Football club loyalty

Originally Posted by shenwen

To add, my youngest supported Liverpool and then Spurs to annoy us before changing to United at around three years old

Cutting about in his Liverpool kit at one, spurs #@&%!erel Tattoo as he turned 2 and a half, then BAM ...UNITED UNITED UNITED

13 surely?

Although shenners having a mensa kid wouldn't shock me

Born on 29th February.

Originally Posted by est.1878

13 surely?

Although shenners having a mensa kid wouldn't shock me

Ah yes easy mistake, he obviously meant 1three

For me, it's inherited. Dad, Grandad, Great-Grandad - all United. It never occurred to me to be interested in any other team.
Even as a kid, surrounded by Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs & even Watford fans I never once entertained the notion of supporting any other team.
And if United were to go out of existence tomorrow, I still would have no interest in following another club. It's United or nothing. And because that sentiment is common to millions of football fans, it means owners & broadcasters can take the piss as much as they like cos we'll still keep coming back for me. Stockholm Syndrome on steroids.

You can change your politics.
You can change your religion.
You can change your gender.
You can't change your team.

Originally Posted by believe

Ah yes easy mistake, he obviously meant 1three

Have shenners down as the creeping senility age bracket ? or might just be as I can't seperate him from CDB

Even worse, this is the kind of thing AI will get caught out with. That maid could have everyone under the balcony marble and be passing AI logins to keep up appearances

It's a good question, especially now that football is so global and the ownership of clubs often toxic. But as has been said changing clubs is a massive red flag. United still feels like united to me and I have been watching with the same family members and friends for years. Some great memories when the people I watched with was as important as the the result.

I've supported United since before I knew it because all my family were reds. Went to OT regularly with my Dad before he died in 89 when I was 8.

Always feel a bit guilty that he had to endure 20 odd years of no success in the league or Europe before he died, and I got to witness the 90s success first hand home and away But then he had Busby, Best, Law and Charlton, so...

I've also watched Blackpool on and off since I was 10 and I started going with my mates after moving there. My son supports them now and I enjoy going with him, but I've never been arsed when they lose. I remember almost getting myself a kicking and being kicked out of the ground during our 2-3 comeback at Bloomfield Rd the season Blackpool were in the PL Not been to OT since 2005 though

It's definitely linked to childhood and family for most. It is weird though when you compare the loyalty to other hobbies.

Taking it a little further, one of the most egregious things I have witnessed is seeing a wife post-divorce “converting” her young son from her ex-husband’s team to “her” team when she previously appeared to have no interest in football. And I say that even though it meant us gaining a fan from City.

It’s a tribal thing, with the potential for weekly gratification through completion. The opportunity to get one over on ‘them’.

Identity is always more important, oddly, the further down the social scale you go, with football firmly rooted, nurtured and grown in working class communities from day one, right up to the recent past when it just became a corporate #@&%! waving exercise.

As kids we were, or wanted to be, in gangs. The team you support mattered majorly on Monday morning in school. It didn’t diminish by the time you had started working years later. The emotions attached could never be replicated by Nigel and the first fifteen, for whom taking part was most important.

The rage, tension and occasional joy could never be matched by Roxy Music or any tv series. “Get it right round ye Eastie, Corrie had a millions more viewers last night” was never going to cause a punch-up in the playground.

My dad was United, I’m United and so are my kids. Except for my 2 year old who’s away watching Liverpool in Toulouse, obviously. He’ll be back in the fold though before he turns 4. Their kids will be United too. Because it’s part of their tribal identity, it’s in the blood, and we/they’ve been brought up right.

Anyone start supporting us as an act of rebellion, against their parents or schoolmates or whoever? Partly asking because my sister first became a Leeds supporter to annoy dad. Both he and I thus expected her to "grow out" of it in time, but she never has

Originally Posted by redhegemony

who does she support?

United. She's not into football but if we win, it's a happier household.

Originally Posted by est.1878

13 surely?

