WE DON’T KNOW WHAT WE’RE DOING
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brighton rebel
Nov 11, 2009, 5:24:55 AM11/11/09
to slough town soapbox
Printed in the Southern League Midlands Division match v Rothwell
Town. We beat the team second in the table 4-1 in front of 245 happy
fans (ok, maybe not the 5 Rothwell fans that made the journey).
All football fans ask ourselves occasionally why do we bother.
Spending time and money watching our team put us through agony. A long
trip home after a dismal defeat in the freezing cold. I have had the
football blues over years, but nothing compared to Match of the Day
and One Show presenter Adrian Chiles. After reading his book ‘We don’t
know what we’re doing’ which follows his team West Bromwich Albion
during yet another relegation from the Premiership, you see that the
love for his team is clearly doing him no good. At one point in his
book Gordon Strachan complains bitterly about his miserable Match of
the Day companion, but over time is dragged down to Chiles level!
But this book isn’t all star studied, but about the ordinary fan and
the reason why people support a club. It’s more than just watching a
football match. As Chiles points out, do you get the same outpouring
of emotion at say the theatre? ‘I’m on coach number one of sixteen,
and as we pull away from the Hawthorns, I fell suddenly, unashamedly,
profoundly emotional. Being abroad one of this fleet fosters a special
sense of belonging.’ One woman who works for a law firm has hardly
missed a game in 40 years ‘People sometimes say I’m mad, but what do
they get excited about? Shopping?’ The book is built round these
characters. The bloke who drags himself from his hospital bed to
games. The couple who name their son Albion. The football mad Vicar.
Chiles tells of one Albion supporters who now lives in a little
fishing village in New Zealand. ‘I was really passionate. It was a
massive part of my life. Life used to be dictated by the Albion
schedule. My wife used to get really fed up with it. She’s happier
now. I’m happier now – my life is better. It’s better because this is
a great place to live but it’s also because I’m so far away from the
Albion.’ Another supporter who tells him how he came late to the
Albion, incurs the wrath of one puzzled fan. ‘I don’t know how he let
it happen to him. It’s like smoking, if you start when you’re a kid,
fair enough. But if you start when you are order, we’ll you know the
dangers…’
As he watches Albion lose again, one of his non footballing friends he
has dragged along, asks him ‘why do you put yourself through this.’
Chiles even enlists a psychiatrist to see if football fans are in fact
insane. A question we have all been asked by our partners or people
who don’t like football. But reading this book, with all the banter,
friendships, day outs, also gives the answer to that question. Infact
his non footballing mate commented on the community spirit. “I was
jealous of that. Because it was just like extended family, and more
than that, there’s a huge range of people you meet. And that’s a very
rare opportunity to meet different people. To have those kind of
relationships, I’m genuinely jealous of that.”
If you’re looking for a present for someone this Christmas then I
totally recommend this book.
Town. We beat the team second in the table 4-1 in front of 245 happy
fans (ok, maybe not the 5 Rothwell fans that made the journey).
All football fans ask ourselves occasionally why do we bother.
Spending time and money watching our team put us through agony. A long
trip home after a dismal defeat in the freezing cold. I have had the
football blues over years, but nothing compared to Match of the Day
and One Show presenter Adrian Chiles. After reading his book ‘We don’t
know what we’re doing’ which follows his team West Bromwich Albion
during yet another relegation from the Premiership, you see that the
love for his team is clearly doing him no good. At one point in his
book Gordon Strachan complains bitterly about his miserable Match of
the Day companion, but over time is dragged down to Chiles level!
But this book isn’t all star studied, but about the ordinary fan and
the reason why people support a club. It’s more than just watching a
football match. As Chiles points out, do you get the same outpouring
of emotion at say the theatre? ‘I’m on coach number one of sixteen,
and as we pull away from the Hawthorns, I fell suddenly, unashamedly,
profoundly emotional. Being abroad one of this fleet fosters a special
sense of belonging.’ One woman who works for a law firm has hardly
missed a game in 40 years ‘People sometimes say I’m mad, but what do
they get excited about? Shopping?’ The book is built round these
characters. The bloke who drags himself from his hospital bed to
games. The couple who name their son Albion. The football mad Vicar.
Chiles tells of one Albion supporters who now lives in a little
fishing village in New Zealand. ‘I was really passionate. It was a
massive part of my life. Life used to be dictated by the Albion
schedule. My wife used to get really fed up with it. She’s happier
now. I’m happier now – my life is better. It’s better because this is
a great place to live but it’s also because I’m so far away from the
Albion.’ Another supporter who tells him how he came late to the
Albion, incurs the wrath of one puzzled fan. ‘I don’t know how he let
it happen to him. It’s like smoking, if you start when you’re a kid,
fair enough. But if you start when you are order, we’ll you know the
dangers…’
As he watches Albion lose again, one of his non footballing friends he
has dragged along, asks him ‘why do you put yourself through this.’
Chiles even enlists a psychiatrist to see if football fans are in fact
insane. A question we have all been asked by our partners or people
who don’t like football. But reading this book, with all the banter,
friendships, day outs, also gives the answer to that question. Infact
his non footballing mate commented on the community spirit. “I was
jealous of that. Because it was just like extended family, and more
than that, there’s a huge range of people you meet. And that’s a very
rare opportunity to meet different people. To have those kind of
relationships, I’m genuinely jealous of that.”
If you’re looking for a present for someone this Christmas then I
totally recommend this book.
brighton rebel
Nov 11, 2009, 5:26:09 AM11/11/09
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