The Light goes out...

[WhiteHawk]

Twas ever thus. For an excellent insight into how football is screwed, read this by the (often excellent) Martin Samuel interviewing Platini.

Brilliant article. Platini clearly doesn't give a damn about the lack of competition in football. It's ridiculous how he obviously wants to bend over backwards for G14. Just grow a pair and tell them to get fucked.

 

[Northyorksblade]

I used to spend my holidays wasting time on good sun bathing Saturdays in Spain , leaving the beach to watch a live match or listen to radio 5 for crumbs of news about games. Now I stay on my tumbona applying factor 20 and only use the cheringuito bar stool for a small Mahou beer , as a distraction, and I used to waste Saturday nights staying up till 2 am watching motd and the fl show as its an hour in front, no more .My insatiable consumption of all things football has dwindled on a drip method every year for the past 20 , since football became premier obsessive. Its nothing to do with us being in league one ,well not totally , the whole game is now not that , a game,its always been professional so a bit of a business , but sadly in todays game its clear you finish now where your bank balance stands , rather than whos wearing the shirt. You can virtually predict teams positions on their financial clout, theres not one hint of a level playing field amongst clubs and its clinically removed the romance , the heart , the love we feel as supporters away from all but those lucky enough to afford multi million pound buys , they still "love" the game , but only because they can afford to sit at the top table. As soon as the cash cow that is the prem is taken away from some clubs the "fans" leave in their droves knowing how difficult it is to join the club again , its like being suspended from costa del sols top golf club as youve only got a cheap set of clubs.
The dissection of income has ripped our game asunder , creating a class system of haves and have nots thats slowly destroying the game, its no longer 92 clubs in a pyramid , its 10 clubs in a luxury penthouse who let out 10 more executive apartments , and then theres championship flats , league 1 bedsits and then in the basement the league 2 servants quarters.
I never imagined after following every game Tony Currie ever played in our shirt home and away my love for the game would be as tenuous as it is now, but its the spawn of the devil Richard Scudamore and the greedy bastards in the prem that have created this dilemma, paying themselves 95% of the pot, and like starving kids leaving us with just £3 a month to survive on .

For many years I wouldn't even go on holiday during the season because I'd miss a United game. Then I based my holidays around missing the very odd away game once the fixtures were out. Then I started missing the odd home game. Finally I now book holidays before the fixture list even comes out. I've listened to games on the internet all over the world, in libraries, on a borrowed iphone, in hotel business centres, back street cafes. Now most of the time, I just can't be bothered to waste valuable holiday time listening to Keith Edwards droning on whilst the game passes him by. I've still bought a ST, but each year it becomes a relief when the season has finished instead of getting withdrawal symptoms for weeks after. Can't remember the last time I woke up on match day with those butterflies in the stomach.

 

[blade too long]

Is it apathy , dont think so , just that the excitements gone, in your heart of hearts you know a lines been drawn , with the money dictating things and we are on the wrong side of the line.We know without major investment we cant afford the plastic surgery to make our ageing love look fresh and exciting, we even struggle to buy the anti ageing cream now.

 

[SwissBlade]

First prize cunt he is.

I still cannot believe the man gave the WC to Qatar.

Just shows that money can literally get you anything you want.

I'd be very surprised if Qatar don't pull off a fantastic World Cup, it'd be one of their first but failures. It's a very low risk for FIFA.

Brazil and Russia are probably bigger risks for FIFA. South Africa managed to hold the World Cup, so why not Qatar.

 

[fuerstenberger]

Eloquently put Cave. There is a huge amount of excitement here in Germany at the moment; after the CL final and the way the German national side is playing. BUT many people are starting to worry about the future of the game as a whole. Many look at England and say that is way 'we' will go in 10 to 15 years.
Football generally is losing it's soul, it has no ideological basis any more. Years ago it was at the core of a community, now it sells out to the highest bidder and no longer represents the community it once did. The problem it has to 'sell' out to survive or be successful.
What communities will do eventually is find something else to represent them.
I find myself being more and more proud of being from Sheffield than I do the Blades. Most people here have heard of Sheffield steel as a quality product. Unfortunately the old knives and forks are quality, Sheffield United is not.
On the other hand the light might be going out because I am getting older, simple as that.

