Football in it's current version

[foxfanazer]

Is anybody else just bored with football, especially in the top flight?

 

Growing up watching football in the 90's and 2000's felt somewhat magical in comparison. Each team seemed to have their own identity and uniqueness. Every club had their characters and somewhat of a belief they could beat the big boys. Nowadays it seems like 80% of the teams simply play survival or damage limitation football, including ourselves.

 

Now my question is am I right or is nostalgia and romanticism playing a part in my thinking here. I'm not suggesting there weren't dull games back then and I know the likes of United dominated in the same way Man city do now but I just find the modern game repetitive and lacking surprises 

 

Nice cheery thread for your Monday mornings

Edited 30 September 2024 by foxfanazer

[Vowels]

I am and I think many are. In terms of live football I tend to watch non-league; which is better but you still find a lot of the top level behaviours and negative aspects filtering down and creeping in. Beer though. 

[Lako42]

I think the majority of people that attend are addicts and go because they always have done. 

 

The game has no character and it's become a billionaires plaything. 

 

The working man shouldn't really be interested in such a money orientated industry. 

 

The worst offending team for no longer believing they can beat the big boys are of course Leicester City. Win the PL and turned into little bitches in the space of a few years. 

Edited 30 September 2024 by Lako42

[Kirkbyfox22]

Couldn’t agree more.  The character has dripped from the game.  The scrutiny, analysis, VAR and the efforts to reach the perfect and faultless game has driven away the basics of the game.  Can take or leave watching football now and certainly enjoy non-league football more as an event.

[mancunianfox]

Rule changes, over exposure, money, worsening live experience and tactical developments have all contributed to my declining interest in the game. Agree that their is a lack of personality around the game currently, it all feels so corporate now.

 

When it comes to Leicester the biggest factor is probably the title win. 1) as I know that I will never see a season that great ever again (I'm ok with this) and 2) it has completely changed the perception of the club both externally and from our own support.

[An Away Move]

I loathe the corporatisation of football. Players simulating that they’ve been fouled and the money in the game now that is making the game more akin to Formula 1. 
However, the football is way better than watching what we served in the 80s and 90s. Pleat ball was not great and neither was the football amazing under O’Neill when we played teams like Arsenal. It was all about stopping them playing. 

[MattFox]

Half our fanbase seem to think we should be honoured just to have a place in this league 

[Vazman]

It all boils down to one thing "Money" our issue partly, is money PSR etc, not lack of it, just mismanagement of it, amongst other things from the very Top, to director level, our frustration may be the fact we dont have money to sling around like Man City, Chelsea on quality proven players, but we proved with a decent manager,  decent recruitment, and a hard work ethic throughout the club from the very top to bottom that anything can be achieved, will it happen again who knows, it certainly wont with the way we are run now.

[Lako42]

3 minutes ago, Vazman said:

It all boils down to one thing "Money" 

Yep, it's not a sport any longer and tbh the fact all the fans talk about is money tells you everything. It's exhausting 

 

They have stolen the game and it's not coming back to what we all loved. 

[ALC Fox]

It's a completely minor, probably entirely inconsequential thing, but for me the blue border around the pitch at the King Power is a tiny symptom of the sanitisation of football. The ground looks too 'clean' with it. And the stadium feels less organic and raw nowadays compared to, say, the late 00's.

 

I used to like to feel as though the grass was this hallowed area that should never be encroached on, but for some reason when I'm in the stadium it almost feels like I'm watching the game on TV.

 

I don't think I can adequately explain exactly why such a tiny thing feels off to me, but it just does.

[Lambert09]

do you know who the real victims are, the sh*t kids at football. 

 

When I was growing up, if you weren’t good technically but loved the game, you switched to play defence where you could just be told “if in doubt get it out”. Now days that’s not a thing and those who just have a passion for the game, will struggle to fit in a side.

 

I don’t think I personally would have developed as a player if my coaches had always been obsessed with that way of playing the game. I almost certainly would have dropped out before I could have learnt. I developed the technical side of my game later in life 

Edited 30 September 2024 by Lambert09

[The Fox Covert]

I think it is a big-money corporatist thing which has grown to dominate most sports and entertainments. 

Glastonbury and other large festivals used to have their own identity, which is still true to a certain extent but the corporate junketing and concentration of all the money at the top of the tree means that the spontaneity which used to be there when I first went in the 1980s has largely gone. Yes, it was a much wilder place then, but so were the terraces of most large football clubs in the days before corporate boxes and ticket prices beyond the reach of anyone on an average income.

[sm1]

I'm close to 50 and I'm definitely falling out of love with the game. Money, VAR and the general apathy the club has towards it's own fans, its disgusting. It'll probably be my last year watching us live. The fan experience is very different to what it used be.

[SK3Blue]

Really struggle to watch games now in the EPL and this new champions league format is just designed to bleed every last penny out of fans. 
 

I watch Leicester women’s team and a bit of non league locally. 

