[Albion] The Legend that is Lewis Dunk, does he still support Chelsea ?

[Hamilton]

I really doubt that he's a fan nowadays.

I was a fan of Liverpool until my Uncle took me and my cousin to the Goldstone.

 

[Paxton Dazo]

Wow, that is pretty sad seeing as he went to school in Brighton.

Sad, but true.
We were both Varndean 2003-08, and despite being a Spurs fan I went to more Brighton games than anybody in our year.

Very refreshing to see more and more Albion shirts around nowadays though.

 

[Brovion]

Only one person at my school admitted to supporting BHA and going to watch them - nobody in the early 1970s would actively seek out a rather poor third division club. (or if they did, they kept very quiet about it).

Everyone supported then first division teams. If they were relegated you swiftly found someone else, otherwise you had no kudus on the great playground battles for supremacy.

Yes, exactly the same when I was at school in Lancing (late 60s early 70s). I only knew of one boy who when asked who he supported would say "Brighton" - and he was considered to be a complete weirdo. Absolutely everybody else supported a big team: Chelsea for me, and Spurs, Arsenal, Everton and Man U where the other popular ones. Nearly everybody supported Brighton as well, and we all went to the Goldstone, but our 'big' teams took precedence. As you say no one wanted to be primarily associated with a crap 3rd division side. Eventually I (and others) grew out of it, but I know some stuck to their big team for life. My brother for example will always say he's a Chelsea fan

 

[Simster]

I got into football in 1979, around the time my parents got divorced and I moved across mid Sussex as a result. Funnily enough, EVERYONE was a Brighton fan in both primary schools at the time.

It's the same now. Everyone supports Brighton in the city, or at least most do. Most (but not all) cities operate in the same way.

 

[The Wookiee]

I think he said recently that when he was at school nobody was a Brighton fan. His dad is a Chelsea fan so there you go

Isn’t his dog called Drogba ?

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Wow, that is pretty sad seeing as he went to school in Brighton.

Picked the van up yesterday, it was the gearbox, over 1700 quid bill on my birthday!

 

[Swansman]

Isn’t his dog called Drogba ?

Didier I believe.

Drogba would be completely unacceptable considering the opportunity to, in that case, name it Dogba.

 

[BN9 BHA]

Picked the van up yesterday, it was the gearbox, over 1700 quid bill on my birthday!

FFS not good

 

[AstroSloth]

Hollingbury Hawks, oh my god, I give up

Remember stuffing them a few times.

Easy clean sheet for me.

 

[The Wookiee]

Doesn't surprise me at all. I went to high school in Hove and don't recall any Brighton fans at the time. Kids are pretty f***ing fickle, and if the local team is not playing at the top level, it's more than likely they will be drawn to a successful side

You are right about our year at Blatchington Mill, so I used to go regularly home and away with a load of lads from Cardinal Newman especially in the 86/87 and 87/88 seasons.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Wow, that is pretty sad seeing as he went to school in Brighton.

Twas the same when I grew up. We all went and watched The Albion, of course. But we all supported a division 1 side.

(Ahem. Leeds.)

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

I would be absolutely certain that he is now more an Albion fan than a Chelsea fan.

He was born here, raised here and spent his entire career here... and will surely stick around in some capacity beyond that.

It's likely he has a 'soft spot' for them, maybe even still considers himself a fan, but it would be incomparible to his love for the Albion now.

Welcome back, by the way. Good choice

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

Doesn't surprise me at all. I went to high school in Hove and don't recall any Brighton fans at the time. Kids are pretty f***ing fickle, and if the local team is not playing at the top level, it's more than likely they will be drawn to a successful side

I went to school in Horsham with someone who supported Swansea, mad fool. I converted him to Brighton after my dad and I took him to Brighton.

Hasn't done bad since, eh Brian?

 

[faoileán]

Well, there is no denying he would make the Albions all time legends hall of fame and quite rightly so too.
It is a well known fact that he supported Chelsea, but I wonder with everything lately that has occurred and the fact he has been here so long.

Well does he still support them I wonder, or has the love affair waned and been sullied somewhat.....

I also often wonder, do players get into the dressing room and frantically look for their phones now to see how the team they support got on, do they leap around the dressing room when they see their team has smashed a rival ? or do they wait until they get in the car and have a look, then go ape shit in the car park, do they go home in a mood if the team they support lost, but yet the team they play for won ?

