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Post by desborokev on Jan 20, 2010 19:08:08 GMT 1
Okay so what means more to you? Your UCL side or Premier League side? Would you rather be there to see your UCL side win the Knockout Cup or even the FA Vase than see your Premier team win the Champions League? Hand on heart, what you prefer to be involved with...for my starter, I'd sooner Desborough get off the bottom and avoid relegation than Arsenal winning the Premier League...over to you !!!
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Post by honestref on Jan 20, 2010 21:34:50 GMT 1
Mate I'd rather see desboro stay up than Arsenal win the title and I don't support desborough :-))
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Post by desborokev on Jan 20, 2010 21:44:51 GMT 1
Well said my friend! Coincidentally.....ditto!!
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Post by jamesw on Jan 21, 2010 14:46:34 GMT 1
Technically I have three teams... Arsenal Weymouth Yaxley
I am rapidly losing interest in the Premier League and the way its greed has affected football all the way down the pyramid. Having said that, office bragging rights would be nice so a Premiership win for the Gunners would be lovely.
Weymouth has been an utter shambles for longer than I remember and despite enjoying a 500 miles round trip on New Years Day to see them batter Dorchester in front of 2,500 fans, I think that the love affair is ending. They are still rock bottom of Conference South and are on their 8th owner in 10 years with at least 15 managers... if they can't help themselves why should I chuck my money at them?
Finally the Cuckoos... They seemed to be doing really well under Jim Watson and I was a regular, now I make less games but certainly seem to invest more time in helping out in an unofficial capacity where I can. I love writing the monthly piece in the Yaxley Gazette and attend as many midweek games as possible.
So would I take Yaxley staying up over Weymouth staying in Conference South and an Arsenal league title...
...
100% yes.
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Post by buggalugs on Jan 21, 2010 15:09:45 GMT 1
As far as I'm concerned, the Premiership will be seen by future historians as the move that killed football.
The simple greed of the 20 club chairmen involved, then copied by the 24 Championship chairmen has created a series of catastrophic problems that are now coming home to roost.
The financial starvation of the lower reaches of the game because the top dogs are demanding the vast majority of the is self-evident.
The fact that all the extra money that the Premiership is awash with goes straight into the pockets of players, many of whom are not as talented as their pay grade should demand, and the majority are foreign imports, so that money is simply being siphoned off-shore and out of the English (or British if you like) game. None of it is there to develop players and facilities across the board - especially where it's needed.
Higher level clubs have to charge stupid money for tickets to help feed the monster they've created. How does average Joe Citizen with two kids afford to go and watch Arsenal (assuming he could actually GET tickets) on a regular basis? Tickets, transport, food on the day would probably cost him the best part of £200. So it becomes a corporate playground, with all the lack of passion and committed interest that goes with it. BUT - the media has hyped the game up so much that going to football becomes a higher priority than the weekly groceries. And that attitude spills over to the rest of football - just look at some parents on the line at mini-soccer.
Because higher clubs (and lower clubs for that matter) can't operate as businesses in their own right (with one or two laudable exceptions) they become the plaything of some rich guy, and exist simply at his whim. And along with that goes the crazy decisions based on that whim. Ask Mark Hughes.
The game itself. It's so important financially to stay in the higher regions, who could have blamed Mick McCarthy for the side he picked against United - saving his players for more winnable points. Would he have done that 20 years ago? Anyone remember the good old days and the excitement of the first day of the season, when you just hadn't a clue who would win the league?
Maybe I'm just getting old and nostalgia ain't what it used to be. But the Premiership does less and less for me as time goes on. And don't get me started on the competence of the people who work at some of these places. They simply wouldn't survive in real industry.
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Post by jamesw on Jan 21, 2010 15:11:50 GMT 1
Amen to all of that.
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Post by cookie on Jan 21, 2010 17:38:13 GMT 1
blooming heck bugs I usually find it easier to disagree with at least some of what you say!
BUT... 100% right on this post. Its insane having a league called the FA premier league and nearly all the clubs are owned by money men from other countries paying crazy salaries to players who simply come here for them.... whilst the development of English players suffers under this strucure..... the custodian of this... THE FA.
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Post by fozwaldo on Jan 21, 2010 22:12:02 GMT 1
Yes to all the above. Presumably it's also down to money that FA Premier teams are allowed to enter the Football LEAGUE (Carling) Cup competition, where they invariably send out their resrves/youth mix.
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Post by desborokev on Jan 21, 2010 23:55:30 GMT 1
...bring the thread back on track someone!! lol!!...especially now that Arsenal are in their rightful position!!
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Post by fozwaldo on Jan 22, 2010 22:04:51 GMT 1
. . . for the time being!! lol.
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Post by fozwaldo on Jan 22, 2010 22:06:58 GMT 1
PS Hopefully Ar Tarn can start their revival next weekend!!?? lol
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Post by gerrard720 on Jan 29, 2010 12:56:58 GMT 1
Buggalugs - I admire your ability to get a nibble from pretty much anyone on here - but not as much as I admire that post. I agree with most - it's terribly hard to disagree with a single syllable, let alone sentence.
The only thing to add about the dying passions of Premiership football in my humble observations is that the physical levels of fitness required have increased dramatically in the recent 10 years.
I dont think its off topic to discuss the strengths and more evident weaknesses of the Prem though - its half the reason most people's answer to this thread will be 'my local lads' - the passion is dying for the pro clubs for every reason you mention.
As radical as this seems - the only future I see for English football is a collosal upheaval - on every level. Take the reality of greedy elite club owners and use it to the advantage of English football. All we need to do is follow the yanks.......................................
Bear with me on this.
I adore the NFL. But I prefer College Football over the pond. The ENTIRE list of pro players in the NFL are bred through their ENTIRE education system from School to Degree completion. And that breeds unbelievable programmes at college to get the greatest kids through to the pro game. They harvest the best of the best and develop them physically until they are athletic machines - then they unleash them on the pro game.
And the draft system gives every club fan hope for every season along with capped team wages. Maybe then, the fans of this countries teams could re-ignite the passion for their club, always have a faith that things come good and look up to them again.
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