Why are you a football fan?

[JayStringer]

Genuine question. I'm not looking for any arguments or gripes here. I'm curious as to what we each come to football 'for' and what our ideal experiences are? As a distraction from all the arguing and the gossip and the waiting-for-news, I just want a fun conversation about what we all like about football.

Mine have changed with geography. When I was younger and lived locally football for me was on two levels. As a Wolves fan it was the rituals, attending a game, singing some songs, forming an identity around belonging almost on a tribal level. And Never gave much thought to whether I was optimistic/pessimistic, it was just about that sense of belonging. On the larger level, the overall football level, I generally always wanted to see attacking football and was drawn to players in the 'hole' (that ever shifting style of player that is currently a number 10, and will be called something else in five years...) the talented player who didn't fit into a rigid system and could do something magic. I was the right age to get to see players like Cantona, Kinkladze, LeTissier, Stoichkov on the TV, and that form of enjoying football was almost a separate entity from being a Wolves fan. In a way I guess because we tended not to have those players.

From there, I guess the natural step was to become whatever we called football hipsters before we called them football hipsters. I loved watching Italian and Spanish football and pretending to understand their tactics on any real level, but mostly it was to catch sight of players like Totti, (real)Ronaldo, DelPiero.

When I moved north to Glasgow, I obviously stopped attending Molineux regularly. And the tribal/ritual part of being a Wolves fan slowly faded. And I guess what I've found over the years is being a Wolves fan for me has become closer to the fan I was of the other football stuff. I went from not really caring much that Wolves didn't necessarily play the type of football I was drawn to when I was watching non-Wolves footy, and rarely had the type of mercurial players I like, to pining to see Wolves play that way with those players. We've had flashes of those players in recent years. Costa, Cav, Jota, Neto. Each in different ways have almost been that player. And Moutinho has been the best midfielder I've ever seen in the gold, I'll always love the fella.

And I think that's where I'm at as a fan at the moment. Most of my viewing is on TV. I get to a few matches a year up here in Scotland to get the live fix, and and I get down to the Mol when I can, but the football experience has become about watching the team on TV, wanting exciting, progressive football, always looking for that one mercurial undefinable player who can remind me of those special players from the 90's.

 

[Glow69]

The love of the actual game always before the joy of supporting wolves.

Just can't beat the simplicity of playing in a game of football whatever the standard and whatever location!

 

[Burton Wolf]

Loved kicking a ball from an early age.

 

[JayStringer]

The love of the actual game always before the joy of supporting wolves.

Just can't beat the simplicity of playing in a game of football whatever the standard and whatever location!

There is something basic and fun about people kicking the ball. Whenever I'm out for a walk and I see people playing, I always pause to watch for a few seconds. Doesn't matter whether it's on the park or in a stadium.

 

[Woodsetton Wolf]

Loved kicking a ball from an early age.

Shouldn’t the “K” be replaced with and “L” x

 

[Berlin Wolf]

I have never actually asked myself that question Jay.
Been a Wolves fan since the age of 7. Time has ticked on since 1964 when I fell in love with going to Molineux.
Wolves were relegated that 64/65 season, but what was important to me was watching the players and being at the ground.
Football has been a way of life, what I have grown up with, so I have never consciously stopped, and thought.. to ask myself why?

 

[Starsky]

On the ale with the lads for 3pm KO's on a Sat. Oh and fair games.

2 reasons why we're all close to jacking.

 

[SheldonWolf]

I’m a wolves fan first and a football fan second

 

[Rhoswolf]

First memories travelling to Wolverhampton from Stafford, early 50's dad went football we went shopping trams still running. Loved football at school, Munich air crash aged 7 mega-news, sympathy for United dad converted me and here we are now 63 years and well over 2k games later.

 

[Flump]

Dad told me to.

 

[OLDGOLD]

I am a Wolves fan first and foremost, and watch very little football if it doesn't involve us. Its all about roots, thoughts of where I still consider is home and being a soppy git I think.

