The shitness of modern football

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

People need to stop acting like drama queens before the game for a week.

Getting all worked up like granny when she lost he meds.  She can get more from Fast Eddie who runs the corner shop. Blue ones next time nanna.

Getting your titties in a twist from the comfort of an armchair or the discomfort of Anfield is doing no one any good. Nothing is worth a Sean over.

I understand the title virgins long for a a nice long shiny thing, us arl farts do too.

If it is in the stars we will win, if we sacrifice enough goats and sell enough souls we can do it. One thing is for sure, if we don’t we need to be getting all that money back we’ve paid all the governing bodies. We would have been better sending Pauline anspd Silv round the opposing teams managers gaffs before games.

 

Salute

 

 

[Bjornebye]

16 minutes ago, VERBAL DIARRHEA said:

People need to stop acting like drama queens before the game for a week.

Getting all worked up like granny when she lost he meds.  She can get more from Fast Eddie who runs the corner shop. Blue ones next time nanna.

Getting your titties in a twist from the comfort of an armchair or the discomfort of Anfield is doing no one any good. Nothing is worth a Sean over.

I understand the title virgins long for a a nice long shiny thing, us arl farts do too.

If it is in the stars we will win, if we sacrifice enough goats and sell enough souls we can do it. One thing is for sure, if we don’t we need to be getting all that money back we’ve paid all the governing bodies. We would have been better sending Pauline anspd Silv round the opposing teams managers gaffs before games.

 

Salute

 

 

If we don't get pumped up, over-excited, stressed, suicidal, over-joyed and tearful then what is the fucking point? Just because you remember the Kop singing She Loves You 

[VERBAL DIARRHEA]

Just now, Bjornebye said:

If we don't get pumped up, over-excited, stressed, suicidal, over-joyed and tearful then what is the fucking point? Just because you remember the Kop singing She Loves You 

I remember pissing through an Echo. I remember pissing through an Echo.

[VladimirIlyich]

1 hour ago, Shartacus said:

The 2018/19 Premier League title race: Expose the ‘fraud’

The 2018/19 Premier League title race: Expose the ‘fraud’

 

Date published: Thursday 7th February 2019 7:56

 

 

When Liverpool’s official account tweeted the starting XI selected by Jurgen Klopp on Monday night, it provoked a wave of abusive replies from those purporting to be supporters of the club. The principal subject of their disdain was Adam Lallana, an England international picked to play in central midfield due to injuries suffered by Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson.

 

‘Now for the real team,’ was the typical reply. One included a gif of a cartoon suicide, another of someone pulling a noose over their neck. At least some were happy, albeit hardly in a supportive fashion: they expressed delight that Wijnaldum and Henderson had suffered knocks because they disliked seeing them in their team.

 

Of course, Lallana played well. He drove forward, protected the ball and looked to provide the link between the midfield and Liverpool’s front three, because that is what he always does. But by full-time, with Liverpool drawing 1-1, Lallana was no longer the story.

 

Suddenly Liverpool supporters on social media expressed concern that their team was ‘bottling the title’. Search on Twitter for ‘Klopp sacked’ if you think that’s the worst of the extreme reaction. Yes, Klopp should be sacked if Liverpool don’t win the league.

 

For what it’s worth, Liverpool are on course to achieve the third highest points total in Premier League history and the highest points total in the club’s entire history. If social media is no barometer of majority opinion nor the natural habitat of reasoned debate, the entitlement among some is still striking.

Where did we all go wrong?

 

Liverpool are only this week’s example of the wailing hysteria that now envelopes football coverage. Last week, you could listen to pundits saying that Maurizio Sarri faced the immediate sack at Chelsea. When Manchester City lost to Newcastle, the Bald Fraud Army mobilised their troops. In the space of six weeks, Mauricio Pochettino has been damned for Tottenham losing to Wolves, praised for their three-game winning response, castigated again for cup defeats and then lauded for late victories. Tottenham’s participation in the title race follows the same path as a hokey-cokey dance.

 

Things happen in football matches. Teams drop points. Football players are people and by definition are therefore unreliable. We have not yet created a club filled with footballing automata. We liberally bestow greatness and ignominy, and very few merit either description.

