Top Reds

[Big George]

I read this appalling article about the rift between Liverpool & Man U armchair fans who regard those who go to games as elitist tossers. It seems to suggest that club need to finds a away to engage because of the money they spend on merch, digital media etc.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/20 ... -listening

The sarcarstic/abusive slang they use for match going fans is "top reds" which sent me down this twitter wormhole.

https://twitter.com/search?q=%22top%20r ... arch_click

There are some very strange people out there.

[sendô]

It's the supporters attending matches that generally get shafted and treated like dirt by all and sundry from the clubs they support, to the police, to the PL, to the people scheduling matches like Brighton away to Newcastle on a Monday night, to last minute match cancellations, to the ****ing stop and go signs at the LS.

[LeonRivers]

“Last year the journalist Dean Van Nguyen wrote a taxonomy of one “extremely online” section of Liverpool’s fanbase, a type he called the “Twitter fan”. They were largely young, he wrote, obsessed with transfers, highly combative and persistently pessimistic.”

Not just here, then.

['stone hammer]

Sounds like the football equivalent of incels.

[EMI]

I've always found conversations with people who profess to be fanatical football fans but would never dream of stepping foot in a stadium difficult, I just don't get it. Conversations with the bloke in the pub in his replica shirt, downing 8 pints, saying, no I've never been, it's too expensive, can't get tickets etc.. no mate you just can't be bothered.

Personally "if you don’t go, you don’t know" sums it up for me, not saying the non-match going fans (and by "non" I mean never have and never will) don't matter and are not valid, but in MHO they don't carry the same weight as someone who puts in the miles.

But I do understand that I'm not where the money is at, so my opinion matters even less than it used to!

At the end of OGS's time at Man U, I was reading through one of their forums and the vitriol for the match going fan (Top Reds) was quite shocking.

[fmgod]

I find the people who select sports teams due to their success ie Manchester United, then also support Barcelona, Juve, PSG, then the top NBA team, top NFL team, have a personally defect

[lincolnhammer1963]

I used to work with a Red scouse fan ( albeit he was originally from southend) he moved to Lincoln in the 70s.
Anyway he used to tell everybody how great Liverpool were and champions of Europe and all that bollo*ks.
I used to take the p*ss mercilessly about him never going to an actual game.
All I ever got was the usual rubbish about how it was impossible to get a ticket. I questioned this so many times and always got the same old crap about liverpool being this huge club and you could only get in if you had a season ticket.
A couple of months ago I decided to put this lack of ticket availability to the test. So I went on Liverpool's website and hey presto ticket availability.
Admittedly they were on the pricey side through booking agency sites. But you could get them.
So I bought a ticket for £120 plus booking fee.
I presented it to him as a present from one football fan to another. He made all the excuses in the world why he couldn't go ( even though I paid for the ticket ).
As I suspected all along he was your classic armchair fan with little or no desire to actually attend a live match.
Annoyingly he used to make silly stories up about travelling to Istanbul for the champions league final.
I went to the game myself and took lots of photos and sent them to him while the game was going on.
Strangely he handed his notice in a few weeks later.
He now works at another company where I know a few guys. And sure enough he's already talking bollo*ks about the Red Sh*te.
These kind of clubs have 10s of thousands of these knobs who have never been to a game

[WCpete]

“Last year the journalist Dean Van Nguyen wrote a taxonomy of one “extremely online” section of Liverpool’s fanbase, a type he called the “Twitter fan”. They were largely young, he wrote, obsessed with transfers, highly combative and persistently pessimistic.”

Not just here, then.

Offspring of Championship Manager and FIFA

[Doc H Ball]

I wouldn’t mind betting that The Man overseeing the ESL, Qatar, Newcastle’s takeover etc stirs up these rumblings from the TV fan and sets them against us pesky Legacy ones.

[steveyrockstar]

I find the people who select sports teams due to their success ie Manchester United, then also support Barcelona, Juve, PSG, then the top NBA team, top NFL team, have a personally defect

It's penis extension, or even close to what Freund might describe as a form of modern 'penis envy'.

Ironic, cos most of them actually are walking penises.

[steveyrockstar]

I remember posting something of on the official West Ham facebook page during a match vs Chelsea (during lockdown), and I got trolled by Chelsea "fans" in Spain, Australia and Nigeria, none of whom I expect had ever been to England, let alone south London.

They trolled me as though they were massive Chelsea fans. The 'Australian' was actually a kid from Monaco living in Australia and his facebook page had Chelsea banners.

This was on the official West Ham facebook page.

[Thekorean]

I could have chosen to support Liverpool or United over here on this side of the pond, but I found too many of them are plastic knobheads. So I am a West Ham fan.

