Tosser!

Quoted from Poojah

Look, I reckon I could have a pint with a regular, match-going fan of just about any club in this country, be it Man City, Man United, Mansfield, or even fúcking Scunny, and find loads in common with them. But not MK Dons; I just don’t understand the mindset. I don’t understand how you could back something like that, either as a football fan or just a human being in general.

To borrow (tenuously) from the thread title; tossers, the lot of them.

Quoted from Poojah

I’d suggest they deserve to experience having their beloved so-called football club taken away from them for a start. The very concept of MK Dons is morally bankrupt, and I won’t be satisfied until they are financially so.

Do I really need to explain the “why”? Do you know what, fúck it, you’ve triggered me (‘cos I really don’t like the cúnts), so I’ll give you an answer. Big deep breath…

Let me start by giving some credit where it’s due; the whole Wimbledon to Milton Keynes strategy actually made complete sense. On a spreadsheet. With a population of over 250,000, MK was one of the largest urban areas in the UK without a league club, in part due to the fact it was a new town founded in the 1970s. Better yet, it was probably the largest urban area in the UK nowhere near a so-called “big club”. MK is some 70 miles from Villa Park, and over an hour on a train to central London. A massive, untapped audience, just waiting to be unlocked. There was just a tiny flaw in the plan.

It was bóllocks.

You see, when the so-called Dons played their first match in the town, some 20 years ago now, there were 2 types of people living in Milton Keynes:

a) Non-football fans
b) Football fans who already supported another club

This observation is obvious to anyone who follows football, but apparently not to the likes of Charles Koppel and Pete Winkleman. Naturally, converting non-football fans into regular, match-going supporters is very difficult, and converting fans of one club to another, nigh-on impossible. The only people actually capable of supporting a club like MK are therefore, by definition, freaks.

Unsurprising then, we regularly see 25,000 empty seats in MK’s fine, but tainted stadium. Here’s the thing though - it didn’t have to be this way.

It’s often forgotten that Milton Keynes already had a football club - Milton Keynes City FC. They were tiny, operating in the very lower reaches of non-league. It would have taken years to have brought that club to the football league; time that could be saved by harvesting the organs of Wimbledon.

But in doing so, they created a brand too toxic to touch. They created something almost impossible to rally behind. They have become the pantomime villain, and legitimately so. Ironically, it took AFC Wimbledon, with only fan powered resources, just 8 seasons to return to the football league, by which point MK Dons were only a league above them. As of right now of course they find themselves in League Two, separated from Wimbledon by just 10 points. For all their trials and tribulations, they have failed to make meaningful progress.

Had they played the long game, rather than taking the sleazy shortcut, then maybe, just maybe, they might have created a story its community could have been proud of and, in time, grown a healthy five-figure fan base. A fan base perhaps that could have seen them sustain Championship football and, then, who knows what beyond that? And no one would have begrudged them their success.

But they didn’t, and so in the world we actually live in, they are back where they started, little more than a small club rattling round in a big stadium, yo-yo-ing between league’s One and Two. At least for as long as the mouth breathers that follow them continue to turn up, and things aren’t looking to clever there as it happens.

This season will be comfortably their lowest average attendance since moving to Stadium:MK. To be even clearer, this season’s average is down 25% on their next lowest average. The project has failed. It’s fúcked.

Ultimately, it had to fail. No supporter in this country wants “franchise football”, and a successful MK Dons would have set a dangerous precedent. The only ones to blame are the bell ends behind this most moronic of experiments, and the mindless chumps that turn up to watch them.

Look, I reckon I could have a pint with a regular, match-going fan of just about any club in this country, be it Man City, Man United, Mansfield, or even fúcking Scunny, and find loads in common with them. But not MK Dons; I just don’t understand the mindset. I don’t understand how you could back something like that, either as a football fan or just a human being in general.

To borrow (tenuously) from the thread title; tossers, the lot of them.

Quoted from Poojah

I’d suggest they deserve to experience having their beloved so-called football club taken away from them for a start. The very concept of MK Dons is morally bankrupt, and I won’t be satisfied until they are financially so.

