Recent weeks have shown that the club needs to look at the way it operates. I also think that we, as fans, collectively, need to be very careful as well. We take the **** out of certain other neighbouring clubs for their fans' outrage and unrealistic expectation. I think we can be just as guilty of it.
It's clear that the club walks a tightrope financially and, personally, I think that we'd be in a lower division were it not for the benevolence of our owner/s. I also think that, as fans, we can create an atmosphere around the club .... when we're good, we're very very good and the team tries to respond accordingly. I think that negativity amongst the fans can also generate a feedback effect with and around the club and the team. We know for certain that people at the club, from the chairman to the players to staff read this board. The people who post on here are only a very small sample of the Boro fanbase, but I think the forum can make us disproportionately noisy. I think this can also feed back amongst the readership (which is way bigger than the cohort that post on here), and in broader conversation amongst fans in the pub, in the workkplace etc. If we aren't careful that feedback loop between club and fans can go into freefall .... and if either party indulges themselves in a blame game, then it will only get worse, with resentment and recrimination on either side.
I wasn't able to be at the game yesterday for various reasons and it looks like I dodged a bullet. But I do know how it feels to invest time, money and travel to support the team, only to leave, gutted, for the long journey home. Sometimes that does make it quite difficult not to get involved in that negative spiral. But I do come from a generation that watched Boro in much worse circumstances and have always had that outlook as a fan that you support your club, your team, its owner, the staff etc through thick and thin .... through the times when it's hard as well as the times when the joys of success make it easy. Which is not that you have to throw away your critical faculties.... but maybe you keep your thoughts a little more to yourself...AND try to have a balanced view (it's not that long since Leicester away is it?).
Back in this old codger's day this was easier to manage, because there was not social media and forums like this, where upset and reactive fans can induldge in discussion almost immediately .... and, indeed, througout the game, as it happens. We just went home and watched the Generation Game, had a moan to our family and maybe went to the pub, where discussion of the match and the state of the club tended to be short lived ... because there was a pool match to win, or an attractive person to chat up, or whatever. Now, we can re-enforce and amplify negative thoughts and vibes for an entire evening/week.... raising blood pressure, levels of vitriol and all the negative garbage that comes with that.
It may seem an odd thing to say for a message board moderator (or maybe not) ... that perhaps we indulge ourselves too much by venting our spleens on here and that sometimes, if our personal vibe is bad/angry or whatever, just realising that we might be contributing to a negative feedback loop while we divest ourselves of splenetic rage. I know that I personally decided to try to stay clear of posting on here in the immediate post match aftermath ... in fact generally. Especially if I feel negative about the performance or the result. Far from leaving the ire pent up, it has actually resulted in much less stress of a matchday evening.
And it's not that different from lessons learned during ten years of coaching a junior football team ... a team that won a regional FA trophy but could also get tanked 10-0. We knew that the kids, as players, responded to the mood of the adults .... parents, coaches etc. We'd never dwell on the negatives, and we'd always try (not always successfully) to meet adversity with positive feedback. I don't think it's much different from a professional team like Boro. Of course there's the dynamic of "we work hard to pay your wages ... suck it up.... you are a professional". But actually, in reality, the players aren't necessarily going to see it like that. They may, for instance think ... "feck you, I've been training and making sacrifices for 17 years of my life, I try my hardest, but some days it isn't good enough... just get off my back will ya".
Anyway, I don't expect people to agree with me. Why would I. I, like most of us on this board, know pretty much **** all about how to run a Championship football club, or play at anything above bad Sunday League level.
It's clear that the club walks a tightrope financially and, personally, I think that we'd be in a lower division were it not for the benevolence of our owner/s. I also think that, as fans, we can create an atmosphere around the club .... when we're good, we're very very good and the team tries to respond accordingly. I think that negativity amongst the fans can also generate a feedback effect with and around the club and the team. We know for certain that people at the club, from the chairman to the players to staff read this board. The people who post on here are only a very small sample of the Boro fanbase, but I think the forum can make us disproportionately noisy. I think this can also feed back amongst the readership (which is way bigger than the cohort that post on here), and in broader conversation amongst fans in the pub, in the workkplace etc. If we aren't careful that feedback loop between club and fans can go into freefall .... and if either party indulges themselves in a blame game, then it will only get worse, with resentment and recrimination on either side.
I wasn't able to be at the game yesterday for various reasons and it looks like I dodged a bullet. But I do know how it feels to invest time, money and travel to support the team, only to leave, gutted, for the long journey home. Sometimes that does make it quite difficult not to get involved in that negative spiral. But I do come from a generation that watched Boro in much worse circumstances and have always had that outlook as a fan that you support your club, your team, its owner, the staff etc through thick and thin .... through the times when it's hard as well as the times when the joys of success make it easy. Which is not that you have to throw away your critical faculties.... but maybe you keep your thoughts a little more to yourself...AND try to have a balanced view (it's not that long since Leicester away is it?).
Back in this old codger's day this was easier to manage, because there was not social media and forums like this, where upset and reactive fans can induldge in discussion almost immediately .... and, indeed, througout the game, as it happens. We just went home and watched the Generation Game, had a moan to our family and maybe went to the pub, where discussion of the match and the state of the club tended to be short lived ... because there was a pool match to win, or an attractive person to chat up, or whatever. Now, we can re-enforce and amplify negative thoughts and vibes for an entire evening/week.... raising blood pressure, levels of vitriol and all the negative garbage that comes with that.
It may seem an odd thing to say for a message board moderator (or maybe not) ... that perhaps we indulge ourselves too much by venting our spleens on here and that sometimes, if our personal vibe is bad/angry or whatever, just realising that we might be contributing to a negative feedback loop while we divest ourselves of splenetic rage. I know that I personally decided to try to stay clear of posting on here in the immediate post match aftermath ... in fact generally. Especially if I feel negative about the performance or the result. Far from leaving the ire pent up, it has actually resulted in much less stress of a matchday evening.
And it's not that different from lessons learned during ten years of coaching a junior football team ... a team that won a regional FA trophy but could also get tanked 10-0. We knew that the kids, as players, responded to the mood of the adults .... parents, coaches etc. We'd never dwell on the negatives, and we'd always try (not always successfully) to meet adversity with positive feedback. I don't think it's much different from a professional team like Boro. Of course there's the dynamic of "we work hard to pay your wages ... suck it up.... you are a professional". But actually, in reality, the players aren't necessarily going to see it like that. They may, for instance think ... "feck you, I've been training and making sacrifices for 17 years of my life, I try my hardest, but some days it isn't good enough... just get off my back will ya".
Anyway, I don't expect people to agree with me. Why would I. I, like most of us on this board, know pretty much **** all about how to run a Championship football club, or play at anything above bad Sunday League level.
