It may sound an odd question but hear me out. The reason I ask was that I was listening to 606 last night after the England game, foolishly some may say but I do enjoy shouting at the radio! Amongst all the nonsense spouted someone complained that the English style of football wasn't enjoyable to watch, this struck me as a silly thing to say seeing that I can't remember the last time I actually enjoyed a game where I care about the outcome i.e. England or Gillingham, I am usually too on edge and nervous to "enjoy" the football. I guess I watch and keep coming back out of some twisted sense of loyalty. Don't get me wrong I love the Gills with a passion but I just can't say I honestly enjoy watching them, the same goes for the national team.
Not much more enjoyable that watching England beat Germany 1 5 in Munich in 2001 I've actually enjoyed this Euros though maybe it's the lack of expectation. I didn't actually think we'd get a point, let alone make the Quarters, let alone top the group. Yes I enjoy watching football. The highs, the lows, the jubilation, the despair. Tell me anything else that can take you on such a journey in such a short space of time? I love every second of it!
i enjoy it when were winning and performing well, the atmospheres good and everythings rosey. however with gillingham its often a very stressful and therefore less enjoyable experience but part of supporting the team is being there through the ups and downs!!
Yeah you just have to wait for them good games to come around, it is tough watching England and Gillingham and I don't enjoy it all the time but it don't stop me watching them.
Even the 5-1 in Munich wasn't enjoyable for me as I was sure we were going to throw it away somehow... but maybe that is just me
I didn't realise that you're supposed to enjoy watching football ! <beengoingtoGillsfortoolong> but seriously I can even 'enjoy' a game in which my team loses ! - provided that they have tried, and where there has not been any cheating or poor decisions by officials - so I guess the answer is mainly in the negative. ( contrary to what our wives think )
I would say it is enjoyable, but perhaps not in the conventional sense! The lows are not enjoyable, but they only add to the happiness created by the highs. I guess the most enjoyable games in a way are the ones where you slightly favour one team... that way you can get behind them, but without the intense stress and nervousness associated with your team conceding/losing.
I get through the lows by the thought that there will always be one of the good days round the corner, really that is what life is like.
BSG, a very good topic, that because of that old word I use ‘traditionalist’ in me, there can sadly only be one answer. No. I sort have held back from the discussion until now, because it is one of those subjects like goal line technology that makes me grimace at what I see being done to the modern game. Football and the enjoyment of watching it is about the complete package. From the very first day of watching a real life game and taking my first steps in to the Town End, the excitement of standing there on the terraces and having to push your way to the front of the crowd just to get a glimpse of the pitch because everyone looked like giants around you. Ok, that was against West Ham in a packed house but when that roar went up of the crowd it sent such euphoria through your body that it would live with you forever. Looking back now, our ground was no more than a giant shed in sections with a nice green bit in the middle but guess what I miss every bit of it, because we have turned everything into a sterile place that has taken the game away from the ‘working classes’. Do not get me wrong it is a better more luxurious environment, certainly more suitable to my age. But what the youngsters are missing today can never be properly explained you would need to have been there and experienced it. The players were paid next to nothing, so much so it was not the luxury of four wheels that they would be travelling home on but using the same public transport system as you and me. They were 'real' people that were trying to make ends meet. Athletes, a word saved for those on a running track in those days. Bruising but generally not cheating. To roll around on the ground would have been saved for the likes of Dave Shipperley when the large centre back had cramp. Not for these pampered players today rolling over at the touch of a feather duster. Those were the days of Division Three football (League One), cannot lay claim to Division Four back then, just missing out on the promotion year, when Peterborough were champions. Anything was acceptable in those days, from smoking, pitch invasions, being crushed like sardines in the Rainham End in cup ties all leaving great memories. No health and safety, no yellow jacket brigade. I think the biggest change came about with the launch of SKY, which brought football to millions if not billions of armchair fans. Then on the horizon appeared millionaire’s row, in which the game then died for your average working class supporter that used to pay pence for an entrance fee and pence for a match day programme. Initially the concept seemed good, who would not want to see more football? There is no denying that football was in decline with its eroding stadiums, so something had to change. So in truth it kept the love of our game alive, I will not kid myself on that. Something was missing though? On