Some valid points, disagree about the artistry though. Think todays game is more suited to small, technical, artistic players than it was back in the day.
Thinking the unthinkable - not interested in football any more...
- Thread starter simonhch
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Someone else may have suggested this, but I'd go and watch some lower league football. I've watched as much live Championship football this year as anything and I've enjoyed it more than the PL. I also watch semi-pro stuff now and again when I go to see my brother. Its great - good clubs run by volunteers and loyal fans.
The top level is a different product. That's not going to change and frankly, I agree with you. It'll get worse.
It's part of getting older, your priorities simply change (as they should).
You’re spot on Simon. Every year there seems to be something new to annoy me about the game, but I think var will be good.
Watching soccer is my drug so I won’t be giving up just yet but if the Saudis took over United I would seriously think about giving it up and just watching cork city and internationals.
Watching soccer is my drug so I won’t be giving up just yet but if the Saudis took over United I would seriously think about giving it up and just watching cork city and internationals.
This.
Also Utd becoming crap and Scousers and City beginning good.
To each his own.
I can't wait for the UCL final and Copa América.
I can't wait for the UCL final and Copa América.
Interesting subject the op takes up here. I'll say this: watch an old firm derby Celtic v Ragers. What do you get? Entertainment at its highest level. Intensive football. End to end stuff. Every single player on the pitch giving 100%. Hard tackling. No winging and no medics coming on the pitch every 5 mins. And not only all that a decent level of quality football as well.
I can understand where you are coming from OP, As I have felt like my love for the game has slightly dwindled to. Not to your degree of wanting to stop watching, but in general I watch less football now then ever, which is crazy considering I now have access to any world football pretty much at my fingertips (thanks to my iptv sub).
Have you tried any other sports? NBA has always been my favourite other sport and I find myself more invested in that now then ever. Also other sports like the NFL are growing here more and more.
Have you tried any other sports? NBA has always been my favourite other sport and I find myself more invested in that now then ever. Also other sports like the NFL are growing here more and more.
I have been of the same mind for a while now. I do not watch most premier league stuff because a) it's too expensive and time consuming to attend matches b) the cost of watching on TV is also prohibitive, especially as Skysports now has a virtual monopoly on matches including all the playoffs I used to watch. Although I do get to see some games on BT sport as it is a free channel on my Virgin account. Sometimes watch Utd. at a mates house or down the pub. c) there are so many rubbish matches that have been built up to be world beaters. The standard of football appears to be more about fitness with very little skill being shown by most clubs. Also enjoy a bit of German or French top level stuff mostly on BT sport, mainly because I have no particular affiliation to any team. d) the attempts of European/World authorities trying to take football to every corner of the ending up with competitions being played in places like Qatar or Baku, in conditions alien to football.
In short I agree with all the comments made by @simonhch to a greater or lesser degree. Does not help that my grandson is turning out to be a first class Rugby Union player and has no interest whatsoever in football.
In short I agree with all the comments made by @simonhch to a greater or lesser degree. Does not help that my grandson is turning out to be a first class Rugby Union player and has no interest whatsoever in football.
I'm the same age as you, grew up falling in love with football in the 80's and onward. I know exactly what you are talking about and I can't even imagine what the football fans of the 60's-70's think of where football is today. I've felt/feel a lot of the things you've written about and completely agree with much of it. As someone wrote before me, find some lower league football to watch. I watch my local team here and see a lot of the things that made me love football.
As sucessful as City are, can you honestly say it's entertaining to watch? Imagine going to the Etihad week in week out seeing the same thing over and over again. Possesion football, winning the ball back in the oponents own half, and then bulldozing them down until the inevitable happens and the first goal goes in. Repeating this again and again and the game ends up 4-0 to the home side. Same thing happens in the next match even if the line-up is different.
How entertaining is that?
How entertaining is that?
Personally, as I'm now long removed from my early 20's, I don't have the same energy/interest anymore to follow all the news, and various players as I did before. I'm still watching matches as I've always done, but it's of course not the same as when you're younger. So mainly I don't think it's because of all the reasons listed in the OP for me. I'm just getting old. Help!
re Sugar Daddies being bad for football.
