What's it all about for you?

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Cassandra, this post deserves GOLD. I agree with every word - and that is a bit unusual for me.

Toontoon mentioned that he would hesitate to introduce his kids to football as he has doubts about where it is going. I know what he means also and have to say that SAFC's youth policy - partly forced upon us by circumstances - is the ONLY way forward, if football is to retain its fan base. I feel more affinity with the club than I have for ages.

If this model does not become the norm, the growing gulf in affordable life styles between star players and the fans will be the end of football - certainly as we know it. But there will always be Chelsea's Man U's and Real Madrid's around and we have to learn to live with it.

My solution would be to put them in a separate league and give football as we want it back to the fans. Isolate them totally or we will become like Scotland where every team's aspirations are to finish 3rd in the league. Ist and 2nd places are already forordained. We have almost got there now as we talk about will it be ManU, Arsenal or Chelsea who will win the league.

I personally couln't give a monkeys. All I want to see is a team of young lads run out at the stadium of light ready to bleed for the shirt - win lose or draw.
 


These Arsenal fans who are onto the phone ins as soon as arsenal play a bad game to talk about how shit the team are anarl just piss me off, they are the fans who just sit in their armchairs watching on telly and call it support, they don't know shit about supporting a team.

I support 2 teams, Cheltenham Town and Sunderland, I love both clubs more than anything else in the world because I feel a connection to the places and love football. I try not to comment too often on things that happen at Sunderland because I can't be there as often and feel I lose my right to comment by not seeing everything 1st hand, unlike all these gooners 'fans' who think that because they saw the game on telly know what they are talking about.

Last season when Man Utd played Real Madrid in the Bernabeu, Cheltenham had a match at home to Loo-Town, after the game as I was walking home passing all the pubs where so called Man Utd 'fans' were leaving talking about 'all that bollocks' on the pitch I got laughed at for going and watching my local team and the team I consider my team when Man Utd were on the TV against Real Madrid which I couldn't give a flying fuck about at the time, so I asked a couple of them when they last went to a match, again they laughed, simply at the idea of going to a match, their exact words were 'Why would i go all the way to Manchester to watch Man U when they're on the TV so often' that certainly made me feel very proud to be able to call myself a real fan and get that satisfaction that only being there can bring, win or lose. Thats what a lot of it is about for me, knowing that I am one of not a huge amount (relatively speaking) who are better than the number of plastics who will say that the only money they will spend on a match day will be on beer in the pub.
 
Fantastic post Cass its great to get a bit of an insight into how fans feel about SAFC.

Im in my 29th year watching Sunderland and I can say that my feelings are somewhere along these lines.

AGE 14 - 25 every match meant the world. Every win was sheer ecstacy and every defeat (and god there were loads) I was suicidal. My expectations were far to high and I truly believed that our rightful place because of our wonderful support was amongst the true elight. This meant that even under Durban when I look back I was disappointed because we didnt break into the top half. Under the likes of Butcher and McMenemy I was devasted (like every one else) that a club our size could be so totally shite.

AGE 26+ Got married, had kids (or rather the wife did) and SAFC wasnt quite as important anymore. Still love the club passionately but they are not the be all and end all anymore. As a result my expectations are not as high and I think I am generally more of a realist because of this. I say generally because I recall the disbelief and emptiness i felt after the Man City and Soton games last year when i felt as depressed as i had ever done in my youth!!

However I am satisfied at the moment with being entertained by a young side doing there very best for the club, results like Stoke wont leave me with that knotted feeling in my stomach i used to get after every defeat providing they dont happen too often!

HAWAY THE LADS!!
 
chelt_mackem said:
'Why would i go all the way to Manchester to watch Man U when they're on the TV so often' that certainly made me feel very proud to be able to call myself a real fan and get that satisfaction that only being there can bring, win or lose. Thats what a lot of it is about for me, knowing that I am one of not a huge amount (relatively speaking) who are better than the number of plastics who will say that the only money they will spend on a match day will be on beer in the pub.
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These are the type of folk, and I'm not denying that Newcastle have their fair share, that have put football beyond the reach of many true fans. With Sky inflated salaries and egos to fund, their replica shirt purchases are the focus of the Clubs, not the match going supporter.

