Just realised I can get red button these days via my brother’s Sky Go so I can watch us any time we’re in mid-week, but we clash with my Tuesday night game. Always prioritised playing myself, but now I’m hitting 34 I’m less enthused and lean towards staying in.
I know we have some old boys, but at the height of your powers, did you prioritise playing or watching? Just interested.
Always dangerous to say you're interested in what us oldies have to say, so I'll understand if you don't read it all... I would always rank playing first, attending a game second, watching a game I'm committed to live on TV third, and watching any old game on TV last. Putting playing top of the list is partly because that is what football is all about - no matter how low the standard, being part of a team and pitting your ablities against another team has nothing to compare with it. And you can carry on attending games (health permitting) for many years, and then in the care home they can sit you in front of the telly for the rest of your days.
And in my view, attending a live game, again at any level, is far superior to watching on TV., which does not reproduce the atmosphere. Occasionally a game on a big screen in a gathering of people can be fun, but my observation of people in their own homes watching games is that most of the time they are not watching the game at all (they are on phones/iPads), and look up when there is a goal or incident, to watch the replay. This indifference can work its way into the stadiums - just as an actor recently went out of character to tick off the members of the audience who were on their phones, it would be nice to see Fleck, after a lung-busting run, carry on into the Kop and tell everyone where to shove their phones. The football authorities need to think carefully about this passive watching of football, which could be very negative for the long-term future. And I recognise that new technologies bring benefits, but all changes need to be managed, and ways of reducing negative impacts need to be found.
So, back to the short answer. Play for as long as you can, go to matches for as long as you can, limit how much you watch on TV, and save the hours in front of the telly up for old age.
