How long did I last?

[Joey66]

Hopefully you're being silly, I've seen maps of the London road network.

They did make straight roads some remain to this day .....they were direct when they invaded us heathens

 

[KaiserEFC]

For me support is meant to be an escape from the reality of everyday life. It’s a tangible fantasy where you can’t actually go onto the pitch and play but for that day it’s the most important thing in the world and allows you to experience being a winner/loser/underdog/dynasty, whatever. It’s a break from the mundane.

Unfortunately it’s now become the mundane. It’s no longer an escape from reality you have the same injustices as you get in your everyday, with the rich getting richer, a disparity of wealth across the league, certain groups getting all the attention and none of the rules, global politics somehow entering the sport influencing things, ultra sanitised TV “personalities” reading from a script to pump the brand in the name of commercialisation taking over every aspect of the sport. Oh and now you’re being squeezed for every penny you have in your real life and your escape from real life. Enjoy that £12 pint ya knobhead we know you’ll pay it.

It’s just utterly crap and it’s never going to get any more competitive, fair or fan friendly so in my opinion it dies a slow death for traditional fans

 

[Marcus Kendall]

For me support is meant to be an escape from the reality of everyday life. It’s a tangible fantasy where you can’t actually go onto the pitch and play but for that day it’s the most important thing in the world and allows you to experience being a winner/loser/underdog/dynasty, whatever. It’s a break from the mundane.

Unfortunately it’s now become the mundane. It’s no longer an escape from reality you have the same injustices as you get in your everyday, with the rich getting richer, a disparity of wealth across the league, certain groups getting all the attention and none of the rules, global politics somehow entering the sport influencing things, ultra sanitised TV “personalities” reading from a script to pump the brand in the name of commercialisation taking over every aspect of the sport. Oh and now you’re being squeezed for every penny you have in your real life and your escape from real life. Enjoy that £12 pint ya knobhead we know you’ll pay it.

It’s just utterly crap and it’s never going to get any more competitive, fair or fan friendly so in my opinion it dies a slow death for traditional fans

Brilliant post. It's a sport aimed at the casual TV viewer or the glory hunter half and half scarfer from around the globe. Its not about the game anymore but maximising revenue streams and making life incredibly difficult for the bedrock of any club the match going local fan with the inappropriate kick off times or dates just to appease the glory hunters around the world who need their TV match fix

 

[Marcus Kendall]

I was just saying the very same thing yesterday to a pal, the modern game is so sterile and boring, athletes not footballers and some of them are really poor. A lot of them are lucky to be premier league and if a certain few clubs didn't stockpile all the top players, a lot would be championship.

We've seen first hand just how bad some of these athletes are at football, they can't make simple passes, they can't play quick one touch football. Some treat the ball like a hot potato, no composure whatsoever.

I think the main thing for me is, where have all the mavericks gone, tactics stop skillful players being exciting these days.

Then there's the media who fawn over certain teams and like to try and sell players via headlines if a player from the other 14 has a good season.

Yeah modern football is crap like. Very boring in my eyes.

Even though we were bad in the 90s I loved the era of the mavericks like Le Tissier and Ginola who played football for the joy of it. Now everything is so regimented and everything is recorded for the statto bods and sports science bods to analyse to death to judge if you're worth playing or not

 

[KaiserEFC]

Brilliant post. It's a sport aimed at the casual TV viewer or the glory hunter half and half scarfer from around the globe. Its not about the game anymore but maximising revenue streams and making life incredibly difficult for the bedrock of any club the match going local fan with the inappropriate kick off times or dates just to appease the glory hunters around the world who need their TV match fix

Totally agree. It’s a sad reality that the sport only really works now if you’re what we once called a bandwagon fan and is now known as the target audience.

 

[b-rad]

[snip] Why must test cricket be all Bazball and how long since Zak Crawley has hit a 6 rather than just letting, as the recent series against India showed, things develop over 25 days. It’s a 5 day game and played in series for a reason. Youth and attention span?

[snip]

I’m really not a fan of Pepball. I find the whole pass,pass,pass so tedious. Thinking of all the flair players over the years who have genuinely entertained. My attention wandered and I was doing other stuff by half way through the first half.

[snip]

Two very different views on attention span and the need for immediate gratification here.

 

[helpimonfire]

Var wouldn't overturn it if that was Pickford in goal for us

Well, his arm is down by his side so deffo a goal.

 

[WA Toffee]

Now I would describe myself as a football fan, but if honest I would struggle to say one positive thing about modern football.

