Football Disillusionment

[applecrumble]

Makes me ashamed to be a blue.

 

[Goat]

See, humour and banter, isnt the world better for such things?

 

[GrandOldTeam]

I’ve been supporting Everton for over 60 years, through great times, good times, not so good times and dismal times but I’m now getting really disillusioned with football in general and with Everton in particular. Covid lockdown hasn’t helped and has probably just brought this disillusionment into focus. However, after yesterday’s abysmal performance I sat and thought about the main causes of my discontent and these include some major issues and minor irritations (not necessarily Everton based) but I’m sure everyone can add to this list (including me!).

• Ridiculous transfer fees: you could build 5-6 primary schools for the cost of one iwobi* (£28M)
• Obscene levels of wages: You could employ 74 nurses for one Iwobi* annual salary (£2.6m)
• VAR: where do I start?
• Feigning injury: the obligatory scream of agony and the holding of the head, thigh, knee, shin, ankle after every hard (and not so hard) tackle. Mainly to disrupt the oppositions progress when you’ve just lost the ball!
• Throw-Ins: players from both sides holding up their arms and yelling ‘our ball’ every time there’s a throw-in, even when it’s clearly obvious who the ball last touched.
• Commentator’s terminology: ‘high press’ ‘low block’ ‘high line’ ‘tiki-taka’ ‘false number nine’ ‘box to box player’ ‘playing in the pocket’………..meaningless phrases that make me cringe every time I hear some half-wit commentator and his Stan Laurel side kick trying to appear ‘knowledgeable’.

* = or substitute any other expensive, overpaid, not very talented premier league player.

Of course if we beat Man City next Saturday all will be forgiven until next time!

There was an article on this on GOT a little while back: https://www.grandoldteam.com/2020/08/21/losing-my-religion/

But yeah, for me - the money involved/VAR/the media with the continual WWE like narrative... football isn't what it was. It's got worse, and Covid just showed the Premier League up for what it was.

I think not being able to get to Goodison has compounded a lot of the disillusionment.

 

[Drico]

I've been watching this now for ages and its brilliant. One of the things I like the most is its just Brian Moore as a one man show. He does the commentary and the presenting. Nowadays we somehow need to have a match commentator, a commentary pundit, a studio presenter and 2 studio pundits all nursing us through the game WTF! Why? They spend more time talking about the game than actually showing us it! They do show other regional games with Gerald Sinstadt or Huw Johns etc doing the commentary but thats it.

I just turn the sound off now on telly. I don't have a single commentators or pundit in my ear at the game (apart from the 40000 who are there with me haha) and I'm perfectly capable of realising whats going on when I watch it.

I like the olden days coverage better!

Yeah, it's marvelous telly. The Big Match was always a classic show. In Ireland we got either that or Match of the Day in alternating seasons when RTE could be bothered to cater for soccer fans. The Big Match DVDs are superb as well - I bought the set of 21 over a few years some time back. You are absolutely correct about the production values: back then, an authoritative figure like Brian Moore or Jimmy Hill would carry the show almost alone (accompanied by Jim Rosenthal or Bob Wilson) and the programme was 90% action-based. I cannot abide the current incarnation of Match of the Day - up to a maximum of 7 minutes per match and then half as much time again, if not more, on punditry from Danny Murphy. Kill me now.

The only Premier League highlights show worth watching now is the Premier League Review that the PL produces itself. It's basically MOTD without the punditry. That said, I still don't think it has anything like the charm of, say, highlights of three games with Brian Moore on commentary and presentation duty. Sure, everyone wants to see their team and times have changed, but the programming now is charmless and forgettable and you cannot get any sense of a match from 5-7 minutes highlights.

 

[sixtynineseventy]

Yeah, the game has changed beyond recognition since 1992 and the influx of cash that continues to reward failure to this day. Safe to say I’ve become hugely disillusioned with the game in general and in particular Everton for continually taking me to the edge of despair and very rarely bringing me back. The game is fed by pundits reinventing tactics and terminology to sound relevant and knowledgeable. Players adorn themselves with tattoos to make themselves appear god like, dance around like Lionel Blair when they score and entice us with the glimpses into their worlds of wealth and celebrity. Can’t be doing with socks rolled over the knees, huddles, pointing to the skies when scoring and walking out palms open and muttering to themselves. Give me the Blue Steak train to Carlisle in the 70’s any time, complete with the 3 - 0 defeat when the pressure was on to win. Come to think of it, some things never change.

 

[Amokachi1995]

Ultimately it's been a decent season for us in difficult circumstances and could still get better.

Of course it would be better if we could go to the match. It would be better if numbskulls like Merson and Sherwood weren't given air time and the media wasn't monopolised by RS. It would be better if we could beat Burnley/Fulham/Newcastle at home!!

But we've beaten Liverpool away. Had big results against Arsenal,Spurs and Chelsea. We've also got a new stadium on the way and a world class manager.

