This is exactly how I feel - although a little younger than you.After the events of last week I've never felt as detached from the game I've loved all my life as I do today. Money has spoilt football beyond recognition, I don't get the buzz I used to. And I know it's a well worn phrase but I loved us more when we was shit, it felt like if I shouted a bit louder or sang my heart out we'd do alright. It was never the case obviously but there was a connection between fans and team.
Nowadays 9 times out of 10 the atmosphere is flat, very rarely is it bouncing. That's what happens when you become successful, and it doesn't always apply to us, it's happened at other clubs. I first noticed when keegan took over and we won the league, the team was performing and it didn't need us to sing and get them going.
The refereeing decisions last weekend , not just in our match but others, has proven that refs go into a match with instructions from the fa. As simple as that. How can a professional in his profession get straightforward decisions completely wrong and not see the real event? It's blatant cheating. It's not even disguised anymore, refs don't feel any shame about getting obvious decisions wrong.
Personally a part of me died when we won the league, all the money spent, beer drunk, miles travelled and songs sung over 35 odd years of supporting city had gone towards that day v QPR. It was job done. What other feeling could top that. I didn't feel like that after winning the fa cup, I was hungry for more. But winning the league defo put me into semi retirement and I find it hard to get the proper buzz as I did back then.
Football has slipped down to 3rd in my preferred interests/hobbies/passions, for want of better terminology, so yeah I'd say I feel similar. It's become quite shit and I don't miss going to the games at all after giving up my season ticket this season. The extra grand or so per year is really handy!!
Travel and PhotographyWhat are your first two passions trev?
Travel and Photography
And they aren't cheap interests!! So giving up my season ticket was a no-brainer.
Keep up Gaz, as a result of the dossier Walton retired and fu\*ked off to America and Mason was taken off our games of the rest of that seasonWhat do you mean about the attempts to stop us in the title winning season ? I've never heard anything along those lines, nor about the club hiring investigators - what was that all about ?
The one area I've happily said I can throw some expertise at is ped use.
I won't go into specifics but I played American football at a pretty decent level and coached at a much higher one. High enough to know SuperBowl winners and be flown to the US to talk to some of their top coaches in both the college game and pros. Ironically a major reason I walked from the sport was I was very close to Penn State coaches when the whole child abuse/Sandusky thing started...but that's another story.
With regard to PED's it's blatant. The fact that no one is failing tests tells you all you need to know. Take a look at the top 50 players in the sport and it's very blatant if you know what you are looking at. UEFA are more than happy to have their show ponies playing on this stuff.
Here's some food for thought. If even 5% of what these lads claim is true, the sport is fucked.
http://footballisfixed.blogspot.ie/2016/12/jose-mourinho-versus-mr-small-and.html?m=1