Yes sir 100% American here
.Yeah I have never really felt any kind of connection with an MLS team and saw how much enjoyment some people I knew got from supporting an English team so I decided to do the same.
Of course Man U and the like are the biggest supported over here but I didn't want to go that route.I happened to find a home Blades shirt in a local thrift store,watched some stuff and read some stuff on the club and just clicked with me that the Blades were my team.
Never been to Sheffield before but hope to as soon as I can.Will be difficult with our first child on the way but will make it happen at some point
UTB
Do they actually sell new Blades shirts in the US stores?
I’m interesting in fan cultures from different countries. Here in England amongst the traditional hotbed areas a football is like family, to some it’s almost like religion, really really serious stuff with very strong feelings. When we lose or are poor I try not to let it bother me but it can spoil my weekend. I sometimes almost go into a temporary mini depression. When we win I feel like I’m walking on air for days, shouldn’t let it effect me so much much...but it does.
Sheffield United history can be divided into eras.
Pre 1st world war: We were one of the top performing clubs in England, always up near the top of the league and challenging for honours.
Between 1st world war and 2nd world war: Constantly in the top division but generally finishing mid table.
After the war: Again mainly a top flight club without challenging to win anything, then from 1976 it’s been a big downturn. We’ve generally been mediocre spending time in the lower divisions with the odd few seasons in the top division but nothing long lasting.
In fact it’s pretty incredible that Sheffield being the 4th largest city in England and the place where football started have 2 big football clubs where both have done very little for over 40 years. It’s as though both football clubs (especially Sheff Utd) are cursed to never experience success.
So SU fans are generally pessimistic and have a latent anger that our club with such an impressive history have been on the slide and done so little in the last 40 years. The last time we won a cup was 1925 and our last cup final was 1936, making us the biggest fan base in England with such a poor post war history of winning nothing.
So we’re not a sexy club to support but that’s what makes us special, our fans do seem to be more passionate than most as we live in hope that our day will come.