I live in Somerset, and the amount of 45-50 year olds walking around in Chelsea shirts this year is incredible. Whether they were always there and I didn't notice I don't know? - always been loads of Man Utd/Liverpool.

Unlike toontoon however, I will encourage my kids to follow the Lads - just like my Dad did. It might be a pain in the arse at times but I couldn't not keep it up. After my family, football (Newcastle United) is the most important thing in my life - sad but true!
 
cassandra said:
and it's just that for the first time in a long while I'm looking forward to games and enjoying feeling proud to be a Sunderland fan again.
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I'll say it again, great post!!

That part I can totally relate too. Last season was easily the worst time I've experienced since I started going in 1987. I say I relate to it so much because I just about lost the faith. Some would say I was being fair weathered, but like I said I've been going since 1987 so I've seen some shite but just found it too much to take last season. I knew we were down after the Blackburn draw at home but went to the next few games then gave up after Charlton. I gave up coming on here for a couple of months and didn't want to read the reports, listen to games - anything. Eventually started to take an interest again and I think it was wtdawg on one of his fiar weathered fans rants who ended up saying "don't worry you'll get the faith back". I did during the summer, I didn't get the fixture list and moan at the fact we were playing Cardiff and Millwall rather than Chelsea or Maure. Sometimes last season I used to think we might have been better off not having those good seasons, we used to accept mediocrity but I couldn't anymore. We're back down in the first with the prima donna's gone and hopefully a team wanting to do well for us. I'm able to feel proud about SAFC again, it took a little while.


I think it's in everyones nature to want to feel a part of something, for me and many of us it's being part of that Merry band of Sunderland supporters, but you have to feel proud to be part of it and for a while I couldn't. Like cassandra I do again!
 
Quality post this...

For me its getting together with me mates for a few drinks before, talking through the game after and what makes it real magic is the rush you get when the lads fight for a result and earn it.... saturday was just that!
 
cassandra said:
Look at it like this, if you were a Chelsea fan and over the next few years you won every honour in the game what would it really mean to you? Would you feel a sense of acheivement? Would you feel proud?. IMO it says a lot about the modern game and some of it's supporters that some fans would celebrate the fact that a guy with no connection to the club whatsoever has appeared out of the blue and bought them some trophies. Hand on heart it would mean nothing to me.
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I mentioned on here a week ago that I would rather England not qualify for a World Cup than win it with a foreign manager for the same reason.(Mean nothing and not an achievement.)

Not sure how I would feel about it at club level but I would always like to see a few local lads in the side.

A well thought out post which is good see on here.
 
Danny said:
Quality post this...

For me its getting together with me mates for a few drinks before, talking through the game after and what makes it real magic is the rush you get when the lads fight for a result and earn it.... saturday was just that!
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exactly. Saturday summed it up for me too- after stewart stuck away that penna i just went absolutely mental and started shouted things i can't even remember at the palace fans. Espescially because i was used to getting that deflated feeling after conceding and knowing that the game was over after that. But now it's different i believe we have the fighting aspect back which IMO gets the fans going more. So , I guess for me football is not life and death. It's much more important than that.
 
Excellent post, cassandra.

For me it's (SAFC) all about undying love and commitment. It's about my football club being inter-twined with my history and that of my family, friends and their families, it's a social culture about who I am and where I come from.

True fans never sway from their commitment to the cause and rightly expect the same commitment from those who draw wages from OUR club, whilst they are passing through.

I found it increasingly difficult during the previous 2 seasons, to identify with those who openly displayed a couldn't give a damn attitude to our beloved red and white stripes. They were not only insulting us, but also the proud history and tradition of the football club and of our families. Most of us, I'm sure, will come from backgrounds where SAFC has been an integral part of life for generations, it is the responsibilty of the players and management to respect that and give their all.

However much personal ambition comes into the equation as regards the players and management, they should never lose sight of their responsibilty to the supporters. Bob Murray, Peter Reid and his cronies lost sight of that whilst they bathed in the glory of relative success, allowing an unacceptable culture to creep in and take hold. A culture that distanced those on the inside of the club from the life blood of the club, the supporters.

