Where's the magic gone and will it ever come back?

[William Treseder]

Sludge talks as if supporting City should be like a lifetime spent in purgatory, are you saying you agree with him?

For far too long on the pitch and for the last few months off it, City have traded very heavily on the notion that you cannot change your football club once you have one because they have been treating their customers like shit.

On the football front, we’re expected to turn up without complaint to watch football that was considered very basic in the eighties - all over the country, there are clubs that play, progressive, entertaining football, but in this part of South Wales, we’re stuck with a club that wants to be the new Wimbledon. Their style of play worked for them because they were good at it and, as a tiny club, when they came into the Football League, it worked for them to the extent that they enjoyed success they couldn’t have dreamed of if they’d played “normal” football, what’s our excuse?

Someone said that the crowd were disinterested on Saturday, I disagree, I think the club and team are lucky that they are still getting support of a quality they don’t deserve - City crowds through most of my time supporting the club would have turned by now if they had to put up with what the modern day fan does, we’re being taken for granted.

When you say ‘turned by now’, do you mean voting with their feet?
For as long as i can remember, i’ve never been more that 6ft away from a City fan at a game that isn’t fecking moaning about some aspect of the performance, even when we’re winning.
Maybe the standard of players has dropped off?
Last seasons championship was of a woeful standard. Norwich pissed it, but haven't won a game back in the top flight.
Far to many bang average players are getting top dollar now, and are’t worth it.
Too many negative and limited managers in the game as well.
It’s a minefield getting the balance right.
When i was a kid, West Ham played some of the most attractive football in the too flight, but got nowhere near winning it.
Kevin Keegan's Newcastle played some scintillating stuff, and got with in a whisker, but still won the middle of a doughnut.
Plenty of City fans didn’t give a hoot that we we’re boring under MM the season we went up.
Plenty of City fans moaned like **** the season we lost to Blackpool in the play off final although we played some great stuff that season.
Is there an answer to this conundrum?

[the other bob wilson]

When you say ‘turned by now’, do you mean voting with their feet?
For as long as i can remember, i’ve never been more that 6ft away from a City fan at a game that isn’t fecking moaning about some aspect of the performance, even when we’re winning.
Maybe the standard of players has dropped off?
Last seasons championship was of a woeful standard. Norwich pissed it, but haven't won a game back in the top flight.
Far to many bang average players are getting top dollar now, and are’t worth it.
Too many negative and limited managers in the game as well.
It’s a minefield getting the balance right.
When i was a kid, West Ham played some of the most attractive football in the too flight, but got nowhere near winning it.
Kevin Keegan's Newcastle played some scintillating stuff, and got with in a whisker, but still won the middle of a doughnut.
Plenty of City fans didn’t give a hoot that we we’re boring under MM the season we went up.
Plenty of City fans moaned like **** the season we lost to Blackpool in the play off final although we played some great stuff that season.
Is there an answer to this conundrum?

I was thinking more in terms of fans turning on the club and team, but I'm sure people will start voting with their feet as you put it - I daresay there's a few who have already.

I don't know how old she is, but Blueblade's question asked when watching the Under 23s of "why doesn't the first team play like this?" gets right to the heart of the matter. For a few seasons now, there has been a healthy number of under ten year olds at home games, but I wonder how many of those from, say, five years ago, are still going now? Once the novelty wears off and they get old enough to begin to understand more about the game, I can't help thinking that an awful lot of them look at our team, with many of them struggling to give and receive simple passes and think this isn't for me.

As I mentioned earlier, unless you're a Wimbledon winning major trophies and frequently tweaking the noses of the big teams, a team playing in the way we do will struggle, first, to attract new fans and then to keep them.

[Feedback]

When you say ‘turned by now’, do you mean voting with their feet?
For as long as i can remember, i’ve never been more that 6ft away from a City fan at a game that isn’t fecking moaning about some aspect of the performance, even when we’re winning.
Maybe the standard of players has dropped off?
Last seasons championship was of a woeful standard. Norwich pissed it, but haven't won a game back in the top flight.
Far to many bang average players are getting top dollar now, and are’t worth it.
Too many negative and limited managers in the game as well.
It’s a minefield getting the balance right.
When i was a kid, West Ham played some of the most attractive football in the too flight, but got nowhere near winning it.
Kevin Keegan's Newcastle played some scintillating stuff, and got with in a whisker, but still won the middle of a doughnut.
Plenty of City fans didn’t give a hoot that we we’re boring under MM the season we went up.
Plenty of City fans moaned like **** the season we lost to Blackpool in the play off final although we played some great stuff that season.
Is there an answer to this conundrum?

Tony Cottee, Frank McAvenee (sp)

The Hammers were a top side.