0% Villa - Falling out of love with NEUTRAL football

[lovejoy]

Its the day of the 5th round of the FA cup and there are 2 games kicking off on Saturday at 3. If the FA don't want to take this competition seriously then why should anyone else?

[taylorsworkrate]

Football in general leaves me with a VERY hollow feeling.

I'm a huge sport fan, but only football does that to me.

[joe_c]

If it's not Villa, I'm not interested.

I'm even getting that way with international tournaments as well which saddens me though that could be partly due to having been working in two different arse end of nowheres for Euro 2008 and the last FIFA™ World Cup and not having the option of popping in to a pub to watch a game unless I wanted to get home at 8 or later.

Being of good Irish Catholic stock, my only interest in the English national side has been in them being amusingly defeated.

Like TopDeck113 I admire those who go to watch non league games but it only has curiosity value for me. And of course the possibility of a nice pub I suppose.

[taylorsworkrate]

I will pretty much watch any game that is on TV if nothing better is on.  There is always one team that I will want to win more than the other.  That's why the Champions league/UEFFA cup is so watchable...I love seeing the English teams (ourselves apart) getting beat, always have and always will. 

I enjoyed the Barca Arse game the other night.  That was the best football match I've seen in a while, wrong outcome though.  The 2nd leg should be something, hopefully Barcelona will give them a spanking by which time I hope I will have witnessed Arsenal giving the Blues a sever beating...a record beating in fact in a League cup final.

Like the sound of that.  Maybe start with the Knuckles?

[eamonn]

Feckin hell, what a load of grumpy old codgers!

The league is the tightest it's been in years. More goals being scored, the bottom club just beat the top club to end their unbeaten league run. Rooney doesn't light up a match? Must have imagined his overhead winner last week. Who wants to watch Wigan v Blackburn? Er, when it finishes 5-4 like the other week, yeah, why not?! Noocassil coming back from four goals down.....

While I doubt we'll see Nottingham Forest win the European Cup again, and the same clubs compete at the top each year I don't think it's quite the drudgery that most of you make out. As for the money, if there was this much in the game 20 or 30 years ago, players would have been as spoilt and mercenary as they are now. 

[Dave Cooper please]

As for the money, if there was this much in the game 20 or 30 years ago, players would have been as spoilt and mercenary as they are now. 

But it wasn't, so they weren't!

[Mac]

Its the day of the 5th round of the FA cup and there are 2 games kicking off on Saturday at 3. If the FA don't want to take this competition seriously then why should anyone else?

It's a very good point.  I'm going to nick it.

[OzVilla]

If it's not the Villa then I don't care anymore.  I honestly get more entertainment out of watching a blood and thunder game between Port Vale and Bradford, dodgy pitch, players constantly playing for livliehoods and no glory hunting fans than another sterile over hyped snore-fest of Chelsea V's Liverpool.

All the Rooney and Terry incidents last year was the final straw for me following Engerlund too.  The thought of Sir John or Sir Wayne is horrifying.

If modern day football where a food it'd be a Pot Noodle.

[andyh]

Its the day of the 5th round of the FA cup and there are 2 games kicking off on Saturday at 3. If the FA don't want to take this competition seriously then why should anyone else?

What a very excellent statement. Spot on.

[Guy M]

Its the day of the 5th round of the FA cup and there are 2 games kicking off on Saturday at 3. If the FA don't want to take this competition seriously then why should anyone else?

What a very excellent statement. Spot on.

I don't think that's a sign of the FA not taking the competition seriously. It's a sign of how much control television has over football, with a brief nod to the fact that two games from the previous round were still to be resolved.

I started losing interest in neutral domestic football a few years ago, but things definitely got worse for me over the course of this and last season. It seems such a waste of time to even care about the game now that so many of the decisions being taken seem in direct opposition to the interests of the fans or any clubs outside the hallowed PL circle.

Suggestions of how to 'improve' the FA Cup is typical of this, swiftly followed by the issue of a winter break. The FA Cup doesn't need changing. It's fine just as it is. If the PL were to downsize to 18 teams as per its original remit (and the 'big clubs' weren't playing in quite so many Chumps League games) then we wouldn't need a winter break. Not that I think we need one anyway. Squads are bigger than ever and the pitches remain in better condition throughout the season.

Had we had one in January (as certain people were suggesting in January last year during the bad weather we had then) then all that would have happened is that we'd have ended up having little football outside the top flight between the start of December and the end of January. Whilst the richest clubs took their sideshows to Hong Kong, Qatar, Miami and wherever else it was they fancied milking the corporate cash cow the most.

Modern (money obsessed, marketed) football is rubbish, but then that's no great surprise when as Albarn et al said, modern life is rubbish. But that's a discussion for another (off topic) thread, although Charlie Brooker covered most of the relevant points in his recent TV Ruined My Life series.

[WikiVilla]

The FA Cup has been in a flat tailspin since the year ManUre totally de-valued it by pulling out
Wankers

[dave.woodhall]

The FA Cup has been in a flat tailspin since the year ManUre totally de-valued it by pulling out
Wankers

You can't blame them - the FA wanted them to withdraw.

[Chris Smith]

Does anyone feel that their growing antipathy for football is a consequence of getting older? That even if the game had not changed at all you would still be less enthusiastic about it? That what is happening is that you're yearning for your lost youth?

I accept that there is a lot that is wrong with the game but I can remember my dad's generation moaning about footballers all being too soft, earning too much money and looking like girls back in the 70s.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Does anyone feel that their growing antipathy for football is a consequence of getting older? That even if the game had not changed at all you would still be less enthusiastic about it? That what is happening is that you're yearning for your lost youth?

No.
The situation is a world away from the football we grew up with in comparison to our Father's 1950's football.

In the 70's, which for the likes of you and I Chris, was the early years of watching football, players were on a good wage, but they couldn't become millionaires overnight.

Something is really rotten within the game when a very, very average player like Habib Beye can earn £8m over 4 years, or a pile of shit like Salifou can become a millionaire in less than 2 years.

[Clampy]

Seeing the Man City subs today clutching hot water bottles to keep warm made me wonder about footballers today and who's idea it was that they need to be kept warm.