Just finishing off the book, hence relative quiet here. It’ll be done in an hour or two…. yay.
Meanwhile, Friends of Fulham is doing daily news roundups, which is great. White Noise certainly has a nose for these things.
As someone at FoF has pointed out, the Spurs end of season review contains this gem:
Who were the best, and worst, away fans? Best were West Brom; they always are whenever they pop up into our league. Worst, numbers per distance to travel, in the league fixtures were Fulham.
This is a man named Dave Mason. We sold out our away allocation! Again! I was in the smaller downstairs bit this year, but upstairs sold out before that.
I don’t know why, but it really gets my goat. If it’s not Stuart Hall getting all sarcastic about the fact that millions of Fulham haven’t travelled to watch us try to draw 0-0 in Blackburn, it’s rubbish like this. We have a fair away following that frequently (alright, usually) outsings the home support. These little digs are just wrong.
It’s such a stupid category, who were the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ fans. What does it even mean? Did each correspondent spend time each week wandering around the away end, chatting to those who had travelled and coming to a conclusion about whether they were all round good eggs or actually not a very likeable bunch?
No – in fact, the answers seem mostly to be based on numbers, in which case we all know that Fulham, so long as we remain in the Premiership, are going to have one of the smaller away followings. That is just a fact about the size of our fanbase. What else is new.
It makes no sense. There’s no other area of my life where I might expect to be considered a ‘worse’ person just because I happen to be surrounded by fewer other people. Why then does it apply to football, even in the mainstream and supposedly intelligent media like the Observer?
Comment by JamieR — May 31, 2009 @ 9:46 am |
I was watching setanta sports news on the final day last week and some spurs fan said the same thing: that us 200 fans would enjoy the european tour.
I dont know what its like in England, but stateside Spurs fans are mostly mugs who think they’re being creative or original by rooting for a team outside the top 4. But they are equally, if not more, mindless than the typical ManU or Chelsea fan here.
Comment by timmyg — May 31, 2009 @ 11:59 pm |
Stu (GaryBarnettFanClub) out it best in a post some time ago on FUSA — if you think that you are owed something by life and screech like a plucked chicken every time you don’t get it, you could be a Spurs fan.
Comment by SteveM19 — June 1, 2009 @ 2:09 am |
By that logic, Chicago Cubs fans must be the best in the world.
Comment by Colin — June 1, 2009 @ 3:18 am |
Why would I want to go to Blackburn? Or Wigan? Even to watch a football match? Craven Cottage is a great ground in a fantastic location with the great city of London to entertain you afterwards. If I lived in Blackburn I would be down in a flash…
Plus how many expats from Blackburn, Liverpool, Wigan now live in London? Way more move South than head North. Those “away” fans might not have come far.
Comment by Matthew — June 1, 2009 @ 10:52 am |