What is the definition of a glory-hunter?

[DanishDevil]

Isn't it people who supports the teams with most succes, so they can 'gloat' at the end of every season??

- Or is it just 'out of towners'?? <img src="graemlins/houllier.gif" border="0" alt="[Houllier]" />

 

[Hornchurch Red]

For me it is someone who suppports a team that is successful or well supported that they have no connection with.

People will state that they started supporting MANCHESTER United in the 1970's when they didn;t win much. But IMHO MANCHESTER United did evry well in the 1970's. They were the best supported club, won trophies and were given nationwide coverage every week. People will fall for this, and support a team because it is 'Trendy' or they are well supported, or because they win things, or because they are on the TV lots.

The amount orf press coverage that MANCHESTER United receive borders on ridiculous. Beckhams in the papers every five minutes, dragging in fans with every appearance. Now I'm not saying that there is anything wrong with this, I'm saying they are 'Gloryhunters'. They may say that MANCHESTER United are their second team, but do they post on Torquay Uniteds website, follow Torquays results, have a Torquay shirt, go to Torquays games etc....etc...

What I am trying to sum up is, I don’t get why people support a successful team, at the expense of their local team, who represent the area where they come from. Don’t turn your back on your local community. I’m I being old fashioned, maybe.

 

[DanishDevil]

Originally posted by Hornchurch Red:
<strong>What I am trying to sum up is, I don’t get why people support a successful team, at the expense of their local team, who represent the area where they come from. Don’t turn your back on your local community. I’m I being old fashioned, maybe.</strong><hr></blockquote>

What if you don't feel you 'fit' in the community you're in?? - I mean... doesn't feel 'related' to it?? - I've moved a lot around in my life, and haven't really had the chance to 'settle' down with a team... not until AFTER I started to support United!

 

[ukbob]

What I am trying to sum up is, I don’t get why people support a successful team, at the expense of their local team, who represent the area where they come from. Don’t turn your back on your local community. I’m I being old fashioned, maybe. <hr></blockquote>

So are you telling me to support The Galaxy.??

 

[mu77]

a fan that supports a winning side only when they win. a fan that swaps loyalty for wins. glory hunters can be from manchester or mars , location means nowt. <img src="graemlins/keano.gif" border="0" alt="[Keano]" />

 

[reddermo]

Hornchurch Red you are such a hard man.

Are you Kevthered in disguise?

 

[ryansgirl]

Hello, I had strong disagreements with Hornchurch Red last year and said I was not going to be bothered replying to his messages anymore.

HOWEVER - despite my not agreeing with all of his most recent post
(very easy to label people gloryhunters and then get the benefit of your team being able to buy top players etc because of your team`s world-wide support from so called glory hunters who actually are the backbone as they spend much time and money on a club they maybe will never get the chance to see in person),
I do agree with Hornchurch Red`s plea for people to look locally and support with passion and commitment their local teams.

Good point.

 

[farawaylands]

glory hunters unite!
it's the treble this year or i'm supporting madrid.

 

[Fawaz]

I think a glory hunter is the one changing teams they support every couple of seasons just because those couple of season were not very entertaining.

Locals in Manchester supporting United is a normal behaviour since they are locals and United represents their city. However, and from my few visits to Manchester, most of the people there supports City for some strange reason.

The way I see it, especially for us outsiders, is that we admire and support the team who plays theh game we like best. It's our love for football that makes support the team. I followed football locally alot ... but I never found myself being part of a team or connected to a team like I am with Manchester United.

Even my first reaction as an 11 years old kid when I saw United playing. I just told my dad :
"Wow! The guys in red are playing football way faster and better than our guys here .. Amazing!"

and once he informed me that the "guys in red" are Manchester United, I know at that moment that this is the team I want to support. This is the team I like to see whenever I get a chance to see. This is the team that forces me to go through a news paper looking for the word "Manchester United" to see how they did.

We didn't have internet back then but all what we had is that weekly show showing results and highlights of last weeks matches and of course the bits & pieces in the news papers.

