General Adnan's Football 17/18

[PowerButchi]

Yeah, he's awesome. I remember his first start for Wales a month or two back, he was bossing all the senior players about, verbal as. He's got a real future.

[Jazzy G]

Pulis will get the Swansea job? Or they'll see what happens to Hughes after the West Brom game at the weekend?

[Gus Mears]

Really pleased to see Bristol City get through yesterday and earn another nice pay day with Man City. Club has been well run in recent years and it's pleasant to see a dribble of footballing success in the barren wastelands of the South West. 

Chelsea were a bit arse, but a win is a win with Premier League opposition and rotated squad. Ampadu was insanely good for a 17 year old, not just in terms of skill, but more mentality. To be barking orders around at two experienced internationals either side of him shows brass beyond his years. Kenedy was also decent, but he's evidently not a LB. 

No #PulisBall in Swansea:

 

[Teedy Kay]

Swansea want to bring Van Gaal back to England according to some sources.

I'd love that crazy mad old bastard back, I thought he was hilarious. But don't see him managing in the Championship next season.

[garynysmon]

Is anyone else finding their interest in football (actually, the Premier League) waning at an alarming degree?

It started around 2-3 seasons ago but is getting worse in my case. At first I thought it was football in general, but I still find that I'm getting the same enjoyment out of local/non league and even Football League as I always was.

As a child I was a massive Spurs fan but until the age I was old enough to go to matches with friends, I probably went to London once a season maybe. Then I joined the local Spurs supporters club and was a regular at away matches and quite a few home ones too. I'm not sure what happened, but I've been growing more and more weary with the whole Premier League thing. 
I haven't been a single time this season and only went once last season. I can't place my finger on what it is, if its the years of overhype, the extortionate prices or maybe both. Either way, I'm more of a casual observer on their progress these days which is odd considering how much money and emotional investment I've placed in them over the years when they were crap, compared to this relatively successful period.

When I went to University I regularly started watching Bangor City, and living locally, I still do. I'm also a regular at my lower league village side on Anglesey. Following both has never been a problem really due to the gap in leagues and there being so many Friday night matches in the Welsh Premier. 

All this means I haven't a clue what to say when people ask me what team I support. The only constant since I've been a child is my support of the Welsh national team I suppose!

[Cod Eye]

11 minutes ago, garynysmon said:

Is anyone else finding their interest in football (actually, the Premier League) waning at an alarming degree?

It started around 2-3 seasons ago but is getting worse in my case. At first I thought it was football in general, but I still find that I'm getting the same enjoyment out of local/non league and even Football League as I always was.

As a child I was a massive Spurs fan but until the age I was old enough to go to matches with friends, I probably went to London once a season maybe. Then I joined the local Spurs supporters club and was a regular at away matches and quite a few home ones too. I'm not sure what happened, but I've been growing more and more weary with the whole Premier League thing. 
I haven't been a single time this season and only went once last season. I can't place my finger on what it is, if its the years of overhype, the extortionate prices or maybe both. Either way, I'm more of a casual observer on their progress these days which is odd considering how much money and emotional investment I've placed in them over the years when they were crap, compared to this relatively successful period.

When I went to University I regularly started watching Bangor City, and living locally, I still do. I'm also a regular at my lower league village side on Anglesey. Following both has never been a problem really due to the gap in leagues and there being so many Friday night matches in the Welsh Premier. 

All this means I haven't a clue what to say when people ask me what team I support. The only constant since I've been a child is my support of the Welsh national team I suppose!

My interest in Premier League football is almost non-existence these days to be honest. I used to watch every match Sky showed and watch Match of the Day religiously. But since the money involved whet from astronomical to downright fucking stupid, it jut leaves a foul taste in my mouth now. 

It's even started in the Championship now though too. I've mentioned it a few times, but I'm born and bread in Barnsley, and support the team passionately. I'll never stop following them, but it's heart breaking seeing that most teams we play have multiple players that cost more than out entire squad and earning 20x our players. The entire game is just getting more and more unbalanced.

The billionaires and Billy Beane who have purchased us said in yesterdays press conference(their first as owners) that they thought the chance to buy us too good to be true as we were one of the best run clubs in Europe(and they had looked as some poorly run clubs). Now bear in mind that the previous owner had to invest £17m of his own money to keep us going over a 6 year period. Just let that sink in. One of Europes best run clubs had lost £17m over 6 years. Football is fooked!

Theres a bit of a saying on the clubs main forum; "Love Barnsley, Hate Football", which really sums up my feelings at the minute...

[tiger_rick]

I still love football as much as ever. I've already done 50 live games this season, aswell as training and matches every week with the girls U14.

