Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Lambert and Payne on July 18, 2011, 09:31:29 PM
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I'm 19 and bored with football! 3 or 4 years ago a signing like Given would have my pulse racing, now I'm feeling meh, and its not just that, the only games I really got excited about last season were Olbeyun and Blose, other than that I don't get as excited like I used to. All my money now goes to saving for my own car, going out with mates and on dates, I can't afford a st and I'm not really that bothered!
The only thing I'm missing right now is something to shove on TV when I'm bored and the social side to Villa
Don't get me wrong I still want us to win every game and get dissapointed when we lose, but not so long back it would ruin my whole weekend
A lot of people say there losing touch because of the money and the amount of coverage it gets, I've never really known any different! Am I simply growing up? Or are more people my age going the same way?
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When I was 19 I thought we were going to win the league under SGT, so I was quite excited.
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It's not just people your age. I've given up my ST this year after 18 years. The players repulse me. I don't begrudge highly talented sportspeople from earning millions. But arrogant, lazy, mediocre, thick as pig shit twats simply don't deserve it. I just can't be bothered spending my time and money funding their excesses.
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I started to feel what you are feeling in the late 90s, when for me football really did start to stop being the game I fell in love in as a nipper in the mid 70s. I still love Villa but football as a whole, meh. For example, I haven't had Sky for a year now and don't miss live games at all, apart from Villa aways.
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Gave up 2 years ago, Cos of O'neill. The lads take the piss in the pub but if thats it i can cope
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Alex its worse if you are old enough to remember what it was like to start a season with real optimism, what it was like when on many an occaision Villa Park was the best place to be in the whole world. When the footballing heros were real blokes who were proud to walk onto the pitch wearing the shirt, when you could not wait for the next game. When the anticipation of waiting for your team to come out on to the pitch was heart pumping adrenalin.
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Hawkeye, the sad thing is all of that (except the real men comments!) Was me. Every weekend I had my mind on our next game. Every season was a new start.
Now all I think about all week is going out with my mates to a club or something. Villa has taken a back seat for me. Doesn't feel the same more
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Watching football is second to me, the main reason I go down is to drink with the lads and enjoy a day out.
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The big problem is, Villa are family. No matter what they do to you, they're still family. No matter how you pretend you don't care, you know you do.
We'll get it right. We always do.
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I started to feel what you are feeling in the late 90s, when for me football really did start to stop being the game I fell in love in as a nipper in the mid 70s. I still love Villa but football as a whole, meh. For example, I haven't had Sky for a year now and don't miss live games at all, apart from Villa aways.
Same here, although I've kept Sky for the cricket and rarely watch football.
I'm old enough to remember the golden period of 1980 - 1982. I still have those memories but it saddens me to think that I will never see Aston Villa achieve that level of success again.
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I seem to prefer watching American football than football these days. I think Villa will be successful again, but it won't be for another decade.
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I've felt the same for a long time, Still try to watch Villa as much as possible and I like watching Barca on a boring saturday or sunday evening but that's it. Generally Cricket and Rugby get much more attention, I can genuinely enjoy watching those regarldess of who's playing, in football watching the over-rated, overpaid knobs that play for most sides in the prem just sickens me, earn more in a week than the national average annual wage and can't even be arsed to put a shift in.
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I will never fall out of love with football I'm in my forties and I'm still in love with it now as I was when I first got interested in football.
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I will never fall out of love with football I'm in my forties and I'm still in love with it now as I was when I first got interested in football.
That applies to me as well.........I am soo bored during June, July when there are no games
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The players repulse me. I don't begrudge highly talented sportspeople from earning millions. But arrogant, lazy, mediocre, thick as pig shit twats simply don't deserve it. I just can't be bothered spending my time and money funding their excesses.
