Modern day football

[Darvo]

Things have been far too upbeat on here recently ... so, I think we need something to moan about ...

One of my great joys has been to attend Wolves matches with family (brothers) and mates for many a year. My brother has become so disillusioned with the modern day game that he is close to knocking it on the head completely. This would hit me very hard.

Basically, the replica plastic stadium, the loss of intense atmospheres, the abhorrence of VAR (in particular) and time wasting (game management!), players cheating etc ... have took their toll.

Is the beautiful game in a better place now than it was 30/40 years ago?

Discuss...

 

[manchesterwolf17]

I do resonate a lot with this. Particularly when it comes to how much VAR has ruined the joy of the game. Another aspect is how negative so many teams are in their approach. 5 defenders, 2 holding midfielders etc. Effectively therefore having 7/10 outfielders whose job it is to make the game less fun.

I mentioned on another thread last week that I travel from Cumbria nowadays. 60 odd quid return on the train. 5-6 hour round trip in the car. I was contemplating this season being my last regardless, but I think it almost certainly now will be. For the factors I referenced and the ones you did also. I could probably count on one hand the games I've genuinely enjoyed at Molineux this season. When the enjoyment leaves you. When you feel like you can barely celebrate a goal because of the technology, when you're watching sideways and backwards passing, I mean you really do start to wonder what the point is.

 

[Darvo]

I do resonate a lot with this. Particularly when it comes to how much VAR has ruined the joy of the game. Another aspect is how negative so many teams are in their approach. 5 defenders, 2 holding midfielders etc. Effectively therefore having 7/10 outfielders whose job it is to make the game less fun.

I mentioned on another thread last week that I travel from Cumbria nowadays. 60 odd quid return on the train. 5-6 hour round trip in the car. I was contemplating this season being my last regardless, but I think it almost certainly now will be. For the factors I referenced and the ones you did also. I could probably count on one hand the games I've genuinely enjoyed at Molineux this season. When the enjoyment leaves you. When you feel like you can barely celebrate a goal because of the technology, when you're watching sideways and backwards passing, I mean you really do start to wonder what the point is.

I feel your pain. I don’t want this to become just another VAR thread cos it’s not the only factor ... but I know that not being able to celebrate a goal properly has played a major part in his unhappiness. It’s abhorrent and I’m disappointed and surprised that it hasn’t been challenged more vociferously.

 

[JohnB]

Yet City vs Real Madrid and City vs Liverpool were amazing.

Like boxing most sides seek to draw or unbalance opponent into a mistake and then counterpunch. Very rare do you see a Taylor vs Serrano last round where both sides are going for it…..but when you do….

I’ve watched some utter dross through 80s and 90s (5-1 away at Bolton next to supermarket springs to mind with my mate who’s a Liverpool fan and a 2-0 defeat with a few hardy souls at ‘Boro in 1991)….it is always the hope that kills you….or the thrill of that memorable win - last minute winner (Blues at home 3-2 - limbs) or penalty shoot-out (Sheff Weds).

Like an addict we’re searching for that one last hit.

Good luck with whatever you choose - but you’ll miss it and you’ll be back.

 

[beppe7619]

I think it has changed a lot but lower leagues are still the same. Premier league you need revenue through corporate fans drinking and eating in the ground plastic fans buying merchandise tickets Without this you will always have to sell your best players to survive it is a sad state of affairs but if you want to see wolves progress then the club needs to make big decisions

 

[Soho Wolf]

This is the Premier League. VAR, **** referees and play acting. Modern football in a nutshell.

 

[sc91]

Things have been far too upbeat on here recently ... so, I think we need something to moan about ...

One of my great joys has been to attend Wolves matches with family (brothers) and mates for many a year. My brother has become so disillusioned with the modern day game that he is close to knocking it on the head completely. This would hit me very hard.

Basically, the replica plastic stadium, the loss of intense atmospheres, the abhorrence of VAR (in particular) and time wasting (game management!), players cheating etc ... have took their toll.

Is the beautiful game in a better place now than it was 30/40 years ago?

Discuss...

I'm with this, I've just lost total interest, the stadiums suck, the constant moving of times sucks, mates are priced out and the distance/cost of the games are so offputting, their is an obvious ceiling for the trophies as well that just makes it all sum up as bleh.

I've had so much more enjoyment following other sports this year.

 

[JadeWolf]

I agree with a lot of this. VAR is absolutely killing the experience of watching football in the ground. And the worst thing is the people running it don’t seem to know or care.

