Why I hate football

[Gwylan]

Surprised no-one's mentioned this article in the Guardian. I agree with a lot of the points so I was disappointed to find that the fella is only writing this as he has a book to plug.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1209436,00.html

 

[zefarelly]

Likewise . . . . .shameless plug . . . . .and I suspect possibly a midlife crisis on the way

I'm no where near his age but I've got bored of a lot of it too.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

What a quality quoute,

"there are similarities between Diana and Beckham. They have a cookery O-level between them"

 

[RichieC]

Surprised no-one's mentioned this article in the Guardian. I agree with a lot of the points so I was disappointed to find that the fella is only writing this as he has a book to plug.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1209436,00.html

what a w*nker the day i hate football is the day i cut off my p*nis and become gay

:safeway

 

[lincs seagull]

72% of the population dont like football what complete bollocks.

just because no one likes his articles on flower arranging and other dodgie pursuits he picks on the sport of men

 

[The Large One]

Blinkered piece.

He only talks about football in terms of Premiership and England. He is typical of many football writers who have become detached from lower levels of football, let alone grass roots.

Will Buckley was always one of those "football from the fans' point of view" writers, which was fine provided you were a fan from North London. It is a brazenly hypocritical piece of self-absorbtion. Boo-hoo, football has become predictable and monotonous.

Maybe on a certain level it has, but that is with a view from a lofty perch. Scroll down the league by 40-odd clubs and you get to Brighton, STILL struggling to maintain its existence. Where is the validity of Buckley's assertation then? He is working from a point that Arsenal, Manchester United et al are very comfortably off thank you, and that the players should hog the back pages, not where the next piece of significant club-saving revenue is coming from.

It's true that the media is TOTALLY obsessed with the farcical circus that is the Premiership. However, if he looked beyond his own ego, he would notice a whole planet's worth of football out there. And some of that IS worth talking about.

The twat.

 

[fatbadger]

I read this article and thought 'oh, he doesn't hate football at all, he just hates the overblown nature of the Premiershite and the nonsense that Sky (in particular) constantly chuck at it.'

Does he not realise that this just puts him in agreement with the majority of football fans in this country? Does he not realise he can love football but hate all that shite? Silly man.

 

[Gwylan]

I read this article and thought 'oh, he doesn't hate football at all, he just hates the overblown nature of the Premiershite and the nonsense that Sky (in particular) constantly chuck at it.'

Does he not realise that this just puts him in agreement with the majority of football fans in this country? Does he not realise he can love football but hate all that shite? Silly man.

That's what I meant when I said that I agree with lots of it. There seems to be a dislocation between what the media writes about (ie 90% Premiershite) and what people support (I can't remember the number of people who go to non-Premiershite games but it far exceeds those who go to the so-called top games).

It's the over-blown, over-hyped Premiership that is the problem. To be fair to the Grauniad, they did publish the views of a Carlisle fan as a counter-balance to this.

It does make me wonder about football writers and whether they hate football. I met a cricket writer once who was moaning about going another England tour and how we was dreading it. When I mentioned that I'd love to have gone, he said that he started out as a cricket fanatic but after 15 years, he'd started hating the sport.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Blinkered piece.

The twat.

He is a pillock of the highest order. I am not sure he likes any sports, but is happy to be a sports journalist. Fair play to the bloke for pulling it off, but he is still a pillock.


I always put it down to my suspicion he was bullied at school. Probably by someone in the football team.

 

[London Irish]

What got up my nose was the jaded cynicism of the piece. Doesn't he realise that cynicism is INCREDIBLY boring? He does correctly identify a lot of the idiocies associated with football but to pretend they have got worse in the time he's been watching the game is just another IDIOCY that a cleverer writer than him could also satirise.

Football is today watched by a far wider range of people than ever watched it in the past, and that makes being in the company of football fans far MORE interesting than it has ever been before. Football journalism today is more varied and entertaining than it has ever been before.

The happy ending is, of course, that this bore is no longer a football writer, which is excellent, because if you think being a sports journalist is somehow beneath you, you don't have anything interesting or original left to say about the game. He is effectively just shitting all over the very thing that has given him not only his start as a writer but also for many years his career as one.

His job has hopefully gone to someone whose passion, expertise and insight will entertain and educate us. f*** off Will Buckley and don't come back to sports journalism when your wanky naval-gazing semi-autobiography gets remaindered.

Flick over to the next Guardian page and you can read an excellent Michael Watson interview, and then the whingeing of Buckley seems even more pygmy-like.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

I always put it down to my suspicion he was bullied at school. Probably by someone in the football team.

 

[magoo]

It seems he has become bitter about the world he is involved in.

I couldn't be bothered to read it all but it seems he doesn't understand what football means to the small man that works in a shit place all week so he can get out on the weekend or go to the odd away game.

I'm sure football means everything to us now that it always did.

bet he's a Manyew supporter

 

[Gwylan]

...bet he's a Manyew supporter

No, he says he's a Chelsea supporter. Bet he's doubly sick today then.

As for LI's point, jaded cynicism I can take, hell I do it myself. What I disliked about the piece was the opportunistic way he shamefacedly promoted his book under the pretence of writing something significant about football.

 

[Simster]

Top post Mr Irish.

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

And doesn't his book sound "hilarious"? It's his life but, get this, it's set in NORFOLK! Crazy idea.