What becomes of the broken hearted?

I’m not ashamed to say I like sport (stop reading now!) and I generally support teams that are losers (Rabbitohs, Cowboys, England). My childhood football (soccer) team is Stoke City FC. Stoke-on-Trent is where my people are from, it’s where I grew up and being a fan of the local football team is conferred on you from birth.

Stoke City is the second oldest team in England and for the first time they made the FA Cup final in 148 years if existence. Even though I moved house that day and was destroyed physically, I stayed up until 2am to watch the game. It’s history now but they lost 1-0 to the trillionaires at Man City. However, I have to say it is the first time that I have had so much pride and investment in any sporting event – the weight of the loss was crushing and I was choking back tears (Lord knows what my Dad felt as he flew from Australia to the UK to see the game – I’ll speak to him this week). Anyhow, I was devastated.

Anyhow, it made me think of this video (only a minute long and hilarious). When you think of music and sports, it tends to be Nickelback playing as you watch footage of people thumping each other – ROCKIN’OUTWHILETHATGUYRIPSTHATGUY’SHEADOFFAWESOMEYEAH!!!! But then there are the plaintive songs that play to the misery of defeat like Stop Crying Your Heart Out. Apart from being a Man City fan (bastard!), Noel Gallagher seems to excel in writing songs that work for heartbreaking moments in sport. However, while he’s probably still drunk from celebrating their win on the weekend, he’s also making a mint from the poor Stoke fans who are probably listening to this song right now. And maybe that’s the cruellest blow of all, lining the coffers of a Man City fan… Kerching.

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