Although shenners having a mensa kid wouldn't shock me

It might have been four or five.

The point was he used to say he liked those teams. That's all.

Originally Posted by red in cumbria

Anyone start supporting us as an act of rebellion, against their parents or schoolmates or whoever? Partly asking because my sister first became a Leeds supporter to annoy dad. Both he and I thus expected her to "grow out" of it in time, but she never has

My dad was a blue, but the reason I support united is not out of rebellion it’s out of cowardice

When I was 4 or 5 we moved from one part of Wythenshawe to another. First day in our new house I was playing out on the street when I met all the other kids on the road….all a bit older than me. They made it very clear that this particular road was all united, and if I wasn’t a united fan I would be beaten up. Therefore I became a united fan, and never changed

Originally Posted by believe

Ah yes easy mistake, he obviously meant 1three

My dad started supporting United as an act of rebellion when his family were supporting city in the 1956 FA cup final and he didn't want to join in.

Grew up United obsessed and went to almost every home game in the 80s, along with a few aways - the standout one was Sheffield Wednesday 4-2 when Robbo scored at both ends.

Then FC came along and I went home and away for a few years, and it was brilliant. But like many others never stopped supporting both, just not financially for MUFC.

I lost touch with FC when I moved abroad and for various other reasons including the constant in-fighting, which just got really boring. Wish them well but I couldn't even name the team now.

I watch Union St Gilloise these days, a Brussels team who were big in the 60s but then spent 40-odd years in the lower divisions, before a fairytale rise in recent years.

The atmosphere is brilliant, the tickets are cheap and the terrace/beer culture is great, but being honest I don't really care if they win or lose. I just don't feel it, unlike some lads I go with who have been supporting them since they were nothing and have to put up with JCLs like me

A mate of mine is a passionate Wolves fan but also supports RC Lens for some unknown reason, and acts all angry if they lose. But I can tell it's just an act. Really weird tbh.

Was with this girl when I was 16, she was from a family of massive reds and we went to the FA Cup semi v Oldham together, the last minute Mark Hughes wonder strike one.
Bumped into her a few years later and she was a blue Her new fella had converted her.

Been drilled in to me from the day I could walk and talk. One incident about 8 years old when I borrowed my mates city kit to play football in and my dad wouldn’t let me in the house and made me strip off in the garden in pissing down weather.

I reckon if I went to a game with Zorg id end up supporting city

Originally Posted by believe

Been drilled in to me from the day I could walk and talk. One incident about 8 years old when I borrowed my mates city kit to play football in and my dad wouldn’t let me in the house and made me strip off in the garden in pissing down weather.

I reckon if I went to a game with Zorg id end up supporting city

Harsh, but fair.

Originally Posted by believe

Been drilled in to me from the day I could walk and talk. One incident about 8 years old when I borrowed my mates city kit to play football in and my dad wouldn’t let me in the house and made me strip off in the garden in pissing down weather.

I reckon if I went to a game with Zorg id end up supporting city

I like the cut of his jib. I've not told my kids who to support but have made it clear I wouldn't speak to them, probably wouldn't be able to look at them, if they supported anyone but Utd. Fortunately they've all chosen well.

Well, apart from us being shit that is.

Originally Posted by shenwen

Kind of linked but just had a chat with my eldest and he said with VAR especially he's finding it harder to be arsed about PL football in general. Used to jump early out of bed in the mornings to watch full match replays. Now he just watches the highlights. Says he sometimes prefers watching HK league football in front of a few hundred fans.

I'm feeling the same tbh, minus the HK league football bit.

imo being a laptop abroad red is pretty rubbish at the best of times, literally never going to actual matches, having to scramble around for a stream that works etc.. But now with VAR on top of that they've all but killed the remaining moments of excitement and I'm not sure I can be bothered.

I watch old clips like Lee Sharpe scoring at Elland Road and the United end going mental and it's just a bygone age. That kind of experience is dead, and what it's been replaced with is sanitised, stat-obsessed rubbish.