You'll all be relieved to know I am back.
It's like I always said. Give a Reading fan a blade of grass and they take a football pitch.
Thanks to those of you who have been leaving comments. I was beginning to think I was at an Arsenal match it was so quiet.
Anyway, one of these comments by a new reader, Colin Randall, himself a football blogger, challenged my fervent Foxes fanship (try saying that when you've had a few) on the basis that I show too much interest in and favour towards other teams.
It made me think about a conversation I had with my lover recently about the prawn sandwich brigade, some of whom (allegedly) change allegiance on a regular basis (only amongst the top four clubs of course).
The sort of think a member of the "prawn sandwich brigade" might say is:
"I think I'll support Chelsea next year. It will be nice to watch a team playing in a different colour for a change."
or
"I chose Manchester United because the parking at the ground is easier than at Liverpool"
As you know I am fairly new to football and have only been a Leicester City fan for about a year. You might wonder therefore how deep the roots of my loyalty really go. I have to confess to asking myself the same question with the threat of relegation looming so large.
I jokingly suggested that if they are relegated I would choose a different team. As I did so I had this really weird feeling. Like guilt. As if I had committed adultery or was at least contemplating it. I quickly realised that I could no more support another team than change sex. Even after such a short time and all the trials and tribulations, I'm a Foxes girl through and through.
But my journey has been about learning to love football and that has included learning to appreciate good football. So inevitably I have watched other teams play and bizarrely (although I don't believe for a minute I am unique in this) have found myself forming opinions and a level of allegiance on the scantiest of evidence.
None of these views would stand up to much scrutiny or analysis but here is my take on the Premiership teams:
Arsenal: I have a love for them because sometimes they play really really beautiful football. I don't like the persona Wenger presents in public but I do think he is a great and passionate manager. And of course my son loves them so I have an understandable affinity
Man U: How could you not love the football they play? I am much less keen on Fergie though even though I know he is a god in many ways.
Liverpool: I feel less pull to them although I love Crouchy
Chelsea: I can't love them Mourinholess
Newcastle: I'm sorry Mosher. I can't love a team who think KK is groovy and look like a packet if mint humbugs
Reading: I have to like them because my lover does. I do sort of - they have an underdog appeal don't they
Everton and Blackburn: Like 'em a bit. No idea why
Sunderland and Tottenham: Well there's Roy Keane and Ramos - yum!
Man City: I have to confess to finding Sven just a little bit sexy..........
Birmingham, Aston Villa and West Ham: No feelings either way
Portsmouth: Not sure really. Harry is a bit too much of a wide boy for my liking
Middlesbourgh and Wigan: Seem a bit dull
Fulham and Derby: I'm sorry. You can't love the unloveable.
Bolton: May they die a horrible death
Yet despite these strange affinities, I couldn't support any of them. Not like Leicester.
No - there is no doubt about it. Given the choice between a pie and a prawn sandwich I'll take the pie every time.
10 comments:
The link from Salut| Sunderland is duly established.............keep me up to date on young mr alnwick
Good Good Good. Nothing more to be said !
Cep't....Reading.....underdogs......I'm sorry ?
JVIP
Reading is "my" team because I discovered the footie during their first season in the Prem. So I picked them because we were both newcomers.
My first-ever live match was on a trip to London this past January, Chelsea v Reading. We lost, but I was happy just to be there eating my pie at halftime!
I also do watch Man United, Barca, AC Milan, and the occasional Glasgow Celtic, but figure this isn't a problem until Fall 2009 when Reading are in the Champion's League...
I don't mind that you don't like us because you're not *meant* to. Although how you can't find His Holiness somewhat groovy with that great hair and line in leather jackets is beyond me.
On a personal note, I don't mind Boro too much as long as they finish below us, but I'd not piss on a mackem if he was on fire. As for Roy Keane, I'd set him alight and *then* refuse to pass water.
I just can't like ManUre. Too smug. Arsenal I have more of a liking for, but don't like the number of non-English players they field. Chelsea bought the trophy and are just too rich - they've ruined the game for too many other teams as a result.
Liverpool I do like, and Everton. It's the city as well as the clubs. Always superb places to go on away days. Pompey probably had the best fans when I went down there, and the Southampton lot were very welcoming as well.
