Fair comment. It is just a cash cow & I despise it for that. I make no secret that F1 / motorsport in general is by far my first love in sport , but money is killing the Grass Roots everywhere. Good luck to you and whoever you support in the future, well within reason... Redbull can **** right off!
I agree that turning any sport into a "cash cow" will always ruin it in the end, but taking a step back, it's not the sponsors' fault, it's television. With very few exceptions, sport is always better watched live, in the venue where it's being played. The obscene amounts of money that global TV rights bring to sport contributes directly to the temptation to cheat, although with a kind of perfect irony, the TV technology also brings the opportunity to detect cheating.
Has anyone got this a story like this one then? I was bullied into supporting Saints by my brother! He is six years older than me so when he was 12/13 I was 6/7 and he used sit astride me and thump me and make me learn the Saints line-up by heart. If I got any player wrong I got a thump (he also made me listen to early-Status Quo and Slade on headphones and learn the lyrics and songs). And no I can't remember that line-up anymore. I was never really interested in playing or watching football properly until I was about fourteen and that was because all my mates did and so I had to or have no mates, living in a very small village. I did go to games in the very early 70s but I had to go with my brother and my parents weren't overly keen on this at the time. Having said that it was my local professional club and I could never understand all the lads who supported Leeds United et al at school - in those days there were loads of Leeds United supporters. I rarely go to games anymore and this season I've watched less than a handful on the telly and even very few highlights. As an entertainment the sport has got very boring in general and worse than this, apart from Leicester, extremely predictable. I still find it depressing that fans, players, pundits, say with absolute certainty that my club will not, cannot and will never win the league or even qualify for the Champions League and hoping and wishing they might improve and get better every year is foolish and in some cases is called 'entitled' and 'selfish'. It's a strange old world
Prepare to be disappointed. It's hard to avoid those features even on the park these days. But Eastleigh aren't a bad watch. I used to watch a lot of non league football (Dorchester Town and Weymouth) and loved to try and spot a few youngsters who might go on to bigger things. More often than not though it was players who should have retired a couple of years before I saw them....
That is wonderful Imp!! Inculcating your sons to support the local team!! Now where did I put that Real Madrid shirt?
At that time Manchester United were a fading force, Chelsea were hit and miss, Liverpool were rebuilding. City were good but rather flash but Leeds were always to the fore from 1965 to 1975. So that is why they all followed Leeds ..... the most successful team at the time. I would imagine that numbers of youngsters supporting Spurs would have grown over the past two or three seasons given that they have the English crown jewel.
Well, the stretchering off thing was introduced. Its never been officially been stopped as far as I know.
Will always support Saints. This is not about Saints at all. Its just that I find watching 'top flight' football just makes me angry most of the time.
Going home on the tube from Upton Park in February 2012 (1-1, Nolan, Hooiveld) I ran into someone I knew from St Marys. She asked "are you looking forward to the PL"? Apart from not wanting her to jinx it, we both agreed we really weren't. The Championship is a great league, genuine passionate supporters, a team of "good honest professionals", and a really competitive league. The big clubs can **** off and play on the moon, was the consensus. Of course, after we got promoted, stayed up, and then exceeded all expectations, a lot of that got forgotten. But I think we were right the first time; what do we have now? A team full of mercenaries, a stadium full of booing plastics, & a league that 99 times out of 100 will be won by the biggest spenders. I still renewed my ST, but only really because of my dad who is 87 and won't be in the seat next to me forever. When he goes, perhaps I'll start going to Barnet (they are ****, though).
You completely miss some of the points made then. We all want that and hope for it, but it is how individuals react if that doesn't happen that starts to bring out those words. Sorry, couldn't let that one drift by without a comment.
Nice read Archers. That's pretty much spot on & sort of similar for me, although I'm the dad & I think my son was really hoping I'd ditch the ST this year! Now he's got to ensure at least one more!
This, of course, is my hope too.........but also, perversely, my fear. Imagine after making my bold move, that we went and did a Leicester!
Yes I know but I once had a lad who lived in East Tytherley quite forcibly telling me how Yorkshire was the greatest place in England because Leeds United were the greatest football team, Yorkshire the greatest cricket team and Leeds the greatest Rugby League team - he'd never set foot in the place. In fact he still lives at home with his mum now. Even at 14 and not really bothered by this I thought it was a 99 out of 100 on the scale of really frikkin' weird.
There is still cheating at the lower level. Sutton Utd and Forest Green being the worst offenders I saw this year but Lincoln are no angels either. There is a lot less though and there are lots more "tough guys" in the lower leagues that don;t want to roll around. They get back up limping in case the ref doesn't give the foul. There is a referee lottery where one week you'll get a ref that falls for everything and then the next week a ref from the 50s turns up and its a free for all. "You don't know what you're doing" is a chant reserved for refs at this level (at least at Lincoln) and is never chanted at management or players. Gets wheeled out at least once a game Another I've not heard this year is "entry of the Gladiators" which is reserved for games where the "you don't know what you're doing" has been worn out from an "inept" refereeing performance and likened to a circus clown act. In general though in the Prem ALL players start their anguished scream of pain before the contact is even made and then the slightest touch sends them spinning like a Bus just hit them. Add to that the Prem habit of always managing to dangle your foot where the goalie is when you kick it past him (further than you would be able to get) and that's it for me. Shane Long (as an example of all players) has no intention of putting the ball past the keeper where he can then get to it and score. He has no intention of trying to round the keeper. Quite simply put it past the keeper (normally not aiming at the goal and doesn;t matter if it will go out) and then lower your foot to wherever the keeper is. Contact made, keeper didn;t get the ball, PENALTY..........I call BS. The penalty he got the other day he is going over before his foot is lowered to ensure he touches the keeper. He's never going to get to the ball he just pushed towards the byline. He is fast but not that fast.
Their choice. I stopped getting Lincoln season tickets in the late nineties. That was the Premier League's fault too as I just fell out of love with football................until 2009. Didn't go to a single Lincoln game between 2000 and 2015 and then my eldest started pandering me to go to the game. I gave in eventually and we went to 4 games that season, 10 the next and god knows how many last season. Season ticket + most of the cup games they loved it and I enjoy them enjoying the matchday experience. I wouldn't be going if they weren't even though I do enjoy the matchday experience.
