- Aug 31, 2012
- 2,193
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I'm not saying it's right, just that's the way it is. Football, in particular the Premier League, is a massive global business now and from that perspective both City and Chelsea are bigger than we are. I mean, even from a trophy perspective they are bigger than we are nowadays even if they have been helped by their ill-gotten gains.
Even in the UK both of them will eventually be more supported than we are if the current trend continues. The traditional ideal of supporting your local club, just like your dad and his dad before him etc. isn't necessarily how things work in reality. Like I said, ultimately kids are won over by success and glamorous signings etc. rather than who played the most entertaining football in the 50s and 60s. Why do you think there are so many middle-aged Liverpool fans all over the country? Because when those people were kids, Liverpool were the dominant team. Likewise why are there so many 20-30 year old Utd fans outside of Manchester? Again, because they were the dominant team while those people were kids. When I was a kid Chelsea hardly had any fans, nowadays you see them all over the place for the same reason. If City carry on as they have been and win major trophies and sign big stars etc. then a lot of the kids who are 5-6 years old now will end up being City fans.
I don't like it and I don't think it's right, but that's just how it works at the end of the day.
In addition, it has probably always worked like this.
I remember a friend coming in to school with a Blackburn shirt when they won the League.
There are a few Newcastle fans around my age in London, who enjoyed watching them as young kids when they had Asprilla et al.
Indeed, there are many Spurs fans on here who started supporting Spurs because of the '91 cup win, the '61 double side or because we had Gazza, Hoddle or Klinsmann.
In the end I enjoy watching good players, kids don't want to go somewhere where their dad is angry, miserable and swearing.
It's not that fun to watch a team lose every week.
For my part I sometimes wonder how I ended up supporting Tottenham, I probably didn't go to my first til I was about 10, but even at that point I was already a Spurs supporter despite the fact that we were utter crap for the most part.
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