 

[Burton Wolf]

Shouldn’t the “K” be replaced with and “L” x

****ing hilarious you are x

 

[Darvo]

As a kid, we had a street, a field and a football. We played from sunrise to sun down. Day after day. All the kids did in those days. Loved it to bits.

I consider myself very lucky to have been born before the computer games/‘smart’ phones came along. I wouldn’t swap it for the world and feel sorry that kids of today don’t have the same freedom.

Funny thing is, I’ve made my living as a software developer.

 

[YouGottaRaulWithIt]

As a kid, we had a street, a field and a football. We played from sunrise to sun down. Day after day. All the kids did in those days. Loved it to bits.

I consider myself very lucky to have been born before the computer games/‘smart’ phones came along. I wouldn’t swap it for the world and feel sorry that kids of today don’t have the same freedom.

Funny thing is, I’ve made my living as a software developer.

I had a similar experience growing up I guess. The park was 200 yds from my house and I played football with my mates all the time.
I played for the school, for Walsall schools and then the University. When I moved to London I played in the London Commercial league. Retired mid 30's but played 5-a-side until I was 60. My knees are shot but it was worth it.
I travel to see Wolves home and away as often as I can, I even play the kids at fifa, as Wolves of course, but nothing can replace playing football.

 

[Big Saft Kid]

Because it's in the blood. I played football from the age of about 5 and loved it, even though my talents were limited. Then I got taken to Molineux about a year later at the age of 6 and I was hooked. The crowds were huge back then: home games often attracted crowds in the 40,000+ range, sometimes 50,000+. The noise was spellbinding and frightening at the same time. When I was a kid I suffered with my ears, and sometimes it physically hurt when the South Bank got going. There was no orchestrated chanting whatsoever in those days, there was just a constant wall of sound which swelled up and dropped back in harmony with what was happening on the pitch, and absolutely exploded stratospherically when Wolves scored -- which they did, often. That was all well over 60 years ago, but it left an indelible stamp. I spent many years of my working life outside the UK, but every Saturday afternoon would find me glued to the BBC World Service hoping to hear that Wolves had scored another. The day of the 74 League Cup Final, the BBC broadcast just the last 15 minutes of the match live, and I can still visualise the scene in my old house in Kuwait now. Fever pitch, the tension was unbearable, I could hardly bear to listen, but with a couple of minutes left and the clock ticking down, the ball came over, and out of nothing, bang! Richards scores! Blow the ****ing whistle ref! And he did, and we'd won it! Memories are made of this! Sweet, sweet, the mem'ries you gave to me, Can't beat the memories you gave to me!

 

[k-dog]

**** all else to do as a kid in the early 90s other than play football and get into a lot of mischief.

 

[Deleted member 11157]

Taken to Molineux when I was 5. Ingrained and irreversible. I can watch a complete shower of effluent one week then the next when they run out I am entranced and they are adored. Can't explain why.

 

[Glass ankles]

My Dad and Grandad got me into the Wolves from an early age.

As I grew older they stopped going and it became a social event with mates (and beer).

Not sure what happens next...

 

[old wittonian]

Because it's in the blood. I played football from the age of about 5 and loved it, even though my talents were limited. Then I got taken to Molineux about a year later at the age of 6 and I was hooked. The crowds were huge back then: home games often attracted crowds in the 40,000+ range, sometimes 50,000+. The noise was spellbinding and frightening at the same time. When I was a kid I suffered with my ears, and sometimes it physically hurt when the South Bank got going. There was no orchestrated chanting whatsoever in those days, there was just a constant wall of sound which swelled up and dropped back in harmony with what was happening on the pitch, and absolutely exploded stratospherically when Wolves scored -- which they did, often. That was all well over 60 years ago, but it leaves an indelible stamp. I spent many years of my working life outside the UK, but every Saturday afternoon would find me glued to the BBC World Service hoping to hear that Wolves had scored another. The day of the 74 League Cup Final, the BBC broadcast just the last 15 minutes of the match live, and I can still visualise the scene in my old house in Kuwait now. Fever pitch, the tension was unbearable, I could hardly bear to listen, but with a couple of minutes left and the clock ticking down, the ball came over, and out of nothing, bang! Richards scores! Blow the ****ing whistle ref! And he did, and we'd won it! Memories are made of this! Sweet, sweet, the mem'ries you gave to me, Can't beat the memories you gave to me!

