Bandwagon Fan

[vcs]

Bandwagoning is easier if you don't have an emotional attachment to the result. For example, I am a massive bandwagoner in international football tournaments and end up supporting several different teams in the same competition for various reasons.

Also, good football is good football no matter who plays it, so you have to grudgingly admire any successful team.

 

[Matteh]

I like Chelsea, stemming back to when they bought Zola in about 1996 as he's one of my favourite players, and if i see them on TV i'll get behind them.

At the same time though if anyone asks who i support, the answer is without question Mansfield and they've always been the team who i've looked for on Ceefax on a Saturday afternoon. Frankly the rollercoaster ride with them has been far more exciting.

 

[Uppercut]

Football discussion pretty much reaches its peak when people start telling you how the decision of which team to support that you made at the age of 3 makes you an inherently worse person than they are.

 

[cpr]

It depends what level of fan you claim to be. I'll follow Madrid and AC Milan results as they caught my eye growing up (Milan due to a friendly against us in about 91, Madrid as a good friend from school originated from there.... Plus I hate Barca), I own footie shirts for both, but will never claim to be huge fans of either, more a passing interest, and preferable over the rest of the league.

If your going to claim it as your main support, I'd think of a bloody good reason. Sometimes you can only go on what you see, and when you dont live in that country its hard to see other than the big teams. Sometimes its ingrained in youth (i'm guessing Uppercut has a family history of reds, HUGE fanbase over there)....

Personally avoid the bandwagon argument, as I'm the worst at baiting people (master baitor joke someone?) due to the extreme luck of my nearest team being bloody good... Well, were

In other sports I've got a horrid track record, saw the Mets on TV in NY, went for them because they arn't the yankees. Chose Detroit Lions based on Barry Sanders, then found how awful they were. (dont have a basketball affiliation, find it dull as ****)

 

[roseboy64]

I'm a bandwagon fan outside of football and baseball. Beckham made me a Utd fan and the Braves was the first baseball team I've seen so pretty much there. Don't follow basketball enough to have a team and have yet to connect to an NFL team despite it being the Pats ATM.

 

[sledger]

Pratters, if you want to follow Barcelona, that's fine. Just don't give us this crap about them not being a big club when you decided to follow them etc... because it's utter balls. The main reason people have called you on this issue is not because you support them, but because you've offered up drivel as reasons.

I wouldn't call myself a Bandwagon fan of Arsenal as such, I started supporting them after they had finished 12th in the league, with no prior knowledge of football whatsoever. My only reason for choosing them was because my best friend at school in year 1 supported them, and I've stuck it out ever since. It might be a rather tenuous link some might say, but I couldn't care less, I've always followed them, and daresay I always will, and nobody else has a right to tell me differently.

 

[GIMH]

When the Whites got to Wembley in 2000 all of a sudden the whole school was wearing Tranmere shirts. I'd have loved it and revelled in it but I knew they'd go away in six months team. That's the kind of bandwagon I can't stand as half of those ****s have their old white shirts buried under red ones. **** them.

 

[Goughy]

When the Whites got to Wembley in 2000 all of a sudden the whole school was wearing Tranmere shirts. I'd have loved it and revelled in it but I knew they'd go away in six months team. That's the kind of bandwagon I can't stand as half of those ****s have their old white shirts buried under red ones. **** them.

I have distinctions. There is the team (1) that you support and teams that you have a soft spot for, whatever the reasons.

I travelled from Bulgaria to watch Doncaster Rovers at Wembley in the Play-off final against Leeds and bought Donny shirts for my kids but I would never claim to support them. I have a soft spot for them (I lived there for a while, my Dad worked there, my Dad was on their books for a while etc)

I do think that there is a subtle distinction between bandwagon jumping and getting behind a team you have a soft spot for. Where that line is? I dont know.

 

[Matteh]

Belle Vue is still the ugliest looking stadium I've been to, so glad they've moved on from there.

 

[Goughy]

Belle Vue is still the ugliest looking stadium I've been to, so glad they've moved on from there.

Yeah, it was never the prettiest.

From all reports, Keepmoat is a very nice stadium.

 

[cpr]

Yeah, got a soft spot for Morecambe for similar reasons (bro in law played there for a few years back in the 90s, plus there house is only 100 yards from Christie Park), would've gone wembley with them this year if they made it... He's bringing the lads up to watch a few Morecambe games when time allows, let them see footie in action.... However the dirty little blighters have childrens Liverpool kits (which I've promptly refused to buy as presents for years now!)