Generally speaking I can’t stand Sky Sports. And this is not just football. Why must test cricket be all Bazball and how long since Zak Crawley has hit a 6 rather than just letting, as the recent series against India showed, things develop over 25 days. It’s a 5 day game and played in series for a reason. Youth and attention span?

Anyway moving to football.

I decided to give the start of the season a real go watching. Other teams. Not just the endless joyless torture that has been supporting Everton.

I’m not going down the PSR rabbit hole but the need to have a economics & business degree does take a lot of the fun out of talking football, plus the seemingly arbitrary way the rules are applied to different clubs.

This is about watching and enjoying football

Game 1- FNF @ Mordor-home of the Champions- simple decision. Literally no amount of money would get me to sit through that fawning biased drivel so binned off straight away.

Game 2-Wolves v Citeh- I’m really not a fan of Pepball. I find the whole pass,pass,pass so tedious. Thinking of all the flair players over the years who have genuinely entertained. My attention wandered and I was doing other stuff by half way through the first half.

Game 3- Chelsea v Palace- possibly a mistake this one. Could have watched Forest Brentford. To start we had Micah Richards talking about how exciting this season could be as possibly Citeh, Chelsea and Arsenal could challenge the RS for the title. No mention of any other team. No mention could Forest build on last season. The promoted teams?. Nothing. Onto the game. All seen through the Chelsea lens. I thought Palace looked the better team. Anyway, whoever was on comms with the muppets Sutton, again talked about the 4 teams for the title and of course how we need to see what Man Utd &Tottenham do. Literally the Sky 6. No mention of any other team.
To cap it all, Palace score and VAR seem to invent a rule, in my 40 odd years of playing, watching and being involved with football, I have never seen or heard of the 1 metre rule. After that the ref then starts drawing an additional line at free kicks.

My wife comes in, listening to my chunnering on & says are you still wanting to watch this. No I replied put what you want on I will make a brew.
I sat and watched 2 episodes of The Guilded Age, which was so bad but still better than Sky football. Didn’t even bother with Man Utd v Arsenal as I could see Roy Keane lurking.

To cap it off I saw the team sheet for the Leeds game and took the dogs for a walk as I knew it would be grim.

Didn’t survive week one

It sounds like you are fed up with the Premier league rather than football itself. Now that I have access to it, I watch the Scottish league more than the epl. Sure the standard isn't as high and there are no household names, but it is a much better watch. No rolling around pretending to be hurt, no falling down as soon as defender goes near you, no stealing 20 yards at throw ins. Basically nowhere near as much cheating.

I honestly enjoy watching my local sunday league team more than 2 random teams from the epl.

Guve it a try

 

[Merseyzig]

Was it clear on the telly on Monday night when the Leeds fans were chanting "Sky TV is fu***** *hit" ? In the ground it was clear enough and I wondered whether the sound mics might get turned off suddenly.
Was that chant directed at, as the OP and others would see it, the self-serving Scab 6 soap opera, or was it out of annoyance at a Monday 8pm kick off? Either way it would be both, I suppose.

 

[diggerdestroyer]

Was it clear on the telly on Monday night when the Leeds fans were chanting "Sky TV is fu***** *hit" ? In the ground it was clear enough and I wondered whether the sound mics might get turned off suddenly.
Was that chant directed at, as the OP and others would see it, the self-serving Scab 6 soap opera, or was it out of annoyance at a Monday 8pm kick off? Either way it would be both, I suppose.

I think they don't put their sound Mikes at areas of the ground where you hear some language etc.

 

[MikeyMike]

Football is okay, it's the coverage. Luckily it's easy enough to avoid the worst of it. If I watch MOTD, I always wait til its been on for at least half an hour so I can fast forward through all of the punditry. On Sky/TNT, I don't tune in til kick off, then go make a cup of tea at half time, and switch off as soon as the final whistle has gone. That eliminates Micah Richards, Shearer, Carra and Neville etc, but - unfortunately - I still get the commentary and the inane "100%!" ramblings of McCoist. I just try to zone all that out.

I never watch the RS, and I avoid all the European competitions until the knock out phases, then I might watch the odd one.

Sadly, there's no avoiding the pain of watching Everton. I'm going to see how this season pans out, but if the new place turns out to be as plastic and characterless as it looks in the photos, and we're still playing the worst football ever seen in a league that is dominated by the handful clubs that can afford to bring on half a new team of internationals with 20 minutes to go, I might jack in the season ticket and maybe find a non-league or lower league team to watch.