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It happens every season, but you never think it could happen to you – the bottom three teams on the English Premier League table are relegated to the Championship.
They are replaced in the ‘top flight’ by those who achieved success in the very league the doomed are destined to toil in for at least the next twelve months.
I am a Fulham FC fan and next season I will be cheering the Cottagers on in the Championship.
It’s an empty feeling, like your team just conceded the winning goal on the last kick of the match… multiplied by 52. That’s not to say they didn’t deserve it. Having conceded the most goals of any team in the league at 85, coupled with a goal difference of minus 45, they were simply not good enough.
A month ago I was in New York and managed to meet up with the Fulham fan club to watch the Hull City match at Legends Sports Bar.
At 2-0 up there was a feeling of optimism in the room, the idea that ‘just maybe’ they could stay up. But then came the equalisers and out went the hope. As a fan-base we were distraught, and I realised this is universal – an Australian grieving with a bunch of Americans over an English football team.
This happens every year the world over, in dozens of leagues to millions of fans from the overachieving minnows to giants of their leagues like River Plate and Rangers FC. As devastating as this may seem supporters must always believe that glory will one day return, that the lows are temporary and future victories by contrast will taste just that little bit sweeter.
When Bruce Wayne was a child in the classic film Batman Begins, his father asks him, “Why do we fall, Bruce?” to which he reveals the answer, “So we can learn to pick ourselves up”.
My hope for Fulham is that they will learn this very lesson, that the playing group and fans alike will rally to pick themselves up and get back into the top flight.
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