Glory hunters

The only fan is a local, in my opinion. If you lived in a city or town that has fielded a professional team during your formative years, you must root for that team. Sure, there are some exceptions, but use your head. Only you know your real reason for supporting a team and if "they win a lot" is one of them, the sport is better off without you.

When you're a local, you generally have family and friends to introduce you to the culture of a team and its history. There's an atmosphere in the city that simply nurtures support of the team, its players, and even its administration. Going to the stadium and watching your team live alongside thousands of supporters equally as passionate and local-rooted as you is truly a feeling like no other.

I'm fully aware of the hypocrisy here as I'm a Newcastle "fan" who's never stepped foot in Newcastle (or anywhere in the UK for that matter) but I'd never even put myself in the same breath as a Geordie who's lived there for his whole life and grew up watching his side beat Barcelona, or travelled to the other side of the country this past January only to watch his side get beaten 2-nil by Brighton. These people are the real fans; these people make me proud to follow the sport.

That said, I proudly support all my local Boston teams in America.

What if your dad or uncle has supported a big, non-local club for as long as you can remember?

What if you aren't actually interested in the "sense of community", and things like that, and don't want football for that reason. But rather, you watch football for football, to appreciate talent - for the same reason that you would watch anything else?

With my local football club, aside from maybe a few drunk chavs singing and chanting in the streets, there is no sense of community when a match or a derby is on. I think most people here seem to realise that unless you actually are one of those football players, or their manager, and your career depends on this match etc. it doesn't actually make any difference whether they win or not.

What you mean the likes of Aliadiere, Lupoli, Gilbert, Henderson, Bartley?

At Arsenal any good youngster like Fabregas, Wilshere, Szczesny goes straight into the first team at 18-20anyway. Carling cup games at the Emirates are the absolute pits in terms of atmosphere by all accounts. Would probably enjoy going to see Barnet for a £10 just as much... Why does England need 2 knockout cup competions? We have the FA cup and no other country that I know of has 2 like us. Just a money making scheme in reality.

Given the standards set, it must literally be the equivalent of a totally empty White Hart Lane.

My point was that there's passion among those young lads, they really want to break into the first team. Some players like Aliadiere, Hoyte and Bentley (lol) don't make it but it doesn't mean they don't want to break in. You are watching a reserve side of sorts, but these boys are wearing your shirt. They won't be wearing your shirt down the Underhill, that's for sure.

Compare that to our established XI going to Carrow Road and having a kick-around despite the ticket costing £30. I know which type of match I'd have preferred.

If you don't wanna feel part of a community then don't support the team in question but you will probably be missing out as I said before. what is the local team for you ? Have you been to the games and got involved to write it off or did you just not fancy it ? The fact that you don't like your local team or don't feel inclined to support them doesn't mean you now have to pick a prem team and start supporting them does it

If you wanna watch football to appreciate talent then why do you need to support anyone ? Does watching it under the premise that you 'support' one of the teams playing when you have no connection to them or any involvement really impact on the spectacle if you only watch it for the talent ?

That also goes with the point of if you don't think winning or losing makes any difference then you are basically saying you are neutral. I am not saying I will off myself if they lose or whatever but supporting arsenal is a big part of my life and has been from a young age and I don't see any problem with that, if you don't want to be emotionally invested in a football team then don't be

I am not saying its right or wrong to support a team non local or whatever I just think that the experience of supporting a local team is special and can't be replicated

I was very lucky in that my first home was literally 10 minutes walk from Highbury, and lived within 30 minutes walk until I was 15. I still live within 45 minutes walk so my whole family truly belong to Arsenal and to Islington generally. I'd like to think that if I was born in Shepherd's Bush for example, I'd happily go to see QPR every other week.

The thing within London is that family ties usually lead to who you support and families move. I was born and raised in newham/hackney but [luckily] my whole family are gunners.

