I've said before how I don't enjoy home games too much anymore but if money and time permitted I'd still go to every game. Like others said Saints is a like a drug and you take the highs with the lows. My enthusiasm and love for Saints is as strong as ever. Personally I think it's poor form to say enthusiasm is dying out purely cos we're not the most entertaining. Has my enthusiasm for the game in general at the top level died out? Different story entirely and has been for a few years.
I have almost no enthusiasm at all any more, so boring is our football. But I'll still be there every other Saturday. Other than re-appointing Harry as manager, I'm not sure there's anything that would ever stop me, health and money permitting.
My lad and I were regulars from the league 1 days(mainly becuase he became that age,and it gave me an excuse to reignite my childhood). Sth and 4/5 away games to show him other grounds,we had a ball win lose or draw. At the end of last season, he summoned up the courage to tell me he wanted to do other things( whatever 15 year olds do now). I was gutted!! but I understood where he was coming from. where was the entertainment/excitement ,it was dull. I accepted his decision and after a summer of turmoil,(shall i/sha'nt I), bit the bullet and declined the season ticket, but with the promise to myself to come up regularly. Still not been.Have been to a few Salisbury games and up to watch Cheltenham games.Tbh,not much quality on show but the effort is at least honest! Now I don't blame Puel entirely for last year, (would have said one more year).I was fed up with the way the game is set up now(stop/control/pass, and pass behind the player, not being able to keep the ball from a throw-in etc). I genuinely think this is down to the way the game is played here,just watch England.Possession stats seem more important,(what did we do before stats were invented??). This is not just Saints fans, most of the prem fans are not happy with what they are being served up,but money talks and you must not lose at any cost, even if it means lack of entertainment and something to talk about on the way home. I miss the buzz, and if means being in the Efl to get it then sobeit.
Last season the only times I was out of the seat in real excitement was Arsenal away in the league cup, Liverpool at home in the league cup semi first leg, Liverpool away in the 2nd leg (notice a trend here) and when Gabbiadini scored those two goals at Wembley. I am really bored of the Premier League in general right now. I know there are a hell of a lot of teams who would love to be where we are right now but I am pinning all my hopes for this season on an FA Cup run because that's all we're playing for now really. We get knocked out in January and I may "football hibernate" until the World Cup.
This isn’t really a low, it’s not success it’s my failure it’s in the middle. But the style is what’s bothering people, can’t see any passion on the pitch. With the exception of Lemina, maybe yoshi, players are playing like we feel! I don’t know what it is, does it come from the top? It’s too early to forge an opinion but Pellegrinos demeanour is more puel than pochettino. Of course this is one aspect and I doubt that a managers communication has that much affect on a players attitude.
Being a Saints fan has always been different in that you never know what team you are getting to watch season on season. When Lowe took over he promised investment in players which never materialised although he did get the new stadium built. We then had Kats dad and co who appeared to mean what they said. Slowly we began to be noticed once again as we worked our way through the leagues. Things changed as we all know pretty well as Kat came on the scene. I’m not blaming her for anything just pointing out the reality. Now we have new principle owners who have also promised investment. So what can we look forward to now? Time will tell we hung on last time in the top league for 27 years. To do that this time we will definitely need a different buying in policy. We will need the “Keegans, Osgoods and Lemina’s of This world”. Now we have few good players and a lot of standard. Players. We need to buy in the tried and tested players as well as develop once again the Shearers and Channons of this world. They are out there........then maybe just maybe Saints will lose their consistancy of being “inconsistent” and maybe make their way into European football on a regular basis.
Did you know that 79% of our passes are either sideways or backwards so no wonder we are all pissed off watching it. Once upon a time we got the best out of players but now they seem to lose form playing for us. Poor old Gabby being a case in point.
I still think it's a 'football' issue rather than a Saints issue, for most anyway. The hype and money has just got ridiculous and people just don't seem to have any sort of connection with the game at the top level. I keep saying it and some won't understand, but I'd quite happily be relegated once or twice tbh.
