Money Can’t buy my Love , but it’s killing it.....

[reynard]

34 minutes ago, ozleicester said:

Meh,

 

People suggesting a need for wage caps, and draft systems, equal distribution of income, greater support for those at the bottom etc etc.

 

Football/sport is the one place i  dont support socialism. I want to see the best, playing the best, i dont want an equal spread of the best across the leagues.

 

But, if we can introduce that to society... im a big fan

From this I suppose your preference is for a league where only 4 to 6 clubs can win it, where the bigger clubs just get bigger and richer, for a  Champions League ever only won by a few clubs and where the same few sides basically contest all the domestic competitions with a genuine chance of winning.

 

That's absolutely fine but it isn't a view I would share with much joy.

Edited 7 February 2018 by reynard

[Vlad the Fox]

People need to remember the state of football before sky and the premier league, crumbling ramshackle and unsafe stadia, diabolically poor attendences, massive lack of investment in the playing side and infrastructure of clubs, fans treated like cattle. A lot of the things people moan about still existed, richer clubs picking off from the smaller clubs, lower league clubs struggling financially, people complained that footballs 'just a business now' just like they do now. 

 

This utopia didn't exist, the premier league and sky revitalised, even saved football, which then attracted new rich owners who invested in clubs and its infrastructure like never before, but there are still issues, The cost to watch football has risen too much, maybe due to the demands or pressure of rising wages and transfer fees, however the latest TV deals have eased this pressure and as a result we are seeing price freezes and reductions, hopefully this trend will continue, it's a shame that a clause of this new tv money wasn't to vastly reduces ticket prices as you often hear how important the atmosphere is to the premier league brand when marketing itself abroad.  Also there is too much power going to the biggest clubs which needs to be held in check as at some point in the future there will be a crisis between them and the rest.

Edited 7 February 2018 by Vlad the Fox

[ozleicester]

14 minutes ago, reynard said:

From this I suppose your preference is for a league where only 4 to 6 clubs can win it, where the bigger clubs just get bigger and richer, for a  Champions League ever only won by a few clubs and where the same few sides basically contest all the domestic competitions with a genuine chance of winning.

 

That's absolutely fine but it isn't a view I would share with much joy.

Its not ideal, but i want to see the very best, and it seems trite, but we (leicester) are living proof that its not only the top 6 (and a few years ago that was a top 4) that can win.

 

We have a choice, we can watch Champions League, Premier League, Conference, Sunday league, or A league  

 

When i was back there, i watched Leicester and Kettering Town, worlds apart but different expectations and i enjoyed them differently.

 

When i watch premier league, or champions league... i want to see the brilliance, the best, that which is beyond my capabilities.

 

[GloverFox]

On 04/02/2018 at 19:04, Parafox said:

That's a brilliant photo.

 

Just goes to show how Health and Safety has ruined so many fun things we used to enjoy doing. Cap sales were phenomenal back in the day. If you were a cap maker, you were made for life. They probably had cap vans outside the ground, like we now have burger vans.

 

I can only see one person who has dismissed any kind of headwear, making a revolutionary "no-cap" protest. 

 

Sliding down wires and crawling onto the roof... I'm surprised there's no one sitting on the chimney pots, keeping their arse warm.

.... that really made me chuckle out loud .... ‘sat on a chimney pot keeping their arses warm’ .... 

[Vlad the Fox]

1 minute ago, ozleicester said:

Its not ideal, but i want to see the very best, and it seems trite, but we (leicester) are living proof that its not only the top 6 (and a few years ago that was a top 4) that can win.

 

We have a choice, we can watch Champions League, Premier League, Conference, Sunday league, or A league  

 

When i was back there, i watched Leicester and Kettering Town, worlds apart but different expectations and i enjoyed them differently.

 

When i watch premier league, or champions league... i want to see the brilliance, the best, that which is beyond my capabilities.