Does that make me a glory hunter? I'm 31 years old and I support Manchester United by all means. I even got tickets to the Boro match in which I will fly all the way from home to go see and support my team

*is it too cheesy or is it a kodak moment?*

 

[yaps]

Glory Hunter : Someone that follows a team due to the fact they are successful and don't know the history of the club, wouldn't knwo who anybody was, basicly they support a team because they are winning...

 

[corelive]

When i started supporting UTD i was 8 yrs old mid 70s when it was all liverpool notts forest if i was a glory hunter i would of gone for liverpool ( heaven forbid ) even though forest are from my home city but i chose UTD maybe because my brothers mother and father are all forest and i wanted to be different i dont know

 

[Kevin]

I hate elitism, and unfortunately, it happens among football supporters too. As long as the supporter isn't ridiculous (like talking about ridiculous transfers, threatening to switch to another club because of lack of success or whatever) I don't see him as a glory hunter.

 

[jamesblonde]

As far as I am aware a "glory hunter" has nothing to do with which club you support. It has to do with how you play football. For example, Rivaldo is the archetypical gloryhunter - in the WC semi-final he kept shooting when he should have passed as he wanted to score in every game. He "gloryhunted" when better options were over.
Hasselbaink is a bit of a gloryhunter too. Can't think of any others off the top of my head.

 

[nickm]

&gt; What I am trying to sum up is, I don’t get why
&gt; people support a successful team, at the
&gt; expense of their local team, who represent
&gt; the area where they come from. Don’t turn
&gt; your back on your local community. I’m I
&gt; being old fashioned, maybe.

My mate supports Birmingham City. Don't know why, he has no connection to Birmingham that I know. He just does. He's gone through torture these last few years, and finally they got promoted. Does that make him a glory hunter? Of course not. He's one of the most passionate, committed fans I know, I wouldn't insult him by saying otherwise.

These days, economic circumstances force people to be more mobile than they ever had to be in the past. There are fewer large local employers with strong bonds to their communities. Local communities themselves now have large immigrant populations (from abroad and from other UK towns). You aren't old-fashioned mate, you're completely out of date. This is why it's crazy and wrong to say that only locals can be 'proper' supporters.

Also, you can hardly castigate supporters with few connections to the local community when ever fewer players share those connections themselves.

The person on this thread who said it's hypocritical to label non-locals as glory hunters while happily reap the benefit of them coughing up the cash for new players, was bang on.

 

[blythy]

Originally posted by yaps:
<strong>Glory Hunter : Someone that follows a team due to the fact they are successful and don't know the history of the club, wouldn't knwo who anybody was, basicly they support a team because they are winning...</strong><hr></blockquote>

Agreed

 

[gulli_G]

so technically speaking, all fans that supported man utd for that reason, should be arse= and pool fans

 

[blythy]

technically, yes

 

[giggzy]

TBH i don't mind outside support.. however, if i lived down the road from another PL or Div One club, i'd support them...


alho' its easy to say

 

[Martin Henry]

Well I get called a "glory hunter" myself, now the fact that I went to my first game in 1971 seems to be dismissed...

Also the fact that I was going home and away in the seventies and eighties despite us never winning much but the term "glory hunter" has been coined (by jealous scousers and Leeds fans mainly) to mean any United fan...

The scousers also get upset at the term "bin-dippers" whilst conveniently forgetting that when they're not calling us "glory hunters" they are calling us "scum"...

Football's very tribal isn't it... ...

 

[FresnoBob]

Martin:

The only true measure of a fan is loyalty. Those who chose correctly are occasionally rewarded for their support--and after 26 years in the wilderness, your side seems to have rewarded the fans quite nicely the past decade. My support of Arsenal was "vindicated" once again, last year with a double. Still, I can respect a knowledgable fan of a team that doesn't win often (like the Boston Red Sox or West Ham United).

