion? The rooting for a social institution?

You have trouble empathising because you already have your social group formed and you cannot see places like forums and small networked communities as being an adequate replacement.

I don't want to get into what defines 'loving' a club. It's a word, often overly used, that I could make a very good argument for being totally misplaced when referring to a sporting institution. Does anyone actually ever 'love' a football club? Depends what you mean. I'd prefer to see it in terms of feeling connected.

And the reason that people feel truly connected to a sports club is that it impacts on their daily interactions with people. Their relationships involve discussion of and a history of involvement with these institutions. It isn't the fact that they say they 'love' a club or that they type stuff on the internet about them or take the trouble to flick a switch on a tv every so often that makes this connection between an individual and a club. It is the fact that their friends, their family, their society is linked to this club/sport. That their real life features this sport and club as a constantly occurring reference point. That the people they know and the people they care for share a sense of feeling (good, or in the case of reds, bad - or even indifferent but knowing what it's about) for something that they all know.

It isn't buying a shirt or just saying so that makes something important to someone. It is experiences and, more importantly, shared experiences. Being exposed to something and being able to. That is central to the human condition. Whether it be sport or other interests. I'll caveat that there are many issues around the world that I consider to be important and they don't necessarily come from sharing the experience of, say, someone living under apartheid or something equally bad. That comes from empathy. Then again, I don't think anyone is crass enough to be able to equate such a circumstance with trying to make out you 'love' a football club.

So, you might have the seed of a point when you start to argue that a forum and media exposure are a replacement for genuine shared experiences and therefore the genuine impact and social manipulation that football in Manchester has can easily be matched anywhere around the world by logging on to here. I would strongly argue otherwise. Humans are social animals. We develop real relationships with people we see, interact with, live with and share experiences with. Typing 'I love City' and switching on a tv barely register as shared experiences. They are the equivalent of totally meaningless actions we do every day.

Let me ask this. At the ground on Monday can anyone really say that they felt that it was just an excellent footballing victory which brought the chance of a prize with it that they were celebrating. Certainly for almost every blue that I know it was something different. It was the culmination of decades of being looked down upon (not in real terms but in Manchester football terms) ending. A shift in how football will be discussed in Manchester for years. A reference point that will genuinely have (even though it isn't a genuinely important issue) millions of individual impacts on the way people in Manchester interact and converse with people when discussing football (and even when not, it could be argued) for the following days, weeks, months and years. Was that football match and what the result hopefully meant JUST a 1-0 victory over the current champions? Or did you find yourself thinking back to people you know, places you've been, discussions you've had and, as X Factor as it sounds, the journey of this club and your fellow supporters over the last 30 years?

And if the answer is yes, which I don't see how it couldn't be, then now think as to how on Earth that can be replicated by a 'sense of community' or a 'sense of feeling' that is at initially, maybe totally, fostered by typing and then pressing 'post' and turning on a tv. Whilst the rest of your community and real life relationships would struggle to differentiate between Manchester United and Manchester City.

It is the human decision to make the actual choice "I want to become part of that success" (whether that success is being Champions of Europe when you start claiming it or just being a team that is more glamorous or in a higher division than your local one) and then going out of your way to convince yourself and others that you are that interests me.

Why people would feel that? What motivates them? It isn't a love of the game as that is not specific to a single (almost exclusively) relatively successful club. And it isn't tribalism as the tribalism aspect in football is, despite internet United fans/boasters everywhere trying to convince you otherwise, defined by the locality and the impact it has on most relationships in your social and family circle. That's tribalism. Not arguing with a so-called United fan on the internet that 'your' far away club has just scored one more goal than 'his' then both logging off and returning to a world where Manchester United and Manchester City mean virtually nothing to most.

It's not tribalism, in my view. It is a desire to be able to boast. A desire for one-up-manship. And that, from my point of view, is not a very desirable characteristic. Especially when the tools that you are using for such boastfulness are not a matter of circumstance but a matter of choice. And when those tools have very little personal connection to your actual circumstances.

The next bit will probably sound quite out of place and dramatic. But I don't have time for certain characteristics. Boastfulness is one of them. As is desire to claim some sort of reflective glory from the achievements of others. I can stomach it in football because a) it is an unimportant issue in the scheme of things and doesn't (even though it feels like it does) genuinely affect the well being of families (removing the arguments about area investment, etc) and b) knock-about, less than totally serious competitiveness is a part of friendship and strong relationships. But most importantly, I don't see supporting a club that is part of the fabric of your relationships as being boasting or claiming glory. It is, in my view, about supporting them - a much different concept to trying to boast about their victories - and taking an interest in the aspect of your chosen sport that is rooted in your society. That has more of an impact on your society and your relationships than you being able to just say an isolated "Hey, my team won".

Anyway, got work to do. That has been typed really quickly and without checking. It probably doesn't get across what I am trying to.