MMc, when speaking about issues certainly mentions the supporters more than Reid ever did and therefore appears to recognise responsibilty to the supporters, the attitude is right. Providing he can instill that into the team, then the right balance of personal ambition and responsibilty should be achieved. The best way that the team can communicate to the fans is to be seen to be giving their all, the fans then respond and motivation becomes a two way street, everyone feeling part of the whole, everyone feeling that there is a common purpose.

It's a long road back, but the signs are there that a new and altogether more acceptable attitude is taking hold. I, for one, can already identify with our current players more than the recently departed "self interested superstars." All I hope for is that MMc can keep the team focused on the right attitude, the rest and the fun and enjoyment that goes with it, will then follow. There's good times just around the corner (mind Sunlun, being Sunlun the wheels will probrally drop off again :roll: ).
 
Enjoy the good times but be able to cope when the wheels inevitably come off!!

Couldnt always do that to. I remember after the ill fated Gillingham game I had to go home after the game to a family tea. My rather eccentric aunt Judith was there and I remember thinking on the way home if she dares say "fancy getting so upset over a game of football" im going to blow my top.

Sure enough 10 minutes or so in she noticed me moping around and said those exact words. My instantaneous reply in front of a house full of relatives was "Fuck off you ugly old witch!!"

The waves caused from that day some 17 years ago havent yet subsided. Ive calmed down a bit these day tho!!
 
splodge said:
Enjoy the good times but be able to cope when the wheels inevitably come off!!

Couldnt always do that to. I remember after the ill fated Gillingham game I had to go home after the game to a family tea. My rather eccentric aunt Judith was there and I remember thinking on the way home if she dares say "fancy getting so upset over a game of football" im going to blow my top.

Sure enough 10 minutes or so in she noticed me moping around and said those exact words. My instantaneous reply in front of a house full of relatives was "Fuck off you ugly old witch!!"

The waves caused from that day some 17 years ago havent yet subsided. Ive calmed down a bit these day tho!!
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I know what you mean it annoys me when women [not all of them] don't get what it means to us when we win or lose.
 
best thread ive read on here for a long time.
my grand-dad used to go before the first world war,my dad started when football started up again after the second world war, i started in the late 60s,my brothers and cousins in the 70s,my nephews & nieces in the 90s, hopefully ill have a kid someday who,ll want to go as well but living down here hed probably turn out to be an arsenal/chelsea/manu "viewer".
as has been posted on this thread earlier thats what its about,its a family/shared history/culture thing, which has to mean more than being an armchair/pub viewer with a replica shirt and no connection to your club of choice other than their your club of choice.
what gets my goat is that here in london you can go into a pub on sunday afternoon when the games on and see people from all over the world speaking loads of different languages and the only shirts theyll be wearing are arsenal,man u,chelsea & liverpool.............its like their proud to announce to the whole wide world that their "pricks".
theyll just never know,will they?

back to the original question: for me its a shared history/heritage thing with family & friends.............with SAFC almost being a relative who has good times & bad times, good points & bad, can infuriate and drive you to tears, drink & depression. but will always be there for better or worse.
ive made a lot of long term friends through supporting safc and im associated with safc by a lot of workmates and ex workmates and i know whenever safc are doing well theyll be thinking i bet WNS,s happy tonight (as i do with friends who support other clubs).
the pre & post match drink & analysis are great as well..........but the best has to be going to the away games...........mind you living in london every games an away game...........and i hope therell be many more for all genuine fans and b0ollocks to the "viewers"
 
Feed the Monster said:
Its knowing that when I'm 75 and Sunderland win a game, there are peope out there that I won't have seen or talked too for 50 years that will see that result and think, Monster will be happy at the moment, wonder what he's doing now.
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How true.

It is part of my identity being an SAFC supporter. If I didn't support them then I would be a different person with some different friends. And my life would be different. I based my Uni choices on being able to get to the matches etc. Even though it didn't really work as I have ended up at Edinburgh but even so I plan to get back to the matches using the young persons railcard that one of the banks was offering.

All I am trying to say is that without SAFC I wouldn't be the person that I am be it good or bad.

I just hope that I will always be able to get to the matches.
 
Being an exiled supporter all my life, it`s about meeting up with my mates at 10:30 on a Saturday morning getting into the car, having a few beers on the way up and having the crack. Sometimes the journeys have been better than the games. Before I got married and had kids, I was at the match every week, home and away. Now with the ticket prices and everything else that goes with the day out, I can`t afford to go as much as I would like to, but I could never turn my back on Sunderland, no matter how shite it gets. Last season was bloody hard, but after the 4 straight wins that seems a long time ago. I just wish one of the really big teams would get relegated, then we`d see how loyal their fans really are.
 