A lot of it comes down to personal things. Rivalries, what teams my mates support, experiences at away grounds...
colin randall: Wildo. Hopefully he will be able to avoid sex scandals in the future and concentrate on his game
JVIP: Truth can be a painful thing
gina: Glad to meet a sister who is also fairly new to footy. Oh the joy of discovering the world of pies
mosher: My need to distance myself from KK goes back to the 70s when for a brief time I had a picture of him on my bedroom wall (oh god - not the truth is out. I'm going to hell. I just know it).
The defintion of a 'prawn sandwich eater.'
Someone who spends £48 to watch a game and spends most of the time chatting about his/her day or thinking they are at the Opera, or the cinema or the theatre - and dresses like they are too!!!
Chelsea have about 30,000 of them!!
and Mosher - Utd are trying to BUY relegation !!!! LOL LOL
Like any good soap, football has heroes and villains only it is more personal. I, for example, do not like Man. City because of the 1969 cup final. My dislike of Leeds dates back to the same year when they 'stole' Allan Clarke from Leicester. I like Aston Villa because I think Martin O'Neill is fantastic. I love it when Newcastle lose because it continues to reinforce what I have always believed which is that KK is no good as a manager.
But what it is important to remember is that none of this is personal. It is just a way of helping one decide who to support when you are faced with a match in which neither of the teams are 'your' team.
I agree with the final sentiment, but disagree with KK being a particularly bad manager. Our run of results recently has stunk. No arguing. But the actual *football* has improved.
I guess it's a 2-sided sword/problem/thing. We're after entertaining football that we used to have. We also want results. Under Fat Sam, we were pretty much getting neither.
You can argue all you like that Keegen isn't as good a manager as, say, Ferguson. I'd certainly agree in terms of trophies won and so forth, but you can't deny that our football under KK the first time was a joy to watch. And I'd be utterly honest in saying that being almost everyone's "second team" for a few years was a huge buzz. Not as good as winning a trophy - but an amazing boost for the ego.
Keegan does have one thing going for him that a lot of managers lack, though. Charisma. Players always seem to *want* to play for him, and I think that makes a difference as well.
And you can't deny he's come out with some great Colemanballs.
Yup, our team sucks right now. Our results are atrocious. But we spent bugger all in the transfer window and I still think this was sensible. Any purchases Keegan made would have been a kneejerk. Fingers crossed we stay up, and he has the time and finance to put together something half-decent for next season.
Speaking as a football fan I haven't gone wrong with having a second team (who if it ever came to pass played your main team you would still have a little spark for in your soul) - well, that's me at any rate. But always tstick with your first choice (Newcastle might be shit now, but the club runs through my veins)
but...
Man Utd - no way, too many smug 'fans' around who have never actually been to manchester
Arsenal - great team to watch on form - in fact I rate them now more than when Thierry was playing for them.
Chelskov - nae way. bought the title, fans have no class - I can remember a time getting abuse and threats on a train when I went to Chelsea-Newcastle game - I was 12 years old!
Liverpool - great team, great history, great stadium. lovely city, top fans.
Everton - lovely city, but don't rate the team or manager.
Man City - take 'em or leave 'em. the chant "Where were you when you sere sh*t"? springs to mind.
Portsmouth - Horrible stadium, nasty fans who again seemingly are glory hunters
Reading - They've got Ginger Dave - former U's legend who'se transfer fee saved Cambridge from going out of existence.
Boro, Sun'lun - urggh. no thanks. I have no beef with their supporters, unlike many Newcastle Fans - just don't like their teams. And Roy Keane, please die.
Birmingham - belong in league 2
wingan - belong in non-league - have you seen how empty their ground is?
Villa - I've got lots of Villa supporting mates - a team who have done nothing to raise my ire.
For me - the other teams to support are :-
Whitley Bay (hometown team - two games away from Wembley)
Inter Milan - yes, their fans did throw bottles of urine at us when Newcastle played them at the San Siro, but I still like them
Cambridge United (got to look for the team in the town where I now live).
River Plate (Newcastle will never play them - saw them in Argentina in my early twenties - best game of football I have ever been to).
and that's about it. - and completely off topic as well.
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