Some of us saw Fulham play the Blunts on Wednesday evening. They were as much use as a one-legged man in an arse kicking contest. Abjectly bad. Dire. They hardly had a shot and deservedly lost to a team near the bottom of league 1. And despite all this, I've just read that they will get £63million if they finish BOTTOM of the league. QPR got £39 million for finishing bottom last year. WTF is going on in football? http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/25906151
That money should be used to clear the clubs debts to companies, cover players and staff contracts. Unfortunately though the clubs just use it to go on a summer spending spree to try and chase the coveted premier league spot - some fail though and end up millions in debt and unable to pay off companies who they owe thousands to
Its a disgrace and the saddest part of it is that I don't think there is any way back. Football as I and many more on here knew it is dead and gone. Sky and the premier league have corrupted the game completely and I hate it.
I'm pretty much the same in fact outside of Barnsley I have hardly any interest in the game and that reduces to zero where the premier league is concerned.
I have cancelled my sky sports subscription I dont watch match of the day anymore The premier league and what it makes out it stands for bores me.
I've said it before.....it's only BFC that keeps me linked to professional football. The Premier League seems to be most Club's aspirational dream, but it has grown into a selfish monster and I ain't bothered one single jot, about BFC getting there again. For me, a successful season would be mid/upper table, good cup run, beating Weds/Leeds and generally just enjoying myself with mates and family on match days.
^ agree 100% In fact, I think our getting to the PL again would hasten the end of my love of the game. All of a sudden, the cost of going to most games would be beyond my threshold of reasonable, and I would stop going to many games. If it happened that we ever did get there, I think I would have to rigidly stick to a ST for home games and resolve to not even think about away games.
Problem is it's not really the likes of us they are interested in. It's the Far East where the Premier League generates massive interest. I honestly believe that if they could run the game without crowds and a total absence of English players/managers etc. they would.
How about this for thinking radically.... if we were to ever go back up we dont go out and spend big - we add a few decent quality british players, keep the pricing at oakwell reasonable so we make a profit but don't rape the fans and also the club subsidise the away tickets from their premier league income / tv money. We go at the big boys the old barnsley way - david v goliath. That for me would be a reight season. We proved we could do it before with a handfull of quality players so why not again. Would probably never happen but if we did we would live in our means and not sell our soul to the premier league and keep our ethos.
The day may come when we have some (or even all of the season) played as wildcard games in Singapore, Hong Kong, etc.
The sooner the top 6 clubs f*ck off to the far east the better, as far as I am concerned. It is incredibly sad when the ultimate prize in English football is to finish fourth in the top division. I reckon that most of the clubs in the title race would settle for not winning the title now if they could be gauaranteed a top four finish. If it came down it and a club in the FA Cup final had their final league game the following week and had the chance of finishing fourth, they would undoubtedly play their reserves in the final. I'd cancel my Sky Sports subscription if it wasn't for the boxing (and even then, if we don't start seeing a better quality card on the Sky Sports shows I'm struggling to justify the £22 per month, after all, you have to pay extra for the best fights anyway!), as I don't watch any football, apart from the one time a year that we're on it playing on a Saturday night down in Ipswich. I used to watch the big domestic games, like Manchester United v Chelsea, but only really because there was a chance of a 22 man pitch brawl. I don't even bother with those games now. I've even stopped watching England unless it's a major championship and, even then, I'm torn between wanting England to win and not wanting spoilt brats like Terry and Rooney get the same winners medals as Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton. I never watch the Champions League, because it isn't the Champions League. It stopped being a competition for league champions a long time ago. Seriously, if Barnsley would have gone out of business a few years ago I would have no interest in football whatsoever now, apart from looking forward to when my 3 year old son gets old enough to enjoy playing the game, because it's all I did when I was a kid.
When I sat there before the game on 26th April 1997, I was desperate for us to win to get to the Premier League (even though technically we were already up anyway). The nerves were incredible and I just wanted the game to start. We all know what happened and then the biggest celebrations ever seen in Barnsley began. That was followed by much further excitement in the new season, despite the tonkings, but the signs were already there. Some fans began to notice the bias and sometimes ridicule in the sports coverage, and on the pitch decisions seemed to go against us. The Man U penalty, the Liverpool game, etc. Many fans were already falling out with the Premier League. I wonder what I would think if we were in that position before the Bradford match again? Hate to say it but I now hope, unless things change, that we never get in that position again.
I'm with you on that, although I suppose its easy for fans of a team that are unlikely to get promoted back to the Premiership to say they're not bothered about being promoted to the premiership! As long as we are being run in the correct way, which we are, and are able to keep the club going, which we are, and play good football, which with DW in charge we will, I don't care where we are in the league. I no longer go down to Oakwell hoping for promotions and games at Wembley, because we've done that and I hate what the Premiership and the FA and all that stand for. I just go down hoping to see a good game of football and hoping that we play well and win the game, and then I look forward to a few pints with my mates afterwards. Unfortunately, I'm quite often disappointed on the former...
I still enjoy going down to Oakwell. There's none of our players who I perceive to be the Devil Incarnate (ala Kevin Donovan, Rob Kozluk, Kenny Burns). I think we've got some skilful and talented players who I enjoy watching, even if I'm in the minority on that. I think the only thing which will stop me going (other than health or personal issues) is the club moving from it's present set up to one more akin to the franchise system. Unfortunately, as can be seen at other clubs, this is becoming more commonplace. If we were to go down that particular road, then it'd be it for me. I'm aware others don't have a problem with it, but for me it'd be the death of what I consider to be my club and I won't be a part of what follows.