Great article on the rise of the weird online fanbase

This kind of thing has been going on since forever, its only because social media gives these morons a soap box for their nonsense that it's more public facing.
 
Excellent article and rings true for most premier league clubs. I still find it difficult to believe that we have a hyper critical section of online fandom at Brighton, who have called for Potter to be sacked, when in reality Brighton are doing far far better now than at any other time in my life and I've been following them for 35 years! It's an incredible time to be a Brighton supporter, but apparently not nearly good enough for many.

It's people who don't understand that a loss or a draw is part of the journey and always will be, it's also interesting (and you see this a lot on the caf) that far more evidence for the state of the club is taken from a negative result compared to a win.
 
You mean maybe our coaches do know something about football? Damn, I was pretty convinced by the angry young man who spends matches hate-typing in the Match Day Thread instead of even watching the game.
 
The Boy said:
Excellent article and rings true for most premier league clubs. I still find it difficult to believe that we have a hyper critical section of online fandom at Brighton, who have called for Potter to be sacked, when in reality Brighton are doing far far better now than at any other time in my life and I've been following them for 35 years! It's an incredible time to be a Brighton supporter, but apparently not nearly good enough for many.

It's people who don't understand that a loss or a draw is part of the journey and always will be, it's also interesting (and you see this a lot on the caf) that far more evidence for the state of the club is taken from a negative result compared to a win.
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Because of where I grew up I know a lot of Stoke fans. Most of them loved their Premier League stint - but after they finished 9th two seasons in a row there was genuinely part of their fanbase who thought they should be pushing for top 6 and anything less was a failure. It blew my mind
 
Wumminator said:
Because of where I grew up I know a lot of Stoke fans. Most of them loved their Premier League stint - but after they finished 9th two seasons in a row there was genuinely part of their fanbase who thought they should be pushing for top 6 and anything less was a failure. It blew my mind
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That's why they fired Pulis, wasn't it?
 
Very good article, thanks for sharing.

It's obviously totally recognisable for a United fan too. The only thing that struck me as unfamiliar was the "Top Reds" thing, the tendency to lampoon and ridicule local fans, which I don't think I've ever seen around here. But maybe that's going on at Twitter.
 
justsomebloke said:
Very good article, thanks for sharing.

It's obviously totally recognisable for a United fan too. The only thing that struck me as unfamiliar was the "Top Reds" thing, the tendency to lampoon and ridicule local fans, which I don't think I've ever seen around here. But maybe that's going on at Twitter.
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I've certainly seen people here questioning why match going fans are supporting the manager under both Ole and Mou.
 
I find the concept of online fan very strange. You get the feeling these people do absolutely nothing but tweet about the club. It's not healthy to be that involved in something that has no direct effect on you. Their profile pictures are players, they have #mufc/LUHG in their name and are always the first in the comment section. Are they even employed?
Another thing, they seem to enjoy trolling.
 
Interesting read and you're right - it could easily have been written about United fans.
justsomebloke said:
Very good article, thanks for sharing.

It's obviously totally recognisable for a United fan too. The only thing that struck me as unfamiliar was the "Top Reds" thing, the tendency to lampoon and ridicule local fans, which I don't think I've ever seen around here. But maybe that's going on at Twitter.
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I'm sure I've seen people using "top red", on here, as a term criticising people who seem to think they're "true" fans. IIRC it seemed to go hand in hand with supporting every decision made by the club and never criticising anything about the club
 
The Boy said:
I've certainly seen people here questioning why match going fans are supporting the manager under both Ole and Mou.
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I'm sure I've seen people using "top red", on here, as a term criticising people who seem to think they're "true" fans. IIRC it seemed to go hand in hand with supporting every decision made by the club and never criticising anything about the club
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Yeah, but not ridiculing locals as a type of supporter, with exaggerated Manc accents and all? You're right though, it's a little bit the same thing.
 
Social media has given an outlet for every utterance people wish to make. They don't need to filter or even dwell on their comments before making them, its just brain to phone in a second. Then people get into a feedback loop as other people support and echo their comments and the next time it comes even easier.

That said, I've been going to games for donkey's years now and it still never fails to amaze the absolute bullshit that you hear from people on the way home from a game. Twitter doesn't have a monopoly on bad takes.
 
largelyworried said:
Social media has given an outlet for every utterance people wish to make. They don't need to filter or even dwell on their comments before making them, its just brain to phone in a second. Then people get into a feedback loop as other people support and echo their comments and the next time it comes even easier.

That said, I've been going to games for donkey's years now and it still never fails to amaze the absolute bullshit that you hear from people on the way home from a game. Twitter doesn't have a monopoly on bad takes.
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No, that's true too.
 
The Boy said:
Excellent article and rings true for most premier league clubs. I still find it difficult to believe that we have a hyper critical section of online fandom at Brighton, who have called for Potter to be sacked, when in reality Brighton are doing far far better now than at any other time in my life and I've been following them for 35 years! It's an incredible time to be a Brighton supporter, but apparently not nearly good enough for many.

