A good rant from a Millwall supporter

[Mackenzie]

Not often I agree with a Millwall fan, but he's near enough spot on. "Top level" football bores the crap out of me, I have no time whatsoever for international football either. I love the Albion, and I enjoy the games, but in honesty, I kind of dread us ever getting promoted, because we'll end up getting sucked into the corporate bubble that Premier League football has become. It's all about the money and less about the game now, and it bores me rigid. I do enjoy going to the non-league games when Brighton aren't playing, or away, because it's so REAL. You can get close to the team, have a beer while watching the game, and, if you think the team played shit - you can tell them!!

Pretty much sums it up for me too. I go to the odd Newport County game, now that they're back in the middle of town, and although the standard isn't great you feel part of it somehow. I think Newport will go up this season btw.

 

[Gullys Cats]

i think he's spot on , the premiership is a load of bollocks so is the TV punditry ,i'll get shot down for that because that appears to be where we're heading but that don't change a thing in my book .

I do agree with some of his rant but when your team is wining you don't think about football in general.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

FFP can't come soon enough IMO

 

[brightonrock]

A lot of what he says is spot on, even if it's somewhat affected by the fact Millwall are struggling.

I've watched one episode of MOTD this season and the hysterics of the players, the cheating, diving, whining, bitching, moaning at the ref, it pissed me off no end, and that's before it cut back to the studio for 'expert' analysis. During the international break I paid so little attention I genuinely didn't realise England were even playing; stupid, probably - for some reason I just didn't connect the two, I can only put it down to not giving a shit about whether a bunch of dicks I mostly dislike narrowly sneak a 2-0 win past some Andorran postmen. The break was just time I wasn't at the Albion, couldn't wait to get back, so it's not football per se, it's just the rot at the top level of the game. Agree with a lot of people on here, I'm completely torn over our current position - loving the success, the football, the atmosphere, the stadium, the positivity; and genuinely want to see us taking on top sides and winning, so I can stick it to my Man U/Chelsea supporting mates. But I also hate the idea that I'll be paying £600+ for a season ticket, probably £50-£70 for an away ticket plus the same again in train fares or petrol, to see us more than likely get our arses handed to us by hateable little scrotes like Luis Suarez, all the time my hard-earned, barely-enough-to-live-on-as-it-is wage gets pumped into a game that justifies paying the likes of Mark McCammon £2.5k a week in League 1 at f***ing GILLINGHAM, let alone the top clubs shelling out more to one player in a week than I earn in a decade. A DECADE. If I wasn't loving being an Albion fan as much as I am right now, I would probably have lost interest in the game some time ago.

 

[OSRGull]

I still love football and always will, I'm proud of being a Brighton supporter, no matter what shit we go through whilst I'm alive I'll still support them.

I use to love Premier League, watching MOTD but then I found the pub so I'm never in to watch it!

 

[Wilko]

I agree with a large part of what he is saying but as others have mentioned, when your team is winning it all seems rosy. I have knocked away games on the head this year though and the main reason is cost- it is too expensive to watch a game of football and the ridiculous cost of transport. If/when we get to the premiership I will really resent paying £50 for a game too.

 

[Surrey_Albion]

Found myself agree with what he said (which hurts as he is Millwall) think he has a valied point and I have felt like that , I love the Albion always have always will but they are not MY little club anymore in the same way they were back in the day

 

[sir albion]

The millwall chap is spot on,so many changes and the atmosphere's of old will never be matched again.

 

[krakatoa]

I know where he's coming from. One thing in particular for me sums up a lot that's wrong with the modern professional game, and that's the amount families are ripped off for their kids to be a mascot at games. Money that goes straight into the pockets of already overpaid players - utterly indefensible in my book.

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

The only thing I agree with is the diving/play acting bit. That stuff should be hammered out of the game.

Apart from that he sounds like a kid throwing a tantrum.

Don't like new, comfortable, safe stadiums? Fine. Go and sit in a sheet metal tin can freezing your knackers off.
Don't like MOTD? Don't watch it.

This

 

[Bruntburger]

I agree with everything he said.

Just watch our 83' cup final and see how physical and charged the game was compared to now. Jimmy cases tackles appear outrageous to watch now!

The terrace and old fashioned grounds with character will always be the best for me.

 

[Twizzle]

PAST football was always so brilliant and filled with character.
But it was crap that was filled with groans and misery, nostalgia beef hooked.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

Very much a glass 'half empty' view. He should step away and look at the big picture - his team are playing in the Championship, have a few decent players and an ok stadium.