Do I really need to explain the “why”? Do you know what, fúck it, you’ve triggered me (‘cos I really don’t like the cúnts), so I’ll give you an answer. Big deep breath…

Let me start by giving some credit where it’s due; the whole Wimbledon to Milton Keynes strategy actually made complete sense. On a spreadsheet. With a population of over 250,000, MK was one of the largest urban areas in the UK without a league club, in part due to the fact it was a new town founded in the 1970s. Better yet, it was probably the largest urban area in the UK nowhere near a so-called “big club”. MK is some 70 miles from Villa Park, and over an hour on a train to central London. A massive, untapped audience, just waiting to be unlocked. There was just a tiny flaw in the plan.

It was bóllocks.

You see, when the so-called Dons played their first match in the town, some 20 years ago now, there were 2 types of people living in Milton Keynes:

a) Non-football fans
b) Football fans who already supported another club

This observation is obvious to anyone who follows football, but apparently not to the likes of Charles Koppel and Pete Winkleman. Naturally, converting non-football fans into regular, match-going supporters is very difficult, and converting fans of one club to another, nigh-on impossible. The only people actually capable of supporting a club like MK are therefore, by definition, freaks.

Unsurprising then, we regularly see 25,000 empty seats in MK’s fine, but tainted stadium. Here’s the thing though - it didn’t have to be this way.

It’s often forgotten that Milton Keynes already had a football club - Milton Keynes City FC. They were tiny, operating in the very lower reaches of non-league. It would have taken years to have brought that club to the football league; time that could be saved by harvesting the organs of Wimbledon.

But in doing so, they created a brand too toxic to touch. They created something almost impossible to rally behind. They have become the pantomime villain, and legitimately so. Ironically, it took AFC Wimbledon, with only fan powered resources, just 8 seasons to return to the football league, by which point MK Dons were only a league above them. As of right now of course they find themselves in League Two, separated from Wimbledon by just 10 points. For all their trials and tribulations, they have failed to make meaningful progress.

Had they played the long game, rather than taking the sleazy shortcut, then maybe, just maybe, they might have created a story its community could have been proud of and, in time, grown a healthy five-figure fan base. A fan base perhaps that could have seen them sustain Championship football and, then, who knows what beyond that? And no one would have begrudged them their success.

But they didn’t, and so in the world we actually live in, they are back where they started, little more than a small club rattling round in a big stadium, yo-yo-ing between league’s One and Two. At least for as long as the mouth breathers that follow them continue to turn up, and things aren’t looking to clever there as it happens.

This season will be comfortably their lowest average attendance since moving to Stadium:MK. To be even clearer, this season’s average is down 25% on their next lowest average. The project has failed. It’s fúcked.

Ultimately, it had to fail. No supporter in this country wants “franchise football”, and a successful MK Dons would have set a dangerous precedent. The only ones to blame are the bell ends behind this most moronic of experiments, and the mindless chumps that turn up to watch them.

Look, I reckon I could have a pint with a regular, match-going fan of just about any club in this country, be it Man City, Man United, Mansfield, or even fúcking Scunny, and find loads in common with them. But not MK Dons; I just don’t understand the mindset. I don’t understand how you could back something like that, either as a football fan or just a human being in general.

To borrow (tenuously) from the thread title; tossers, the lot of them.

Quoted from Poojah

I’d suggest they deserve to experience having their beloved so-called football club taken away from them for a start. The very concept of MK Dons is morally bankrupt, and I won’t be satisfied until they are financially so.

Do I really need to explain the “why”? Do you know what, fúck it, you’ve triggered me (‘cos I really don’t like the cúnts), so I’ll give you an answer. Big deep breath…

Let me start by giving some credit where it’s due; the whole Wimbledon to Milton Keynes strategy actually made complete sense. On a spreadsheet. With a population of over 250,000, MK was one of the largest urban areas in the UK without a league club, in part due to the fact it was a new town founded in the 1970s. Better yet, it was probably the largest urban area in the UK nowhere near a so-called “big club”. MK is some 70 miles from Villa Park, and over an hour on a train to central London. A massive, untapped audience, just waiting to be unlocked. There was just a tiny flaw in the plan.

It was bóllocks.

