I have taken both my sons and both step daughters to Swindon games, all are in their late 20s early 30s now and only my eldest step daughter is a Swindon fan, but shes also an Arsenal fan.
I told both my sons to follow Swindon but not solely Swindon as you will have a lifetime of disappointment as myself and my dad and also my grandfather before him have had.
I no longer even watch England any more with any enthusiasm after years of following them in the 80's and 90s all over the world, its like a radicalised religion now in which only Swindon Town FC matters.
Not sure I would wish that on any of my children or grandchildren even though my grand daughter loves watching football.
This probably needs a separate topic now!! I blame the Premier League and the big six (as I do for the rise in temperature on these pages over the past few weeks). Football has changed, and for those 'long in the tooth' STFC supporters, who have struggled with dashed hopes and disappointment - the lot of supporters of most clubs in the bottom two leagues - for as long as we can remember, that change is hard to understand and rationalise. And we can long for the good old days when people felt duty-bound to support their local club, come what may, but they will not come back. Football has moved on from 'the pride of the local community' to being global 'entertainment', part of the insufferable celebrity culture which controls public opinion, in which a dozen+ clubs across Europe are in control (and would have split off into the Super League if they had managed it better) and the rest are left with whatever crumbs they can gather up and share with each other.
I have two football-focussed sons. We never lived near enough to Swindon to attend games very much, but I had an involvement with Hereford Utd when they were little, and they came along to games regularly, where they got great seats, knew most of the players and generally felt part of the club. Now one supports Arsenal, the other Spurs. It costs them a huge amount to get to maybe one or two games per season, and they are not satisfied unless their club looks like winning everything, preferably never losing a match. They can watch every match on TV, they are never likely to meet any of the players, or feel part of a footballing community, because the top six are 'global brands'. (When do you hear of people being seduced by Crystal Palace or Wolves or even Leicester over their local Lge 1 or 2 club?) (To be fair to my younger son, he is now putting time and money into New Mills FC in Derbyshire, and his local club.)
Meanwhile, Crawley (why Crawley?) attract a big-spending owner, and we all launch into attacks on them for trying to buy success. And Clem comes along (OK, I have heard all the question marks about behind the scenes), and promises a new, sustainable future, living within our means, trying to find a new way of pursuing success in the lower leagues, and making our beloved club attractive in that context....and some of us keep challenging him to spend, spend, spend to get us there, as though somewhere in the fantasy of our imagination we want to be the seventh super-club, and that will fulfil all our ambitions. Well, as Man Utd fans show so well at the moment, the higher you are in the pyramid the greater the expectation and the frustration when the human beings who make up a football club fail to live up to the hype!!
Of course I crave for success like everyone else, but I also love the possibility that we (alongside a relatively small number of other clubs) are in the vanguard, leading the way to that sustainable future for community-based football, and I am happy to loosen the rope around the club, with all the mistakes and frustrations which may arise as a result, and support the vision. I ain't going nowhere!!
