Heartbreak, rebuilding, redemption.
Three simple words that describe Tranmere Rovers in a nutshell. I have been a Tranmere Rovers fan since around 2007/2008 aged 5-6. Since then, I have witnessed back to back relegations from League 1 to League 2 to the Conference, seen us lose a conference playoff final, lose a cup semi-final and finally win at Wembley (TWICE!) even after having 10 men for 89 minutes and using 3 subs by half time. Let me tell you why this club is the very best!
I am Will, supporting Tranmere has never been easy and myself, like many other members of the Super White Army, believe that we are cursed. At the beginning of 2013, we were top of league 1 and gliding to the promised land of the championship. Within three years, we had discarded our Championship dreams, been relegated to League 2 amidst the saga that had our manager and our longest-reigning player of over 10 years embroiled in a betting and match-fixing scandal, and been summoned to the pain of non-league. I have seen Tranmere play at grounds that I can only describe as impoverished and desolate. Standing on a curb watching my team, the former Championship outfit, draw 0-0 with a team I didn’t even know existed 18 months prior to the game happening.
The unconquerable, never say die attitude of the players, staff and fans really saved the club. New owners took over in August 2014 and transformed us completely from a dying, rotten corpse of a club into a thriving, inspiring club with a bright future and a prodigious potential. Players like James Norwood, Andy Cook, Scott Davies, Steve McNulty and Connor Jennings to just name a few helped push us back into the EFL.
“In! In for Tranmere!” The words that were spouted out by Adam Summerton as James Norwood headed in the winning goal to take us back to the football league. The biggest moment of a generation at the club, we‘re back. Back where we belong.
I may never see Tranmere win a league title, we may remain in the lower leagues for the rest of my lifetime, I may never see them out of the ever-present shadow of our red and blue Merseyside neighbours- but what does that matter? Wouldn’t you rather have the feeling of a proper football club? A club that doesn’t have a fabricated relationship with the fans, a club that prides itself on its community and its local area rather than its money and it’s global far-flung ‘franchise’.
Tranmere Rovers are the opposite to your average ‘top 6 team’ or European giant. We have never spent more than £1 million on a player, our transfer record is £450,000 for Shaun Teale from Aston Villa and hasn’t been broken in nearly 25 years. In a world where teenagers are sold for £160 million and Neymar is sold for £198 million, you would think fans would be frustrated with our lack of spending the big bucks. But we’re not. Tranmere is so much more than just a franchise, a company or an oil rig owner ran money farm. When a player puts on that white jersey he is representing Tranmere, Birkenhead & the whole of the Wirral, not a franchise or a multitude of millionaires.
The fans at this fantastic club are remarkable. Through the years of falling from League 1 to the Conference and sitting through a miserable spell of games being held at ramshackle grounds, the crowds never stopped coming to Prenton Park to assist the players and always stuck with us through thick and thin. The club dominates the emotions of its followers and controls us. We are born into this club, not moulded or forged. Only a small quantity of people understand the love that runs through the veins of the supporters of this great club.
The club has won tens of awards, particularly since Mark and Nicola Palios took over in 2014. We have won awards for our innovative approach to sporting partnerships at the Greater China Awards. We hold weekly classes for older people in the community who have dementia, on Boxing Day 2018 we opened up to the homeless and less fortunate people and gave them a fresh, warm set of clothes and a hot meal. We hold walking Football for over 50s, junior disability football and opened up a great disabled enclosure on the side of the pitch for any disabled fans or wheelchair users. We have also closed off a section of our Kop to make room for those less fortunate on a match day. As a club, we pride ourselves on our community background and our numerous awards won and been nominated for. In 2018, we were nominated for the Community Club of the Year but missed out to Blackburn.
There is nothing that this club can’t do, there’s nothing that the fans can’t push them to do. The fans, the players, the staff and owners all help make Tranmere Rovers the best club in the world!
words @willtrfcjourno on Twitter