I’ve not been consistent or productive on this platform and for those who are regular subscribers apologies.
However, this is 2025, and while I’m not one for the ‘new year, new me’ brigade, I do hope that this will show a little more productivity and content here for you all.
So, let’s start it off with some good old-fashioned outrage!
Social media has its positives but, in this age, it has its perils too. Not least those who enter the chat for clicks likes and outrage to create responses, shares and somehow please the algorithmic overlords that we all serve under.
While scrolling mindlessly on Instagram a video appeared of what I assume to be a podcast clip or perhaps a ‘fan tv’ style account.
Three guys, three mics you know the drill.
As I listened I could feel the anger bubbling up within me.
‘If you don’t support one of the big clubs or a Premier League club what is the point?’ stated one of these ‘commentators’ and I’ve put that in quotations rather be derogatory.
‘For sure’ said another ‘Why would anyone want to follow a team in League 1 or League 2 that will never go anywhere’.
The third chair nods in agreement.
I’m not going to share the video. Largely because it is clickbait and secondly because in my rage I forgot to even check the account name so no credit can be given. Also, I may be misquoting these guys slightly but the point and the premise remain.
I’m not sure who these guys supported that was not declared however I do recall one was in some form of Arsenal attire. To be honest it doesn’t matter it was the words that I found so despairingly out of touch.
Maybe it’s time for the introduction of my second-tier theory. I believe that in the second tier, you find the most competitive games and the true believers. Let’s go a little deeper.
Last season, I agreed to take my Dad to Southampton’s opening fixture in the Championship. Wherever it fell we would go. Home or away.
As it turned out we ended up in Sheffield to watch the Saints take on, and beat, Sheffield Wednesday. There was a real buzz as we entered the ground, the first game back, the potential for success and heartbreak. On climbing the stairs into the away end of Hillsborough a couple of, what I imagine, were every game regulars meeting up again for the first time since their summer break one loudly declared ‘real football is back!’
Check-in with a Southampton fan now to see how they feel about life in the Premier League. While their playoff run and win brought fervour and hope the season has been well…pretty miserable. Rock bottom and all over the place. You can see the empty seats becoming more and more prevalent as the season goes on. The loyal will always be there, the Premiership seekers are already abandoning their perch.
So, what of the Championship, the most competitive of leagues and the place that our podcast hosts refuse to tolerate?
Well, there may be some of the ‘usual suspects’ around the top tier there is only a four-point gap currently holding the team in 11th from achieving a playoff berth.
Meanwhile at the bottom……
A five-point gap between 17th and the dreaded dotted line.
It’s tight, it’s competitive. games come at you quickly and without consistent form your final position can be a complete lottery. Only a few short weeks ago QPR (currently in 10th) were around the relegation places within the last 4/5 weeks.
When the inevitable happens and Southampton return to this league I genuinely hope they stay here for a while. The ‘yo-yo’ effect is tiresome for clubs and fans alike.
Why would you not want to be a fan of these teams? Why would you want to be a fan of a team in League One hoping to go up and see if you could survive in this bear pit of a competition. Equally, why not a League Two side with big ambitions to be part of League One and beyond? Wrexham are trying their hardest to get to the upper echelons but imagine a Championship with Wrexham, Swansea and Cardiff!
The Premiership is not the be-all and end-all of football. Long-distance fandom is not always easy to maintain and is costly. Why not become part of something at your local side? Why not be part of a community from within your community?
Oh, and if you think this is just an English phenomenon it’s not. The 2. Bundesliga has a real ‘hold my beer’ energy in this debate
Six points between 1st and 10th currently.
That’s it six points.
Bayern Munich, Leverkusen and (not so much this season) Dortmund will continue their attempts to wrestle trophies off each other. But the teams in leagues below are doing real business, real football and giving fans up and down that table a real experience.
As a fan of a second-tier side here in Northern Ireland, I know all too well the chaos of life just below the top of the mountain.
Last season Dundela went on an incredible run, at one point being one of four sides with title aspirations. Sadly, it was not to be, but I wouldn’t have traded anything about being around the club during last season. Palpable excitement, last-minute wins, derby defeats and going undefeated against the side supposed to walk the league on their march back to the big time. I barely missed a game.
This season’s story is yet to be written, but even now, I believe there’s still a chance of even a playoff spot if everything falls our way and if it doesn’t there will still be great days on the terrace and plenty of away day adventures to be had. The league is competitive, the football is good and the craic is next level.
To the podcast/content creators advocating that big teams and trophies are all that matter.
Big leagues and ‘big teams’ (a term I hate) are all very well but give me competitive, passionate, football with a heap of soul, heart and desire over being a ‘big team’ any day.
Your team might get handed a trophy at the end of the season or come home with a cup again but there’s something special about the camaraderie of hope that no trophy can offer.
Don’t tell us we don’t know anything about football.
Step into our world.
Come and experience what’s on offer.
Life in the second tier is wonderful and that’s not just a theory, that’s a fact.
We emigrated from England to Australia in 1988, so in those pre-internet days we went from going to the Victoria Ground regularly to waiting a week after the games to buy the British Soccer Weekly newspaper to get the results and if we were lucky an 1/8 page match report. Getting a Stoke shirt every Xmas gave us a connection to home and in one remarkable coincidence me wearing my Stoke shirt at an Ashes test at the MCG meant I met a travelling fan who bought his companions up to sit with a group of us junior footballers who’d gone to the game as a group and that resulted in the Barmy Army sitting in the Bay that to this day 30 years later is their main section at MCG tests
Then when we got the playoff final to get back into the championship, internet radio existed so we could listen to the game. It was only when we got into the Premier League that cable TV meant we could watch games and then since then streaming means even relegation hasn’t prevented us watching, but for 15 years then our only connection was match reports and getting the scores in the paper, but I’m still a Stoke Fan, far more of a fan that those plastic top six only podcasters who don’t understand football is about community and home and connection…. Screw those guys