Anyone else slowly starting to despise the prem?

Shiggy

Well-known member
Without even going into the absurd money involved at that level, in the last few weeks I’ve started to hate watching premier league football.
I’m not sure whether it’s the frequency in which games are being played, the lack of fans, or something else, but I’m really struggling to enjoy most of the games I watch.
The Southampton vs Chelsea game yesterday was probably one of the worst games I’ve watched all season. Lack of quality in final third, pointless, aimless passing side to side, and neither side really trying to win in the final 20 minutes.
There seem to have been lots of games like this so far as well. Man United have drawn 0-0 with Arsenal, City and Liverpool despite having one of the best attacking set ups in the division imo.
It all just seems so tirelessly technical, to the point where it becomes frustrating to watch.
One of my mates is a blades fan, and he can’t wait to be back in the championship, and I can genuinely understand why. The only sides I’ve consistently enjoyed watching at that level are Leeds, Villa and Leicester. The rest are either forced to play dreadful football as a result of the huge financial gulf that exists between the top/bottom sides in the division, and most of the games I’ve watched between the the big boys seem to follow a pattern of ‘let’s completely out pass each other while it’s 0-0, and then depending on who scores first we’ll decide our style of play from there’.

Maybe I’ve just been watching too much football because there’s nothing else to do, or perhaps the game is suffering more than I realise without supporters, but atm most games at the top level in this country are absolutely dire to watch.
 
I don’t like it because of all the cheating and diving , and players going down screaming when they’ve had a tap on their ankle . I watched somebody get an arm across his chest and go down screaming and holding his ankle. And what’s worse , idiots like Glen Hoddle condone it by saying, well, there was contact . It’s a contact sport ffs.
 
I don’t like it because of all the cheating and diving , and players going down screaming when they’ve had a tap on their ankle . I watched somebody get an arm across his chest and go down screaming and holding his ankle. And what’s worse , idiots like Glen Hoddle condone it by saying, well, there was contact . It’s a contact sport ffs.
You mean like Curtis yesterday? :)
 
In part I agree with the OP; it's why when the 6 break away there will be vastly, club changing money reduction in the 'PL' and thereafter the lower leagues.

I'm looking forward to the 4:30 game, but it's 2 of the big 6. Man U v NU? Not a chance of me even turning over to look at the score.

I also take the point about overkill. It's gone so far that Burnley get the Radio presenters graveyard shift with 6pm KO's seemingly every other game.
 
I don’t like it because of all the cheating and diving , and players going down screaming when they’ve had a tap on their ankle . I watched somebody get an arm across his chest and go down screaming and holding his ankle. And what’s worse , idiots like Glen Hoddle condone it by saying, well, there was contact . It’s a contact sport ffs.
Isn't that EXACTLY how that Curtis bloke for P'mouth was described on here yesterday?
It isn't just the PL.
 
Yes, most of the time it's only really sustained by the TV/radio hype. The comment on it being a triumph of technical ability over passion is spot on for me. Yes, we get a fair share of irritating behaviour in Div 1 as well but the cheating and diving in the prem is considerably more prevalent than in the leagues below. Don't get me wrong there are still a few players I can enjoy watching but they're the ones in the Seamus Coleman mould and there aren't many of them left in the prem. However, the most striking thing for me now is that it's just become plain dreary. I had MOTD on last night which is highlights only and still switched over. As for the phrase "he was entitled to go down there"..... FFS, give me strength 🤨 😗
 
Isn't that EXACTLY how that Curtis bloke for P'mouth was described on here yesterday?
It isn't just the PL.
Of course not, but I think it would be fair to say it happens in the PL a lot more frequently, and considering the fact that it’s often justified by pundits these days it’s easy to see why it spreads through the game
 
