Liverpool were not winning anything when i started to support them...
y? i dun understand, maybe because my blood is red...
even if they dun win anything, i'll always be with the reds...
You'll Never Walk Alone.... maybe i dun like to walk alone...

14++ years and still counting.

Precisely, many Liverpool fans here began their support in their 90's. From 1990 - 2000, Liverpool collected a grand total of 3 trophies! We managed to win 1 Charity Shield, 1 FA Cup and 1 League Cup, hardly the mark of champions. Our league positions since 1992 were 6th (1992-93), 8th (1993-94), 4th (1994-95), 3rd (1995-96), 4th (1996-97), 3rd (1997-98), 7th (1998-99) and 4th (1999-2000). While we were far from being relegation candidates, we were surely only an average side based on the lack of achievement. How many can remember the last time your team finished 8th? These statistics tell me that Liverpool fans from the 80's or 90's will stay true to the team. If you read the reaction of some fans these days, going a season or two without winning anything is a travesty.

Imagine supporting a team that won League Championships in 1988 & 1990 and then next to nothing for the next 10 years. I know many fans would waver. Proof? Where have all the Leeds Utd & Blackburn fans gone?

When I first began watching football in the late 80;s, you would only see the likes of Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal or Tottenham play because ASTRO hadn't arrived on local shores yet and we only got to watch cup finals. It was then natural to support either of these sides, as I find it hard to support a club you don't watch play.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: May 6 2007, 09:21 AM

started supporting liverpool when i somehow turned on the tv and get to watch macca and fowler in action .. got interested in it and wanted to know more bout liverpool.

Since then i've been a reds fan all along

This post has been edited by Tidus86: May 6 2007, 10:10 AM

haha, reading thru d posts.. think my reason is d most bizzare..

i support Man United, coz of Cantona...
but d reason i idolize Cantona is because...
back in primary school, i didn't know a thing about football..
didn't even watch World Cup 94...

then my friends started calling me "cantona".. cz my name is ERIC...
at dat time wat i heard was "ikan tuna"...
didn't bother much...
then read about his super kung fu kick...
n learnt he was playing for Man United...
so ok lah! support lorr.. hehe..

d 1st football match i 'watched' was d 1996 final against Liverpool...
(DukeRed, i wonder if u'll say it was a boring match as all d commentators say, coz i find it quite absorbing)
my mum wouldn't let me watch, so i had to record it & watch it d next morning..
haha, mana tau my hero scored d winning goal!

since then, I've started reading into d history of d club, & just followed d matches... ya, back then was d Dunhill "road to wembley"...
hehe..wonder if u guys can remember d song... plus d chants:
"liverpool! oh oh oh~ oh oh oh~ liverpool, we're never gonna stop!"
"chelsea chelsea, chelsea chelsea, we're gonna make it a blue day"
"we are champions, oh we are champions!"

hehe.. those were the days..

Hmm... This a debatable point. Its hard to support a team which you cant really see them play you know. Like Blackburn was relegated to Championship after winning the league at 1995 (correct?) and only gain promotion few seasons back then. By then, if you havent see your team play for like few years, you may have lost interest with them. Leeds case too. They are a great team. But its the club failure to manage financially lead them to relegation. Now even worse. To League One.

Malaysia fans are really different from UK fans. Lets dont mention Championship or LeagueOne team. I'll take Fulham or Boro as example here. How often can we see these team played week in week out? Maybe twice a month? I mean live telecast of course. Malaysia mainly only show those big teams but not those smaller team which makes people hardly will support those smaller team. Let alone those Championship teams. I've heard many things about Birmingham this season because they've loan 3 Arsenal youngster. But I've never see them played. Only in YouTube. In UK, you can support smaller team like attending the matchday and so on. But I guess its hard for people here to support smaller teams. But I still believe theres die hard fans who still follow their team even they get relegated. Out of 10, I think there's maybe 2 or 3.

