Stato
Well-known member
- Dec 21, 2011
- 6,590
Last night was gutting. It's never nice to be on the wrong side of a heavy defeat. It's never nice to get knocked out of a cup competition. (I know we're not technically yet). However, the team gets very little time for analysis and it's straight on to Forest at the weekend and then salvaging some pride in the home leg. I've been listening to RDZ saying (incorrectly) all season that we are playing three games a week and (correctly) that the demands are huge, but I'd not really digested his finer point. The teams that do this every year are made up of players for whom this is the norm: their lives are punctuated by a different game in a different competition every few days and there is never time to stop and smell the roses. It's always - forget that, we've got X next. At that level it must be completely mentally exhausting.
For fans, it should be different. We have all the time in the world to celebrate a triumph or rake over the coals of a defeat. However, after a little bit of complaining about luck, inexperience, finishing, etc. we'll also be straight onto the next challenge with (often unfounded) hope in our hearts. Feeling a bit philisophical about the whole business has got me wondering if that is one key part of the attraction. Being a fan requires you to mark the past as over, and to look to the future for the potential gold. Whoever you support, at whichever level, however your team is performing, its always about chasing the rainbow: the hope of the next game and as soon as that's gone, the next one: Man City fans win the treble, but what about repeating it? Sheffield United fans get pasted by us and Villa and Arsenal, but can look to the weekend and hope they get something at Bournemouth.
I'd previously understood that investing emotion into something over which you have no control can temporarily free you psychologically from the everday responsibilities and concerns of life, but I hadn't also considered that football allows us to be always looking into the future, always believing, Micawber-like that something will come up. Despite all of last night's evidence to the contrary, I think it must be giving us some comfort. Humanity is fired by an urge to progress and, as we can't all live lives of Alexander the Great, weeping that there are no worlds left to conquer,* we invest significance in something that requires us to be always looking to what comes next. I have always laughed at the Mitchell and Webb sketch where the football goes on for ever, but I'm seeing it in a new light. If you believe that we are all left to define meaning in our own shots at life, having things that will seemingly go on forever gives a bit of stability and perhaps helps us distract from our own mortality.
Sorry, this is a bit navel gazing and maybe should be in pseud's corner, but in short (but also eternally) - last night was a blow, but there's Forest on Sunday and if that's crap, there's Roma on Thursday, but if that's crap there's Liverpool next, and if the rest of the season's crap, then there's always next season.... on and on forever and ever, even after we're all gone, they'll always be the chance that the next match will be the one and there will be an invisible thread that links us to our descendents. Despite the constant knock backs, I love this game.
*- "Eric Bristow's only 27" - RIP Sid
For fans, it should be different. We have all the time in the world to celebrate a triumph or rake over the coals of a defeat. However, after a little bit of complaining about luck, inexperience, finishing, etc. we'll also be straight onto the next challenge with (often unfounded) hope in our hearts. Feeling a bit philisophical about the whole business has got me wondering if that is one key part of the attraction. Being a fan requires you to mark the past as over, and to look to the future for the potential gold. Whoever you support, at whichever level, however your team is performing, its always about chasing the rainbow: the hope of the next game and as soon as that's gone, the next one: Man City fans win the treble, but what about repeating it? Sheffield United fans get pasted by us and Villa and Arsenal, but can look to the weekend and hope they get something at Bournemouth.
I'd previously understood that investing emotion into something over which you have no control can temporarily free you psychologically from the everday responsibilities and concerns of life, but I hadn't also considered that football allows us to be always looking into the future, always believing, Micawber-like that something will come up. Despite all of last night's evidence to the contrary, I think it must be giving us some comfort. Humanity is fired by an urge to progress and, as we can't all live lives of Alexander the Great, weeping that there are no worlds left to conquer,* we invest significance in something that requires us to be always looking to what comes next. I have always laughed at the Mitchell and Webb sketch where the football goes on for ever, but I'm seeing it in a new light. If you believe that we are all left to define meaning in our own shots at life, having things that will seemingly go on forever gives a bit of stability and perhaps helps us distract from our own mortality.
Sorry, this is a bit navel gazing and maybe should be in pseud's corner, but in short (but also eternally) - last night was a blow, but there's Forest on Sunday and if that's crap, there's Roma on Thursday, but if that's crap there's Liverpool next, and if the rest of the season's crap, then there's always next season.... on and on forever and ever, even after we're all gone, they'll always be the chance that the next match will be the one and there will be an invisible thread that links us to our descendents. Despite the constant knock backs, I love this game.
*- "Eric Bristow's only 27" - RIP Sid