It's people who don't understand that a loss or a draw is part of the journey and always will be, it's also interesting (and you see this a lot on the caf) that far more evidence for the state of the club is taken from a negative result compared to a win.
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I used to think Fergie took defeats far too easily in perhaps the last decade here! Putting some terrible average looking midfields out (on paper) compared to some of the elite Champs Leagues sides at the time. With the funds available I thought he almost wanted to struggle. Maybe I needed to take a look at myself. Football does strange things to people and I agree with the poster who says these thoughts have always existed
 
Wumminator said:
Because of where I grew up I know a lot of Stoke fans. Most of them loved their Premier League stint - but after they finished 9th two seasons in a row there was genuinely part of their fanbase who thought they should be pushing for top 6 and anything less was a failure. It blew my mind
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Same could be said for Arsenal at the end of Wenger's time, they thought they should be up there winning the league. In hindsight it now looks like he was punching above his weight to keep them in the top 4 every year.

I wonder is there a section of Burnley fans think that Dyche should be sacked for a better coach?
 
justsomebloke said:
Very good article, thanks for sharing.

It's obviously totally recognisable for a United fan too. The only thing that struck me as unfamiliar was the "Top Reds" thing, the tendency to lampoon and ridicule local fans, which I don't think I've ever seen around here. But maybe that's going on at Twitter.
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Has been a two way thing amongst a minority of idiots.
Some local fans don't believe non-locals should support the club. And as a reaction some non-local fans mock the accent or traits of the locals.

Both groups in minority and both need to be locked away.
 
RedorDead21 said:
I used to think Fergie took defeats far too easily in perhaps the last decade here! Putting some terrible average looking midfields out (on paper) compared to some of the elite Champs Leagues sides at the time. With the funds available I thought he almost wanted to struggle. Maybe I needed to take a look at myself
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It's a shame really, as for almost all fans your team is something you're absolutely passionate about whether it is United, Brighton or, say, Darlington and if you can't appreciate or even see the good times and enjoy them, football must become a constant source of misery.
 
The Boy said:
Excellent article and rings true for most premier league clubs. I still find it difficult to believe that we have a hyper critical section of online fandom at Brighton, who have called for Potter to be sacked, when in reality Brighton are doing far far better now than at any other time in my life and I've been following them for 35 years! It's an incredible time to be a Brighton supporter, but apparently not nearly good enough for many.

It's people who don't understand that a loss or a draw is part of the journey and always will be, it's also interesting (and you see this a lot on the caf) that far more evidence for the state of the club is taken from a negative result compared to a win.
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You're kidding! That's mad. To be in the premier league with your squad and budget plus playing the football you play is dreamland. Mad that some fans are not satisfied.
 
I think a lot of this comes from "fan cams" and their ilk. I don;t think there are many that are actually doing it for "the love of the club" and a lot of them have their own agenda and gain.
 
How can anybody think that was a good article?
 
owlo said:
How can anybody think that was a good article?
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Yeah, so, do you want to share what you think is wrong with it, or are we all expected to just think "Ooh, Owlo doesn't like it so it must be shit"?
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Football twitter is an open sewer. Anyone who spends any time on there is going to end up depressed. The dude who wrote the article in the OP needs to step away from Twitter.
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All of twitter is an open sewer basically. Roughly 0.3% of the planet uses it and 8% of internet users, if you remove all the bots and junk accounts perhaps even less?
 
owlo said:
How can anybody think that was a good article?
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I'm a little disappointed that a Liverpool fan put more of an effort into something than a poster on a Manchester United forum, but here we are.
 
I've said this on here before. People are obviously getting more entrenched in their views in all walks of life, and I think some of those fans with no connection to the club or the area feel like they need to 'prove' how much of a fan they are. Like it validates them or something, and being anonymous online makes it easy for people to get carried away. I don't see it in any of the local fan groups I'm part of.


B20 said:
That's why they fired Pulis, wasn't it?
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Yes. If they'd kept him they'd probably still be in the PL now.
 
The Boy said:
I've certainly seen people here questioning why match going fans are supporting the manager under both Ole and Mou.
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That's been going on since at least Moyes. I seem to remember with the famous airplane incident, the match going fans stood to applaud Moyes to show some support for him during what must have been a pretty humiliating experience for him, and they got dogs abuse on here and other united forums for being "fake", "plastic" fans who were ruining the club by not screaming abuse at the manager
 
Football also brought it upon itself.
The clubs want the $$$ from consumers all over the world and started to appeal to Twitter Fans.
If a club commoditizes itself, no wonder its treated as a product.
 
City Twitter seems the worst, because I’ve long suspected many of them are supported by the club. Virtually no critical comment and just a completely plasticised perspective of modern oil-era football.
 
