I support Nottingham Forest.
You could say that is my first mistake.
However, I have followed them since 1978 [when they were good] and so I’m pretty much too far gone to change sides now.
The past 20 years have been rough.
Sure, in comparison to an unemployed dad who has 3 kids to raise, it’s not been that bad – however whereas once we were the proud Kings of Europe, we’re now the poor cousins of the Midlands.
From European Champions to League 1 regulars [or old league 2] in a few decades.
No winner of a major European Cup has ended up so low in a league.
No one.
Not one.
Which is another accolade we can add to the list of disappointments.
But despite all that, I still continue to throw my money at them.
Season tickets, internet access, merchandise … and then there’s the emotional expense where I spend countless nights huddled around a computer listening to them flatter to deceive once again.
But the last couple of seasons have had their ups.
2 years ago – after scraping survival in the Championship league – we started the season by buying 9 – YES NINE – players and then shock everyone by getting into the Premiership playoffs.
Of course we fucked it up – but despite the disappointment, we were so happy not to be fighting off relegation, we all left with smiles on our faces.
Here was a team on the up.
New players … a strong and successful manager [Billy Davies] … a multi-millionaire owner … it only needed a little push and we’d finally be back in the big time.
Except that push didn’t happen.
There was big talk …
The clubs Managing Director [not the team manager] spouted off a whole list of major names on their ‘wish list’ but in the end, it seemed their wishes weren’t shared by the players because apart from 1 loanee signing, we started off the season with no one new.
And yet, despite having the rug pulled from underneath us before the league had even started, we ended the season – yet again – in a playoff position.
But this time it was different.
OK, not everything was different because yet again we lost out in the playoffs – however what was new was that this time, instead of hearing our players excited about playing for the ultimate prize, we heard news of senior and pivotal players not being offered new contracts.
Sure, you could say the club were waiting until they knew their fate before offering them, but imagine if you were a player and you didn’t know if you were going to be in a job in a few weeks … would you really care whether they achieved their goal or not?
And now here we are …
At a time where you should be excited about the players that you hear might be coming in, all we’re hearing is of players leaving because they’re sick of how the club have treated them or how we’re going after lower league transfers because ‘they’re cheaper’ or – and this blows my mind – how the club might sack the manager because despite being the most successful guy they’ve had in 12 years, his outspokeness has upset the Managing Director.
I say we hear this, but actually we only hear it from other sources because the club is saying nothing.
It’s not answering the complaints of their once loyal players.
It’s not answering the concerns they may be sacking the best manager we’ve had.
It’s not talking about their plans for the future.
NOTHING.
NOT A BEAN.
I cannot tell you how angry this has made me.
I shouldn’t care … I’ve had years of being disappointed, underwhelmed and given false promises – plus at the end of the day, it’s only a game – however I do care, I love this club, it is both a pillar of where I’m from and who I am and to not even be communicated to by the people who have happily taken my money for 30+ years is a disgrace.
Being wronged is one thing, being wronged and having no one tell you sorry – or even why – is another thing all together.
If I was treated this way by anyone else I’d tell them to fuck off.
I’d never speak to them again.
I’d wish them pain, suffering and misery.
And yet I won’t.
Even though I am seeing a team that was filled with amazing potential, slowly but systematically get taken apart and replaced with shit … even though I am probably going to witness the best manager we’ve had since the genius Cloughy get fired* because the petty, bland, corporate-toady Managing Director didn’t like him … even though I am destined to another decade of gut-wrenching disappointment and failure … I’ll be there.
I’ll buy my season ticket … I’ll get up in the middle of the night to watch the games … I’ll order their merchandise …
Adland likes to talk about brand loyalty but they don’t know shit.
Someone who stays true to a brand despite having them kick you in the face over and over and over again is brand loyalty, buying Colgate fucking toothpaste when you’ve run out of it, isn’t.
Of course football is different to FMCG … sure what I am doing is sad and pathetic … but here’s the thing, why can’t a mass market consumer brand brand attract the same sort of loyalty as I have for Forest?
Bands get it.
Football teams get it.
Even some movie stars get it.
Why not an FMCG?
We have become an industry that acts as if there’s 2 World’s, the ‘real life’ version and the ‘marketing’ version and we have an attitude that they can never, ever meet.
It’s time to stop thinking and acting in this way.
I’m not denying it would be difficult for a soap powder to attract the same sort of loyalty as I have for Nottingham Forest … but by the same token, there’s people all over the World that are doing a whole heap of weird, wonderful and irrational things because of something that means a lot to them … and so if brands truly want to infiltrate into people’s lives, they need to stop putting a lid on trying new things and start comparing themselves to the extremes of loyalty, not the most passive version of it.
* Since I wrote this post, my prediction has come true and they’ve sacked Billy and replaced him with this idiot.