September 7 2009

Nick Hornby

Two views caught Jamesey's eye recently and caused him to reflect on the nature of supporting your club and football in general.

I was surprised, to put it mildly, that author Nick Hornby was quoted as saying in this weekend's Sunday Telegraph that football is "so uncool; it's become a game for old men or little kids. When I was growing up it was dangerous and it wasn't corporate. There was no Nike-isation."

Yes, this was the same Nick Hornby, the same Arsenal obsessive who wrote Fever Pitch and virtually started a new genre of football book, the serious analysis of a supporter's life and attitudes and how the game fitted in with his philosophy.

This was akin to the president of Iran calling Salman Rushdie the world's greatest living writer.

Nevertheless, as Nick is now a very successful and busy novelist and screenwriter, one can see that travelling up to Manchester on a Tuesday night or Sunderland on a Sunday morning or whatever other absurd timings Sky forces on us, would probably not be a high priority.

But to turn his back on the creature that made him - a massive turnabout indeed.

The other matter, more immediately related to HOL members and our club, was a recent posting by "Geoff Thomas" entitled "Why am I not missing the matches?"

"Geoff" relates his disappearing passion for Palace and is not renewing his season ticket.

I have met "Geoff Thomas" in the past and, like me, he has attracted criticism on this site because he is willing to attack what he thinks is wrong at our club.

But, like me, he criticises because he is, or used to be, upset at anything that could harm CPFC.

A surprising number of HOL members, mainly of a more senior vintage, echoed "Geoff"'s view and stated that their once rabid enthusiasm was on the wane.

To a lesser degree, I can go along with this myself.

First, this not an anti-Warnock or -Jordan column. Despite an undistinguished season over 08-09, I have endured far worse, even in recent times. Trevor Francis and Peter Taylor spring immediately to mind, although I wish they didn't.

There are other factors, of course - the recession, unemployment, the price of tickets and many more perfectly good reasons to stop coming to Selhurst

But I have missed several matches in recent years because I didn't feel like attending. I always hid behind an excuse that it was too cold or I didn't feel too well but really going to some games had become a duty. And watching football ought to be enjoyable not a duty.

Anyhow, at my age I hope to carry on buying my season ticket and watching the vast majority of home games until the final whistle.

As someone pointed out on "Geoff"'s thread, perhaps it is in the natural course of events that some older supporters lose their fire and, hopefully, are replaced by passionate young Eagles?

For the club's sake, let's hope so.

Email Jamesey with your comments to jevans3704@aol.com

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