What’s worse, we redistribute those terms more often than the wind changes.

 

It has created a bizarro world in which reputations are decided solely through a prism of extremism. If Liverpool finish second, Tottenham third and Manchester United fourth, hardly a highly unlikely scenario, there will be four teams in the top six (Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea) whose current managers will be accused of overseeing disappointment this season. And disappointment means fraudulence. It’s exhausting.

 

*****

 

The financial inequality and competitive imbalance of the Premier League is, in part, responsible for increased supporter impatience. The gap between the top six and the rest – in economic terms at least – has never been wider. As such, wins against that ‘rest’ have become expectation rather than ambition, and any dropped points a relative crisis.

 

Take Tottenham as an example of the decreased margin for error. Pochettino’s team are on course to reach 87 points, which would most likely see Tottenham finish third and their manager’s progress seriously questioned. That points total would have won the Premier League in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The goalposts have moved.

 

A victory by anything other than a convincing scoreline thus fails to deposit anything into a manager’s bank of goodwill. Defeats and draws make significant withdrawals. Only eventual triumph counts as success, and any stumble is apparent proof of an inability to stomach the fight.

If the media plays little part on the production line of the extremism of supporter opinion, it is a vital cog in its distribution. In the Wild West of digital journalism, it has never been harder to sell pieces and never more necessary to do so.

 

Psychologists have repeatedly proven negativity bias, in which sudden crisis is more interesting to readers than sustainable improvement. Nobody wants to read that everything is fine and nothing sells like bad news. Call someone a fraud, and people click to enjoy them being called a fraud and get angry about them being called a fraud. Easy.

 

That tendency towards crisis reporting has been exacerbated by the glamorisation of extreme opinion, a phenomenon that applies to far more important subjects than football. ‘Twitter reacts’ has become an undeserving but common headline, media outlets plumping for sensational negative sells and then raising their hands to say ‘Not me, guv’. ‘Liverpool players accused of bottling Premier League title race by angry fans after dropping points against West Ham’ was one Tuesday offering, to stick with the original Liverpool example.

 

Social media has enabled antisocial people to become social. Someone who would normally have had an outrageous opinion dismissed can now find like-minded (and often anonymous) individuals who share it. When those opinions are given undue prominence (as in this BBC example), they inevitably propagate.

 

*****

 

The Premier League and media have provided the petri dish, but the nature of football support itself seems to have changed. Tribalism continues to grow to the extent that many take any praise for an opposition club as blasphemy of their own, and the anger of these people is extraordinary.

 

Journalists and writers joke about it (and I’m taking out my small violin here), but appalling personal abuse is received for accused bias against every top six team. Crucially, this extremism becomes self-fulfilling. Self-centredness breeds isolation, isolation breeds more anger and anger breeds further self-centredness.

 

I distinctly remember Sheffield Wednesday supporters applauding Nottingham Forest’s goals in a 7-1 win at Hillsborough in 1995, and sections of Forest’s support doing the same during a 5-1 defeat to Blackburn Rovers the following season. It is hard to imagine that happening now as football has increasingly become A Very Serious Business. Fans have become defined not by their love of the game or support of their team, but their angry defence of their own narrow views on both.

 

In November, Kick It Out reported a rise in discriminatory abuse of 11% from 2016/17 to 2017/18, with reports of racism up 22%. Last week, sports minister Mims Davies announced an urgent meeting with football leaders to tackle the issue of growing discrimination. As the anger noticeably rises, it is hard not to make a correlation between a growth in football tribalism and growth in unacceptable abuse.

 

Even away from the worst elements of supporters, a general mania exists that is enough to give you a migraine. Melodrama and hysteria now come as standard as clubs and managers lurch between crisis and glory like a runaway train and supporters delight in both according to their loyalties. No longer is it enough to wait until the end of the season for medals and trinkets to be handed out. Why bother, when you can scream and scream and scream until you’re sick after every match. And you can.

 

*****

 

Over the next 15 weeks, one of the best title races in years will play out. We have the champions Manchester City, whose financial advantage puts pressure on them defending their crown. We have Liverpool under the magnanimous Klopp, who have lost once all season and will return to the top of the table once more if  they beat Bournemouth at home, despite the bed-wetting from some supporters. We have Tottenham, punching above their financial weight and five points off the top, an undoubted feel-good story.

