LOVING REMINDERS TO SELF:
to take out when your team is shite
You are allowed to disengage completely. You do not have to watch the game or follow along with the score on the app (you can mute those notifications or better yet, put the phone on Do Not Disturb). No need to read the post-match reactions and reviews from fans or journalists, or to watch any highlights of the game. Even if people ask you, you do not have to give a comment about your feelings around it (especially if they just want to get a reaction out of you).
Go do something else: cook, play with a dog and/or child, talk to that friend that knows NOTHING about sports, go for a run, watch Pedro Pascal videos.You are allowed to get into the thick of it, if that’s what scratches your itch (you masochist). Really get into that wound and turn the knife around while you’re in there.
Sometimes you need to go through it to get to the other side.
(ME, I’M A MASOCHIST. I FEEL SICK AFTER WATCHING THE LATEST HIGHLIGHTS. EMMA, PLEASE TAKE YOUR OWN ADVISE AND REVISIT #1) You are allowed to scream and curse your team, moan about individuals and get really fucking frustrated about the state of your club and the ownership that claims to be running it. Only do this in the comfort of your own company, only to yourself and not in a way that leaves any trace.
And then I suggest you drop it. Like a good cleanse, you need to get it out of your system and then let it go. DO NOT HOLD ON TO THE RESENTMENT, you won’t last long in this business (as a fan of a mediocre team anyways). Do not go on long rants online, get into fights with other fans - of your own team, of another team and for the love of god do not engage with any fans of a rival team.
And obviously never sink to the level of abusing individual players???You are allowed to be defensive, even though your team clearly does not know what a defence is.
And no matter how irrational someone tells you it is, no matter how angry you still are with them, you’re the only one that’s allowed to be upset with them, no one else can talk shit about them,
and that is completely valid.You are allowed to be resentful of other team’s successes, as well as feeling little spikes of schadenfreude when other teams do badly too
(because they all do, at some point).
But again, best to keep this to yourself because it’s not very charming and might get you into some unnecessary arguments or bite you in the ass (and sometimes there’s just no way to win: https://twitter.com/Billie_T/status/1647223022841888775)Remember that when it comes to men’s football, at the end of the day they’re adult men who get paid ridiculous amounts of money to play a game for a living.