I personally adore twitter Madrid.I think it is a super creative space.
Before the currents of opinion were marked by the young / ultra local crowd and certain newspapers, which were as biased as now.
In our case we could write in marca, without any kind of control, or in the Madrid forums , which used to be a collection of selfblowjobs in a nest of vipers.
Now I can read and get a reply from Juanito's or Cunningham's son, or read the critical opinion of a partner from 30 years ago, high-level blogs or magazines that accumulate thousands of followers. Obviously the problem, as the articles says, it's to pay attention and take seriously some hick with 400 followers who writes "announce a new signing". Now you can reply to those newspapers and show their hypocrisy by comparing articles, or see how spontaneously all the fans defend a certain player at all costs, or how they judge someone who in the past would be protected by his journalist friend.
In addition to reading opinions from fans around the world and getting out of the national bubble. I find it much more attractive than "support the club and shut up", trying to discuss the future of a global empire from a farmhouse
 
pocco said:
Pot, kettle, black @Wumminator

You were the 'weird fan' when Jose was the manager of Manchester United.
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I wasn't here back then so I can't speak of Wumminators behavior, but to be fundamentally critical of the wisdom of having Mourinho manage Manchester United is surely only reasonable. Certainly not comparable to the sort of thing the article describes.
 
It's the Football Manager generation. They are not "built" for sports. Certainly not for following a team.
 
carvajal said:
I personally adore twitter Madrid.I think it is a super creative space.
Before the currents of opinion were marked by the young / ultra local crowd and certain newspapers, which were as biased as now.
In our case we could write in marca, without any kind of control, or in the Madrid forums , which used to be a collection of selfblowjobs in a nest of vipers.
Now I can read and get a reply from Juanito's or Cunningham's son, or read the critical opinion of a partner from 30 years ago, high-level blogs or magazines that accumulate thousands of followers. Obviously the problem, as the articles says, it's to pay attention and take seriously some hick with 400 followers who writes "announce a new signing". Now you can reply to those newspapers and show their hypocrisy by comparing articles, or see how spontaneously all the fans defend a certain player at all costs, or how they judge someone who in the past would be protected by his journalist friend.
In addition to reading opinions from fans around the world and getting out of the national bubble. I find it much more attractive than "support the club and shut up", trying to discuss the future of a global empire from a farmhouse
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Interesting take. What you describe sounds a lot more like what how one would like social media to be. Maybe it is when it comes to Real Madrid, but it doesn't seem to work that way in England. Ideally, you want something that is possible to see as a space for informed and reasonable criticism, at least predominantly. It's not the ideal to have people simply supporting everything the club does.
 
Every supporter is entitled to have their opinion regarding players and managers. So for some X was shite and Y is gold and for others it the reverse. Doesn't give anyone a right to call someone a lesser supporter, just because they are not vocal about blind faith in someone. And the landscape of football has changed. There is no place in modern football for romantic notions. Success breeds more success and the warp of failure never lets you go. Ask Arsenal.
 
Great article

They are extremely pessimistic. To this strand of online fan, Liverpool are already doomed to failure this season. The most important thing now is that they proved right about this.
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A mindset exists that demands a football club exist only to win and to consume. The players are commodities and the esteem they are held in must equate to how useful they are to the machine. Once a player ceases to be useful, whether through loss of form or injury, they become of less worth than the dopamine hit of a new transfer.
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It’s a very fatalistic way of viewing football, right? Being interested in Liverpool enough to dedicate your social media presence to the club, yet not being able to find any joy in it. What a cold existence. If social media can be called an artificial world then their fandom feels artificial, their experience completely detached from the club itself. It’s cold and sterile and none of the club’s most attractive elements—such as history, tradition, and the city itself—are celebrated.
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These parts are pretty spot on for a number of posters on here.
 
justsomebloke said:
Interesting take. What you describe sounds a lot more like what how one would like social media to be. Maybe it is when it comes to Real Madrid, but it doesn't seem to work that way in England. Ideally, you want something that is possible to see as a space for informed and reasonable criticism, at least predominantly. It's not the ideal to have people simply supporting everything the club does.
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We also have a huge amount of jerks, who humiliate players or make free criticisms. They are often children.
I suppose you have to focus on the positive aspects and how you can expand the level of opinions or follow-up to certain players.
 
Adisa said:
I find the concept of online fan very strange. You get the feeling these people do absolutely nothing but tweet about the club. It's not healthy to be that involved in something that has no direct effect on you. Their profile pictures are players, they have #mufc/LUHG in their name and are always the first in the comment section. Are they even employed?
Another thing, they seem to enjoy trolling.
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I think most of them are unemployed because they are probably at that age, from like 14-21. It's incessant. 'Fraud watch' when the player they don't 'rep' has a bad game; tagging a rival fan when player X does something etc etc -- as you say, it's just not a healthy way to live, let alone watch football. Everything is so reactionary and immediate.

That sort of tribalism starts lend itself to more extreme criticisms... I remember seeing a tweet very recently of a football twitter account going private after begging people to not tell his university of some tweets he made a year or two prior using the N word about various players.
 
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