The future

Good article below on the future of football and the current war going on with the richest clubs. Whatever happens, clubs like ours will be here forever as they are supported by strong emotion and a powerful identity, but we can’t ignore the fact that cash keeps clubs alive. Even if we ended up in the lower tiers of the pyramid we’d still take a huge army to Wembley in the FA 🏺.


https://www.newstatesman.com/e.....lout-financial-covid

Quoted from 28195

. Whatever happens, clubs like ours will be here forever as they are supported by strong emotion and a powerful identity, but we can’t ignore the fact that cash keeps clubs alive. Even if we ended up in the lower tiers of the pyramid we’d still take a huge army to Wembley in the FA 🏺.

Very true. Still kind of moved me when I read that this club was founded before world football giants like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Juventus.

When I walk around Blundell park and see the old photos of better times  I get a feeling of nostalgia which some clubs lack .

Quoted from Rick12

Very true. Still kind of moved me when I read that this club was founded before world football giants like Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool and Juventus.

When I walk around Blundell park and see the old photos of better times  I get a feeling of nostalgia which some clubs lack .

You left Lincoln City off that list!

Quoted from mimma

You left Lincoln City off that list!

I didnt feel nothing when I went there.

I respect the fan base though. Anyone who supports a lower league cub in todays climate of multimillion sponsorship deals and the glamour that money brings deserves respect .Hence if all your family have supported a lower league unglamorous  club and all your friends at school in the playground support the glamour boys of Manchester United or Liverpool you can often be the butt of jokes eg Lincoln or Grimsby are s***.Trust me Ive been there as Iam sure a lot have on here as well.

Can be draining always defending yourself against some people but  Ive found individuals  come to respect the reasons why you support a club like Grimsby eg your family have always supported the club or your from the area.

I spent 11 months working in Liverpool.  I always had a Town top on, at work and around the city. I once left work at night, and went for a pint. Ended up in Flares till 3 in the morning wearing the black and white shirt.
Not once in that time did anyone ever look down on me or the club. They would often come up to me and talk about Town and lower league football, but never did they take the p1ss.
Liverpool is a proper football mad city, I often started the blue-red arguments off!

I find that a lot of my colleagues who support other 'bigger clubs' end up looking out for Towns results and when I go in the office Im met with 'saw your result at the weekend' type chats. There are also a lot of chats wanting Town tips for their accumulators and 'I signed Akheem Rose from your lot on FIFA last night's type stuff. The days of getting the urine taken out of for supporting my local lower league club were pretty much relegated to when I was at school.

Quoted from mimma

I spent 11 months working in Liverpool.  I always had a Town top on, at work and around the city. I once left work at night, and went for a pint. Ended up in Flares till 3 in the morning wearing the black and white shirt.
Not once in that time did anyone ever look down on me or the club. They would often come up to me and talk about Town and lower league football, but never did they take the p1ss.
Liverpool is a proper football mad city, I often started the blue-red arguments off!

Well, we did have Bill Shankly for a while, honing his skills here before he eventually arrived at Liverpool, where he transformed them into the team they are now.

Interesting article. The game is certainly fractured in this country. I think that goes right back to the formation of the FL and the century long rivalry between it and the FA. Allowing the formation of the PL as the FA Premier League was part of the FA’s attempt to gain the upper hand, as well as being pursued by the big clubs for their own greedy reasons. The Covid crisis has just exacerbated the divisions. Any deal done now will at best be just putting a finger in the dyke until the next crisis.

We’ve known for a long time that neither the FA nor the FL are fit for purpose. I agree with the writer in that this is crying out for government to step in, if our national sport means anything, and create a whole new governance structure got the WHOLE game. From international teams, top professional league and Sunday morning leagues. Including coaching. Pretty much like the Germans did in, what the 1950s?

I agree with the writer in that this is crying out for government to step in, if our national sport means anything, and create a whole new governance structure got the WHOLE game. From international teams, top professional league and Sunday morning leagues. Including coaching. Pretty much like the Germans did in, what the 1950s? [/quote]

As he said it would be a vote winner, but this lot are ruling by majority, for now and popularism is on the way out.