Why not :lol: :lol:
There`s this mag at work, middle aged lady, and I`ve had the crack a few times, 2-1 etc. Then I found out she`s only supported them since Keegan days. Not the same trying to have a friendly bit of banter with someone who doesn`t know what it was like pre Keegan.
 
Superb post. It articulately gets to the core of a true fan.

I must admit, though, I'm rapidly falling out of love with what the game in general has become.

I still love travelling up on match days, often on the 8am from Kings Cross. All the chat and expectancy, the pre-match session in Gillespies and the craic going home, which invariably ends with alcohol fuelled singing whatever the result. That always has been and will be fabulous.

It's just at the game itself, I feel and seem more as a consumer, a customer, little more than someone or something the club can take money from.

The formation of the Premiership, the pursuit of money rather than success (clubs look at financial cost of perceived failure much much more than loss of prestige) and the media's hysterical over-hyping of it has left me with a bitter taste in the mouth.

I have to say without my son alongside me I feel disenfranchised at the game. I love seeing the match through his excited eyes. Since he started playing for an Under 8's team, which meant training on Saturdays, I have loved football as a sport far more than match-days as a season ticket holder. We go training, then either Bowers United or Southend United in the afternoon. Sunderland has become an occasional treat on Saturday, although midweek games I rarely miss.

Watching professional football at the top level and even the First Division has had its soul ripped from it this past decade or so. I love the lads with a passion - 12 hours there and back in a National Express coach for Huddersfield on a Tuesday night is testament to that - but I've lost that something in going to the match that youth football has now replaced.

I hope it returns soon.
 
Feed the Monster said:
Its knowing that when I'm 75 and Sunderland win a game, there are peope out there that I won't have seen or talked too for 50 years that will see that result and think, Monster will be happy at the moment, wonder what he's doing now.
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spooky reading that, I've often thought the same.

Someone please send this entire thread to Mick and have it pinned on the wall of the dressing room for the young lads to see.
 
Excellent thread this lads!
What can I say that hasnt allready been said?

Guess Im just relieved, thought I was the only one who`s main excuse for not emmigrating or travelling is SAFC! :oops:

Lunacy, but I caaaaaaaaant help falling in love with you! :p
 
Supporting Sunderland for me is like buying a lottery ticket. I do it every week, hoping to win the jackpot - but actually expecting to win nothing. The odd tenner here and there, gives me just enough hope that my luck is turning and keeps me coming back for more.

I don't know what I'd do if Bill Gates owned the club and bought us some silverware. In a strange masochistic way, I kinda like the thrill of not knowing from week to week whether we are going to roar on to victory or lie back and think of England. I also love the fact that nobody supports Sunderland for the glamour. I would feel 'occupied' if all of a sudden, we started getting Mercedes mini-coach loads of Cockneys turning up in Barbour jackets and cashmere scarfs talking in loud voices about the price of a three bed in Hoxton.

Not so much since we have moved, but certainly in the old days of Roker, I could feel the ghosts of the old fellas that had stood there before me. In quiet, reflective moments, I would think about the lads who had watched the great 30s side and then went off to war, or the blokes who went to the match and talked about how they were going to live when they shut down the shipyards or the pits.

To be honest, I love the ritual of football more than the game. I like it best when it is freezing during the winter and everybody is huddled together. I like the smell of the pies and burgers and the smell of drink rising from the queue to the lavvies. The highlight of my week is when the lads run out. We've had the build up and the music, and I'm starting to get that fizzy feeling inside (not from the beer), then the stand opposite the tunnel starts to cheer and everybody joins in - and all the layers of shit and trouble that have been piling on your shoulders throughout the whole week dissolves. For three quarters of an hour nothing matters but the game. It is just you and them - like you are on the pitch - like they can hear you when you shout instructions - like you are heading the ball.

I will shake the hand of any football fan (Mags included) who has gone to a match expecting to lose. Who has given up something or gone without something to buy a ticket, or who has plodged home through icy puddles swearing never to return, but knowing you will - even if we never win again.
 
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