If anyone gets into the stadium early enough you will see where the game is going, the amount of people pitch side getting pictures taken was unbelievable, honestly some should have been arrested for pitch invasion. It's not about the game anymore it's like the opening night of a new bar, people are doing it just to say they were there. There must have been 50 corporates getting pictures taken, how players prepare mentally for these games is beyond me get all fired up and then can you take a picture with some kids who have won a competition!!
The game has become so sanitised I honestly think if the players walked around for 90 mins most of them couldn't care less as long as they got their photo and 5 course meal.
Exactly. The very expression "The premiership product" as used by Scudamore and the other business leaders underpins the sterile feeling i get from top class football now,and another posters remark about games being played out over the course of three days,thereby giving the impression there isnt a league ..that is how it feels...which of course is completey wrong.Then there is the great disparity in the way games are being reffed ,the strange influence of pigmol or whatever they are called,the souless,atmosphere less new stadiums,the incredible influence of gambling on all levels ....The fact that a gambling company own a premiership club,i ,mean ffs! The live tv expert pundits are all tierd cynical ex players of teams in red...no one wants to listen to them anymore..even little things like being a mascot for the day at a premiership club is no longer special...now half the local school csn be mascots on the same day...whats the fun in that (i see the business acumen) but where is the fun,the one -off event...The silly kick off times..camt remember the last sunday lunchtime game which was any good....The over-zealous security staff..saw the Showsec coach taking its staff home an hour after ths match Thursday night....just exactly where are these gangsters bused in from? All seater stadiums with limited sterile chanting....folk wearing their best clothes to the match,players with designer haircuts and clearly more obsessed with their appearance than putting in the effort....the list seems endless.The entertainment element suffers greatly if there is a feeling that the whole show is being 'massaged' or 'manipulated'! Either effect would go some way to explaining why MCFC seem to make little headway off the pitch!
The issue for me is that the games are played over so many days. I remember years gone by when half time scores were read out, it got people up for the second half depending on if results were for/against
Now, it doesn't seem that there is even a league going on. Just lots of individual games played between Saturday lunchtime and Monday night
It doesn't help your expectations are higher now you've had some league titles. If you had just got Mancini and the monster signings now you'd be loving it. As a Spurs fan I'm loving this season and the most excitement I've had in years. Other football doesn't interest me though as it used to. It's a sign of getting older I reckon
Make sure you stick around,start a Sunderland thread so we can follow you @Stockport mackemI think the money explosion issue has reduced the entertainment....
Take my team for example...
75% of the time, we didn't try to win...we tried not to lose.
Season tickets don't need to be sold anymore, such is the revenue from tv.
It is so important to be in the Premiership for the money....that preventing the opposition winning has suddenly became as important as winning (to some). ..not just the teams at the bottom...look at the Rags the other night...just trying not to lose.
I don't even think Chelsea are that entertaining.
It's got progressively worse...
From diving, to players looking like they've been taken out by a sniper.
The surrounding of the ref (a Rags pastime) is as bad as ever...I'd send the lot of the fuckers off...then see what would happen.
Until cheating is cut out, this won't get better.
And then we come to the ridiculous media bias....which isn't even hidden any more....sigh....
Maybe the championship is better...I will let you know :-)