Btw, I would like to pinpoint a 'type' of fans. Some people only become fans because they're occasionally betting that team. They like the team because the club helped them winning money. Like Chelsea last 2 seasons. Now ManU. But they know nuts bout football. I got a friend as example. Once I ask him, what he know about ManU, he say know those things are useless, most important, know they can help you in winning money its ok already. This statement really makes me . Don't only know how to bet. At least know something about the club you're betting on!

---

Added on May 6, 2007, 11:11 amOh wait DukeRed, I missed your last sentence. Somehow we agree on the same point.

This post has been edited by prelude23: May 6 2007, 11:11 AM

relax dude.. in liga super malaysia i still support selangor even they finished last.. all my friend always tease me but who cares
selangor still the best in malaysian history

I agree with you! I thought it was a good game with both clubs really going at it.

I have friends who support Norwich and Southampton though they don't get to see their teams play. I totally respect them because of that. This is the reason I keep telling people that they need a deeper reason for supporting a club. We're not just here to be entertained. Notice how the American's came up with the term "Sports Entertainment"? We are here to be part of the club, through thick and thin.

i support man utd after the 1999 tremble...i like the team of 2 deadly dynamic duo cole n yorke with sheringham n ole oka baby assasin along with beckham the deadly crosser,keano the combative captain of the team,giggs the welsh wizard, n scholes the combative attacking midfielder although the team is labelled underachievers in europe by other clubs but i still loved man utd gameplay in the domestic league along with the 1999 final win

nah thats just pure bull$h1+ msia wont improve 4 sure if the TAK APE attitude still creeps in the minds of the people in charge but of cos max respect if u still support local balls

This post has been edited by skylinegtr34rule4life: May 6 2007, 12:30 PM

Hehe mind leave chelsea out of this matter. Many would presume Chelsea Fans a glory hunter and I beg to differ. I was a blues even before Owen made his debut. That time we were just a mid table team and an UEFA cup spot feels like actually winning it. Why Chelsea at that time, partially of casiraghi and gullit. The good old days.

okay okay.. I catch your drift... . Dont want to sound old.... sigh... 20++ years here too.. .

Seydee, I respect Chelsea fans during and before Ranieri's era. They were true London's football aristocrats.. playing delightful football with likes of Zola. The fans... were true fans... long starved off glory. They deserve their glory now, but for those that started hopping on the Chelsea bandwagon since 3 seasons ago, please tell me u still support Chelsea 10 years from today. Or better, if Roman ditch Chelsea and Chelsea FC goes down to Championship League, tell me your blood is still BLUE...

What I meant was Chelsea have been champions for the past 2 seasons and thus, we would have abandoned our clubs and started supporting them if we were glory hunters.

This post has been edited by Duke Red: May 6 2007, 12:49 PM

Yeah, i remember that. I was in primary school to during that time. It was aired by RTM's TV2 as far i remembered. The programmes will start of with the familiar FA Cup theme song and band marching in into Wembley. In fact , i think the first live football i ever watch is Wimbledon vs Liverpool in 1988 Final.

ASTRO during it early years, the EPL macthes was shown at Supersports CH80, with Shebby as the regular pundit (as far as i can remember)

That's true. First of all, back in the day I only knew one guy that supported Chelsea FC and believe me. Chelsea FC sucked big time before the billionaire came about. They were a mid table team and would never get to the top 4 no matter what they did.

But this guy was a true fan. He wore the jerseys, he had the playing cards, he had the magazine, etc. He knew the history, the players, the managers, even the back room staff, etc.

That was a fan and he stuck to the club through thick and thin. Now I don't blame all the new Chelsea fans for supporting the club now. I mean fine, they saw a club with resources, buying tons of top players and they are now challenging for everything. It's not a bad thing, they're not a big club. They still don't come close to the top 4 in terms of history, tradition, and success, but you never know in the next 100 years things could change.

But, the fans now. You can go ahead and support Chelsea. But, if anything happened to Chelsea. If the billionaire disappeared, if he stopped buying top players, if Chelsea stopped challenging for the top competitions. What will happen? If the fans stick to the club then, I see no problems. But if they all suddenly leave in drones, then my suspicions are correct. That they're nothing but glory hunters and that they only supported Chelsea because of the wealth and resources that they had.