Quoted from Rick12

I didnt feel nothing when I went there.

I respect the fan base though. Anyone who supports a lower league cub in todays climate of multimillion sponsorship deals and the glamour that money brings deserves respect .Hence if all your family have supported a lower league unglamorous  club and all your friends at school in the playground support the glamour boys of Manchester United or Liverpool you can often be the butt of jokes eg Lincoln or Grimsby are s***.Trust me Ive been there as Iam sure a lot have on here as well.

Can be draining always defending yourself against some people but  Ive found individuals  come to respect the reasons why you support a club like Grimsby eg your family have always supported the club or your from the area.

It just always made sense to me to support my local team. It's where I'm from, I've got a connection with the club, I passed the ground hundreds of times on a daily basis and my family all have history with it too. Even when living elsewhere in the UK it made no sense to support somebody else and Premiership is nice to watch on TV but I have nothing in common with Liverpool, Chelsea and so on. Always found the idea of supporting a club I can't even relate to a bit strange.

Quoted from Kris2

It just always made sense to me to support my local team. It's where I'm from, I've got a connection with the club, I passed the ground hundreds of times on a daily basis and my family all have history with it too. Even when living elsewhere in the UK it made no sense to support somebody else and Premiership is nice to watch on TV but I have nothing in common with Liverpool, Chelsea and so on. Always found the idea of supporting a club I can't even relate to a bit strange.

Good on you 👍

I think this is something which seen much more on the continent.

In Italy for instance, many folk support Juve/Inter and Milan to a point but in reality, a lot of fans support the team from where they live or are born. I’ve spoken to a few of my Hellas friends and they love the fact that I’m a town fan, they also love the fact I chose to follow them rather then just bob over to the san siro and watch Inter who win more than they lose.

At the playoff final in 2019, the tears of verona fans who had just seen their team go up were real, the same as us winning in 2016.

I can’t figure out what supporting a bigger club would be like unless they were acruslly my team. Naturally I think it’s ok to admire their ability and technical play but I don’t understand how you ‘support’ a side which has zero connection to you other than you saw them on the TV.

I lived in Lincoln for years, well before half the city even know they had a team and I regularly spoke with Lincoln fans who were there home and away and they always spoke as passionate as I did about their team. It doesn’t matter if you’re excrement, it’s your team and you just suck it up I guess. May be that’s why people react the way they do whether we win or lose.

Let’s face it, you see these arm chair types sit in the pub, they bite whoever anyone makes a snide comment becauee they know they shouldn’t really be supporting a team from 200miles away and when they lose they throw out some cliches they’ve heard Gary Neville say and then just carry on.

You go in the pub and see a town fan or which ever club with fans like that and the result has clearly affected them. There’s naturally more to life than just football but supporting a club, especially like town or Oldham for instance is part of who you are. People can deny that all they want but it is and we’re all proud of that.

Ah, the future - the past sure is tense !

Quoted from aldi_01

but I don’t understand how you ‘support’ a side which has zero connection to you other than you saw them on the TV.

I think its partly due to wanting to being  linked to success eg Man utd ,Liverpool or Man City .Roy Keane pointed it out some years back as the prawn sandwich brigade . Likewise look at how  Man city's fan base has grown since the millions have poured in from the Arabs.

Quoted from Rick12

I think its partly due to wanting to being  linked to success eg Man utd ,Liverpool or Man City .Roy Keane pointed it out some years back as the prawn sandwich brigade . Likewise look at how  Man city's fan base has grown since the millions have poured in from the Arabs.

I think there is a lot to this point . Fans tend to want to be associated with success and supporting a team in the lower leagues implies failure. I often ask friends at the club I go to why they don't support town as opposed to the plastic Premiersh!t team that they do. The reply is inevitably " well , town are rubbish " even if their team has had a few stinkers.