I've never undetstood why an owner investing his own money into a clubs players and infrastructure is bad for football???
You have the Glaziers, who are only in it for purely financial gain.
Mike Ashley - Nice stadium, great crowd, good manager but nowhere enough investment to take the club forward.
Yes Spurs have done pretty well competing for top four, but what do they win?
Abramovich vs the Chelsea owners of the 1970's who brought the club close to extinsion. Lost ownership of the stadium and not even having a training ground. So broke they were unable to sign a single player between August 1974 and June 1978. How is a club supposed to compete with owners who like that?
Shite owners have ruined or held clubs back! Give me an owner who invests any day of the week!
I've never undetstood why an owner investing his own money into a clubs players and infrastructure is bad for football???
You have the Glaziers, who are only in it for purely financial gain.
Mike Ashley - Nice stadium, great crowd, good manager but nowhere enough investment to take the club forward.
Yes Spurs have done pretty well competing for top four, but what do they win?
Abramovich vs the Chelsea owners of the 1970's who brought the club close to extinsion. Lost ownership of the stadium and not even having a training ground. So broke they were unable to sign a single player between August 1974 and June 1978. How is a club supposed to compete with owners who like that?
Shite owners have ruined or held clubs back! Give me an owner who invests any day of the week!
External investment can enable clubs with smaller revenue streams to compete with the bigger clubs. Big clubs, and fans of big clubs, don't like competition. They're fine with external investment as long as it's not sufficient to enable the smaller club to truly compete with the bigger clubs (Bournemouth, Wolves, Fulham etc. etc.), but if it's sufficient to enable competition then suddenly it's an existential threat to the game.
Why do these threads always coincide with a teams lack of success relative to a teams stature? People dress it up how they lack, but the truth is and always is that a hissy fit is taking place because your team is not as successful as you want it to be.
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Dude, it just sounds like you grew up. It happens. When you have kids, when your parents die, when you have to worry about work and putting food on the table, sports no longer seem so important or magical. It's completely normal. I still love to watch United but I don't live and die by a loss or a win like I did when I was younger.
I enjoy it more if I avoid all the made up shite in the press.
Entitlement pure and simple. You find it in every walk of life where old money looks down on new money. The worst aspect about modern football is what the entitled elite like the Spanish and Italian giants, Bayern and English traditional elite clubs have been trying to change rules and block external investments because they felt their position in the elite is no longer secure. They, sadly including us, no longer want to earn the right to qualify for the CL, they want to make a closed shop which it. already kinda is. It's protectionism masquerading as traditional values and financial prudence when it suits them obviously.
I don't think it's unnatural to lose interest in something, we all go through phases and change. Sometimes our passion for something dips as circumstances change or sometimes we just want to do other things with our time.
I’ve definitely lost touch with football, more over the last 10 years really. I used to watch every game religiously, whatever game was on, ST holder, go home away, full sports package to watch as much as I could. Now I just watch United but I don’t go out of my way anymore. I was telling my friend this who is a Liverpool fan and he said it’s becuse United are shite now, basically calling me a fair weather supporter. I said that’s bullshit, I watched United at the end of the 70’s and through the 80s when Liverpool were the top team. I remember back then thinking United will never win the league but the whole experience of going to OT was amazing even though they weren’t great. All the magic has gone for me now. I’ll watch em on the telly now but even that’s miserable. Ive got Sky but nearly all the games this season seemed to be on on BT. I can’t afford both so it can feck off.
The game has been this way for over 20 years. Difference is that clubs like United are only now beginning to feel the pain of losing to other huge money clubs. Football is about money, it's been this way since the 90s. This is why I prefer international football over club football.
Same here and I agree with your OP.
Occasionally I can get into the spirit watching a match, I enjoy going to a non-league game on a sunny day and playing football with my son, but top level corporate football goes against my normal values in everything else in life. Huge corporations making vast sums off the backs of sponsorships, gambling etc, paying pretty much zero in taxes, while milking fans for every penny really isn't what the spirit of the game used to be. Obviously, United used to take a lead in that kind of thing, so I'm not just critical of other clubs.