 

It will be interesting to see but I think money can create competition, as you say, a few years back it was a top 4, now it's a top 6. You've got ourselves who look to be planning and building to challenge the top 6 with the investment and building that's been going on over the last few years. There's Everton, though it's gone horribly wrong this season, are building to challenge the top 6. Over time the league could become stronger due to the wealth of the smaller clubs and their ability to pay the wages to attract top talent and to also hold onto their own star players. It'll be interesting to see how things pan out over the 5/10 years.

[adam]

Went to my first Coalville game last night. Very enjoyable and a decent game. Bloody cold though. Glad to see the standard of refereeing is just as bad at that level!! 

[Bob Weasel Fox]

On 04/02/2018 at 12:16, NorthfieldsFox said:

First Time poster so apologies if this isn’t the right place for my point. 

 

For many years prior to promotion we all marvelled at the cash in the Premier League and we all desperately wanted a piece of it , so much so once we got it seems we would sell our soul to remain in this league , the rise of player power and the rise of cash in the league is intrinsically linked , neither has been good for football.

 

Football, its history and culture are and always have been indivisible from its blue collar supporter base, us the working men of this island , Our Kop Spion , Liverpool's Kop End , Manchester United's Stretford End, Arsenal's North Bank, and Aston Villa's Holte End were just a few of the legendary fan strongholds within the grounds that are almost as famous as the players that graced the stage before them, now the average working class man on minimum wage can’t afford to sit with his family in these grounds, all because of the lust and greed for money. 

 

It looks like the Chelsea boss Conte is going to be sacked or replaced at Chelsea and if that happens it will be the 3rd season in a row that The Manager of the champions of England has lost his job within months of wining the title , that is a shocking indictment on football and us all that make up the football community. 

 

It seems in the Premier League Nothing matters more than Money , the Mahrez situation is a key point to how money consumes all , right or wrong no one wins in the Mahrez situation and ultimately one way or the other the only people paying for that mess is us the Fans. Out most gifted player ,probably ever,  is Now openly hated by many of us , the same people I believe owe him a huge gratitude for helping delivering us to paradise , he is a young man who is obviously very poorly advised , he has behaved terribly,  but none of us know the full story , but what ever the background I can tell you this mess has been caused by one thing ...MONEY 

 

We won the league with a squad that cost 1/3rd of what Man City offered us for Mahrez , Pause and think about that , we won the premier league with a squad that cost the current price for Mahrez’s torso !!! 

 

Right now every lower league club is sinking , how can that be happening ?  In a football world that an agent can be paid £40m for helping to arrange a transfer (pogba), how is possible that so many clubs are facing financial ruin ? it’s obscene and that’s just my opinion and I make no apology for that, but it seems you cannot criticise the Premier League these days , we are conditioned to be accepting and not to challenge the carnival of filthy cash that the EPL has become. 

 

3 or 4 decades ago I regularly stood on the Kop eating a nasty burger after supping a couple of pints of flat Carling soaking up the heady intoxicating atmosphere of professional football,  it was a time where your footballing hero could still be found in the local nightclub smoking Marlborough and drinking a Bottle Of Two Dogs, Back then  I near dreamed that one day Money would make me so disillusioned and awkward about following a premier league club , I fear elite professional football has lost its soul , our communities connect with our football club is all but eroded , it’s now a business offering entertainment for an inflated fee no different than the Odeon charging £13 each for a movie that you can stream online for free.

 

And where does this all end ? I fear in melt down , Because money is the glue that is holding all this together right now when that money dips , runs out or dries up I believe LCFC and many clubs like ours will be left Line Dancing at a funeral. 

 

Love is a readily traded commodity these days , and because of that it dies all too easily , my love for elite professional football is dying and I’m afraid it is being killed by greed and money. 

 

And I suspect I’m not alone 

Probably the best post I have ever read. I wish I could plus 100 rep points for this as it totally encapsulates how I feel about the game also

[HighPeakFox]

So many great recent posts, I'll be repping the lot. Shows how it is possible to disagree whilst also each wanting the best. 

