Tony, I usually respect your views but in this case I have got no idea what you are talking about!

"I still believe that fans have a duty to urge on their team. They are forgetting that they should be part of the experience, not detached from it as if they were at the theatre"

If anyone is detached I am afraid it is you being detached from reality if you really believe this.

Fans are being asked to spend 50 quid to sit half a mile away from the pitch and watch players who are earning more money during a single game than most of us will earn all year. We cannot be part of that experience anymore, these guys live on a different planet to us nowadays .

We spend all morning reading about their Christmas party exploits, their new Ferrari or 30 grand watches and then catch the tube in the rain to watch them stand around for 90 minutes and still leave the field smiling after a 1-2 drubbing.

Whatever gave you the impression that we have any kind of duty to them anymore?

GM, Brisbane,

Come to a Reading game.

24,000 sell out most games...until 70-80 minutes in when it goes down to about 10,000-12,000 regardless of Reading winning or losing at that point.

Supporters? Not likely.

More people moan about the team then encourage them.

It's a sad state of affairs.

Elliott, Reading, UK

Jonathan

Your right about the music at OT. I'm a season ticket holder in North Stand and have been going for many years with my dad but over the last couple of years have found it impossible to hold a conversation with him before the game because the music is deafening. We therefore stay in the concourse until 5 minutes before the game.
The atmosphere was terrible against Birmingham but the ground has way too many corporate areas (including the centre of the Stretford End) and overbearing stewards who insist on making you sit down the moment you leave your seat. Add to that an ever increasing feeling of alienation from the club (increased tickets prices year on year, compulsory ticket purchases, ridiculous players wages etc) and a loss of local and vociferous lads who can't afford the 'day out' to the match anymore and we begin to see a problem.
It was also New Years day against Birmingham and some of us were still stunned from SAF's team selection again West Ham.

Redman, Manchester, England

Why do clubs play that awful "music" as the teams come out? I'm a Villa fan and blame Ron Atkinson. He started "We will rock you" being played at the Villa years ago and it's caught on everywhere. There's no point cheering the team as they just turn the sound up louder and louder. Along with seated stadia, and an apparent requirement to have 50% women at a match these days, is it any wonder that the house of commons has more atmosphere!

Neil, Birmingham, U.K

In the days when you paid a pound for your ticket, you felt that you were getting more than your money's worth, and were prepared to be vocal in support of your team. Nowadays the players should be cheering the crowds.

Mike M., boston,

There's been too much football over the Christmas period. The players could use a break, and so could the fans. Let's not get carried away. Arsenal charge the highest prices in the world and still sell out 60,000 for every game, so the enthusiasm is certainly still there.

Alex, Teddington, UK

Real football fans gave up going to matches years ago. They were priced out. 'Support your local team' It's not your team it's owned by foreign business men, made up entirely of foreign players, and even the stadium is named after some corporate sponsor, not the area. Go and support your local rugby team before its to late. Much better value and the players are not a bunch of overpaid poofters.

sid, london,

I read somewhere that only 9 per cent of those watching football in the Premier League are under 21.

Their attitude towards fans, if I can remember the quote correctly, is "Pay up, sit down and shut up."

And it'll only get worse.

Martin Puddifer, Newark,

Those crappy plastic seats are not what I would call comfort.

Perhaps in the days when fans read in tabloids the six figure per week salaries of players then players are no longer just ordinary lads everyone can relate to.

They are expected to perform and all too often they don't earn their enormous salaries.

salty, Reading,

ah tony, each seat has a cash outcome for each game, so the old die hard supporter came to watch the game not buy product, so the transient supporter makes for more profitable, in simple terms, the seat has to sell at least 25+ shirts aseason, the every game supporter only needs one.

michael joseph heavey, cahersiveen>adams towns, madness

if fans are paying £40-£60 for a ticket then they can do what they want.

if players were prepared to accept lower wages then maybe we wouldnt need ticket prices so high...

Ali Kinnaird, Liverpool,

It's possible to be a 'corporate spectator' and still be a 'fan' and possible to be in an all-seater stadium and generate a lot of noise. Try Twickenham on an international weekend. But it's hard to be passionate about supporting a bunch of spoilt, badly-behaved prima donnas. If managers want fans to be passionate about their team, they need to ensure their players behave in a way which generates respect, on and off the pitch. Mr Ferguson's players let their fans down over Christmas, yet the fans still turned up - testament to their loyalty. How can I cheer loudly for a player whose off-field antics are cringeworthy and who falls over in agony every time anyone comes within a few feet of him?
It's also possible to be noisy and supportive without screaming mindless insults at the opposition's players and staff. But clubs need to help fans learn how to do it, because the tribalism you seem to miss, is what drives the abuse that Ferguson/Campbell et al were so recently deploring.

Chris , London ,

I am a Manchester United South Stand season ticket holder - have been for years. I sit just below the press box and just up and behind Sir Alex.

When complaints are made about the crowd contribution at Old Trafford nobody ever comments on the sound system.

When is the crowd expected to roar the team on? At and just before kickoff - handshake time.

This is just the time when (and Oliver Holt and the press boys will surely confirm this) we are literally deafened and certainly drowned out by the sound system, which is turned right up - every week, regular as clockwork. This is not Trafford Council, it's down to the club.

One other thing: the press (Alan Green particularly) moan about United fans leaving early. Why do they do it? It's obvious: 75,000 fans, all emerging at the same time into the same streets where a few years ago there were 20,000 less, leads to horrendous jams. Liverpool, Everton, all the rest planning to expand, just you wait and see!

jonathan diggines, Altrincham,

hi,i am a west ham season ticket holder and have been for a number of years,tony was wrong when he stated that we are spectators,because on my season ticket i have a customer ref no,therefore we are treated as if we''buy'' something,following your football team means a lot more than that,it is a lifelong expierience,i leave 3 mins earlier because i have two childern and i try to avoid the crush at the tube station as do many others

tony crotty, romford, essex