I have to say I no longer do. I was watching the Man City game last night and there was one British player on the pitch and it got me thinking back to being a little boy listening to Liverpool v St Etienne, which turned out to be a classic football match. I had no affinity to Liverpool, but this was a English team, full of only British players against a foreign side and I was beside myself with excitement (admittedly as a little boy jumping on his bed in his pjs). I turned on the Arsenal match and there are 7 German players and half of them play for Arsenal- football at this level has just become a play station game, only played out by very rich little boys with their special players that they buy as toys. It then got me thinking about our team and I was excited at the influx of overseas players, but now I am beginning to feel more and more disconnected from the team and players. it was only a short while ago we fielded a complete English team, no more (note, I'm not being xenophobic, just reminiscing). It is just me?
So it becomes a cerebral event rather than evoking passion, I would have wanted mancity and arsenal to win 20 years ago but they no longer seem like British teams- the managers and players seem interchangeable - leaves me cold but still entertaining as a spectacle.
I suppose, but only Norwich and sometime England evoke passion in me, but I'll watch mod tot the PL games that are broadcast because I enjoy watching football.
Assuming you have been watching the Arsenal match, longsight, I would say that you might want to factor in that both CL matches were profoundly boring. Not bad per se, but really very boring
It's an interesting one isn't it. I personally find the Euro Championships pretty tedious, but still at the grand old age of 43 get genuinely excited about the World Cup because there are teams you don't see often and somehow the whole atmosphere is quite remarkable. The Champions League is probably the highest standard of football in the world, but can also be quite dull as a spectacle. Am I really bothered about whether an English team wins it? No, not really. Would I watch the final? Perhaps, depending on who is playing. I actually enjoyed watching last year's final, but if say Chelsea and AC Milan were this year's final two I would probably give it a miss. The nationality thing is certainly a massive change in the game over the last 20 years. I think part of the reason we are so excited by the youth team's success is because we can see a way forward with many home grown players in the first team as opposed to the current trend towards foreigners. I have to say I think I would prefer there to be a significant reduction in the number of foreign players allowed per club, but it seems unlikely to ever happen.
Have to say I'm not interested anymore. I'm sure Barcelona are still good, but I couldn't watch that every week, and I'm not enticed into egging on an 'English' team with no English players in it. I'm somewhat older than 'the grand old age of 43' and remember really wanting English teams to do well in the European cup. Hell, I even supported Scotland in '78 in the world cup in the days before internet forums suggested we should hate each other. Things have changed and that's no lie.
I didn't take any interest in football as a kid.When I was very young I was aware that something special was going on in the local area with people having dyed green and yellow hair.It was all about something called "The Cup" but as I was six that was all I really knew. When I went to college some mates said that they were going to "The Football" at Ipswich,did I want to go?It was ok.They played Manchester with George Best and Bobby Charlton.Then they said it's "The Derby" at Norwich.When the teams ran out on the pitch I just wanted the side in the green and yellow to win.It was a sort of magic in a way. Then these two odd characters took an unknown second division side, Derby County to the First Division Title beating the mighty Leeds United and Liverpool.Special. Liverpool had a gravelly voiced wizened old Scotsman who said football was more important that life and death.Special. The next World Cup England were knocked out by Poland "The goalkeeper is a clown young man" So I supported Holland.Now that was special,even though they lost. Those two odd characters took another run down side,Nottingham Forest and beat all comers to win the European Cup Along the way one of them gave us best football quotes ever.Very special A crooked media baron bought football lock stock and barrel to make money by putting it on the telly and some other crooked billionaires bought some teams and spent a billion pounds on them....And they were nothing special....
Rob Rensenbrink's shot coming back off the post when it would have won the cup was the worst moment.But yes that Gemmill goal was special.
I do agree RBF. I used to want English clubs to do well but now they are stuffed with European journeymen and managed by non-English (or British) managers and so the interest and passion has reduced markedly. MOTD has killed my interest in the broader PL as the coverage is just snippets of the games, there is no flow as in the olden days when they would cover just one match. It is just largely the goals from 5 different angles and endless punditry by idiots. The game has been lost now.
I'll be honest I didn't even check the Arsenal game until this morning, I did watch the Man City game the other night though. I think it's a case of football overload, there's just too much of it on the box nowadays and it has become diluted. Go back before the Premier League era and you'd have half a dozen or so "big games" a season, with the FA Cup Final as the pinnacle of these. Now in the days of Champions League and the Sky Super Sundays and all that there are "big games" being chucked in our face thick and fast, and whilst this could be seen as a good thing I am personally getting a bit bored of it all.
yep pretty bored of it too, i don't watch any of the league-stage games, i might watch a bit from the quarters onwards. it's so far away from the level that norwich are at. sometimes you get a really good game but often they cancel each other out to the point of boredom JPT trophy anyone?
You mean you can't have a passion for football that isn't either based on narrow nationalism or the tribal affiliations of a fan? Sorry Longsight, that's absolute nonsense. It's like saying you can't have a passion for music unless the artists are home-grown or a local band. Does a passion for ballet have to be put on hold when the Bolshoi perform at Covent Garden; does a passion for theatre require you to watch only English playwrights? You aren't talking about passion. You are talking about an emotionalism involving a rather limited and frequently nasty range of feelings and attitudes.
My in-laws are all Posh fans, and I've kind of adopted them as my second team over the years and I think I might be off to Wembley to cheer them on in the JPT final against the mighty Chesterfield!
Thanks for telling me what passions I feel and that my views are nonsense. it's about feeling connected and when I couldn't give a **** who wins, then I react with less passion. I feel quite passionately that your rather banal pedantry, and probably deliberate misreading of quickly typed thoughts is a huge pain in the arse
I've obviously been under a misapprehension that football fans actually have a passion for football. You've brought home to me that the vast majority of them don't. Shame, because it's a wonderful game.
Nicely played, if there was an award for deliberate misunderstanding, well there would only be one winnner
