It smelt of piss.The old Wembley was a fucking dump.
Think some memories are a bit hazy on here.
It smelt of piss.The old Wembley was a fucking dump.
Think some memories are a bit hazy on here.
They probably aren’t ever scrambling for the last train home and having to Uber their way back home from Piccadilly, or checking their finances to see whether they can afford a hotel for the night.Hopefully the team and club never get "Wembley out".
That might have been me...It smelt of piss.
Yes, but they can be linked. I know of quite a few City fans who went to Istanbul but aren't even close to paying it off yet. They couldn't afford it but stuck it on plastic because they couldn't live with the thought of missing out. The same applies here - to what extent are people with little disposable income willing to push the boat out for an FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea? Wembley fatigue does form part of the consideration when people are having to make difficult choices about how to spend money. Unlike a CL final, many won't push the boat out this time because they've been there, seen it and done it several times. Both things can form part of an overall consideration and aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.Can't afford it and being (to use the term) Wembley out are separate reasons I would say.
The last bit is the worst bit for me.Bar the additional cost at this time of the season, and the faffing about with traveling, delays, etc, it’s the match day experience at Wembley. If people think the match day experience is bad at the Etihad, it’s even worse at Wembley.
OK, my points may be petty, especially as it’s about watching City at Wembley, but I really detest Wembley, and how fans are managed inside the the stadium.(by the FA) Escalator stewards, stewards walking around the concourses in large groups, why?, the service, the beer quality, the prices, announcements to tell you to get to your seat for kick off, like an announcement you get in an airport for your flight, getting to your seat and finding a little plastic flag placed there for you to be wave, pre-match entertainment, high wire acts, things going on the pitch which I’ve got absolutely no interest in, digital displays of clapping hands on the scoreboards, really annoying music like rocking all over the world being blasted out of the speakers, the national anthem sang by an opera singer drowning the fans out, and just the plasticness of the whole time inside Wembley.
Then you get to the trophy presentation that takes ages, and Instead of letting the fans celebrate vocally with the players, fucking shite music like we are the champions, etc, is pumped out that loud you can’t hear the fans singing. In the end every body gives up singing and just stands there talking and looking at the players on the pitch with the trophy before drifting away for a 3 to 4 hour journey home.
Nevertheless, I’d lean towards 3pm for the rags and 5.30pm for Coventry should we get there.It's a painful experience not helped by shit kick off times and hardly any decent public transport back. If we reach the final we have no idea what time the ko will be. ITV is fucked as they will be showing the rugby union's Champions Cup final which starts at 2.45 and probably won't want that on ITV2 or 4 or even clashing with the FA Cup final so no doubt the final will be at the mercy of the broadcasters again regardless of the fans.
This actually forms part of a larger discussion about just how contrived trophy presentations have become. The old FA Cup lifts felt natural and spontaneous. Nowadays, it's rent-a-podium with fireworks and token jumping around on the balls of your feet when the trophy gets handed over by a suit. One image I have in my head is when we won the League Cup in 1976 and Newcastle fans warmly applauded our boys as we came down the steps with the trophy and celebrated on the pitch. It had a feeling of warmth.The last bit is the worst bit for me.
The PA system being 125 decibels and pumping out generic Euro dance music is dreadful and generic. It’s the same whoever wins.
Its cool to say that you are Wembleyed out or enjoyed the Stuart Pearce days more lads, even cooler if you pretend not to enjoy any games at all.
If anyone else wants to be as cool as me, from now on I'm not gonna bother taking my seat to watch the game, just gonna stand in the concourse all game instead, obviously just stopping going and not saying owt would be the normal thing to do, but I wouldn't get attention then.
Won't be watching them on TV either as thats also cool.
Might look up the results on Ceefax though
The last bit is the worst bit for me.
The PA system being 125 decibels and pumping out generic Euro dance music is dreadful and generic. It’s the same whoever wins.