I agree that over the course of a season we know roughly where we're going to end up, what we never know of course is how we're going to do it - whether in terms of style or actual results. What is more interesting though is that regardless of the final split of the league table / trends of who finishes where, on a game by game basis there is much more unpredictability than there ever has been (perhaps with the exception of Man City at this moment in time). Aside from loyalty that is what will always keeps me going to matches (or watching footy at all). Even if you are pretty certain you're going to watch a pretty dull game, who's to say you don't witness an incredible goal / incident that people will talk about forever? Does anyone reflect on the pain of losing 3-2 after a long arduous trip to Blackburn back in '94? and MLT missing a chance to equalise in the last minute? I was saying this to my son (age 6) last week on the way back from the WBA game (Boufal) - a moment of magic like that sometimes makes all the other games worthwhile. I've been lucky the past few seasons as I bought ST's for myself and the kids, my son is full on addicted to saints and footy in general (we're in St Albans but he's not swayed in anyway to other teams). As a result of his enthusiasm I think I'm the most enthusiastic I've been since my mid 20's - not just about saints but the wider league etc. As youngsters we all might have had a much wider knowledge of other teams etc, as you get older I think that tends to disappear and we become a bit more focused on ourselves. That's not to say I'm happy with how we're playing, but enthusiasm in this context doesn't necessarily mean satisfaction. We know we can do better and I want to be watching when that clicks back into place!
Yeah I have noticed it outside the top 6 a sort of "meh" amongst my Prem supporting mates. Think the penny has dropped for all of us that it would take a miracle to ever really be a European club on a regular basis and, for a fan, it doesn't really matter finishing 7th or 17th. Got mates with Everton/Palace/WBA season tickets and think between them they've been to less than 5 games this year, just don't seem overly fussed and would rather spend their weekends doing something else. The money is ruining the sport for those outside the top 6 in terms of passion and enthusiasm I would say. Too much for clubs to risk by getting relegated so games are more conservative (see last night for the most recent example), so entertainment suffers as well.
Dyche said prematch that results were everything. You can't expect anything else when managers are sacked a few games into the season.
Yeah I have always thought it tbh. But think the point has just been hammered home when you look at the amounts spent by City/Utd/Chelsea in the last few years. When you have been a PL club for 4/5 years and the novelty of being a PL club wears off a bit then you reach the "what is the point?" stage.
Probably not the best admission to make as a first post, but like many, I'm finding my enthusiasm waning. I'm not about to throw away my season ticket though; while our football hasn't been great for a while, it's not even close to the main reason why I'm losing interest. Like others on here, I'm finding the money and big team hype close to unbearable at the moment. But there are so many other things that just contribute to my general feeling of 'meh': entitled fans, biased media, regular manager sackings, teams buying rather than developing their own talent. I know it's been going this way for some time, but this season, more than any other, it feels like football has finally sold it's soul. Still, Burnley Saturday....COYS!
Good, realistic first post. May I suggest once again [for the umpteenth of umpteenth times] that football sold its soul to Sky and with the formation of the Premier League. I'm not particularly brilliant at predictions, but I certainly predicted this scenario back in the early 1990's. The best Saints can do is find a way of taking advantage of it now.
I must admit it was more fun when we were fighting back from the bottom of League 1 (and were trying to win every game) - much better than trying to pip the bottom place in the Europa League or as we seem to playing now, called consolidating our position as a mid table team. yawn
Exactly. When we first came up, we had (arguably) a worse squad, but that Adkins team would thump us if we played like we did on Sunday. We actually attacked and went at teams. This current team which has cost an absolute fortune can't even spring a counter attack without turning on the ball and slowing down play. Boring stuff. Oh, and I have no idea why pellegrino has played none of the younger players. They can't do any worse than tadic/Redmond at this point.
That's a really good point, and I completely agree about the impact of Sky. In the past, I've tried to cut it a bit of slack, given the match coverage it provides; Match Choice (when I had Sky) was a great way to watch the highlights, even if we weren't their match of the day. But their live coverage when we (or any other unfashionable club) play a "big team" is simply embarrassing. And the money they are paying to clubs for the privilege of showing their games is obscene.
What is also interesting (again this is from me thinking about how kids now look at it) is the sheer volume of football content that continuously feeds us. MotD on iPlayer.... My boy will watch it a few times a week (mentalist!) whether all of it or just the saints highlights. Then youtube, etc. As opposed to waiting up on a saturday for 1 min worth of highlights and that was it for a week (plus CEEFAX) It all fuels the interest/enthusiasm. I think Saints have done quite well in terms of media stuff, now youth games being streamed etc. BTW, regardless of attendance of matches and opinion on current style, I would say by default anyone posting on here/forums in general are probably somewhere in the top 10% most enthusiastic saints fans.... so pat yourself on the back!
