Falling out of love with football (warning - miserable moaning post)

[noodlehair]

Just wondered if its just me that's felt like this over the course of this season and probably the last couple of seasons.

United have been shite for ages but I've usually still enjoyed watching the season overall and title race, etc. regardless of what United were involved in. This year I just can't bring myself to care and haven't really enjoyed the games I have watched. I felt similar last season but put it down to covid and the lack of fans at the time and ended up laregely giving it a miss save most United games. This season if anything I've been even less interested and have stopped really being that fussed even with United games.

I don't think it comes down to one thing as more a general frustration at all the nonsense that seems to surround everything now. The officiating is so bad its damaging the integrity of games and ruins at least half the games I watch on its own. The league just seems like it has no integrity at all in general to me with financial rules applying to some and not others, some teams allowed to just invent covid cases or use injuries as an excuse to cancel games while others are forced to play them. Teams going bust while others spend £100m on players they don't even need. Players in general just seeming less relatable and likeable. Bore offs like Kane just casually refusing to play or train because they don't get their way and then as a direct result being shite nearly all season long, but still referred to as "model professionals"...despite behaving in a way that would get you sacked from working at ASDA. Staggering amounts of whining about covid, fixture schedules etc. On top of that the Greenwood thing which is horrid just to think about, and the thought I can't get away from that clubs probably try to cover stuff like this up and the only reason that isn't what happened is because it was put on social media. I've enjoyed the Champions League still mostly, but then they literally tried to fix the draw for that on live international television so its hard to take it entirely seriously. The super league thing. Trying to furlough staff during covid. Trying to charge people £15 to watch games like Burnley vs Sheffield Utd during a pandemic. Holding a world cup in the middle of a season in a bunch of stadiums built by what are basically terribly treated slaves, because money innit. Listening to idiots like Klopp talk moral shite before willingly taking his team to go play a game in one of said stadiums without a word of objection.

I think its all taken its toll on my ability to invest in any of it. I find it really refreshing watching other sports because they don't seem to be nearly as poisoned by nonsense or weak whining, hypocrit mentalities as football is. The closest comparison I can think of that I've seen over the course of the season was the magically changing race rules in the last Formula 1 race, but if you had Premier League officiating in F1 that would just be standard every week, and you'd have things like the person who finished 5th being awared 1st by VAR, or Hamilton being allowed to just reverse backwards and forwards over the line for each lap instead of actually driving round the track, and then shouting in the face of the race officials when he manages to only finish 3rd after winning 12 races in a row. No other sport is nearly such a fecking mess of dislikeable rubbish.

To be honest this is prompted a bit by still being angry at the ridiculous handball decision yesterday, but that just felt like the last straw even at the time when the game was still going on. I was thinking just after, this is the first time I've been genuinely annoyed or invested in a game in months, and rather than being because of football its because of yet another piece of complete nonsense that has nothing to do with competitive sport, and just would never be allowed to happen in most other sports at that level...and yet probably wouldn't even be in the top 5 biggest nonsense decisions that have ruined games I've watched this season. And this is then followed by the now familiar thought of "why am I wasting my time with this again"?

 

[Red&Black]

i lived through what milanisti refer to as the "banter era".... your club is, to a lesser degree (on paper) going through the same phase.
it will pass. united is a monster of a club, w instant name recognition.

but, that being said, you also will still to press the hard reset button, which is harder for united than it is/was for milan. you still have stars, even if their performances arent star. sometimes it's worth a 1-2yr "meh" when you see that the meh is headed to wow.

but you need to start focusing on the scouting and less so on the name recognition.

 

[duffer]

I ain't reading all that.

When you're good again you'll feel different.

 

[Sandikan]

This is why you have to enjoy the times you're winning when they last, as the reality for the vast majority of clubs is more years of misery/average stuff than winning.

It's harder to deal with for United, as a huge amount of fans only knew success until Fergie went.
However, as Liverpool have shown, the big clubs do come back, it's just a case of finally getting the right manager and structure.

 

[rimaldo]

i think it’s just part and parcel of getting older. if you plot a ‘successful’ style graph of age v football interest then i think as age goes up, interest goes down. united playing no longer becomes the centre of your week, united losing doesn’t have so much of an impact. the more we lose, the more you get used to it.

couple that with the bad parts of football becoming more and more prevalent then i think it’s only natural.

