Quote Originally Posted by macstheman View Post
To me your rivals change according to the current situation. We are in L1 whilst Florist are in the PL so I couldn't care less about them. MA makes a very heartfelt post about their vile fans which raises a different issue. If we're talking about clubs' fans then, as I say Leeds and Man U have some of the most vile, full of their own pissing importance ones going! You can include Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea in that list as well! All clubs have some vile fans us included but I don't put the Trent lot at the top of that list.
It is true that way back when the above five clubs were our rivals whilst also having the ****tiest fans. They remain on my hate list for the latter reason. On a personal basis if I had a choice of Leeds relegated or Forest relegated from the PL then the Reds can stay up!
Agreed...which is probably why I think of Sheffield Wednesday as being our main rivals this season...shared aspiration, history and proximity.
As you say, ‘all clubs have some vile fans’ and I don’t suppose the incident MA refers to is typical of United fans although I understand how scarring it must have been.
Last season one of my best mates was fighting bowel cancer. He comes from Nottingham and supports Forest. In his darkest moments, and there were lots, Forest’s success helped him enormously and I could never begrudge him that. Likewise he told me he wanted Derby to survive because, lifelong rivalry apart, he always thought of Derby as a proper ‘football town’ and would never want a club to go out of existence in a way that seemed quite likely at one point.
I suppose they’re just examples of healthy grown up rivalry which personally I much prefer to the toxicity which is sometimes present at ‘derby’ matches.