Peter Anderson ⚽ Reading Caoimhin O'Muraile's piece on the 8th July entitled, Those Were The Days My friend, We Were The Stratford End made me muse long on the changing face of British football. 

I have to say that I much prefer today's football. A few years ago, I was surfing the TV channels and came across "The Big Match Reprised" on Dave TV or some such channel. The game was from the mid 70s and featured West Ham against Fulham.

The football was shite. The passes were laboriously slow and rarely met their target. The defenders would regularly pass the ball back to the keeper who would pick it up and waste some time, and the pitch was a disgrace, the middle was unplayable. The tackling was horrific and there were no cards shown, so I suppose this game was played before the introduction of the red and yellow cards. The players couldn't run, getting out of breath easily and the one player that could run was hacked down on several occasions. 

Compare that to today's slick football played on slick, immaculate surfaces, pass and move, fit players, fast players, players receiving the protection their skill requires to shine. I urge you to watch a game from the 70s and you will no longer long for those days!

Then there is the atmosphere. I believe that the atmosphere at the stadiums was better in the old terrace stands days, but that does not mean that today's stadiums are devoid of ambience. Caoimhin seems to think that Anfield has lost some of its oomph, not what I have heard. I have heard many Man U fans and Sunderland fans particularly complaining that their old stadiums were special and todays aren't, but from what I have heard Anfield still has it. The Atletico fans in Anfield for the ECL game just before the first lockdown said the atmosphere was the best they had experienced. I think the big games will still generate a big game atmosphere.

The best part of Caoimhin's article was his recollection of being in a firm. I remember those days from the early 80s, meeting the Bluemen at the City Hall and walking together to the Oval, 2 or 3 thousand strong with the Shankill Skins at the front leading the way. One year it all kicked off at Short Strand and again at Dee Street Bridge, as East Belfast tried and failed to repel the Blue wave. 

While it was exhilarating at the time, under no circumstances am I nostalgic for those times now. Getting hit by a half brick or getting your shite kicked in can cause lasting damage. Who wants to go to watch the footy and not come home or come home permanently damaged? Caoimhin laments the scoundrels who own today's clubs but at least they care about the customer experience. The old chairmen from the 70s and 80s were worse than today's. Nothing was spent on the stadiums or on customer safety. 

Maybe it is me getting older but I love today's customer experience. The last game I was at was in spring 2019 at Atletico's new Wanda Metropolitana Stadium. I paid 60 Euro for the ticket and 6 Euro for a bocadillo con chorizo, but the stadium was clean and comfortable, with working toilets! The food was quality and the atmosphere was brilliant. No-one got hit on the head with a brick and firms were not beating and stabbing each other in the surrounding area. But most important the standard of football was, at times, mesmerising.

Caoimhin laments that he preferred when football was a "working class game watched by working class people". I disagree, I don't give a fuck what class of people are watching, I just want a safe and fun experience, watching great athletes playing their best football in modern stadiums and on great pitches. There is nothing from the 70s and 80s that I would want in today's game (except maybe the prices!), the disasters at Heysel, Hillsborough and Bradford forced change and, by and large, that change has been wholly successful.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.

These Are The Days My Friend

Peter Anderson ⚽ Reading Caoimhin O'Muraile's piece on the 8th July entitled, Those Were The Days My friend, We Were The Stratford End made me muse long on the changing face of British football. 

I have to say that I much prefer today's football. A few years ago, I was surfing the TV channels and came across "The Big Match Reprised" on Dave TV or some such channel. The game was from the mid 70s and featured West Ham against Fulham.

The football was shite. The passes were laboriously slow and rarely met their target. The defenders would regularly pass the ball back to the keeper who would pick it up and waste some time, and the pitch was a disgrace, the middle was unplayable. The tackling was horrific and there were no cards shown, so I suppose this game was played before the introduction of the red and yellow cards. The players couldn't run, getting out of breath easily and the one player that could run was hacked down on several occasions. 

Compare that to today's slick football played on slick, immaculate surfaces, pass and move, fit players, fast players, players receiving the protection their skill requires to shine. I urge you to watch a game from the 70s and you will no longer long for those days!