[Big George]

I could have chosen to support Liverpool or United over here on this side of the pond, but I found too many of them are plastic knobheads. So I am a West Ham fan.

Good choice,we’re not plastic, we’re real knobheads

[psychoscoredthelot]

My daughters boyfriend is an armchair Man Utd fan and is also obsessed with transfers. He only ever talks about how big a club they are and is so blinkered it’s unreal. Anyway my daughter told me she feels sorry for him that he’s never seen them live. I said well it’s not rocket science is it. You just have to put a bit of effort in and pay for a ticket.

I just don’t know how you can say you’re a supporter of you’ve never been to a game ?

[Thekorean]

My daughters boyfriend is an armchair Man Utd fan and is also obsessed with transfers. He only ever talks about how big a club they are and is so blinkered it’s unreal. Anyway my daughter told me she feels sorry for him that he’s never seen them live. I said well it’s not rocket science is it. You just have to put a bit of effort in and pay for a ticket.

I just don’t know how you can say you’re a supporter of you’ve never been to a game ?

Well, if you live in England that is.

I wiuld give up my firstborn to be able to attend ONE West Ham match in person.

[GetUrWangOut]

I think a lot of this comes down to money and where you’re located in relation to the club you support. Growing up money wasn’t that flush and I wasn’t based in London so trips to matches were usually limited to once a year, normally as a bday present with maybe one more game if/when my dads west Han supporting friends had spare tickets.

I’ve been this season more than ever but that has coincided with a friends parents getting season tickets which they only use maybe 50% of the time. I’ve been able to get to a few league games by buying them off them (for a comparatively cheap price) and I purchased tickets myself for Leeds and City in the cups when prices weren’t excessive.

I wouldn’t say I’m a better fan this year for going more but have certainly caught the bug. Notwithstanding and the point I’m trying to make is I wouldn’t think any less of fans who haven’t been much as it’s usually circumstances that prevent people.

[e17]

I find the people who select sports teams due to their success ie Manchester United, then also support Barcelona, Juve, PSG, then the top NBA team, top NFL team, have a personally defect

It’s the ones that also religiously support individual players too that get me.

Twitter is a creepy unpleasant world at the best of times, without accidentally spending any time browsing Adnan the Man Utd/Madrid/PSG/Neymar fan from Dubai’s opinion.

I think it stems from a lack of any semblance of history of the game or legitimate connection with these clubs beyond a media spotlight.

They’re just mini mirrors of most of the owners to be fair.

[Long Shot]

Well, if you live in England that is.

I wiuld give up my firstborn to be able to attend ONE West Ham match in person.

You'll get there fella. We're not planning on going anywhere soon. Set a goal, make a plan and bring your best singing voice.

This transfer obsession and list of tick boxes such
as players ages, salaries, what league they play in ect makes me scratch my head. It's a human being, they are only capable of what they are capable of in the situation they find themselves in. Some are verging on cold turkey on our transfer thread. Yes we need good players and it's an expensive gamble but I'm convinced stats and price and salary and previous are second to pure luck.

But it's the pessimism and the lack of patience and abuse of players they really spins my head. No, he really is better than a pub league player. If you are going to invest so much time and money into supporting a club try to ****ing embrace the good times and be a little realistic when your team loses. It makes life as a football supporter so much better.

As for the aggression and online slaggging, fishin, trolling ect. The sooner as you realise that a large majority of the human race have a mean c***ish streak the better off you'll be. I went from being OUTRAGGED!!!! to pity to now thinking about the slugs in my garden more than these twunts. Dead human skin to me. What a way to waste your life but some, no many, people just love to hate, and moan and project their cuntishness on others, let 'em get on with it. At least they have designated pits to spew in now

[westham,eggyandchips]

For the record, Twitter isn't real.

[RichieRiv]

The most obsessive fan I've ever met was an Arsenal fan in Singapore, who of course had never even been to the UK let alone North London. I ​didn't really get it to be honest and still don't.

I'm in my 20th season as a ST holder and I probably take it for granted, but it has never been easier or cheaper to get yourself to a West Ham game. In the days of the BG the number of match day tickets was in minimal and the cost was extortionate.

If anything good has come from the move to the LS it has been opening up match days to almost twice as many fans and younger ones at that. The BG was turning into a middle aged exclusive club.

As for online fans deriding those that attend? Well those that attended are supporters, who give not just their hard earned to buy tickets, but a lot of time as well. As the 19/20 season proved, havng no fans in stadium made a huge difference.

These online weirdos need to accept that grown men don't still need to be breastfed.