I used to listen to the World Service in Chicago and the Dom Rep (with a portable radio airial attached to the car chassis) in the early 1990's. Problem was they shut off the World Service at about 16-57. Had to ring home if the result hadn't come through. No Internet in those days.

 

[Bawtry Wolf]

Wolves and football are part of me, without Wolves football is a lot less interesting. It was not a choice or conscious decision but rather a way of being.

 

[Big Saft Kid]

Genuine question. I'm not looking for any arguments or gripes here. I'm curious as to what we each come to football 'for' and what our ideal experiences are? As a distraction from all the arguing and the gossip and the waiting-for-news, I just want a fun conversation about what we all like about football.

Mine have changed with geography. When I was younger and lived locally football for me was on two levels. As a Wolves fan it was the rituals, attending a game, singing some songs, forming an identity around belonging almost on a tribal level. And Never gave much thought to whether I was optimistic/pessimistic, it was just about that sense of belonging. On the larger level, the overall football level, I generally always wanted to see attacking football and was drawn to players in the 'hole' (that ever shifting style of player that is currently a number 10, and will be called something else in five years...) the talented player who didn't fit into a rigid system and could do something magic. I was the right age to get to see players like Cantona, Kinkladze, LeTissier, Stoichkov on the TV, and that form of enjoying football was almost a separate entity from being a Wolves fan. In a way I guess because we tended not to have those players.

From there, I guess the natural step was to become whatever we called football hipsters before we called them football hipsters. I loved watching Italian and Spanish football and pretending to understand their tactics on any real level, but mostly it was to catch sight of players like Totti, (real)Ronaldo, DelPiero.

When I moved north to Glasgow, I obviously stopped attending Molineux regularly. And the tribal/ritual part of being a Wolves fan slowly faded. And I guess what I've found over the years is being a Wolves fan for me has become closer to the fan I was of the other football stuff. I went from not really caring much that Wolves didn't necessarily play the type of football I was drawn to when I was watching non-Wolves footy, and rarely had the type of mercurial players I like, to pining to see Wolves play that way with those players. We've had flashes of those players in recent years. Costa, Cav, Jota, Neto. Each in different ways have almost been that player. And Moutinho has been the best midfielder I've ever seen in the gold, I'll always love the fella.

And I think that's where I'm at as a fan at the moment. Most of my viewing is on TV. I get to a few matches a year up here in Scotland to get the live fix, and and I get down to the Mol when I can, but the football experience has become about watching the team on TV, wanting exciting, progressive football, always looking for that one mercurial undefinable player who can remind me of those special players from the 90's.

Pity you are too young to have seen Peter Broadbent. He would definitely have floated your boat!

 

[Deleted member 11157]

Pity you are too young to have seen Peter Broadbent. He would definitely have floated your boat!

Never saw him but described in almost majesty by those that did. I suppose the same might be said about Moutinho who is probably the best footballer I have seen in a Wolves shirt. Sorry Bully ..

 

[George AlooGobi]

As a kid I loved playing and watching, and did as much as I could of both. Less playing more watching as I got older

Over the last 5/10 years I've grown more and more disillusioned with the game. Billionaire foreign owners, the greed, the (perceived) bias towards certain clubs from media and governing bodies. VAR was the last straw

Football today is not the game I grew up with and loved. I only watch Wolves matches anymore. I suppose I'll give the Euros a crack in the hope it'll rekindle the flame

 

[Axle]

Followed Stafford Rangers before Wolves.

Unlike many l fall in and out of love with the club game but l LOVE watching England play. Goes back to my early days watching Mexico 86 and ltalia 90, nothing can compete with seeing Lineker get that hat-trick against Poland (now married to a Pole!) and then destroying Paraguay in the second round.

Then Platt’s goal v Belgium (not sure how many times l’ve tried to re-create it) and losing on pens to Germany is still my worst moment as a fan. I think l was depressed for a week afterwards.