 

[Matteh]

Can only describe the Main Stand aslike watching football from inside an Anderson shelter. Everytime the ball landed on the roof it was a pure corrugated iron sound.

Peterborough's stadium has made a late bid though, definite podium place.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Neil "Blackburn Rovers" Pickup to respond.

Generally agree tho, I've always doubted the moral fibre of people who chop and change.

Yeah, hands up, I couldn't resist the prospect of freezing my arse off in Gravesend on a concrete block whilst trying to decide if counting the bricks on the Blue Circle cement works was more interesting than watching Ebbsfleet and Exeter stumble to a share of the points.

My defence is that you are not a proper supporter until it is part of you. Like most kids, you could never have classed me as a proper fan (although I can tell you why it was Blackburn - the fact that everyone else in the class at junior school was Man Utd). I have now actually seen a Blackburn game, but didn't give a toss whether they won at Fulham or not, and I think my reaction to the title in 94/95 was "yes!", and an air punch that was more wet fish than Tim Henman.

Exeter bit me within about three weeks of starting Uni, and I was part of things at the coalface of the Supporters' Trust as we worked to keep the club afloat - admittedly not to anything like the extent of others - but I did a great deal of unpaid work in and around the ground, and the United games were special. Now, it has such a massive impact on my mood every Saturday - because it is building on those foundations, and heck, we're still supporter-owned and funded: like no one else in the League. The facts that we invest in local talent, give players and managers time and patience and play great football also make me proud to be a Grecian.

What irks me the most is when followers - note the word used rather than supporters - try to get all high and mighty, and gloat if your lower league side loses to "their" Premiership side in the FA Cup, or simply that your side isn't as good as "theirs". Even if said follower is ten years old, that is red rag and I can't help responding, usually with the phrase "£800 million".

 

[Pothas]

Agree about that idea about a club becoming a part of you, I always went to watch Brentford but they were really my dad’s side until a few years ago, the FA cup victory against Sunderland and our ill-fated promotion chase was part of me becoming a true fan but far more important was the following season when I went to Uni and got a season ticket and watched possibly the worst season of all time.

It was when I went on a Monday night on my own in the middle of winter to watch them lose yet against a side I cannot even remember the name of that I knew they they would always be my side.

Some people can passionately support a side and never see them play and I do not doubt their commitment but I just love watching football live, find it strange that I ever supported a side that I only saw once a year.

 

[cpr]

Seriously, a Utd fan gloated about the exeter game??? Honestly I was ****in embarrassed

 

[GIMH]

I have distinctions. There is the team (1) that you support and teams that you have a soft spot for, whatever the reasons.

I travelled from Bulgaria to watch Doncaster Rovers at Wembley in the Play-off final against Leeds and bought Donny shirts for my kids but I would never claim to support them. I have a soft spot for them (I lived there for a while, my Dad worked there, my Dad was on their books for a while etc)

I do think that there is a subtle distinction between bandwagon jumping and getting behind a team you have a soft spot for. Where that line is? I dont know.

Yeah, all fair. My issue with those in school was that by the time we got relegated just over a year later they all went back to calling us the **** of Merseyside etc.

Certainly wouldn't have wanted to see us only take 13,000 to Wembley, though I could have done without hearing comments such as "the mighty reds would have this wrapped up by now" from the lads in front of me.

 

[nightprowler10]

Not sure I agree with Goughy unless I misunderstood the bit about latecomers. I moved here towards the end of the Bulls' dynasty but I stuck with them for 12 years of mediocrity following Jordan's retirement. And I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say I'm the most ardent and loyal follower of the team out of everyone I know. Should I never claim to be a true fan simply because I was a latecomer?

 

[Pratters]

I have seen early on I am not very concrete based on teams but based on players on some occassions. When Jordan was playing, I was supporting the Bulls, then when he retired, I started supporting Heat (Tim Hardaway) and Lakers (Shaq). Then when Shaq moved to Heat, I became a hardcore Heat fan and have been ever since.

 

[Pratters]

Not sure I agree with Goughy unless I misunderstood the bit about latecomers. I moved here towards the end of the Bulls' dynasty but I stuck with them for 12 years of mediocrity following Jordan's retirement. And I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say I'm the most ardent and loyal follower of the team out of everyone I know. Should I never claim to be a true fan simply because I was a latecomer?

Yeah latecomer rule is a bit off for mine. I came late into football but am a hardcore Barca fan.

 

[Pratters]

hardcore Heat fan.

hardcore Barca fan.

Bandwagon jumper much?