Do fans’ expectations of success differ greatly between clubs and have they changed over time? There can be no precise answer, because we lack relevant data and would find it difficult to interpret even if we did have it, but it still a question worth posing.
Do fans’ expectations of success differ greatly between clubs and have they changed over time? There can be no precise answer, because we lack relevant data and would find it difficult to interpret even if we did have it, but it still a question worth posing.
I started to think about the subject after a comment made by West Ham United Sam Allardyce before his side’s 0-0 draw at St. James’s Park with Newcastle United yesterday. He argued, ‘There is a massive problem in terms of expectation at Newcastle. When the fans turn up and you are not doing so well, they will show their disapproval very quickly.’
Admittedly, Allardyce has an agenda as far as Newcastle are concerned. He had a difficult eight months there in 2008 which ended with his dismissal, the only blot on his CV. His comment may also have been part of the pre-match mind games. But the Magpies were booed off the pitch by many of their fans.
I have a number of friends who are Newcastle supporters and I have made the ascent to the away end at St. James’s Park more than once. Although this is again difficult to measure, I would argue that Newcastle fans are particularly passionate in a way that is linked to Geordie culture. Portsmouth, in some ways also a relatively distinctive and insulated city, is another example that comes to mind.
Anecdotally, Luton fans are known for high expectations and some argue that this is linked to a turnover of managers which hasn’t helped the club. Nevertheless, one can see where Hatters fans are coming from. They enjoy average attendances of 6,000 and sold 4,200 season tickets this summer. Once a top flight club, they have got stuck in the Conference, a league that it is difficult to get out of with only one automatic promotion place.
As a generalisation, I would say that most fans have excessive expectations and this is perfectly understandable. You are bound to hope for better things rather than say ‘League 1 is our level.’ Yeovil have shown that dreams can be fulfilled for small clubs, at least for a while.
At a guess there at least twenty clubs outside the Premiership who think their rightful place is there, often with some justification in terms of history and levels of support, e.g., Leeds United, Nottingham Forest.
Of course, lower down the leagues there has to be some adjustment to reality. Take the case of Rochdale. I know someone who is a keen Rochdale fan. He was understandably delighted when they got into League 1, even though their stay was a short one. But he knew that was as good as it was going to get and he doesn’t follow the easy option of supporting one of the two big Manchester clubs.
Have expectations grown over time? It’s a complex subject, but arguably notions of entitlement and short-term gratification have expanded in society as a whole. It’s easy to assume that in football’s ‘golden’ sepia-toned age when fans were not segregated that defeat or a low league placing were accepted with a philosophical shrug of the shoulder.
But somehow I doubt it. I remember a line in an Alan Sillitoe story where a character always comes home in a foul and even violent mood when Notts County lost at home. In his short story ‘The Match’ set at a game between Notts County and Bristol City, the crowd, including one of the central characters, lambast the home side.
Even so, the intensive media interest surrounding modern football, augmented by the social media, probably does increase the demands for short-term success rather than the patient development of a club over time. Hence the increasing turnover of managers, although, of course, owners protecting their investment are often the key actors here rather than the fans themselves.