Boro fans

Carlos Marinelli, one of Middlesbrough FC's
many links to South American football.

Some of you may remember me posting on the Fly Me to the Moon forum a couple of months ago to publicise one of the first real articles I ever wrote on this website about South American football. The article was about Carlos Marinelli and despite a couple of errors and some cheeky digs at the Boro and Boro fans in the prose it got a good reception. Since then I've done a load more articles in the What ever happened to? series and had visitors from all over the world, 150 different countries so far. I have even set up a Fútbol Fútbol Fútbol Facebook page so that people can follow new South American football stories in their Facebook newsfeeds if they want to and a Twitter account to appeal to people who are too lazy to read more than 140 characters of text at a time.

It's not spam, honest guv.

I've been saying stuff like "Remember Hamilton Ricard? I wrote this article about him is it any good? Is it accurate?" in forums and on websites all over the world. It is often a very good conversation/debate/joke starter, depending on the player and the fans. The article always provides lots of info/video/related links/stats about the player in question too. Most fans seem genuinely interested in what their former players have been getting up to since they left the club.

I admit it is kind of like spamming but I justify it to myself by saying that all I am selling is my enthusiasm for South American football & for football in general, giving out lots of information for free with no adverts on my site at all.

A mass of empty red seats is a familiar site to Boro fans,
however this is the Darlington Arena, not the Riverside.

Varying numbers of people have commented on my threads and on the articles in question, the vast majority of people politely, some jokingly, a few very informatively, others helpfully, most soundly and disappointingly a few rudely.

It is very enjoyable to have conversations with random football supporters all over the world from Guayaquil to Ghana or from Bogotá to Boro.

Most websites have been sound, letting what are blatantly links to my own website stay on their forums without resorting to the deletion of my posts, however some over zealous site admins and moderators have deleted my account on their site and banned me completely before I've even posted anything at all. Coincidentally the club websites that have done this are generally the websites of the clubs with the most rude, angry and unreasonable fans too.

I often register on forums to ask advice about a particular goal or incident or just an overview of how fans of that particular club regard the player in question, so that I can add more information to my articles. Fans are usually more than happy to help and often provide loads more interesting and relevant information that I could possibly have anticipated. I am always willing to consider making informative additions or corrections to my articles upon request and attempt to read and reply to all my emails and comments on my website.

Boca Juniors,  like Middlesbrough has one of the best
online football communities I've come across yet.

I'm will admit that I'm a bit biased towards the Boro, I'm a North Yorkshireman and a Darlo fan with strong connections to the North East. I used to go out clubbing in Middlesbrough as a lad and I've even attended quite a few Boro games as a supporter (more than some of you so called real fans do these days, given the fall in attendances since I left the the country a few years ago).

Despite this admission of bias I still think it should count for something though, when I say that the fmttm forum is still easily one of the best I've come across so far, in several years as a football writer and several months of writing this blog. It ranks alongside the very best club communities like Boca Juniors, Millonarios, Celtic, Estudiantes de La Plata and Crystal Palace!