“Hi, do you like football?”
“Yes, I love football.”
“Who do you support?”
“Ipswich.”
“Do you support a higher team?”
“No.”

That’s how a typical football-related conversation goes at my school in Harpenden. I am 11 years old and I live in a society that is charged with Premier League football.

One boy in my school supported Chelsea, then supported Real Madrid and now supports Leicester?!

Another boy supported Chelsea and now supports Man City. These are just two examples, but there are many other cases like this.

I am a football maniac. I am an Ipswich maniac. I originally started supporting Ipswich because my Dad was an Ipswich fan (he was a child of the 70s), but now I find it hard to comprehend supporting another team.

The two boys who I mentioned earlier don’t really care about the teams that they now support. They don’t feel the true passion of a goal. They’re not like us; they don’t cheer like us when Freddie Sears has coolly slotted one home, or when Berra has thumped a header in, or a leaping stop from Bialkowski.

We are true fans. We’ve stuck with this club since the beginning, and we’re not letting go. We’re a dying breed, we true football fans.

I don’t know why I wrote this; I suppose I wanted to get some anger off my chest. This makes me so frustrated, but it also makes me proud to support Ipswich - I would much rather support a team in the Championship for a good reason, and with true passion, than a team in the Premier League, just because they won the league.

kozmik added 09:33 - May 18 Good on you!!!
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monytowbray added 10:32 - May 18 It was the same when I was a kid in the mid-late 90s even though we were a decent then-Div 1 team with recent PL football under our belts playing good football. Everyone was ManU or Arsenal. Any idiot can pick a big team because of glory, and no matter how much they gloat you support your local team and go watch them play, so you win. I remember getting ManU in the Coca Cola cup in 97 and everyone in my school was going to their first ManU game (in the home end no less). All I got for 2 weeks was "We're gonna thrash you 9-0 again, you're sh1t, etc". We beat them 2-0. I didn't even need to say anything the next day at school, just smile :) Plus when you support smaller teams it means more to succeed. Look at how miserable Arsenal fans are considering they've won the FA Cup twice recently, are European regulars and just finished 2nd? Screw that!

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BlueandTruesince82 added 12:25 - May 18 Stick with it lad, if it helps it's been happening since my day. I went to school in Norwich (lucky me right) the number of scum fans that became Utd fans during the ealy 90's was hilarious, oh and one who decided to follow Arsenal as well. It's glory hunting, plain and simple. I can respect a true scum fan, even if I do think it's wrong on every level and an unatural act (I'm fairly sure there is something in the bible along the line of thou shalt not support canary yellow wearing donkeys) but anyone who changed alliance was immidately labeled a glory hunter which ad we all know is the lowest form footy supporter. So we'll done, you've picked the greatest team in the land, stick with them

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MattinLondon added 13:48 - May 18 Good for you. As someone who lives in London I can easily relate to the opening lines - for some reason some supporters of big clubs just don't understand why the PL doesn't hold my attention. Yes I'm interested in it but Ipswich is my main focus. All I can say is that supporting Ipswich will be on the whole be frustrating but on those occasions where we do win a trophy then it will be the best feeling ever and someone a fake glory supporter will never get-to-feel.

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ronnyd added 13:51 - May 18 That, young man, is a very mature blog for a person of your tender years. As said, good on ya mate.
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runaround added 14:28 - May 18 Well done young man. Keep supporting the Town & you can enjoy the high moments even more. Those who just support the current best team then change are not fans.
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ivegottheblues added 22:36 - May 18 Really admire your attitude. As a supporter for over 40 years (also from Hertfordshire) I know how you feel lad. I just hope the team will reward you with exciting entertaining football over the coming seasons.
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ivegottheblues added 22:38 - May 18 Really admire your attitude. As a supporter for over 40 years (also from Hertfordshire) I know how you feel lad. I just hope the team will reward you with exciting entertaining football over the coming seasons.
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acj added 00:18 - May 19 You should have seen the looks I got from the locals when I talking football with them while I was over in Brazil last year. They love English football, but I only met about 2 people there who had ever heard of Ipswich, and some of the attempts to pronounce it were hilarious.
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Marcus added 02:43 - May 19 I know this conversation. My own take on it... Who do you support? Ipswich Which Premier League team do you support? I don't, I support Ipswich (same question as above reworded) ? Ipswich next season It's usually around this point they give up with the digging.
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Marcus added 02:45 - May 19 acj - imagine the fun you could have had if you pretended to support a Welsh team
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Lesta_Tractor added 02:57 - May 19 I always found it odd how many of my friends in Leicester supported City and one of the big four, bet you can't guess which shirt they're wearing now... It's a nightmare in Melbourne, you'd think the Liverpool fans in their supporters pub were born in the shadow of the kop and baptised in the mersey.
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acj added 06:21 - May 19 Marcus - haha! You can imagine the confusion when one lad pressed hard to find out my 'second favourite team' and eventually I relented and told him I quite like Crewe Alexandra (:
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gazzmac4 added 09:46 - May 19 I know someone who has always been a spurs fan since i knew him but this year and last has suddenly professed to being a Bournemouth fan as well.... I mean, when? Why? How? How is it possible to support 2 teams like that. Yeah sure i have an American football team (Colts) and i have a soccer team (Sounders) but not in the same league/country. Not possible!! It is however easy to wind him up. When he went on a rant about how gutted he was to miss out on winning the league i just commeneted that i thought Bournemouth finished in the lower half of the league. And vice versa. Good fun!

