Ages or stages perhaps, if you go to football for any length of time, you will go through them. For me it was as follows.
The initial awe-struck wow this is amazing phase.
For me this would be my early to mid-teens. Thrilled to actually be at Stamford Bridge, taking in the sights and sounds, the atmosphere, seeing your footballing heroes live in action. Overlapping with:
The getting to know people phase
Mid-teens. Settling down, becoming a regular, starting to go to away games, getting up to stuff, seeing and being seen.
The absolute nutter phase
Late mid-teens to early twenties. Obsessed with Chelsea Football Club, lost jobs for refusing to work Saturdays. Went anywhere and everywhere, anyway and anyhow, getting up to all sorts.
The madly in love and cracking up over this bird I used to know who shall remain nameless phase
Early to mid twenties. Interspersed with large amounts of absolute nutterism. Oh what could have been... if I knew then what I know now... would I make the same mistakes? Probably. Ah well. Live and learn. Or not as the case may be.
The not quite absolute nutter but still a bit mental phase
Mid to late twenties. Still going to almost every game, home and away. A little older, maybe a little more cautious, Older but not demonstrably wiser, almost inevitably still under the influence of The madly in love and cracking up over this bird I used to know who shall remain nameless phase this soon developed into:
The drunken bloody lunatic phase
God I could knock 'em back. Thought I was clever? Naa just got into a certain kind of lifestyle of which I'm still suffering the aftereffects to this day. No-one's fault, no complaints, just an all round f**k up, leading inexorably to the:
Retired through injury phase.
Shattered my leg coming back from Wembley nick - another story I won't bother to relate. Out of commission for months, went to Wales to recuperate. From here this is No Escape. And so now you see my inexorable decline towards the:
Grumpy Old Man Stage
Bah.
f**k 'em all.
The initial awe-struck wow this is amazing phase.
For me this would be my early to mid-teens. Thrilled to actually be at Stamford Bridge, taking in the sights and sounds, the atmosphere, seeing your footballing heroes live in action. Overlapping with:
The getting to know people phase
Mid-teens. Settling down, becoming a regular, starting to go to away games, getting up to stuff, seeing and being seen.
The absolute nutter phase
Late mid-teens to early twenties. Obsessed with Chelsea Football Club, lost jobs for refusing to work Saturdays. Went anywhere and everywhere, anyway and anyhow, getting up to all sorts.
The madly in love and cracking up over this bird I used to know who shall remain nameless phase
Early to mid twenties. Interspersed with large amounts of absolute nutterism. Oh what could have been... if I knew then what I know now... would I make the same mistakes? Probably. Ah well. Live and learn. Or not as the case may be.
The not quite absolute nutter but still a bit mental phase
Mid to late twenties. Still going to almost every game, home and away. A little older, maybe a little more cautious, Older but not demonstrably wiser, almost inevitably still under the influence of The madly in love and cracking up over this bird I used to know who shall remain nameless phase this soon developed into:
The drunken bloody lunatic phase
God I could knock 'em back. Thought I was clever? Naa just got into a certain kind of lifestyle of which I'm still suffering the aftereffects to this day. No-one's fault, no complaints, just an all round f**k up, leading inexorably to the:
Retired through injury phase.
Shattered my leg coming back from Wembley nick - another story I won't bother to relate. Out of commission for months, went to Wales to recuperate. From here this is No Escape. And so now you see my inexorable decline towards the:
Grumpy Old Man Stage
Bah.
f**k 'em all.
The fact that I only come over for a match about twice a season (or 3 if I'm very lucky and flush) might be to blame for that. A touch of The drunken bloody lunatic phase may accompany this first phase during piss-ups, although I hide it very well 