Supporting multiple teams: Wrong?

[No Fixed Abode]

Cmonurz supports two teams, as does Schards.

As do you

[Wax Jacket]

also have a history of watching a lot of teams - Salisbury, Colwyn Bay, WW, Reading

Don't think I'll ever not be a Reading fan now but if in future I live in, let's say, Cambridge and my kids want to watch live football I'd certainly take them. I do sometimes wonder about the people who commute huge distances, past lots of other football clubs, to watch a team at the other end of the country

WW is Wycombe or Wolves?

Wycombe

[pea]

Funny that a lot of people have family ties to Arsenal here, I also do (older generation were split between Arsenal and Manchester City) and I couldn't care less about Arsenal. Would prefer Manchester City win than any other Premiership team and always look out for their scores but would never bother going to see them and would want Reading to beat them every time.

Reading have always been my team, although I went to Wimbledon games whilst they were in the Premiership as it was easier to get to than Reading and then when I was living in Kingston I always checked AFC Wimbledon scores as they played fifteen minutes walk from my house, but hardly ever saw them despite that. Go to see a lot of Brighton games these days but most of the time I'm sitting in the crowd wanting them to lose, not sure why but its strange that you can have a local team, regularly go to their games and still not ever care about them winning.

[Friday's Legacy]

supporting two clubs means you put your money into both, otherwise you only follow.

i support reading, as i have for 30 odd years, but i also follow liverpool having grown up in ireland and having the choice of either liverpool or man utd. when we moved over to england and reading, and when i was old enough to go to football that was it. the atmosphere hooked me and i've missed very few home games since. but i still follow liverpool. i can't see anything wrong with following their results and having an interest in how they do.

i also keep an eye on stranraer as my grandfather player for them during the war.

[No Fixed Abode]

supporting two clubs means you put your money into both, otherwise you only follow.

i support reading, as i have for 30 odd years, but i also follow liverpool having grown up in ireland and having the choice of either liverpool or man utd. when we moved over to england and reading, and when i was old enough to go to football that was it. the atmosphere hooked me and i've missed very few home games since. but i still follow liverpool. i can't see anything wrong with following their results and having an interest in how they do..

Having grown up in Ireland you should be supporting Shamrock Rovers or something. Not an ENGLISH team.

[TBM]

I think people in or around their 30's have two teams (as such) is mainly due to when we were a kid, unless we were taken to Reading games the only other teams you got to watch play were teams in the top division on Match of the Day or live on ITV - there were no option to see the Reading v Leyton Orient game in the 3rd division in a highlights show or on the internet etc, neither were their radio broadcasts of the game (although dont quote me on that)

[postwhisperer]

supporting multiple teams in the same country is big no no

[paultheroyal]

Always Reading and only Reading.

Have soft spots for other teams but there is only one team for me!!

[Ark Royal]

Thanks to family ties, being born and bred in the streets around Elm Park, and growing up in the 60s/70s with two uncles as fanatical Reading fans, the outcome was inevitable.

I do not think I could ever contemplate supporting another team. Actually, I find watching a live game that does not involve Reading far more relaxing and enjoyable. I guess I am a Reading fan first, football fan second.

[LoyalRoyalFan]

Wrong.

Reading all the way.

[SHORT AND CURLY]

Born and bought up in North London (round the corner from Highbury) The majority of my family are Arsenal fans.
Parents moved to Berks when I was younger. Elm Park was the nearest ground, been going ever since.
(Unlike Nick Hornby of Fever Pitch fame who I think lived in Maidenhead and supported Arsenal)

Still got a soft spot for the Gooners and if no Reading game and the opportunity arises I will go and watch them. (Tickets provided)
If a match takes place between Reading and Arsenal I want a Reading win every time!

[Mr Optimist]

I support Reading but now living so far away in North Wales I can't afford to travel to all the games so occasionally I get my live football fix at either Bangor City (with my father in law) or Colwyn Bay as I live a 5 minute walk from their ground.

I am still a Reading fan first and foremost!

[Schards#2]

If you're a football fan, it's hard not to have an affinity with your local club. I was born in Berkshire and supported Reading in Div 3/4 and Man City in Div 1 until about 18 when I grew out of city.

I lived for 6-7 years in Barnet and then Potters Bar. A used to go to Barnet midweek games as a neutral (they were Conference and had never been in the league). Initially, I used to want the away side to win as they were generally underdogs, but the more you see the same players and get to know their strengths, you can't help taking more and more interest, to the point that I even went to a few away games including the one they went up on.

If anyone asked me at that time, I'd always say I was a Reading fan (and still went to far more Reading games) but there was definately an affinity for them until I moved back to Reading.

[LUX]

+1 for the ONLY READING clique. Pretty much obsessed since 1969 or so.

I used to go to Orient when I lived nearby and have a soft spot for them, and I follow Metz over here (but don't go these days as they are in the second division now )

Only other team I care about is England.

[TBM]

+1 for the ONLY READING clique. Pretty much obsessed since 1969 or so.

I used to go to Orient when I lived nearby and have a soft spot for them, and I follow Metz over here (but don't go these days as they are in the second division now )

Only other team I care about is England.

So basically you're saying you're not ONLY Reading

[LUX]

whatever

[Royal With Cheese]

Depends what you mean by support.

There will always be one team who you will support if they play any other team. That team for me is Reading.

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

I think it's fairly common (especially for Reading fans who grew up outside Reading) for fans to have supported "a big club off the telly" as a kid, and then got into Reading as they got older.

Many still retain an affection for that other team, but the "support" for them is a very distant second.


I don't see anything at all wrong with moving away and following the new local club unless that club is one that play Reading frequently. I could imagine going to maybe Exeter or York and getting into the games, but I couldn't at Cardiff or Derby.

[Cobi]

supporting two clubs means you put your money into both, otherwise you only follow.

i support reading, as i have for 30 odd years, but i also follow liverpool having grown up in ireland and having the choice of either liverpool or man utd. when we moved over to england and reading, and when i was old enough to go to football that was it. the atmosphere hooked me and i've missed very few home games since. but i still follow liverpool. i can't see anything wrong with following their results and having an interest in how they do..

Having grown up in Ireland you should be supporting Shamrock Rovers or something. Not an ENGLISH team.

That is such an uneducated response it doesn't even warrant a reply.

I think people in or around their 30's have two teams (as such) is mainly due to when we were a kid

Nothing to do with being in your 30's, it's most kids in general. They tend to go with who their friends support. When I was at School it was Man Utd, Liverpool or Arsenal. Nowadays it's Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City.

As you grow up and realise your town has a football club and you start going, you then fall in love with them and they become 'your' club, but you might still follow the club you supported as a kid.

[Croydon Royal]

+1 for the "only support Reading but have soft spots for other teams" view. For various reasons there's a few teams whose scores I always look out for (or even would go to watch if Reading weren't playing) such as Rochdale, Whyteleafe and Blackburn, but I wouldn't say I supported them. I'm pleased if they won and disappointed if they lost, but I don't really invest any emotion in them in the same way I do Reading.

Can't see myself doing otherwise either - but having said that my Dad, who grew up in the Valleys, would go and watch Cardiff every week until he was 21, but moved away and has now followed Reading for 30 years - including as a season ticket holder for the past 15 (since he started taking me). Now when Cardiff come to the Madejski they're the team he really wants to beat more than anyone else.