In London as well a lot of people are second generation, so their parents just picked a random team and the kids grew up supporting them. Ie. All the asian liverpool and united fans.

I would love to see how many fans would still be there rooting for United if they ever go through a bad patch. And no, I don't mean not winning the league for a couple of seasons, but the same as what's happened to Liverpool. Young United fans have never experienced long periods of no success, or lack of entertainment. They see top players coming in constantly and know that if someone like Ronaldo leaves, someone else will follow.

They've never had it bad, despite some of the ludicrous overreactions you see when United don't smash weak opposition as easy as they think they should. The number of times I've seen calls for Fergie to be sacked. I mean, really? They don't know how good they've had it.

No doubt, there are United fans out there who are very loyal fans, even some in the South. But there's nothing worse than that group of Southern bandwagoners who mouth off about your team and shout "Man U rules we are the best yay!"

It would happen, but a generation down the line. Case in point: the Liverpool thread on TSR is fairly popular. We (Spurs) are doing better but we only have a few posts a week, largely due to us being crap in the 1990s.

It means you like to watch them play?

Even if you are a "local" supporter - say you live in Wolverhampton and you support Wolves - even then, what "connection" do you have to the club? What actual difference does it make to your life whether they win a match or lose it? None whatsoever. So then what does it mean to be a fan or follower?

It just means you like to watch them play, and have watched them for long enough that you know more about that club, and take a greater interest in what's going on with it. Whether their home ground is physically located 1 mile or 20 miles away from my house seems to be quite inconsequential.



I've always wondered this about die hard, "local" supporters: Suppose hypothetically, all of the players from your local club got bought by Barcelona in the next transfer window, and all of the players from Barcelona got bought by your local club. And the managers and coaching staff etc. swapped jobs as well. Who would you support now?

If you're still supporting your "local" club after this - then what exactly is it that you have a "connection" with? Just the name of the club? Just the colour of their shirts? Just the fact that the stadium is located in your area? All the players have left, they've taken their style and quality of football with them. So it's not really about the football anymore, is it? This isn't really being a football fan.

And if you decide to support Barcelona now, because that's where all your favourite players have gone - then you're not really a "local" supporter at all, are you? Because what keeps you supporting your club is not the fact that they're local to you, but it's the fact that you like those players, and their style/quality of football. And if that's the case, it should be easy to understand why some people support the "big" clubs even if they're not local.



I don't really know why this debate keeps coming up anyway though. What difference does it make to you (or anyone) what club someone else supports, or on what basis they choose to do so? Why can't everyone just support whatever club they want, for whatever reason they want, and just leave it at that? Why should anyone have to justify what team they like to watch, and want to win?

The point you make is tripe, if everyone subscribed to your thinking then what is the point of there being 92 football league clubs? Everyone might as well just support the top 4 or 5 teams yes?

Which point? I made several points in my earlier post.

I didn't say everyone should subscribe to this way of thinking. Clearly, not everybody does. The remainder of clubs exist for the people who don't subscribe to my way of thinking. I just don't see why it's such a problem that some people do. There's nothing special about my local club that emotionally attaches me to them or anything. I just like to watch good football, and I don't really see anything wrong with that. I choose my cereal on how good it tastes, and the football I watch on how well it's played.



I don't really see the analogy you're trying to draw.



Why don't you answer the question I asked then - what exactly is about a particular team that makes it "part of your identity"? If hypothetically, all the players at your local club left at the end of the season, to be replaced entirely by new players you've never heard of, would you still support them? If they moved to a new home stadium in some other part of the country, would you still support them? If they renamed themselves after a different part of the country, would you still support them? What about them would have to change, in order for you to not consider them to be the same club that had originally become part of your identity, and therefore to no longer support them?

As I said, the precise quality that attracts me to a particular club is the style and quality of their football. If that we're to change significantly, I'd probably end up supporting someone else. If all the players left, I'd probably support someone else - because it's effectively no longer the same club as before.