Moving kick off times is a necessary evil I guess with the amount of money knocking about, but it’s still not great for fans. Moving a game from a Saturday to Sunday can have big knock on effects for peoples other plans etc, nevermind moving games to Monday/Friday nights.

Too many grounds now feel very corporate, the atmosphere is plastic and pretend, we’re treated like customers and forced to pay through the nose for the privilege. The price of food and alcohol inside stadiums is frankly disgusting and what you get for your money is embarrassing.

Listen I know I’m very lucky to be able to afford and then commit my time to going to support us home and away (plus U23s) and I am grateful. But yeah I do think being a supporter is not the same as it was.

 

[Matt]

VAR has killed a lot of what makes football special, for sure. Diving also, remember when people used to get retrospectively booked for it? That lasted about a week. Now it’s almost encouraged. You initiate contact with a defender and go down theatrically and it’s a foul, no questions asked. VAR replays looking for any slight contact before a player goes to ground flinging his arms in the air. I hate it. The game is full of cheats and it gets rewarded.

 

[Beeches wolf]

One aspect i dislike now is the so called, seeing the game out.
We have players who will sit down to get the game stopped, goal keepers changing gloves,
And wasting time by any means.
Whatever happened to, unless its a head injury play on?

 

[TheConcourse]

Things have been far too upbeat on here recently ... so, I think we need something to moan about ...

One of my great joys has been to attend Wolves matches with family (brothers) and mates for many a year. My brother has become so disillusioned with the modern day game that he is close to knocking it on the head completely. This would hit me very hard.

Basically, the replica plastic stadium, the loss of intense atmospheres, the abhorrence of VAR (in particular) and time wasting (game management!), players cheating etc ... have took their toll.

Is the beautiful game in a better place now than it was 30/40 years ago?

Discuss...

I feel the same as your brother. The pandemic has totally changed the way I view football and time in general.

It’s 125 miles from home to Molineux. 3 hours in a car both ways with two young kids at home, and for what? To watch us pass the ball back to Mr Shouty for 90 minutes. No thanks.

I don’t care where we finish in the league: seriously. But performances over the last two years have left me bored beyond belief.

I’m doing Chelsea next week, handed my tickets to a friend for City the following Wednesday and that’ll be me done this season.

I want to be entertained, or I’ll just watch at home and save the 6hr commute.

 

[Ches78]

Mixed feelings for me, although I'm a kid of the 80s/90s, so perhaps don't know much better. I think the game has become far more technical and clinical than it was (players' ability and application of the rules of the game) - I guess its natural evolution of the game plus the result of millions (billions) of £££ investment over the years. There are pros and cons I suppose, I'm not sure things are better or worse, but they're significantly different. I'm certainly not a big fan of VAR, but I think it could have its place, just to pick up any absolute howlers (blatant offsides, handball, red card challenges that have been missed etc). I also think clubs should do more to make the game more affordable, using some of the huge amounts of TV revenue they get.

On a lighter note, I follow a twitter account called Crap90sFootball, which often highlights how far the game has come over a relatively short period... E.g.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1520023361132417024

 

[sedgwolf1980]

I will get pelters for this but the more sanitised, PC, family friendly, political, plastic football gets, the worse it becomes.

Football at its best is raw, tribal, dangerous at times, with an edge to it. Put simply, at its best it’s raw, it’s real.

We are so far away now from the things that make us fall in love with football it’s essentially a different sport all together.

 

[sedgwolf1980]

For what it’s worth too, not sure if this is the right thread, but just to add that I couldn’t give a flying **** about esports, record sales, clothing lines or how many ‘fans’ we have in China.

 

[clivewolves]

There's changes I like. Changes I don't. Some of it I'll get used to. Some of it I'll despise until the day I die (I'm looking at you goal music). I guess every generation goes through this.

 

[Parkfieldswolf]

Agree with all these points. I remember going along with my mates in our early teens or in my case a little younger and paying with a pound note and though we were at a low ebb in our history it was exciting. Getting as close to the away fans as possible and giving a bit of abuse (I was a kid and it was fun) or going in a different stand one week for a change or the away games I usually stayed quite local Brum, Port Vale etc but it was great times. The football was mostly **** but it was at least honest. Now we’ve got pretend head injuries, ball taken to the corner flag, biased and I still believe corrupt refs, terrible VAR and soulless grounds with loads of part time fans with half and half scarves. The final straw is the cost. It’s a ridiculous amount to ask for 90 minutes not to mention the cost of food and drinks. All in all to me it’s a shadow of what it once was and the only positive I can think of is that the violence in and around the ground has been eradicated and confined to mostly arranged meets between the idiots.