Without even going into the absurd money involved at that level, in the last few weeks I’ve started to hate watching premier league football.
I’m not sure whether it’s the frequency in which games are being played, the lack of fans, or something else, but I’m really struggling to enjoy most of the games I watch.
The Southampton vs Chelsea game yesterday was probably one of the worst games I’ve watched all season. Lack of quality in final third, pointless, aimless passing side to side, and neither side really trying to win in the final 20 minutes.
There seem to have been lots of games like this so far as well. Man United have drawn 0-0 with Arsenal, City and Liverpool despite having one of the best attacking set ups in the division imo.
It all just seems so tirelessly technical, to the point where it becomes frustrating to watch.
One of my mates is a blades fan, and he can’t wait to be back in the championship, and I can genuinely understand why. The only sides I’ve consistently enjoyed watching at that level are Leeds, Villa and Leicester. The rest are either forced to play dreadful football as a result of the huge financial gulf that exists between the top/bottom sides in the division, and most of the games I’ve watched between the the big boys seem to follow a pattern of ‘let’s completely out pass each other while it’s 0-0, and then depending on who scores first we’ll decide our style of play from there’.

Maybe I’ve just been watching too much football because there’s nothing else to do, or perhaps the game is suffering more than I realise without supporters, but atm most games at the top level in this country are absolutely dire to watch.

I can't really say, as I don't think I've watched a single PL game this season.

But the EPL as a whole has been absurdly over-hyped for a long time. It's football for people who don't really "get" football, and probably never will.
 
I don’t like it because of all the cheating and diving , and players going down screaming when they’ve had a tap on their ankle . I watched somebody get an arm across his chest and go down screaming and holding his ankle. And what’s worse , idiots like Glen Hoddle condone it by saying, well, there was contact . It’s a contact sport ffs.
Yeah when these twats feign injury & roll about on the floor, you feel like giving them a proper boot & saying "now you've got something to moan about"
 
Anyone who has watched a few Everton games knows Richarlison is absolutely dreadful for going down at every opportunity. Salah not much better
 
Still watch as many games as possible but because every game is on it sometimes becomes an overload and a bit boring

I've gone from watching us live and 3 /4 TV games to an Ifollow match and double the norm in the PL over a weekend.

Fans get back and normality will resume.
 
Wonder how Leeds fans will take the sanitation that will eventually occur from being in the Premier League for an extended period of time. Interesting to see if they'll be able to resist it.
 
I can't really say, as I don't think I've watched a single PL game this season.

But the EPL as a whole has been absurdly over-hyped for a long time. It's football for people who don't really "get" football, and probably never will.
You'll know my response. Absolute bullshit. Inverted snobbery appears again.

Fcuk me, you love the hype and all the razzamatazz of the NFL and I'd bet you know very little about the lower levels of NFL football. Well you don't ever discuss them on here anyway.
 
I wonder if the fans still feel the passion in the PL when they’re there live? Certainly watching it on TV is pretty boring most of the tine.
 
Yeah. I haven't watched a Premier League game for three or four seasons, and the same applies to the Champions League. I barely look at the results . No interest whatsoever. Its the money, the over hype , the show business, the pantomime element, the political correctness the snow flakiness and the fact that fans of clubs like Arsenal Spurs etc etc think their hard done by if they don't finish in the Top four or win a trophy. Fuck em all.

I'm not sure I want to experience it again. I'd like us to be a well established Championship club with solid infrastructure and a fan base to be proud of, anything above that I don't know. Am I wrong to feel like that ?
 
You'll know my response. Absolute bullshit. Inverted snobbery appears again.

Fcuk me, you love the hype and all the razzamatazz of the NFL and I'd bet you know very little about the lower levels of NFL football. Well you don't ever discuss them on here anyway.
20s - I’ll protect you here so you can can make a quick edit before Basil comes back.
NFL doesn’t have any lower leagues in the way we do. They have an elite 32 franchise teams (which the owner can move to any city they like in essence) and it is fed by Universities every year in “The Draft” of the best young talent of early 20s year olds.

The College football scene (Uni’s) is very well supported and watched by the Yanks.

Then it’s effectively amateur stuff that nobody every watches or reports on at all.
Very concentrated model of small number of teams and makes it a TV /Armchair fan sport in the main. Very few as a % go to games (think Man Utd fans across the world) - it’s all TV based and Fantasy football. A long way from our world.
 