 

[JohnDenver]

On the other hand the light might be going out because I am getting older, simple as that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=s1fTlIsUGks#t=32s

 

[cahill]

Perhaps the secret of keeping the interest going is having another competing interest, in my case martial arts in my late teens in 1973 and still train today, that way I've not put all my eggs in one basket but kept a sense of balance about the whole thing. All my friends and work colleagues recognise that I'm big Blades fan and I am United mad but recognise that sometimes times are good and sometimes not. I do agree that the professional game has become souless. I used to live near Maine Rd. Manchester and loved the banter with the City fans 1983-86, it would be interesting to talk to same guys now. I'd bet most of you would be surprised by their reaction.

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

Perhaps the secret of keeping the interest going is having another competing interest, in my case martial arts in my late teens in 1973 and still train today, that way I've not put all my eggs in one basket but kept a sense of balance about the whole thing. All my friends and work colleagues recognise that I'm big Blades fan and I am United mad but recognise that sometimes times are good and sometimes not. I do agree that the professional game has become souless. I used to live near Maine Rd. Manchester and loved the banter with the City fans 1983-86, it would be interesting to talk to same guys now. I'd bet most of you would be surprised by their reaction.

I wouldn't. I know a few diehard City fans that go way back to the days of Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee. They hate it now, they have become the one thing that they always loathed, mocked and derided. the kudos for them was a sort of reverse snobbery in being the yo-yo nearly team that always retained a sense of identity with the city of Manchester. That is quickly disappearing as they move so quickly in the direction of Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool et al!

They are now a blue Man United!

 

[metalblade]

Top stuff Cave, I fell out with the England team years ago, too many players picked because their face fits or because they are the latest media darlings. Someone a while back posted on life's stages of being a Blade, done most of those stages now from thinking they were the best team in England in my early teens (they were not that far off in my later teens) to having a family to support and getting to games only when finances allowed then as the family grows up you pick up where you left off and soon you are once again the proud owner of a season ticket. Hardly missed a home game since 96/97 even when the wife phucked off costing me a fortune, I got into home games by selling 50/50 tickets and then programmes meeting some top Blades along the way and one or two full weight cunts who think they can take their frustrations out on the programme seller if the team are having a bad run. My 2nd wife never tires of reminding me I postponed the wedding as United were due a little meeting with Arsenal at Old Trafford and the final should we have got there would have been on her preferred wedding day. The beginning of the end for me was when Colin finally got us into the Premiership, as a programme seller I saw a very different type of fan appear when compared to the 15-16000 hardcore fans of Warnocks early seasons. Office boys and business men with their whores wives dressed up to the nines who knew fuck all about football let alone Sheffield United. To them it was a social event cum business meeting some call em the prawn sandwich brigade or plastics other call em plain and simple wankers. Yeah that season two of us were selling 1000 programmes most games sometimes more, yeah we were as busy as one armed fiddlers. I really thought we would bounce back after relegation but then Robson walked in the door and the rest is a downward spiral.
I broke in Hoofwells last season in charge I missed the Palace game around Xmas and threw my ST in the drawer and never used it again for some reason I could not be arsed, maybe it was the dire football or maybe it was the then unknown health issues. When United were being relegated to league one I was a little busy fighting for my life at least another stay in hospital spared me from witnessing first hand another Wembley play off no show. Now I only go when the fancy takes me or I watch on TV or online maybe a brush with death makes me look at things a little different but hell I still get mad when I look at the missed opportunities, I still get mad when we sell our top goal getter on deadline day, I get mad at all the lies and deceit and now the corporate bullshit speak we fans have to put up with it's all bollocks. I can't ever see me doing much more than picking the odd game that takes my fancy from now on, my Dad was one year old the last time we won a cup he maybe don't have long left so I doubt he will ever see them win owt and I can't see me being any different especially with the way the game today is slewed in favour of half a dozen top teams. It shouldn't really bother me or get me mad anymore, lets face it the game today is hardly worth a wank.

 

[Guesty]

I've not stopped caring and I'm not going to stop going ( I'm even expecting to enjoy a game or two) but I no longer expect us to achieve anything. When we were relegated from the Premiership I said we'd never be back. I now suspect even returning to the Championship might be beyond us.

