Ok so with Jammy being so passionate about keeping the Weekend Debate threads going over the last few weeks, whilst Doc takes some time out for himself, it was therefore a surprise to find that his passion has wained. Not only has he given up on trying to cajoel people to make a thread, he couldnt even be bothered to just create a thread and leave the OP blank for others to then comment upon. Now of course I'm making this post, so Jammy could quite easily point out that his new tactic has worked a treat, by keeping quiet, he has managed to get me to post, and yes it worked, so well done Jamster . Earlier today I saw a link on Youtube concerning Jason Cundy on TalkSport clashing with a Southampton fan, after the fan called his team, and players a disgrace, because and this is just my interpretation , "they had the cheek to lose after 25 games unbeaten, to "Bristol City" ". Just doing a search around Google, as I was trying to think of a topic, related to the above, I came across a post of the Norwich City forum, made (posted 30 Dec 2021) about a month after Farke was sacked as they struggled at the bottom of the Premier League table. There was nothing really insightful in the post as to why it was all going wrong, plenty of other posts addressed those issues in the thread, but it just gave me another road to go down on a search for something to post here. I'm sure most of us would to some extent agree with the above, especially when it comes to supporting OUR club. Then I came across an article posted in the Guardian in September 2005 and I remembered all those times when I lived in the Isle of Man and for 12 years, I would be getting on a ferry at 6 am on a Saturday morning, having been out since 5pm Friday evening, until getting kicked out of the Palace Casino at 4am, catching a train from Liverpool to Leeds, arriving about 20 minutes before kick off. Then travelling back, but this time catching the train to Morecambe, so I could catch the 1am Sunday morning ferry back to the Isle of Man. When I left and and went to live in North Wales in 2004, it made the travelling a lot easier, I just had to drive 2 hours along the M62 every other week, but circumstances meant that I was only able to do this for about 5 years. I accept in this day and age, it is very unlikely that I will attend Elland Road again on any sort of regularity, or at all. However I will freely admit that I use to be a football idiot and would happily be so again Football fans are idiots. Or, to rephrase that sentence using less incendiary language: when it comes to football, intelligent people act stupid. And yes, that probably includes you. After all, you remain hooked on a sport that has, over the past decade, become as competitive as a F1 warm-up lap - while at the same time taking ever-larger chunks out of your salary. Smart people would stand up to such exploitation. Football fans prefer to revel in their "hardcore" commitment. Even if a match is shunted to some unholy hour to accommodate Sky, you think nothing of travelling hundreds of miles to sit in a stadium with all the atmosphere of a wake, to show loyalty to your club. The same club that's always thinking of ingenious new ways to bleed you dry. When it comes to football, your rationality goes awol. You worship players who are at best indifferent to you, and at worst despise you. If a referee makes a dubious decision against your team, he's a ****er or a cheat. And if a journalist writes something you disagree with, he carries a vendetta. Your idiocy doesn't end there. For you take more interest in pre-season friendlies - games which are, without exception, about as meaningful as Gazza's comedy breasts - than the growing inequality between football's haves and have-nots and what to do about it. In short, you're an idiot. So, here's a plan of sorts. Start by refusing to become a slave to football's pointless merry-go-round every summer. Take the transfer gossip pages with a pinch of salt (trust me, most of it really is made up) and certainly don't bother frittering your money on pointless pre-season friendlies or the Intertoto Cup (you never know, Uefa might eventually get the message). Become smarter and less compliant. If Birmingham are charging £45 for an away ticket (as they did to Manchester United fans last season) just say no. If you think a Sky Sports subscription is too expensive, watch the games in the pub. If you're sick of the Premiership, try watching your local club again. If you believe fans should be allowed to stand again, join http://www.safestanding.com/safe/index.php or organise a national standing day - let's see the stewards try to stop thousands of you. More importantly still, widen your focus to beyond your club. It's not good for English football that we now have a three-teams-can-win-it Premiership. Or that TV money is more unequally distributed than ever. Or - as Lord Burns recently pointed out - that the Premiership clubs have undue influence with the Football Association. So get involved. In short, it's not necessarily a given that football will become more soulless and uncompetitive with every passing year. But the game needs your help. After all, no one ever changed the world by sitting on their capacious backside, eating a pork pie and shouting beetroot-face abuse at Wayne Rooney, did they? For those who want to read the full article - https://www.theguardian.com/football/2005/sep/02/sport.blueprintforabetterfootball
Just as a matter of interest I’ve read many posts from supporters unable to attend matches any more. I don’t want to pry into anyone’s business but curious if it’s the difficult in getting tickets stopping people going, was it the abysmal 16 years or so that turned people off or other reasons
Went from about '88 to '96 and a fair few away days too. Then started playing open age football so stopped going. Injury forced me to quit playing eventually around 2006 but I'd been injury prone for a while so had attended a handful of games when I was injured on and off from about 2003. Pretty much went home and away from the season we were relegated from the Championship throughout the league 1 days and 1st season back in the Championship. Got married, started a family, at the same time I became disillusioned with Bates so drifted away from attending again. Still went to 5-10 games a season though. Bielsa came, glory hunter fans came back and I go to maybe 3 or 4 games a season now. I have my connections and could easily attend games on my own but me and my son come as a pair and I find it difficult to get two tickets together these days. I think if we fail to go up this season that the glory fans will wander off and I'm at a stage where a couple of season tickets might be feasible. Every cloud and all that...