Now, there may be a bit of an element of disillusionment as United are a shambles, but I think it is more that as I live in Manchester and work with football as the main topic of my employment, I've reached saturation point and no longer find enjoyment or inspiration in the game. That stuff is easier to overlook if you have the occasional emotional high on the back of it maybe.
I’m just going to double down on my OP and say there is feck all to admire about modern football. Average players like Maguire being quoted at 85m. Top clubs stock piling talent. Money, money, money, money, money, money, money. It’s gross. I don’t even know if I’ll watch this season.
i took to watching non-league football mate. I follow Weymouth up and down the country and it is such a fantastic match day experience and the players are that much more relatable.
For example, over christmas last year we were away to Taunton Town, 1st against 2nd in the league. My mate and I travelled up, he drove and we got to the ground, had a burger and chips and a couple of drinks (soft as my mate drove) watched the game and drove back. The day cost us £35 each for the lot. the game was really good, the atmosphere was brilliant too, much more like it. In fact, here are some highlights. My team are in the white.
Thanks for this. That was really heartening. I live in the US now and there’s not much to follow here locally. But I’ll see what I can do. I need to get back to playing regularly. There’s a lot of joy in that.
Being also 30 myself I"d say it's a bit of both.
Probably more to do with the phase in life we are entering(fam/kids). The state of football (everything what OP said) doesn't help either.
No worries. i get where you are coming from. As a suggestion, what about the conference? I know BT have a live game every week and i'm sure there is an unscrupulous way of getting such game in the states? It might be an option to consider.
I will definitely look into it. Thank you!
Some football games out there are still entertaining to watch though, just not any games from us.
For me, the biggest problem is the stockpiling of talent taking place at the biggest clubs. If there was a way to regulate this I think the problem with state backed clubs, or monopoly leagues would be smaller.
Five years ago Rojo and Darmian were starting for two of the best national teams in the world, which gave them the opportunity to go to Manchester United. Being brought in as first team players, they failed to establish themselves in the starting line up. After that they were tried as squad players, but failed at that as well. For the last few years they have played 5-10 matches a year as fringe players.
I see these kinds of situation as a triple negative. Firstly, the biggest clubs can give out big contracts to senior players that play very little. These means that they can have three or four senior options for a position, making the consequences of a a bad buy smaller. This makes it very hard to compete with them, as they get "too big to fail".
Secondly, players that fail at a big club should have to go back to a smaller club and prove themselves again. This way you get more of a sense that players must do all they can to stay at a club, and not just relax and pick up a big salary for years. This would also help smaller teams, as a lot of these fringe players at the top teams could really help them.
Thirdly, I believe most fans would rather see an academy player get those few matches than these fringe players.
I think this can be solved with regulations. Something like every club can only register 18 players over 21. This way every club must take careful choices, state backed or not. And if they get it wrong, they will have a bad season. Also we would get to see all the best players play regularly, instead of top class players sitting on their ass an entire season, just to pick up a nice salary.
Five years ago Rojo and Darmian were starting for two of the best national teams in the world, which gave them the opportunity to go to Manchester United. Being brought in as first team players, they failed to establish themselves in the starting line up. After that they were tried as squad players, but failed at that as well. For the last few years they have played 5-10 matches a year as fringe players.
I see these kinds of situation as a triple negative. Firstly, the biggest clubs can give out big contracts to senior players that play very little. These means that they can have three or four senior options for a position, making the consequences of a a bad buy smaller. This makes it very hard to compete with them, as they get "too big to fail".
Secondly, players that fail at a big club should have to go back to a smaller club and prove themselves again. This way you get more of a sense that players must do all they can to stay at a club, and not just relax and pick up a big salary for years. This would also help smaller teams, as a lot of these fringe players at the top teams could really help them.
Thirdly, I believe most fans would rather see an academy player get those few matches than these fringe players.
I think this can be solved with regulations. Something like every club can only register 18 players over 21. This way every club must take careful choices, state backed or not. And if they get it wrong, they will have a bad season. Also we would get to see all the best players play regularly, instead of top class players sitting on their ass an entire season, just to pick up a nice salary.