 

[Deleted member 875]

We've all got stories about how we got in to watching the Blades how far we have taken it.

When I got in to football as a kid I was hugely in to it. I used to sit for hours with the programmes memorising the results, line ups. I used to avidly collect football stickers to the point of obsession, and even went as far as spending hours writing up imaginary match reports complete the the weekends scores and football tables. I also grew up watching the Heysel disaster unfolding in front of my eyes at 7 years old, and when the Hillsborough disaster happened it didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary because I was used to seeing people on the news getting killed at football grounds.

I remember as a kid, living, breathing, eating and sleeping football. Couldn't quench my first for it.

As I grew older that passion didn't dim, but in a way got stronger as supporting Sheffield United became less something I wanted to do, but something that became more habitual, I grew up, starting being able to enjoy going out on the piss with my mates watching the Blades and meeting more Blades along the way. I even met my best mate along the way when I went to work at Butlins through the summer and he shared exactly the same passion for the Blades as I did.

As I got older I got married and when my marriage was on the rocks I had the chance of a romantic meal with my ex-wife or driving a 200 mile round trip to Hartlepool, so I went to Hartlepool and the following weekend my marriage was over. Sometimes my behaviour has been shocking, and I've followed the club when I should have devoted my time to something else but at the age of 35 I don't think I can change.

I will moan and gripe till the cows come home, but at the minute I still care about this club. It's been a huge part of my life, and it still is. Ill moan and whinge but at the end of the day I don't think I can give it up completely. I tried not renewing my season ticket the season we went down in to division 3, but relented the day before the home game, swore blind that I was going to cancel the direct debit for next seasons ST but still not really got round to doing it.

Sometimes I wish that I had a passion to match the passion that I have got for following Sheffield United but apart from being a huge cricket fanatic I don't think that there is anything else out there that I can totally immerse myself with, and the cricket apart from winter tours dovetails nicely with the football.

I think at the end of the day as much as I despise what football is nowadays and what it has turned in to, I haven't got it in me to turn my back on Sheffield United. It's cost me too much money over the years, cost me relationships, spend an inordinate amount of time watching the Blades, worrying about the Blades, thinking about the Blades to be able to walk away.

One day thinks will turn on their heads, we will be back on an upwards spiral again, and ill be able to say that I manned out the bad times and feel entitled to enjoy the good times. As shit as things are I just about care enough to be unable to walk away

 

[alcoblade]

post: 504197, member: 875"]
One day thinks will turn on their heads, we will be back on an upwards spiral again, and ill be able to say that I manned out the bad times and feel entitled to enjoy the good times. As shit as things are I just about care enough to be unable to walk away

Bang on.

UTB

 

[Deleted member 875]

Bang on.

UTB

It's probably the same for a lot of people.

It's like depression, you can't see a way out when your suffering from it but one day it's gone

 

[Kev Gee]

Its people like you brownie that deserve something back from the club.
Imagine the uphoria of seeing us lift the FA cup or winning a play off final.

Will that ever happen?

I doubt it

Ive no doubt that alot of people at the club have the best of intentions. Including KMC.
But good intentions count for fuck all if you fuck it up all the time.

 

[grafikhaus]

post: 504197, member: 875"]
As I got older I got married and when my marriage was on the rocks I had the chance of a romantic meal with my ex-wife or driving a 200 mile round trip to Hartlepool, so I went to Hartlepool and the following weekend my marriage was over.

Fickle buggers these women.

Some great stuff on this thread. I'm hoping it's summertime blues, or else I'll be able to lie along my row of seats next season.

I've always thought football and politics run parallel. The news is on at the moment and it's the latest bunch of cheating, corrupt fuckers lining their pockets and insisting 'we've done nothing wrong.' And yet millions will turn out to vote for these criminals at the next election.

As long as 80k+ pay good money to watch England in a dire friendly, live on TV, players who in a lot of cases aren't even first choice for their clubs, they've won.

I hope the fans know what's coming to Germany, fuerstenberger. To compete with the likes of Real, they'll get more and more over-paid imports, the national team will get diluted and the cycle goes on.