I agree with the OP. I stopped watching it years ago and I don't miss anything about it. Once the EPL was set up the top flight lost its soul. Money men took over and they screwed fans for as much as possible in TV subscriptions, gate receipts, five new kits per year etc. It's now moving on to another level with all the foreign owners with absolutely no history of ever supporting the club they own. It's either a trophy asset for them or a money making business. Community concerns are virtually non existent in most cases. The fact that over the last few years new US owners have been emerging is all the evidence you need to know that it's all about making money. Remember this a country that thinks that a football is something that you throw with your hand! I reckon they will all be pushing for the European Super League to maximise the amount of money they can make....
 
I think because of the number of foreign managers, the Prem is looking a lot like the European leagues now.
Can see what you’re saying, but I don’t think it’s necessarily all to do with foreign managers. Bielsa, Pep and Klopp have brought something to this league. I think it’s more the financial gulf between sides as well maybe the fact that we’re consistently bombarded with the idea that it’s the best league in the world, setting us up for the inevitable disappointment when teams like Newcastle, West Brom, Burnley etc travel to most places with the mentality of avoiding defeat, because what else can they do?
 
.
20s - I’ll protect you here so you can can make a quick edit before Basil comes back.
NFL doesn’t have any lower leagues in the way we do. They have an elite 32 franchise teams (which the owner can move to any city they like in essence) and it is fed by Universities every year in “The Draft” of the best young talent of early 20s year olds.

The College football scene (Uni’s) is very well supported and watched by the Yanks.

Then it’s effectively amateur stuff that nobody every watches or reports on at all.
Very concentrated model of small number of teams and makes it a TV /Armchair fan sport in the main. Very few as a % go to games (think Man Utd fans across the world) - it’s all TV based and Fantasy football. A long way from our world.
No need to protect me Chunky. I choose my words carefully and why I said "lower levels". And that is what college football is. So in effect the NFL is all about the hype too. Oh and remember this, they have some of the richest clubs in the world and their players are paid millions of dollars. But hey let's knock English football. Robbie is the guy who says who doesn't comment on games he's not at .Has he even watched a game on I follow this season. This is the team he claims to love and support. But show NFL games and he's first in to start the threads. Hypocrisy and double standards. He strikes me as the poster if we were to lucky enough to ever become a PL club again, he'd give up watching. He's proud of his inverted snobbery badge.
 
20s - I’ll protect you here so you can can make a quick edit before Basil comes back.
NFL doesn’t have any lower leagues in the way we do. They have an elite 32 franchise teams (which the owner can move to any city they like in essence) and it is fed by Universities every year in “The Draft” of the best young talent of early 20s year olds.

The College football scene (Uni’s) is very well supported and watched by the Yanks.

Then it’s effectively amateur stuff that nobody every watches or reports on at all.
Very concentrated model of small number of teams and makes it a TV /Armchair fan sport in the main. Very few as a % go to games (think Man Utd fans across the world) - it’s all TV based and Fantasy football. A long way from our world.

The NFL sits atop a college based structure, with the two complementing each other. It also generates hundreds of millions of dollars for good causes every year as part of his core business (breast cancer awareness and support for the military).

It doesn't hoover up resources that deprive others, it operates on a equitable basis with regard to funding and in fact uses mechanisms like the draft to promote parity of opportunity to win the big prizes.

The only way in which it is remotely analogous to the EPL is in putting the TV audience ahead of the game-attending public.

Every year the NFL starts with a college draft with all 32 teams thinking that they might be this year's winners, and knowing the system is loaded to ensure that they all have as equal a chance as possible. I doubt the fans of clubs like Southampton, Palace and Burnley feel the same.
 
Have been saying this for a while, whilst I have both BT and Sky sports I watch far more cricket, rugby or golf. Just fed up with top flight football, all the overseas players and the cheating and moaning spoilt brats on ridiculous money. Although I do hope we make it back one day😊
 
I loved the PL when we were there and would love to go back, especially with VAR which would have kept us up.
But there's something far more comforting about where we are now even down to fans cleaning the seats.
Like others I think there's far too PL available to watch and as I type this I'm watching The Gooners and Citeh but I haven't watched the other 2 games.
And Citeh take the lead. Unstoppable at the moment.
 
