I was at that game v Liverpool and I agree that it was bad that day but in the main it was generally nowhere near as bad and in general, the fans had a much better sense of humour in those days and were far more forgiving to players like Mike Small, Eamonn Dolan, Leroy etc etc and the advent of social media and the way the Premier League microanalyses stuff and the amount of money people are paying nowadays have made the abuse a lot worse since it seems that fans think that the more money they spend, the better the players are going to be and that is not the case at all.
I will agree the PL is far from being perfect, however I believe there are many other factors which, over the years has changed the demographic of the football watching (attending) public.
Cost is probably the main one. Back in the days of terracing it was as cheap as chips to get into a game. I doubt many 14 year olds today can afford to go to home matches regularly, never mind away games. Also I know a lot of the people I started going with stopped going, because of the knuckle dragging element that attached itself to football in those days. And most of those didn't get back into the habit once the problem stopped being as bad as it was in the 70s and 80s. My own parents in fact weren't keen on me going because of the issues which we all know about and I suspect many other parents went one stage further and stopped their kids attending games. I know the Hillsborough thing was the ultimate catalyst for all seater stadia but the Thatcher government's antipathy towards football had it's roots, understandably imo, in the so called "English disease". You will be aware that back in those days if you admitted to being a football fan you were regarded by many as being some sort of social outcast.
But society has changed now and in the eyes of some, no doubt influenced in part by films like "The Football Factory" and "The Rise of The Foot Soldier" the neanderthal knuckle draggers of the 70s and 80s have become iconic figures.
I did mention the cost and the amount people spend to go to games but to be honest, in the 80s, hooligan element or not, Football was at least a sport whereas now it is more of an entertainment package.
Very true.
As soon as big money comes in to sports, attitudes change. Look at other working men's sports of yesteryear. Boxing, darts, snooker, it's like a circus.
I love West Ham and watching us play but I absolutely abhor the Premier League and everything it stands for.
And before Whisky starts talking about it being a great business model, I know that and I understand why it exists but I dont care about the PL business model and how successful it is and I preferred football in the 80s when I started going. It was a sport then whereas now it is an entertainment product designed for customers in the US and Asia and designed primarily as a money making scheme. It is far from being a sport.
I dont watch much snooker or boxing so cannot comment but I notice the darts going through a similar change.
When I was younger and at Uni, as well as watching West Ham, I used to watch Oxford Utd at the Manor ground occasionally. It was a shithole of a ground, quite a long walk into the town but I enjoyed the football. Sadly that ground no longer exists. I still remember a great Tony Cottee overhead kick there when we were the visitors.
Then when I started working I started going to watch Enfield Town occasionally but that went tits up. Now I have watched a few Wealdstone games since I live further West. I enjoy it.
The Premier League is a great TV product but all the media interest, the transfer window show on sky etc are just media tools and while it is a great business product it is joyless for fans in this country and as they have showed and still are when they fuck about with KO times and call off games, they dont really need us while they have a huge foreign audience.
I pop down to watch Dagenham every so often and enjoy it far better than the OS. No pushing, no shoving, none of the having a full internal before you get in type bollocks, and you can have a few pints in the clubhouse and stand with your mates whilst watching the game. The football is as you would expect, but at least you know the blokes on the pitch are ordinary fellas earning not much more than the average fan, unlike the prima Donnas on thousands who hit the deck if someone farts in row X in the premier League.
Prime example now is this Newcastle shit, all of a sudden it's the new Las Vegas and every gready cockroach is interested in going there. I've heard that lingard is interested in joining them, well fuck off up there then you little cunt, enjoy.
I love West Ham and watching us play but I absolutely abhor the Premier League and everything it stands for.
And before Whisky starts talking about it being a great business model, I know that and I understand why it exists but I dont care about the PL business model and how successful it is and I preferred football in the 80s when I started going. It was a sport then whereas now it is an entertainment product designed for customers in the US and Asia and designed primarily as a money making scheme. It is far from being a sport.
I dont watch much snooker or boxing so cannot comment but I notice the darts going through a similar change.
When I was younger and at Uni, as well as watching West Ham, I used to watch Oxford Utd at the Manor ground occasionally. It was a shithole of a ground, quite a long walk into the town but I enjoyed the football. Sadly that ground no longer exists. I still remember a great Tony Cottee overhead kick there when we were the visitors.
