Do we want Premier League football as fans?

[pork pie fox]

Not literally, of course. Unless you did something very wrong.

Where have I gone wrong here Boc?

 

[bocadillo]

Where have I gone wrong here Boc?

eeerrr... nowhere. It's me. I was confusing the game in question with the 5-2 game at Filbo.

I'm just off to kill myself.

 

[Mawsley]

I can't understand why you'd think that way?

I do.

I love going to grounds with sheds, where small groups of miserable fans huddle in pubs and on rain-soaked terraces. Grounds where individuals cite team sheets from forty years ago to the knowing nods of a literate entourage and then an argument ensues about the impact Howard Kettleborough would have on the current team were he forty years younger. Where players every shout can be heard and the crowd kicks every ball in an effort to overcome the combined might of a team like AFC Racing Chelveston. Where matches are played by community teams without international imports, daft pricing and goal music.

I'm even boring me now. I'll shut up.

 

[Kingy_85]

Picture this:

Beaumont Leys Tesco on a Sunday afternoon. Its swarming with cretins and last minute BBQ hunters. The weather is baking outside and the sunlight drifts in through the skylight of the open plan mall. Im hungry and I dont want to be here. I reach into the freezer for the biggest most delicious looking cheesecake I can find, the cold breeze of the chiller soothes my clammy skin. Tesco Finest £4, I almost took a giant frozen bite right there and then. Suddenly the desert is snatched from my claws and thrown back into the big freeze. My missus decides that "this doesnt taste any different from the Tesco Value version and its £3 cheaper!" The blue stripes against the white box emerge and to my disgust it makes its way into our trolley...

...And so for my Sunday afternoon treat I had to endure a crappy tasting, tacky biscuit base, additive full, powdered milk cream Cheese Cake which hurts my stomach and ,more importantly, hurts my pride.

 

[Matt_B]

I do.

I love going to grounds with sheds, where small groups of miserable fans huddle in pubs and on rain-soaked terraces. Grounds where individuals cite team sheets from forty years ago to the knowing nods of a literate entourage and then an argument ensues about the impact Howard Kettleborough would have on the current team were he forty years younger. Where players every shout can be heard and the crowd kicks every ball in an effort to overcome the combined might of a team like AFC Racing Chelveston. Where matches are played by community teams without international imports, daft pricing and goal music.

I'm even boring me now. I'll shut up.

Woosh! :icon_lol: The poster I quoted was being sarcastic, I decided to turn my sarcasm meter off and respond as though he was serious.

 

[fitz]

I remember the day well. Driving back from Sunderland to hear that Arsenal beating Man U had put us top of the league. Top weekend away.

I had free tickets in the Sunderland end for that one, still cheered us being top though.

I also got punched on the way home, such great days.

 

[Hazzman]

I do.

I love going to grounds with sheds, where small groups of miserable fans huddle in pubs and on rain-soaked terraces. Grounds where individuals cite team sheets from forty years ago to the knowing nods of a literate entourage and then an argument ensues about the impact Howard Kettleborough would have on the current team were he forty years younger. Where players every shout can be heard and the crowd kicks every ball in an effort to overcome the combined might of a team like AFC Racing Chelveston. Where matches are played by community teams without international imports, daft pricing and goal music.

I'm even boring me now. I'll shut up.

Can you please tell me what level of football this exists at these days?

I've done a fair few grounds neutrally in a bid to the 92 recently and the only place I felt was old-fashioned was Accy Stanley. This was largely down to the ground being took behind a pub and it being a right ramshack of a ground. The young kids there were more interested in an ultra scene there had built up as opposed to abusing the away fans and all the local doughnuts followed Blackburn or Man United. Add to this a real collective over the past three years to keep the club going and having to concentrate any signings from the restricted pool of the manager's knowledge (scousers).

Even SKY get you down there too....Accrington Stanley's biggest games in recent times were stuck on a Sunday evening and Friday evening recently.

Non-league has plenty of fiends and dodgy owners floating about it too. Crawley Town, Fleetwood Town, Truro City, Croydon Athletic, Rushden & Diamonds, Wrexham, Chester City, Kettering Town, Ilkeston Town, Eastwood Town. All off the top of my head clubs which have either suffered some moneybags of an owner who doesn't care about the debt being unsustainable in the future or board full of horrible bastards who want to asset-strip you leaving you with no ground and no money when re-building from the Vodkat Leagues.