This. I used to have a ST and travel away, but I've started to pick and choose my games over the last few seasons. There are unavoidable financial implications for attending, but if I'm not at the game, I'm either glued to the TV, radio or internet and still living every kick. I still consider myself to be a dedicated fan and supporter, but I simply cant justify spending so much money anymore subsidising the wages of these ridiculously overpaid footballers. Makes me feel sick that some of them earn as much in a week that the average man would in 4 years.
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I love the Villa, hate football. But i have never been as disinterested with it all as i am at the moment. The way i look at it is if we sign someone and they have a good year then the bastard will be off the following summer. The strong get stronger and everyone else staggers on buying and swapping the players that the top clubs dont want.
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Deano, you said it all for me!
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I need a new forum. Villa talk here I come....
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Love the Villa
Fell out with football generally about 20 years ago
Was 19 in 1978 so a good time to follow the game
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I fucking hate modern football but that's because I knew a time where it wasn't like it is now.
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When you say you hate football, do you mean the actual game itself, or just the people and nonsense surrounding it ?
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I despise most things to do with it. The players, their salaries and inflated sense of self.
The owners doing the dance of the billionaire.
The fact that money is all that matters.
That nobody gives a shit about international games other than trying to engineer a move to another club.
Sky.
The utter destruction of competition in European tournaments where the latter stages of the not Champions League is the only show in town.
Ticket prices and stupid fucking kick off times.
Multi millionaire journeyman players.
The fact that all the winners of the domestic trophies are pretty much sewn up before a ball has been kicked.
I can carry on if you like. This rant however was brought to you on a Blackberry so my fingers are getting tired.
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Cheer up, we're playing Blackburn soon
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I hate the 'product' that football has become. I hate the fact that an average player will 'earn' in a week what it takes me years to earn. I hate the diving, cheating, feigning injury, trying to get fellow professionals sent off, the 'Andy Gray' type hype. I hate what Sky Sports has created.
I, with my rose tinted glasses, remember players with honest endeavour and a passion for playing football not just for the money. Remember loyalty?
Above all I hate the fact I can no longer afford to go to the games at Villa Park. I have been priced out of a place I love.
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But the actual game of football whether it's a good prem game Barcalona, Lower league football or a young lads game is still the best game in the world
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The big problem is, Villa are family. No matter what they do to you, they're still family. No matter how you pretend you don't care, you know you do.
We'll get it right. We always do.
Agree Mark. No matter how many times you say I've had enough, you still can't give them up.
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All of the above resonates, but I think perhaps it's also a generational thing.
I was 19 in the sixties, when we had arguably one of the worst teams of the last 50 years, but even so, the Villa was probably the most important thing in my life. It pretty much stayed that way until the mid eighties, when I just couldn't put up with the dross that was being served up any more, made worse by having seen them hit the heights but a few years earlier. So I walked away and tried to put the Villa out of my life because it just hurt too much to do otherwise.
It's only in the last five years or so that I've got sucked back in when I realised that I never really managed to exclude the Villa from my life, but my enthusiasm is not that of a 19 year old any more. I don't like what's happened to the game any more than anyone else, and having experienced how the game was in my youth makes it even more difficult to accept the modern game, but then, we are The Villa, the greatest football club in the world.
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Agree with so many points
I feel in love with what I feel was the best attacking Villa side I have ever seen in 1976/77
These days I can't be arsed with stupid kick off times, overpaid mediocre players who don't give a toss, average football, etc etc.
Villa will always be in my blood and I'll pick and choose the games I attend but for me now watching football is slipping down the list of priorities
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Someone siad on here a while back that the thing they miss at the start of each season is thinking 'we had a chance'. Not now, you know pretty much nailed on we won't make the top 4, let alone the league. Unless you have a billionaire owner the size of Citeh's or Chelski then the rest of us are just living off scraps. The top players won't come to a club outside the CL and those that are good enough or get attention of the top clubs, soon leave. The goalposts have moved.
This is another reason why I decided against a season ticket - the play for 5th.