 

Twenty years ago, supporters of those three clubs would have hoped and prayed and prayed and hoped. If they had fallen short, the journey would have been appreciated and admired. The rest of us would have sat back and enjoyed the show. Everything felt positive, still a soap opera but one that meant nothing as well as everything.

 

Is the same true in 2019, or has the ‘nothing’ been lost? Were Everton ‘bottlers’ in 1986 for allowing a rampant Liverpool to creep past them? Was Alex Ferguson a ‘fraud’ because Manchester United failed to beat West Ham on the final day in 1995? Were Arsenal chokers because they lost to Leeds in May 1999? Or did we commiserate the losers but remember the winners?

 

This could be the first Premier League title race that will be defined by those who miss out rather than those who win, and people are itching to pour scorn on those who miss out. Be victorious, and you shall rise as a knight.

 

Fall short, and you are destined for a lifetime of fraud-itude.

 

Daniel Storey

He missed out those supporters now having to re mortgage their homes to afford a season ticket! As with Brexit,Trump etc,people are angry but have nowhere to channel that anger other than towards other people who are generally not the actual problem.

[3 Stacks]

1 hour ago, Shartacus said:

The 2018/19 Premier League title race: Expose the ‘fraud’

The 2018/19 Premier League title race: Expose the ‘fraud’

 

Date published: Thursday 7th February 2019 7:56

 

 

When Liverpool’s official account tweeted the starting XI selected by Jurgen Klopp on Monday night, it provoked a wave of abusive replies from those purporting to be supporters of the club. The principal subject of their disdain was Adam Lallana, an England international picked to play in central midfield due to injuries suffered by Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson.

 

‘Now for the real team,’ was the typical reply. One included a gif of a cartoon suicide, another of someone pulling a noose over their neck. At least some were happy, albeit hardly in a supportive fashion: they expressed delight that Wijnaldum and Henderson had suffered knocks because they disliked seeing them in their team.

 

Of course, Lallana played well. He drove forward, protected the ball and looked to provide the link between the midfield and Liverpool’s front three, because that is what he always does. But by full-time, with Liverpool drawing 1-1, Lallana was no longer the story.

 

Suddenly Liverpool supporters on social media expressed concern that their team was ‘bottling the title’. Search on Twitter for ‘Klopp sacked’ if you think that’s the worst of the extreme reaction. Yes, Klopp should be sacked if Liverpool don’t win the league.

 

For what it’s worth, Liverpool are on course to achieve the third highest points total in Premier League history and the highest points total in the club’s entire history. If social media is no barometer of majority opinion nor the natural habitat of reasoned debate, the entitlement among some is still striking.

Where did we all go wrong?

 

Liverpool are only this week’s example of the wailing hysteria that now envelopes football coverage. Last week, you could listen to pundits saying that Maurizio Sarri faced the immediate sack at Chelsea. When Manchester City lost to Newcastle, the Bald Fraud Army mobilised their troops. In the space of six weeks, Mauricio Pochettino has been damned for Tottenham losing to Wolves, praised for their three-game winning response, castigated again for cup defeats and then lauded for late victories. Tottenham’s participation in the title race follows the same path as a hokey-cokey dance.

 

Things happen in football matches. Teams drop points. Football players are people and by definition are therefore unreliable. We have not yet created a club filled with footballing automata. We liberally bestow greatness and ignominy, and very few merit either description.

What’s worse, we redistribute those terms more often than the wind changes.

 

It has created a bizarro world in which reputations are decided solely through a prism of extremism. If Liverpool finish second, Tottenham third and Manchester United fourth, hardly a highly unlikely scenario, there will be four teams in the top six (Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea) whose current managers will be accused of overseeing disappointment this season. And disappointment means fraudulence. It’s exhausting.

 

*****

 

The financial inequality and competitive imbalance of the Premier League is, in part, responsible for increased supporter impatience. The gap between the top six and the rest – in economic terms at least – has never been wider. As such, wins against that ‘rest’ have become expectation rather than ambition, and any dropped points a relative crisis.

