General Modern Football: Is It Just Boring?

[MustardYellow]

I've been thinking this for a while, but last night has just confirmed it for me - football is the most boring it's been in my lifetime.

Granted, my 'memory pool' isn't huge - I was still in secondary school 10 years ago. But even casting my mind back to those days, football just felt more... fun.

You had Suarez doing outrageous things (both good and bad) every week. Hazard running around people like they weren't there. Bale leaving people in his dust at Spurs. Deeney scoring the infamous playoff goal. Wigan winning the FA Cup. Sunderland staying up despite being bottom at Christmas. City and Liverpool both scoring over 100 goals and pushing each other right to the end (I could go on but you get the point!).

Things just didn't feel as predictable back then. Atmosphere's were better, derby's were more fierce, even the goals seemed better (why does no one shoot from outside the box anymore??). Players themselves and teams in general took more risks.

The game just doesn't feel the same anymore - it feels like the soul of football has been lost and the whole aim of the sport has changed. Football used to be about community, passion, of course partly money, but ultimately entertainment - it's now almost entirely about making money. Everything else seems forgotten.

The saddest part of it all, is this isn't just happening in the Premier League - football as a whole is just becoming really tame and uninspiring.

 

[bashamwonderland]

I've been thinking this for a while, but last night has just confirmed it for me - football is the most boring it's been in my lifetime.

Granted, my 'memory pool' isn't huge - I was still in secondary school 10 years ago. But even casting my mind back to those days, football just felt more... fun.

You had Suarez doing outrageous things (both good and bad) every week. Hazard running around people like they weren't there. Bale leaving people in his dust at Spurs. Deeney scoring the infamous playoff goal. Wigan winning the FA Cup. Sunderland staying up despite being bottom at Christmas. City and Liverpool both scoring over 100 goals and pushing each other right to the end (I could go on but you get the point!).

Things just didn't feel as predictable back then. Atmosphere's were better, derby's were more fierce, even the goals seemed better (why does no one shoot from outside the box anymore??). Players themselves and teams in general took more risks.

The game just doesn't feel the same anymore - it feels like the soul of football has been lost and the whole aim of the sport has changed. Football used to be about community, passion, of course partly money, but ultimately entertainment - it's now almost entirely about making money. Everything else seems forgotten.

The saddest part of it all, is this isn't just happening in the Premier League - football as a whole is just becoming really tame and uninspiring.

Corporatization, gentrification and globalism.

 

[IsleofWightYellow]

To provide a counter point to this (I’m not saying it’s wrong necessarily, just putting a different side out there):

In the Premier League, only 7 points separate 1st and 5th. There are 5 teams who could arguably be in with a shot for the title. Every team has dropped points in at least 5 games already - you have no idea who’s going to win each week. Man Utd and Newcastle, with huge finances behind them, are 6th and 7th. Chelsea have spent £1bn to be 12th. Last season we had the record broken for the most goals ever scored by an individual in the Premier League.

Two examples of great games this season:

Man City 3-3 Spurs
Chelsea 4-4 Man City

I watched both of these and there’s no denying they were exciting, fast paced football, packed full of incident and enjoyable to watch as a neutral.

In Spain, Girona top the league ahead of the traditional big three. A 20 year old English midfielder is the top scorer…

Overall I agree that nothing is good as it used to be though.

 

[Ox4Eva]

Fell out of love with football a while back, sterile grounds, no funny or edgy songs or chants anymore.

Happy clappy fans who cry If someone says a naughty word, Players diving constantly.

No passion or heart!

 

[holdsteady]

The older and better organised sports get the duller they get, knowledge is cumulative and from that accumulated knowledge coaches figure out how to make sides fitter and better organised, what they don't do is use it to make them more entertaining, not what the job is. Football is a pretty dull watch, all the stuff that goes on around it is far more entertaining than the actual game itself.

 

[OX14]

I would say the Premier league this season is exciting as it has been for many years. Goals flying in every game and both teams trying to out score the other.

Most Championship, league one fixtures are boring though and the games atmosphere is pants. I remember our games in the conference having more atmosphere with a smaller crowd.

 

[Steve Gilbert]

Modern stadiums are now built more for comfort and the corporate world rather than for the every day football fan.
Wages are higher and there is a lack of connection between fans and players. Just look at how the team that got promoted from the conference interacted with fans and some still do.
Pitches are like a bowling green to cut that element of risk in regards to mistakes happening.
Chants are now very ‘soft’ with what they consist of and I don’t mean in regards to anti sexist/racist chanting as that’s a given but they are just very generic and nice. I wouldn’t say any ground is intimidating to go to these days.
I find myself going to a lot more non league games these days as the football isn’t so sanitised and you get ‘proper’ grounds.

 

[kingoftheroad]

Fell out of love with football a while back, sterile grounds, no funny or edgy songs or chants anymore.

Happy clappy fans who cry If someone says a naughty word, Players diving constantly.

No passion or heart!

Bang on

 

[QR]

I've been thinking this for a while, but last night has just confirmed it for me - football is the most boring it's been in my lifetime.