 

[Richter]

I think is a covid thing noods and also age. Football just isn't as important anymore. You and me are the same age every result was life and death before but not these days I'm honestly more interested in my fantasy work league than United playing games...

 

[marktan]

I find myself caring less and less about United and regularly miss games, but I actually don't mind at all, I get to focus more on the rest of life and I watch more of other matches with other teams. I don't think there's any sort of rule that dictates that you need to be some sort of die-hard top red, it's a pleasure sport at the end of the day and if it bores you to tears like United does then you're free to do what you want with your time.

 

[Dirty Schwein]

Start watching championship. It's much better. And no VAR.

 

[rimaldo]

I ain't reading all that.

When you're good again you'll feel different.

not sure that’s true. i switched to liverpool for a bit and whilst it was nice to experience a club with competent governance and a great manager again i just couldn’t really bring myself to celebrate the cl triumph or the breaking of the pl hoodoo. on the plus side i’ve never owned as many hub caps and sleeping with my sister was quite fun.

 

[Sky1981]

I dont mind the barren year, but i find it very hard to root for this team

The primadonnas, the inept manager being chosen because of history instead of merit, the lynching of Rangnick publicly with all the leaks, our own fsns who turns on rangnick after 5 games because they're butt hurt ole was sacked, pogba, shaw mouthing off, maguire cupping his ears in arrogance while playing like a sack of potato, fletcher taking charge of training while not being qualified to take one, looking at sancho flopping, fans base are getting more toxic by the day you cant discuss anything without being drawn to one extreme or the other

Yes, there will he a straw that breaks the camel's back eventually and I'd probably be done with football. Might not be today but it's very hard to enjoy united at the moment

 

[VanDeBank]

I can't help you with United being shit, but there's a cure for the part of the rant moaning about the media and the players: Just watch the games and don't read/watch the media bs.

i think it’s just part and parcel of getting older. if you plot a ‘successful’ style graph of age v football interest then i think as age goes up, interest goes down. united playing no longer becomes the centre of your week, united losing doesn’t have so much of an impact. the more we lose, the more you get used to it.

couple that with the bad parts of football becoming more and more prevalent then i think it’s only natural.

Seems to be the pattern with posters that stay in the general.

 

[shamans]

It's probably age, but I wanna blame it on social media and all.

I feel everything microanalyzed to the nth degree now, fans in general are kneejerk about anything (a player has a few poor games and there's a compilation around about them). Clubs and players become memes.

Then there's just the lack of mystery to new players. Any new talent signed is a known quantity. Back in the day it was always a bit of a mystery on who this new player was. Transfer rumors as well -- not many surprises anymore.

Stuff like XG etc are just so off putting. Anyway, it's probably my age but I like blaming it on all this other stuff.

 

[Ludens the Red]

@noodlehair
Think a few have and will miss the point and will make it about United being shit but all those things you’ve mentioned have pissed me and a lot of others off for ages. However I have to be honest, it’s not turned me off the game at all. I’m still interested and I’ll still spend most weekends taking in football but theres no doubt there’s so much to detest about football nowadays.
That whole covid shit and the whinging and bitching that came with it by managers of clubs who stockpile players (looking at you Chelsea) was embarrassing. These same managers will draw Swindon and Plymouth in the cup and still send out most of their first team.

But you forgot other detestable things like..
That bald cnut trying to make a World Cup every two years then saying it would stop Africans trying to leave Africa.
You also had the whole Newcastle takeover and people trying to justify it as being good for football.

Probably helps to take in non Pl football. There’s no var in the lower leagues, there’s a bit more honesty about. And you’ve not got managers with billion pound squads whinging and whining about fixtures and injuries and covid….

The Derby/Rooney story shows there’s some good left.
Wayne Rooney is managing a team with no money who are losing players every week, he was lied to and ignored by his chairman and he’s moaned about it maybe once. They’ve all just gotten on with it and pretty much every game of theirs is a stormer.

 

[rimaldo]

It's probably age, but I wanna blame it on social media and all.

I feel everything microanalyzed to the nth degree now, fans in general are kneejerk about anything (a player has a few poor games and there's a compilation around about them). Clubs and players become memes.

