Have you ever chosen to not watch your team’s match even when you had nothing else to do?

[prath92]

I see lots of comments on various online media like ‘watching the team is a chore’, ‘going to give this game a miss’ and so forth. Have you ever decided to not watch your team (united or otherwise) even though you have nothing substantial to do instead? By not watching I mean not even checking score during the game. This isn’t a situation where you had other commitments due to which you had to miss the game.

For me, united games have become sort of a part of my schedule and I look forward to the game all week. I regularly find myself planning my day around the game so that I won’t miss it. Be it dead rubber games or even pre season friendlies at times. Even during the Moyes season I regularly watched the games even though the results in the big games were a foregone conclusion more often than not.

 

[Ødegaard]

Probably a few during Van Gaals time. Apart from that, no.

 

[Barca84]

Would once never have dreamed of it. As each season passes a few more games creep in where I genuinely can't be bothered. It really doesn't help when the football is bloody awful half the time

 

[RG 11]

Would once never have dreamed of it. As each season passes a few more games creep in where I genuinely can't be bothered. It really doesn't help when the football is bloody awful half the time

Couldn't have said it better. Under Moyes I saw each game and was left feeling like shit. Van Gaal just amplified that pain by playing like shit when we had a team of Van Persie, Rooney, Di Maria. Less said about his second season, the better.

 

[Oaencha]

I purposely didn’t watch around six of the games in LVG’s final season. It was during ‘can’tscoreforshitinthe1sthalf-gate’. The football was just abysmal and it was making me too angry. I’ve re-watched them recently and my decision was justified. Apart from that I rarely miss a game.

 

[roonster09]

Never. Our poor performance under Moyes and LVG didn't stop me, so nothing will stop me.

 

[Vernon Philander]

Life is so rich that there really never is "nothing else to do". Watching a game of football can be easily substituted with say reading a book or doing some volunteering, for example.

I'd even argue it's healthy to turn to something else other than football once in a while, even when nothing else planned.

Far too many treat this game as an obsession which is why FIFA, club owners, the media (and thus by extension the players themselves) earn such mind-bogglingly vast sums of money.

 

[Varun]

No. The lowest point was watching some LVG games on high volume while playing FM so that I'd look up once we eventually got the ball to one of the attackers.

 

[Indnyc]

Nope. Plan my day around United.. These days it helps that the matches are early morning so I can still get the whole day

 

[Cal?]

Quite often for dead rubbers or uninteresting ones, especially those at night in the UK (3 or 4 am here).

 

[Fridge chutney]

Never. Even during LVG. Couldn't contemplate it.

 

[LFCKop]

I won't be watching our return leg at city because before the first leg i prayed to god if we win 3-0, I will not watch return leg. Damn! I should have asked for 5-0. Now I will watch Paddington bear 2 during match

 

[Captain Obvious]

Probably gonna catch flack for this but oh well. A few times this season, more and more with each season since Van Gaal got fired. That was where i was beginning to lose interest in much of United/following my club. I still tune in to any United match i can and big games (champions league quarters / semi / final) + world cup but if its a match on at 12.45pm and im half awake, the old me would jump out of bed and go watch, but nowadays i prefer to sleep.

The club has been run so badly since Fergie left i've lost some of that passion I had, i don't even keep up with the scores around the country at the weekend like i used to. Might just be me getting older, but then again i still keep up with La Liga / Barca out of interest. It has nothing to do with trophies, that exit to Sevilla still hurt as badly as any CL exits before 08, it's just.. we know we're not going to win the league, and we're going to play boring football and finish 2nd-4th, so whats the point? Half the players don't care so why should I?

So the main reason for me losing interest in following the club as much as i did before is because of how boring and shit we play nowadays (regardless of the outcome of matches), its just not appealing to me and neither are the shitfest of players we've bought. None of them are a patch on our old players. I'm not a grumpy old fart btw, i'm 21 so this isnt me whining on about the good old days.

I just miss good football played by United the United way. The year we lost the league to City, despite it being absolutely terrible, that season was still actually fun up until that moment. This isnt United anymore, theres hasnt been anything entertaining about our football in the last 6 years other than the Europa League run/win.

 

[endless_wheelies]

I've never not bothered to check the score, plenty of times towards the end of LVG's reign I didn't watch matches though because quite simply my enjoyment of them was nil.

 

[Fortitude]

Never. Our poor performance under Moyes and LVG didn't stop me, so nothing will stop me.

Never. Even during LVG. Couldn't contemplate it.