Quoted from rancido

I think there is a lot to this point . Fans tend to want to be associated with success and supporting a team in the lower leagues implies failure. I often ask friends at the club I go to why they don't support town as opposed to the plastic Premiersh!t team that they do. The reply is inevitably " well , town are rubbish " even if their team has had a few stinkers.

I always laugh when they say town are rubbish...especially, as you say, when their multimillion pound squad has just been walloped.

I agree with the notion of wanting to be associated with success and I think you definitely see that more with those who don’t acruslly have any valid reason to support a top 6 club. They’re the first to justify why they support a team and they bang on about the league table after one game, and this boring one up manship is hilarious.

I’ve a really good friend who is a scunny fan. The amount of Saturday we used to sit watch some of our other friend arguing about who’s team is better becauee one is a Liverpool fan and one likes Chelsea or whatever is hilarious, especially when they’ve never actually seen a game in the flesh...

Being a football fan is trendy at present too, the fashion, the betting, the fact you can literally never leave your house and social media and all that jazz.

Spend a few minutes listening to those who spend far too much on betting. They think they know about football but in reality they know very little.

Supporting anyone other than town is weird to me and I’m sure many of us would agree. Having to watch town games on tv at this present moment is giving many of us an insight in to how some apparently watch football regularly and to be honest it’s flipping horrible.

Quoted from rancido

I think there is a lot to this point . Fans tend to want to be associated with success and supporting a team in the lower leagues implies failure. I often ask friends at the club I go to why they don't support town as opposed to the plastic Premiersh!t team that they do. The reply is inevitably " well , town are rubbish " even if their team has had a few stinkers.

Yes  in November last year I was out with some people and I asked some retired guy who lived in Grimsby did he support the mariners. His reply was loosely I cant support that dire team. Kind of hurts when you hear that.  

I am not sure there has ever been a football club that has truly died. Bradford Park Avenue might have not been around for a bit, but eventually were restablished. Local people always start a successor which fans soon coallesce around, and often they end up with the old ground and are the old team in all but name, just a few promotions to get back to their natural level.

I don't doubt for a minute we'd be any different.

Quoted from Rick12

I think its partly due to wanting to being  linked to success eg Man utd ,Liverpool or Man City .Roy Keane pointed it out some years back as the prawn sandwich brigade . Likewise look at how  Man city's fan base has grown since the millions have poured in from the Arabs.

People like that always remind me of this, even if they do drop their aitches like the pillock at work from Guildford who supports "'the' Arsenal". (extra quote marks because they always use the old expression from before the War to make it seem like they're steeped in the heritage)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvjk47UORFs

Quoted from KingstonMariner

People like that always remind me of this, even if they do drop their aitches like the pillock at work from Guildford who supports "'the' Arsenal". (extra quote marks because they always use the old expression from before the War to make it seem like they're steeped in the heritage)

Its the way some people are sadly. Only follow success in the good times but when the going gets tough they jump ship.

I moved to Stockport in 2004 and have a few close mates who support County. A couple support Alty but there’s obviously United and City fans in there too. The most vocal about Town being excrement are the ones who have never stepped foot in the ground, the season ticket holders at etihad and old Trafford both seem to respect me for my team. I’ve had many a drunken conversation about City’s plummet into the lower leagues and Barry Conlon.

One that comes to mind quite prominently is the Dad of one of my 11 year old’s mates who took the urine at my son wearing his Town kit (proudly) who’s own son was wearing red 4/5 years ago but trots past our house in light blue nowadays.

Went away to watch HCMC away to Hanoi and got interviewed by TV on why we would travel so far to watch our team.  We explained , that's what football is about.  The Brits that support HCMC, generally don't follow big clubs. We have fans of Town (me obviously), Crewe, Port Vale, Sunderland, Swindon, Portsmouth and (previously, now in Thailand) Bognor Regis.  We met up with some of the Hanoi fans and the most glamourous supported there was 'Reading'.  We all take the urine but, we respect each other loyalty to our English teams