It is well known that the grounds of even the biggest football clubs in England can resemble a library at times. Almost anyone who has been to Anfield over the last few seasons will have been privy to the increasingly popular chant “Where’s your famous atmosphere?”
This is nothing new, and often served as a red rag to Kopites during a rare lull in singing. The usual responses to this chant have been gone for a long time now. The sad thing is, the lulls have become much more commonplace – to the point where you could even say that singing is now the exception; silence the norm.
A flurry of fans still instinctively tell the offending visitors to shove their ‘library chant’ but not many think of striking up a song to remind them that the famous atmosphere is still alive and well. And we can only assume that this is because it isn’t. Our famous atmosphere is dead – and the only ones who can fix it don’t seem to be arsed any more.
There’s no point in exploring the possible reasons for the atmosphere dying as I wouldn’t be able to add anything that hasn’t already been said in our forum’s discussion thread, and many others on the internet eg. changes in the type of fan attending, price of games, fans more attuned to watching football on TV in a passive environment (ie. their couch), all seater stadia etc etc.
The daytripper theory seems to be the most popular one, but I personally find it hard to believe when I witnessed a gang of lads from abroad being urged to remain quiet while trying to kick a rendition of Fields of Anfield Road.
Being split up from your mates is another point that seems quite relevant. The strange thing is, being split up from your mates never used to matter when you were in the Kop as you were constantly surrounded by friends. Like-minded friends who all naturally contributed to the atmosphere. Friends who wouldn’t like to see a mate being made to look like a tit in front of hundreds of people by singing alone. But now there seems to be a spreading mentality of sitting back and letting someone else create the atmosphere – while simultaneously glaring down anyone who dares to stand up and attempt to kick a chant off. It is a vicious cycle that is stagnating progress.
But instead of ending it there and reminiscing of better days, I propose we make a stand. The fact is, our atmosphere arguably used to be the greatest in the world. The type of crowd that they would film and describe as a phenomenon, having to explain it to those who do not understand. The Kop innovates and never imitates. And the fact is, we’re now arguably setting the completely opposite standard to the one we used to
I propose we publicly pick out a home game to rediscover our famous atmosphere.
We need to spread the word that 90 minutes of constant noise – against anyone, not just our big ‘Sky Sports opposition’ – from all sides of the ground is what we need to properly get behind the lads on the pitch. If it ends up inspiring them even more then it will only further prove the reasons for doing this.
The 1964 documentary on our world famous Spion Kop worded it perfectly for me, quoting the Duke of Wellington before the Battle of Waterloo saying, “I don’t know what they do to the enemy, but by God they frighten me.”
So, I’ll stick my neck out here and say “Stoke City at home, 14th January 2012.” Let’s make noise the norm and abolish the library.