[goog]

People were mosning about the sane thing in the 80's and ever since.

Money , wages, Diving, entitled players we're all Subject to the sane conversion. 

Ok the money maybe kn a completely different level now but it was all relative at tbe sometime. 

Taking the gane away from the working man has been spoken of in the pubs for the last 50 years.

 

Ask a Man City fan or Arsenal fan or a Leicester fan from 2016 the same questions and you will get a completely different set of answers. 

 

 

[Chelmofox]

19 minutes ago, Lambert09 said:

do you know who the real victims are, the sh*t kids at football. 

 

When I was growing up, if you weren’t good technically good but loved the game, you switched to play defence where you could just be told “if in doubt get it out”. Now days that’s not a thing and those who just have a passion for the game, will struggle to fit in a side.

 

I don’t think I personally would have developed as a player if my coaches had always been obsessed with that way of playing the game. I almost certainly would have dropped out before I could have learnt. I developed the technical side of my game later in life 

Actually - i would argue the 'shit' kids are really well catered for.  Our local club has a huge range of abilities covered and they let the kids just play, be social and get exercise - certainly something that wasn't there when i was a kid. The upper tier is very well catered for albeit very over competitive and i've seen a lot of quite aggressive coaching in a certain style that doesn't sit well with me.

 

Its probably the tier of kid who hasn't hit their potential yet that would benefit from not being over coached and just playing that isn't well catered for. 

[Fox92]

I see these threads every three/four months yet the same people moaning still post about games in the PL thread. Nothing changes.

[foxfanazer]

Just now, Fox92 said:

I see these threads every three/four months yet the same people moaning still post about games in the PL thread. Nothing changes.

Yeah in fairness you're right. Football has always been a massive part of my life and however crap I think it is I'm not fully ready to give it up 

 

 

[Spudulike]

I've been an active supporter since I was a little kid (and a gobshite teenager) on the Filbert Street terraces but now I'm bored of it. Lost the passion and excitement (although I was punching the air when JJ scored that second). I've got a season ticket and travel 2.45hrs each way for a home game. If my son hints that he feels the same then that will be it. Perhaps just go to the occasional game if we can get tickets like we used to. Feels like we've already completed football and now have the t-shirt. I've been one of the very lucky ones that has been there for our golden era. I'll always the follow the club and count myself as a fan but not a regular match going one. I'm getting too old and tired of it all.

 

All that said, nothing is likely to change whilst stadiums are selling out even at rip-off prices. It's got some way to go before the pendulum starts to swing back. I'll be long gone by then.

[Globalfox]

There is no doubt that football has changed but so have all sports. I used to go to football, rugby, cricket, motor racing and horse racing and now they are all different. None have the experience I seem to so fondly remember in the 70’s, 80’s and even 90’s. The world has changed the availability of spare cash moved sports from a local loyal based approach to a middle income occasional experience. Ladies Day at Ascot used to be sophistication but now is a middle class rabble. Money talks it’s that simple and if you want to participate at the pinnacle you need to shell out. We can reminisce but the train has long departed and may never return. So go and moan or adapt. I have adapted now I expect different things from a day at the football. Farewell to the old memories hello to the new ‘experience’. Clubs needed fans but that is no longer the case the ‘client’ experience at least in the EPL is now the norm.

[Stadt]

The quality is far higher nowadays. Watch a game from 15 years ago and you’ll be surprised at just how shit it is.

 

The atmosphere, ticket pricing, VAR, FFP/PSR suck the soul out of the game though.

[SemperEadem]

Yeah it’s boring now.

No different songs, no different flags, same style of football.

[Foxdiamond]

2 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

Is anybody else just bored with football, especially in the top flight?

 

Growing up watching football in the 90's and 2000's felt somewhat magical in comparison. Each team seemed to have their own identity and uniqueness. Every club had their characters and somewhat of a belief they could beat the big boys. Nowadays it seems like 80% of the teams simply play survival or damage limitation football, including ourselves.

 

Now my question is am I right or is nostalgia and romanticism playing a part in my thinking here. I'm not suggesting there weren't dull games back then and I know the likes of United dominated in the same way Man city do now but I just find the modern game repetitive and lacking surprises 

 

Nice cheery thread for your Monday mornings

I'm a lot older than you so my growing watching football was 60s and 70s. I might just be old and jaded but I agree with you. I think it is the overload of money at the top that makes it more difficult to compete and leads to boredom.

[whoareyaaa]

I don’t mind watching prem league games, championship is pretty dross though late stages of champions league is bareable and fa cup games not really bothered about the rest of it.

 

VAR has made it a bit more boring though and less entertaining 

Edited 30 September 2024 by whoareyaaa

[Lako42]

I've said it a lot over the years but this is genuinely the last year for me as a ST holder. 

 

Having a baby has focussed me and i'm not willing to waste one of two days off worshipping multi millionaires and filling the pockets of billionaire man children.