Yes Millwall aren't tearing up many trees at the moment and don't have a sugar daddy to give them hope of greater things - but supporting your team is all about savouring the 'ups' and weathering the 'downs'. Someone ought to send him a copy of 'Build a Bonfire' and he might be more thankful for Millwall's lot.

I do agree with him about the diving / play acting thing, also very well paid players showing poor loyalty to their Clubs plus the general obscenity of the money sloshing around the Premiership.

I do think there will be many clubs at Championship level and their fans who will be fed up with the parachute payment system creating an unfair playing field that discriminates against those on minimal budgets and barely break even, let alone afford to compete. The sooner the FFP rules take effect the better.

 

[studio150]

Haven't watched MOTD for ages, but this is due to the goal coverage on Sky and the Sunday morning show, which is on a more acceptable hour, and also doesn't have the boring and safe Alan Hansen, et al. Also with the weath of live games, recorded highlghts is way down the list.

Still enjoy the game as much as when I first went to the Albion in 1968. Everything goes in cycles, and while the memory tends to only recall the highs I can still pulll out of the bag, if you thought that was a poor game, how about....

At the present time, enjoyment is even higher due to the football being played, and the players at the Amex (Bruno, Buckley........ ).

No doubt the personal circumstances of the Millwall fan play a huge part in his decision, but the low crowds will be down to particular factors, and probably not right to compare this week, as the home team on Tuesday/Wednesday all have a home game on Saturday, so in present economic times, non-season ticket holders may not the money for two games in the week.

Also in excluding the home teams, he forget to mention that really big team in our division The Wednesday, who got another 20,000+ crowd last night.

 

[cyrilthesinik]

I used to go all the time from 81' to 84' then moved away, as I was a school kid I couldn't go so lost a bit of interest. Then when I was allowed to go my myself I went from about 91-02' every home game a lot of away games, England as well, MOTD without fail, couldn't afford Sky so radio or ceefax for latest scores. Then split up from wife and kids. My love for the game and Albion changed. Couldn't stand the way football was going..money..diving..etc etc. I always looked out for results and went to the odd game but couldn't get the old buzz back. Withdean didn't help after the Goldstone and it pissed me off what had happened to my team. Everybody who I used to go with felt the same to different degrees. That lasted about 7 years when slowly but surely my life got back on track and my love for the Albion came back. Now..well..the old buzz is well and truly back!! So things do ebb and flow in life..I get where he is coming from in a lot of ways but don't you think we all look back at those old days with rose tinted glasses. I remember looking at those wonderful all seater stadiums on the telly and wishing that was what we had....now we do and I love it..true love never dies.

 

[Lethargic]

There are some elements of truth in there particularly with reference to the overpaid tarts in the premiership however he is only 28 so have things really changed that much in his time as a supporter? I know people look at the old times as better but there is an element of rosé tinted glasses some of the football at times in the past was god awful.
I lost my football mojo for several years during my 30's but I have found it again sharing the Amex with my son, although I suspect I will never get it back for internationals, European football and will only have it for the premiership if Brighton are there.

 

[marshy68]

Maybe but a promotion and change in manager will improve things.

Have to say including only one of the crowds in the Championship reached 20k and that was at Derby.

Fans cannot be bothered to pay high prices for sub-standard football?

Sign of the times?

Found this from a Millwall fan on another site..

Who has just lost complete and utter interest in general?

I touched on this last night posting coming away from the ground, I went straight to sleep thinking maybe I'll think different in the morning but in all honesty I knew I wouldn't.

I have ate, slept and shit football for as long as I can remember. I am 28 and caught the tail end of the terraces but was too young to appreciate it all. I went to my first game, a 1-0 home defeat to Newcastle (nothing changes) in 90/91 and from that day on I was hooked. I was like any other kid collecting stickers and football cards, having rows in school with West H*m and Tottenham kids, bunking school to go away games, scoring goals in the park and making out I was Jon Goodman or Alex Rae or anyone else at the time who I idolised.

I never missed The Big Match, Match Of The Day ****ing hell I even watched Gazzetta Italiana on Channel 4 just to watch Gazza. I think I went three full seasons without missing a game home and away and over the course of about 12 years missed about 2 home games. I knew the ins and outs of every side, who had signed who, who was linked with who. I didn't know Cardiff had signed half the players that were playing last night.

Fast forward to today and I can honestly say I am at a loss with it all. This isn't a knee jerk because we lost last night, infact it's not even about Millwall it's about football in general. I went last night and after 15 minutes genuinely felt bit bored and was checking my phone to see how my bets were doing. It's been happening for the past couple of seasons but this season I feel at my lowest ebb football wise. I think having a child has definitely changed my outlook and knowing I see her weekends as split with the mother has meant I have put Millwall/football down the pecking order and rightly so, I didn't think I'd feel like this about it all though.