 

I can't add much, except to say that I'm sure we all want to see the best, but without the worrying trend towards financial monopoly /cartel, which appears to feel no obligation to water the roots of the game. 

[HighPeakFox]

12 minutes ago, Gerbold said:

How immensely naive and nimbyist you're being. Society is interconnected in myriad ways - on every imaginable level, and here you are trying to defend the conspicuous consumption of football as being separate from society as a whole! 

Who is getting mad at football? I think you're mad at seeing football mildly criticised. Personally I'm not envious of what footballers earn - I'm concerned that English football is losing [or has lost] its way in its attempt to become the biggest of the big spenders.  It's self-evident that footballers earnings are at the expense of the rest of society. Wealth becomes pooled into ever more isolated area.

 

"If the problem people have". It's not a question of if - it's a palpable reality. Don't you read or watch the news or comment? Pick up a copy of the Guardian or the Telegraph for a week and read it from cover to cover to see what's going on in this country.

The reality is that successive governments have and are failing to halt this country sliding back into something more akin to a feudal society than an egalitarian state.

 

There are many 'pressure' groups in the process of lobbying for change - HM's Opposition itself, the Green Party, Friends of the Earth, Change, 38 Degrees, Shelter and many more. They're in existence because the people they're trying to represent aren't able to put pressure on government - because they're too busy scratting around trying to keep their lives together. Walk around the centre of your nearest town and see how many street-dwellers there are. I saw two in Nuneaton yesterday - the temperature was -1. They don't choose to live in doorways of empty shops, sleeping on concrete - circumstance brings them there. 

 

It's not just football - it's every scally who has been given the green light to pursue their personal greed - every non-dom who's been allowed to buy into the country with their vast and largely unworked for gains. And, just as food for thought, it's been mooted that, sooner or later, one of the big clubs is going to go into bankruptcy and with it the whole house of cards is going to fall. Because they're all interconnected. That's what the word society implies.

 

Brilliant. I fear it might be wasted on some, but not on all. 

[Marshall Cockney Fox]

All this is really true and once you join the crazy money carnival, there are still no guarantees unless you go whole hog.

 

I'd be happy if our club never spent north of ten million again and worked on a basis of grow your own or find gems.

 

Then what will be will be. 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

February 7th 1981. Ticket £1. It's all changed a bit since then...

 

 

[NorthfieldsFox]

5 hours ago, Bob Weasel Fox said:

Probably the best post I have ever read. I wish I could plus 100 rep points for this as it totally encapsulates how I feel about the game also

Thanks very much really flattered and humbled by the reaction to the post , it was from the heart 

[Mr Weller]

17 hours ago, Gerbold said:

Standing didn't inflate the numbers - it was the traditional way in which football was viewed. The introduction of seating was a knee-jerk response to Bradford, Heysel and Hillsborough. And, no, going back thirty or forty years wouldn't solve anything.

The very fact that this topic has been posted means there is a groundswell of opinion that football has lost its way. Whether it was ever firmly on the path is debatable. However, in a country which is suffering from poverty, under-funding of the health services, education and social services, the ostentatious flaunting of wealth by clubs can be seen to be evidence of social inequality. Football could be viewed as isolate form the rest of society - it isn't. Everything which comprises our economy is interrelated. Unless there is some cleansing of the Augean stables -  this rot is going to continue. There are more than a few journalists pointing out the damage this skewing of wealth is causing to football and society as a whole

Most Premier League grounds are fully every week and TV audiences are huge. Total attendances have been rising since the 70s and since 1970 is nearly 50 years ago that covers it.

[Mr Weller]

The problem with getting older is that people think the world is changing for the worse when in fact they're just older and view things differently. Football was in decline from the mid 60s to late 80s when a mix of TV money and yes, all seater stadiums, made the game more family friendly and glamorous.

 

Without that money football would have continued to decline.

