The apathy kind of sneaks up on you. It hit home to me the other day. We were planning some stuff and the Mrs said ‘but Rovers are at home?’
One, I hadn’t even checked the fixture list and two when I said ‘well, we’ll go that day anyway’, the fact we wouldn’t look to arrange it for other days had her shocked.
Anybody that knows me would be amazed by that, Blackburn Rovers is part of my identity, like part of my family, certainly it’s how my actual family have always seen the club. I’ve prioritised it (or had it prioritised for me) since I was about six/seven years old.
First it was knocking night games on the head, but I rationalised that in my head with ‘work, cold. Red button’. For 3pm’s? Well, I’d just rather be doing something else.
A football club and your relationship to it is precious, something you can’t really quantify, the sense of pride, of belonging, that link to generations passed… and they’ve destroyed it.