Told you we had the worst manager in the league. Didn't see it (blessing perhaps) but congratulations on what sounds like the easiest 3 points you'll get all season. Beat Hudders next week and I suspect you can start preparing for next season. Don't think we'll be playing you though. Good luck for the rest of the year. P.s. Please can you beat every team around us you play, as we're not capable of saving ourselves.
Cheers - huge game for you against W Ham now, especially after all the hassle there today. Hope you make it and survive (just not at our expense lol)
Yeah that's massive, so was today though and we simply don't turn up in must win games. 1 win (v wba) in 17 says it all. I think we're gone tbh, 5 wins all season and only convincing one was Everton under Unsworth and I don't see us getting another 3 wins. Same to you in that I'd like to see you survive if not at our expense, though I've said for a couple of years now that I wouldn't really mind relegation. Despise what top level football has become. Hopefully we'll do a Wigan and go down but win the cup.
Don't think you're alone there - money is killing the gane. Sure, there have always been haves and have nots but now the gap is completely ridiculous. To compete you used to need a millionaire, then a billionaire - now? You need the GDP of a whole bloody country.
It's not just that but the media hype is beyond ridiculous and the atmosphere is awful. To be honest the atmosphere at St Marys was better with 18-20k in league one than it is with a full house now. It's why I've largely sacked off home games this year in favour of aways, in the past 12 months at home I've witnessed home 'fans' videoing away players celebrating goals, asking for opposition shirts and a fan trying to video an entire game. I even got told to to shut up by someone this season for trying to start songs and generate an atmosphere... In our main singing area **** all that ****e, not what football is about for me.
When the hard-core of your support (away fans) start booing their own team after 20 mins you know your team are in trouble
Did you go today fella? I didn't see it but apparently we were dreadful even in terms of effort and heart today. Our away support is normally top notch (well in terms of noise/atmosphere at least), but if it was really as bad as it sounds then I have no issue with fans who have travelled the length of the country to witness a side bang in trouble play like a midtable side and with no fight. If we rock up at Wigan next week not really up for it and show no fight then we'll probably get turned over up there too and then I could see things getting really nasty tbh. My tickets for that one arrived yesterday and still buzzing for it mind
Yep - remember going to games in the 80s and 90s pre Sky / Prem League - football was the game the middle classes despised and would cross the road to avoid you if you admitted to being a fan Now it's just another jolly family day out or a tourist experience for so many people at so many clubs, must be really annoying at Southampton when you used to have one of the best grounds in the league for atmosphere in The Dell.
Unfortunately I'm too young for pre sky era being born in 1991 but I've seen a huge downturn in the last decade, hell even the last 5 years. It's great that families etc. can attend now and I can imagine it wasn't a nice experience for a lot of people in the 80s. But it was always a working class sport and those people are largely priced out now which has changed the entire demographic of supporters. The match going fans are treated with absolute disdain now by the powers that be and the TV companies. You lot had two trips to the south coast as Sunday 4pm earlier this season for **** sake and we had to wait ten days or so after the draw for a date and time to be confirmed for our FA Cup quarter final at Wigan leaving just over a fortnight for the club to sort ticketing and for fans to book travel/accommodation by which point prices have rocketed. Still as long as the fan boys in Malaysia etc. are happy eh? With St Marys don't get me wrong on it's day it can be absolutely rocking even for a flatpack **** identikit stadium, Inter Milan last season for example. But it's a different having a consistent good atmosphere as anyone can get up for the odd game. When we went down in 2005 the stadium was buzzing for the run in even though we went down in the end. We're (fans) much more likely to go with a whimper this time around. I know it's not exclusive to us though, I don't think any 'established' PL team (different for clubs like Huddersfield etc) has a consistently good atmosphere now. I went to both Palace and Stoke this season who have reputations for passionate support and both were dreadful.
It's totally inexcusable. As a fan you pay your money and by all means boo or leave early (fans get stick for these things but shouldn't really it's freedom of choice) but the second you step onto the pitch you should be hauled off by stewards and handed to the police, banned for life from attending any sporting venue anywhere. The people on the pitch are doing a job - maybe very badly or barely at all but a job none-the-less - and don't deserve to feel threatened by those watching. There's 20-odd people on the pitch and thousands upon thousands in the stands, the moment you make those players feel threatened it isn't a game any more. West Ham deserve to have the book thrown at them for this. A truly horrible series of events and I feel sorry for the real fans (vast majority of course) who will be tarnished in the coming days with all the headlines about "West Ham fans" and people throwing opinions around about what they are all like.
I work with a good few West Ham fans and I can pretty much guarantee that they will be as pissed off at the idiots on the pitch today (if not more so) - they're all proper football fans (support their team first, but enjoy footy generally) and have been saying for quite a while that the new ground has brought a whole load of people who don't seem to be traditional/long term West Ham fans, just after a day out and seem to feel quite "entitled". There's been huge issues with things like standing up during the games etc; whole situation hasn't been helped by the lack of police and only stewards present
Don't get me wrong them fans who invaded the pitch were tossers. I was referring to the malaise of the club as a whole. West Ham used to be a proud club known for producing top players and playing good, attractive football. They have been moved into a soulless bowl and have had their identity taken away by a bunch of Tory pricks who made their money through soft porn. I feel sorry for their fans.
Nevermind though eh? Sky, Gary Neville and the rest of those stooges like to try and convince people that we are watching the best league in the world. Bollocks. Said this many times before - Sky has killed the game. The FA and top 4-5 clubs have allowed it to happen. I am not envious of Man City at all. I pity them. They were always the working class club of Manchester with passionate fans. Now they have no soul and you get the world and their dog [middle class twats] latching on to them. It makes me sick.