 

[Vardinio'sCat]

On 2/6/2018 at 21:29, HighPeakFox said:

I like a lot of what you post, but I think you're wrong in assuming legitimate concern/criticism of the way the game is now run is bitter and whiny.

 

Why do people have to blindly accept the way it is? Why is it in society that suddenly critical voices are shunned? Change only occurs because people speak up, otherwise we just become sheep.

 

I think it is the amount of criticism, rather than the criticism itself. I had a good moan at Kitch, but it isn't really Kitch (who at least has a consistent position), it is the sheer weight of negativity, compared to numbers of those of a sunnier disposition.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

On 04/02/2018 at 14:31, Col city fan said:

One of the reasons I’ve not attended a home game this season. I’m sick of the fookin greed in the game. It seeps from every pore of the top flight.

Its all the kids know. It’s what they’ve been brought up with.

I still remember when Steve Walsh would have moved mountains to make City successful. Not crying because 100 grand a week wasn’t enough.

At a time when people I know are suffering with cancer and finding it difficult just to get through the next day, the actions of some of our so-called elite footballers (not all of them, but some), make me want to puke.

Col I agree (as pretty much always) 

[Vardinio'sCat]

 

 

To cheer us up, The Stranglers giving it absolutely bugger all on Dutch TV! Check out John-Jacques miming 'f**k off, you silly c**ts' to the audience around 1'20, but the whole thing is a triumph of disdain, so worth watching it all. 

 

Burnel is (imho) probably the finest bass player of his generation, and the best I ever saw in the flesh.

 

Anyways, I thought it fit the mood of the thread.

 

 

 

Edited 8 February 2018 by Vardinio'sCat

[Sol thewall Bamba]

19 hours ago, UpTheLeagueFox said:

February 7th 1981. Ticket £1. It's all changed a bit since then...

 

 

Strangely that image of the stadium looks a lot like Filbert Way!

[Donut]

On 07/02/2018 at 07:57, Col city fan said:

Why can't we appreciate the quality of modern football, but still think there are aspects of it that are ridiculous?

The football can be sensational. The players are supremely fit. The game gets ever quicker. The pitches are unbelievably good. The TV coverage is insane.

You can watch it nearly all the time, bet on it, rewind it, replay it, stop it.

Etc......

But that still doesn't preclude me from thinking that Diego Costa is a turd refusing to return to Chelsea, or that having a debate that 100k per week is 'unfair' when such and such is getting 120k, is nothing other than barmy.

Modern football is a phenomenon that excites, frustrates and motivates in equal measure. But there are aspects of it that literally couldn't be further away from the everyday stresses of the modern day 'working man'.

It's one of the reasons I've stopped going (though not the only reason...health is another). If I was to be within shouting range of Mahrez at the moment (just as an example), I'd want to praise him to the sky's for being one of our best ever players, whilst telling him to fookin grow up at the same time.

While i dont dispute what youre saying, i think people just get so caught up in all these political, moral, contractual etc etc situations that it almost defeats the point of going.

 

A significant number of people here if you had to list what they like and dislike would have a bigger dislike column and they STILL go.

 

And the people who shout loudest feel they are right and represent what everyone thinks.

 

I wont ever influence a board decision, negotiate a contract, manage the clubs wage bill, set the admission prices, etc etc.

 

So whats the point getting upset with it to the extent people on forums do.

 

I can go and watch leicester try and win football matches which was exactly what i could do when i first started going in the early 90s and if i was younger then 80s and 70s. The game ITSELF is better now than back then.

 

Its all the peripheral stuff people get wound up about, that good or bad, doesnt add or take away anything in my life or change anything so i wouldnt create a thread saying my love of football is being killed.

 

[Gordon the Great]

On 04/02/2018 at 12:16, NorthfieldsFox said:

First Time poster so apologies if this isn’t the right place for my point. 