The NFL sits atop a college based structure, with the two complementing each other. It also generates hundreds of millions of dollars for good causes every year as part of his core business (breast cancer awareness and support for the military).

It doesn't hoover up resources that deprive others, it operates on a equitable basis with regard to funding and in fact uses mechanisms like the draft to promote parity of opportunity to win the big prizes.

The only way in which it is remotely analogous to the EPL is in putting the TV audience ahead of the game-attending public.

Every year the NFL starts with a college draft with all 32 teams thinking that they might be this year's winners, and knowing the system is loaded to ensure that they all have as equal a chance as possible. I doubt the fans of clubs like Southampton, Palace and Burnley feel the same.
Is that the NFL that screws over it's fans by moving it's franchise.


Fcuk the fans, we don't give a damn about you.
 
The NFL sits atop a college based structure, with the two complementing each other. It also generates hundreds of millions of dollars for good causes every year as part of his core business (breast cancer awareness and support for the military).

It doesn't hoover up resources that deprive others, it operates on a equitable basis with regard to funding and in fact uses mechanisms like the draft to promote parity of opportunity to win the big prizes. So

The only way in which it is remotely analogous to the EPL is in putting the TV audience ahead of the game-attending public.

Every year the NFL starts with a college draft with all 32 teams thinking that they might be this year's winners, and knowing the system is loaded to ensure that they all have as equal a chance as possible. I doubt the fans of clubs like Southampton, Palace and Burnley feel the same.
Has a college team got the chance to become one of the thirty two? Burnley, Southampton and Palace have all had the chance to become one of the eighteen. And they still are. As have over half the 92 clubs. So is the NFL more of a closed shop than football in this country? It would seem so.
 
I've been fairly open about what I think of the prem and the financial arrangements involved.

Of course I'd like to see us in the top flight but I don't see the way the top flight is now as any more attractive or exciting than it was in say 1991. In fact, for several reasons, I find it less interesting than I did then, not least as I believe, as I have written about at length*, it is essentially fixed financially.

All of that aside, (and yes, it's still more competitive than some of the other big leagues, but I've never been a hipster type that follows German and Spanish football) I did used to watch the highlights quite regularly and listen to it live on the radio a lot.

Over the last couple of years, I've just stopped. I listened to the second half of the merseyside derby and I think that's possibly it for the season.

VAR has been a nail in the coffin in terms of my interest. It's made the game into something akin to dungeons and dragons** (I've nicked this from a meme) which boring people argue over the finer points of the rules to the point that I literally don't give a fuck any more.

I've watched more scottish football this year than I have English top flight. Again, that's not a conscious decision in particular, it's just that outside of Celtic/Rangers it tends to be quite evenly matched and competitive and they don't have VAR and it comes on my telly more often than English stuff does. (Cos I only have freeview)

* See below
** yes, I'm hypocritical.
 
Is that the NFL that screws over it's fans by moving it's franchise.


Fcuk the fans, we don't give a damn about you.
The people that screwed the fans over in that one was Oakland City Council.

Davis went for years to talks with the City trying to find a compromise to their ludicrous and unviable proposals until he finally broke and called their bluff.

Moving really was the only want forward for the franchise.

Raider nation has taken the move with surprising dignity and understanding, they’ve actually vilified the Mayor and Council of Oakland for the move.
 
Has a college team got the chance to become one of the thirty two? Burnley, Southampton and Palace have all had the chance to become one of the eighteen. And they still are. As have over half the 92 clubs. So is the NFL more of a closed shop than football in this country? It would seem so.

I'm not at all keen on franchises moving about, it would be anathema over here. Over there, less so. But I don't really like it any more than you do.

As for your comments about college teams getting into the thirty two, you're trying to create a flaw that doesn't exist, presumably because you don't understand how it works. They don't try to make that leap, because the means to do so doesn't exist. It's a bit like criticising the EFL because there is no chance of the winners of Cuppers football at Cambridge University getting into it. Absolute nonsense.
 
Has a college team got the chance to become one of the thirty two? Burnley, Southampton and Palace have all had the chance to become one of the eighteen. And they still are. As have over half the 92 clubs. So is the NFL more of a closed shop than football in this country? It would seem so.
It’s not how it works in America.

