I think that football is ****ed anyway.

To be perfectly honest I think the powers that be have taken what was the most glorious, beautiful, painful, delightful game on earth and they have ruined it.

Top to bottom.

International football is ****ing riddled with corruption - with obscene amounts of money and the kind of political influence the completely contrary to the best interests of the sport.

On a domestic level - £5.1 billion going into the top twenty clubs - and yet ticket prices are through the roof because clubs aren't making ends meet. The players - who frankly don't give a toss about the game - are a bunch of selfish *****s (more often than not) who just pocket the cash and ***** it up the wall on ridiculous cars, horse racing, and page 3 girls.

Worst still are the agents - who are busy stoking the 'values' of these players and 'protecting' the interests of their clients - while they take their percentages and have every interest in unsettling players to continue the non-stop movement of contracts.

Then you've got the sterile, corporate sponsored stadia - like - for example. the Ricoh arena. Last time I was there we got stuffed by Coventry about 5-0. It's usually a cause for celebration for any home team - regardless of who the opponent is. But in the Ricoh arena - and in countless other near identical flat pack venues that have appeared up and down the country, you can still hear the 'beep beep beep' of the bin lorry reversing behind the ground as you eat your ****ing £10 McWimpy burger.

And yet - despite all the modernisation - what have we (as a collective game/sport) managed to keep? Alcohol related off the pitch violence, casual racism, and some random bloke trying to score penalties against the mascot at half time.

The entertainment value in football is going in directly the opposite direction as the amount of money involved. Without sounding like my grandad (God rest his soul) - I can remember when Gary Linekar was valued at £1 million, and Tony Cottee went for over £2 million and everyone thought it was insane. The dreadful fact is that we'll never - ever - have another Neil Redfearn, because if we do find that player (as if) we won't keep him five minutes. Does anyone really believe that we could ever sign Ronnie Glavin, who had won the league at Celtic and finished as their top scorer in 1976/77?.

I grew up loving Barnsley Football Club - my first Barnsley side was Paul Futcher, Steve Agnew, Clive Baker, Joe Joyce - these were our players through and through. Not loanees, not the catch 22 of 'if they're any good they'll go at Christmas'.

It's ****ing ******** now. Just complete ****ing ******** and the game is ****ed.

 

Fully agree.

 

I can't argue with any of this. I've been done with football and sky for some time and worryingly I can feel my interest in BFC starting to disappear too.

 

Can't really add to this. Agree fully. Top post.

 

I thought it was just me getting old, because I've been thinking this way lately. I've been a regular for the last 60 years at Oakwell, never mind the league we were in. Not sure I want to go on now, watching overpaid idlers strolling round the pitch. When the time comes to fork out my season ticket money I may just succumb to the force of habit and get one. On the other hand, unless there's a lot more honesty, both of effort on the pitch and endeavour off it, then there is a very real chance I shall do the up-to-now unthinkable and call it a day. I feel so sad about it; football is ruined.

 

Totally agree. The game has changed beyond all recognition and for clubs like Barnsley is totally screwed.

 

Post of the year so far, though you forgot to mention the endemic cheating, dishonesty, and dishonour which now pervade every part of the professional game - this and all the issues you mention above mean it's effectively now finished as a sport, unless there's some kind of revolution in how it's governed/ regulated. Increasingly hard to escape the feeling that I despise the game I grew up loving.

 

I don't watch football any more, just Barnsley and England and on recent performances I don't think you could call what either of those two teams are producing football. And to be honest, I've even started missing a few England games of late. Can't remember the last time I saw a live domestic or European game on the telly. Other than the England matches, I watched a couple of group games, the two semi-finals and the final of the world cup when in previous years I've watched almost every single game. I don't even watch Match of the Day any more. I haven't a clue how well any team is performing in the Premier League, who is at the top, who is at the bottom, or even which players play for which teams. When the last England squad was announced there were half a dozen names I'd genuinely never heard of. I didn't have a clue in what position they played or their parent clubs. I've lost all interest in the sport.

I still get every bit as much pleasure from watching Barnsley play well and win as I ever did. Maybe more so than a few years ago. That second half of the season under Flicker re-ignited some of the passion I'd started to lose. I felt terribly sad when we sacked him, even though we were ***** and he seems barmy. We showed him no loyalty at all. He'd earned it and what we did just wasn't right. I disagreed with a lot of what he did and the way the team were playing had me pulling my hair out, but we did the wrong thing. We were relegated anyway. The blow was softened by appointing Danny Wilson. A man I admire greatly.

Now we've sacked him, I'm really struggling. I still care, but I no longer believe in those running the club. To dismantle the entire squad because they were too expensive, then sign a team predominantly made of league 2 and non-league players, supplemented by our own youth players, and expect us to be doing better than a midtable position is, to me, madness. We've fired a good man and a good manager for reasons even our CEO appeared unable to coherently explain.

Other than voting with my feet I don't know what to do about it. At the moment, I don't want to go any more, but I know that's just the anger which will subside. I don't want to abandon my team but neither do I want so show any kind of support for what the board are doing which I will if I hand them my money. I'm at a loss.

 

Agree with all that is in BRF's post and starting to feel like Jay. Followed England all over the world for 25 years but gave up after Euro 2012 given the dawning realisation that England will never again produce a world class team given its oil sheik/oligarch/yank tycoon owning plaything franchise international greed-is-good circus top league.

However, almost like an old pro retiring from international football it gave my enthusiasm for the Reds a new lease of life. Whatever the ups and downs of BFC, it was my club, something that I could associate with at every level, warts and all. The events of this week where a thoroughly likeable and admirable man has been treated with disdain by the ownership has taken even that away. I don't know if Danny would have been successful ultimately but I do know he should have been given to the end of the season.

What was needed from above Danny this week was leadership and support - "Eyup Dan, stick at it with the young 'uns, we'll support you with 'em, maybe best to revert to a 4-4-2 though, with proper full backs and go for it a bit more away from home. Sam Winnall will be back soon and that'll be like tha having a new signing too. Everyone knows that the main characteristic of kids is inconsistency, consistency comes with experience and so this season, at least, the Board knows that ups and downs are inevitable."

If PC wanted to boot anyone this week Mansford, Cranie, Lita, Hemmings, Nyatanga and the Pieman should all have been ahead of DW in the ejector seat. Letting them go would have shown real leadership and saved us a bomb with no discernible potential for drop-off in performance.

I'll be back at the 'well next week but like Jay, I sense it is going to feel a little bit different, at least for a while. Feels like it's someone else's club now, not mine.

 

"I'll be back at the 'well next week but like Jay, I sense it is going to feel a little bit different, at least for a while. Feels like it's someone else's club now, not mine. "

This is the crux of it for me, Exile. When we went into administration and the old club was wound up, something died. I sit in the East Stand with some of the old employees from that era, and they are a different cut from those running the club now. They are fans. They pay for their season tickets and have done for years. They are at every home match and most away ones too, and they are not young. They cared for the club, they still do. In their regard for each other it is plain to see that there was a family atmosphere within the organisation that permeated out to the fans. Now it is just a business, typified by rent-a-quote statements and couldn't -care-less players. Inevitable, really, when you look at the broader picture; the corruption at international level, the latest TV contracts for the Premier League, the "lifestyles" of players. Things change; nothing stays the same, and I know that in some ways I am a dinosaur regarding this, but all the same, I preferred the club as it was.

 

Years ago yer could take any of the players and they would do you a shift down the pit. If you could get any of this lot away from the mirror they could probably manage half a shift in a nail parlour then want 3 days to recover.