Game has definitely gone

[Nick Jansky]

Ayup pal, I never get to away games but was thinking of going to a few next season, what is it that puts you off them ?
Cheers

1. Sitting down to watch the game is no longer an option. Which is fine unless you are a gentleman of a certain age and have a bit of a problem.

2. Loads of pissed and coked up little (and some not so little or young) arseholes amongst our travelling support who are very entitled and seem to think they are some sort of “firm”. More difficult to avoid them at away games.

 

[nopigfansintown]

I'm almost totally alienated too. It's not the game, it's the way it's being run.

The gradual removal of the redistributive mechanisms e.g. Cup ties. The modern academy system that allows big clubs to destroy everyone else's revenue stream. Pre season tours (effectively the erstwhile cup tie money now going to the huge clubs). Pointless international friendlies. Rule changes that, you guessed it, all favour the teams with the biggest and best squads. Financial cheating not being punished. Prize money for league finishes and more European places exacerbating the inequality. Soulless out of town bowls. Match going fans being treated like s#it. Too many TV games.
The lack of variables (perfect pitches, VAR instead of classic refs/linesmen, dying atmospheres).

 

[Badger Blade]

PL football is something that I'll watch if it's on if I have a rare chance to be sat in front of the TV with no Mrs or kids but it's not something I make an effort to watch. Certainly not some huge, crunch clash between Brentford and Everton that Sky insist we all cancel our plans for...

It goes back to the Brian Clough/John Motson interview where "you're boring us all to tears with your lectures" and "there's too much football on television" and this was back in the 80's, when people wouldn't have dreamt that there are more Sky Sports channels now than there were total TV channels back then.

It feels like the game itself is a sideshow for all the bluster on Sky, Talksport, Youtube, podcasts etc when before it was an genuine event that people bust a gut to watch. The game had characters, heroes and villains, not media trained drones trying to remember the script prepared by the PR team, punctuated with "yeah, like, y'know" every other word.

It's reached saturation point compared to when I was a kid in the 90's when the FA cup final and an English team in the Champions League on ITV was a real must-watch and was what got me into sport and football to begin with, with memories that last a lifetime, not like it is now where it's all background noise and onto the 5th live game of the day.

 

[jt64]

1. Sitting down to watch the game is no longer an option. Which is fine unless you are a gentleman of a certain age and have a bit of a problem.

2. Loads of pissed and coked up little (and some not so little or young) arseholes amongst our travelling support who are very entitled and seem to think they are some sort of “firm”. More difficult to avoid them at away games.

I would have thought that with the number of clubs that now have safe standing, with the implication that the remainder of the allocation is for sitting, that #1 would be less of a problem than it used to be. Certainly agree that it was an issue but might not be so bad now. #2 is a thing for sure but I've always been of the opinion that if you want to avoid trouble you generally can - and that said scrotes are likely to be wanting the standing area, that again is easier

 

[ThatJa]

Another demonstration why the Championship is the best league in England.

 

[Nick Jansky]

I would have thought that with the number of clubs that now have safe standing, with the implication that the remainder of the allocation is for sitting, that #1 would be less of a problem than it used to be. Certainly agree that it was an issue but might not be so bad now. #2 is a thing for sure but I've always been of the opinion that if you want to avoid trouble you generally can - and that said scrotes are likely to be wanting the standing area, that again is easier

I’ll keep an eye on it but, like watching our style of play last season, it stopped being pleasurable.

 

[wavy-blade]

I travel all over the country for my job and i can tell you, The countries definitely gone !

 

[cahill]

1. Sitting down to watch the game is no longer an option. Which is fine unless you are a gentleman of a certain age and have a bit of a problem.

2. Loads of pissed and coked up little (and some not so little or young) arseholes amongst our travelling support who are very entitled and seem to think they are some sort of “firm”. More difficult to avoid them at away games.

Right. Cheers. Don’t know why folk have to get off their face to watch a football match, although season before last….

 

[cahill]

I'm almost totally alienated too. It's not the game, it's the way it's being run.

The gradual removal of the redistributive mechanisms e.g. Cup ties. The modern academy system that allows big clubs to destroy everyone else's revenue stream. Pre season tours (effectively the erstwhile cup tie money now going to the huge clubs). Pointless international friendlies. Rule changes that, you guessed it, all favour the teams with the biggest and best squads. Financial cheating not being punished. Prize money for league finishes and more European places exacerbating the inequality. Soulless out of town bowls. Match going fans being treated like s#it. Too many TV games.
The lack of variables (perfect pitches, VAR instead of classic refs/linesmen, dying atmospheres).

The paradox is that average attendances seem to be going up throughout the football pyramid. Agree with all your points made. I’d add to that an almost total absence of players with “personalities”, who engage with the crowd, they’re all very much of a oneness.

Seem to be a lot of Spanish and Portuguese managers in our football and they are largely joyless, eg Artetta, the Fulham manager (don’t know name), Guardiola, Man Utd manager ( forgot name), and our new lad who never seems to smile.

 

[Weasel]

On the very odd occasion these days that I put on a PL live match, I usually last about five minutes before I start ranting about some dimwit trying to cheat by getting touched on the shoulder and then collapsing in the floor writhing in apparent agony and clutching their face or knee. That or we get 5 replays of a ball deflecting onto someone's top of their arm and the football commentary 'experts' debating whether VAR will give a penalty for 'handball' (the clue for whether it's handball or not is in the word 'handball'). Invariably after those 5 mins, im reminded why I don't bother watching the PL and why I find it so annoying, and I either get up to do something else, or I switch over to Netflix. The missus sometimes watches a bit of a game and will ask me what I think of an incident. My usual reply is 'I've no idea or interest....im not watching it'.