The NCAA teams work in their own world if you proposed a different structure which opened a path to the NFL they’d look at you very strangely and then have uncontrollable laughter for a few minutes. It’s not why they exist.

Many NCAA teams outstrip 75% of the NFL in monetary terms. The vast vast majority of College players never set foot on an NFL field.

it’s not really compatible to our football pyramid structure.
 
Stopped watching it couple of years ago most games are as exciting as watching chess too much side ways n back passing it's not about winning it's about not loosing Championship is better to watch
 
I'm not at all keen on franchises moving about, it would be anathema over here. Over there, less so. But I don't really like it any more than you do.

As for your comments about college teams getting into the thirty two, you're trying to create a flaw that doesn't exist, presumably because you don't understand how it works. They don't try to make that leap, because the means to do so doesn't exist. It's a bit like criticising the EFL because there is no chance of the winners of Cuppers football at Cambridge University getting into it. Absolute nonsense.
Yep, I understand that. I made my point rather badly. The point is that access to the thirty two is a closed shop. It can only ever be one of thirty two to win Superbowl whereas in theory any team of the 92 can get to the EPL and over half of them hsve.
 
Stopped watching it couple of years ago most games are as exciting as watching chess too much side ways n back passing it's not about winning it's about not loosing Championship is better to watch
Suggest you have a look at the goals per game ratio between the two.
 
I don't despise the Premier League but I'm bored of it myself.

I don't support anybody in the Prem and just don't want Liverpool or Man Utd to win so all good on that front but yes, I'd say I'm bored of it at the moment.
 
Yep, I understand that. I made my point rather badly. The point is that access to the thirty two is a closed shop. It can only ever be one of thirty two to win Superbowl whereas in theory any team of the 92 can get to the EPL and over half of them hsve.
Getting *to* the prem is a function of how the EFL finances work though isn't it to some extent?

Surely being promoted from another division regulated by different rules (albeit impacted by parachute money) isn't an argument for the Prem being in and of itself competitive.
 
It's a shame we no longer have any moderators on here or somebody could have stopped this uneven contest a long time ago and helped prevent any unnecessary damage.
 
Do not despise the premier league and have never done so. Along with fellow fans i would love to see us back in the prem watching some of the best football, managers and footballers in the world. I do feel though it is disappointing the huge gap between the top 5/6 and the rest in terms of ability. Yes it does take some of the magic away as do some of the owners.
 
It's over hyped and far from the best league in the world but I don't despise it really, I just don't care about it because we're not in it.
 
It's over hyped and far from the best league in the world but I don't despise it really, I just don't care about it because we're not in it.

Whether it's the best league in the world or even the most entertaining will always be subjective and we'll all have different views on that but the objective data - overseas sales - suggests that they are doing something well even if it is just on the marketing/promoting side.

I can't say I'm overly bothered about it right this now but I could watch the big games without us being in it.

To be honest Lytham, I don't budget for our return but I'll never say never.
 
The PL is shit, it's been shit for years, apart from when we were in it! 😉

I haven't watched a PL game for years, it doesn't interest me in the slightest. I will never forget being in a pub in Finsbury Park before our game in 2010 I had arrived late so missed the pre match meet up.There were 2 pubs opposite each other across a busy main road. Both full of Arsenal supporters and the place was absolutely rocking, I thought "this can't be Arsenal?" So I started speaking to a group of Arsenal fans and asked them how come it was like this here yet the ground had the reputation for being a 'Library'? The shocking answer was that, simply, none of the supporters in the pubs were going to the game, they couldn't get season tickets, priced out and all those in the ground were what Robbie so accurately described then as. The rich and the wonderful, the wealthy London foreigners, very few 'real supporters' they were all going to watch the game in the pub.

That for me, summed it up, and it's not just Arsenal, it's the majority of PL teams.

So, the sooner the big 6 or 8 fuck off to their mega money Euro,world league the better and the sooner football is governed properly and the English leagues return to the people the better it will be. I loved our season in the PL, we really were a breath of fresh air, but now? Would I want it again? Not as it is, but when it has changed then yes, very much so.
 
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