Tonight's football thread

[Danbert Nocurry]

I'm officially "off" football now
I've been a Man. City season ticket holder since 1990, but I'm not renewing
it's been building up over a few years, and lots of reasons that I can't be @rsed detailing
but mainly the way the game is "over-hyped" nowadays
culminating in considering a season finishing 2nd in the Prem and reaching the FA Cup Final as a failure

keep the faith Daz

[Alf]

keep the faith Daz

Listening to Joe Mercer talk about football is one of my abiding football memories of the sixties. The man was a football poet He should have stayed England manager after his caretaker role as well instead of giving it to Don Revie :thunbdown:

[Richard Head]

'How to support a crap football team' Anyone read this book? A couple of excerpts.
EVERYDAY LIFE. In your life away from the stadium it is likely that you will talk about football with others, the majority of these will support Premiership teams like Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal or Chelsea. They will support them only in the way that they look out for their results and shout 'YES' when they win or that they watch their matches on the telly. There is nothing you can do to change their opinion, you will never win over someone who is used to watching ten minutes of Premiership highlights while sprawled across a comfy sofa with a mug of cocoa it doesn't compare to 90 minutes of hopeless endeavour in freezing conditions.

AWAY DAYS. Travel to away matches is not recommended, if you can stay up late enough to watch your lot feature last on the Football League show and they happen to score you might here a small cheer from the 38 hardy souls who have braved the 600 mile round trip. If you do travel try to keep any pre match optimism under control, this can be very dangerous, just because you are making the effort doesn't mean the players are going to. It starts pissing down at 2.30 and by 6.00 when you are eating pie and chips in a greasy chip shop it Turns to snow. Fast forward to 8.30, it's half time, you are 3-0 down, cold miserable, 300 miles from home and being mocked by some local chavs who have moved into the corner and you wonder why you bothered

[DazTheSlug]

Daz, I know what you mean, this isn't the City we know and love anymore, but if all his money was going to happen to anybody, i'm glad it happened to us. To be absolutely honest I stopped feeling, in the late 1980s, that supporting City was about wanting to win things. I enjoyed watching Paul Lake, Andy Hinchcliffe and our kids at Maine Road, and came to feel it was just about belonging, a connection with yourself and your roots and trying to have a laugh in the face of adversity. Lets be honest we had become the club where there was no grand epic, no plane crash, no colonising of the prizes and rewards of the Premier League, we just endured whatever life threw at us. We didn't have songs about glory, glory, or marching on, on, on but about standing alone, without a dream in our hearts, about things so awful we had to joke about not really being there, about being steadfast and loyal, for its own sake - till we died. All of which is me trying to provide an explanation for why the takeover by Sheik Mansour feels out of character for all of us....but hang in there matey we've kept the faith for so long now, remember 'We are City, Super City, we are City from Maine Road.

none of the reasons I'm "off" football are City-specific
rather general:
all-seater vs terracing
prices
kick-off times for TV
FA Cup semis at Wembley
media over-hyping of every tiny incident
the apparently unstoppable slide towards video replays
I could go on, but I'm bored now
I'm probably just getting old - at least I'm freeing up a season ticket for a younger/keener supporter, rather than just a miserable moaning old git

[Richard Head]

none of the reasons I'm "off" football are City-specific
rather general:
all-seater vs terracing
prices
kick-off times for TV
FA Cup semis at Wembley
media over-hyping of every tiny incident
the apparently unstoppable slide towards video replays
I could go on, but I'm bored now
I'm probably just getting old - at least I'm freeing up a season ticket for a younger/keener supporter, rather than just a miserable moaning old git

Daz get yourself down to the lower leagues
@Morecambe it's
Terracing
£199 for a season ticket
Only one home match wasn't a Sat 3.00 kick off
Never lost at Wembley
Not much media coverage apart from Bay Radio and Morecambe Visitor
Plenty of miserable moaning old gits

Come and join us

[Danbert Nocurry]

Listening to Joe Mercer talk about football is one of my abiding football memories of the sixties. The man was a football poet He should have stayed England manager after his caretaker role as well instead of giving it to Don Revie :thunbdown:

Great post Alf. Even as a nipper I remember Joe Mercer's treatment and it was painful as a fan to see the way he was forced out by Swales.

It's never been easy being a Blue and that's why most of us love it - it's character building. Not for us the easy option of supporting the rags and being guaranteed trophy after trophy. Anyone could do that.

[IainR]

Great post Alf. Even as a nipper I remember Joe Mercer's treatment and it was painful as a fan to see the way he was forced out by Swales.

It's never been easy being a Blue and that's why most of us love it - it's character building. Not for us the easy option of supporting the rags and being guaranteed trophy after trophy. Anyone could do that.

So apart from that 26 year gap.. yours was 40 years.. City will get there own fair share of glory supporters taking the easy option now...

[TheReverand]

AWAY DAYS. Travel to away matches is not recommended, if you can stay up late enough to watch your lot feature last on the Football League show and they happen to score you might here a small cheer from the 38 hardy souls who have braved the 600 mile round trip. If you do travel try to keep any pre match optimism under control, this can be very dangerous, just because you are making the effort doesn't mean the players are going to. It starts pissing down at 2.30 and by 6.00 when you are eating pie and chips in a greasy chip shop it Turns to snow. Fast forward to 8.30, it's half time, you are 3-0 down, cold miserable, 300 miles from home and being mocked by some local chavs who have moved into the corner and you wonder why you bothered

Rings so very true, but as you will know, thats what makes it so great to be a supporter of a small club in the lower leagues

[TheReverand]

Hughes.. O'Neill is still a good manager.. he did well at Villa.. one bad job shouldn't end him.. or Hughes..

There's a fair few around..

Very surprised Duncan Ferguson is being mentioned..

hughes? you must be having a laugh there like

[IainR]

hughes? you must be having a laugh there like

Why?

QPR was a disaster but he went into a bad situation.

I actually think his Wales success is overplayed but his club successes have been good. Wales fell apart at the end under him but apart from a few key periods I think he's done well.

Look at Bruce.. he's been championed as the next big manager.. then he's rubbish and too simplistic outdated.. now he's back great again..