Julian Barnes, Novelist, Distinguished Man of Letters.......No Idea About Football

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Picture the scene then. I'm in the bath. For those who don't know me I'm a young Adonis. For those who do know me look away now.

It's three forty five am on Sunday morning. I'm on the early shift at work and have gotten up early so that I can have time to have a bath. I will never change my mind with regards to baths over showers. You will understand that last remark as we go on.

Now what I tend to do in the bath is to listen to a radio programme I've downloaded from the BBC iplayer radio app as a sort of countdown clock, when it finishes I'm out. If I have time it could be a half hour programme, but yesterday was not that day. So instead listened a a thirteen minute programme in the series "The Essay"  from Radio 3, the BBC classical/cultural station.

For the past week Julian Barnes, the distinguished novelist was discussing how you change your mind through your life. I'd not listened in chronological order so the one I'd listened to before was on books. He explained how he changed his mind on E M Forster from dislike to like and mentioned in passing that he might be going the same way on D H Lawrence. That bit made me chuckle as I had changed my mind on Lawrence too. Based on the books I'd read my view as a young adult was that he was a writer of saucy stuff with a literary sheen but now as a fifty two year old man he was just a conveyor of pretentious twaddle. How you change your mind indeed.

The episode in the bath was the first of the series, where in the beginning Barnes was setting out the basis for the rest of the week. And in this preamble he said this:

"that we all expect some change through the years........we change our minds about many things.........to adherence to social groups, the football team or political party we support.

It was a throwaway remark but that really woke me up. It was radio as espresso (thanks for that anyway Julian). But whilst it's perfectly true that I've changed my mind about many things through the years. sport and specifically here football is different.

So who would be the freak who likes football, reads books and downloads talks from BBC Radio 3 to listen at an ungodly hour on a Sunday morning? Two thumbs pointed at this guy.

Now regular readers of this blog will know that I support a number of football teams on the grounds that I've always believed that it makes watching a foreign league more exciting (one per country you understand). But these teams will always fall by the wayside if they ever face the first team I followed as a child. So not to muddy the waters lets talk solely about the English leagues, and the first and longest love of my life West Ham United.

I picked the Hammers simply because they were the closest team to where I was born in the East End of London. That was it. Loyalty to your area. My family generally have gone to the dark side and support Arsenal. Of course I don't like the fact that the Daleks are more successful but in terms of who you support though it does not matter. Once you have made your decision that is it. You have committed yourself forever...through victory,defeat or a draw....for that's the nature of sport and supporting your team. You,the fan, care.

I'm sure there are a few people who changed their minds as to which football team they are such a minority that they're not worth talking about unless to shun them in the street.

You follow the team whatever their fortunes and wherever you are. I'm trying to see if I can get a ticket to watch them play Swansea City on Boxing Day. As I've said before Swansea are one of those teams that I consider to be like being very friendly with a woman whilst still being faithful to your wife. On Boxing day Christmas is over. I want them beaten.

Let's give another example. In South Wales the majority support the three teams in the English League, Cardiff, Swansea and Newport County. There will be others though who follow the likes of Manchester United or Liverpool. I knew people in the late nineties who supported Aston Villa because it was the closest Premiership team from South Wales (how times change). But once they made their minds up there was no change in the team they supported.

So Julian Barnes Football is not like literature,or politics,or music. You can be passionate about all these things (as I am) but your lifelong loyalty will always be for your team.

Come On You Irons!

Until the next time