Then when I started working I started going to watch Enfield Town occasionally but that went tits up. Now I have watched a few Wealdstone games since I live further West. I enjoy it.
The Premier League is a great TV product but all the media interest, the transfer window show on sky etc are just media tools and while it is a great business product it is joyless for fans in this country and as they have showed and still are when they fuck about with KO times and call off games, they dont really need us while they have a huge foreign audience.
I pop down to watch Dagenham every so often and enjoy it far better than the OS. No pushing, no shoving, none of the having a full internal before you get in type bollocks, and you can have a few pints in the clubhouse and stand with your mates whilst watching the game. The football is as you would expect, but at least you know the blokes on the pitch are ordinary fellas earning not much more than the average fan, unlike the prima Donnas on thousands who hit the deck if someone farts in row X in the premier League.
Prime example now is this Newcastle shit, all of a sudden it's the new Las Vegas and every gready cockroach is interested in going there. I've heard that lingard is interested in joining them, well fuck off up there then you little cunt, enjoy.
I will agree the PL is far from being perfect, however I believe there are many other factors which, over the years has changed the demographic of the football watching (attending) public.
Cost is probably the main one. Back in the days of terracing it was as cheap as chips to get into a game. I doubt many 14 year olds today can afford to go to home matches regularly, never mind away games. Also I know a lot of the people I started going with stopped going, because of the knuckle dragging element that attached itself to football in those days. And most of those didn't get back into the habit once the problem stopped being as bad as it was in the 70s and 80s. My own parents in fact weren't keen on me going because of the issues which we all know about and I suspect many other parents went one stage further and stopped their kids attending games. I know the Hillsborough thing was the ultimate catalyst for all seater stadia but the Thatcher government's antipathy towards football had it's roots, understandably imo, in the so called "English disease". You will be aware that back in those days if you admitted to being a football fan you were regarded by many as being some sort of social outcast.
But society has changed now and in the eyes of some, no doubt influenced in part by films like "The Football Factory" and "The Rise of The Foot Soldier" the neanderthal knuckle draggers of the 70s and 80s have become iconic figures.
I did mention the cost and the amount people spend to go to games but to be honest, in the 80s, hooligan element or not, Football was at least a sport whereas now it is more of an entertainment package.
There is no denying it has been packaged for commercial reasons but, by any definition of the word, it remains a sport. As is , for example, cricket which is another sport which receives significant tv coverage.
Why Is There Only One Monopolies Commission. Isn't That A Monopoly?
I did mention the cost and the amount people spend to go to games but to be honest, in the 80s, hooligan element or not, Football was at least a sport whereas now it is more of an entertainment package.
There is no denying it has been packaged for commercial reasons but, by any definition of the word, it remains a sport. As is , for example, cricket which is another sport which receives significant tv coverage.
Has a sporting contest,it isn't what it was.
Obviously,there are so many better things about attending a Football match today,that were better than the 70s and 80s.
I know many will say Liverpool dominated,but at the start of the season,you ALL had hope that you just might win the League or win the FA Cup(when it meant a lot more and they were the two big one's).
Today,unless you are taken over by a multi Billionaires ,you really have no chance of winning the two biggest trophies on offer.
There is no denying it has been packaged for commercial reasons but, by any definition of the word, it remains a sport. As is , for example, cricket which is another sport which receives significant tv coverage.
Has a sporting contest,it isn't what it was.
Obviously,there are so many better things about attending a Football match today,that were better than the 70s and 80s.
I know many will say Liverpool dominated,but at the start of the season,you ALL had hope that you just might win the League or win the FA Cup(when it meant a lot more and they were the two big one's).
Today,unless you are taken over by a multi Billionaires ,you really have no chance of winning the two biggest trophies on offer.
That's not sport in my eyes.
As a sporting contest,it's the same as it ever was. While incorporating latest science, real world disciplines into the relentless drive for perfections and different emphasis of methodologies and tactical philosophies.
And it's the blending of these attributes and styles that makes footbaLL matches eternally interesting. Paradoxically the reason it survives and engenders such passion, is because the wealth of the participants is so skewed. Styles make fights and even David verses Goliath still retains great interest.
