NICK FEINBERG: The magic of ‘proper’ fans

HELLO my good football people, trust you’re doing well! I’m going to kick off today with a few words about certain clubs and their fans...

Stadiums at top-end clubs these days are populated, I’d say by as little as 25 percent of the original supporters.

There are lots of reasons for that, including popularity (not enough seats available), pricing and game-day experience.

I, for one, as a previous “home-and-away” supporter, struggle to get into Stamford Bridge when I’m in England. It’s hard to get tickets and generally the atmosphere is pretty dull.

It’s full of people I don’t identify with (from a football perspective). It’s a bit of a lame experience, super expensive and lacking that passion and grit I loved so much from back in the day.

I prefer to get to an away game where most of the fans are actual Chelsea supporters, maybe not hardcore like we used to be, but genuine nevertheless. There are certain games at the Bridge where you can feel a bit of spirit, especially derbies or big European nights, but week-in-week-out it’s a bit damp and dull.

If a team has a roaring crowd behind it, it will play better, but more on that just now! No such luck in west London, as you’re more likely to hear moans and groans than claps and chant! What an absolute contrast to the (average gate of around 19 000) of us who used to sing and back the team win or lose.Those days unfortunately will NEVER be re-lived.

Anyway, I am a grumpy old b*****d when it comes to all that and modern-day fans can’t understand my viewpoint. It’s so hard.

Football is less violent, better technically, in safer stadiums, on perfect pitches, with huge sponsors, helping pay for world-class talent etc. How the f**k can I debate against it?

Your average fan doesn’t want to be worried about getting into a mass brawl, on a dodgy terrace or back street, watching s**t football on a muddy pitch...

Arsenal probably have the worst of the new breed.

Housed in a luxury stadium, selling premium priced food and beverages, and charging the highest ticket prices in Europe. They have the “Ashburton Army” (search on YouTube) WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT.

And despite challenging for the title and Champions League, these lil’ twits want their coach sacked?

Manchester United of course have been filling Old Trafford with tourists for years, the atmosphere is worse than Chelsea’s. I’m not referring to “real” fans from different countries, I know many die-hard supporters in Cape Town.

I’m talking about the loads of tourists who don’t care about football, they’ll all be off to see Buckingham Palace the next day.

Liverpool have managed to maintain some semblance of realness in the stands although a FAR, FAR cry from the incredible Anfield as we use to know it, similarly to Manchester City…

We had MAAAD away days at Main Road back then!

But back to how a great atmosphere can make a huge difference and there couldn’t be better proof of that than Sunday’s FA Cup fourth round tie at Plymouth Argyle.

Football passion still lives and breathes in the lower divisions, where crowds are made up of locals. Not taking anything away from a deserved win, but that fire in the crowd definitely served as the proverbial “12th man”.

Here came Europe’s elite, top of the Premier League, best form in the Champions League and despite a number of changes, every player worth multiple times that of the entire Plymouth squad. It was a proper throwback to the days when “giant killings” were actually a thing.

These days of course, as with society, the rich clubs are richer than ever and the gap between haves and have nots are increasing exponentially.

So, despite the pumping adrenalin, raucous crowd and game-of-a-lifetime opportunity, the Plymouth’s of this world rarely get past the earlier rounds.

Saying that, lets not forget Miron Muslic’s team beat Brentford to draw the Reds. A big shout has to go out to Leyton Orient (last time I was there, I got crushed in a wall collapse as Chelsea squeezed into the away end). They deserved something out of their narrow loss to City!

As for dem damn Scousers… no lads you ain’t doing the quadruple. Sit down, be humble!