You see, when the so-called Dons played their first match in the town, some 20 years ago now, there were 2 types of people living in Milton Keynes:

a) Non-football fans
b) Football fans who already supported another club

This observation is obvious to anyone who follows football, but apparently not to the likes of Charles Koppel and Pete Winkleman. Naturally, converting non-football fans into regular, match-going supporters is very difficult, and converting fans of one club to another, nigh-on impossible. The only people actually capable of supporting a club like MK are therefore, by definition, freaks.

Unsurprising then, we regularly see 25,000 empty seats in MK’s fine, but tainted stadium. Here’s the thing though - it didn’t have to be this way.

It’s often forgotten that Milton Keynes already had a football club - Milton Keynes City FC. They were tiny, operating in the very lower reaches of non-league. It would have taken years to have brought that club to the football league; time that could be saved by harvesting the organs of Wimbledon.

But in doing so, they created a brand too toxic to touch. They created something almost impossible to rally behind. They have become the pantomime villain, and legitimately so. Ironically, it took AFC Wimbledon, with only fan powered resources, just 8 seasons to return to the football league, by which point MK Dons were only a league above them. As of right now of course they find themselves in League Two, separated from Wimbledon by just 10 points. For all their trials and tribulations, they have failed to make meaningful progress.

Had they played the long game, rather than taking the sleazy shortcut, then maybe, just maybe, they might have created a story its community could have been proud of and, in time, grown a healthy five-figure fan base. A fan base perhaps that could have seen them sustain Championship football and, then, who knows what beyond that? And no one would have begrudged them their success.

But they didn’t, and so in the world we actually live in, they are back where they started, little more than a small club rattling round in a big stadium, yo-yo-ing between league’s One and Two. At least for as long as the mouth breathers that follow them continue to turn up, and things aren’t looking to clever there as it happens.

This season will be comfortably their lowest average attendance since moving to Stadium:MK. To be even clearer, this season’s average is down 25% on their next lowest average. The project has failed. It’s fúcked.

Ultimately, it had to fail. No supporter in this country wants “franchise football”, and a successful MK Dons would have set a dangerous precedent. The only ones to blame are the bell ends behind this most moronic of experiments, and the mindless chumps that turn up to watch them.

Look, I reckon I could have a pint with a regular, match-going fan of just about any club in this country, be it Man City, Man United, Mansfield, or even fúcking Scunny, and find loads in common with them. But not MK Dons; I just don’t understand the mindset. I don’t understand how you could back something like that, either as a football fan or just a human being in general.

To borrow (tenuously) from the thread title; tossers, the lot of them.

Quoted from diehardmariner

Tweet 1763903828842164656 will appear here...

Y'know I'm generally against everything MK Dons stand for.  The whole thing is just scummy.  It's well pointed out how the money put into MK Dons could have organically gone into the 'natural' clubs in that area.  I suspect had MK City reached these levels they would be viewed with the same disdain that Salford, FGR, to an extent Fleetwood all get.  But rather be labelled as a vanity project than what they are.  Equally so with a growing population of a quarter of a million upwards you would think that tapping into those early generations would quite easily lead to a bit of an organic growth that no vanity project has yet achieved.

I also remember going to watch Town v Wimbledon at Selhurst Park in the last season before the move occurred, 02/03.  The home game saw more journalists in the away end than actual fans, such was the level of the protest.  Whilst my views on the situation were already rooted in my mind, the physical accosting of Town fans trying to get in the game by protesting Wimbledon fans would have easily swayed me.  Older and potentially (but probably not) wiser, I would just boycott the game now.  But I was late teens/early 20's and just wanted to watch my club. Regardless, I put it down and still do to emotion.  I think I would be more than upset at the prospect of having my club ripped away from the community.  

The thing that really irritates me about Pell booting balls into the stand is more from a personal stance than anything.  Fair few years ago I was doing some work with an organisation in Milton Keynes that provided services to people with learning disabilities, within this organisation they also had an employability scheme to help people into the working environment.  There was one lad on the working group who had Down's syndrome, Stephen.  He immediately clocked the GTFC keyring I had at the time and within seconds he told me how rubbish Grimsby were.  Obviously I've no counter-argument to this so came back with the usual "well, someone's got to support them!", then asked who he followed.  His response was the longest list of clubs from every country in the world.  "Spurs, Real Madrid, PSG, Juve...." and couldn't wait to show me pictures of his phone of him sporting the colours of all these clubs.  And then he came out with "And of course...MK!", to which he unzipped his top to show me the home shirt of MK Dons and arched at an impossible angle to show me Agard 14 on the back of his shirt.  Turning round again to show me the biggest smile I've ever seen.

