vandaq Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 This thread is more of an information thread for certain questions about Aston Villa and it`s supporters. I personally has been wondering these questions for a long time, and you only pick up some pieces here and there. But I want some of those cleared up, so I thought a thread like this would be ideal. I wonder for example if you grew up in birmingham, how is the whole thing divided with birmingham city and aston villa fans? How do you choose(serious answer on this one please ) when you grow up? Is it because of certain areas in/around birmingham or do you pick as you want? I bet as there are with other clubs that you sometimes are raised as a supporter of one team but it would be nice to hear how most of it happens. And how much bigger fansbase does one have over the other? And what about school for example, are their often divided there? Could you end up in trouble/fights and what not growing up. Is it something that you think about a lot? Like certain areas where there could be trouble being a villa fan and such? Guess the whole mentality around it. I mean violence was more of an issue back in the past but there is still a lot of it out there. Could you be friend with a blue nose? Wolves, birmingham city, west brom too some extent are not really the ones villans/villains are best friends with, but who are you mostly friendly too? I mean which matches usually goes pretty fine within and outside villa park? Can you often see some of the villa players in birmingham casually or would they be surrounded instantly? People talk about how pro`s in manchester usually can go about their own business, is it the same case in birmingham? I might come up with some more questions later, and I bet might be some other foreign fans that have some questions of their own. Would be a good thread for people who want to know a little bit more of the villa! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Birmingham and it's surrounded areas is packed with a whole host of fans of different clubs. I'm from Halesowen (a town 30 minutes from Birmingham), but my grandad is a WBA fan, and he's from the same area. I work in Birmingham and my office is full of Villa fans, bluenoses, WBA fans, wolves fans, a derby fan & then the usual plastic Arsenal/ Man Utd/ Liverpool fans, but I get along with all of them. I've even been to a few Villa games with one of the sha fans in my office (who's brother is actually a Villa fan!) Other than the 'hardcore' fans that go looking for a fight, I don't see much fighting because of which team you support. In my experience, the type of person who wants to fight will find a fight, irrespective of which team they support or whether they're even into football. Idiots will be idiots. It just happens to be that some idiots might also be Villa fans. I personally chose to support Villa because my two best friends are Villa fans. My parents aren't into sport, so I wasn't given a team to support when I was young (I actually supported Newcastle at a young age, because I liked Alan Shearer ). I hope that went some way to answering a few of your questions! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coda Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 All local teams hate us (jealousy). I grew up in south Birmingham so was always aware of problems with small heath. Only over the last few years have I realised West Brom's obsession with us. I was talking to a Wolves fan in a pub recently and he had a face like a smacked arse when I mentioned I was a Villa fan. WTF? Wolves are irrelevant to us. As Rob182 says it's only the dickhead fans looking for a fight although small heath have a very high proportion of these. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TreeVillan Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 All my work buddies are Asian so I'm the only Villa fan at work lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daweii Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I think for some they are born into the club they support as the parents or at least one of them supports that team already, others choose based on living close to the club and some even based on our successes in the past. I think every fan has a unique story to tell about how they started supporting the club so I think you may get a better idea the more replies you get. For me coming from a family that doesn't like football I chose at a very early age and it stuck with me, I can't remember my exact thought process for that choice though which is a shame. As far as the whole Birmingham City, Aston Villa, West Brom and Wolves city divide goes it very much depends on the area. If you step foot in Small Heath you'll pretty much be surrounded by Birmingham City fans as the stadium is located there. I'd like to say the same for Aston, but I tend to see more people wearing Manchester United shirts there with the odd Villa fan appearing. I think as you get further out from those inner-city areas Aston Villa fans start to become a lot more common and I do think Villa still have the majority divide but without stats to back that up I could be completely wrong. If school is the same as it was now as it was when I was there then it'll be a mixed bag of all sorts of football fans. I'd say just down to the size of the club Manchester United is probably the most popular club for kids these days regardless of where they grow up. As far as violence goes, I think fighting in school can happen over just about anything so it wouldn't surprise me if some fights were fueled by fan rivalry. I typically found that any arguments I had about football at school were all in good fun, we'd shout at each other for about 5 minutes, call each other names, eventually get bored and start talking about something a little less volatile lol. Personally these days I do choose