- Joined
- Jan 19, 2015
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- 3,557
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- Location
- Hampshire and Ethiopia
- Supports
- Wolves
For the uninitiated, WABLO - We'll Always Be League One - was founded by Oldham as a way of making seemingly eternal membership of Britain's top football division without the letter P or C in the name a fashion statement. Other members include Gillingham, Walsall, Bradford and Port Vale. MK Dons were a member but decided to explore pastures new for one season. Tranmere and Notts County both boasted of membership but events overtook them.
However, we don't have the same ambitious membership scheme in the Championship and I feel we should.
So, we introduce CANE....Championship And Nowhere Else...the new permanent membership scheme for the Championship. Membership criteria are fairly loose, but it is free of charge. Is your club eligible for membership?
However, we don't have the same ambitious membership scheme in the Championship and I feel we should.
So, we introduce CANE....Championship And Nowhere Else...the new permanent membership scheme for the Championship. Membership criteria are fairly loose, but it is free of charge. Is your club eligible for membership?
- a fairly big stadium which is not as good as most PL grounds but a lot fucking better than Vale Park
- a history
- located in a place that's a bit gritty, a bit edgy
- ongoing, unmitigated bitterness about the fact that "we're fucking bigger than this division"
- a rivalry with an equally big nearby city or a really irritating minor PL team
- regularly on TV for largely historical reasons
- annually relieved of League Cup ambitions by upstarts like Northampton or Exeter
- small trophy room which doubles as a room to keep the hoover and the rug-steaming machine
- a comprehensive range of club-branded velour leisurewear
- either a band or a cheerleader team
- a PA announcer who was once a poor local radio DJ, but who thinks he's great craic
- a proper 'blokes' strip: no pinks, greys, patterns. Just solid, traditional colours, stripes or hoops
- a footballing style that is 'interesting' to watch for 30 minutes but largely ineffective, counterproductive and makes for poor TV. Like floodlight pinball.
- crucially, their ability to finish between about 9th and 16th, year in, year out with an occasional flash of brilliance that drags them into a play-off position in September or a few weeks in the relegation zone in April
- their unfailing belief that they really are the by far the greatest team the world has ever seen
- their desperate need to have a decent away following
- their list of quite plausible reasons why their away following isn't as good as Leeds
- their need to position their youth supporters as being sufficiently hard as to make away fans nervous but not sufficiently hard to encourage or engage visiting firms: a sort of middle-class Tweet menace.
- their acute perception of penalties unawarded to their team and those unfairly awarded to opposing teams
- their innate refereeing skills
- their acquaintance with "someone in the know" at the club
- their belief that their ex-players are predominantly "gash" (if they used to be good) or "great" (if they left when elderly and slow)
- their need for other fans to respect their club, regardless that neither party can work out any reasons for that respect
- their undying, relentless knowledge that they will, one day escape this fucking division and all it will take is a couple of seasons in the PL and they will surely take all the honours. If only, just one season, if only....
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