I cancelled my Sky Sports subscription in the summer to save some dough and I haven't bothered to re-apply it. I have not seen one single minute of Match Of The Day this season and I've seen about 10 mins worth of the Football League Show. I was over my mum and dads for dinner on Sunday and they had Reading and Tottenham on. Whereas I'd usually enjoy watching a game of football whoever it may be (foreign aside - once Gazza had left Lazio) I found myself bored shitless getting the hump with everything. None more so than when Reading were on ascendancy despite being 1-0 down, Danny Guthrie gets a little tap in the face and he goes down cluthcing face for 25 seconds. His team-mate kicks ball out and Guthrie gets up and is fine, the build up has been lost and Tottenham make it 2 and then 3-0 within space of 5 mins of that happening. That's what football has become. A man's game played by absolute play acting **** who care more about the image of their barnet.

The influx of foreign players has brought a mentality that some of our own players have bought into. Cheating, diving, play acting. I can't stand it. The game has changed from a tough physical game to a game now where you have to be scared to make a tackle cause you can easily be shown a straight red card. The amount of money ploughed into the game has taken the game away from the working man, all everyone is concerned about is money. Even supporters have bought into this mentality aswell. Fans of shit Premier League teams and even Championship teams often say "League Cup is a shit micky mouse trophy anyway with no money incentive". No money incentive? Why the **** should we as fans care about that? If Millwall lifted the League Cup at Wembley and earned another European adventure I'd remember that for the rest of my life. I won't remember finishing 17th in the Premier League/Championship every season and just "surviving".

It was only 24 years ago that Millwall won promotion to the Top Flight for the first time and was involved in a title race right the way into the second half of the season - whatever happened to football? Stadiums with real soul about them, real identity. Some of them shit heaps but they had more character about them then every single souless boring bowl like arenas that are popping up everywhere.

Leicester, Hull, Swansea, Cardiff zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz change colour of seats and it's the same stadium. Atmospheres at an all time worse. Every team singing the same shit songs, everyone wearing a replica shirt, balloons, bouncing up and down like Polish supporters, no edge to games, nothing to get the hairs standing up anymore. ****ing hell even the commentators aren't the same anymore, for me Brian Moore was the greatest there has been.

I know things have to change and I know things have to naturally progress, but this ain't the football I loved when I was a kid. I often look around on tv listings to see if ITV are showing the Big Match revisited. Real football. Shit strips, dodgy pitches, players giving it absolutely everything blood and guts, terrace surges back and forth - where has it all gone wrong?

You look at attendances from last night in our Division. Derby (20,000) and Leeds (19,000) aside;

Blackburn; 12,772
Birmingham; 14,693
Watford; 11,894
Blackpool; 12,746
Crystal Palace; 13,153

It's not just Millwall struggling to get people in, much bigger clubs aren't getting many more than ourselves. The bottom HAS to drop out of football, and when it does we'll be the ones picking up the pieces.

This is a rant and a half and I'd be surprised if you're still reading, I had to get if off my chest.

Millwal are shite end of if they were top the league you wouldnt get this.

 

[marshy68]

I agree with everything he said.

Just watch our 83' cup final and see how physical and charged the game was compared to now. Jimmy cases tackles appear outrageous to watch now!

The terrace and old fashioned grounds with character will always be the best for me.

we used to send kids up chimneys and drown witches.

 

[MACROBLUE]

The millwall chap is spot on,so many changes and the atmosphere's of old will never be matched again.

Yes I don't think the atmosphere at a packed Goldstone will ever be matched at the Amex. Its almost too nice and sterile, plus the fact there were far more songs sung at the Goldstone. Its a great stadium nonetheless.

 

[Deleted member 18477]

He can slag off the premier league all he wants. Some of the goals scored and games played are unbelievable! The championship is a high standard but the premier league is amazing! I would love to go up and be a stoke or a Fulham and have a European run or a decent cup run. Maybe even get lucky enough to win a cup! Cardiff came close and they're championship! I'd also get a buzz out of beating one of the big boys! Would it be boring? Err it would be more boring being relegated and promoted from the prem to the championship year after year or playing championship football year after year just hoping one year you have a good one. For me football is all about getting as high up the ladder as you possibly can. Would I be annoyed if Brighton spent 50 years in the prem finishing 10th? Don't think so and I bet the millwall fan wouldn't either if his team were good enough!