the last home game of 2011/12, I felt my heart had been lost in the ground and why? Maybe the failure to gain promotion, not really though it was the constant high expectations echoing itself out to the fans from the club and one in my view the blame laid with PS, AH and probably (in my opinion) the Priestfield marketing department. Sell the product and the fans would buy in to it. Trouble is I do not need anyone to sell me a product I will love my club until the day I die. I did not expect new signings, I did not expect promotion, my only expectation was to survive. But that does not fit with the modern world and an age that has experienced Championship football. Ok, I will accept the plastic seat but otherwise just give me jumpers for goal posts. The younger generation might not understand what I mean, because they have been brought up where anything is acceptable to brain wash you in to buying a product in a want, want, must have environment. An age where the mobile phone has become clamped to people's ears every hour of the day. Whilst on the technical side and to save reinventing the wheel. I best described it like this earlier as a post in an article on the Southampton board... The modern decade call for goal line technology and yet traditionalists such as myself will call for no such change. Why does the modern world have to call for perfection, that very system that will destroy the freedom of rights and wrongs within our game and in turn our discussions. The 'offside' has demonstrated an elated flaw in that modern progress. However, that will not stop the purists and dictators. As the decades move forward, cameras will appear in that call but then they will disappear again just as quickly, when robots replace human players where reality meets the virtual world and our race walk away from stadiums as human clones who with the insertion of electronic chips will all sit, stand, eat, drink, smile, grimace and cheer all at exactly the right time to ensure the fairness of balance and probabilities. We already do I hear you say? Ssh, the government are watching. That is the invasive progress of modern technology where you do not even notice the changes around you. So for those that have not seen, like BSG I love my football with a passion but I do not enjoy it to the level of excitement I used too, or maybe it is just because I am getting old! So the package will recommence in the middle of August, pub, food, meeting friends and then come 3pm watching the team I love. Will I enjoy the match... Well maybe an idea for BSG, to set up a thread gathering a scoring system scale (say from 1-10) for fans individual enjoyment of each match and reasons why in the new season. (Hoadie, I said BSG!) Sorry I must now beat a hasty retreat it is time for my medication.
I was very worried about you - half way through your post - goodness knows what you'll be like on Sunday night after Italy beat England (keep the pills close )
Right so it's only me that actually enjoys watching games (win/lose or draw) then? My mum always said I was "special". In all seriousness though maybe I could explain a bit better. I work in a hospital and pretty much every day I see families effected by the serious condition their loved ones are in and on many days it's the recent loss of a loved one. Football, especially the Gills, is one of my escapes from that part of my life. Maybe it men's I don't take it as seriously as other people? I don't know. But after what I have seen it makes me all the more grateful for those things in my that I find genuinely pleasing. No I don't think football is life or death, and i'm pleased i don't as I possibly benefit from it.
Gemini - I feel your pain, you know me everything tinged with a psychotic sense of humour, slightly tongue in cheek and just reliving the changing decades. As you well know from your experiences, life is to short to conform for me. I've taken my medication now and I can reassure 'alwaysright' my mental state is more stable at least until Sunday.
I just love football, and for me the highs generally outweigh the lows. I can’t say i always enjoy it, Losing on penalties at Wembley was particularly painful at the time, but 1 year on, the joy of winning in extra time was just amazing. Whether supporting Gillingham or England you know that there will be ups and downs, I was at Wembley in 1996 when Gazza scored against Scotland and that was amazing, but how low have we all felt at all those failed penalty shoot outs in major competitions where more often than not we were the better side for 120 minutes, (Gills v City was much the same). Many matches are a roller coaster of emotions, in the end it’s all about the result, last minute goals that result in draws that seem like wins or defeats, watching your team play appalling for 80 mins and getting frustrated only for them to score twice in the last 10 minutes and you leave feeling fantastic. In the end we all want our team to win, and see them play entertaining football, but part of supporting a team and going to the match is the tension, and the frustration, but when its good, it’s fantastic and when it’s bad we still come back the next week some seasons more in hope than expectation. Lets hope that we get the right appointment in the next week or so and that we have a season of more highs than lows and the we are all celebrating and enjoying our football next season. But beware the despair of the penalty shoot out tomorrow night!