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TR11BLU added 09:46 - May 19 As a Town supporter also living in Herts , I get the strange looks and comments of, Ipswich, Really? As the saying goes, I was born Blue....way back in the sixties...stick with it son and wear that shirt with pride.
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Superblue95 added 12:38 - May 19 I grew up in rural Ireland meaning it was astonishing to come across anyone who wasn't a man utd or liverpool fan (the odd Arsenal and Chelsea fans too). Was always quite funny describing to people that I supported Ipswich. Most could never really fathom it even when I told them I was born near there. I always found it amusing when people would try to tell me to support a "good team"

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Kentish_Tractor added 12:51 - May 19 I moved to London a few months ago. My football conversations go like this: Them: Do you support a team? Me: Yup. Long suffering Ipswich Town fan. Them: Where's Ipswich?
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rinkydinkpanther added 13:14 - May 19 Great blog. Enjoyed reading it. And the thing is you'll find that it doesn't change much as you grow older! I don't live near Ipswich anymore, and although I'm still in the south, it's all Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool fans. They know nothing of real fandom, or of heartbreak, or of the joy of genuine, hard-earned and long-waited-for success. When I hear them talking about football to each other in the office, or (even worse) talking to/at me about football, I just imagine a huge foghorn blaring out an unintelligible sound. That's what it might as well be. Oh to even come across an Everton fan! They used to win titles and things in the 80s, after all. Do Everton fans only live in Liverpool?!!

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ITFC1985 added 16:10 - May 19 A good little read!! Unfortunately thats the world we live in nowadays. People want to follow teams /sportsmen/woment who are the best. People will always be drawn to glory its natural you want to be successful or be part of something that is successful. Im sure next season there will be alot of new Leicester City fans however that will change if they have a bad season or get relegated. I like the fact that at 11 you are passionate about the club you have been brought up with. I remember being 11 and playing football over the park, people used to choose to be their favourite players Batistuta, Ronaldon, Figo, Zidane etc i would always choose to be Matt Holland or David Johnson because they were my players for my team. Keep following the town up or down!

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pennyfathersleg added 16:50 - May 19 I really hope that lots of non renewing season ticket holders read this!! While I was disappointed with some performances last season and obviously how we fell short in the end, I will still be at PR again next season. I'm sure there will be days of disappointment again, but unquestionably there will also be good days and more memories will be made. And one day we will return to the promised land again. Then kids at school will support Ipswich again....

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Vizslaraner added 17:01 - May 19 My boys feel the same and good on you for sticking with it. It's dire at the moment, but we have a great history and when something good happens it means far more than being a glory hunter. We will come again and winning away on a cold Tuesday night at some northern outpost means the world to us. You sound a proud blue, I just hope more local kids follow suit as watching live football can't be beat! COYB🔵⚪️

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happybeingblue added 17:44 - May 19 they are whats known in the football world as GLORY HUNTERS not real football fans of any particular team they just latch on to who ever is winning... Good on ya dad i say im a town fan like him from the 70s and my children are itfc too ,i guess your friends parents dont really follow football as i say to my kids i have more respect for NORWICH FANS than i do glory hunters as at least they do actually follow their team!

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Nfinley13 added 23:05 - May 19 I get this all the time in manchester. although I have supported Ipswich a short time (since 2011) I saw the light and never looked back, I love this team and my passion for the great club is unmatched to most people up here, most of fans up here are fake, they either support united or have jumped on the city band wagon. I am proud when I say Ipswich is my team and love it when I wear my shirt around town which I do a lot. I even had a job as a steward and I was able to steward the blackpool away game last season, I was in the away end right at the edge of the pitch chanting along under my breathe and had the chambers fist pump right next to me. I had the biggest smile all the way home to manchester( I also cheekily had my ipswich top underneath my uniform)

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The_Romford_Blue added 03:21 - May 20 Good on ya lad. As a 17 year old from Romford with no Ipswich connection at all, I feel your pain. I tell people I support Ipswich and the stunned look is usually met with a LOL, a 'where is Ipswich', a 'what league are they in' or a 'I bet you don't get to any games'. Like you, I have seen no glory times and the best I had was last season. I will never forget the feeling of that Chaplow goal last year in particular. The feeling of crossing the station bridge for home games every fortnight or wearing my Ipswich coat somewhere up north. We will have our moment as a club in our lifetimes. It will come. And when it does, we will feel and deserve it more than the glory hunters. Our time will come. Believe!

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statto added 09:00 - May 20 Proudly wearing an Ipswich shirt in 2013 in the middle of the Mongolian steppe I arrive at a ger. Two Swedish guys (one typically blonde and tall) are staring at me. Before I can say anything, the tall lad in perfect English almost shouts 'are you from Ipswich?' Patrick(and less so Vic) are two Swedes from Boras who are Ipswich fans and we spent much of the next days blabbering on about the exploits of our one and only beloved Ipswich Town FC!!! That was surreal.....ITFC forever!!

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