Jumpers for goalposts

Surely watching the better quaility play better quality football is a more enjoyable experience than watching alehouse standard football week-in, week-out? Isn't the brilliance of a Messi, Ronaldo. Xavi etc... more entertaining than some yarddogs playing hoofball?

Jimmy... hilarious post. Your opening reminds me of Billy Crystal in the Prince's Bride, denial is everything. It's not a question of justifying their wages... we all know the wedge players get is obscene. But everyone so far has proved utterly powerless to do anything about it ? in fact, the inflationary trend continues regardless: the disparities are actually getting bigger, not smaller.

And the thought of 6 or 7 big clubs collapsing... people have been coming on here, saying this is about to happen, for the past 10 years! Did you watch the Liverpool fiasco unfolding? Weren't they going to be the first??? Evertonians worldwide salivating in anticipation!!!

Pure poppycock.

I agree with your essential point, Larry. Professional football is an absurdity (the gap between our hopes and reality is the absurd) Nil Satis Nisi Optimum; Jesus.

Football is a working man's sport; there should be a collaborative relationship between fan and club. The quality of football should not be sacrificed, either. The fans are the club.

I believe that football crowds are currently at their peak and a slow decline is inevitable. When that happens, TV and its advertisers will look elsewhere. Football will then face its own financial meltdown.

The PL, in having priced itself out of the reach of many ordinary folk, has already moved some distance from its roots and shows no sign of returning to them. All is not lost, a glimmer of hope exists and must be seized upon.

TV companies and football authorities must demand that a percentage of the cash flow is spent on amenities and keeping entrance fees down. If that were to happen, even more bums would be sitting in better appointed seats.

I think the modern stuff is dire compared to the late 60s and 70s stuff. But equally, I remember back then the equivalent of old boys like us saying much the same about money and cheating etc.

I suspect as we get older, myths and legends are harder to accept, I mean... David Beckham???

I was there on the Right to Work marches, gave to the numerous collections for the miners families etc.

Looked on as Liverpool was torn to pieces by the right wingers on the Tory benches, the NHS steadily moved towards privatisation, the destruction of trade unionism.

I watched football though and the players were all British, they earned more than me, but not what in a week it would take a lifetime for me to earn ? and when they finished they usually went and got a fucking job.

I could afford to go the game, have a bite to eat, and hopefully see us on MotD.

Now, it's rip-off time, not only in this country, but in the sweatshops all over the world that make the boots, the shirts, the balls, that get sold for a fortune so these people can earn (sorry 'earn' is the wrong word) millions out of the misery of Third World children.

Don't tell me Thatcherism didn't impact on me or my generation, I was lucky, I kept my job and my home. It's about to impact on you and your generation, football will just sail through it, as it did in the eighties, but fewer and fewer people are getting taken in by it.

I can honestly say I don't know how I would feel if we were bought tomorrow by foreign billionares but after, 7 years of almost non-stop success, I think we would all be quite happy. Apart from Tony Marsh.

And then we would be talking about how we were going to topple the Redshites 18 league titles and 5 European Cups. Would we care about money if we had had it for nearly a decade and won almost everything? I just don't know....

We come fifth, we make a loss.
We make the FA cup final, we make a loss.
Good run in Europe, we make a loss.
Tiny squad, lowish wage-bill, we make a loss...

And you don't think trouble is brewing. Hmm...

And as for being powerless to do anything about it, how about this:

I don't plan to go to Goodison once all season for the first time since I was about 8 years old. Gonna watch Bolton v Everton (free ticket), Citeh v Everton in a coupla weeks (£38 quid, robbing bastards) and Manure V Everton (free ticket). Yes, all three amongst the home fans, does it matter? still a better atmosphere than among you lot at Goodison.

Also, I haven"t bought a replica shirt for at least ten years, and never spend a penny on our shite merchandise. I don't pay for Sky either, watch games illegally.

I guess you could call it a protest.

So, err, yeah. Take that, Premier League!

Well I fucking have, there are thousands of people who volunteer their help for hospitals, nursing homes, cleaning pensioners homes every hour of the day, every day of the week, it's called having a social conscience, it's what keeps the NHS running and you know what, they do it for fuck all, because they see the need.

We live in a country that is one of the richest and most developed on earth, but relies on charity and volunteers to keep it running. But at the same time total idiots are being paid a fortune for something that has no importance.

Wake the fuck up.

Whenever clubs are competing for a great player they will give them a good, competitive salary. Each time there is competition for a player, the salary balloons a little bit. Over the course of a few years, it blows up completely. Eventually, they only way to satisfy the demand for good players is to give them ridiculous amounts of money. This added expense is passed on to the supporters and ticket prices go through the roof. Whether they deserve the money or not, it makes perfect economical sense.

I'm not on the side of footballers here but they entertain just like musicians and movie stars and probably perform more often? Football is on my mind more than movies or music and gives me more pleasure than the other two, so in that case, the modern day footballers earning that much money is kind of justified really.

There is hugh interest in the game, look how many pages in the papers are dedicated to it. It shows the interest level and what it means to people. If that's what they earn to entertain, then so be it.

When the price of every damn thing goes up, your wage remains the same, and you have mouths to feed, I don't think you are going to want to spend over a hundred pounds to see Everton versus WBA.

