It's quite interesting reading the below

And seeing just how many people furious at my 'tone' or at my criticising/questioning other fans respond by, oh the irony, playing the man, not the ball. What was it Thatcher said about personal attacks again?

When Roy Keane called a whole swathe of Man Utd supporters "prawn sandwich eaters", strangely, I can't quite recall their fanbase turning on him in fury. The divide in the Arsenal support between old and new fans is horrendous, and has contributed to their problems in recent years. Stamford Bridge is full of tourists many weeks. And we have our own 'new fans' too: many of whom were attracted to the club by Delia herself.

It isn't even a controversial point. Never mind that when we talk about other clubs, other fanbases, almost all football fans generalise. It's what fan culture is based on to a large extent.

On Derby: to judge by very many comments on here, most people found our time in the Prem under Hughton and, post-Newcastle, Neil, tedious in the extreme. Miserable even. And many said "going back down isn't so bad - we'll win lots of football matches and score lots of goals instead".

In fact, almost whenever we've gone up, tons of fans have ended up wondering "is this success? Is that all there is? Playing for 17th place every year?" Derby have shot themselves in the foot plenty of times in recent years... yet they're up there pretty much every season. And they expect to be - because of their fanbase, which is a similar size to our own.

Thinking of ourselves as 'successful' when that success peaked over 6 years ago (and counting), and pointing fingers at Portsmouth (whose fans got to see them win the FA Cup, and who are quite likely to come back up this season), or QPR (it's impossible to imagine a football club run more badly - yet they've had only one year less than we have in the top flight this decade, and are a whole one point behind us despite a transfer embargo), or Derby when they're in the top 6 or thereabouts most seasons seems seriously odd to me.

Jim, again, was spot on. We don't get any benefit out of being run this way. And that's not me saying "I want to be like Portsmouth!" at all. It's not either/or. There's a balance in between, which many clubs strike very well.

And if you'll forgive me, I'll take my lessons on tone from those who don't spend their entire lives in glasshouses, who don't gang up on others on here all the time, and who don't call others "c**ts" on at least a weekly, if not daily basis. Thankyouplease.

Posted By: thebigfeller on September 3rd 2018 at 19:58:25

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