"I am going to support Chelsea instead"

Nah. I did not say that. It's my friend Phoenix. Strangely, I remembered him saying, "I am going to support Arsenal instead", a few of years back. That was when Arsenal are steamrolling everyone. Phoenix had been a Liverpool fan like me. After watching Liverpool loses a few more games than his liking, he decided to switch allegiance. Despite that, he still complains to me about how lousy Liverpool is every time they loses.

I asked him about it. Why is it that despite having walked out of Liverpool, he still bothers to follow their fortunes? Thought he's an Arse fan already? He told me that he now reads Arse web site more than he did Liverpool's. He bought their jerseys as well though I did not see him wear. I only see him wear Liverpool jerseys imitations.

This season, Arsenal is going through a very bad patch. Chelsea is now steamrolling everyone. So he's switching his allegiance to Chelsea. I understand this thing about supporting winners. Some people only want to be associated with winners. If you are a Arsenal or Chelsea supporter, why bother if Liverpool is losing? If you care so concerned about Liverpool losing even though you are not supposed to be a fan, does that make you a closet fan?

Let's not talk about closet fan now. Supporting winners. History has shown that winners will not stay as winners forever. Liverpool had their moments long time ago. Manchester United had their era before the rise of Arsenal. If you are a winner-supporter, than you will probably have to change allegiance once every few years. Where is the sense of identity, sense of camaraderie in that?

What is the purpose in supporting a football team? Most things you do in your corner of the world to support them, the owners, the management and the players would not know. And your peers will not look up to you for supporting a winning team. What do you stand to gain for chasing after winners? I don't know.

I've always supported Liverpool. They are the first team I supported. I've been supporting them for sometime. I have a number of Liverpool supporter friends as well. We can identify with and are proud of the way the Liverpool team are seen to conduct themselves. When Liverpool wins, we rejoice in it and congratulate each other. When they lose, we analyze the game and criticize the reason that causes the loss, be it the players, the referees or luck.

No doubt the real people involved in the club would not know about us, but we gained spiritually. There's a sense of camaraderie, sense of family between us and the team. We feel like we are part of the team. All the trophies and games that we win are made sweeter by all loses and anguished we felt in the other games. That I feel is the most important thing about being a fan of a football team.

It's perfectly normal to support a winning team. I am sure Liverpool, Manure and Arsenal gained a lot of supporters during they heydays. Chelsea must have added quite a number in recent as well. The important thing is what do you do when they loses. Do you stick around hoping to reap the rewards when they win again, or do you jump ship and try to find a better team to support? If you do that, you may be fulfilled spiritually. Because there will always be a better team.