It is obscene that mediocre footballers are paid tens of thousands of pounds EVERY WEEK for sitting on the bench and/or playing hoofball! It is disgraceful that teachers, nurses, and people from other professions who contribute a lot more to society, can't even make ends meet!

But Larry is correct in saying that the country depends on the goodwill and efforts of those who give their time for free to help the sick, disabled and disadvantaged. Since the advent of Thatcherism, the world has changed, and not all for the good.

The pendulum swings to the left and to the right and the inequities grow more each day. The bigger the swing, the bigger the bounce...

Football HAS suffered, it HAS improved but I doubt it gives value for money. Supporting a Premier League club means the ability to see your club whereever in the world you are, not a meat pie and a pint and a walk back home down Scottie and pick up the Football Pink at 5:15pm to read the match reports..

The Premier League will evolve but not disappear. Its growth is paid for by fans all over the globe, not by supporters turning up for matches.

Football in the Premier league is a non-contact sport. It's bland and mostly without much inspiration. It is no longer a battle, a ding dong altercation, it's about speed, greed and self-gratification.

As fans, we live for the matches that our team battles and wins, sweetly or with an ability to out-fight the opposition. You know... passion.

It's a rare commodity, a rare game these days. That's why, for many of us "older" fans, we wonder if it's gone too far.

Just ask yourself this, as a child I would regularly stand on the landing in Portland Gardens and listen to the roars when Everton scored, some 3 miles away... when was the last time the crowd could be heard in such a way? And when did you last walk out of Goodison thrilled?

I see myself as Chrissie Todd, not Dixie. I have known a few Yossers, but the portrayal of the impact Thatcherism had on the ordinary people of Liverpool was startlingly accurate. Watched the whole series again recently and it is still as powerful and contemporary as it was when it was first aired.

As regards Simon and Garfunkel well, "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest" The Boxer. Bit like Evertonians I suppose?

I guess that puts me in the quaint retrograde category eh!

I don't know if you are an educated person, a Tory or whatever else, but look and learn, its all happening again, police on horseback riding at kids in the streets of London ? and don't give me the shite about they were rioting ? as one very important Civil Rights activist put it: "Riot is the language of the unheard."

The thing that gets me angry is I see the football pitch, the players and the likes of me, all party to what is going on.

Everybody is credit-trapped and mortgaged up to the eyeballs so they can't afford to strike for what they deem fair rights because, if they do, they are vilified and made scapegoats.

The privatised industries are Absolute SHITE and banks can screw people to death over a few pounds and then announce a billion pounds profits...
God bless Maggie ? and Blair wasn't that far removed from her, if you ask me... John Smith he wasn't.

The Anglo-Saxon economies are run by hedge fund managers and Thatcher-Blair gave them a free reign to do just as they wished. Sadly, just like all greedy little boys, they over-indulged and that led to the unholy fuck up in 2008 and that looks like it will run and run.

The ?uncontrolled spending? you mention is actually a policy mechanism called quantative easing, where a government floods the capital markets with almost free cash to mop up the financial markets' exposure, or toxic debt, in an effort to combat the aforementioned Holy fuck up.

Although it could be argued that the labour government did increase public spending, it did little to reverse the pay inequalities that have appeared since Thatcher came to power and positively encouraged the captains of industry paying themselves ludicrous amounts of money and boasting to anyone within earshot that they don?t pay a penny in tax ? some socialists. But then again, Chris, you?re probably slightly to the right of Genghis Kahn.

Blimey what?s happened to the footy? ?ere Marshy, put it on me ?ead son.

Add in the fact they could have a drink with the players, and many had jobs to supplement their footballers' wages, I guess it was just the lifestyle rather than ability they crticized.

As far as I could see, half the management were ex-union and quite often they were the worst of the lot. If the management want something, they threaten closure and everybody, on the say-so of the union that represents them, gets in line. There is a constant cloud hanging over you.

As soon as your job is assured for another 5 years because you have signed a new agreement to lose your shift rate, your bonus or whatever other right the workforce went out on strike for 20 or 30 years ago, to remain competitive. When I started in the plant, there was over 8,000 working there; 17 years later, there was 2,000 and there were more cars going out the gate and closure was imminent.

It's not a job anymore ? it's a fuckin regime...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Bontine_Cunninghame_Graham#Convert_to_socialism
"1 capitalist is worth 20 socialists" - another question mark - If you checked Larry Boner's personal wealth say against one of the Rothchilds I reckon it would be higher ratio than 1:20 - but then again I suppose it depends on what your measure of a man is. Please explain.

Larry - the only problem with using jumpers for goal post is that the ball can't bounce off them. Great post and well done Michael K for not shutting it down.
Beckford to start (Definitely not Anichebe)

There are no political parties, there are only the faceless people that you never see on the newsreels, the guys who decide when Thatcher has run her course, when Kennedy is getting too big for his boots, when Scargill needs to be brought down to earth, when it is time for a black president in the USA, when Martin Luther King or Malcom X or Diana, or anyone who moves away from the dictated line has served their useful purpose and is succinctly destroyed.

Wake up, mate, "when there was no-one left they came for me" ? Can you grasp it, or do you wait till they are knocking on your door ?

The Trim though, now that was scary, there is no way I could have done that ducking and diving.