England is always the pinnacle of the sport for me, no matter the few highs and many lows of following Wolves, nothing seems to get close to the togetherness of the national team in a tournament.

I suppose l have as much chance of seeing England win something as Wolves, so l can keep dreaming!

 

[Deleted member 11332]

Suppose because I was born in England where it's absolutely nailed into you. Spent hours practicing in the garden with my dad. I played at a decent level when I was younger so although I was a wolves fan, not a regular due to playing. When I realised I wor gonna make it at a good level I committed to being a fan.

For me more than anything it's a time I get to spend with my best mate in the world, that no one else but me and him get and hopefully when his grandson is ready we will have 3 generations sharing that time and love.

I've seen some **** at wolves, the last few years has been by far the best I've seen. Genuine quality who I actually looked forward to watching, often in awe of how ****ing good they were. I'm hoping we can get back to that.

 

[JR WAS KING]

Dad told me to.

Same here. My Dad and Grandad were both Wolves fans so it was only natural that I would follow. Started going in the mid 60's with both of them and I'm still going now.

 

[Pagey]

Earliest memory was world cup '86 Watching on a black n white portable in silence, after supposed to be in bed. Loved it

 

[TheConcourse]

It was always just the thing as a kid.

Spending hours smashing the ball at mums metal garage door pretending to get the winner in the FA Cup final for Wolves.

Every summer holiday at the park with the lads from morning until night.

The most vivid memory of football - or should I say the most emotion I can ever remember - was walking up the concourse steps of the Billy Wright for my first ever game.

My stomach hit my throat when I saw the turf for the first time.

So many good times. Honestly, I’ve had moments where I feel like I could quite happily **** football off. Usually after a defeat staring a 150 mile trip back home in the face. Then you jump on the train and start planning next week. Weird when you don’t really get any value back other than a slight adrenaline rush. It consumes so much time.

After Dad passed away a couple of months ago it feels like it matters more now. It’s one of the few connections that we had and it’s done little things like prompted me to buy the “Molineux Rose” for the garden. I ****ing hate gardening.

Ah football. Emotional game.

 

[Deleted member 4456]

Self-flaggelation?

 

[Hugh Jarse]

My dad took me to my first game in 1974 when I was 6. I loved playing football, watching games and the whole atmosphere.

I've travelled home and away with England and Wolves over the years and had many great times. Going away and then off to raves or the seaside was sooo much fun

I read the boards on here and I'm fascinated by the knowledge of many on European and world football. I don't know what's happened but the last year has sapped all my enthusiasm. I'll watch anyone to do with us but the game doesn't feel the same. Feels like I'm falling out of love with the game at times.

My missuses daughter plays for Loughborough Dynamo and I've really enjoyed watching the team develop over the season, missed out on the league by 1 bloody point sadly.

I'm hoping that getting back into the ground gets me going again next season.

 

[Chungster]

Like most of a 'certain age' I was collar-plucked from a late Summer Saturday morning, scarlet-kneed reinactment of the taking of the bridge at Remagen either side of next door's privet and told to 'get my coat'.

Within the hour I had been scrubbed semi-raw from the waist up in a luke warm carbolic paste, mummy-wrapped above the shoulders in a horse hair train of gold and black, frogmarched onto the South Bank, handed a bag of Salt & Vinegar and told to 'watch the match'....which I did. I always did as I was told.

And I carried on 'watching the match' for the best part of 50 years. Up and down the country, up and down the leagues, in and out of sanity, I waited for someone to tell me to stop. The call never came of course, so eventually, when what I had been watching for all those years became vandalised beyond the point of recognition, hollowed out into a shoddy, empty facsimile of itself I had to take matters into my own hands. I went over the wall. I chose another sport.

No one set the dogs after me, no one tried to bribe me back. I just stopped being a football fan.

That doesn't mean I don't remember very vividly why I was one for over half a century. In fact I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes, trying to scratch away that Saturday morning horse hair itch...

Does that still count?