The Premier League and Champions League isn't exciting me much and hasn't for a while. This is my first full season without Sky (Or BT) for 17/18 years and I've only missed it for one day - that being the two derbies the other Sunday. Otherwise watching the first half of MOTD and flicking through the second half to see the goals is more than enough.

I can't put me finger on why. It's just dull

[hallicks]

Is it WWE-style over saturation? So much original content/live matches, you just end up not caring.

[thevestofdeanambrose]

I love football, I played since I was 6, huge Arsenal fan, still watch as many premier league games as I possibly can but it is no way as exciting as it was 10 years ago and previous to that. At the same time I prefer the level in the championship and lower now to 10 years ago. There is some proper teams in the lower leagues. 

When you see the reaction of the Bristol City supporters even for beating Man Utd in the EFL cup it reminds you how passionate fans still are about the game and its hard not to love that aspect of football which makes it impossible to fall out of love with.

[PunkStep]

I think I'm becoming more obsessed with football in general than ever. In terms of watching Premier League football though, yeah my interest has waned quite a lot over the past 18 months. I think that is mostly due to how I feel about the club at the moment- the lack of ambition or willingness to try and genuinely compete with the other big teams has left me a little deflated.

I was really, REALLY into the season when Leicester won it. Not just because we were actually doing well and better than the other big teams, but watching Leicester do what they did was amazing to see.

[ColinBollocks]

Yeah, gone are the days where I'd watch 2/4 games a week. I still love football, like, but I'm just far more picky with what games I choose to watch. As a younger person, I tried to watch every top league, where as now it's mostly just United with a bit of top 6 matches now and again.

Honestly, I think the coverage has never been better. It's the same as the WWE Network, I just wish we had it this good 5/10 years ago, when I found the time to watch as much as possible. Sky and BT have done a good job getting rid of the cliche machines and brought in opinionated and informed pundits. One of my biggest gripes with the coverage over here was how little of use the pundits were, which was only highlighted once I started getting into the NFL, where you had hours of debate and detailed breakdowns and counter arguments. A few years ago I'd be prone to change the channel or go for a piss during half time and full time, not now.

[Devon Malcolm]

In terms of the Premier League, I watch almost nothing of it aside from United games. I'll occasionally have it on on a Sunday afternoon if I'm working but aside from that I never watch it. I've not watched MOTD for years.

It's a combination of a couple of things, really. I just think there are so many mediocre, dull teams in the league now, all of about the same level of ability and 'entertainment'. There are so few games that interest me.

I've changed the way I watch football these days too. I think because of being fortunate enough to have supported United through all those years of success, it doesn't bother me as much when they don't win the league (probably just as well) because I've seen them win everything. I mostly want to see them entertain, which is why the Moyes / van Gaal / and parts of the Mourinho era has really annoyed me. Not just because we've been comparatively shit but because we've been boring.

I think it's also because I watch loads of foreign football, especially South American stuff. I just love the counter-attacking and open style you see in a lot of Latin American leagues - aside from maybe Argentina, which is quite defensive. It's just more engaging to me than the Premier League and also La Liga, really. But I also just think that the Bundesliga and recently Serie A have overtaken the Premier League in terms of entertainment, there's just no comparison at all. The Jupiler League in Belgium has been really entertaining and unpredictable the last couple of years too.

Overall I'd say I watch a lot more football because there's just lots more of it to watch. It's amazing some of the obscure stuff you can find on YouTube broadcasting live that I've ended up enjoying watching. There's always something on. I just don't watch much English stuff at all, and certainly very little of the Champions League, which is amazingly tedious. Europa League 4 life.

[seph]

16 hours ago, tiger_rick said:

Thought we were going to get the four best teams in the country in the semis. Thought wrong.

But we are.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

Jose will be gone in the Summer. He's in his "it's everyones fault except mine" stage at the minute, so I'm expected a run of terrible form hitting just after Christmas, United to just scrape Champions League football and win fuck all, and he'll leave blaming Luke Shaw's Mam for what she puts on his plate or something.

United's got a base of quality in that squad to really do something if you fancy your chances. De Gea, Valencia, Rojo, Bailly, Shaw, Matic, Pogba, Martial and Rashford are absolute quality players. It's not like there's a bunch of shite there.

[Briefcase]

Mourinho saying Bristol City were lucky two/three weeks after United somehow beat Arsenal speaks volumes about his current state of mind. 

Football these days to me lacks proper characters on the pitch and I think part of that translates to the paying fans (who lets be honest haven't really much in common with players). 20 years ago you would have characters in every team from Roy Keane's to Ian Wright to Dennis Wise. Nowadays I'm not sure if the money has taken that away, It's almost PG in the sense that because every game is live and everything is seen that the players are tamed on the pitch.

I think Social Media also plays a big part in that everybody is an expert, everyone voices an opinion and as such every player, result & club are always scrutinised.