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Modern football is rubbish.
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And don't even start me on the downgrading in prestige of winning a cup.
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I have not fallen out of love with football, I have fallen out of love with the Premier League. I was a season ticket holder for 20 years before I moved to Australia but now I see more Villa games as they are all shown live. But once you leave the UK you realize that to the rest of the world the Premier League is made up of Man U, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal ...oh and a few other teams.
Like many on here have said its the fact that before the season starts you know the only chance of a trophy is the league cup (assuming one of the big boys don't decide to take it seriously).
Before long most grounds will be half empty for most games as fans either cannot afford to go or simply refuse. All the Australian codes - Rugby Union, Rugby League, Aussie Rules and Football (I refuse t call it soccer !) use a salary cap which means the stars are more spread around, would never happen in the Premier League
A few weeks before we left the UK, I went to my last Villa game, we beat Newcastle 1-0, I stood for a few minutes remembering some of the great times I had seen there (The European Cup semi final win over Anderlecht, the Super Cup game against Barcelona, Kent Nielsens scorcher against Inter Milan and Platt getting the second after a classic Sid pass, the semi final against Tranmere, and God having every opposition forward in his pocket.
When I got home I was in tears, my wife said "I think sometimes you love the Villa more than you love me" to which I replied "Sometimes I love the blues more than I love you !!!!"
Could never fall out of love with the Villa - its in the blood
LTV
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Stick with it. I have a dream that one day the whole Murdoch SKY empire will collapse taking football with it as clubs are unable to meet the wages they have committed to. I have a dream that most of the overseas footballers and foreign owners will be like rats jumping from a sinking ship and return to their own leagues. I have a dream that all clubs will go bankrupt, that we will be left with a load of safe stadiums, club names and histories, and millions of followers begging to watch old fashioned football how it used to be. And all the clubs will rise from the ashes and start again from a level playing field to do battle. A true corinthian spirit, playing to take part and for the fun of it based on traditional values of fair play and sporting prowess. Apart from the Villa...Randy sticks with it and we are the only club left with shedloads of money and dictate and dominate the rest of 'em.
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It's normal in a world where literally everything is dependant on one criterium alone - the fucking market. We seem to have almost lost any sense that some things need to be done differently for the sake of society or even common sense.
From the Premier League to the supermarkets ruining the high streets and dairy farmers; from doing whatever it takes to sell a pile of shit mascerading as a news story to the inability of many to postpone gratification for even a second, we've forgotten that there should be more to life to aspire to than ripping each other off.
... Sorry about that. The sun's come out now, I'll be better in a minute.
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Modern football is rubbish.
I'm still optimistic For Tomorrow.
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Very interesting post from someone of your age, Alex. By that I mean you're a fan who's never known football with reasonable prices, moderately paid players, with not much football on TV and no Sky. I'd expect to hear your sentiments from people closer to my age (nearly 40 now) who went through the period of massive change between the late 80s and the early 90s (end of terracing, serious price hikes, new "fans" post Hornby and Italia 90 and the arrival of Sky and the Premiership) and came out the other side wanting their old game back.
I'd be interested to know if some of your contemporaries feel the same way. The Premier League really is getting more and more predictable, though, and that must be starting to bore a lot of people. Maybe financial fair play, if implemented properly, will help.
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Stick with it. I have a dream that one day the whole Murdoch SKY empire will collapse taking football with it as clubs are unable to meet the wages they have committed to. I have a dream that most of the overseas footballers and foreign owners will be like rats jumping from a sinking ship and return to their own leagues. I have a dream that all clubs will go bankrupt, that we will be left with a load of safe stadiums, club names and histories, and millions of followers begging to watch old fashioned football how it used to be. And all the clubs will rise from the ashes and start again from a level playing field to do battle. A true corinthian spirit, playing to take part and for the fun of it based on traditional values of fair play and sporting prowess. Apart from the Villa...Randy sticks with it and we are the only club left with shedloads of money and dictate and dominate the rest of 'em.