 

Take Tottenham as an example of the decreased margin for error. Pochettino’s team are on course to reach 87 points, which would most likely see Tottenham finish third and their manager’s progress seriously questioned. That points total would have won the Premier League in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016. The goalposts have moved.

 

A victory by anything other than a convincing scoreline thus fails to deposit anything into a manager’s bank of goodwill. Defeats and draws make significant withdrawals. Only eventual triumph counts as success, and any stumble is apparent proof of an inability to stomach the fight.

If the media plays little part on the production line of the extremism of supporter opinion, it is a vital cog in its distribution. In the Wild West of digital journalism, it has never been harder to sell pieces and never more necessary to do so.

 

Psychologists have repeatedly proven negativity bias, in which sudden crisis is more interesting to readers than sustainable improvement. Nobody wants to read that everything is fine and nothing sells like bad news. Call someone a fraud, and people click to enjoy them being called a fraud and get angry about them being called a fraud. Easy.

 

That tendency towards crisis reporting has been exacerbated by the glamorisation of extreme opinion, a phenomenon that applies to far more important subjects than football. ‘Twitter reacts’ has become an undeserving but common headline, media outlets plumping for sensational negative sells and then raising their hands to say ‘Not me, guv’. ‘Liverpool players accused of bottling Premier League title race by angry fans after dropping points against West Ham’ was one Tuesday offering, to stick with the original Liverpool example.

 

Social media has enabled antisocial people to become social. Someone who would normally have had an outrageous opinion dismissed can now find like-minded (and often anonymous) individuals who share it. When those opinions are given undue prominence (as in this BBC example), they inevitably propagate.

 

*****

 

The Premier League and media have provided the petri dish, but the nature of football support itself seems to have changed. Tribalism continues to grow to the extent that many take any praise for an opposition club as blasphemy of their own, and the anger of these people is extraordinary.

 

Journalists and writers joke about it (and I’m taking out my small violin here), but appalling personal abuse is received for accused bias against every top six team. Crucially, this extremism becomes self-fulfilling. Self-centredness breeds isolation, isolation breeds more anger and anger breeds further self-centredness.

 

I distinctly remember Sheffield Wednesday supporters applauding Nottingham Forest’s goals in a 7-1 win at Hillsborough in 1995, and sections of Forest’s support doing the same during a 5-1 defeat to Blackburn Rovers the following season. It is hard to imagine that happening now as football has increasingly become A Very Serious Business. Fans have become defined not by their love of the game or support of their team, but their angry defence of their own narrow views on both.

 

In November, Kick It Out reported a rise in discriminatory abuse of 11% from 2016/17 to 2017/18, with reports of racism up 22%. Last week, sports minister Mims Davies announced an urgent meeting with football leaders to tackle the issue of growing discrimination. As the anger noticeably rises, it is hard not to make a correlation between a growth in football tribalism and growth in unacceptable abuse.

 

Even away from the worst elements of supporters, a general mania exists that is enough to give you a migraine. Melodrama and hysteria now come as standard as clubs and managers lurch between crisis and glory like a runaway train and supporters delight in both according to their loyalties. No longer is it enough to wait until the end of the season for medals and trinkets to be handed out. Why bother, when you can scream and scream and scream until you’re sick after every match. And you can.

 

*****

 

Over the next 15 weeks, one of the best title races in years will play out. We have the champions Manchester City, whose financial advantage puts pressure on them defending their crown. We have Liverpool under the magnanimous Klopp, who have lost once all season and will return to the top of the table once more if  they beat Bournemouth at home, despite the bed-wetting from some supporters. We have Tottenham, punching above their financial weight and five points off the top, an undoubted feel-good story.

 

Twenty years ago, supporters of those three clubs would have hoped and prayed and prayed and hoped. If they had fallen short, the journey would have been appreciated and admired. The rest of us would have sat back and enjoyed the show. Everything felt positive, still a soap opera but one that meant nothing as well as everything.

 

Is the same true in 2019, or has the ‘nothing’ been lost? Were Everton ‘bottlers’ in 1986 for allowing a rampant Liverpool to creep past them? Was Alex Ferguson a ‘fraud’ because Manchester United failed to beat West Ham on the final day in 1995? Were Arsenal chokers because they lost to Leeds in May 1999? Or did we commiserate the losers but remember the winners?

