Being a Saints fan rather than one of the elite

[Francis1947]

A gentleman can always change his wife, but never his football club.

[Rut]

1 hour ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Never mind the coincidence about the photo. How did you know about my gran's cat? 🙂

Hang on a minute here - she had a cat whose arse looked like Kenny Dalglish but you didn't instantly become a Lpool fan?

What was wrong with you? It gave you a perfectly acceptable reason to support the team who won the most. Nobody could have called you a glory supporter.

When Saints win the league next season I hope you are all prepared for all the Southampton based Lpool/Man Utd etc fans all claiming that 'they've always supported Saints as well'. Have you fuck...

That really happened in Leicester in 2016.

 

 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

4 minutes ago, Rut said:

Hang on a minute here - she had a cat whose arse looked like Kenny Dalglish but you didn't instantly become a Lpool fan?

What was wrong with you? It gave you a perfectly acceptable reason to support the team who won the most. Nobody could have called you a glory supporter.

When Saints win the league next season I hope you are all prepared for all the Southampton based Lpool/Man Utd etc fans all claiming that 'they've always supported Saints as well'. Have you fuck...

That really happened in Leicester in 2016.

 

 

Well, the other cat had an arse that looked just like Iain Dowie, and I saw that cat first. 🙂

[John Boy Saint]

1 hour ago, Rut said:

Where the hell did you find this picture?

I only ask because I took it. It's from just over 10 years ago. Palace v Saints March 2014. Final score was 1-0 to Saints.

As for glory supporters? I don't care if your gran's cat had an arse that looked like Kenny Dalglish. I ain't talking to you about football.

 

Oops! 
I think when it was posted in the match thread, I posted it on my Bookface as it was very funny (and stupid by the guy) I also thought the lad in the blue coat was amusing - like I said at the time his mum said “you are not going out  to football without your coat!!”

Somehow it has embedded itself in my photos - whilst casting of to the cloud something nicer - I scrolled years back and found it to fit this bill.

[Patches O Houlihan]

14 hours ago, Holmes_and_Watson said:

Well, the other cat had an arse that looked just like Iain Dowie, and I saw that cat first. 🙂

Thank you for this. Made my morning 🤣

[franniesTache]

19 hours ago, Tamesaint said:

I don't think it is the same thing. People from say Devon wbo support say Liverpool  presumably do it to support a team that often wins, that features often on tv, that has Champions League football and goes on to win trophies. Anyone who supports Saints has a much harder time and imo needs to be applauded. 

Kind of see where you're coming from but the flip side is lets say you're from East Wiltshire, to watch Saints you need to travel past, Swindon, Yeovil, Bournemouth (all league teams), and have Salsibury as a decent non league team. Then the other side you have both Bristol teams who are hardly small teams.

So that would seem to me like you're choosing a "bigger" or "more successful" side, because historically that's what we've been, In which case there really is very little difference, other than you're a bit strange, because if you're going to choose a team who's slightly more successful than the ones close to you why not just go the whole hog and choose one that actually wins?

[Rut]

19 hours ago, John Boy Saint said:

Oops! 
I think when it was posted in the match thread, I posted it on my Bookface as it was very funny (and stupid by the guy) I also thought the lad in the blue coat was amusing - like I said at the time his mum said “you are not going out  to football without your coat!!”

Somehow it has embedded itself in my photos - whilst casting of to the cloud something nicer - I scrolled years back and found it to fit this bill.

No need for an 'Oops' - just wondered where the hell you found it.

Should have known that the obvious answer was that you remembered it from a match thread from over 10 years ago. Fair play.

Poor Iain Dowie... 

A couple of years back I used to hear him quite often as a co-commentator. Was brilliant. He'd try and speak as fast as he could think. Slow down mate! Take a breath. You're not making any sense! Was still way better than most of them though.

[Dark Munster]

On 29/07/2024 at 02:07, Turkish said:

There are few more distressing sights than that of an Englishman in a baseball cap.

[Turkish]

2 hours ago, Dark Munster said:

Part of the problem not the solution 

[Patches O Houlihan]

On 30/07/2024 at 14:18, franniesTache said:

Kind of see where you're coming from but the flip side is lets say you're from East Wiltshire, to watch Saints you need to travel past, Swindon, Yeovil, Bournemouth (all league teams), and have Salsibury as a decent non league team. Then the other side you have both Bristol teams who are hardly small teams.

So that would seem to me like you're choosing a "bigger" or "more successful" side, because historically that's what we've been, In which case there really is very little difference, other than you're a bit strange, because if you're going to choose a team who's slightly more successful than the ones close to you why not just go the whole hog and choose one that actually wins?

So I take it you must be one of those fans who is happy for us to drop to the lower half of the Championship, as our funding dwindles relative to other clubs? 

No need to increase the stadium capacity because the population of Southampton isn’t growing significantly quicker than the rate of inflation. So not enough new people to be able to afford a ticket.

No need to grow the clubs finances by encouraging interest from abroad. 

Also it would appear you have never driven out of the city if you think Yeovil and Bournemouth are an easier drive from east Wiltshire. 

Not every fan grows up in a part of the world with a proper club, or with parents that will take them to one. Some adopt a club having developed an affinity; either by connections with the city, living there or working there, or maybe just a style of play or a particular player if they are based abroad. 

Markus Liebherr developed an affinity with Saints because he sold cranes to the docks: I bet you’d have been happy if he’d have invested in his local Swiss club instead? 

These clearly aren’t your view points - but maybe you can connect the dots and work out why some fans might feel your comments are unnecessarily divisive.