You are obviously an intelligent guy and I have been appreciating the civility of this debate. Your concern about motives is not entirely misplaced. Obviously, the braggadocio and one-upsmanship that seem to drive some people are often not desireable things. It is quite obvious that for you, City is a part of the fabric of your existence; the people you know, the places. you no doubt have sights, smells, memories, and more tucked into your brain all over the place..

We've discussed the cultural differences, so there's not too much more to say about that, but let me try to kind of explain it on a human level:

It might be manufactured in the brain, it might be a social need, it might be cheapened by the fact that much of it is virtual for me, et cetera..

But to me it seems like the difference between your Dad and your wife. I love my Dad. From the time I've been born, there he was. He loves me, I love him. He's given me everything and I've given him everything. We've supported each other over the years. My brother and sister understand and share in this love. He's an undeniable part of who I am and he's a huge influence. When he does something I think is wrong, it hurts and frustrates me to my core.. but undeniably, he is "mine", for better or worse, and I've had years and years of time to get to know him and who he is.

My wife, I've known her for less than a third of my life. We were connected on the suggestion of a third party (fuck I'll just say it because it supports the metaphor - it was an online dating site!), and while we got on straight away, it took getting to know her deeper for true love to develop. I haven't known her forever and there will always be more for me to learn about her. But I can say that now, my wife is my everything. I'd do anything to make her happy and she has become my family in a very real way. I'm with her every day and we recently had our first child.. our family and its love grows.

Your relationship with City seems to be me to my dad. Mine seems to be more me to my wife. It's almost as if we are trying to argue over whether I am "blood related" to my wife.. Obviously I'm not (I don't live in THAT part of America). Is my wife any less my family than my father? I've known him three times as long! He is in my blood! All true, but I fell in love with my wife and it's become real for me, it has become family. While it was not my blood, we got together and made something that was uniquely both of us.

Just like I tried dating other girls, when I first started following football, I didn't know any better, and I liked a few of their players, so I "told people" I was a Chelsea fan. I figured if I like a player or two I'd just "pick" them. What an ass I was! bought a shirt, bought a poster. whatever. But I started to hate Chelsea. I didn't like a lot of the racism stuff from their past that I read about.. Ownership rubbed me the wrong way, I hated all their managers, Their whole attitude was ass, and it just never caught on for me. Somehow I was born again out of douchism. When I discovered City, everything clicked. For one thing, it went hand in hand with my growing to understand the game more, but the most important thing was I finally got my own place and was able to order the right cable channels and start really truly watching every City game. I fell in love With Vinny Kompany and the lads, the style, the way the fans sang, even the bitterness and hatred for the evil empire across the way. I fell in love. That's why even though I've fully admitted to "picking" City, I do still feel like City picked me in a weird way. It still had to "click".

This isn't for bragging purposes (again no one to tell), it's for the pure joy I get out of watching this team and these players that I feel like I know. That's what it is. simple answer it makes me happy! so goddamned happy! If I say "we" won, it's just semantics. The fact is, "this thing I care deeply and truly about" won, but that's a little wordy to scream when you are a few brews in...

I know you think it's fake/manufactured/silly/selfish. But to me it has become family. It will never be a father to me like it is to you.. but it's a damn good wifey and there's no divorce possible till death do us part.



ps - I actually felt bad about typing that japanese comment as I was typing it, but when I think of the foreign annoying know-nothing fan, I always seem to think of a pic of those asian girls holding up the CRonaldo shirt in their rag shirts.. I just happen to always associate what I was describing with that shot that I saw on bluemoon somewhere. Fair play to the Japanese true fans, I love ya folks. I wasn't trying to talk crap about the country, just trying to describe that photo.

pps - damocles your post was really good I thought.

 

[Ducado]

I have never and will never have a problem with anyone who supports us, it's a football club not a religion or a political belief!

Some of out fans from abroad should be congratulated (or certified insane) for they have supported this club when most of the world did not know we even existed!

All our welcome (wherever they are from)as long as they know what they are letting themselves in for!

 

[alanjames24]

erm, thats nice. I'm assuming you're not a 16 year old in high school though, right? You have the money and the time to be able to go to games, right? I'm in school 5 days a week and work on weekends and i can barely pay for gas for my car, i'm sorry i'm not as good a fan as you are.

Ahem. I was backing you up and replying to MCFC 4 EVER's limited knowledge of the American fan (although I'm not American, I have lived in the US and have been converting Americans covertly for 8 years. Sleeper cells, if you will).

Also, a lot of people don't seem aware that at the height of the World Cup 2006, Claudio Reyna was America's captain and played for City.... When we were absolute shite. A lot of my US friends have supported City since then. I took one to Everton at home and Blackburn away in September last year and all my mates absolutely loved him for his enhusiasm and passion for the game.

ah, sorry! thought you were talking to me!

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

No problem mate. Just do us all a favour and don't ever call football 'soccer'! Drives us all fucking mad!