Older Generations

Yesterday got me a thinking about pre internet.
I don’t recall being that interested in contracts, salaries etc pre internet but it seems now as fans we feel we have a right to all info to a club.

 

Of course way back when there wasn’t a transfer window. Players left at any time. Fans had no idea about contracts. In fact in many cases I bet there weren’t any.
To be honest I never really was bothered what league we were in or position in the table. Just went to matches and wanted us to win. Or at least score!

 

I think Sky Sports News have had a massive influence. They’ve got people obsessed with transfer fees and wages with their totaliser etc. I’m of the generation that grew up getting excited about Jim White and his yellow tie and they’ve hyped it all so much the impact has definitely flowed onto forums like this.

 

Before the internet we had clubcall and before that all we had was the chronicle so there wasnt the access to information that there is now.

Clubcall was awesome - calling it everyday to find out if we had signed somebody. I bet there are loads on here who, like me, used to abuse the phonelines at work ringing it every day.

 

0898 12 11 52
Don't know why that sticks in my mind when I can't even remember my own birthday.

 

I think a lot of the thing with salaries is that back in the Clubcall era, the players were generally only earning as much as solid professionals like lawyers, accountants, headteachers and the like, possibly less, so how much they were being paid wasn't particularly interesting. Nowadays the wages are stratospheric, and not only that, they have a very real effect on the future viability of the club.

As for contracts - until the Bosman era, they weren't particularly significant. Worst case scenario, you might lose a player for half to two thirds of their true value if the fee was decided by tribunal, a la Gerry Taggart. But nowadays when they player can walk away for free at the end of his contract, it is a hugely important factor.

 

I was still at school. I remember spending hours debating whether to call it when I had an inkling something was going on, and trying to calculate how long I could spend on it before it would make a serious dent in my parents' phone bill. Then itemised bills appeared, and that was the end of that.

 

Most of us got caught and had to face the consequences. I always phoned from work and got away with it for about two months until I was called into the managers office and presented with the evidence.

Exhibit 1: The itemised phone bill (flimsy evidence).
Exhibit 2: Clocking in card showing I was always in the building when the calls were made (circumstantial at best).
Exhibit 3: I was the only Barnsley fan there (banged to rights).

 

I remember the days, before all these whizzo computer graphics, when the BBC used to get the results in via the old-school vidiprinter about 4.45pm (games finished earlier when we didn't have 6 subs and shorter half-time) and the league table wasn't produced until about 5pm, I think because it was still being produced using card at that time.

So on my ZX Spectrum I wrote a computer program to type in the all the scores as they came through on the vidiprinter so I could see what our league position was a bit earlier than the BBC published it.

 

Agree about the Sky comments above.
They want people to be interested so it enhances the need for their product.
Growing up in 70s & 80s it made me read newspapers when my dad had read them first obviously, well sports pages.
Shoot used to have articles about bits and bobs then too. (players lifestyles)
They weren't massive superstars then though.
Today's society has made people who appear on reality shows into "stars", world gone mad.
Also as above no transfer window so less pressure to rush through transfers. Clubs could get players when they wanted or needed them.
Loved teletext and ceefax when they came out

 

I used to knock one out to red tube using my parents P.C but I didn't know that the search history was backed up until my dad blurted it out in front of our lass just to embarrass me.

 

Very amusing. What were the consequences?!

 

Bring back the pigeon and life would be less stressful.

 

I remember checking the internet all the time the summer before we started in the Premier League. So exciting!

 

Think that you also have to consider that up until the mid 90's, players at the end of their contract couldn't just move clubs and a fee had to be agreed, this removed clubs off loading players entering their last year to get some money and just hanging on to them until a new contract was signed or they got a fee that they were happy with. Then along came Jean-Marc Bosman who challenged his contract and the rest is history. What I'm getting at is that before this time, we didn't care about the length of contract as the power was with the clubs not the players.

 

I've just called it, it's now an advice line for people who need to shave their pubes.

 

Remember religiously scrolling through teletext , before that, theStar, Green Un and ‘t’ Chronicle ​

 

Everyone seems to vent their spleen on sites like this these days if they are upset with a decision of the Club. In the old days that ‘spleen” invariably got vented at Oakwell.
One of the most memorable was the protests that took place after we’d sold our star striker and top goal scorer David Geddis to a promotion rival - Birmingham City. The next Saturday saw a protest from fans waving £5 notes at the Board of Directors in the West Stand. Led to an open conflict with SYP, a load of expulsions and, I think, the arrest of the Chairman and Secretary of the Supporters Club.
Those were the days.

 

Bosman - that was the problem.

 

I think I got off pretty lightly considering how much I had contributed to the bill. It was back just before I joined the Army so they agreed not to take it any higher and settled on giving me a verbal warning as well as making me work an unpaid shift one Saturday morning.