You now HAVE to support Argyle to be proud of Plymouth

I've been speaking out in support of Sheridan lately but in all honesty, the non existent connection between fans & manager doesn't help.

The village shop mentality isn’t it. No matter how uninspiring the offering, turn up and consume the misery, because you have to.
In a western economy, private business just can’t pull that guilt trip, can they.
What next? Will Albion, Raiders, try the same? So should all the plastics who never attend Albion be obliged to completely avoid the glory trip of watching England host the rugby world cup?

It's become fashionable to give the club a good kicking.
Despite its rough edges I'm always proud of my football club, never more so than three years ago.
Having nearly lost PAFC the pride and support is now even more apparent from the majority of fans.

I don't get why someone who is born and bred in Plymouth would support another football team from up north who they never see play, unless it's for the reflected glory.

I kind of agree with it to be honest.

Not sure who or what the OP is referring to but football is the biggest game in the world, a global game and accessed easily on a daily basis for fans to watch the best players and best teams in the world on an almost daily basis. The days when the only way you could see the top players was in the flesh and then once a week on weekly highlights programmes are long gone. Of course youngsters are going to be influenced by what they see on the TV and latch onto a favourite team. I have no problem nor find any fault with that. It's sad yes, and I would much rather they were all taken to Home Park by their parents as youngsters and got the green bug but it doesn't always work like that. Other people would have tried Argyle and decided they prefer the better quality on offer in the comfort of their own homes without shelling out £30 or more to go to a live game with entrance fee and other costs. Football is not the only way in which someone can show pride in their city. Does Argyle have to be their favoured football team, Albion their rugby team, Wayne Sleep their favourite dancer, Angela Rippon their favourite news reader, Donald Sinden their favourite actor, Dawn French their favourite comedienne, Michael Foot their favourite politician etc. because they are/were all Plymothians?
Knocking fellow Plymothians publically because they don't wish to follow the local football team serves what purpose exactly?, other than to try and say I have more pride in my city than you, which isn't necessarily the case. I would have thought it would have the effect of further alienating some people and have them asking who are you to tell me who to support and question my pride in my city and tell me you pity me?
Tub thumping like this serves little or no purpose really and achieves very little. It can be as divisive as it is healing whatever the intentions.
I wish all footy fans in Plymouth were Argyle fans, I wish Plymouth was a footy mad city like Newcastle and had 30 or 40,000 attending every week and we were in the top 2 divisions all the time but we aren't and probably never will be now unless something unforeseen or unexpected happens sometime.

Again, it's all about opinions.

I don't like plastics, I even prefer glory hunters to them, but that's the way of the football fan these days it seems.

When I see a youngster in Plymouth or Cornwall with the green of Argyle on it gives me a right chuffy, when I see a youngster with a Man Utd or Liverpool shirt on in Devon or Cornwall it does the exact opposite.

They don't register on my rhicter scale as 'fans' they really don't, but as I say, it's all about opinions.

I don't even get the 'my other team is' if I'm honest, when it applies to a team they've probably never seen play live, but there you go.

The Argyle message of buy local is a nonsense.

But reflected glory? What is that exactly?

Do you meet a longstanding Man City fan, and feel some new found success rubbing off him or her?

Is anyone now holidaying in Swansea or Hull just because they've a football team playing the role of also-ran in the the top flight? Really?

Gary_Wills":vlmy9xlz said:

The Argyle message of buy local is a nonsense.

But reflected glory? What is that exactly?

Do you meet a longstanding Man City fan, and feel some new found success rubbing off him or her?

Is anyone now holidaying in Swansea or Hull just because they've a football team playing the role of also-ran in the the top flight? Really?

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I think you underestimate the impact of playing at higher levels. Quite apart from the 'feelgood' factor within the city, the advertising potential of having your home town featured regularly in national media is very significant.

Ahh the honourable club president has uttered some more rubbish but hey he is an important man and obviously knows what he is talking about.

I liked the Japanese goalkeeper best, he was a wonderful guy wasn't he?

Chris is entitled to his views as you and I are, whether we agree with him is another matter.

I happen to on this one and many others. He's my pal, and that's what pals tend to do.

up_the_line":yq97yw0s said:

IJN":yq97yw0s said:

Again, it's all about opinions.

I don't like plastics, I even prefer glory hunters to them, but that's the way of the football fan these days it seems.

When I see a youngster in Plymouth or Cornwall with the green of Argyle on it gives me a right chuffy, when I see a youngster with a Man Utd or Liverpool shirt on in Devon or Cornwall it does the exact opposite.

They don't register on my rhicter scale as 'fans' they really don't, but as I say, it's all about opinions.

I don't even get the 'my other team is' if I'm honest, when it applies to a team they've probably never seen play live, but there you go.

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:shock: I agree with you on some of that, it is uplifting to see a kid in an Argyle shirt.
However I wasn't debating the rights and wrongs of Plymouth folk choosing to support more glamorous / successful teams. I was asking whether it is advisable for the Club President to publicly slate Plymothians who take that route and suggest that they "will never have any pride in their city". It may not occur to some people but to have pride in your city you don't actually have to go to watch its professional football team week in week out and / or surpass 5,000 miles following them each year to demonstrate civic pride. Are comments like these, made by the Club President, in the glare of the local media, likely in any way to encourage a Man Yoo plastic to go out to Home Park?
To me, and I'm sorry, but it comes across (intended or not) as one-up-manship. Let the record stand I've been to many an away trip on cold wet Tuesday nights and watched us lose 3-0. I knew we we're going to lose but I went any way. Was I proud, hell no. But I suppose at least I could add the miles up and climb the 'holier than thou table'.
When it comes to Argyle using the media to promote itself and encourage larger attendances I would say this article was a spectacular error of judgement.
Questioning the civic pride of people who don't go to Argyle? Not cool.

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It wasn't an Argyle article though Patrick.
It was Chris Webb's weekly column in the Herald.