His support worker told me later during the day that the amount of community work that MK Dons do (or did, I don't know if it's still the case) was unbelievable with all the players and staff so engaged in everything that happens locally.  That's how it should be but it sort of took me aback that they're not completely this snarling monster.

Anyway, Stephen sadly passed away a few years later but for me it's not Pell firing the balls into the away end as a protest at the clubs existence.  It's more the fact that those balls could have hit Stephen.

Quoted from Poojah

I’d suggest they deserve to experience having their beloved so-called football club taken away from them for a start. The very concept of MK Dons is morally bankrupt, and I won’t be satisfied until they are financially so.

Do I really need to explain the “why”? Do you know what, fúck it, you’ve triggered me (‘cos I really don’t like the cúnts), so I’ll give you an answer. Big deep breath…

Let me start by giving some credit where it’s due; the whole Wimbledon to Milton Keynes strategy actually made complete sense. On a spreadsheet. With a population of over 250,000, MK was one of the largest urban areas in the UK without a league club, in part due to the fact it was a new town founded in the 1970s. Better yet, it was probably the largest urban area in the UK nowhere near a so-called “big club”. MK is some 70 miles from Villa Park, and over an hour on a train to central London. A massive, untapped audience, just waiting to be unlocked. There was just a tiny flaw in the plan.

It was bóllocks.

You see, when the so-called Dons played their first match in the town, some 20 years ago now, there were 2 types of people living in Milton Keynes:

a) Non-football fans
b) Football fans who already supported another club

This observation is obvious to anyone who follows football, but apparently not to the likes of Charles Koppel and Pete Winkleman. Naturally, converting non-football fans into regular, match-going supporters is very difficult, and converting fans of one club to another, nigh-on impossible. The only people actually capable of supporting a club like MK are therefore, by definition, freaks.

Unsurprising then, we regularly see 25,000 empty seats in MK’s fine, but tainted stadium. Here’s the thing though - it didn’t have to be this way.

It’s often forgotten that Milton Keynes already had a football club - Milton Keynes City FC. They were tiny, operating in the very lower reaches of non-league. It would have taken years to have brought that club to the football league; time that could be saved by harvesting the organs of Wimbledon.

But in doing so, they created a brand too toxic to touch. They created something almost impossible to rally behind. They have become the pantomime villain, and legitimately so. Ironically, it took AFC Wimbledon, with only fan powered resources, just 8 seasons to return to the football league, by which point MK Dons were only a league above them. As of right now of course they find themselves in League Two, separated from Wimbledon by just 10 points. For all their trials and tribulations, they have failed to make meaningful progress.

Had they played the long game, rather than taking the sleazy shortcut, then maybe, just maybe, they might have created a story its community could have been proud of and, in time, grown a healthy five-figure fan base. A fan base perhaps that could have seen them sustain Championship football and, then, who knows what beyond that? And no one would have begrudged them their success.

But they didn’t, and so in the world we actually live in, they are back where they started, little more than a small club rattling round in a big stadium, yo-yo-ing between league’s One and Two. At least for as long as the mouth breathers that follow them continue to turn up, and things aren’t looking to clever there as it happens.

This season will be comfortably their lowest average attendance since moving to Stadium:MK. To be even clearer, this season’s average is down 25% on their next lowest average. The project has failed. It’s fúcked.

Ultimately, it had to fail. No supporter in this country wants “franchise football”, and a successful MK Dons would have set a dangerous precedent. The only ones to blame are the bell ends behind this most moronic of experiments, and the mindless chumps that turn up to watch them.

Look, I reckon I could have a pint with a regular, match-going fan of just about any club in this country, be it Man City, Man United, Mansfield, or even fúcking Scunny, and find loads in common with them. But not MK Dons; I just don’t understand the mindset. I don’t understand how you could back something like that, either as a football fan or just a human being in general.

To borrow (tenuously) from the thread title; tossers, the lot of them.