Generally speaking, football followers don’t like sharing their ground - or someone else’s. Nor do football managers, by and large - although Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger bucked that trend by welcoming either Tottenham or Chelsea to share his club’s purpose-built facilities, adding: “It’s only a shame that my old friend José Mourinho could not become a regular visitor to the Emirates.”

Actually he said: “I don’t feel that it is in our plans. We do not need it and we have not been approached.” But other than that he seemed open to the idea…

Tottenham's manager Mauricio Pochettino spoke equably last week about the possibility of the team playing at Wembley Stadium for season 2017-2018 as their proposed new stadium is finished, but he was careful not to confirm any possibility of them being joint partners with Chelsea - also requiring alternative premises during ground renovation -  as some recent reports have suggested.

Pochettino also made it clear that Plan B - playing at stadium:mk, home of Sky Bet Championship side Milton Keynes Dons - was also a “good option”. But if you are a big fish, sharing with a small fish is never so much of a problem. That said, any move, however temporarily, to Milton Keynes will make at least one Tottenham season ticket holder I know to feel very glum and put out.

Earlier this week West Ham United – who will leave Upton Park next season to take up residence in the extensively, and expensively re-configured Olympic Stadium in Stratford – made their feelings very clear about a suggestion from the London Legacy Development Corporation that they may be obliged to share their ground at some point. Boiled down, the response was this: No Way.

West Ham were similarly intractable on the subject in June 2012 when they flatly rejected a suggestion from Leyton Orient’s chairman Barry Hearn that they were considering sharing their future home with the homely (then) League One side.

The club took a very different attitude back in 1991 when they agreed to let Charlton Athletic, then a year away from returning to their real home at The Valley, play their fixtures at Upton Park for a season and a bit. It’s a different ball game now…

Even that model of top-level groundsharing  between AC Milan and Internazionale, who have jointly used the San Siro stadium since 1947, has proved to be discordant in recent years, with Milan talking for the last decade about leaving to build their own stadium. In 2014, advanced plans were revealed for a new stadium in the city, although Milan’s owner Silvio Berlusconi put an end to the ambition. For the time being…

So - relocation, sharing – not good things in the football world. That said, having to re-locate, if only temporarily, to a joint venue can sometimes have the beneficial effect of re-focusing and intensifying fans’ sense of identity with their chosen club.

Back in 1985 – AD - I joined Charlton supporters on their first journey to the first official groundshare within the Football League at Selhurst Park, home of Crystal Palace.

Charlton, who had fallen into administration and were therefore unable to bring The Valley - their home ground since 1919 - up to required safety standards, were beginning an exile that would last seven years.

On that Saturday, 12 coaches were chartered to ferry Charlton’s fans the 10 miles across south London free of charge - with the partly derelict Valley ground being the obvious pick-up point.

Before the transport arrived, one or two of our younger passengers slipped through the open door of the ground and I felt it only right that I investigate to ensure no wrongdoing was ensuing.

The lads scampered about in the goalmouth where Sam Bartram had once stood guard before running up into the stand to sit in the velvety directors’ seats, their shouts echoing in the void.

Once on the coach, however, the mournful air was significantly altered by the manifest optimism of some of the club’s longstanding supporters as they proudly laid their Charlton scarves along the back window and began the chant “It’s a long way to Norwood Junction…”.

Reg Davies, a Charlton supporter for half a century, was not about to break the habit of a lifetime. “We won’t keep away,” he said. “We support Charlton, not The Valley.”

As it happened, the general air of optimism was soon rewarded with a 2-1 win over Sunderland in their first “home away” game – and more significantly by a season which saw Charlton earn promotion to the top tier, where they were to remain until 1990.

But the most interesting thing was the way in which the fans adjusted to the circumstances and managed to adhere to an idea of what being a football supporter was really about.

Because it’s bewildering when you think about it. The old model of supporting a local team packed with local lads is long gone. Today we are talking about multi-million pound franchises, the ebb and flow of international stars…it’s another world. But in the heart of many fans, it’s not. It’s still Tottenham. It’s still West Ham. It’s still Charlton.

Where does the sense of following ultimately reside? If not in local lads, or even local locations, then what? Team colours? Certainly fans instinctively hold to those, despite the occasional outbreaks of commercialism which see traditions crassly subverted. (Remember Manchester United’s brief, grey awayday at Southampton, never to be repeated..?)

Maybe it’s in the name. Please God let’s not hear another whisper, Karren Brady, of “West Ham Olympic.” That is only one step away from Robert Maxwell’s thankfully moribund idea of merging Oxford United and Reading into Thames Valley Royals.

For sure, despite all the edginess about moving, or ground-sharing, it’s not in geography. So many teams have switched locations in the last 25 years, and yet others plan to. Then again, the grounds those nerds of the 60s and 70s visited religiously were merely the latest version of older establishments. Before White Hart Lane was Tottenham Marshes. Before Upton Park was the Plaistow Memorial Grounds…

“We support Charlton, not The Valley.” Happily for Charlton, the two have been reunited for almost quarter of a century. But the distinction is there - and it’s significant.

In the context of the longstanding supporter who uttered those words, “Charlton” meant an investment of personal history. That is surely at the heart of it.