Saturday 8pm, Monday 8pm; all these changes are driving me mad. For the Chelsea game there are simply no trains back to London after the game, so I would have to stay over - time-consuming and expensive. For ST holders over the season who have to travel, it makes each game more expensive and difficult or impossible to get to. Brentford at the old-fashioned Saturday 3pm KO was an absolute delight for me (apart from the result of course).
So here's a little ditty with more than a nod to Philip Larkin's 'This be the Verse' (reprinted)
They fuck you up the premier league
They may not mean to but they do.
They change the fixtures in their greed
To make more money from me and you
But they’ve been fucked up in their turn
By media moguls in their suits
Who tempt them with the millions earned
While for the fans, who gives two hoots?
More and more misery for the live fan
Whose pockets must be ever extendable
Gone are the days of the three pm man
With times and prices always dependable
The original:
They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.
Philip Larkin, "This Be the Verse" from Collected Poems.
