Hmmmm... caveats on club supporting. Interesting subject for someone who was born and raised a Peñarol fan but always had a second club (Juve 80s, Barca 90s, United 00s).
Juve was an interest, while I still went to the stadium to watch my team every week. I never studied their history or anything, didn't need to or cared as Peñarol had everything I needed from that perspective.
Then South American football started getting increasingly poor so my interest switched to La Liga, where most of our players were going from a young age now. I loved watching the Dream Team play, with greater resources (and now based in Europe) I could delve into the history, the Catalan factor, the Dutch influence... It all intrigued me, but I frankly never felt any form of identification.
Then around 1997 I went to watch Peñarol at a stadium for the last time. It was terrible, South American football has truly turned to shit, there's nothing, absolutely nothing, that hasn't been eviscerated from it. I love the club's history, but in its current reality it's all gone, unrecognisable, nothing of what made it special has remained. There's no link between past and present bar a few old-timers who carried on as coaches (Tito Goncalves, Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, Roberto Matosas...) and they have already started dropping like flies. Teams are a bunch of cobbled together spare parts: U-20s who haven't been snapped up yet, over 30s who are too old for Europe, and the dross in the middle that no one wanted (often still players who went to Europe and failed and have returned momentarily to get some football before another lucrative move). Half the starting XI changes at every transfer window, that's the norm. If a player stays more than 1/2 seasons he is probably useless. It's not a football club any more but an agonical exercise in firefighting.
And that's why I think United captured my imagination: there's a compelling history and style which I can relate to, but evidence of it still being very much there as an underlying force. There's such a thing as a "United Player", and players I would rather stay clear of even if they are a bit good. And that's where all this transfer business shit doesn't bother me: if a player isn't desperate to be joining United, they probably don't get it and I couldn't care less about having them. If they prefer London because it's a better location, they'd better stay in London. If they prefer City because they pay more, they can feck off there for all I care. In a way, I empathise with Liverpool fans, because they are so far behind and irrelevant they can no longer demand such standards. It must be excruciating.
If it costs us in points/titles whatever, I don't care, because what I value most is having a team that is committed and understands what it means to play for us. Sometimes they'll be better, sometimes they'll be worse, but that's what makes the games entertaining and what has you cursing and jumping for joy, and loving X the feckin' beauty... Trust me, titles are overrated, Peñarol carried on winning domestic titles for many years, but I don't care any more because what I see on the pitch isn't the ethos, style, attitude and commitment that I grew up admiring. It's an empty shell, much like Rooney these days (that, more than his effectiveness, is what worries me about him).
I love this current bunch and am ready to go on the rollercoaster journey of fighting it out through a season, with all its ups and downs. Results are a bonus.
[/rant]
Juve was an interest, while I still went to the stadium to watch my team every week. I never studied their history or anything, didn't need to or cared as Peñarol had everything I needed from that perspective.
Then South American football started getting increasingly poor so my interest switched to La Liga, where most of our players were going from a young age now. I loved watching the Dream Team play, with greater resources (and now based in Europe) I could delve into the history, the Catalan factor, the Dutch influence... It all intrigued me, but I frankly never felt any form of identification.
Then around 1997 I went to watch Peñarol at a stadium for the last time. It was terrible, South American football has truly turned to shit, there's nothing, absolutely nothing, that hasn't been eviscerated from it. I love the club's history, but in its current reality it's all gone, unrecognisable, nothing of what made it special has remained. There's no link between past and present bar a few old-timers who carried on as coaches (Tito Goncalves, Ladislao Mazurkiewicz, Roberto Matosas...) and they have already started dropping like flies. Teams are a bunch of cobbled together spare parts: U-20s who haven't been snapped up yet, over 30s who are too old for Europe, and the dross in the middle that no one wanted (often still players who went to Europe and failed and have returned momentarily to get some football before another lucrative move). Half the starting XI changes at every transfer window, that's the norm. If a player stays more than 1/2 seasons he is probably useless. It's not a football club any more but an agonical exercise in firefighting.
And that's why I think United captured my imagination: there's a compelling history and style which I can relate to, but evidence of it still being very much there as an underlying force. There's such a thing as a "United Player", and players I would rather stay clear of even if they are a bit good. And that's where all this transfer business shit doesn't bother me: if a player isn't desperate to be joining United, they probably don't get it and I couldn't care less about having them. If they prefer London because it's a better location, they'd better stay in London. If they prefer City because they pay more, they can feck off there for all I care. In a way, I empathise with Liverpool fans, because they are so far behind and irrelevant they can no longer demand such standards. It must be excruciating.
If it costs us in points/titles whatever, I don't care, because what I value most is having a team that is committed and understands what it means to play for us. Sometimes they'll be better, sometimes they'll be worse, but that's what makes the games entertaining and what has you cursing and jumping for joy, and loving X the feckin' beauty... Trust me, titles are overrated, Peñarol carried on winning domestic titles for many years, but I don't care any more because what I see on the pitch isn't the ethos, style, attitude and commitment that I grew up admiring. It's an empty shell, much like Rooney these days (that, more than his effectiveness, is what worries me about him).
I love this current bunch and am ready to go on the rollercoaster journey of fighting it out through a season, with all its ups and downs. Results are a bonus.
[/rant]
