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If you are a Man United and football fan, Monday is the day you either wake up fresh wanting to rewatch the highlights of that win, or hide away after that terrible defeat. As every loyal United supporter knows, Monday morning will bring about one of two extreme emotions. It will either be all about savouring a triumphant victory just like what happened on Monday after beating WBA on their ground! Or it will be about wallowing in defeat.
There’s a common assumption amongst the general population that books about football tend to be, well, crap. And unfortunately, in most circumstances, that tends to be the case. But that isn’t to say that there haven’t been some fantastic football books written over the years, whether it’s an autobiography, a book about the history of a specific club or country or even a book on tactics or training.
To become a football fan is to embrace the irrationality that our species is hard-wired to subsist. We see reason where there isn’t any, we see causality where there isn’t any, we make judgements based on what we already believe, we justify and rationalise those beliefs in order to reduce internal feelings of doubt and conflict. We generalise and stereotype, giving preferential treatment to those who we perceive to be members of our own group, attributing our own decisions to our prevailing rules, the decisions of outsiders to their mere attitudes and behaviours. We indulge further in groupthink and herd behaviour, recalling our decisions and opinions as being more informed than they actually were. And most importantly, what we want to see in ourselves we see in those we feel we relate to, we see what we want to see. Read the full story
