Why Do I Feel Like This ?

By Gary Jones :: 05/11/2011

17 Comments (�Last) A bit of context first. I?ve supported Everton since the 1969-70 season and over the years have had season tickets and followed them to all four corners of the country. Ipswich (for a night match), Plymouth, Newcastle and Carlisle (when they were a Division 1 team!) and everywhere in between.

Having said that, after watching today?s game at Newcastle, something dawned on me. First of all, I didn?t really watch it, kick every ball or jump for every header. It was on telly but I wasn?t watching it, I was reading the paper while it was on. Secondly, I didn?t leap out my chair when we scored. I just didn?t get that rush.

I don?t think I?ve fallen out of love with Everton, because that just doesn?t happen (does it?), but I'm trying to understand why, once upon a time, I?d follow us all over the country, but now I?m not even paying attention to them on the telly?

I don?t think it?s just about the team and our league position, because we?ve seen worse in the last 40 years I?ve been following them... so what is it?

One reason for sure is that priorities change. Kids, mortgages, bills etc all have a say in whether you can disappear all day to watch a football match at the other end of the country, but that doesn?t explain it when you?re sat in the house. I?ve tried to compare how I felt then to how I feel now and would be interested in whether this matches other people's view.

I used to go to the game to watch hard working honest footballers with whom I felt some association. Now I?m watching overpaid, pampered pricks who earn more in a week than the vast majority of people paying to watch them earn in a year.

I used to look forward to the fixtures coming out because it meant we were about to start a new season, and this was going to be our year. Now, I don?t really care because we?re just making up the numbers anyway. I used to love it when players really got stuck in, could tackle and take the man too. Now, any physical contact results in the player rolling in agony and the inevitable caution.

We used to be linked with decent players and believed we might be signing them... Now, we?re linked with every available player but we all know it?s just paper talk bollocks

We used to have a great stadium, and no money worries... Now, the ground is old and tired, we?re skint, and reminded of it virtually every day.

For most of my life, football has been my life. Unfortunately, it no longer appears to be. Do I need to go to counselling?

Reader Comments (17)

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Johnny Rainford
1 Posted 05/11/2011 at 19:35:54

Nah It's not just an age/family thing Gary. A lot of us grew up with the game as it's depicted in the Damned United, when -any- club had a chance of success. Thanks to $ky and the Premier League, the game has changed beyond recognition.

It's not only the same old clubs winning everything year in year out but the real winners are everybody involved, players / managers / agents etc as you say being pampered millionaires, so a lot of us feel the same loss of connection mate.

Ian McPherson
2 Posted 05/11/2011 at 21:22:58

Agree with all said. If they have a bad game, do they really care? Do they dwell on it all week like us fans? Millionaires that have no connection with the common fan and what it takes and costs to follow their team.

Trevor Mackie
3 Posted 05/11/2011 at 22:25:43

It's the basics mate, firstly it's not a working mans game anymore a certain level of disposable income is needed to watch, at one time a few shilling down the chute wasn't an issue if your team was crap.

Competing meant trying to win not playing defensively trying to score off a set piece and every team had one or two really good players, I remember going to anfield to see Sheff Utd, Birmingham and Spurs because they had Tony Currie, Trevor Francis and Glen Hoddle playing, fabulous players.

The insidious garbage spoken by media experts complicating a very simple game justifying defensive shite has become a substitute for knowledge. A generation of fans haven't played football so they quote verbatim this garbage and you end up with the hideous postings you see on here defending none or one up front.

What you're discovering is the old reasons of going to a match have changed, there's a new order predominantly middle class with different reasons for going - hence the lack of passion or apathy - not just here mind, older fans from any club will say the same.

The game won't die because there's nothing to replace it with, it's just the gap between the paying public and the participants wil grow wider.

Welcome to the club.

Chris Halliday
4 Posted 05/11/2011 at 22:27:53

Had the same strange feeling about the game today as well, maybe it was the KO time but I never got intrested in it. Complete flat feeling throughout, maybe it is a sign of the times with the manager always downbeat, no exciting players in the team. Results aside, the performances are poor and predictable ever week. Not much to get excited about at the moment. Maybe that's it.

Dennis Stevens
5 Posted 05/11/2011 at 22:35:36

Maybe the state of the club, from the Boardroom to the pitch, just seems a bit hopeless - with little prospect of any real change occurring.

Ian McDowell
7 Posted 05/11/2011 at 22:38:35

Maybe its because there is absolutely nothing to look forward to or be positive about at Everton. The team aren't winning, we can't afford anybody new and the football is atrocious.

Ryan Holroyd
8 Posted 05/11/2011 at 22:39:48

For me it's all about, well 95%, about Bill Kenwright.

I hate the man with every bone in my body. I detest him so much.

His decisions have absolutely killed Everton Football Club.

His lies, his cronies like Ian Ross. Hate him, hate them.

I will not give Everton a penny of my money until he is long long gone.

