John Bartlett

stuartb hits the nail on the head with the comments directed at Reggie Perrin, the Bath keeper. That, to me, was proper "banter" well within the spirit of the good old-fashioned ribald exchange (and in the Chaucer tradition no doubt). It was said entirely without malice and we could probably do with more, not less, of that type of thing.

To have used a certain four-lettered word - and I really fear poor Dave is going to accidentally spell it in full one of these days - shouted in anger would have been totally different. But we all know people who can't make that distinction, don't we?

And as for the original subject of this thread isn't it amazing that, in all of his years working on television transmitters, he never fell off? Or perhaps he did....

PS There's a pretty mean filter on this site, isn't there? I've just been prevented from using "putting the finger in the dyke" in the context of the Weymouth takeover. Looks like it got through this time!

PPS Oh dear....I think I might have shouted something to the Truro chairman today along the lines of "are your creditors happy today, Mr Heaney?"

Great post Andy. Your comments about the tolerance levels over swearing certainly back up an article I read about ex pats in New York who were fed up that they couldn't swear at football matches over there.

Interestingly enough your comments about the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees fanbase do remind me about Man Utd and Liverpool fans, and maybe to a lesser extent Chelsea and Arsenal who have taken over as the big team in London after the huge popularity of Spurs during the 1960s and the late 1970's/early 1980s. I would say however that fair degree of these supporters (or souless glory hunters) do go and watch their local side as well as following a big side.

In Italy there has always been huge national support for traditional big two, Juventus and Internazionle. They have been joined in my recent years by AC Milan who have just been super successful. Throughout the country their popularity is only bettered by strong regional cities such as Genoa (AC Genoa and Sampdoria), Rome (Roma and Lazio) and the deep south which is pretty much tapped up by Napoli whose inhabitants don't really see themselves as being Italian anyway. Citta di Palermo are the biggest team in Sicily but the other two sides Messina and Catania can almost rival them for support. The other well supported teams in Italy reflect the importance of regional cities such as Verona, where Hellas have been superseeded by Chievo who are upstarts from a suburb of Verona, and Fiorentina who represent Florence.

I think that they are broadly two types of supporters in Italy. They either support their local team and they support one of Juventus, Milan or Inter and support no one else at all. It's still a young country consisting of many proud regions and cities and its reflected in the support of the clubs. Not many things actually unite people in the various diverse parts of Italy into following something on a national basis. Cuisine is very regional and regions fall out apart who's got the best cheese or ham. Politics and football are the only two things that truly unite people. Famously in 1990 Italy played Argentina in the world cup semi final in Naples. Naples favourite son was playing for Argentina of course and the support in the stadium reflected that.

In 8 years of going to Italy I've never managed to persuade my AC Milan supporting friends to take me to watch Ancona, Pescara or Ascoli. They don't understand why I would want to go!

In Spain its more a case of Real Madrid V Barcelona. But that goes back to Barcelona and the region of Catalunya being oppressed by Franco and supporting Barcelona was a way to show support for the anti Franco movement. Elsewhere in Spain derby games are few and far in between. Teams like Athletic Bilbao despise Real Sociedad because they allowed foreign players to play for them but Bilbao fans will be more passionate about any game with Real Madrid because of the Basque country issue. Real Sociedad of course hate them back because Bilbao nicked Joseba Etxeberria off them on the cheap back in 1994!

Real Madrid V Atletico Madrid is more of a middle class/working class issue. I think I'm right in saying that the only really local derby of note in Spain is the Seville derby played between Real Betis and Sevilla. Valencia only have Levante in the north of Valencia and heavily bankrolled upstarts Villareal up the road.

In Germany of course there's one big team which represents most big cities. There isn't a city in German where there are two big teams apart from Munich and Hamburg. No disrespect to 1860 Munich or St Pauli but they aren't as big as their near neighbours.

As for John Bartlett. He stood near me at one point in the second half spouting foul mouthed rubbish and holding a crumpled pannatella in his nicotine stained hands. There's a thin line between being a character and being a complete tw@t.

Is he the prat at the top of Market street with the yellow and blue house? If so then I retract my statement about battering him because I believe that guy is possibly not fully functioning in the cranial department, should have a carer with him and be banned from any form of alcohol what so ever! Thing that gets me is he truly thinks he is funny!

Not being funny or anything Dave but have you heard what comes out of his mouth on match day, there is a group of us who cringe every time his lips separate, we all edge or way away from him when ever possible, the most embarrassing fan thread coming on i thinks. I know I`m loud but I think it`s more content than volume in his case!

The guy with the yellow house is Mark Pym, a good friend of mine since early childhood. Sure, he's not the sort of guy everyone is going to get on with, but he is TUFC through and through.

Maybe they thought he was singing "Have You Ever Seen A Beech?"