When do you leave?
80th minute?
85th minute?
88th minute?
Or do you stay until you clock how much injury time has been added before deciding to head down the pub/the tube station? If you leave early, do you do so because of the nightmare traffic issues around the ground or because you just want to get ahead of the thousands that pour out of the ground at the final whistle, even if it doesn't make a huge difference to your journey home (give or take 5 minutes, it can't make that much of a difference, can it?).
If you are of this ilk, do you also go to the toilet/get a half-time beer at the 35-40th minute mark, and run the risk of missing a goal? Which one or two managed to miss the other week when Jenas notched one up whilst they twinkled.
Leaving early if you are getting hammered 4-1 at home, is understandable, especially if it's against Newcastle United.
But would you leave on the 60th minute mark of a semi-final, even if you are getting dicked?
One side of the argument is that if your club is one of the last four remaining in the biggest club competition in world football, then surely they deserve some type of credit cometh the final whistle for their achievement? If you've just been outclassed, there's not that much you can do about it. The flip side of it is that very frustration and reality of impending defeat can be soul-destroying and unbearable to watch. That and walking out of the ground is a form of fan protest, according to some. A way of illustrating that empty seats equate to unhappy punters.
Spurs fans, you all remember the 4-4 and the fact that one or two left long before the final whistle. It's a trait that most people (football fans) possess.
But is it an act of petulance and selfishness? Or simply freedom of speech.
'If you can't be bothered...neither can I...'