Then there's just the lack of mystery to new players. Any new talent signed is a known quantity. Back in the day it was always a bit of a mystery on who this new player was. Transfer rumors as well -- not many surprises anymore.

Stuff like XG etc are just so off putting. Anyway, it's probably my age but I like blaming it on all this other stuff.

yep. when i were a lad you had to wait outside old trafford for an hour or two after the game to racially abuse players. kids don’t know they’re born nowadays.

 

[adexkola]

I ain't reading all that.

When you're good again you'll feel different.

This.

Also recommend watching football other than United's.

 

[DavelinaJolie]

You also had the whole Newcastle takeover and people trying to justify it as being good for football.

One of the most nauseating things was a number of pundits saying "The Newcastle fans are the best in the world" as a justification, using fans as a reason to excuse a massive sports washing exercise.

On the topic. I found my interest in football hit a nadir pre-pandemic but during the lockdowns found myself watching lots of football. As we're heading back to "normality" I'm losing interest again as everything isn't being dominated by Covid and I'm getting angry at the state of the world again.

 

[Nickelodeon]

It will turn. Luck has a way of balancing itself out. Looking at Chelsea’s result today, they were much worse than us against an even worse side than Boro. But there you have it, sometimes when things aren’t going your way, the troubles double down.

The only positive I can see is that we will have no option but to do a reset in the summer. And even if not for trophies, there will be a new sense of optimism that we can get it right the next time.

 

[Sparky_Hughes]

not sure that’s true. i switched to liverpool for a bit and whilst it was nice to experience a club with competent governance and a great manager again i just couldn’t really bring myself to celebrate the cl triumph or the breaking of the pl hoodoo. on the plus side i’ve never owned as many hub caps and sleeping with my sister was quite fun.

I can confirm, sleeping with his sister is very fun

 

[Rozay]

Didn’t read the monologue, but can say that this has been the case with me too. Perhaps that one season behind closed doors left a legacy.

In the last few years I’d commit to at least watching every United game but slowly started choosing Netflix over stuff like El Clasico and other domestic games I’d always watch before. This season I’ve taken the ultimate step of missing a couple of United games, including last night’s one. I was out last night, but ordinarily I’d cancel any plans if United were playing. Last month I missed a game while I was at home though, for probably the first time ever. I was genuinely just watching something else.

 

[horsechoker]

I don't think I'm falling out of love with football but anything to do with City, Liverpool, Chelsea and PSG I can't be bothered with. If I supported a different team I probably wouldn't mind Klopps pool.

I enjoy watching other games as a neutral and I think I'll look elsewhere in the game where the money and players aren't absolutely ridiculous.

 

[mu4c_20le]

I'm surprised you can even enjoy the title races. I mean the occasional schradenfreude is fun I suppose, but still feels empty watching an oil club run away with it.

 

[Stookie]

Happened a while ago with me. I stopped going to matches and when BT took charge of CL football I didn’t subscribe to that. That made me realise I can live without it. So eventually I got rid of sky sports and now just watch the odd game here and there. A bindipper friend said it was because I was a glory hunter who only supported through the good times. I pointed out to him that if supported them since the late 70s and all through the 80s when things weren’t so rosey so that’s a load of bollox. Took some balls for him to say that really as he used to be the worlds biggest Huddersfield town fan. Disappeared for a few years then showed up as a Liverpool fan. I’ve got other things in my life now to worry about. I don’t let a bunch of spoilt millionaires ruin my weekends any more.

 

[golden_blunder]

It's probably age, but I wanna blame it on social media and all.

I feel everything microanalyzed to the nth degree now, fans in general are kneejerk about anything (a player has a few poor games and there's a compilation around about them). Clubs and players become memes.

Then there's just the lack of mystery to new players. Any new talent signed is a known quantity. Back in the day it was always a bit of a mystery on who this new player was. Transfer rumors as well -- not many surprises anymore.

Stuff like XG etc are just so off putting. Anyway, it's probably my age but I like blaming it on all this other stuff.

I find all the XG stuff boring as well. It all adds up to turning the older fans away I think.
Many of the things that @noodlehair mentions resonates with me too. I also want to add them trying to push a World Cup through every 2 years for no good reason. Money.

 

[Gordon S]

I would guess it`s an age thing. It feels like i give less and less shit about things in general every year while at the same time being more annoyed about everything i do not ”get”
We are doomed to become grumpy bastards.