 

This could be the first Premier League title race that will be defined by those who miss out rather than those who win, and people are itching to pour scorn on those who miss out. Be victorious, and you shall rise as a knight.

 

Fall short, and you are destined for a lifetime of fraud-itude.

 

Daniel Storey

 

That's a good article. The constant need to point out who's "bottling it" is so tedious. In December it was City, now it's us. Whenever Spurs lose it's because "they're doing a Spurs" haha so spursy. There's nothing more annoying in football than this mentality right now.

[dave u]

Cardiff and Nantes distastefully arguing over an unpaid transfer fee while poor Sala's body is still on the bottom of the English Channel is very 'modern football' to me.

[Bjornebye]

45 minutes ago, dave u said:

Cardiff and Nantes distastefully arguing over an unpaid transfer fee while poor Sala's body is still on the bottom of the English Channel is very 'modern football' to me.

Even if they have details to sort out, why do it publicly ?! 

[dandyman]

2 hours ago, Bjornebye said:

Even if they have details to sort out, why do it publicly ?! 

Exactly, a deal is a deal, might sound a bit brutal but the payment is due!!

 

it doesn’t surprise me one bit that the payment for the transfer has become an issue / news. That’s far more “Modern Business” rather than just football.

 

But the accident and the transfer are NOT intrinsically linked, after all you couldn’t turn round to a finance company and say you’re not making any repayments on a new car just cos you wrote it off on the way home from the dealership!! Cardiff have to pay according to the terms of the deal regardless. It doesn’t matter whose plane it was, or who flew it, even if it invalidates any insurance they have.

 

If they are trying to find an excuse in any way to wriggle out of paying, then they are shithouse cunts. They will, without doubt, have seen an increase in merchandise sales, some of which they will have encouraged! Would they have sold out against Bournemouth had circumstances been different??! Doubt it.

 

It was his own agent who pleaded for funds to continue the search for them, not Cardiff City, not the owners!

 

Pay the fuck up and shut up!!

[aws]

They were probably paying in installments but maybe they now have to pay in one lump sum so they need the insurance cash to come through.

[dandyman]

14 minutes ago, aws said:

They were probably paying in installments but maybe they now have to pay in one lump sum so they need the insurance cash to come through.

Sala dying shouldn’t change payment terms from instalments to one lump sum, but if that’s how the contract was written that’s not Nantes fault, more fool Cardiff for signing and not checking! However the news that appears to be coming out is that Cardiff haven’t made the first instalment.

 

reneging on payments isn’t helping Cardiff to look in any way positive here, it’s only going to serve to make them look even more like the cunts that they are 

[magicrat]

32 minutes ago, dandyman said:

Sala dying shouldn’t change payment terms from instalments to one lump sum, but if that’s how the contract was written that’s not Nantes fault, more fool Cardiff for signing and not checking! However the news that appears to be coming out is that Cardiff haven’t made the first instalment.

 

reneging on payments isn’t helping Cardiff to look in any way positive here, it’s only going to serve to make them look even more like the cunts that they are 

As none of us know the full facts and the terms of the deal slagging off Cardiff is a bit premature. 

[Joey8FrogsLegs]

5 hours ago, 3 Stacks said:

 

That's a good article. The constant need to point out who's "bottling it" is so tedious. In December it was City, now it's us. Whenever Spurs lose it's because "they're doing a Spurs" haha so spursy. There's nothing more annoying in football than this mentality right now.

 

Agree, it’s tedious.

[Leyton388]

As sad as the situation is from Nantes point of view they have to account for that transfer fee in their accounts for purposes of tax and the books and if those funds are not there then that in itself raises a problem from their perspective as they habe sold a club asset for £15m but there is now a black hole where the first instalment should be. Nantes would have also budgeted for that money.

 

From Nantes POV the deal was signed and Sala was no longer their asset. Cardiff need to pay up the shithouses.

[dandyman]

10 hours ago, magicrat said:

As none of us know the full facts and the terms of the deal slagging off Cardiff is a bit premature. 