Along the lines of what I think will happen, only I fear much worse. Randy's value will fall too when the entire western economy collapses.
Today's kids will unfortunately pay the price of the generation of greed that we're still enduring - both in football and life.
Nobody needs two houses, two cars or £80k a week. It's just obscene, all of it.
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I'm really looking forward to going to Fulahm in a few weeks.
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I'm 33, started going up the Villa during the promotion season and have had season tickets for the majority of the seasons since then.Missed a few around the turn of the century due to work comitments but this will be third one in a row I haven't bothered.For me it isn't the expense, when i've wanted to go in the past I found the money, for me it's the predictable nature of it all.We got promoted in '88,stayed up in '89,runners up in 90, nearly went down in '91, nearly won it in '93, won cups in 94 and 96 and challenged the top end of the Prem as well.Now we're once again going into the season knowing that Man U,Man City,Arsenal,liverpool,Chelsea and Spurs will make the top 6 (in whatever order), Villa and Everton will battle it out for 7th and everyone else will spend 8 months of the season in a relegation fight. There's no excitement anymore.Sure there'll be the odd game where we'll turn over one of Sky's sweethearts but you can bet your bollocks that a week later that we'll lose against someone like Wigan and if the unthinkable were to happen and we did get anywhere near that top 4, our best player would be flogged in the summer anyway.
So for me i'll stick to coaching a youth side and watching the Villa from the comfort of the pub.
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For me it isn't the expense, when i've wanted to go in the past I found the money, for me it's the predictable nature of it all.We got promoted in '88,stayed up in '89,runners up in 90, nearly went down in '91, nearly won it in '93, won cups in 94 and 96 and challenged the top end of the Prem as well.Now we're once again going into the season knowing that Man U,Man City,Arsenal,liverpool,Chelsea and Spurs will make the top 6 (in whatever order), Villa and Everton will battle it out for 7th and everyone else will spend 8 months of the season in a relegation fight. There's no excitement anymore.Sure there'll be the odd game where we'll turn over one of Sky's sweethearts but you can bet your bollocks that a week later that we'll lose against someone like Wigan and if the unthinkable were to happen and we did get anywhere near that top 4, our best player would be flogged in the summer anyway.
It's a powerful argument I'll grant you.
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People alway post this sort of hysterical nonsense when things at Villa aren't going so well.
I got my Fulham ticket today. Can't feckin wait!
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I am feeling the same as the Op tbh. I think it started with England in the World cup being such a let down to a piss poor season with Villa. Although you get a few unpredictable results during the season the table is nearly always the same at the end of every season.
I think t that may rekindle my interest is the youth at Villa coming through, establishing themselves, showing some loyalty to the team whilst playing some attractive football down at Villa park.
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I think everyone has covered off what I've thought, well we've all thought, for years.
"Hope" has been taken away.
Last night's frankly boring expose on C4 carried one line that stuck out for me. We all know it but have we ever really stopped to digest it and fully understand it?
Football is a business now. It's all about making money. It gave up the pretence of being a genuine competition years ago.
And I feel sad and cheated that I'm hooked and can't escape.
Love Villa, hate football.
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People alway post this sort of hysterical nonsense when things at Villa aren't going so well.
I got my Fulham ticket today. Can't feckin wait!
I don't think it's hysterical nonsense. I think it's just what people are feeling in general and not because we have had a crap time of it these last few months.
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so all this bad feeling with the modern game,why havnt attendances gone down,despite times being tight.I think a day at a game is too dear and not as much fun as it was,but it seems the people disagree with me.Remember the late 80s and there being 16k there some weeks?
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Falling out of love with football – probably, although I still listen to live games on the radio regardless of who is playing.
Falling out of love with Villa – no, but the passion has gone.