where and when I'll wear my Villa shirt though not through fear of getting attacked as I don't see that ever happening, but more so because like I said above there is one area (Small Heath) full of Birmingham City fans and personally I'd rather not invite the abuse as while much of it will be friendly banter, there are always one or two that take it too far. As for being friends with a blue nose, yeah I have a fair few friends that support Birmingham City and we get along just fine though of course we always have a dig at each other from time to time based on team performances and news, but it's all in good fun. As for the last two questions. I think for the most part inside and outside of the ground everything is great and trouble rarely starts which is nice. I enjoy when we face West Brom as it's always a nice encounter especially these days now that they have a somewhat competitive side. When it comes to players out and about I personally haven't seen many but that could be me just not looking, I have probably walked right past so many players in my lifetime and not realised as I just don't hold football players in as high regard as others do. So that one I'm not 100% sure on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KjParton Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I live in a place called Lichfield, which is about 25 minutes outside of Birmingham. In Lichfield I would say the large majority are Villa fans. Villa are definitely the most supported club in Birmingham, it proves to show as our attendances are usually 10k higher than every other team. However I would be perfectly happy walking around Birmingham/Lichfield/Sutton in a Villa shirt without the threat of being as you say "surrounded". However I would definitely cover up on my way to a local derby away game. I would say most of the Villa players live in around Sutton Coldfield and Four Oaks, and when they walk about in town you get people coming up asking for photos. I know a few Blue noses, and why I may not be close friends with them, I can still talk to them and (sometimes) have educated conversations. In terms of why i started supporting Villa. My Granddad played for Villa just after the war and then coached them in the 70's. My other Granddad was the Chief Editor for The Villa News & Times for a large period of time. Therefore it has been passed down from both sides of the family and here I am - a Villa fan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadenb42 Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I grew up in Handsworth majority of my life a few streets away from the hawthorns. My dad is a villa fan so naturally followed. Although my grandad is a proud scotsman and big Celtic fan. I have a few mates who are blues fans. Good mates we have a bit of banter, most blues fans I've met are not knuckle draggers and some like to say. Had a good mate who was a season ticket holder at the blues etc, nicest person ever R.I.P dude.... I know work in Wolverhampton and it's full of dingles, great people, they seem to have adopted a gallows humor towards their club atm... Most rival fans are sound when it doesn't concern football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I grew up in the late 80s and early 90s in Rowley Regis, not far from Halesowen which Rob182 mentioned. My parents couldn't care less about football and it was only around 8/9 when one of my mates (whose whole family were massive Villa fans) said to support the Villa, took me to a match standing in the Holte and that was it. The area was about 30% Villa, 30% WBA, 10% Wolves, 10% Liverpool and 20% others at the time. I didn't know or hear of any Blues fans. There wasn't any kind of rivalry at any of my schools whatsoever. In fact, the whole concept of fan rivalry was fairly alien, even in the utter shithole that my secondary school was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto_Villan Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Birmingham and it's surrounded areas is packed with a whole host of fans of different clubs. I'm from Halesowen (a town 30 minutes from Birmingham), but my grandad is a WBA fan, and he's from the same area. I work in Birmingham and my office is full of Villa fans, bluenoses, WBA fans, wolves fans, a derby fan & then the usual plastic Arsenal/ Man Utd/ Liverpool fans, but I get along with all of them. I've even been to a few Villa games with one of the sha fans in my office (who's brother is actually a Villa fan!) So what exactly is it that classifies a fan as "plastic"? Supporting a team he doesn't really have a connection to? I'm a little curious as to that because I'm from London and we've a number of fans on the board who are not from the UK (Vandaq is one) - do we also count as plastic? Nobody has ever accused me of being a plastic fan, but I imagine that's simply because nobody can currently accuse me of gloryhunting by supporting Villa. But what happens if we qualify for the champions league in a couple of years? Do we then all become plastics? And if not, then what gives Villa fans the right to call fans of other successful teams "plastics"? It is something I've been mulling lately, given I'm actually closer to Arsenal or Chelsea in terms of where I'm from. I suppose this is as good a thread as any to discuss it in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jadenb42 Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I think a plastic is a "fan" who just say they support that club, can barely name their team, doesn't have a clue of their clubs fixtures, doesn't know any other football apart from that club. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 A plastic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvjk47UORFs Never use the term myself, but this is what I'd say it means. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daggy_333 Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 In my opinion the term plastic fan has kind of replaced the term glory hunter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KjParton Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 A plastic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvjk47UORFs Never use the term myself, but this is what I'd say it means. Mat Kendrick making an appearance at 1:50 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto_Villan Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Ah, thanks for the clarification. There seems to be quite a lot of sneering at fans of say Liverpool / United / Chelsea / Arsenal from not being from the correct geographical area - so people would say that's mostly because they're not proper fans (i.e. they don't know that much about their "team") rather than not having a connection to the club or area? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 (edited) I live in a place called Lichfield, which is about 25 minutes outside of Birmingham. In Lichfield I would say the large majority are Villa fans. Villa are definitely the most supported club in Birmingham, it proves to show as our attendances are usually 10k higher than every other team. However I would be perfectly happy walking around Birmingham/Lichfield/Sutton in a Villa shirt without the threat of being as you say "surrounded". However I would definitely cover up on my way to a local derby away game. I would say most of the Villa players live in around Sutton Coldfield and Four Oaks, and when they walk about in town you get people coming up asking for photos. I know a few Blue noses, and why I may not be close friends with them, I can still talk to them and (sometimes) have educated conversations. In terms of why i started supporting Villa. My Granddad played for Villa just after the war and then coached them in the 70's. My other Granddad was the Chief Editor for The Villa News & Times for a large period of time. Therefore it has been passed down from both sides of the family and here I am - a Villa fan! I live in Lichfield and work in Sutton and both are huge Villa areas. Edited July 21, 2013 by StefanAVFC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Ah, thanks for the clarification. There seems to be quite a lot of sneering at fans of say Liverpool / United / Chelsea / Arsenal from not being from the correct geographical area - so people would say that's mostly because they're not proper fans (i.e. they don't know that much about their "team") rather than not having a connection to the club or area? Most Liverpool/United "fans" that don't come from the area barely ever go to games if at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vandaq Posted July 21, 2013 Author Share Posted July 21, 2013 (edited) Ah, thanks for the clarification. There seems to be quite a lot of sneering at fans of say Liverpool / United / Chelsea / Arsenal from not being from the correct geographical area - so people would say that's mostly because they're not proper fans (i.e. they don't know that much about their "team") rather than not having a connection to the club or area? Well, honestly most of them started to support the team because they were either told so when they was young, or because they were the "best". Honestly it makes me sick, and so generic it`s actually damn annoying. It makes sense that the biggest teams has the most supporters but some of them are incredibly shallow, I have met so many people who live over here that are like that. And mind you they always talk shit about other clubs. For them, Aston Villa is small time club or a lower end team at the moment. Man the rage than ensues me when I hear stuff like that. I have pointed out in another thread that I will never look at myself like a fan compared to the people over there. Hearing people talk about like it is their club when they live for example in Norway is annoying. With that said, I still love this club as much as I can. I just find the whole approach of supporting the teams every other person do is very shallow and boring, but they are entitled to support whoever they like. All my work buddies are Asian so I'm the only Villa fan at work lol. I guess this means that they all are manchester united fans ? Some great answers here, feel free too ramble on about stuff that is relevant to this Very interesting. Kjparton, who was your grandad? That is pretty awesome Edited July 21, 2013 by vandaq Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bradarmstrong_ Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 I went to school in Droitwich about 20 miles south of Birmingham. I'd say of the kids who liked football over 80% were villa fans. I remember when we had football training pretty much all of us were wearing villa shirts. As to having friends who support other teams I think it's fun to have blues fans as friends, nice to remind them whose on top! Especially when we go through rough patches and they cannot stop giving out the stick and guarantee last season we were finally going down then come May you hear absolutely nothing from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted July 21, 2013 Share Posted July 21, 2013 Wish I had Villa friends growing up. All my friends supported Liverpool/United/Arsenal/Chelsea. In fact, I'd say that's still the case today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted July 21, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted July 21, 2013 There's a whole thread on "How did you become a Villa fan?" my answer is in there. On the subject of the noses, it's pure cognitive dissonance (the ability to hold conflicting views simultaneously) with me. In principle, I loathe and detest them. But I do know one or two personally, who I get on OK with. That's football, I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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