I'm about to make myself unpopular. Personally I find all the talk about ‘rights’ is symptomatic of something in modern society that I find distasteful. People who have a ‘right’ to talk about their ‘rights’ are mostly only those who genuinely have (or had) to fight for them.

In the meantime, the rest of us, privileged, mollycoddled 21st Century westerners could learn a little respect. Fans don't have ‘rights’. I'm often disgusted by the lack of humanity registered on here and throughout football in the name of ‘we pay your wages’ or some other misplaced feeling of entitlement.

I love Ipswich Town and often look at games or systems or players and say what I think would improve us, or who I rate highly, or less so. I do it without questioning application (you need to be able to apply yourself to be a professional footballer at all, make no mistake about that), or commitment or belief.

If I thought the players or staff didn't care I'd do what I wish a lot of Ipswich ‘fans’ would do, and not follow, comment or pay money towards my club. My time is too valuable to me. Go find a local semi-pro team and give them your hard-earned instead - especially if you hark back to days of yore, when footy wasn't televised or global or rich. When players drank in the local boozer and knew your name. That football still exists; fill your boots, non-league teams the country over would welcome the extra support.

If that led to Ipswich Town FC being left with just a few thousand hardcore fans and a dive towards the lower reaches of the league system then so be it - a natural equilibrium may be restored.

I play in the league Ipswich started in (the SAL), and while it's not a great standard, players throughout the league pay money and give their time to something they love. The league has survived so long because players don't feel an entitlement like many modern fans.

We get the chance to feel like footballers and to fight for a team and that is why we play - most of us, deep down, are still just kids who want a game of football every week. Thank goodness we don't have to deal with ‘fans’, none of us would bother.

I'd be happy if people would just have the good manners to express themselves with some civility, and stop shouting about what ‘rights’ people do and don't have. It is tiresome.

As regards our on-field position, I'm glad we're playing some decent football - I hope the results will follow. If not, I'm sure the owner will look into making changes again as he has in the past. I'll still be coming off the pitch, knackered, just before 5pm on a Saturday and reaching for my phone to check the Ipswich score, and it'll hurt when we lose and I'll love it when we win.

COYB

meekreech added 20:07 - Sep 23 My feeling is that the only right a football supporter ( of any club ) is to either pay his money and attend the games or not . We all know that RIGHTS is a strange word and can mean anything to anyone . All of football is in a terrible state regarding fees , wages , agents and attitudes with little regard to supporters ( value for money and general treatment ) which has in my view come about by the greed of the television company's ! The money is all in the premier league and no longer filters down as it once did as players rarely transfer up , they come from abroad . This means clubs in the lower divisions struggle to attract players and sponsors so making survival and the chances of following Portsmouth and Rangers down the disaster route ( we have already tasted administration once ) which is , later this season , going to happen to some of the bigger spending clubs in our league !

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