Obviously,there are so many better things about attending a Football match today,that were better than the 70s and 80s.
I know many will say Liverpool dominated,but at the start of the season,you ALL had hope that you just might win the League or win the FA Cup(when it meant a lot more and they were the two big one's).
Today,unless you are taken over by a multi Billionaires ,you really have no chance of winning the two biggest trophies on offer.
That's not sport in my eyes.
As a sporting contest,it's the same as it ever was. While incorporating latest science, real world disciplines into the relentless drive for perfections and different emphasis of methodologies and tactical philosophies.
And it's the blending of these attributes and styles that makes footbaLL matches eternally interesting. Paradoxically the reason it survives and engenders such passion, is because the wealth of the participants is so skewed. Styles make fights and even David verses Goliath still retains great interest.
Cant agree. Looking at FA Cup and League cup winners, a pattern emerges from the last 10-15 years. The huge gap between the teams favoured and sponsored by the media make it less of a sporting contest. There were always richer clubs but the gap was bridgeable. That is pretty much no longer the case.
Fans would rather play FIFA and wear PSG shirts (this year)
Obviously,there are so many better things about attending a Football match today,that were better than the 70s and 80s.
I know many will say Liverpool dominated,but at the start of the season,you ALL had hope that you just might win the League or win the FA Cup(when it meant a lot more and they were the two big one's).
Today,unless you are taken over by a multi Billionaires ,you really have no chance of winning the two biggest trophies on offer.
That's not sport in my eyes.
As a sporting contest,it's the same as it ever was. While incorporating latest science, real world disciplines into the relentless drive for perfections and different emphasis of methodologies and tactical philosophies.
And it's the blending of these attributes and styles that makes footbaLL matches eternally interesting. Paradoxically the reason it survives and engenders such passion, is because the wealth of the participants is so skewed. Styles make fights and even David verses Goliath still retains great interest.
Between 1970-89.there were 16 winners of the League and FA Cup,while between 2000-2021(extra year too),there were only 8.
I love West Ham and watching us play but I absolutely abhor the Premier League and everything it stands for.
And before Whisky starts talking about it being a great business model, I know that and I understand why it exists but I dont care about the PL business model and how successful it is and I preferred football in the 80s when I started going. It was a sport then whereas now it is an entertainment product designed for customers in the US and Asia and designed primarily as a money making scheme. It is far from being a sport.
I dont watch much snooker or boxing so cannot comment but I notice the darts going through a similar change.
When I was younger and at Uni, as well as watching West Ham, I used to watch Oxford Utd at the Manor ground occasionally. It was a shithole of a ground, quite a long walk into the town but I enjoyed the football. Sadly that ground no longer exists. I still remember a great Tony Cottee overhead kick there when we were the visitors.
Then when I started working I started going to watch Enfield Town occasionally but that went tits up. Now I have watched a few Wealdstone games since I live further West. I enjoy it.
The Premier League is a great TV product but all the media interest, the transfer window show on sky etc are just media tools and while it is a great business product it is joyless for fans in this country and as they have showed and still are when they fuck about with KO times and call off games, they dont really need us while they have a huge foreign audience.
I pop down to watch Dagenham every so often and enjoy it far better than the OS. No pushing, no shoving, none of the having a full internal before you get in type bollocks, and you can have a few pints in the clubhouse and stand with your mates whilst watching the game. The football is as you would expect, but at least you know the blokes on the pitch are ordinary fellas earning not much more than the average fan, unlike the prima Donnas on thousands who hit the deck if someone farts in row X in the premier League.
Prime example now is this Newcastle shit, all of a sudden it's the new Las Vegas and every gready cockroach is interested in going there. I've heard that lingard is interested in joining them, well fuck off up there then you little cunt, enjoy.
I played against Dagenham in my later years before leaving for the land down under. My mate played for Tonbridge and called me up saying they never had enough players for a midweek game at Daggers home ground. I'm a natural born centre half and the Tonbridge manager, must have been for a laugh because they were losing, sent me on in the 2nd half on the right wing. Copped heaps from the crowd, NO FUCKING TWITTER OR FACEBOOK in those days . Got 15 quid for my troubles and a few pints of lager. Happy days
Just like my dreams they fade and die.
But on the positive side..............
. Got 15 quid for my troubles and a few pints of lager. Happy days