Better than the good old days

I think English league football has progressively improved in my time following City (40 years).

The standard of football has improved immeasurably in that time. One only has to watch a game from 30 years ago to realise that. The amount of time players got on the ball in the old First Division back then is akin to what you'd get in League 1 today.

From time to time I miss the edginess of away games that you had in the 80's, but then I never got a kicking, so it's easier for me to be misty eyed about that than others I suspect!

It's too expensive to watch a game these days, but until supporters start voting with their feet, nothing is going to change in that regard, I'm afraid.

I think the Premier League this season is fucking brilliant. Most exciting league on the planet. Pure drama.

As to the OAP's father-in-law's attitude to modern football: long may he continue to be unhappy :-)
 
BillyShears said:
Glad I'm not the only one who's enjoying it!
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How can anyone say this is a 'shit' league? This season has been amazing. The skill levels might not be as high as Spain, but for pure entertainment it's been great, with teams taking points off each other all over the shop. Pre-Mansour, the Premier League had become dull, predictable and turgid - (a bit like united this season :-)) but now it's a fucking brilliant spectacle.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
How can anyone say this is a 'shit' league? This season has been amazing. The skill levels might not be as high as Spain, but for pure entertainment it's been great, with teams taking points off each other all over the shop. Pre-Mansour, the Premier League had become dull, predictable and turgid - a bit like united this season :-)
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Quite. I also think that the 'skill' level in Spain is overrated. Are mid table Spanish sides able to field players of the quality of Bojan, Arnautovich, and Shaqiri? What really sets the league apart this season is that so many sides have got pure match winners in their XI's. Means no matter how good you are, you can concede. Amazing league to witness.
 
taleofbluehalves said:
Not standing up for a pee in the Kippax 'loos' in the dark.
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The toilets at the North Stand of Maine Road. Little different from an open sewer! I lived and breathed the 'good old days' and let me tell yer they were shite compared to what we have now. Pissed wet through every other home game on the North Stand at MR. And the electronic 'everything' now - we had some FOC sticking HT scores into slots on a large scoreboard with letters of the alphabet. Yer had to have the grid or yer wouldn't know who was match B or C or D for that matter! Yer could work out that The Arse or Villa were A but yer couldn't be sure! There are those who live in the past and there are those who fondly remember the past and live in the present.
 
The premeir league was, though of high standards in danger of becomimg stale maybe 10 years ago, rags win arse win rags win arse win, same top four. the last 5-6 years though it has returned to the competiveness that (even though liverpool were dominant years of) the football league had, also 10 years ago any team below 7th played god awful football in an atempt to survive, but even that eems to be changing.

also luton are no where near the prem, cunts
 
BillyShears said:
Quite. I also think that the 'skill' level in Spain is overrated. Are mid table Spanish sides able to field players of the quality of Bojan, Arnautovich, and Shaqiri? What really sets the league apart this season is that so many sides have got pure match winners in their XI's. Means no matter how good you are, you can concede. Amazing league to witness.
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It's only set to continue as players and managers continue to 'follow the money'. When you think of the managerial possibilities next season you realise how dominant the Premier League will become. I expect a resurgence of a degree of European dominance for English teams within the next five years too.
 
gordondaviesmoustache said:
It's only set to continue as players and managers continue to 'follow the money'. When you think of the managerial possibilities next season you realise how dominant the Premier League will become. I expect a resurgence of a degree of European dominance within the next five years too.
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Yep. It's no coincidence that the chief executives of both the leagues and the individual clubs in Germany and Spain have been railing against the Premier League for the last 12/18 months. The money over here is sucking all the quality from their leagues and it's making it harder and harder for them to keep their best players.

People used to talk about a European Super League. There will come a time where the Premier League will be exactly that. The only thing missing is one of Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, or Suarez. A truly global footballing superstar. Bringing Pep to City will I expect remedy that situation.
 
Zubrman said:
Tv coverage. We used to get one match's highlights on MOTD on Saturday night and another on Granada on Sunday afternoon.
Oh, and the FA cup final.
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And the 'one match' was invariably Tottenham or MANUre! I remember once when someone had written to the BBC and complained that we were getting Tottenham all the time so that weekend they went somewhere else and we ended up with Manchester City 6 Tottenham 2 not being shown. They had just won some Euro comp and we pissed all over them. Neil Young and David Wagstaffe ran them ragged - and I think there isn't a second of celluloid of the great day!
 
BillyShears said:
Yep. It's no coincidence that the chief executives of both the leagues and the individual clubs in Germany and Spain have been railing against the Premier League for the last 12/18 months. The money over here is sucking all the quality from their leagues and it's making it harder and harder for them to keep their best players.

People used to talk about a European Super League. There will come a time where the Premier League will be exactly that. The only thing missing is one of Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, or Suarez. A truly global footballing superstar. Bringing Pep to City will I expect remedy that situation.
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The concept of a European Super League was put into an induced coma when the latest Sky deal was formed; not that I ever personally saw it as likely in any event.
 
BillyShears said:
The money over here is sucking all the quality from their leagues and it's making it harder and harder for them to keep their best players.
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A team like Bayern sucks in all the money in their own league in the same way MANUre did for season after season. Once the regime is challenged they accuse others of the same thing they've been doing for years.
 
Watch football gold when they show the derbies at the very beginning of the 90s, the standard of the football is horrific compared to what we see now. Being 11 at the time I thought that's how football should be played, the standard looked like it would be a conference game these days. Ball in the air most of the time, headless chicken hoofs up the field and some serious potential leg breakers of a 50/50 challenge by Lesley Hughes and Steve McMahon.

Yes football has been sanitised by all seater stadium but there was no way it could have stayed where it was in crumbling old stadiums and the trouble that used to go on.
 
Heysel, Hillsborough, Bradford, hooliganism, rickety old stadia, flair players having the shit kicked out of them, shit pitches, shit facilities, youngsters getting crushed on the way out, a poorer overall standard of football, matches called off when it's cold, teams getting a goal up and constantly passing back to the keeper, much poorer tv coverage. In fact, I'm struggling to think of anything that was better. Anyone?
 
When it interrupts all the diving and pretending to be injured, football is actually of a higher quality than it ever has been. Just watch any full games (difficult with no ESPN Classic these days) from decades gone by and the quality, even at World Cup Final level, is way WAY off where it is now.

The pitches are better.

It's safer than it used to be to go and watch.

That is all...everything else about the sport is worse. Or maybe I've worded that incorrectly; the sport should be better than it is from where some aspects of it have developed from.

As I've said, the diving and feigning injury, as the game has speeded up officiating isn't moving in at the same level, there's still no video ref, fouls are given for anything, you at yellow cards for things that are just fouls, there's no proper challenges anymore, it costs a fucking fortune, what used to be a coach load of lads aged 18-35 going home and away every week it's now just the odd few of us each home game and away games are a rarity, no offence to anybody them but crowds are full of old blokes women kids and geeks, the atmospheres are poor, over-sanitised, too family orientated, clubs are just interested in earning money they don't care about fans, Sunday games, Monday games, fans have never been more disjointed from players...this sport could be so much better than it is. It's a real shame what this sport has become compared to what it could be as it is a wonderful game spoilt by too many factors.
 
The internet, used to have to go and get the pink for my dad and that was that as close as it got to instant reports then.
I can watch any match from any league and go to a forum to chat about it in real time with supporters/fans from all walks of life.
 
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