 

[Utd heap]

I think you're just getting old.

I'm off to Burnley on a cold Tuesday night in a few days and i can't wait. Just like it's always been.

 

[WeePat]

I ain't reading all that.

When you're good again you'll feel different.

same energy

 

[devil in me]

I feel exactly the same. My interest has been waning for a while, and the season behind closed doors finished me off, I haven't got that passion for it back yet. The whole 'states owning football clubs' has been the driving factor, especially with the cheating of the rules regarding ffp. Not much fun in a league where a billion pound squad put together through financial doping beats Burnley 6 nil etc.
Not just that though , VAR, ridiculous rules, players not arsed, terrible officiating etc all added to the mix. Probably age, too.
I find the champions league even worse.

I will say though, this only really relates to the game at the top level. Plenty of fun to be had in the lower leagues !

 

[el3mel]

I'm starting to hate Premier League. Just don't enjoy it more, and watching United brings me more misery than happiness or fun.

The times I have the most fun during the season have become the international break, as fun as it sounds. Feels great to have 2 weeks off without football and United matches to worry about or get frustrated thanks to shit results or performance.

Outside PL though I still enjoy football. So for me it's a case of United making me miserable.

 

[el3mel]

Didn’t read the monologue, but can say that this has been the case with me too. Perhaps that one season behind closed doors left a legacy.

In the last few years I’d commit to at least watching every United game but slowly started choosing Netflix over stuff like El Clasico and other domestic games I’d always watch before. This season I’ve taken the ultimate step of missing a couple of United games, including last night’s one. I was out last night, but ordinarily I’d cancel any plans if United were playing. Last month I missed a game while I was at home though, for probably the first time ever. I was genuinely just watching something else.

Yesterday I said "feck it" and went to sleep to wake up early for work instead of completing the game. Few years ago I would have watched the full game and went to bed lately, but lately I'm starting to realize it's not really worth it anymore to sacrifice my sleeping time for this shit.

This reflects what I have been feeling for few years. Watching United have started to become more of a job to do rather than a sort of entertainment to pass time. Previously I would cancel everything and prepare the day so that I'm free to watch the United game, and I'll do that while loving it. Now ? My feeling has become "shit, a United game today ? That means I'll have to sacrifice a lot of my daily routine to watch it and they'll probably lose anyway but I must watch" or something like that.

It's a shame I'm starting to feel like that, but I can't really pretend otherwise.

 

[Cloud7]

yep. when i were a lad you had to wait outside old trafford for an hour or two after the game to racially abuse players. kids don’t know they’re born nowadays.

 

[Wumminator]

I absolutely love going to the game and watching United play.

I can not abide the gossip, the punditry or the nonsense that comes with “banter”.

I detest clubs like Newcastle being owned by literal murderers and the World Cup being in such a horrible state.

 

[giorno]

not sure that’s true. i switched to liverpool for a bit and whilst it was nice to experience a club with competent governance and a great manager again i just couldn’t really bring myself to celebrate the cl triumph or the breaking of the pl hoodoo. on the plus side i’ve never owned as many hub caps and sleeping with my sister was quite fun.

I concur. Your sister is a demon in the sack

 

[Irwin99]

There are things chipping away at my love for the club and the game itself I do have to admit. I guess maybe you can chalk it up to the way the wider world is as well but there have been more things that have really annoyed me about the game in the past few years:

• The Super league crap last year and the priorities/intentions of those clubs
• The next world cup
• The covid business and the lack of fans
• The insanity of the football market in a world where people are struggling so badly; Real Madrid's chase of Mbappe for example
• The toxicity of the Ole in vs Ole out (both sides) really got me down regarding the club i support; ditto the 'United DNA' lines and the usual Glazer stuff
• Crap title races over the past few years in England. The race for top 4 has become the main point of interest and that's disregarding whether United are involved or not.

 

[rimaldo]

I concur. Your sister is a demon in the sack

they do have a lot of energy at that age.

 

[Rozay]

I absolutely love going to the game and watching United play.

I can not abide the gossip, the punditry or the nonsense that comes with “banter”.

I detest clubs like Newcastle being owned by literal murderers and the World Cup being in such a horrible state.