Only snag with the season tickets is the 22k on the waiting list. Not sure how many of those would actually buy the season tickets if they got the chance
Mines mainly just circumstances of not knowing if I am going to free to attend a game, a couple of days before the actual match. Gave up my season ticket ( had it from 83-90) when I went to to the Isle of Man, and would just ring the club a couple of days before a game and collect it at the ground, all during the Wilko, Graham and O'Leary years. Carried on when I came back to the UK in 2004 until the 2009, when my wifes work schedule changed, so she worked most weekends, so I had to be home to look after the kids. Since the Christiansen season, I've had the oppportunity to have a Saturday to myself on a few occasions, but it's always been short notice, and thus struggled to get tickets when ringing the ticket office. It's not the clubs fault, as my own particularly set of circumstances just means I am unable to plan ahead, so I havent even tried since Bielsa's second season.
Very lucky myself to be part of the Galway whites setup. They make the whole match going experience seamless. Likely circumstances will see me being absent for a while too
I suppose I'm one of those idiots but it's all about loyalty to your team too. I'm waiting to leave home in 45 minutes to head to Plymouth again but looking at what your commitments were Aski that is dedication. There is a bit of sense in the post but the one thing they will never get is that camaraderie amongst our fans which is what makes it. You only see lots of these people at football games which is one of the most important parts for me.
I will freely admit when I read the article and decided to make the post, you did cross my mind Heidi, and I don't mean that in a bad way . Hope you have a great journey down to Plymouth and an even better one back
Just read an article on BBC website quoting Hector Bellerin and given the subject of the thread, thought it was worth including a part of that here. Football every day is more about margins, about can we make more money and less about the people that support it and the people that truly make football great," says Bellerin. "It is becoming every day something more elitist, in my opinion, and having it in three different countries (he mentioned the world cup earlier in the article) makes it more difficult for fans to follow their nation. "We are losing a little bit of the essence of what football truly is and who are the people that actually make football, which is the people who follow us and watch us every weekend."
For all those wanting Corcoran as manager even after we’d appointed Farke, when you look at table, Do you still feel the same. They are a massive 14 points behind us by the way before our lunchtime kick off
I have virtually given up with leeds utd prices. Even let my membership go as i never got tickets. I went to the first game v Cardiff as one of our posters had a spare and always gives me first refusal. Today i will go to Athersley (north barnsley) to watch Wakefield AFC. Very cheap but it's more than that. No stupid stewards in the way and plenty of banter. You are close to the action and can connect with the players during and after the game. I often find myself checking Leeds score while attending non league. You should try your local club as it's fun and more down to earth.
Are football fans idiots ? Hell yes and they are also stupid as well because if they actually realised the collective power they possess then real change could happen regarding a whole range of issues that fans are deeply dissatisfied with.
That's not really a fair comparison. Leeds and Farke have one of the biggest budgets in the league. Maybe the biggest. We also had to navigate the rats leaving so not all easy. West Brom had to really trim down the squad as parachute payments dried up and FFP started to bite. Last summer they had 4 players brought in and a whopping 17 players out including key players to make some kind of profit. It's really hard to compare Farke and Corberan as the circumstances are hugely different. I'd say Farke had the easier summer and the money to work with. Neither had it easy tbh but I'd rather have parachute payments over FFP concerns. Both managers have done fantastically well and have been a huge success this season so far.
Yes, he's done fantastically well. If they don't go up I can see some lower level Premier League clubs interested this summer.
Looking at all the remaining fixtures, with their run in, I have them down as slight favourites atm. Mind before the Bristol result it eas Soton, lots of twists and turns to come. Things could be a little clearer, next Saturday night, they both play their games in hand midweek, games both should win, then we have by far the most difficult fixture of the 3 next weekend, if we're a couple of points off them at the end of that, then we are in with a very good chance. Clear as bloody mud this lark