Too many questions ?

I asked him a couple of years ago and he said he really wasn't bothered about Chelsea, it was just a schoolboy thing rather than a passion...

 

[Swansman]

Interesting thread topic - a bit clumsy for me to get my head around tbh! I guess players separate their professional life from their private life so you’d think there was no conflict of interest but it is weird to think a PL player for example, could play competitively against the PL team he supports. I tend to think players as being members of a club’s squad who support that club by default by committing their professional life to that club for how ever long they are contracted to it. Also, I imagine, other than having local/family/academy/youth connections eg like Burn did for Newcastle, football players tend to be fans/admiring of individual players over teams especially those who play in the same position as them but for a higher ranking club - as with anything, we seek to emulate those we admire. I imagine also, if they support a higher ranking/big 6 club, it might have quite a lot to do with an aspiration to play for them!

Ps I used to support Chelsea when I went to Varndean VI Form (but still went to the Goldstone and cheered Brighton on on match days) . Now not so much

Don't really think there is much of a conflict of interest really. Most if not all footballers on this level got a pathological desire to win. If you play FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer with a footballer and happen to win again, they might smile but you see that they want to strangle you. When I was 17 and doing going to high school or upper secondary school or whatever you call it, I had month-long internship (arranged by my school) at a newspaper.

One of my first tasks was to go and interview a bloke roughly my own age, who had just got his breakthrough in Allsvenskan (he was a super talent but eventually only made 2 caps for Sweden and only a short stint abroad, in England). We decided to do the interview at his place (he was still living at home but no parents were home). When I came there he was playing Pro Evolution Soccer 5 or 6 and asked if I wanted to play a game first.

"Sure", I said, without informing him that I had spent some 1000 hours or something playing the game. He picked Real Madrid, I picked my team from the PES Online League - NAC Breda - and he said "they're no good" and I told him "...you'll see". Somewhere in the second half when I scored my third free kick with Pierre van Hooijdonk, I could sort of sense him tearing up and I didn't know what to do, but we finished the game and I won comfortably.

After the game he said "I'm actually in no mood for an interview". I told him ok, maybe another day? And as I was getting dressed he started screaming at me about cheating and humiliating him in his own home... he wrote to me later that night and apologised and we made the interview eventually, but that was when I discovered the outright childish winners mentality in a professional footballer.

While players might support teams that they play against sometimes, the thought of losing is so infuriating that when they're out there on the pitch, all those "fan-like" feelings are just out the window.

 

[The Seagull]

Wow, that is pretty sad seeing as he went to school in Brighton.

Yep. This was pretty standard in the 80’s/90’s when I was I was growing up.Most people had a “big team”. That’s why even now when I see kids wearing the Brighton kit anywhere I still smile as I’m still not used to it. Such an amazing transformation.

As for Dunk supporting Chelsea now, I think that was a thing he did when younger and now he’s grown up. Strange this has stuck with him.

 

[The Seagull]

You are right about our year at Blatchington Mill, so I used to go regularly home and away with a load of lads from Cardinal Newman especially in the 86/87 and 87/88 seasons.

You were a member of the “fat firm” then

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

You were a member of the “fat firm” then

Blatchington Mill

HGSB

Nisi Spiritu Dei Nihil

Grammar
Until
(forget the other two)

No you go down to the head master's office.
Which **** wrote that?
Here, here and particularly here.

And....exhale

 

[The Wookiee]

You were a member of the “fat firm” then

Yep although I was the good looking skinny one

 

[BN9 BHA]

Yep. This was pretty standard in the 80’s/90’s when I was I was growing up.Most people had a “big team”. That’s why even now when I see kids wearing the Brighton kit anywhere I still smile as I’m still not used to it. Such an amazing transformation.

I grew up in Brighton and I was lucky enough to be taken to the Goldstone by my dad, he wasn’t originally from the area and wasn’t really an Albion fan though.
I do remember other neighbours in our road supporting the Albion, kids from the area also went.
At junior school I remember many kids supporting Liverpool, at secondary in the late 70s and early 80s many kids actually supported the Albion, maybe because we were doing well and attracting large crowds.