I have lived 130 miles from Villa Park for the last 25 years and for a high proportion of those years I had a season ticket and travelled home and away. I no longer have a season ticket and go to relatively few games. I do watch as many Villa games as I can on the internet, in a friends house or down the pub (I don’t have a television of my own).
I have watched us sink to the 3rd Division and back up to the very pinnacle. But its all gone wrong.
The spectators in the ground I feel are little more than a backdrop and sound effects for the television coverage. The number of games on the television has also had its effect on support, particularly in the lower divisions. Kids support the ‘Sky Four’ now rather than their local team. A youth living in Birmingham has a reasonable choice to follow, but why support them when you can’t afford to go, Living in Colchester, they certainly don’t support the local team. Look at the attendances in the lower leagues.
Very few players have any loyalty to the club, managers come and go and are not given enough time to build a team from the bottom up. It’s all about bottom line.
I can’t wait for a high profile team to go into administration and be treated by the authorities as any other business would i.e. force them out of business. When this happens some element of sanity may return.
End of moan.
UTV
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I can't fall out with football, it's like a drug. when it gets, you, it gets you.
It got me ages ago !
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I love the pace and skill in todays game. I like being able to see more games on Sky, Espn and highlights on BBC than i did when I grew up, i dont like what money has done to the game at the top, but realise that is the way it is now. Lucky enough to be an ST holder for my third season, in the past would only be able to go to three or four games a season and love seeing it live. Would happily watch other teams on the tv or on the radio if we are not playing as it reminds me why I love the game itself (rather than going through the mill watching Villa!) I love most of all seeing our own players come through and develop. My local club is Crewe and have watched many a game there. Thats one of the big advantages of an ST, you see development (or not!) of your squad, rather than a snapshot. I love the game, and there is nothing better than watching Villa at VP.
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We have this discussion once every 3 months, and it depresses me more than football itself ever could.
You probably just feel a bit shit cause of the Villa stuff, not football in general - once we start doing well again this site will be a lot more optimistic.
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We have this discussion once every 3 months, and it depresses me more than football itself ever could.
You probably just feel a bit shit cause of the Villa stuff, not football in general - once we start doing well again this site will be a lot more optimistic.
The thing is for me, its not just Villa stuff, its been happening since last season when we was doing well. It used to be life and death for me, now its a case of if I miss a game I'm dying to check the score, but not to the point of pure adrenaline when we win and filled with hate when we lose!
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I don't think there are as many stand out players now as there were even 10 years ago. Too many mercenaries now and money has made the premiership boring. There aren't as many mercurial talents, personalities or just players who, even as a nuetral, can light up games. I loved watching the likes of Cantona, Le Tiss, Bergkamp, Zola, Ginola etc. The games changed though. A team like Southampton would never want to carry a player like Le Tissier these days. He was lazy, didn't run, but had ability in spades, to the point I'd watch a nothing game on Sky to watch him play. I watched a lot more Prem football a decade ago. I don't think I watched, Villa aside, a full 90 minutes of a single game last season.
Messi is a player worth watching, just to see him play. Ronaldo probably too. There's few, and I'd argue, not a single player in the Premiership right now, who's a joy to watch. I can't stand Rooney. He's very good, but not a patch on the worlds elite and of course he's a frightful c**t to boot.
Villa's in my blood, but I don't half wish we had a few more genuinely likeable players in our squad. In fact the only thing that's probably kept me watching Villa in the last few years, has been the local boys coming through, and a few good sorts like Laursen, Mellberg, Angel, Big John and Ash Young on his day.
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Without going through all the comments,someone said earlier that a big club going bust would level things out.Could that really be a possibility?I thought Man Utd where in trouble a few years back but that has all gone quite,Does anyone know different?
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It's all quite simple, if you're not enjoying it, don't watch it.
This isn't me being flippant or having a go, it's just that football is just a sport and supporting a team is just a hobby, something to be enjoyed. If you're hating it, find another hobby.
