TRS-T Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Another example, Blues have 41,000 facebook likes and we have 1,300,000 Lol true but they probably can't afford a social media department to promote their page. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa-revolution Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 Another example, Blues have 41,000 facebook likes and we have 1,300,000 Small heath also have 1,300,00 dislikes too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brommy Posted July 22, 2013 Share Posted July 22, 2013 I wonder for example if you grew up in birmingham, how is the whole thing divided with birmingham city and aston villa fans? Traditionally there is a North-South divide with Villa in North Birmingham and Blues in South Birmingham. But because we are the bigger club, we have a lot of fans in South Brum but they don't have many fans in North Brum. And how much bigger fansbase does one have over the other? Well on FIFA we have 82,989 fans and they have 22,706 fans so maybe 3 times bigger? Closer to four times! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
il_serpente Posted July 23, 2013 VT Supporter Share Posted July 23, 2013 I too was led to be a Villa fan by John Carew. I first heard of Aston Villa when they played a friendly against the San Jose Clash here in the SF Bay area back in 1996, and I liked the name. When I started having access to Premier League highlights and it became possible to follow the league and identify players around that time, though, I actually paid more attention to teams like Man U and Spurs (don't shoot me!) because they had Norwegians playing for them. My relatives in Norway were excited by Carew when he was young because my cousins lived in the same area and one of them had played against him as a schoolboy. But it was hard to see much of him when he was playing in Spain, Italy and France. When he finally moved to England I was excited and immediately started following Villa. You see a lot of shirts of all the big European teams around here, but the only few i actually know who support English teams are Arsenal fans. One of them grew up a mile from Highbury, so I guess he can be excused. I don't see Villa shirts around at all, though I saw a guy wearing Villa shorts at one of my recreational old farts soccer games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 have been a 49er (NFL) fan in american football most of my life That's okay buddy, everyone has their downsides Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 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. For me a plastic is someone that supports a club on the back of their success. You rarely saw non-local Chelsea fans until recently and any Chelsea fans of that ilk 10 years ago probably had a good reason. It is possible to be a plastic United fan living in Manchester. I met plenty when i lived there. What about fans that started following Villa after the European Cup win? Would you call them bandwagon jumpers / plastic fans? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wake21334 Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 have been a 49er (NFL) fan in american football most of my life That's okay buddy, everyone has their downsides Hahaha, NFL Fan? Who's your team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ_Villain Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 (edited) Ok... Take Manchester City.... Suddenly get billions in their bank balance... Do rather well for themselves... and their popularity goes through the roof... Who supports them now? Thats right... Plastic fans... I live in Thailand... I have met 2 Villa fans out here... and one of those was an American! I haven't seen hide nor hair of a Villa shirt anywhere... but Man City shirts you can get quite readily along with Arsenal, Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea, Roma, Inter, Barca etc etc etc (Champions League clubs basically)... Not that I blame the Thais... They only go by what they see on TV... They are only spoonfed games with those teams playing and the other prem clubs like ourselves, Spurs, Toon and Everton get the same amount of alloted time on Thailands version of 'Match of the Day' as we get at home... Essentially, 2 minutes, blah, blah, now back to the 'big clubs'... People not born in a country dont tend to have any allegiance to whom they should support; so they tend to follow players they like, or colours they like or whoever is winning at the time and then liking the team comes from that... I was born in Birmingham to a family of Villa fans but moved from Brum up to County Durham when I was only 18 months old.... My grandad supported Villa, my dad supports Villa and both my brothers support the Villa... and I bloody love supporting the Villa... Its in my blood... Edited July 23, 2013 by DJ_Villain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob182 Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 Another example, Blues have 41,000 facebook likes and we have 1,300,000 Lol true but they probably can't afford the internet Fixed. On the 'plastic fan'/ 'glory hunter' discussion. It is true that people are called that when they support a team because of their success. But, in the same breath, we would love Villa to have success and then get loads of new fans from different cities/ countries because of it. Until that point, we will still refer to the Man Utd/ Chelsea fans that can't name their signings/ their line-up/ don't watch the games/ don't even know who the manager is, as plastic/ gloryhunters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
juanpabloangel18 Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 A plastic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fvjk47UORFs Never use the term myself, but this is what I'd say it means. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EbPsK6shaQ made me think of that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted July 23, 2013 Share Posted July 23, 2013 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. For me a plastic is someone that supports a club on the back of their success. You rarely saw non-local Chelsea fans until recently and any Chelsea fans of that ilk 10 years ago probably had a good reason. It is possible to be a plastic United fan living in Manchester. I met plenty when i lived there. What about fans that started following Villa after the European Cup win? Would you call them bandwagon jumpers / plastic fans? Supporting a team purely on the back of winning a major trophy is not the best way to become acquainted, but you'd have to argue any Villa fan still on board would have something deeper running through them, considering all the atrocities witnessed in the interim period. Many of the often mentioned United "plastics" probably wouldn't stay on board in the event of relegation etc. It could be argued that the sky age has bred millions of "plastics" due to the extra ease of access to people who otherwise wouldn't watch football. These people tend to go for the "top" clubs. I must say, I personally, don't know of any Villa fans that supported us due to that one result. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 My Dad supported Villa while my Mom and her side of the family are all season ticket holders at Blues. I'm glad I went with my Dad. Rivalry is purely football. There's no better feeling than beating the other side but if you lose, it's hurting but fair play and move on I find the idea of anything more simply idiotic. From Redditch about 25 minutes outside Birmingjam Birmingham. Majority support United but outside that the midlands divide between Villa, Blues and WBA isn't too big numbers wise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jesperchr Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 I became a Villa fan when I started playing Championship manager 2 (95) version… I remember picking Villa because they had a guy from Trinidad & Tobago (York) and a Australian GK (Bosnich) and from that day on I was hooked on Villa… It’s lonely at times as a Danish villa fan… Most Danish football fans are glory hunters! I am often the only Villa fan at the sports bars…! I remember a few years ago when Villa played Man U (2-2)… the time when villa was ahead 2-0 and the pub where completely quiet! Exempt for me, who was having a blast and telling them how they sucked…. And when man u got the 2-2 goal the whole bar was screaming and “pointing” at me, while my whole world where crashing.. I could really had used some backup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kay-Ole Posted July 24, 2013 Share Posted July 24, 2013 I have no idea how I became a Villa fan, living in Norway Premier League is for many people more popular than the Norwegian league, it had to be a team. According to my then stepdad he sort of chose it for me, not wanting to force me into his own team, Leeds United. I think it must have been around 90-92 this happened, and his reasing was Villa being a likeable club, where I would have the ups and downs a true football supporter should have in his life. If I would have ever come home saying I was supporting ManU, Liverpool or any of the usual suspects, I'm pretty sure that would have been taken care of quickly. Living far from the nearest big Norwegian team, I took no perticular interest in the Norwegian league as a kid, and Villa became more and more a "obsession" for me. Today, living in Bergen, where I truly have no feelings towards the local team, Villa is the only team I follow, and after two Villa tattoos and spending hours every day on the topic, I would call me a die hard fan. Even if I have been to Villa Park only twice. Here in Bergen we are a small gang of supporters, of 5-6 core people who gather as often as we can at the citys football pub to follow the team. And then get drunk after, sometimes during, and on occasions before the game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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