Granted, my 'memory pool' isn't huge - I was still in secondary school 10 years ago. But even casting my mind back to those days, football just felt more... fun.

You had Suarez doing outrageous things (both good and bad) every week. Hazard running around people like they weren't there. Bale leaving people in his dust at Spurs. Deeney scoring the infamous playoff goal. Wigan winning the FA Cup. Sunderland staying up despite being bottom at Christmas. City and Liverpool both scoring over 100 goals and pushing each other right to the end (I could go on but you get the point!).

Things just didn't feel as predictable back then. Atmosphere's were better, derby's were more fierce, even the goals seemed better (why does no one shoot from outside the box anymore??). Players themselves and teams in general took more risks.

The game just doesn't feel the same anymore - it feels like the soul of football has been lost and the whole aim of the sport has changed. Football used to be about community, passion, of course partly money, but ultimately entertainment - it's now almost entirely about making money. Everything else seems forgotten.

The saddest part of it all, is this isn't just happening in the Premier League - football as a whole is just becoming really tame and uninspiring.

Nah, there's always been good and downright bad it's just time helps bury the dross. ie it doesn't get constantly replayed 'cos it's ain't worth watching. I do however think the saturation coverage and the need to big up a game just because TV company x has the game distorts perceptions

Just wait until you've got twenty more years under your belt you'll be reminiscing fondly on the Robinson years!!! Now, they were unpredictable.

 

[Oxymoron]

The problem lies in the coaching, or rather that coaching is learned from a course. To get your qualification, you have to put in hours, firstly at study and then practical (a bit like how a pilot will train on a simulator and then have to log flight hours before he gets his "wings"), after which you can demonstrate that you understand EUFA's standards for how the "modern game" should be played.

At grass roots level ("EUFA C" diploma), you "learn to provide a positive developmental experience that enhances players’ enjoyment, knowledge, and skill, inspiring a lifelong desire to play football and stay involved in the game". On the "B" licence course you "learn age- and ability-specific coaching techniques to develop players at youth through to senior amateur level". Doing the "A" diploma gives you "insight into technical policy, as well as dealing with external factors affecting a team's performance and being accountable to a club's management." and finally, your "Pro Licence" gives you the skills to "develop and apply technical policy and philosophy, creating a winning team and high-performance culture".

Nothing wrong with that as an aspiration, but realise that each and every coach has spent over 600 hours absorbing the methods prescribed by the UEFA Coaching Convention which has a mandate to "set the standard for coaching in European football" by "setting high coach education standards in all UEFA member associations, in order to develop better coaches and, ultimately, better players and the overall quality of the game".

EUFA has issued in excess of 2,000 "Pro" and "A" diplomas to coaches registered with the FA and they have all learned how to organise the game the EUFA way. Is it any wonder why we are now seeing teams in L1 and even L2 trying to play like Manchester City - but if the players don't have the talent to play outside the prescribed "standards", your game plan (and therefore your instructions to the players) becomes 1) retain possession, 2) don't risk losing the ball unnecessarily and 3) wait for your xG opportunity to be high until you make an attempt at goal.

 

[unification]

Fell out of love with football a while back, sterile grounds, no funny or edgy songs or chants anymore.

Happy clappy fans who cry If someone says a naughty word, Players diving constantly.

No passion or heart!

I bet if I switched on your TV the last channel you were watching would be GB News.

 

[werthersoriginal]

Corporatization, gentrification and globalism.

People fling around globalism a lot, what do you mean by it here? Just the fact that football is a world game and clubs are owned by foreign investors etc?

 

[MJB]

Ah, the nostalgia porn thread is back - it’s been too long!

 

[Ox4Eva]

I bet if I switched on your TV the last channel you were watching would be GB News.

Aw diddums

 

[werthersoriginal]

Aw diddums

You're the chap who's such an England loyalist that he supports a Scottish team and has some weird Irish symbol on his avatar?

 

[bashamwonderland]

People fling around globalism a lot, what do you mean by it here? Just the fact that football is a world game and clubs are owned by foreign investors etc?

Clubs aren't represented (on the pitch, in the boardroom or in the stands, especially at the top level) by people from that community in the same way they once were.

TV rights packages have been shipped out across the globe which has diluted fan bases, changed commercial focus for clubs, and reduced the ability for fans to connect with their team (cannot get tickets at the top level etc).

Clubs are increasingly owned by faceless investment funds and anti democratic authoritarian regimes.

The nature of cities and communities has become generally transient, which has changed the importance of a club for a particular area. Fewer people care, either meaningfully or in passing.

 

[Ox4Eva]

You're the chap who's such an England loyalist that he supports a Scottish team and has some weird Irish symbol on his avatar?

Brilliant , go and have a rub down with your guardian..

 

[m]

I bet if I switched on your TV the last channel you were watching would be GB News.

Babestation.

 

[MJB]

Babestation.

Bigger tits on GB News.

 

[stokeu]

9

Babestation.

much more chance if seeing a c**t on GBeebies….