[Football] Falling out of love...

[SittingbourneSeagull]

Maybe it's just us fans 'of a certain generation' who are feeling it.

Saying that I we went down to watch Newhaven at the weekend. Entertaining 2-2 draw, great laugh, couple of pints and some chips, and when a goal is scored its just a goal. No f**king about for 5 minutes afterwards.

So maybe it's the Premier League I am growing tired of.

100%- For me the journey to the game takes longer then the game itself, and if that is rubbish then you start to wonder why you have wasted 6 hours.

I agree local lower league games are great. Not really caring if the team wins or not and home again in a reasonable time.

 

[JJ McClure]

As much as anything else (even VAR) its actual footballers I've fallen out of love with. Every one of them is now a snide, cheating, whinging prick. Bleating in the refs ear, stealing yards on your own freekick or throw in and then blocking or walking away with the ball when its the oppositions ball. Prime example on Monday was when Nathan Redmond came on as a sub, literally the first thing he did was give away a throw and then take the ball out of Veltman's (?) hands so he couldn't take it. I guess its trained in to them, but sometimes I wonder how they get through life behaving like that.

 

[Bold Seagull]

100%- For me the journey to the game takes longer then the game itself, and if that is rubbish then you start to wonder why you have wasted 6 hours.

I agree local lower league games are great. Not really caring if the team wins or not and home again in a reasonable time.

That doesn't last though. Go to enough games and even though it might not be 'your' team, you soon start to care and feel that passion again. If you are a football fan in your heart, you can't help but get emotionally involved if you go along enough to watch the same team over and over again.

 

[NogansRun]

I've realised I generally enjoy the day out, rather than the game itself. Meeting mates, having a few pints before and after the game in pubs and concourses. Football is the catalyst for the day out. But since all we have now is the actual game, with all its current faults, I can take it or leave it tbh. I have no interest whatsoever in going back until we all go back. Guess I'm a bad fan in the eyes of some.

 

[zefarelly]

My wife went off to bed at half-time. This morning she asked me 'Who did the computer decide had won?'.

About sums it up.....

My Mrs won't watch any more, keeps an eye out, but she can't stand the cheating.

in Aus, if you do anything akin to a 'Kane manouvre' you get sent off and potentially a years ban for endangering life. I think that applies to most ball sports out there.

'top level' Professional football is a bit of a joke now.

 

[zefarelly]

I've realised I generally enjoy the day out, rather than the game itself. Meeting mates, having a few pints before and after the game in pubs and concourses. Football is the catalyst for the day out. But since all we have now is the actual game, with all its current faults, I can take it or leave it tbh. I have no interest whatsoever in going back until we all go back. Guess I'm a bad fan in the eyes of some.

Not at all, I think we all share that, its a tribal thing.

the buzz of geting off ther train at Hove and walking round the corner, seeing and hearing te Goldstone . . . awesome. . I don't get that at the Amex. I've never been to a game there with my mates.

 

[Oscar]

Lockdown has moved me even more towards following the Albion from home via TV or the radio. I enjoy the weekly drama of our ups and downs in this ridiculous league while not having to endure the effort of attending games and, most of all, the expense. I feel more than a little guilty about becoming an armchair fan but after more than 30 years, I think I can just about justify it.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

My Mrs won't watch any more, keeps an eye out, but she can't stand the cheating.

in Aus, if you do anything akin to a 'Kane manouvre' you get sent off and potentially a years ban for endangering life. I think that applies to most ball sports out there.

'top level' Professional football is a bit of a joke now.

And there is barely a pundit who makes reference to it. They are all so corrupted by the money. That goes for everyone in the game. I bet Dean Smith would never have thought 30 years ago that in 2020 he would be claiming to the camera that ‘everyone could hear’ that March ‘challenge’ on Trezeguet. I think they actually believe this stuff as the money is now more important than anything.

 

[The Clamp]

I’d go back to championship in heartbeat. I don’t like PL and I don’t like us in it.

 

[zefarelly]

I’d go back to championship in heartbeat. I don’t like PL and I don’t like us in it.

Well we've got the kit to get there in.

 

[Wozza]

I’d go back to championship in heartbeat. I don’t like PL and I don’t like us in it.

Easy to say given we had several great years competing at the top of the Championship chasing (what most considered to be) the glittering prize of Premier League.

Probably wouldn't be as much fun if we were mid-table with our best players poached every season, and the prize of promotion somewhat deminished.

 

[Krusty]

Reading this thread, after supporting the Albion for approaching 50 years, and bringing my sons and friends along on the ride... I am reassured, but saddened, that it is not just me feeling like this.

I hope the club and wider football world are aware of how so many fans are feeling... but I fear they have a different agenda

The best thing that could happen for me would be the so-called BIG SIX buggering off to a European Super League. I hope and believe that the First Division would be a better and more entertaining competition without them and their money circus.

