Feedback is back as Ninian Clark I believe.
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I was backing you up on your first point. It's an old saying in itself.
Agreed with the rest. TLG had his opinion, laboured it a little too far on here imho with the attendance bashing nonsense, but otherwise he made his decision and stuck to it, for whatever reasons he had.
I think time and events back up the point in your 3rd sentence. I still maintain that the temporary red kit was simply the icing on the cake for a lot of the old 'faces' (not in the hoolie sense). The move from NP to the CCS, the saturation / sterility of 'modern' football, growing up and other family / work / travel commitments all hit home for a few well known posters on here who chose to no longer go, as it does to us all from time to time.
The persistent anti Tan stance is completely unnecessary however, imo.
Anyone remember these very dark days?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39126425
I do. Very well. And I wouldn't wish them on any football fan. But it's happening right now to Leyton Orient and no matter what you think of Tan, he rescued us from this very situation which was happening seemingly weekly. That is fact.
In what kind of parallel universe do we exist, where Croesy remains banned yet Chris and the wurzel aren't?
I suspect TLG's feelings run a bit deeper than that. From what I've read of his previous posts on the subject, it's pretty clear that he feels let down, or disengaged from those that he felt didn't share his stance, particularly those who actively embraced the red shite. Arguably, that's a bigger issue for him to overcome.
Additionally, once you've walked away, it's much harder to come back. In my case, I used to be a passionate supporter of the Cardiff Devils and made some good friends there, but mainly due to their previous ownership issues walked away. Those issues have been resolved, yet my passion and interest have gone. I doubt I could name a single one of their players now if my life depended on it.
I know a few people who stopped going and just lost interest during that period. These are people who watched us regularly in the lower leagues, travelling long-distance to do so. But the whole affair made them look at the club differently and the break just introduced them to other interests (not DIY like). Have moved on and seem to have no real desire to come back now we're back in blue.
This is definitely the case. I played football during my 20s on a Saturday so I was obviously unable to attend regularly during that time and you inevitability lose interest a little.
If they came to a few games and they were good entertaining games then they would probably get their appetite back in time.
It's the desire to want to go back and keep going back that's the problem. Something has to happen to get their bug back. Mine was I wanted to spend time with my Dad on a Saturday and as soon as we went back to blue, I could tolerate Tan (just about) and time is a pretty good healer! I think we saw the effect of the rebrand under Slade whereby the casual fans had stopped going because the football was shit, and a lot of diehard fans had stopped after the rebrand. Regardless of what happened, Tan acted appalling during it with his "customers" and "they'll be replaced" comments, and I won't even mention the Jim White interview.
I totally agree with everything you say above but i would also add that fans on both side of the argument (myself included) didn't cover themselves in glory and failed to entertain the "others side" if the argument.
Battle lines were drawn and throw in the internet and a couple of WUMs and you've got a dangerous cocktail.
Thankfully we are now seeing the first shoots of recovery at this club and i hope many can bury the hatchet and return to watching the club.