Ifollow shows every championship, league one and two game live for quite a small annual fee outside of england.
You could pick a team outside the prem and adopt them.
i agree with your OP. im honest enough to say that living where i am i came to support united mainly because they were successful and boasted recognizable worldwide names so i can't understand why some take offence to being called glory hunters when it is in all probability true. But i find myself unable to give any fecks which 80mn pound CB we are signing or who else we are linked with as also what we will do leading upto the season with our wantaway 'stars' who also happen to be social media influencers and brand gurus. It does all seem a bit soulless, even compared to like 15-20 years ago for me where people will argue the game was still commercial although I'd definitely argue not as much as it is now because you still had some of the old school personalities who stood for the more purer and identifiable aspects of football. I actually think that our lack of success recently has turned my attention more towards this side of the game but unlike your OP i think we are a massive part of the problem and are actually too big too fail. Eventually enough of the shit will stick for us too.
Avoided pretty much everything this summer and it’s been nice. Got a good feeling seeing the youngsters walking out on the training pitches. Redcafe is largely unreadable at the moment with everyone making hilarious Lingard jokes
Some valid points but you got to understand that there has always been corruption in football, ref bribing was rife in European competition for decades, money has always been an issue, Blackburn did it, before that Liverpool, Italian teams, us, all breaking transfer records to secure and stock pile the best players. The great Milan/Barca teams of the 80's/90's which are remembered in mainly only positive ways were built on big spending. Sometimes a team gets a bit lucky with a large group of young quality players coming through at the same time, not very often.
So, I do believe there is a bit of a blinkered, slightly bitter tint to the OP. Try tell Leicester fans that football has lost its soul, or Liverpool and Spurs fans last season? I strongly believe that if we had the City owners and were doing what they are doing, you would not be posting anything like the above and you'd still be very much in love with the game.
I’d probably give the women’s game a go. Especially with us being promoted to the WSL this season. I’ve really enjoyed the WC and it does feel a bit more like purer football. Failing that, as a lot of people have said, look a bit further down the league.
Used to be a hardcore myself too.
Now can't bother watching a game unless I put mad money on it. Gambling is probably the only reason I'd watch a full 90mins of football.
Now can't bother watching a game unless I put mad money on it. Gambling is probably the only reason I'd watch a full 90mins of football.
I never have made a Lingard joke
The reality is that we've had a fall from grace and seem incapable of making it back to the top. We've tried the money route, we've tried multiple managers with completely different ethos, we still have at large most of the same players who earmark exactly why the club is failing.
Solskjaer never in a million years should have been given the job after that disgraceful seasons end. Because he's been such a mediocre manager in his career there's no hope. If we had a Pep or Klopp in charge there would be a zest of anticipation and positive expectation. It doesn't only stem from transfer windows but also what implementation these calibre of coaches will bring to the first team. At every turn the owners have always made bad decisions, it's not even bad luck on their behalfs it's simply incompetence.
Solskjaer never in a million years should have been given the job after that disgraceful seasons end. Because he's been such a mediocre manager in his career there's no hope. If we had a Pep or Klopp in charge there would be a zest of anticipation and positive expectation. It doesn't only stem from transfer windows but also what implementation these calibre of coaches will bring to the first team. At every turn the owners have always made bad decisions, it's not even bad luck on their behalfs it's simply incompetence.
I prefer watching international football nowadays as I prefer watching as a neutral instead of being infuriated by my own team or even worse, feeling envious of rival teams for being so much better equipped and run than United.
I can see me avoiding this season after the first few games. Unless Ole immediately grabs my attention with much improved football than last season, I will be out.
I cannot stand the majority of our players. I'm indifferent to the rest. There's not a single player around the first team I genuinely like.
Finally it's club football in general and specifically the transfer fees. I can't abide 50m fees being attributed to average squad players anymore.
I can see me avoiding this season after the first few games. Unless Ole immediately grabs my attention with much improved football than last season, I will be out.
I cannot stand the majority of our players. I'm indifferent to the rest. There's not a single player around the first team I genuinely like.
Finally it's club football in general and specifically the transfer fees. I can't abide 50m fees being attributed to average squad players anymore.