Football's a bastard top to bottom.

 

[Miles Away]

While I agree that modern football finances are built on shifting sands and s

 

[Mawsley]

...the only place I felt was old-fashioned was Accy Stanley.

Really? That's not my experience at all. The lower tiers and the non-league are steeped in places oozing history.

I'm not debating this whole thing though, I'm fully aware that the likes of me and Bob are nothing more than anachronisms in the modern game. If people don't share my feelings then that's fair enough - you are all free to have your own opinions and be wrong. :icon_bigg:icon_cool

 

[Chuck T Masala]

I know most will say what a stupid question, but I was thinking about it this morning and wrote the following blog post. Seeing as most won't read it, I wondered what people thought on here. I can't really see many big upsides to playing in the Premier League when you break it down:

http://www.mattbeighton.co.uk/2011/05/31/why-would-fans-want-premier-league-football/



Thoughts?

Some interesting thoughts, but I'm not sure it follows that just because a stupendously good Barca side beat Man Utd last week that all the best players are in Spain. Many are at Barca & Real Madrid perhaps but not sure many of the other sides have the worlds best players?

Although Football has long since lost its place as the game of the working class and has become another celebrity stream. Many of us still have a passion for our hometown team and for me that must include ambition tp play at the top level and hopefully, as in our seasons with MON, competing with and occsionally upsetting the top teams. Where the incentive to win otherwise?

 

[Profondo Rosso]

Some interesting thoughts, but I'm not sure it follows that just because a stupendously good Barca side beat Man Utd last week that all the best players are in Spain. Many are at Barca & Real Madrid perhaps but not sure many of the other sides have the worlds best players?

Who exactly in the Premier League would you consider to be among the world's best players though? Rooney, probably. Vidic, maybe. Can't think of anyone else really.

 

[pork pie fox]

eeerrr... nowhere. It's me. I was confusing the game in question with the 5-2 game at Filbo.

I'm just off to kill myself.

Thank feck for that, I thought I'd imagined the whole thing for a bit there

 

[Hazzman]

Really? That's not my experience at all. The lower tiers and the non-league are steeped in places oozing history.

Most of these places though are being knocked down and replaced with out of town warehouses with a football pitch in the middle and a conference centre built on the side.

 

[Mawsley]

Most of these places though are being knocked down and replaced with out of town warehouses with a football pitch in the middle and a conference centre built on the side.

My doctorate was 'The History of Football Stadium Conference Centres".

I did a Masters in "Warehousing Provision in Central England and Wales".

I ****ing love a good out of town warehouse with a football pitch in the middle and a conference centre built on the side.

 

[drummindefender]

Just out of interest: - In Peter Taylor's first season, after 8 games we were top of the Premier division. I know of people that had the page from the Sports Mercury framed and on their office wall. Still there today.
Anyone else still got the cutout?

My dad has in his office!

 

[drummindefender]

and the best thing about it is that Derby are bottom

 

[Chuck T Masala]

Who exactly in the Premier League would you consider to be among the world's best players though? Rooney, probably. Vidic, maybe. Can't think of anyone else really.

Did'nt say that there were many in the Premier League, just that they are not all in La Liga.

 

[Miles Away]

While I agree that modern football finances are built on shifting sands and s

Ahh bollocks, now I can't be bothered to finish my train of thought...a relief to many I'd imagine.

 

[Mawsley]

Ahh bollocks, now I can't be bothered to finish my train of thought...a relief to many I'd imagine.

I apologise for the narcoleptic-inducing nature of my posts in this thread

 

[Miles Away]

I apologise for the narcoleptic-inducing nature of my posts in this thread

Ha! I actually agree with you in some ways, particularly the money side of the game. That said, I enjoy the strides the sport has made in becoming more modern and global because it has allowed me the opportunity to watch even from the states. The further up the tables city go, the more I'll be able to see them play...so I obviously want them to do well and am delighted the prem is as "big" as it is now.