 

[TheConcourse]

Like most of a 'certain age' I was collar-plucked from a late Summer Saturday morning, scarlet-kneed reinactment of the taking of the bridge at Remagen either side of next door's privet and told to 'get my coat on'.

Within the hour I had been scrubbed semi-raw from the waist up in a luke warm carbolic paste, mummy-wrapped above the shoulders in a horse hair train of gold and black, frogmarched onto the South Bank, handed a bag of Salt & Vinegar and told to 'watch the match'....which I did. I always did as I was told.

And I carried on 'watching the match', home and away for the best part of 50 years. Up and down the country, up and down the leagues, in and out of sanity, I waited for someone to tell me to stop. The call never came of course, so eventually, when what I had been watching for all those years became vandalised beyond the point of recognition, hollowed out into a shoddy, empty facsimile of itself I had to take matters into my own hands. I went over the wall. I chose another sport.

No one set the dogs after me, no one tried to bribe me back. I just stopped being a football fan.

That doesn't mean I don't remember very vividly why I was one for over half a century. In fact I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes, trying to scratch away that Saturday morning horse hair itch...

Does that still count?

Wordsmithery right there.

 

[lostwolf]

Like most of a 'certain age' I was collar-plucked from a late Summer Saturday morning, scarlet-kneed reinactment of the taking of the bridge at Remagen either side of next door's privet and told to 'get my coat'.

Within the hour I had been scrubbed semi-raw from the waist up in a luke warm carbolic paste, mummy-wrapped above the shoulders in a horse hair train of gold and black, frogmarched onto the South Bank, handed a bag of Salt & Vinegar and told to 'watch the match'....which I did. I always did as I was told.

And I carried on 'watching the match', home and away for the best part of 50 years. Up and down the country, up and down the leagues, in and out of sanity, I waited for someone to tell me to stop. The call never came of course, so eventually, when what I had been watching for all those years became vandalised beyond the point of recognition, hollowed out into a shoddy, empty facsimile of itself I had to take matters into my own hands. I went over the wall. I chose another sport.

No one set the dogs after me, no one tried to bribe me back. I just stopped being a football fan.

That doesn't mean I don't remember very vividly why I was one for over half a century. In fact I still wake up in the middle of the night sometimes, trying to scratch away that Saturday morning horse hair itch...

Does that still count?

The only poster on here who easily gets away with self-important bold text. Great post again.

P.S. what is this 'other sport' you speak of?

 

[George AlooGobi]

The only poster on here who easily gets away with self-important bold text. Great post again.

P.S. what is this 'other sport' you speak of?

My money Is on rugby. That's what my dad did

 

[Deleted member 9202LYK]

I just always was. Dad first took me to a game when I was about theee (not wolves) ans as soon as I was old enough to realise what was happening i threw tantrums until he started taking me to Molineux.

 

[lostwolf]

My money Is on rugby. That's what my dad did

But he said 'sport'?

 

[Wagstaffe Was Magic]

Parkes
Parkin Thomson,
Bailey Woodfield Holsgrove,
Kenning Wignall Dougan Knowles and Wagstaffe
August 17th 1968, Molineux.
Love at first sight!


That’s why.

 

[Pagey]

My money Is on rugby. That's what my dad did

I'd guess horse racing

 

[BlahBlah]

Started watching Wolves because i had nothing better to do and my best mate had nobody to go with.
His dad had taken him up since he was 6, from the North Bank on a milk crate. His dad was moving to the Steve Bull when the NB closed but my mate wanted to stand up so i had to go with him in the SB. This was just before Brian Little and a season before Bull was signed. God it was dreadful.
Had no previous connection with Wolves, family wasn't born round here.

 

[Burton Wolf]

I used to listen to the World Service in Chicago and the Dom Rep (with a portable radio airial attached to the car chassis) in the early 1990's. Problem was they shut off the World Service at about 16-57. Had to ring home if the result hadn't come through. No Internet in those days.

I was in San Francisco early 80's rang the old man up to see what the score was. He said "sorry son I don't know". For ****s sake! He wasn't a football fan. Cost me a fortune for **** all