This is another huge factor that has turned me off football. The ‘storyline’ that has been built to accompany it. All the brainchild of Sky, but all journalists have now followed suit - and it’s all become about a narrative. If a theme starts getting a response, then they’ll look for anything that fits and try and spin to get as much mileage as they can. Usually in an attempt to stir up ‘banter’ amongst rival groups, or just get into arguments with specific groups.

Now we are in an age where we start declaring a ‘winner’ of a fecking transfer window, before we even see anyone on the grass, and the new age fans seem more concerned about shit like that than the actual goings on on the field. And if it isn’t about that, they are arguing about shit they know nothing about like ‘structures’ or who has the best technical director or something.

 

[Rozay]

Yesterday I said "feck it" and went to sleep to wake up early for work instead of completing the game. Few years ago I would have watched the full game and went to bed lately, but lately I'm starting to realize it's not really worth it anymore to sacrifice my sleeping time for this shit.

This reflects what I have been feeling for few years. Watching United have started to become more of a job to do rather than a sort of entertainment to pass time. Previously I would cancel everything and prepare the day so that I'm free to watch the United game, and I'll do that while loving it. Now ? My feeling has become "shit, a United game today ? That means I'll have to sacrifice a lot of my daily routine to watch it and they'll probably lose anyway but I must watch" or something like that.

It's a shame I'm starting to feel like that, but I can't really pretend otherwise.

Yep, pretty much my feelings.

 

[Scholesgoals]

Totally agree noodle. It's a sham game which has been co-opted by billionaires and shady investment groups to greenwash or even standard wash their cash. Players now are so far removed from real life. Millionaires without even achieving. Qatar, Saudi, abramovich, official noodle sponsers. Corrupt FIFA... Bellends of players.

 

[noodlehair]

i lived through what milanisti refer to as the "banter era".... your club is, to a lesser degree (on paper) going through the same phase.
it will pass. united is a monster of a club, w instant name recognition.

but, that being said, you also will still to press the hard reset button, which is harder for united than it is/was for milan. you still have stars, even if their performances arent star. sometimes it's worth a 1-2yr "meh" when you see that the meh is headed to wow.

but you need to start focusing on the scouting and less so on the name recognition.

Yeah but we've been shite for nearly 10 years. It hasn't affected my enjoyment of other games...and I don't remember there being this much nonsense surrounding the game and the officiating of it at any point in the past. I just watch it and its blatantly corrupt to me. There is no other explanation left for it. They even tried to fix the CL draw on live television. Next season is already fecked up by the crookid world cup of crookidness. All just gets very hard to give a shite about. It's effort to wade through all the bullshit.

I ain't reading all that.

When you're good again you'll feel different.

There were a couple of years we were good where I stopped watching almost completely because it all seemed a bit rubbish. Think one year one of the only games I watched was your lot randomly spanking us 5-0.

Last football experience I think I geneuinely enjoyed was the England vs Germany game at the Euros, and probably only because I was there and quite drunk.

 

[noodlehair]

i think it’s just part and parcel of getting older. if you plot a ‘successful’ style graph of age v football interest then i think as age goes up, interest goes down. united playing no longer becomes the centre of your week, united losing doesn’t have so much of an impact. the more we lose, the more you get used to it.

couple that with the bad parts of football becoming more and more prevalent then i think it’s only natural.

Yeah I definitely think thats part of it with United. I've definitely become less invested over the years regardless of good or bad spells but still always made time for the games. Now I find that's a struggle. The Greenwood situation sucked any enthusiasm at all I had out of yesterday's game and then the game itself was ruined by yet more officiating shite. Its a lot of bollocks to wade through for 90 minutes of mild entertainment.

Its the non United games where I'm really struggling though. The league is a mess this year with all the cancellations and rules being applied differently to different teams. How was Liverpool just pretending half their squad falsely tested positive at the same time not even investigated for example? I definitely find it harder to care or want to invest time in something when it can't even take itself seriously.

The greed and other nonsense probably sits outside of that but like you said, as you get older you have less energy and time to invest and probably subconciously at least analyse more what is worth investing in at all.

 

[Vidyoyo]

It's a shame but I really think media saturation plays a huge part in the malaise. It's bad enough that we suck on the pitch but to hear about it constantly is utterly exhausting.