I mean you’re right of course we don’t know all the facts of this

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47146614

 

But Mehmet Dalman needing to “check the facts” doesn’t sit right with me, a contract has been signed, the terms of which have been checked, otherwise the transfer wouldn’t have taken place

 

Both clubs should have been talking to each other and kept this out of the news regardless of anything - two people have died

[El Rojo]

Absolutely no reference to the pilot in much of the media coverage of the Sala tragedy either.

[VladimirIlyich]

54 minutes ago, dandyman said:

I mean you’re right of course we don’t know all the facts of this

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47146614

 

But Mehmet Dalman needing to “check the facts” doesn’t sit right with me, a contract has been signed, the terms of which have been checked, otherwise the transfer wouldn’t have taken place

 

Both clubs should have been talking to each other and kept this out of the news regardless of anything - two people have died

Bordeaux are entitled to 50% as well? Money needs to be paid. Highly ironic that if he didn't return to visit team mates he'd still be alive. Also,if he'd flown commercially he'd be alive too. Tragic.

[VladimirIlyich]

1 minute ago, El Rojo said:

Absolutely no reference to the pilot in much of the media coverage of the Sala tragedy either.

Just heard his name mentioned on the radio.

[Bjornebye]

9 minutes ago, El Rojo said:

Absolutely no reference to the pilot in much of the media coverage of the Sala tragedy either.

He's in the drink

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry. 

[razor]

18 hours ago, TheHowieLama said:

Fannies

Exactly.

[magicrat]

3 hours ago, dandyman said:

I mean you’re right of course we don’t know all the facts of this

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/47146614

 

But Mehmet Dalman needing to “check the facts” doesn’t sit right with me, a contract has been signed, the terms of which have been checked, otherwise the transfer wouldn’t have taken place

 

Both clubs should have been talking to each other and kept this out of the news regardless of anything - two people have died

Totally agree with the last para. There are obviously legal, and probably insurance, issues in play but seems no effort has been made to try an resolve them confidentially. My guess is that some sort of compromise will have to be reached but for the sake of the families of the dead it should be sorted quietly. I have some sympathy for Cardiff (leaving that idiot Warnock aside) being painted as the villain when we don't know the full story. 

[TheHowieLama]

13 hours ago, magicrat said:

As none of us know the full facts and the terms of the deal slagging off Cardiff is a bit premature. 

It is never too early to slag off Colin Wanker

[magicrat]

4 minutes ago, TheHowieLama said:

It is never too early to slag off Colin Wanker

You'll see from my previous post I have excluded him. He's absolutely fair game at any time.

[Barrington Womble]

11 hours ago, magicrat said:

Totally agree with the last para. There are obviously legal, and probably insurance, issues in play but seems no effort has been made to try an resolve them confidentially. My guess is that some sort of compromise will have to be reached but for the sake of the families of the dead it should be sorted quietly. I have some sympathy for Cardiff (leaving that idiot Warnock aside) being painted as the villain when we don't know the full story. 

Do you not think when Cardiff are pushing stories of being concerned about the ownership of the plane, it just sounds like they're trying to duck out of paying? Either the player was theirs or he wasn't. If he was theirs (which as far as I can tell they've never denied), get on pay what's due or if there's a genuine issue, make a brief press release to cut the story and stop briefing the press about shite to do with plane ownership. 

[magicrat]

12 hours ago, Barry Wom said:

Do you not think when Cardiff are pushing stories of being concerned about the ownership of the plane, it just sounds like they're trying to duck out of paying? Either the player was theirs or he wasn't. If he was theirs (which as far as I can tell they've never denied), get on pay what's due or if there's a genuine issue, make a brief press release to cut the story and stop briefing the press about shite to do with plane ownership. 

You maybe right but its possible contract terms where breached and there is a always an argument that ownership of anything doesn't pass until full payment has been made. The question is whether Cardiff are legally bound to pay which without knowing all the facts we just don't know. That was my point and that it would be better resolved quietly . Maybe Cardiff are being total cunts but I prefer we wait and see before slagging them off.

[TheHowieLama]

there is a always an argument that ownership of anything doesn't pass until full payment has been made.

 

Like what, a house, a car?