I'm no longer a daily visitor to the board and am an increasingly irregular poster (more on this later) but my impression when I am here is that views on the teams performances are increasingly polarised. One viewpoint is that this is a season of transition with a largely young and developing group of players / team and that as a result there will be good results and bad results this season. People with this opinion seem happy to be patient and wait for things to improve. The opposite view seems to me to be that there is no / insufficient evidence of improvement and a belief that even with some improvement this team is not good enough. Folks with this view want change - presumably driven by the belief that things won't get better. I don't feel I have enough first hand knowledge to express a strong view one way or another. I've only been to 3 games this season and only one in the last 4 months so others clearly have a more informed view. What I do know though is that in 45 years of following the Reds I've never felt as apathetic as I do right now. I feel guilty about not going (because I feel I'm letting my Grandad and Dad down - I stood alongside them in the Brewery Stand for years) but on the basis of what I've seen this season and last just can't be bothered to do a 200 mile round trip to Oakwell. My apathy is also reflected in my less frequent visits here. I also know that before the apathy came anger. I was very negative a few months and had some strong responses to a couple of my posts at that time! And so to my real point here..... I don't remember as much abuse and as many insults flying about between posters with alternate opinions as there are right now. Just remember though that anger is good. People who are angry about it still care so don't insult them and drive them away. Better anger than apathy and another lost supporter. WT Postscript: I typed that final sentence half an hour ago and have been reflecting on it since before posting. I almost typed it unconsciously and I don't know if I am lost - although I have no plans to attend a game at the moment. And if I am, I wonder what it'd take to get me back to Oakwell on a regular basis. I suspect that it the likelihood of me coming back has a inverse relationship to the length of time I stay away.....
Hi Mate, Are you the guy who put together the book of supporters articles/memories a few years ago? I submitted an article to that book and I seemed to recall your user name was 'wolvestyke'? Your views are interesting as they are similar to mine, I also hardly go at the moment, although I have been today as I like to see a game over the Christmas period and I still like to try and rekindle some of the romance of the FA cup. I am certainly falling out of love with the whole thing at the moment though and it is a very strange feeling having watched the reds for approaching 30 years now !
The strange thing is that if you had asked me last season that is exactly how I would have felt but this season, although it is currently full of ****, still feels more like My team of **** than last year, when I literally didn't give a ****. I am not very enthused at the moment but I care again, last year I didn't care any more.