 

For many years prior to promotion we all marvelled at the cash in the Premier League and we all desperately wanted a piece of it , so much so once we got it seems we would sell our soul to remain in this league , the rise of player power and the rise of cash in the league is intrinsically linked , neither has been good for football.

 

Football, its history and culture are and always have been indivisible from its blue collar supporter base, us the working men of this island , Our Kop Spion , Liverpool's Kop End , Manchester United's Stretford End, Arsenal's North Bank, and Aston Villa's Holte End were just a few of the legendary fan strongholds within the grounds that are almost as famous as the players that graced the stage before them, now the average working class man on minimum wage can’t afford to sit with his family in these grounds, all because of the lust and greed for money. 

 

It looks like the Chelsea boss Conte is going to be sacked or replaced at Chelsea and if that happens it will be the 3rd season in a row that The Manager of the champions of England has lost his job within months of wining the title , that is a shocking indictment on football and us all that make up the football community. 

 

It seems in the Premier League Nothing matters more than Money , the Mahrez situation is a key point to how money consumes all , right or wrong no one wins in the Mahrez situation and ultimately one way or the other the only people paying for that mess is us the Fans. Out most gifted player ,probably ever,  is Now openly hated by many of us , the same people I believe owe him a huge gratitude for helping delivering us to paradise , he is a young man who is obviously very poorly advised , he has behaved terribly,  but none of us know the full story , but what ever the background I can tell you this mess has been caused by one thing ...MONEY 

 

We won the league with a squad that cost 1/3rd of what Man City offered us for Mahrez , Pause and think about that , we won the premier league with a squad that cost the current price for Mahrez’s torso !!! 

 

Right now every lower league club is sinking , how can that be happening ?  In a football world that an agent can be paid £40m for helping to arrange a transfer (pogba), how is possible that so many clubs are facing financial ruin ? it’s obscene and that’s just my opinion and I make no apology for that, but it seems you cannot criticise the Premier League these days , we are conditioned to be accepting and not to challenge the carnival of filthy cash that the EPL has become. 

 

3 or 4 decades ago I regularly stood on the Kop eating a nasty burger after supping a couple of pints of flat Carling soaking up the heady intoxicating atmosphere of professional football,  it was a time where your footballing hero could still be found in the local nightclub smoking Marlborough and drinking a Bottle Of Two Dogs, Back then  I near dreamed that one day Money would make me so disillusioned and awkward about following a premier league club , I fear elite professional football has lost its soul , our communities connect with our football club is all but eroded , it’s now a business offering entertainment for an inflated fee no different than the Odeon charging £13 each for a movie that you can stream online for free.

 

And where does this all end ? I fear in melt down , Because money is the glue that is holding all this together right now when that money dips , runs out or dries up I believe LCFC and many clubs like ours will be left Line Dancing at a funeral. 

 

Love is a readily traded commodity these days , and because of that it dies all too easily , my love for elite professional football is dying and I’m afraid it is being killed by greed and money. 

 

And I suspect I’m not alone 

What a brilliant article, you just spoke for millions of ordinary people who are having our game taken away from us...brilliant!

[NorthfieldsFox]

10 minutes ago, Gordon the Great said:

What a brilliant article, you just spoke for millions of ordinary people who are having our game taken away from us...brilliant!

Thank you so much 

[HighPeakFox]

3 hours ago, NorthfieldsFox said:

Thank you so much 

Now, to be a proper forum member, you need to start making terrible puns and quoting unfortunate bad English!

[NorthfieldsFox]

30 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

Now, to be a proper forum member, you need to start making terrible puns and quoting unfortunate bad English!

I’m trying , but it’s an uphill journeys 

 

 

[HighPeakFox]

13 minutes ago, NorthfieldsFox said:

I’m trying , but it’s an uphill journeys 

 

 

STOP TO TELL BULLSHIT!

[NorthfieldsFox]

1 hour ago, HighPeakFox said:

STOP TO TELL BULLSHIT!

I would be loud laughing