Myself, I don't see a change in club at anytime. Manchester United is what I grew up with and it's what I'll support till I die. It's absolutely impossible to even think of another club. My support might just be a tad different from the supporters in UK, in the sense that I'm unable to go to games, or buy merchandise from the mega store in the stadium, or even have that hate for the rival clubs because of my location.

But the way the rival fans behave here, it helps alot with the rivalry and hating.

We'll see, what happens in the future. Then only will we know who genuinely supports a club. Manchester United is doing well this season, suddenly there are tons more supporters posting in the thread. Posters that are going "great, fabulous, blah blah blah"

Where were they during the 4 years of transition? Perhaps they didn't come here yet. But we'll see the coming seasons if we stop doing so well.

This post has been edited by refnulf: May 6 2007, 01:18 PM

Almost all fans in Malaysia behave i the same way, simply because we are all Malaysians, not Scouse, not Cockney or whatever. Therefore the fans behaviour here should not reflect upon the club. It's more a case of hating the rival fans rather than hating the rival clubs. Then again some of us do have reasons for disliking a rival club, reasons that are perhaps best kept to ourselves. Many a time, I've asked people why they hate their rival clubs and they don't have a reason. Just like how you need to know something about your club to love it, you need to know something about your rivals to hate them. A lot of it is manufactured hate. You hate another club just because you were taught to, without even knowing why. Oh and if you ask me hating a rival club because they are successful is just being petty. It's more envy and jealousy than anything, unless of course the club itself is cocky and arrogant about it.

Maybe. But I do hate Liverpool for starters. Why?? Because I love my club. The hate of Liverpool is mostly because of geographic location. Liverpool is what, 30 miles from Manchester? Same with Leeds, geographic location. But with Pool there's that something wee bit special. the fact that we're rivals in terms that we've been challenging for glories all these years. It's kinda like when we're not top, it's your turn to go top as can be seen thruout the duration of the league tournaments. Bitter, bitter rivals, so Man United fans don't really need to manufacture hate to hate Liverpool and vice versa.

As for my hatred for Chelski and Real. It's more down to principles then anything. Nothing to do with jealousy. I hate clubs which just buy players, and don't bring them through.

kinda agree the statement
just hate those club who bought those potential player and waste their time

Well I hate Man Utd because of the same reasons you do Chelsea and Real Madrid, it's about the principles, and not because of geography. I mean I don't live there so it's pretty hard to understand what it's like to live to close to one another. Having said that if geography were the main reason, the I'd hate Everton more and you Man City more, as I'm sure our fans in England do. To each his own by I don't hate my rivals just because they are my rivals. I mean I don't hate my opponents in a basketball tournament, because it's not personal.

Geography is one of the main reasons. With City, it's mainly geography. It's not like they are genuine challengers for anything. 31 years of feck all now for them.

With Pool, it's geography and championship rivalry I reckon. If the Man United fans knows history, its that hard to figure really why we hate Pool. Hell, if newer fans could recall the shit throwing incident at Anfield, the ambulance rocking, that smackhead Fowler's 5 finger taunt. That alone is enough to remind them how strong the rivalry between the 2 clubs are just as how most of your fans will remember Gary Neville's hip thrust and Rooney's 'shut the hell up' taunt among others.

Hence why I have always maintained it very,very,very important to know history about your club. Only people who don't know jack about history are the ones who can claim to be a fan of both clubs and even be proud of that fact, which puzzles me to be honest. And we have of course, seen quite a few of them here..

I'm with you on this. Knowing about your club is essential. You sometimes see fans responding aggressively to rival fans who criticise their clubs, I'm talking about criticism backed up with facts, not just random insults. Thing is some of these fans react without even knowing if the rival fan has a basis for saying such things, simply because they have not done any research on their own club. Then it becomes like any other petty argument rather than an informed discussion or debate.