i can see the interest in football tailing off. for the last 5 years we had an air of being impervious to the mess that football has become and having a chance of challenging to sneak into the top four. if we just capitulate now and are resigned to consolidating mid-table, we're only going to lose any world class players we may produce and eventually like every other mid-table club we'll eventually fall off the top flight again. there will be many people who can't maintain an interest in a sport with no chance of challenging for honours. eventually all that may be left is armchair big four fans, exactly how the business of footbal would like it.
Have enjoyed the last few years especially, but strangely enough I never supported Saints because we would go for the title and win cups. I'd have been deluded to do so. I hope we continue to do well, but giving up on Saints isn't an option.
A Saints fan will always care about Saints, and will feel the joy of success and the pain of failure - but we are definitely on a precipice, looking at one future far below our expectations, and the other up in the clouds. I want to see Icarus continue to fly, because there is no joy in falling.
i never supported saints for that either. interest in football as a competition in general however. i'm losing interest.
Honest question FLT . Why that response to PUCK ? Football is not everyones first love in sport . Everyone is free to post thoughts etc , if PUCK is losing interest , at least he is being honest , don't think comments like JOG On are called for . I like football but am getting a bit fed up with it ( again ) may be more inteseted or may not , still will post my opinion though .
Yeah possibly. We'll see how it goes. That doesn't mean I'm going to start supporting Man City or Chelsea but supporting Southampton is part of a wider interest in football and that interest tailed off in the mid-90s and re-kindled in the mid-to-late 2000s. Maybe it's about to tail off again. What I'm saying is that I may stop paying (as much) attention to football. It's not just a case of "We're not going to win anything so I'm off", it's a case of the current product (the Premier League) not appealing to me. The same thing has already happened with international football for me. For example, when England played Germany in 2010 I was playing cricket. We stopped our game and put the football on in the pavilion for everyone to watch. I stayed outside to read the paper because I had so little interest in the match. I'll be more interested this time round but that's mainly down to Rickie Lambert. Why may I lose interest? Well the finances of the Premier League and Champions League mean the top clubs are likely to remain much the same. Hell, it can be difficult to even pick favourite players these days because they're all so highly paid from such a young age that most of them are completely disconnected from the real world. As others have said it seems not to be possible to build a side to challenge the big clubs any more - once you get anywhere close they move in and pick off your brightest prospects. In some cases they're players like Lallana who've said how happy they are at Southampton and how they'd like to spend their entire career here which is fairly... depressing is the word I suppose? This means you're left with the same cartel at the top and I - like many others - find that pretty boring. I was hopeful Southampton were actually going to be a team that tried to change things. For a while, especially at the start of this season, that seemed possible but selling Shaw and Lallana may mean the dream has ended. It may not, we'll have to see whether that's the case, but what message do these sales and the talk coming from the boardroom send to the likes of Lovren, Schneiderlin, Clyne or Rodriguez? "So Morgan, you want to play in the Champions League? Well that's probably not gonna happen here I'm afraid but we'd like you to be part of our five year project to finish 7th. Hey, what are you...? Who are you phoning? Your agent? Bugger." As far as I'm concerned continuing to watch the Premier League and the Champions League helps maintain the current position (whether by attending games, subscribing to Sky or just watching MOTD or on ITV). As long as the viewing figures and attendances are high advertisers, sponsors and TV companies will continue pumping in big money which maintains the financial bubble around football and keeps the same clubs at the top of the table. The only way it will stop is if the public stops paying attention. I hope that will happen eventually and as I don't like the current position I don't want to help maintain it. Okay?
Completely agree . And Puck is NOT alone , a few football mad fans I know are getting sick and fed up of all the money killing the sport .
Puck, fair enough and thanks for explaining; I think you can understand my original post as it did sound like you were ditching your club. However, I love watching football and in particular Saints so no matter what happens, I get great enjoyment from the sport. I can't change what happens in the big picture and I am certainly not going to cut my nose off to attempt to change the whole game. It's a sport I enjoy and will continue to; it's just such a huge part of who I am, that I couldn't just up and go from it. The most disillusioned I ever became was when Saints nearly went under for good, but even then I was making provisions for where I'd get my football fix next. Some people like the game more than others; nothing wrong with that.
He's since explained it and I have responded. I took his original post as a ditching the club as we might not be as successful as he'd hoped. I really don't see that as being a true fan, just someone who likes football and likes a team. He has since explained fully his view and that is fair enough and as I said and you have said above, football isn't everyone's first love in sport. I don't think I'm that wrong to think most people posting on a football forum have more than a passing interest in football though.
I have to say that Puck is entirely right and I posted something similar on another thread the other week. Like Puck my interest drifted away in the mid nineties. I still supported Southampton but started to lose interest in football as a sport because it just became boring and teams changed far too often, players moving upward all the time whereas it used to be like Saints have been with most clubs having virtually the same squads year on year with a few additions. My interest was rekindled in the days between administration being announced and the real threat of liquidation being announced. The next 5 years I regained my interest but probably more because the 'romance' had been restored to some degree but Like Puck, I can see the situation returning to that nineties feeling of 'Whats the Point of this charade'. The main cause for me will not Shaw going or Poch leaving if they do. It will be solely Adam leaving if it happens because of what he has said this season. Saying you want to retire at the club if they allow him to and then leaving for a 'better option' in the same 9 months will break the trust for many that believed he was being genuine in his loyalty to Saints. That words mean nothing and that all footballers are mercenaries. Will still support Saints, Will probably still watch most games, might end up just checking results? Who knows but that's not ditching your team, or turning your back on them. It's just a case of falling out of love with football for a while (or longer, if it turns into a 1996 -2009 scenario again.) So I hear you Puck and don't judge you because you lose interest in the way the charade of competition football works.
Pucks view is not entirely right. It entirely agrees with your view. It is a fair view, but there is no right or wrong view on that.
I don't recall saying I don't believe it's true or that it won't happen, just that as much as anyone can say it's a done deal, nothing concrete has been put on a reputable website, the ****ty rags have been changing their story to suit their moods and I have no need to believe anything until confirmed to be true. I'm not saying I don't enjoy the speculation, in fact I look forward to things you, DTLW and others say about players but at that point it is gossip to me. It just annoys me when people say it's a done deal(not including you in this as you never said it's a done deal) when there are many factors that could change a players mind one way or another. A done deal is when there is nothing more to do with the transfer/contract negotiations!
