Majority report Brentford

It's not self-worth as such... well, maybe it is. I think you're just as influenced by your deep set emotional attachment to the club as everyone else and I think your reports reflect that. When we love someone/something, when we care for them deeply, our judgement of them tends to go one of two ways: we can either become blind to their flaws and their faults and offer praise when it isn't necessarily warranted, or we become over critical because we want so much for them, we want them to be the best. I believe if you had been reporting on a team to which you have no emotional attachment over these last 10 months you would have been far more complimentary about the performances than you have been. But because it's Barnsley, because you care, because you want them to be perfect, it's the less than perfect aspects of their game that dwell on your mind. Your reports are certainly analytical, but I don't view them as any more logical than what others write. You're ruled by your emotions just as much as the rest of us, and I don't believe that's a bad thing.

 

I do not deny that I am a very emotional watcher of the game, nor that I care very deeply whether my team is successful. However, Minority Reports stay away from the emotional side of the game. There are enough posters who do that anyway. I try to analyse what I have seen so that I can provide a different look at the game, but I am no football professional and I have never suggested that I am, so my analysis is liable to be flawed. I have no problem with people who disagree with my analysis as that will spark an interesting discussion, and that is why I like to talk and write football. There is always a different view of the game. What I do not like is personal abuse. As far as I am aware, my reports are not indicative of anything, other than a desire to talk football, and that is all that I come on here to do. To find people with a common interest in Barnsley FC who wish to talk about their interest, particularly after games. You can continue to see my reports as a window to my character defects if you like, but that will not be as interesting for either of us as seeing my reports as a window to an interesting exchange of ideas.

I tend to engage those posters in discussion who I believe offer interesting and different ideas. I know that we have had our differences in the past, but I believe that your posts are interesting and well thought through, so I will always welcome the opportunity to debate with you.

 

I don't, not at all. The reverse if anything. People have suggested that because you're more critical than most then your love for the club is less. I was suggesting that although you attempt to detach yourself from the emotional side of the game, you can't. Just like the rest of us you're unable to do it, as just like with the rest of us it's impossible to separate emotion from analysis when your love for something is so ingrained. You don't use emotional language, but that doesn't mean your emotions aren't influencing your conclusions. I don't believe having an emotional attachment to a football club is a character defect in any way. Quite the opposite, and I think your love for Barnsley is just as obvious as that of anyone else, just expressed a little differently.

I didn't go to Brentford, so can't comment, which maybe explains all this.

 

I'm just here to talk about football. I do not tend to slag off players. I tend to try to find explanations elsewhere. It is just a different way of doing things, that's all. I am happy to debate all day with people who want to debate with me about what I have said about what I have seen and the conclusions that I have drawn. That is what I come on here for, but I cannot do that if I have not seen the game. There really is nothing deep or complex about it.