Then there is the atmosphere. I believe that the atmosphere at the stadiums was better in the old terrace stands days, but that does not mean that today's stadiums are devoid of ambience. Caoimhin seems to think that Anfield has lost some of its oomph, not what I have heard. I have heard many Man U fans and Sunderland fans particularly complaining that their old stadiums were special and todays aren't, but from what I have heard Anfield still has it. The Atletico fans in Anfield for the ECL game just before the first lockdown said the atmosphere was the best they had experienced. I think the big games will still generate a big game atmosphere.

The best part of Caoimhin's article was his recollection of being in a firm. I remember those days from the early 80s, meeting the Bluemen at the City Hall and walking together to the Oval, 2 or 3 thousand strong with the Shankill Skins at the front leading the way. One year it all kicked off at Short Strand and again at Dee Street Bridge, as East Belfast tried and failed to repel the Blue wave. 

While it was exhilarating at the time, under no circumstances am I nostalgic for those times now. Getting hit by a half brick or getting your shite kicked in can cause lasting damage. Who wants to go to watch the footy and not come home or come home permanently damaged? Caoimhin laments the scoundrels who own today's clubs but at least they care about the customer experience. The old chairmen from the 70s and 80s were worse than today's. Nothing was spent on the stadiums or on customer safety. 

Maybe it is me getting older but I love today's customer experience. The last game I was at was in spring 2019 at Atletico's new Wanda Metropolitana Stadium. I paid 60 Euro for the ticket and 6 Euro for a bocadillo con chorizo, but the stadium was clean and comfortable, with working toilets! The food was quality and the atmosphere was brilliant. No-one got hit on the head with a brick and firms were not beating and stabbing each other in the surrounding area. But most important the standard of football was, at times, mesmerising.

Caoimhin laments that he preferred when football was a "working class game watched by working class people". I disagree, I don't give a fuck what class of people are watching, I just want a safe and fun experience, watching great athletes playing their best football in modern stadiums and on great pitches. There is nothing from the 70s and 80s that I would want in today's game (except maybe the prices!), the disasters at Heysel, Hillsborough and Bradford forced change and, by and large, that change has been wholly successful.

Peter Anderson is a Unionist with a keen interest in sports.

7 comments:

  1. The good old days remind me of those people who enjoyed the Woodstock washout. It has become iconic despite being a miserably mud pit. These things become recalibrated in some memories for no good reason other than nostalgia distortion that I can see.

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  2. Few can argue that in terms of entertainment and skill football has improved. Better science better understanding of health and fitness better training and medical facilities these are all welcomed in the sport we love. But I'm sorry Peter but one swallow does not a summer make. Amazing atmospheres at football grounds are a thing of the past (with the exception of Derby and European games) but the faces that run football clubs aren't necessarily fans anymore it's become business with astronomical rewards for reaching and mainting a place in the promised land of the Premier League. Where once was a working class game we now have the ordinary fan priced out of the market and only those with money can afford to attend football. As more of these people attend football matches so the atmosphere dissipates where once we had your ordinary fan singing their anthems we have cucumber sandwich munching spectators. The result is secondary to the corporate hospitality. Where once we had tribal loyaties we now have business deals with a match as a minor distraction. I too miss the days when the game was ours when it belonged to the fans. You might not care Peter but I certainly do. I want football fans in stadiums singing their throats hoarse and not spectators sitting in silence trying to work out which team they are allegedly there to "support". You want to bring it down to the language of the gutter then Fuck Sky Fuck Corporate hospitality Fuck the souless EPL

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  3. Were the Lfc teams of the seventies & eighties as good as the 2018- 2020 vintage ? Hansen, Souey, K D, Barnes etc were good enough to grace any era. Same goes for previous greats from all clubs. Class is permanent. As is dross. 🙏

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    Replies
    1. the best LFC side in my view was the 76-77 side that won the European Cup and English First Division while reaching the final of the FA Cup

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  4. My dad has told me of standing in "the jungle" at Parkhead in the 80s and it not being unusual to feels your jeans getting wet due to someone deciding to not bother with going to the urinal when he should have...

    Someone, fan of the same team or not, pissing on my jeans would inspire me to dish out some instant karma.

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    Replies
    1. The culprit always made a quick exit. Hope your dad had spare 👖. 🙏

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  5. Gary
    Glad you were able to get that off your chest.

    Ronan
    They couldn't be able to keep up with today's players. They'd have to give up the fish suppers and pints.

    ReplyDelete