COYR (wherever you hail from)

Edited July 31 by Patches O Houlihan

[V.Johnathan.Wilson]

Folks find it funny that I became a saints fan at the age of 7 because they had the longest name in the 2002/03 premier league season. Tbh having less expectations as a fan means that you can enjoy the show way more, being a fan of a big team turns you into someone like Saeed or Mark Goldbridge who make themselves feel like they're going through torture watching Man Utd week in week out. 

[eurosaint]

I once approached a young lad in Pakistan who was wearing an out-of-date Saints away kit, unfortunately he didn't understand me and probably thought that I was a paedophile 😁

I stopped doing it after that....

😐

[sandwichsaint]

On 29/07/2024 at 12:52, Saint86 said:

I know its a running joke, but the catchment area for Southampton FC fan's is is pretty large - and mean for matchgoing fans.

There was a thread on it recently this season where (some) people on here were actually looking down on saints fan's from outside the city... And i still think its mad that that outlook exists tbh. Do people actually walk around thinking the traffic through Millbrook and down the avenue on matchdays is for Ikea? All that should matter is we've got dedicated fans that attend matches. I grew up 15min from salisbury but have supported Saints my entire life, lived in the city for a bit, but then moved to Bristol and kept a season ticket going until Puel.... he (and kids) was the final straw for the season ticket. My eldest is 6 now, took him to 4 games last year including the play off final, and he's been in to Staplewood... (i'm doing my best to get him hooked before he picks a glory club), whereas pretty much all his mates at school support arsenal/city/liverpool etc. (🤮), and they'll likely never go and see a game...

Also, when travelling up to Wembley we were sat near saints fans from Taunton and Devon that had been going to see saints all season (which following the dreadful relegation season is some effort). And yet we have fans that look down on them for being outside the city, weird.

As for meeting saints fans out and about, we're generally great. There used to be a bloke on the bristol bath cycle ride that would yell "up the saints" etc when we'd go past each other on our commutes, and i'll always remember chatting to a fan in old Rhodes town many years ago. That atmosphere doesn't exist with the bigger plastic clubs, whereas saints are just big enough to have fans all over the place, but don't have glory fans (because we don't win anything 😅🤣🤘). Plus we benefited from the boon in 90's football and having someone like Le Tissier being broadcast all around the world showing of spectacular goals.

Sorry, just catching up with the thread. A few years ago we were home to Ipswich mid week, time plays tricks, it must have been last time we were in the championship.  I was sat with my older nipper down the front of the Kingsland, an ST friend (from Tiverton, Devon had got us the tickets). We got chatting before the match, within a dozen seats of us were Saints fans from Sandwich, York, Derby, Swansea and Kettering.

The game didn't go well, Ipswich scored first. Some random local (yokel?) launched himself to his feet and declared in pure strawberry grower, 'Zis club don't know how lucky they be, we got fans here farkin midweek from x y and z. If they give a f+ck why can't these players give one too? Zis club don't know how lucky they are.'

[SaintBobby]

I guess I'm a gloryhunter of sorts. Brought up in Berkshire, Reading were sh1t at the time and I wasn't going to support Maidenhead Utd or some such.

Asked my Dad when I was about 9 years old who our nearest decent team were as I thought it was daft that most kids at school claimed to support Liverpool.

He said Southampton. So began a lifelong obsession.....

[Whitey Grandad]

13 hours ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

So I take it you must be one of those fans who is happy for us to drop to the lower half of the Championship, as our funding dwindles relative to other clubs? 

No need to increase the stadium capacity because the population of Southampton isn’t growing significantly quicker than the rate of inflation. So not enough new people to be able to afford a ticket.

No need to grow the clubs finances by encouraging interest from abroad. 

Also it would appear you have never driven out of the city if you think Yeovil and Bournemouth are an easier drive from east Wiltshire. 

Not every fan grows up in a part of the world with a proper club, or with parents that will take them to one. Some adopt a club having developed an affinity; either by connections with the city, living there or working there, or maybe just a style of play or a particular player if they are based abroad. 

Markus Liebherr developed an affinity with Saints because he sold cranes to the docks: I bet you’d have been happy if he’d have invested in his local Swiss club instead? 

These clearly aren’t your view points - but maybe you can connect the dots and work out why some fans might feel your comments are unnecessarily divisive.

COYR (wherever you hail from)

Actually he didn’t. That was a different Liebherr company.

[franniesTache]

15 hours ago, Patches O Houlihan said:

So I take it you must be one of those fans who is happy for us to drop to the lower half of the Championship, as our funding dwindles relative to other clubs? 

No need to increase the stadium capacity because the population of Southampton isn’t growing significantly quicker than the rate of inflation. So not enough new people to be able to afford a ticket.

No need to grow the clubs finances by encouraging interest from abroad. 

Also it would appear you have never driven out of the city if you think Yeovil and Bournemouth are an easier drive from east Wiltshire. 

Not every fan grows up in a part of the world with a proper club, or with parents that will take them to one. Some adopt a club having developed an affinity; either by connections with the city, living there or working there, or maybe just a style of play or a particular player if they are based abroad. 

Markus Liebherr developed an affinity with Saints because he sold cranes to the docks: I bet you’d have been happy if he’d have invested in his local Swiss club instead? 

These clearly aren’t your view points - but maybe you can connect the dots and work out why some fans might feel your comments are unnecessarily divisive.

COYR (wherever you hail from)

That's a hell of an angry rant about a made up compliant, made even funnier by the fact you yourself say you know it's not what i was talking about 😳 🤣

All i was saying is it's a bit hypocritical calling out out of town united, liverpool etc. if you're not from southampton, absolutely nothing to do with your bizarre rant at all, but if you're that insecure you do you

[OldNick]

I didnt intend that the point of my initial post was that you have to be from Southampton, but as a fan from not one of the non elite clubs there IMO seems more of a bond with other poor souls who also chose our path.