Those "glory hunters" so eloquently discribed in other posts on this thread are a world wide phenomenon. Remember that bit during the world cup about some villagers in either India or Pakistan who got in a fight about which flag was going to fly above the village--Brazil or Argentina? Why don't they work on making their own team worth a damn?
Here in the US fickle fans rush to buy the jersey of whatever team is doing well. Only a few years ago, the Chicago Bulls were the most "popular" basketball team in the nation, but now the Lakers are the rage.
Was it Yaps or one fo the other observers of sport who pointed out the one common trait of every glory seeker--they basically don't know a f*cking thing about the sport except the final score. Perhaps the FA should declare a bounty on glory seekers--it would clean up the fan base and give the loyal and knowledgable fans ready cash and something to do between matches.

 

[jedi master yoda]

What is the definition of a glory-hunter?? <hr></blockquote>

sheesh that's bloody easy.....anyone from Singapore, Man Utd Glory-Hunters Central....

 

[DLE]

Originally posted by DanishDevil:
<strong>Isn't it people who supports the teams with most succes, so they can 'gloat' at the end of every season??

- Or is it just 'out of towners'?? <img src="graemlins/houllier.gif" border="0" alt="[Houllier]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>

You hunt the damn glory. The team on top is your team..no matter which one it is.

 

[phunky]

hey jedi, u got anythg against Sporeans yea?
Wat's wrong with supporting a team not near you? Does that mean if i don't live in England, i aint sppose to cheer on any EPL team for tat matter? In this era, proximity counts for nothing. What you can know abt the team down the road, i bet u i can find out abt it too...

 

[Thebug]

I hate this topic what difference does it make if you come from M16 or Scotland it's about supporting the team you love. I live 175 miles away but I get to 10/12 games a year I shout and scream for the team as much as anyone so please lets put this subject to rest for good and just get on with following the best team in the world. <img src="graemlins/devil.gif" border="0" alt="[Devil]" />

 

[mu77]

a team that doesn't win often (like the Boston Red Sox

ouch!

 

[dicko]

Originally posted by Hornchurch Red:
<strong>What I am trying to sum up is, I don’t get why people support a successful team, at the expense of their local team, who represent the area where they come from. Don’t turn your back on your local community. I’m I being old fashioned, maybe.</strong><hr></blockquote>

I agree with the sentiments but not everyone has a local community with a team.

I was born and raised in Awali, Bahrain in the Arabian Gulf. My parents worked for the oil company and we lived in a camp separate from the locals. I had minmimal exposure to Bahraini life. I do not speak Arabic and do not even know the names of teams in the any local football league (I assume there is one). I cant support any Bahraini side because I don't know any.

Children raised there considered themselves English (or Scottish, Welsh, Irish American etc) rather than from a particular town or city. My mother was from Liverpool/Birkenhead and my father Nottingham. When we went to England on leave we stayed with both set of parents. This was on holiday, I never felt I had much of a connection with either area. Would you feel you lived in Majorca if you went there on holidays every two years?

By the time I left Bahrain in 1968 I was nominally a United supporter. I went to school in Liverpool for the next five years. Should I have switched sides? Liverpool were consistent, winning the league in 1973 and a very good Everton side won it in 1970. We had a brilliant start in 1971/72 (George at his Best) but generally struggled. I think I would have been labelled a glory hunter. I felt that as an eleven year old I was too old to switch sides. A friend switched from Leeds to Everton because it was easier to go to games and he lost a lot of credibility.

I agree about the disproportionate publicity United got and the number of fans making it easier to support them but the early seventies were very unsuccessful.

 

[Lynty]

I remember when I was called a glory hunter when I started supporting United. Maybe I was at the time.

But I'm still here now - and still enjoy to watch us

 

[Maciej]

I remember when I was called a glory hunter when I started supporting United. Maybe I was at the time.

But I'm still here now - and still enjoy to watch us

What a bump!

 

[V.O.]

I remember when I was called a glory hunter when I started supporting United. Maybe I was at the time.

But I'm still here now - and still enjoy to watch us

High quality thread necromancy. I mean, who doesn't want to go back to a time where it'd be 18 years until Liverpool's next title win?

 

[Paul_Scholes18]

We all support teams for different reasons. Although real supporters stick through all the ups and downs that comes along the way.