 

[Sussexscots]

can fall out of love with the game but would never fall out of love with the " day " ,

mates and social - that's what football is about really. What's on the pitch is often quite irrelevant

Yes, in a nutshell. That's how I feel about it. I don't much enjoy watching us in TV. It's soulless. To be honest, I've enjoyed going to Non league games with friends and having a beer and a chat more than TV football.

And I know the first time I can go to the pub with friends before going back to a full Amex or Easter Road, I'm going to love it.

 

[Worthing exile]

As much as anything else (even VAR) its actual footballers I've fallen out of love with. Every one of them is now a snide, cheating, whinging prick. Bleating in the refs ear, stealing yards on your own freekick or throw in and then blocking or walking away with the ball when its the oppositions ball. Prime example on Monday was when Nathan Redmond came on as a sub, literally the first thing he did was give away a throw and then take the ball out of Veltman's (?) hands so he couldn't take it. I guess its trained in to them, but sometimes I wonder how they get through life behaving like that.

You never see anyone booked for not retreating 10 yards or for kicking the ball away. It is a cheaters paradise.

 

[SittingbourneSeagull]

That doesn't last though. Go to enough games and even though it might not be 'your' team, you soon start to care and feel that passion again. If you are a football fan in your heart, you can't help but get emotionally involved if you go along enough to watch the same team over and over again.

True but after watching the Albion for 40 odd years that is ingrained and in some ways more painful, whereas I can watch our local team without the pain at the moment. That may change of course.

 

[SittingbourneSeagull]

Perfectly normal to feel a bit low every so often with the Albion. Football is always guaranteed to let you down etc.

For me though, I missed out getting a ticket for the Saints game being in Priority 3, so I resigned myself to hoping for another chance in the other games.

But then out of the blue, my lad came downstairs on Saturday night to surprise me with the fact that he’d got us both a ticket through the exchange. “Happy days - well done !” I said “How much do I owe you?”

So he says “it was £90 for 2 tickets and parking... but I want to treat you to it as you’ve bought all my season tickets for nearly 15 years, and snacks, and bovril, and coke obvs(!) and I just want to say Thankyou”

I nearly cried.

That’s what keeps the love going for me, the effort made to get my lad into something that he now loves so much and wants to spend time doing with me, even if it means blowing all his part time wages this week.

Don’t worry about the lows. Enjoy the highs, in whatever way they transpire.

Thats great and thats why I still go, because I have been going with my 25 year old since he was 4 and it is now more about time with him rather then the football.

 

[rippleman]

Cricket & rugby (both codes) have come up with quick, accurate and transparent decision review systems.

It takes the richest sport in the world to totally **** it up.

I used to watch all the live PL games on tv. Now I just can't be bothered.

I just can't quite bring myself yet to break that bond and throw my ST back at Barber yet. The EPL clubs have the power to end this VAR nonsense in a heartbeat but they clearly have no inclination to do so and as this thread demonstrates, so many long term supporters are now walking away. Will the club care? Probably not all the time they get fortunes from the tv companies.

 

[Insel affe]

Just had a quick chat with a Reading supporting delivery driver who I see regularly and I was congratulating on how well Reading were doing although with sly digs as you do. He told me they are playing lovely football and should have a good chance of promotion, but he said he does not really want to get promoted as VAR is ruining the game and stated our bad luck against Man United and Southampton as clear and obvious feck ups that he just does not want to put up with, of course I told him, there should be no fear of that because they will feck it up or we will swoop to sign Michael Olise in January, but it was interesting hearing a Championship fans opinion on the Premier League and VAR.

 

[Recidivist]

Unsurprisingly it seems that VAR is a massive part of our dissatisfaction.
Could a solution be to only have VAR used on non-subjective decisions such as offside or goalkeeper off line when penalty taken?
And remove handballs and fouls leaving the decision with the on field referee.

A lot of the dissatisfaction with VAR seems to be with the “toenail” type offside decisions so, personally, I’d add that to the non-VAR list.

They also seem to take the longest time to rule on, another reason for taking them out!

In practice, officials get these decisions right most of time and there are very few spectators in a position (literally and metaphorically) to disagree with any degree of authority anyway.

Re handballs, I think the issue is the law and the way it is being interpreted rather than VAR itself.

Otherwise I think your suggestion has a lot of merit. We should cut down the areas it can be used for and put some teeth into the “clear and obvious error” mantra by, for example, saying that VAR references have to be decided within 10 seconds (say).

If you have to look at an incident for several minutes it cannot possibly be clear and obvious!


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[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Easy to say given we had several great years competing at the top of the Championship chasing (what most considered to be) the glittering prize of Premier League.

Probably wouldn't be as much fun if we were mid-table with our best players poached every season, and the prize of promotion somewhat deminished.

This. All those rosy-tinted views of the Championship are just like all those rosy-tinted views of Withdean. I'm as guilty as anyone on that score. But in the final analsis, tho it was fun for some of the time, it was bloody grim for most of the time. Been there, done that, no wish to revisit the teeshirt