Peter Barry
22 Posted 06/11/2011 at 01:34:26

I too have followed the Blues for 57 years since my Grandad took me to my first match. I have seen the highs and the lows. Some of the best games I have seen have been no score draws or close 1 nil wins and losses. Why because the players TRIED and you could see it and feel it and APPRECIATE it. But as you say its different now. My Dad told me that it was not unusual to see a player on the SAME bus as you going to the match to play. They were working class kids just like you and their pay was similar to the working mans pay. Now players are "superstars" with superstars wages and superstars egos and they DONT EVEN TRY.

Mike Crawford
23 Posted 06/11/2011 at 09:02:49

Well Mr Jones you really struck a chord with me. I've been Everton since 1968 (Dad's family all from Liverpool) but confess to a life in SE England so followed rather than supported. Even so, I used to travel all over to watch. More recently I brought my youngest up for two home games (petrol/ hotel etc adds up to more than an ordinary bloke can afford!!) We're both losing interst for different reasons. For him it's COD / Facebk and for me it's everyting that's been said above. We recently watched a local side (Charlton) for a fiver each (special offer). Goals, some decent football and a friendly atmosphere and real value for money. Sound familar ? Even then I was checking my fone just to check that Everton were losing again...............

Gary Mortimer
24 Posted 06/11/2011 at 11:21:15

The multi-millionaire players who don't give a stuff, the referees who favour the 'Big Clubs', the FA trying to change the game into a non-contact sport, the media who consider every team outside the 'Sky 5 of Man U, Man C, Arse, Chelski, RS' as a plucky underdog, the inept board at EFC - all of them bleeding my passion for the game.

I'd love to be able to switch off . . . but I won't. No matter how much I think we need BK out, if everyone decided to stay away while he was there, how intimidating is an empty Goodison going to be to the away team? Pardew said that he thought Everton would have won if that was at Goodison because of the 'great fans'. If we're not careful we''l end up like Sheffield Wednesday.

First thing is to put a rocket up DM's backside - I'm fed up of his "we've got no money, so we can't compete attitude" - it's been said elsewhere on this site that his hand dog attitude is spreading to the players and I think it is unacceptable. If he can't find it in him to find the "us against the world" attitude, he needs to go before it is too late!

Gary Mortimer
25 Posted 06/11/2011 at 11:33:54

Obviously that should have read "hang dog".

Richard Reeves
26 Posted 06/11/2011 at 13:14:42

Gary, I've been thinking the same thing. I grew up with the Kendall team of the eighties when our team and stadium were probably the best and we actually had money but the point you make about being in the house and not watching the game is exactly what I find myself doing these days.

I find it difficult to get tickets for the derby so I normally watch on the telly but this year I was busy and missed the first ten minutes and to be honest I wasn't really bothered. That is the first time I have felt like that about a Merseyside derby but it has been like that for me all season.

For all the reasons why I want Moyes out, the main one is for making me NOT to want to watch the team i have supported all my life.

Chris Lawlor
27 Posted 06/11/2011 at 13:44:15

Totally agree mate, give me the pre 1992 era of football any day over this self serving Premier League drivel. Sky have stolen the National game and turned into a Cineplex experience played out with millionaire mercenaries. The only upside for me was the discovery of my local Unibond side who play nice neat football in the manner the game should be played... Nice pie & coffee all for £5!

Bob Parrington
29 Posted 07/11/2011 at 12:14:20

Fact is we played shit against newcastle. Worse still is the team to a man looked completely disinterested. It's the manager's job to set the scene for positive performance and this just ain't happening. Time for a big change!

COYB

David McKee
30 Posted 07/11/2011 at 12:49:01

Absolutely spot on comment its the players attitude thats really peed me off most. I felt the same as you Gary at the end of last season. I never renewed my season ticket and started playing golf best decision I've made I was out playing while the match was on this Saturday and I was more bothered how crap I played than Everton getting beat. Times have changed allright

Roger Trenwith
31 Posted 07/11/2011 at 14:21:03

I've been following Everton since 1968, when my Dad told me that I couldn't go on having a posters of Alan Ball and Roger Hunt on my bedroom wall, I had to chose, and as Bally was my favourite player, the choice was made for me.

Like Gary I've become increasingly disillusioned with modern top flight football, and went one better than him for the Newcastle game. I didn't even bother watching on TV or on the net, I had it on in the background on the radio, as I knew we would tamely lose.

There just seems no point at the moment, and until we get new owners things ain't going to get any better. Ho hum...

Denis Byrne
33 Posted 13/11/2011 at 09:07:47

Watching football these days is simultaneously like watching the keystone cops and going to a funeral church service. I prefer to spend Saturday afternoons hunting for old vinyl in charity shops, going to non-league games and having a bevvy in the kitchen and cooking dinner rather than watching footy on the telly.

But still obessed with all things Everton, no doubt influenced by my kids who love going to the (occasional) game when my work permits, and happy to talk about what they describe as the best days of their lives (FA Cup semi and final). So kinda know what you mean Gary, but can't get Everton out of the system despite the pain.

One remedy I have found is to submerge myself in the Everton Collection or reading a David France history, as always come out feeling better and convinced of our place at the centre of the universe.

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