Unfortunately. There to the very end even when it's like death by a thousand cuts. I will say, though, that in the worst of the recent times, I'll have something else to be doing and the game on in the background.

But not watching a game; even when there's far juicier games being played than ours at the same time in the league of CL, I couldn't do that.

 

[Charlie Foley]

I've never not bothered to check the score, plenty of times towards the end of LVG's reign I didn't watch matches though because quite simply my enjoyment of them was nil.

That's funny, so was the score

 

[duffer]

Nah. After a horrible result I've often wished I had.

 

[Scarecrow]

Not since I started watching regularly.

 

[Mibabalou]

This is an absolute joke right.

 

[rollingstoned1]

Probably gonna catch flack for this but oh well. A few times this season, more and more with each season since Van Gaal got fired. That was where i was beginning to lose interest in much of United/following my club. I still tune in to any United match i can and big games (champions league quarters / semi / final) + world cup but if its a match on at 12.45pm and im half awake, the old me would jump out of bed and go watch, but nowadays i prefer to sleep.

The club has been run so badly since Fergie left i've lost some of that passion I had, i don't even keep up with the scores around the country at the weekend like i used to. Might just be me getting older, but then again i still keep up with La Liga / Barca out of interest. It has nothing to do with trophies, that exit to Sevilla still hurt as badly as any CL exits before 08, it's just.. we know we're not going to win the league, and we're going to play boring football and finish 2nd-4th, so whats the point? Half the players don't care so why should I?

So the main reason for me losing interest in following the club as much as i did before is because of how boring and shit we play nowadays (regardless of the outcome of matches), its just not appealing to me and neither are the shitfest of players we've bought. None of them are a patch on our old players. I'm not a grumpy old fart btw, i'm 21 so this isnt me whining on about the good old days.

I just miss good football played by United the United way. The year we lost the league to City, despite it being absolutely terrible, that season was still actually fun up until that moment. This isnt United anymore, theres hasnt been anything entertaining about our football in the last 6 years other than the Europa League run/win.

Winning and success is fun obviously. But it is the social media generation.

 

[RedCurry]

No, never.

 

[podurban2]

Never. However I have had the game on my laptop next to me while playing video games a couple of times, I must admit.

 

[Kostur]

Never. Our poor performance under Moyes and LVG didn't stop me, so nothing will stop me.

Pretty much this.

 

[amolbhatia50k]

No. I'm never going to skip a United game unless I have a prior commitment. And even in that scenario I'll record the game and watch it later as if it's live.

However the joy associated with watching United has really gone down. I don't find myself as absorbed in every single pass and moment of the match as I used to. I watch the game but it's not the same level of 'intimacy' between me and the idiot box. It's largely down to the fact that I find our style of play fairly dull and mechanical.

 

[Tarrou]

I miss loads of games because I forget it's on, but that obviously correlates heavily with how shit we are.

I'd never choose to not watch though.

 

[DoubleRevv]

Probably gonna catch flack for this but oh well. A few times this season, more and more with each season since Van Gaal got fired. That was where i was beginning to lose interest in much of United/following my club. I still tune in to any United match i can and big games (champions league quarters / semi / final) + world cup but if its a match on at 12.45pm and im half awake, the old me would jump out of bed and go watch, but nowadays i prefer to sleep.

The club has been run so badly since Fergie left i've lost some of that passion I had, i don't even keep up with the scores around the country at the weekend like i used to. Might just be me getting older, but then again i still keep up with La Liga / Barca out of interest. It has nothing to do with trophies, that exit to Sevilla still hurt as badly as any CL exits before 08, it's just.. we know we're not going to win the league, and we're going to play boring football and finish 2nd-4th, so whats the point? Half the players don't care so why should I?

So the main reason for me losing interest in following the club as much as i did before is because of how boring and shit we play nowadays (regardless of the outcome of matches), its just not appealing to me and neither are the shitfest of players we've bought. None of them are a patch on our old players. I'm not a grumpy old fart btw, i'm 21 so this isnt me whining on about the good old days.

I just miss good football played by United the United way. The year we lost the league to City, despite it being absolutely terrible, that season was still actually fun up until that moment. This isnt United anymore, theres hasnt been anything entertaining about our football in the last 6 years other than the Europa League run/win.

I too. I've gone about 8 games not watching United this season because the current style of play is very different from the United I fell in love with.
Admittedly, this season has been possibly our best since Fergie, still though, some days I feel that doing my laundry instead of watching us play is a better use of my time.

