With “fans outside Merseyside” being a common insult to the reds, why are the scouser Everton fans thoughts on international Everton fans?

[formerly manx toffee]

I can’t help it. It had nothing to do with me. I was chosen

 

[Andy McGurk]

My problem with the bulk of their fans are, they aren't just glory hunters, they also can be essentially "2nd and 3rd generation" glory hunters.

My family moved from Liverpool early 80s, and my dad who's a blue noticed that even at that time, places like Milton Keynes and Bournemouth were full of them. They would have children who are now in their 30s-40s who will pass on their kopite genes, as a child in Peterborough I witnessed this first during the mid 90s.

I think you need to be utter dross for 30 years to kill off the glory hunters gene, probably why we don't have many anymore.

My 2 cents anyway

 

[anjelikaferrett]

Moved away from Liverpool in the 1990s when I got married. From a family of blues on both sides.Didn't dilute my allegiance to or love for Everton. My son has lived his whole life in County Durham but is a massive Evertonian. It's our thing. We go to the match together when we can. He did have a few years at Keele uni so Port Vale is his second favourite team! I've got no issue with non Scouse Evertonians. As somebody has said, it's a labour of love.

 

[buededw1]

I'm from Kent and choose LJMU as my University, so that I could watch the blues for three years. I would like to think that even though I'm not from Liverpool i'm still considered a fan and not a lesser fan as some of the guys may feel from the comments that I have read.

I would also like to add, without doubt scousers are the greatest people in the UK that I have had the pleasure of meeting. I few examples of their kindness. . .

- A guy on my Uni course use to give me free home tickets to the matches and integrated me into he's family.
- Another family i meet got me into a local football team where i came across the word 'wool' every time i played haha. That same family turned up at my Uni and brought me a fridge and filled it with food, as a welcome to Liverpool present.

Just top top people and I echo that sentiment when ever I get the chance.


Sorry if I went off on a tangent there!!

 

[RaleighBlue]

Both for me. I'm new here.

I told a bit of my story in the 'say hello' forum.

In the '00s-'10s the USA national team put together a decent squad (by CONCACAF standards) and started doing ok in international competition. I became a fan. I closely followed the 2010 World Cup where we were in the group with England and drew 1-1 and went through. Right around that time, my daughter was born. I took over baby duty from my wife on the weekends and, being up in the early morning with a baby asleep in my lap, I found the PL. Of course I knew Howard and although I just missed Donovan's loan spell I saw that he had played at Everton also.

The American hook drew my interest, but the passion of the fans and team and the atmosphere at Goodison pulled me in. Simple as that. I never had an interest in a "bigger" club, or in any other club. Like they say, the club chose me. The "People's Club" and the fact that it's at its roots a working-class club - this feels like home to me.

Since then my American sporting interests have faded and Everton is my #1 passion.

One of the things I appreciated from the start was that Evertonians didn't look down their noses at American players, as so many others did (with some justification). The attitude I felt was, well, if you play hard and love pulling on the Everton shirt you're ok with us. When Donovan decided to go back to MLS, because he wanted to go home to LA and help build the league, many laughed at him for leaving Europe and going back to a football backwater, but I saw many Everton fans on social media saying they respected his decision to go home, because that's an Everton value.

In my contacts with native Evertonians, I've never been made to feel anything other than welcome. My wife was walking around near our home in Brooklyn a couple of weeks ago with her NYC EVERTONIANS supporters-group T-shirt on and she came across a family from Liverpool visiting New York. They were Blues. They stopped her on the street. They were stunned to see her shirt and asked her is there really such a thing, you have an American accent, you're not English, and she's like yep, we watch every week. It was really funny, they were thrilled.

Having said that - there's the thing where the more people get introduced to something, the more its character changes and it gets away from the qualities that its supporters love about it. It's like when you're a hardcore fan of an indie band, and then all of a sudden they get massive and the sound changes and the fans that were there at the beginning feel left behind. I'm respectful of the Blue culture. I recognize that it developed over decades in a small community. Now the games are streamed all over the world and I can talk with all of you on the internet about them. To grow, the club needs more cash and international fans are a good way to get it. I'm looking forward to my first Goodison trip, which I'll be planning for November - December as soon as the fixture list comes out. But I don't want to be that guy who by virtue of being one more incremental fan from overseas helps destroy the character of the thing, know what I mean?

Anyway I'm rambling.

Mine is pretty straightforward; my wife is a born Evertonian (non-scouse, English division) her dad is a born Evertonian - from Liverpool, and his dad was as well.

I got converted when we started dating, with Baines’ freekick against Chelsea in the FA Cup being ‘the moment’. Heitinga shoulder barging Ashley Cole during the penalty shootout in the same match was just icing.

 

[sdk]

I'm an Ugly American. Please just ignore me. I promise to support Everton in an unobtrusive manner; I won't pretend to have Scouser roots; and I'll never shame the good name of the club by wearing a full kit to the supermarket. If I were the sort of good and faithful soul who supported the local team, I'd be a New England Revolution fan. Heaven forfend!

