Comments on: Write It Like Disaster

By: Just-Football

Just-Football — Tue, 06 May 2008 15:45:31 +0000

Its a great point raised here, and one which I think exemplifies why so many people follow football.

The outlook on one's club is largely related to what a fan can expect from the team any given weekend or season. The enjoyment of the club is directly related to how you expect to fare – for a team like Stoke this season goes way above expectations, while at Leicester for example, relegation is way outside the realms of what they would have hoped for.

Without the constant stimulation derived from managing one's expectations for their club there would be no yardstick and it might all become a bit drab.

In England for example, below the top four teams there would be no supporters whatsoever.

By: ursus arctos

ursus arctos — Tue, 06 May 2008 09:02:29 +0000

One also needs to keep in mind that those expectations are to a significant extent shaped by rival supporters and the media (which of course feed off of each other).

This is why the Milanisti chose to mock Inter's relative lack of success in the European Cup/Champions League on Sunday (through a tifo of a drunken Homer Simpson watching the tube on the couch on the night of the CL final) and why us Tottenham types never tire of alluding to Arsenal's lack of success in Europe.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 06 May 2008 01:00:25 +0000

Good points all. As a graduate of Florida State University, I became completely jaded by winning so often in the decade of the 90s. When we started winning fewer games, it was heartbreaking at first. Winning had become joyless, losing had become the end of the world. Then I realized, after a few seasons of medicority, that winning could be fun again. The price of constant success is the expectation of success and the subsequent disappointment of the occasional loss. I've experienced that in other sports. I can only imagine having a team lose in the round of 16 in Europe would be disappointing to some. If my Pompey lost there, I'd be ecstatic. Until it happened every year, then I'd be upset. That ebb and flow of winning and losing keeps us fresh and keeps the joy in sport.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:04:58 +0000

Henry, that's a great point, and probably suggests why fans of financially solvent lower-league teams seem to be happier than most other sports fans. Also: from The Onion, same point, different metaphor.

By: Henry

Henry — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:32:23 +0000

I entirely agree with Roswitha's comment and your response, and therefore think that this post might be called a "Why Do We Follow Sports" entry in disguise. Social scientists in the new (?) field of "positive psychology" have recently reminded us that beyond a certain basic level of material comfort, a person's happiness owes less to her actual circumstance than it does to her management of expectation. Following a team could be early and long-lasting practice in precisely this skill.

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 05 May 2008 18:14:05 +0000

Bet Man, I think it all has to do with what competitions a team has won recently. For Liverpool, who won the Champions League in 2005, all the pressure is to win the Premier League. But for Chelsea? I think Abramovich wants that first European title a lot more than he wants a third league championship. And from everything I hear out of Manchester United, Alex Ferguson (nine league titles but only one European Cup) is fixated on improving his European resume—and if Man Utd win the league but fall short in Moscow, I think a lot of people will see their season as somewhat tainted.

Roswitha, I agree, and the whole idea of equanimity in football presents a intriguingly elusive possibility. One of the few essays I enjoyed in My Favourite Year was Harry Pearson's, in which, instead of choosing to write about a year in which Middlesbrough were very good or very bad, he wrote about a year in which they were comfortingly mediocre and didn't put him through much stress. But more generally, equanimity never sold a tabloid, and the whole mechanism of the sports media is designed to make us feel like every match is the Trojan War. It's hard to know how to feel, especially since the Trojan War can be a lot of fun for anyone not actually living in Troy.

By: roswitha

roswitha — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:01:53 +0000

Football is closer to life than to art in this respect, I feel. The truly staggering moments of catharsis are splendid and worth years of patience, but for the most part –in the long run — you have to live in the same world as everyone else, and get comfortable with the idea that equanimity is going to be your greatest comfort.

You have touched a chord with this; I was thinking about the debilitating euphoria of victory last night, following the curious jellying of my knees in the wake of Milan winning the derby, and I think my approach to football is taking on a form closer to the low-key don't-look-now hopefulness of an Elizabeth Gaskell novel than the entitled romanticism of a Shelley poem. A girl has got to survive this crud, man.

By: Football Bet Man

Football Bet Man — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:59:38 +0000

Its interesting that you note that Real fans were 'upset' about only winning the league and not the CL. Here in England, we have for the past few years (ever since Liverpool won it) seen the CL as just another trophy, nowhere near as important as the League, and Rafa Benitez has been villified for 'only' winning the CL (and being the most successful manager in the competition over the last 4 years).

Now that Man U are doing well in the cup, it seems the media are rightly viewing it as the great competition it is again!