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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 19:17:23 GMT
Can't understand the point of having a second team. What is the point of feeling invested in the Premier League? I don't get that at all. If your team isn't in it, don't watch it. Why would you want to support any other team? By all means watch and enjoy the skill as a neutral if you really feel the need but as a football fan I couldn't feel less connected to a team once they hit the prem. To me its the be all and end all of almost everything that's bad about our game. Greed, plastic fans, hype, theatrics, arrogance, over pricing, theft of young talent and a screw you, I'm alright attitude as standard. I take a passing interest in the leagues above and below the one we are in around Xmas just to see who we might get next year. It's Gas or nothing for me. Always has been, always will be. Sorry Hugo but I find this a ridiculously unfair comment. I'll let you all in on a secret, if it wasn't for Spurs I wouldn't be watching Rovers. I couldn't get into club football as a kid, partly due to being coordinationally challenged and slightly chubby, partly because I was picked on something awful by the kids that played it and partly because I didn't understand how towns and cities could get invested in a team of players that weren't from the places they were supposed to represent and in most cases weren't even from the same countries. I could get invested in international football and always got really excited by the world and euro cups even as far back as 2002 but club level remained a mystery. So when my aforementioned friend insisted on putting on Spurs whenever I was round and they were on, I was pretty exasperated at first. But after a while I got into it. Seeing my friend get so passionate about his team, enjoying watching Gareth Bale (a goofy looking that came from a place less than an hour drive from my house) blossom into one of the best players in the world and humiliate the defences of Man City and the like. You say why get invested in the Premier League? Because it's the best league in the world (yes it is) and, like it or not, about 80% of the country is in some way. Because it's an excellent source of banter and shared enjoyment and an amazing leveller with pretty much anyone you get stuck talking to in a pub. But much more than that, watching the premier league took me from simply enjoying football as a national spectacle once every two years, to become exceptionally nerdy about tactics, stats and the other technical aspects of the game which I had never appreciated before. I feel connected to Spurs because they taught me how to enjoy football as a sport and why as a fan of football as a game would you limit yourself to only the bottom league (now non-league) standard of it? When I came home from Stoke that winter, bursting with appreciation for that Spurs line-up and able to enter football conversations with my friends for the first time in my entire life. I decided to go alone and check out my local team, the team that my own Dad had always spoken of but lost interest in with age and never took me to himself. The rest is history. I finally understood how a community could coalesce around a group of out-of-towners and even foreigners. How football had become part of so many people's lives, a ritual even and why grown men could get so passionate about something that seemed so trivial to me as a kid and for the first time I was part of it. And guess who gave me that interest? Tottenham Hotspur. I agree, wholeheartedly, that the Premier League has let itself go mad with money, alienating the working class communities that made football what it was and is. I look back and I'm gutted that my bad experiences with a bunch of thuggy kids stopped me from enjoying what is now such a big part of my life when it was still closer to what it was in it's golden age, that I never experienced the "Twerton spirit" or Rickie Lambert playing for the Gas (to tell the truth it still seems insane to my young mind). I also agree that it's a damn shame to see fans sitting in the most expensive seats glued to tablets or to see football twitter filled with belters who demand instant success for their teams and have no clue about loyalty. Be that as it may, I have a connection to Spurs and still believe on a level of fully appreciating football as a sport, the premier league needs to be watched. If that makes me a plastic fan in your view, then I'm sorry but that's my journey and I refuse to apologize for it. (Sorry for the mega post though!)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 19:30:05 GMT
A very passionate and well thought out response. I guess I should defend myself a little since both you and Bags feel I've been unfair..... I'm not saying you are wrong or a bad fan, I'm saying that as strongly as you feel for it, I feel against it. Both things can co-exist and both can be right at the same time. That's the wonderful thing about football. My truth is no better or worse than your truth. I hate everything about the prem and I want nothing other than success for Rovers. By the same token I therefore hate all other teams. I just hate some more than others. Oh, and I couldn't care less about how wonderful some other teams players are. Maybe I'm just not actually a football fan??
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 19:34:03 GMT
A very passionate and well thought out response. I guess I should defend myself a little since both you and Bags feel I've been unfair..... I'm not saying you are wrong or a bad fan, I'm saying that as strongly as you feel for it, I feel against it. Both things can co-exist and both can be right at the same time. That's the wonderful thing about football. My truth is no better or worse than your truth. I hate everything about the prem and I want nothing other than success for Rovers. By the same token I therefore hate all other teams. I just hate some more than others. Thanks man, glad not to be laughed out of the room tbh. Can I ask you one thing though? What if Rovers were in the premier league?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 19:50:33 GMT
Oh, and I couldn't care less about how wonderful some other teams players are. Maybe I'm just not actually a football fan?? In my opinion then, you're letting your fandom get in the way of your appreciation for football as a game/sport. If you feel that you get less enjoyment out of that then being a "pure" Rovers fan, then more power to you.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 20:48:57 GMT
A very passionate and well thought out response. I guess I should defend myself a little since both you and Bags feel I've been unfair..... I'm not saying you are wrong or a bad fan, I'm saying that as strongly as you feel for it, I feel against it. Both things can co-exist and both can be right at the same time. That's the wonderful thing about football. My truth is no better or worse than your truth. I hate everything about the prem and I want nothing other than success for Rovers. By the same token I therefore hate all other teams. I just hate some more than others. Thanks man, glad not to be laughed out of the room tbh. Can I ask you one thing though? What if Rovers were in the premier league? Funny, I said this to a mate recently. I'm not actually sure I want Rovers to get any higher than Championship tops to be honest. I'm not sure it would still like my club if it became too big.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 20:51:08 GMT
Thanks man, glad not to be laughed out of the room tbh. Can I ask you one thing though? What if Rovers were in the premier league? Funny, I said this to a mate recently. I'm not actually sure I want Rovers to get any higher than Championship tops to be honest. I'm not sure it would still like my club if it became too big. Haha, the people's premiership
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 20:53:20 GMT
Oh, and I couldn't care less about how wonderful some other teams players are. Maybe I'm just not actually a football fan?? In my opinion then, you're letting your fandom get in the way of your appreciation for football as a game/sport. If you feel that you get less enjoyment out of that then being a "pure" Rovers fan, then more power to you. Yes, I think that's a fair assessment. Thing is, I enjoy Rovers more than many since I am not really results driven. I said to JTS on Tuesday, I am not that bothered about the fact that we are non league. I just want to be entertained, see more wins and draws than losses and see my team put up the sort of fight that I would if I had any talent.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2014 21:02:54 GMT
In my opinion then, you're letting your fandom get in the way of your appreciation for football as a game/sport. If you feel that you get less enjoyment out of that then being a "pure" Rovers fan, then more power to you. Yes, I think that's a fair assessment. Thing is, I enjoy Rovers more than many since I am not really results driven. I said to JTS on Tuesday, I am not that bothered about the fact that we are non league. I just want to be entertained, see more wins and draws than losses and see my team put up the sort of fight that I would if I had any talent. tbh I'd admired non-league for quite a while before we went down. Took some solace in that.
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