Football isn't what it was and never will be again, but it remains a distraction and has been a positive punctuation mark in depressing times.

I'll be tuning in on Saturday hoping for the best but expecting the worst. I guess most people on this forum will be doing the same.

 

[GrandOldTeam]

A bit like this forum adding insulting tags - makes me ashamed to be a blue What are we reds or something

Kopites have a cult like tendency not to call out their own slimeballs.

 

[Blue Roo]

American sports wages are disgusting.
Worse than ours.
And look how they treat their citizens ,healthcare etc.

We could curb the pl.
Cancel your subscription.
Stop going.
Empty stadiums after lockdown will look awful.
It'll take time .

You wouldn't happen to have a ticket to the next derby perchance?

 

[Wat Tyler]

I’ve been supporting Everton for over 60 years, through great times, good times, not so good times and dismal times but I’m now getting really disillusioned with football in general and with Everton in particular. Covid lockdown hasn’t helped and has probably just brought this disillusionment into focus. However, after yesterday’s abysmal performance I sat and thought about the main causes of my discontent and these include some major issues and minor irritations (not necessarily Everton based) but I’m sure everyone can add to this list (including me!).

• Ridiculous transfer fees: you could build 5-6 primary schools for the cost of one iwobi* (£28M)
• Obscene levels of wages: You could employ 74 nurses for one Iwobi* annual salary (£2.6m)
• VAR: where do I start?
• Feigning injury: the obligatory scream of agony and the holding of the head, thigh, knee, shin, ankle after every hard (and not so hard) tackle. Mainly to disrupt the oppositions progress when you’ve just lost the ball!
• Throw-Ins: players from both sides holding up their arms and yelling ‘our ball’ every time there’s a throw-in, even when it’s clearly obvious who the ball last touched.
• Commentator’s terminology: ‘high press’ ‘low block’ ‘high line’ ‘tiki-taka’ ‘false number nine’ ‘box to box player’ ‘playing in the pocket’………..meaningless phrases that make me cringe every time I hear some half-wit commentator and his Stan Laurel side kick trying to appear ‘knowledgeable’.

* = or substitute any other expensive, overpaid, not very talented premier league player.

Of course if we beat Man City next Saturday all will be forgiven until next time!

Great post.

I also think with regard to Everton, we have got into a tedious, exceedingly dull time in our history.

I went on a little moan yesterday but the point still stands: We have to be in the argument for the most boring side in the country, we have had one final in 26 years and we even lost that, one derby win in a decade, tinpot clubs like Birmingham have won a trophy, swansea won a trophy, Portsmouth have won a trophy, even Fulham and Middlesbrough have got to European finals. An time we get a whiff of doing something good, or progressing, the players revert to type and then bottle it. Yet we sell out home and away, it’s amazing really.

 

[Del-boy]

Used to watch football all the time on the tele, other teams that is. Now not so much.
Man City probably going to win everything due to their vast wealth kind causes apathy. For me anyway. Also being resigned to the fact Everton are just making up the numbers and not going to win anything probably doesn’t help.

 

[Alanbileysfeathercut]

You wouldn't happen to have a ticket to the next derby perchance?

Decent stream if that helps...

 

[chrissyjack]

Bring back the old MOTD . Highlights of TWO matches . If both were 0-0

As already stated , the Big Match revisited is great viewing . Commentators saying what’s going on . Not some idiot sat next to him saying what some player likes for dinner .

 

[bag a yoko]

Tbh the lockdowns killing footy to me. Its pointless without anyone there.
Might sound hyperbolic but it's something I've been thinking on since everyone's been playing behind closed doors, it all feels so distant and alien. Everton feels part of my history and culture, my dad went there and his dad before him.
I lost my dad a whole ago and the distance from the club (as in going the game) and me feels horrible, I've never not been the game this long in my life.
Everton is something that's existed within the city for over a hundred years and despite it being a 10 minute car ride away it feels a million miles away.
Even the game being on doesn't feel real, when we were first for that spell it was a weird mix of euphoria, melancholy and nea.
Hard for me to describe and I dno if this makes any sense, I find it really depressing being so far away from something that means so much to me.
It feels like theirs a glass separator between football and reality, I miss football being a part of reality.

I'm probably just burned out from lockdown and miss social activities, I dno.

We locked down in Italy 5-6 weeks before the UK and while the situation we were living here was getting really desperate I didn't realise how much worse it would get when live sport stopped across all Europe.

The return of football helped cheer me up massively. I've found this season exceptionally entertaining. Partly because it's been so silly. I can't take it seriously which isn't a bad thing.

 

[Jacob]

And we still don’t know his best position.

Judging by his tweets and other comments passed, it would appear hes the only one who does....

 

[Connor]

Weird how people only feel disillusioned after a defeat.

Correct