Things You Miss From Old Football

[Robioto]

The fortunate thing about living in Exeter is that going to watch League One football, is that things haven't changed all that much as far as match day experience goes. However with teams lower down the pyramid getting American owners I worry that in another decade or two, that the EFL will be infested with these people and well on the road to ruin too.

My list of issues with Premier League football is a long as my arm, with most things linked to money, greed and corruption at the expense of fans and integrity. I miss the era up to covid and the introduction of VAR. It's fallen off a cliff since then, but so as the world as a whole and that is no coincidence IMO as the super rich gain more and more control.

[Irishbornevertonian]

Price of tickets!


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[Shogun]

Co-commentators not being former players of the team they're commentating on.

[Goaljira]

I miss when it used to matter which ref you had, because they were in charge and they all had different personalities. Most of them were still cunts, but at least it was variation. Now you have to worry which of the 18 clones are running VAR more than the game itself.

I miss offside being daylight.

I miss being able to switch off. When the only rumours you got were reading the made up little paragraphs in all the papers whilst doing my paper round, and the first you knew about signings was them holding the shirt. Nowadays everythings leaked the joy of the surprise of a signing or the anger of the shock of a sale are dragged out over days instead of being instantaneous.

I miss grounds being identifiable on TV instead of them all looking the same.

I miss Alan Hansen and Trevor Brooking and Jimmy Hill. Not Lawrenson though, he can fuck off.

I miss Andy Gray on comms.

I miss Lightning Seeds or Hurricane #1 being the Goal of the Month music.

I miss Changy.

I miss reading the pink echo at my Nan and Grandads after the game, whilst eating hot pot or meat and potato pie or braised steak and mash.

Actually I just miss going to my Nan and Grandads after the match. I think typing this is the first time I've really registered that.

[Goaljira]

And getting to the car in time to hear the fuil times read by James Alexander Gordon.

And listening to reporters talk about the games they'd watched instead of just seeing scores on an app.

And Radio 5 being called Radio 5, not Five Live.

And the only time you got to hear people talk about football was them calling 606, not the 24/7 rage bait that is talksport.

[toffee_scot]

I’ve only ever remembered football in the Sky era. But when looking at league tables and title winners before then it seemed that competition was relatively more level. Of course you would have the Liverpools and Man Utd’s exxpected to challenge, but there was also a very real possibility of a promoted team from Division 2 or a struggling Division 1 team from the season before actually mounting a title challenge.

Now it feels like it is the same teams who can realistically challenge for the title each season, Arsenal, Liverpool, clubs with billionaire owners like Chelsea and Man City and even Man Utd are expected at some point to click again like in the Fergie era.

There have been some anomalies like Leicester winning the Premier League and Aston Villa are still in the title race now but these occasions are so few now. And even for clubs like Everton, even if we were to recruit the next Baines, Coleman and Lukaku, it wouldn’t be near enough to challenge for the title, we would probably lucky to finish in the top 5.

[blueforyou]

Buying a newspaper first thing in the morning to check last night's results - and sometimes not in, due to late kick-off or extra-time!

[AjaxAndy]

The frenetic energy of the match, it's so slow now due the evolution of tactics.

VAR obviously exacerbates the issue but it's not the main cause, as much of an issue as it is.

I also massively miss the mystic of foreign players arriving in this country, players you've maybe only seen a few times during a world cup, or watching Italian footy on channel 4, or maybe only heard about through reputation. It was genuinely exciting to see some long haired Italian turning out for someone for the first time and wondering who the hell they were, only to be dazzled by their continental elegance.

PSR has ruined random teams competing for titles too, like Blackburn being promoted and then winning the league. It all seems a bit pointless these days when you know no matter how well you recruit, or how rich your owners are, you're looking at breaking the top 4 as being an almost insurmountable task.

It all adds up to everything now seeming predictable and known before anything even happens, with only a tiny degrees of variation possible.