The sweet smell of newly mown grass is one of the pleasures of Football but nowadays it's the smell of used banknotes that often obliterates it. I love the game of football, since playing it as young boy through into early adulthood the only other game that came close for me was cricket. Nothing brings such a range of emotions at such a pace. In the space of one game you can experience everything from euphoria to a black depression, from triumph to despair in seconds. I still follow Spurs every week through the season and for the most part enjoy the games I see but I have to say that MONEY all to often rears it's ugly head and gets in the way. I support one of the richest teams in the world so I can hardly complain but it seem to have an ever growing influence on the game and most of the time it's not a good influence. From the extremes of Man City and Chelsea, to the governing bodies of EUFA, FIFA and the FA it's all about THE MONEY. Maybe I'd be happier supporting a team like Gillingham where the game is still King although teams like that will still have their money problems, but I've been a Spurs supporter too long now to change, it's in the blood. It all becomes worse in the close season of course when there is no football to remind you of why you love the game in the first place and once I get involved in watching a game I will forget all this money rubbish. Does it bother you? I suspect that some even enjoy the financial side of the game but equally there must be many of us who are sick to death of the MONEY and just want to smell the grass.
i'm with you. I absolutely HATE the money side. I hate the wanton (right word?) disregard but certain teams with regards to player "poaching". I hate the players, more accurately i hate that they will stab clubs in the back for an extra dollar when they already earn more in a year than most people do in their entire lives. I hate worrying that our best players will fall for the bits just mentioned. I hate the ticket prices all this causes. I hate that clubs are the playthings of the super rich and that some fans wish for their club to be the next one gobbled up. I often wonder whether i'd be better off dropping football altogether, but like you say i'm too far in as a Spurs fan. I'd rather not smell the grass though, allergies.
Yeah just Googled it and got Balliotelli also Yoan Gouffran and Vermaelen, not a great thing for a footballer.
Spurf, mate. If you really can't wait to smell the grass in summertime, may I suggest trying Glastonbury, or somewhere similar next year. That you give you more than adequate smell of grass!...
Money has always been main theme in football. City and Chelsea are just used as scapegoats for what has gone own for roughly 130 odd years in football.
Not to the extent that it dominates the modern game DL. The money in the past was LOCAL money and that's changed and then there is SKY. When I used to go and watch Dulwich Hamlet as a boy they had crowds of 15-16000 there for the love of their local football team. Money has changed that.
I think in general when money arrives there is a noticeable benefit. For example the increase in coverage quality when Sky arrived was noticeable and did improve the product. However money is never satisfied and brings out the worst in people to. And once the process starts, nobody will step off the bandwagon, even if it brings ultimate destruction of the product, which I think ultimately it will. There is no chance of my son taking his pocket money, meeting his school friends, getting the bus and then going to see Spurs at 3pm on a Saturday like I did. OK there will be some kids that get that sort of pocket money, but nobody I know! Basically the game is never going to be the same, and to a certain extent its a good thing. Skillful players won't get hacked down (even though it might be argued that protection has perhaps gone to far), and bananas won't get thrown on the pitch, but is that the benefits of more money, or society growing up? Money means that the 'top' teams will pay millions for the player someone else has developed and not develop their own. True this has always gone on, but now that player may not even ever play for the team that bought him! A team might now have 20 players on loan, and when they play in the same division (and I know Spurs have benefitted from this but I don't agree with it), it's almost like they are still agents of their parent club because they can play against everyone else but. And the local teams suffer because everyone only wants to support the successful teams (this may also have something to do with society becoming really selfish, but I won't go all poltical here). There is so much more, so much wrong with it all. And in the end I think it will kill the game.
Money has taken the passion out of football in my opinion. From £ity and £helsea to places like Wembley offering thousands of corporate seats at Finals to non-fans. Football is now more of a business than a Sport. The money has made clubs and their players so arrogant it disgraces me. It also affects players behaviour off the pitch by making them think they're untouchable and above the law. There are genuinely times I wished I was more of a rugby fan but my love for Spurs will never die... Even if the beautiful seems to be.
At least Jack Walker was a fan of Blackburn. Roman just bought any club that was going. Plus, he looks like a luck dragon (Falkor) which i dislike. Roman: Falkor:
I think you are more concerned with justifying being a Chelsea fan. We are talking about the game as whole. Local money for the local team from rich supporters is different to a Russian buying a club for refelcted glory.
I agree Spurf but one of the reasons I object to criticism of Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour is because people often fail to look at the big picture. Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour did not want to own a football club they wanted to own a Premier League Club. The Premier League and excessive Sky coverage is really what has killed football and love for the game. There is a fleeting interest in the Championship but no substantial interest in any league outside the Premier League. Sky wanted a consistent and marketable product and got that with Manchester United (hence why they tried to buy them out and had shares), this later expanded to Arsenal and Liverpool, and then to Chelsea. Sky effectively concentrated entire fanbases up and down the globe around 4 clubs to further increase their revenue streams and create an oligopoly. That's before we've even begun with the collusion with football clubs to rip off fans. The above has nothing to do with Abramovich and everything to do with Corp involvement in football. It's just a continuation of what goes on in society every single day re: privatisation.
