Totally agree, I feel much less of a connection with the game than I used to and it's mainly due to how it has changed on the pitch. Cheating is an accepted part of the game, contact is barely tolerated and how much they're being paid doesn't help. Neither does VAR. I'll always be obsessed with Sunderland but football as a whole doesn't really interest me anymore and it hasn't for years. Case in point I had no idea it was the FA cup final today and when I found out it was I couldn't care less who won. I used to have opinions and feelings about Liverpool and Chelsea but not anymore. The sport is hollow to me.
Good thread this and goes to highlight the demise of a game I once was excited to watch. As some have said the art of a tackle is now a thing of the past. If the rules were applied from today back to 1973...then Richie Pitt would have been sent off for his "tackle" against Alan Clarke. I think footballers today spend more time trying to con the referee than they do playing the game right. The FA cup was just another theatrical performance at the top level....very sad for those of a certain vintage who remember a good battle between skilful forwards and tough tackling defenders.
The FA Cup was once a national event that lasted a week. . Neutrals would pick sides and become fanatical about one or the other, schoolboys would be able to name every player and their position, mams would have a shilling bet and grans would spend weeks sewing witty banners that would be picked out by the cameras. The winning goal would be recreated on parks by kids who would act out their part and take turns at being the scorer. I doubt kids could name half the teams, these days, let alone pronounce the names or guess which country they're from. And the managers never used to dress up as toddlers
Reading this thread I thought I must have been watchinf a different game. Agree with every word about yesterdays Final. I thought the ref had a fair game too. However, on the broarder topic of the way tackling has become such an unappreciated art I too regret this. I was able to watch the likes of George Aitkin, on to Jimmy McNab and Len Ashurst. I also loved to watch Newcastle's Jimmy Scoular. But it's also fair to point out that in those days very few players could continue playing into their late thirties. Retirement through injuries was almost universal. That is no longer the case. And while medicine and treatments have improved out of all recognition I don't see how the connection between those hard tackles and career ending tackles can be ignored.
I watched the Mansfield play off game after the cup final and really enjoyed it, atmosphere was bouncing the entire game, 2 teams admittedly of limited ability but every player giving their all, hardly any (if any) rolling about like they had been shot after the slightest touch, good honest football at a good pace. No doubt I will have the premier games on today but often they are background noise while I'm doing something else. Of course I was us to get promoted and back up the leagues but I don't want us to have to sell our souls to the devil to become cannon fodder in the premier League, to just survive in the premier League isn't fun and spending hundreds of millions to finish between 17th and 10th seems pointless. I wish the "big 6" would bugger off and football have a reset
This season must be wonderful for Brentford fans. Not so much for the likes of Southampton who'll eventually get a season's survival plan slightly wrong and go down. And no doubt our first season back would be fun but we know we'll never win the title ... ... most clubs will be much more likely to be relegated from the league than win it. As Everton have shown, trying to spend big to buy success is beyond most clubs.
It's the amounts you have to spend to essentially stand still in the premier League, at a guess £100 to £150million not including wages to start of then a minimum £75 to £100 million every season. And that's if your lucky, then prices for tickets etc have to increase to help with costs. Part of me wishes the super League had gone ahead as at least then it would have forced a change
I'd like us to focus on the academy and bring top talent through and if they eventually move on for good money then fair enough. I get satisfaction from seeing Henderson and Pickford playing for England and lifting trophies (well, in Henderson's case anyway). Maybe Dan Neil will be the next one, who knows. There is no point crippling the club and putting it at risk by trying to compete financially with the likes of City. We need to find another way to be competitive.
The academy is the only way forward from what I can see. Then we have to accept that the best will move on for huge sums of money, which whilst difficult at least keeps us at a sensible level financially. Seeing the honours Henderson has won makes me proud of him and the area, he also seems to have his feet firmly on the ground and a genuinely nice lad. Something that a lot of these so called stars could learn from. I'd love him to come back for his final years of playing
I agree with you on most of this apart from wanting Liverpool to win. I wasn’t bothered who won until Liverpool fans booed abide with me and the national anthem. After that I wanted Chelsea to win.
The FA Cup used to be the showpiece event of the season. The coverage would start from early in the day and would build to a crescendo at 3pm, the proper kick off time. It felt like the whole country stopped. I can't help but feel that interest in it has waned because the media no longer gives it the respect it is due. It will all start again at the beginning of August. It started for me last August by watching a league game between Cockfosters and Woodford Town. There are 1000s of other people who will have been involved in some way in the FA Cup, hoping that their club can somehow make a mark in it, who won't be given a second thought by the two teams who make next year's final or by the TV companies who broadcast it. But what the FA Cup is really about is the dreams of people up and down the football pyramid and the excitement of possibly playing a team higher up in a 'glamour' tie. The media need to remember that because the magic is still there. It just needs bringing out.
I have two perfectly shaped stud mark scars half way up my left shin, left forever there by the metal studs of a player who couldnt play Dangerous weapons on the wrong feet they were. Mind you I bounced up from the challenge and went straight through him 5 mins later and we ended up having a a "small coming together'... Some of what went on in a game 30 years ago I dont miss. At times it was a bit too much. I have probably said this before but I have done my coaching badges and there is very very little in any of it about the tackle. It is all about the interception now. I agree tackling should be part of the game, but I am afraid at the higher levels of the game it is being coached out. It is one of a few things for me that has eroded the overall game quality.
I'd settle for a brand of football that brings exciting young players through and creates a team that can hold it's own in mid-table. Even if we have to eventually sell those players so be it. Then really target the cups as they're all we're ever likely to win. I don't want us to be a Norwich or try 'an Everton'. Unless City, Liverpool, Utd, Chelsea, Spurs and Arsenal f**k off the whole thing is a farce. Leicester gave everyone false hope, they'll never win the title again and could well be relegated again.
