Changes to football over the years good and bad

[Digweeds Trousers]

Been thinking about the whole rivalry thing with Palace - it made me think the changes to our beautiful game have been significant.

Some bad - some good.

Barring the obvious terracing example what do you all miss about football in general - and what changes (if any) do you think have made the game better?

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Been thinking about the whole rivalry thing with Palace - it made me think the changes to our beautiful game have been significant.

Some bad - some good.

Barring the obvious terracing example what do you all miss about football in general - and what changes (if any) do you think have made the game better?

SKY TV end off footy as we know it, get people to stay indoors to watch it while the clubs charge high prices to get into the stadiums to watch it ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR?

 

[ali jenkins]

The influx of forigners, in the top two leagues atleast, has made it more pleasing to watch for the spetator.

T.V has also had a good and bad effect on the game. On the plus side, it is taking football into the homes, so people who would only see one or two games a season can now watch 5/6 games a week, plus highlights of nearly every game in the professional leagues.
The downside is obviously the money that has come into the game, as we have seen in the last couple of days with the premier league wanting to play games in other countries, the fans are being forgotten and its more about which company will pay the most money rather than how many fans can get in to watch a game.

Having only been following football in the tely era I cant comment of which is a better time to be a football fan, but if things carry on the way they are, how long will it be before its £50 to watch Brighton at home in New York in a BSkyB Tesco super cup game against Morcombe??

 

[Mendoza]

I personally think that Arsene Wenger single handidly changed the English game for the good.

Before he came to England, most footballers, the Arsenal team in particular were a bunch of old school drinkers, getting pissed in the run up to games, eating what they want and training wasnt too serious

Then Wenger arrived, cut out alcohol, introduced diets and turned it into more of a science than a sport.

He also made teams keep the ball on the floor, and none of this hoofing nonsense.

But then again, he phased out all the brits from the team, and contributed to too many foreigners in the premiership

 

[Monkster]

Getting rid of the backpass was genius

 

[Lord Bracknell]

I miss the days when shoulder barging a goalkeeper was allowed.

Did people watch the Bobby Charlton programme on BBC4 the other night? Bolton Wanderers' winning goal in the 1958 FA Cup final was a classic example. Nat Lofthouse simply thumped the goalkeeper over the goal line. The fact that Harry Gregg had the ball in both hands at the time made no difference. Nor did it matter that Gregg needed treatment on the pitch for the injury he sustained in the incident.

GOAL !

Marvellous scenes of football as it used to be.

 

[Titanic]

I did see that LB, it made me chuckle... but how on earth was that allowed ?

 

[Titanic]

I think centrebacks would say the introduction of plastic coated balls without laces and half a ton of mud attached to them was probably the single most welcome improvement in football last century.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

It wasn't just allowed. It was a skill that was practised.

I was TAUGHT how to shoulder barge goalkeepers when I was at primary school.

... by an Irish nun, who took our training sessions.


And that's another thing that's missing from modern football.

 

[Monkster]

Colour was also quite good

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

Only one sub made it far more interesting!

 

[Titanic]

Playing on grass in January, February and March.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

Only one sub made it far more interesting!

No subs made it even more interesting.

Players staggering along the wing, suffering concussion, because they were HARD enough to take the sort of clattering that these days would put them out of the game for weeks.

 

[TWOCHOICEStom]

No subs made it even more interesting.

Players staggering along the wing, suffering concussion, because they were HARD enough to take the sort of clattering that these days would put them out of the game for weeks.

Very true! In fact, player should START a game injured. No, they MUST be injured in order to play!

I think we're onto something here..

 

[Digweeds Trousers]

oohh- i like that - We would have been mustard a few years back - Kitson would be a millionaire, Nicky Bissett would have been club captain for 20 years.

That's another thing we should have - 4 outfield players in the team MUST be over the age of 45.

That would be quality to watch

 

[MOG]

The changes to the Offside Law annoy me. Does anyone (other than referees hopefully) fully understand the Law as it is now.

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

The end of wooden rattles. Not since the Albion beat Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge in the Charity Shield final of 1912 have I had a chance to use my rattle. I was even pictured on the front of the Illustrated London News (or was it the Daily Sketch? my memory's not what it was) waving my rattle in the crowd, and the headline 'Rattle Man Wins The Cup for Brighton' knocked the Titanic sinking off the front page!

 

[Fourteenth Eye]

The changes to the Offside Law annoy me. Does anyone (other than referees hopefully) fully understand the Law as it is now.

Exactly what i was thinking

 

[crodonilson]

Although it doesn't affect us as much, the dearth of the Saturday 3pm kick off saddens me.

 

[RexCathedra]

The Premiership. It's the black hole into which the entire rest of the pyramid is slowly being sucked.

English football bids fair to have happen to all of its teams, below the top 16-18 clubs, what happened here in baseball to the minor leagues back just after WWI.

There was a day - and few fans believe me when I tell them -- when the best 'minor' league baseball teams were powers in their own right, with many stars as good as those in the 'majors', often refusing to sell players on, outdrawing some of the 'major' league teams, etc.

English football is on the glide path either to:

A.) The rest of the leagues becoming laddered 'farm teams' for the Premiership teams, with the present we-loan-ours-and-poach-yours system replaced by the big fish owning outright the personnel of smaller teams via player development contracts,

or

B) Everything below the Premiership remaining independent, but becoming semi-pro, like American college sports without our (farcical) connection with a university.

The irony is the Premiership will undergo the same process, with its top four-six teams being drawn into some kind of international SuperLeague, and the 8-12 'survivors' in turn becoming the top tier of the 'minors' for the international league. They sowed the wind, they will reap the whirlwind.