 

[Hibbo]

Australians are wools.

 

[longers]

If we ever get properly good this forum will become a war zone between all the new bandwagon plastics and the old school fans... at least that’s what you’d think given how many people here fume about plastics at other clubs. Reality is it will probably be a non issue as the truth is that no one really gets mad if outsiders support their club, they only care if they support other clubs as they can then use it as a stick to beat rival fans with.

Someone posted a video the other day of some angry Evertonian walking outside Anfield positively fuming at all the non scousers, it just made him look like a prize bellend. Sustained success brings worldwide support, there is no huge club in the world who has managed to maintain a mostly local fanbase.

People moan about Man City having no fans but if they keep this form up they will be amongst the most supported clubs in the world within a decade or two.

 

[CairnsToffee]

Being from Edge Hill, and a season ticket before moving to Oz in 95, I believe I have been put on this earth to spread the word about Everton here in Oz

It’s not easy as the Ozzie’s only support who is winning at any particular time.

I watch every Everton game live here in Cairns with the coverage we have and I contribute to the club by buy every kit we have released since 1995, which I wear all the time because of the hot climate here

So less a supporter, no I don’t feel that’s this is the case

 

[Hellerad]

Masochists, home and abroad.

 

[JelavicBrate2]

Not really the same thing, supporting Everton isn't easy, we're not usually the champions league and we haven't won anything in a while. Also our club don't specifically cater to out of towners and tourists like they do. You'll find coaches our tourists visit Anfield every day. Also there are quite a few parts of the North West and North Wales, where you don't have a football club so I don't have a problem with those fans, you can hardly call them plastic fans. These fans are great, having to finish work early to get on a coach to GP for a midweek game against Newcastle, not getting back to relatively late at night, you can't fault that. We have fans from the South Coast who have season tickets and come up to GP every game, I don't know how any fan could suggest they're not real fans, considering the dross we've had to watch over the years. If I played for Everton, I'd quite happily pay they're coach fares for the season.
You can't really compare that with some divvy, who comes to Anfield maybe a few times a year, yet considers themselves to be a huge Everton fan. Also think about it Liverpool lost one game this season, we have a lost 5 games at home, lost against them in the 96th minute in the cruelest way, lost from 2-0 up at Newcastle, got knocked out in the last minute against Millwall and also we extremely unlucky not to get points against United away, Arsenal away and a few others. It's hard being a Everton fan, it isn't hard being a RS. Barca pretty much gave them the win at Anfield, they got huge amount of luck to beat PSG and Napoli at home. In the league mistakes made by Pickford, Mahrez, Lloris, Palaces goalkeeper, Burnleys goalkeeper and Fulham's goalkeeper helped them. Add to that the Cardiff player missing that ridiculous chance, United having 3 injuries in the first half and a variety of other pieces of good luck, and offside goals, then you don't really need to stress much as a RS.
Also most of our fans from the south for example, are people whose parents come from Merseyside, that isn't the case with most Liverpool fans. Their fans mostly have no connection with Merseyside, and in many cases they actually hate scousers. They're fans from outside from Liverpool and even those from Merseyside are mostly divvies, ours aren't simple as.

 

[cronullasharks]

Only been to goodison once and have to agree with people saying the scousers are a great friendly bunch. The people sitting around me were amazed to have an aussie sitting amongst them particularly as it was against Sunderland midweek on the coldest night I've ever experienced!

Am hoping to get to goodison again before Bramley Moore happens so my son can say he's been there too.

 

[Toffee-nerd]

Not sure what category I'd fall into here.
I was born in liverpool, spent most of my teenage years in leeds and then emigrated to Australia 4 years ago. Difference with us and them is nobody is getting on the bandwagon with us. You'd have to be an utter idiot to be a glory hunter and support everton. We all do it to ourselves because we love the club. Clubs like rs, chelsea, United have a plethora of fans who dont know the first thing about their own club never mind football as a whole yet they will still tell you all about it. Genuinely think we have the best fanbase in the world, at home and overseas. Trophyless in 20+ years but packed out home and away.

 

[DMOEFC]

Born in North Wales grew up on the Isle of Man. Used to be a season ticket holder traveling 4 1/2 hours each way to go to Goodison (in the mid 90s when we were really crap). Now I’m in Canada and will get up early every weekend to watch us. I have friends here who through me are also die hard Evertonians. The big difference I find here in Canada is if you see someone in an Everton shirt ( it happens a lot) you know they are a real fan. Someone in a Liverpool shirt may not even though they played that day. It may have been years since I’ve gone to the game but I am as big an Everton fan as anybody else.

 

[polish]

To this day I made more than 8 thousand miles to watch our Blues play. Evertonians I met are always amazed how can a guy from Poland supports Everton.

And I was truly chosen I think - in a year 2004 my dad installed a satellite in our home and I finally got an access to watch the Premier League. The first game I’ve seen was Southampton at Goodison when Rooney scored a brace. The rest is history.