My mum once said to me, “why do we love Bolton Wanderers so much?"
Every answer I supplied she had a response that would shoot me down…
“It’s the players." Nope, they leave after a couple of year’s service if we’re lucky.
“The manager then?" - Big Sam has just walked out on us so keep going.
“The stadium?" - We loved Burnden Park for years and always will but we still go to the Reebok and if they built a new stadium and called it the 188 Bet arena we’d moan for a while but then sure enough we’d be plodding down there once a fortnight too.
“The fans" - This is an interesting one, do we simply support each other? Is that what being a supporter is all about? Supporting your peers through thick and thin? Would you stop going if everyone else did? Supporters may come and go for whatever reason but it wouldn’t affect you attending and if the club didn’t exist anymore it wouldn’t be the fans that you missed….would it?
“The name" - Is it Bolton Wanderers? The name of the club. Its identity. Its just two words but it does seem that its those two words that we follow round the country supporting. The players, managers, stadium, backroom staff, kits all change year on year or decade on decade but we still go every week safe in the knowledge that one thing will never change – Bolton Wanderers FC . The two words are what we all follow, we cry together, we sing together, we win or lose together and without those two words we would be slightly lost every Saturday afternoon.
In recent times we have seen teams change the name of the football club and it has led to them forming a new club from scratch. You can take our players, you can take our manager, you can change our kit and stadium but you can’t take our FREED…..oh sorry – our name. AFC Wimbledon proved that changing the identity of the club is the one thing we as supporters will not stand for. We will unite and refuse to start supporting two different words – we’ll stick with the words we know and love thank you very much.
We support two glorious words and we bloody love it!
What is it that we support?
posted on 20/7/12
CHARGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Great piece kronk. I very much enjoed reading that!
posted on 20/7/12
*enjoyed
posted on 20/7/12
you right-- it is an identity that is rooted in a community expressed in a football club--- attack it at your risk !!
posted on 20/7/12
For me, I was born in Bolton, grew up in Bolton, went to my first game in Bolton (to the Wanderers of course). There is no other clubs that means anything like B.W.F.C. It's a life time passion. No other Town city or club means the same as Bolton and the Wanderers.
I can't understand anyone with a similar background supporting any other team/club, call it what you want but to me it boils down to the same thing, it's ingrained in my spirit. I will be a Wanderer until the day that I die.
posted on 20/7/12
Superwhiteinexile.
I 100% agree with your last paragraph with the exception of the last sentence of course.
Burnley or Bolton born Man U or Liverpool etc `supporters` are just non football people.
posted on 21/7/12
I`m Lovin It (U12138)
Like it or not, none of us are invincible.
You will have to come to terms with it unless we can support them from the other side.
I hope so.