I have to say I'm not fed up with football right now. If anything it's the opposite, and thanks to Napoli I haven't watched Juve play in over two weeks so I'm football-starved. Probably it's also our current predicament (new and totally inexperienced coach, new young players) that gives me so much curiosity for our games.
What's disheartening of course is the view of the nearly-empty stands, that obviously brings down the atmosphere, and the problems that clubs have with managing infected players.
I must say that thanks to what Napoli did the Sunday before last, which is not resolved yet, I'm really fed up with some figureheads of the Serie A and Italian sports journalism in general. If you don't know what happened, all the better for you.
Now I'm going to quote a bunch. Let me just clarify that your personal feelings are your own and I can't expect to understand them. I may feel differently but I obviously respect them.
I miss the days when the players genuinely wanted to play for the shirt rather than just going to the highest bidding club.. I guess Foden might be an exception but there was a time when it felt like we had half a dozen foden’s in the squad. I think I’d honestly trade the success for something a bit more authentic.
Well I think there's a correlation between a team's table standings and the kind of players they have in their squad. There may be one or two club-trained talents that make it to the first team and become legends, but as for the rest, if you're the best team you're going to get the best. No matter what team they cheered for when they were little and which clubs they played for the past few years.
Your last sentence about trading success for authenticity reiterates this concept. I can't say I blame you, it's an honest wish. I personally would never hope for such a trade-off at Juve, but we're different fanbases with different experiences.
I know what you mean, for sure. Maybe it’s also an age thing? Be interested if as many supporters in their 20s feel the same way. They probably don’t reminisce for the ‘good old days’ like some of us less young fans sometimes do.
I'm in my (early) 20s! Can't talk about the good ol' days but I think your growing disinterest is also an "attrition" thing, accumulating the same repeated football pains and situations for years does abate your love for it.
Phew, thankfully we're here to talk about baseball.
What pisses me off is that the games as bent as a nine bob note.
The referees are very obviously bent. VAR, which is a great idea in principle as it could have been an effective tool to straighten out some of the bent referees, is controlled by the same bent bung takers that control the referees.
The football associations are controlled by self serving gangsters who sell our sport to the highest bidders to line their pockets.
And, on the subject of pockets. Most of the football media is in the pocket of a handful of clubs.
I hate the way that agents are allowed to control, as example, a number of goalkeepers from a variety of clubs - little wonder so many can’t help throwing the ball into their own net in the final minutes of games when the points really matter.
The football itself would be fine were it not for the very obvious cheating.
I love City but the more I learn the less I like the game.
When things get a bit more normal, I might start following a bit of local non-league so that I can at least see some honest endeavour from 22 players and the officials for a change.
Sad that it’s come to this but at least I had my fun out of it before the gambling side exploded and it became all about the money.
If you think that, you should have quit a loooong time ago mate. Recriminations with referees and making up excuses for the team's losses go way back with football fans. As for the media, once you're on a winning streak and you're a powerful club, most of them are gonna be against you.
Eh, I may be spoiled by knowing that the vast majority of the juventini kept watching football even after Calciopoli happened to us. Maybe it's precisely because I know they could fuck us over much more directly and surely if they wanted, that I'm not inclined to give any attention to the usual tin foil hat conspiracies about bent referees and games.