 

[Kapardin]

When I had an unavoidable date with my then gf (now fiancee) and she would literally have to drag me...but even that was one game, never happened since. And I kept checking the app for updates even then.

During LvG's final months, I kept the game on, glancing up when someone scored, but used to focus more on browsing and checking the twitter memes about our performances, learned doomsday humor and to live with jokes directed at us by then.

Its' hard to give up, I do plan my weekends around our matches.

 

[FootyGirl88]

I have a few times, I think the only one I missed this season was the Leicester game. I don' know why but I could feel it in my bones that something was gonna go wrong in that game.

 

[AndyJ1985]

Yeah every so often I'll not bother watching one of our matches. For me football has always been about entertainment. If it's having a negative effect and frustrating or boring me then I'll give it a break for a week or two. Time to myself is at a premium, so I'd prefer to spend it doing things that I'll enjoy.

There seems to be some sort of taboo in the football community about admitting this. But I couldn't care less about being called fair weather or a glory hunter. The problem is with those who attack others for not mindlessly watching their team no matter what, not with me for choosing what I do with my free time.

 

[Peanut Butter]

Life is so rich that there really never is "nothing else to do". Watching a game of football can be easily substituted with say reading a book or doing some volunteering, for example.

I'd even argue it's healthy to turn to something else other than football once in a while, even when nothing else planned.

Far too many treat this game as an obsession which is why FIFA, club owners, the media (and thus by extension the players themselves) earn such mind-bogglingly vast sums of money.

Good post. Football should be an escape or a hobby. Don’t take it so seriously.

 

[Member 99369]

Never - even when we're playing poorly or it's an "unimportant" game there are still individual performances to look out for

 

[quethenoo]

Unless there is a good reason not to (something I have committed to without realising), I'll watch every single minute of every game. Even pre season friendlies against some Chinese team at 4am. Its not always been easy the past few years and each to their own, but I feel I gotta take the rough with the smooth because that's supporting a team right? But mostly it's not a sense of misguided loyalty, I genuinely look forward to 99% of games.

 

[SteveW]

Never. I generally try to organise around matches. Don't get how a supporter couldn't be bothered to watch their team.

 

[Ondrej]

No. Even when there IS something else to do which I SHOULD do I still do everything in my powers to watch us.
Also slightly off topic (although proving my point) but since I can’t post in the match day thread yet, I won’t be home for our match today and the place I’ll be at has no wifi or anything at all. Anyone know of some super low quality stream I can watch with around 700 MB of data left?

 

[Wumminator]

I think I’ve missed three games since Pompey knocked us Out of the FA Cup in 08 which I missed for a job interview, tried to record, but knew we’d lost cuz when I got out I had 12 missed calls of my mates to gloat.

All three were for unavoidable reasons. Two were for me flying when I couldn’t get another flight and one I was abroad on a stag weekend and I still managed to record it and watch when I was back. Tried to find a bar when I was there as well.

Will always watch United whenever I can.

 

[Lay]

I’ve seen about 5 games in about 6 months so yeah. Football is easy to catch up on so I don’t really watch many games anymore.

When I was younger I would watch every game no matter what but football has taken less importance of late.

 

[Hawks2008]

Sometimes. In Australia the games are on on late, and when some of our matches are on at like 3 or 4 am I usually just rather go to bed even if I have nothing on the next day. I generally will watch most games though.

 

[Gordon S]

Turned it off a few times in Lvg's second year. That man tested my love for the sport really.
With work, family, kids, house, garden, dog, cars and more there is not a lot of time free. In some of the few hours i got on my own i try to watch our games. But why waste most of that precious time on something that doesn't give me enjoyment?

The football with Jose as manager is fortunately very much "joga bonito" in comparison.

 

[C'est Moi Cantona]

Other than been dragged away I'd never miss one under Fergie, under Moyes I'd watch in disbelief at what I was seeing, but always watch.

LvG's first year I got massively rolled up in us getting top 4, so whilst it was painful it still had an edge to it, soon into LvG's last year was a turning point where you just knew it wasn't going to get much better no matter who we bought, so the apathy creapt in, & my need to watch all our games just wasn't there, this is how I still feel now, marking time until we get someone who will finally play some decent football, and entertain us once more.

So until that time I'll pick & choose what I watch, and know I'm unlikely to miss that much in the games I don't see.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

It's just routine for me to watch every game, but the excitement at times has gone. For example, I'm not even nervous about the derby, whether that's because it feels like a dead rubber or I already am expecting the worst, I don't know.