Or, if you really can't keep away, at least try to enjoy it. The best way would be to stop worrying about the shitty side of it all and just watch the football.
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Love Villa. Hate modern day football.
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Love the Villa, always have and always will, I just hate some of the knobs that "play" for us!
I agree that too many overpaid ponces play in the game these days
I am no longer a season ticket holder (I was spoilt as Mrs Woody used to work for them until RL took over), but we used to get two free tickets each season, however I prefer the away games - better atmosphere and more of a social thing
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It's all quite simple, if you're not enjoying it, don't watch it.
This isn't me being flippant or having a go, it's just that football is just a sport and supporting a team is just a hobby, something to be enjoyed. If you're hating it, find another hobby.
Or, if you really can't keep away, at least try to enjoy it. The best way would be to stop worrying about the shitty side of it all and just watch the football.
Easy to say, but it's a big part of people's lives. It would take a hell of a lot to make me just walk away from the Villa, even though I hate the lack of genuine competition in the Premier League, the prices, the players, and the unrelenting artificial hype from Sky.
I'm 26 btw if we're talking demographics.
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The disappointment from England at last year's World Cup left a nation disillusioned and out of love with our once great national game. Put simply we aren't as good as we've always held ourselves up to being.
From a Villa point of view, having spent so many of my adult years a ST holder in the Trinity (post '82), I'm used to the disappointment (minus the few Wembley trips).
More recently I blame MO'N for raising our hopes somewhat......I could handle it more when we were rubbish.
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In the past there always seemed to be at least one player in the team who was worth the admission money. Willie Anderson (although I was too young to really remember), but then players like Brian Little, Gary Shaw and Tony Morley, Mark Walters (one dummy, turn and shot that hit the post was worth the journey to Ipswich alone), Yorkie, Paul Merson and perhaps a few others since. Can't think of anyone now I would pay to go and see when the rest of the team is so average.
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I barely recognise the game I grew to love to be honest. Will always be a fan but my degree of interest goes up and down based on what else is going on in life and what kind of shit is being served up on the pitch. As much as I find I hate the modern game, more than anything I hate the histrionics that go along with it - the dissection of every sound-bite, the apoplectic rage over the price of a pie, the colour of a goalie shirt and reluctance of owners to piss away the club coffers on somebody that was great in Football Manager 2001.
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We have this discussion once every 3 months, and it depresses me more than football itself ever could.
Too right, these threads and the 'ain't renewing threads' I too find more depressing than anything in the game.
And we all know full well that if Villa win 3 or 4 games in a row the instigators of such will be as loved up about the club/football as they ever were.
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I came home for the first time in seven years over Xmas and was able to squeeze in the Baggies and Spuds games at home. I was amazed at how sterile an environment Villa Park (and I'm sure every other top flight ground) has become. Everything from the lack of smoke (I don't smoke but that aroma of cigar/cigarette is a huge factor in my memories of going down the Villa during my formative years) to the almost complete absence of noise other than moaning just amazed me. I understand that not many of us were happy with Houllier and things weren't going well results-wise around that time but I've experienced my share of lows at Villa Park over the years and I must say that I found the overall negativity to be very disheartening.
I personally haven't 'fallen out of love' with football by any stretch of the imagination but I think the OP will find that as he grows older he'll prioritise things in a different order. Around my early 20's was the time I started realising that I was getting over a defeat quicker and that was probably due to the fact that whether we won or lost on a Saturday had little impact on my Sunday, truth be told.
I still adore Villa and my young son will undoubtedly be the only sad little sod at his school in Claret and Blue in a few years time, you can count on that. But football in general doesn't have the appeal that it did for me in the 1980-90's due the obscene amount of it we now have access to. It's a blessing and a curse that if I'm stuck for something to do at 6am on a Friday I can usually be watching a game live in just a few mouse clicks.
UTV