 

[Big Saft Kid]

Becoming very disillusioned after a life time of going to games. I am a home STH but this season I have so far missed Burnley, Everton, Watford and Brighton. I didn't use to miss any home games, but I too am thinking of packing it in at the end of this season. It's so boring now.

 

[bilstonwolf]

Agree with most of the sentiment posted above. I recently read 'Theatre of Silence' by Matthew Bazell in which he describes Arsenal's shift in crowd demographics and the general change in the focuses of the club toward treating fans as consumers and nothing more. It made me think about if that change is possible at Wolves as the Black Country doesn't have the same amount of very well off people who are going to pay a grand for a season ticket and subscribe to endless membership schemes. It seems the club is following the Arsenal route of 20 years ago but I wonder where the cut off point, at which enough people pack it in, will be as a result of ticket prices and the increasingly dire matchday experience.

 

[Minimalist]

VAR and time wasting/diving really is making football less enjoyable.

It is also hard to except the ridiculous wages players now receive.

 

[Nivada]

Interesting how this only appears when we're doing badly.

 

[waggys left foot]

Pitches and some stadiums are miles better but cheating is endemic with simulation and American football style defending .The only way to deal with the cheating is to have retrospective video penalties .

Players seem to be able to bulk up in relatively short time which is worrying.

VAR has made off side decisions more accurate but unless blatant most of the cheating is ignored.

 

[Hot Fuss]

Season ticket prices.

Away ends full of ****ing children with beggy “can I have your shirt” signs.

Players rolling on the floor after every challenge.

Twitter super fans.

 

[A3wolf]

Think there’s also a factor that we’ve spent many years wanting to get a team that can hold it’s own in the Premiership and in the early Fosun years achieving it was such a consistent high, what comes after is never going to come close unless we achieve major honours.
Bit like a programme I saw on super rich that stated many thought their life was more enjoyable on the rise to achieving wealth than once they had made it.

 

[sc91]

Interesting how this only appears when we're doing badly.

Its been said since the start of the season and the previous 1 and a half we couldn't say as most of us weren't in the grounds.

 

[sc91]

To emphasis how interest has evaporated amongst my mates, the one lad who never missed a match home and away for a decade has taken up rambling instead and hasn't been all season.

The interest has absolutely dried up.

 

[JadeWolf]

To emphasis how interest has evaporated amongst my mates, the one lad who never missed a match home and away for a decade has taken up rambling instead and hasn't been all season.

The interest has absolutely dried up.

Peoples habits have changed due to the pandemic, and I think that coupled with how expensive football is and the rising cost of living, it’s no surprise that people are calling it a day.

 

[WickedWolfie]

For what it’s worth too, not sure if this is the right thread, but just to add that I couldn’t give a flying **** about esports, record sales, clothing lines or how many ‘fans’ we have in China.

I think that the only reason anyone might care about any of those is the revenue that they raise could boost future investment.

 

[Hot Fuss]

To emphasis how interest has evaporated amongst my mates, the one lad who never missed a match home and away for a decade has taken up rambling instead and hasn't been all season.

The interest has absolutely dried up.

Never got the difference between rambling and going for a walk.

 

[old wittonian]

Never got the difference between rambling and going for a walk.

Some of the team were on a walk/ramble against Brighton.

 

[Hot Fuss]

Some of the team were on a walk/ramble against Brighton.

But what’s the difference? Is rambling a bit quicker? Do you have to carry one of those pointy sticks for it to be a ramble? Can you only ramble in the countryside?

 

[sc91]

Peoples habits have changed due to the pandemic, and I think that coupled with how expensive football is and the rising cost of living, it’s no surprise that people are calling it a day.

Absolutely. For some, it became a bit of a realisation that it was the other aspects of football they preferred (the social side, the buzz of waking up for the away day, the coach etc etc) rather than the actual game.

Costs are an absolute factor though, I feel for people coming down here for Chelsea next weekend, the price between Birmingham and London is ludicrous considering the short journey time (for perspective, it'll take me longer to get to Stamford Bridge, than someone traveling into Euston from Birmingham New Street).

And, as said above, the sanitized atmospheres are pretty god damn dreadful. I can't remember the last time I heard a good home atmosphere in the Premier League yet a few stick out for me going back to League One (Bradford away for example, that place was rocking the whole match).

Never got the difference between rambling and going for a walk.

I think it is to do with the distance?

 

[old wittonian]

But what’s the difference? Is rambling a bit quicker? Do you have to carry one of those pointy sticks for it to be a ramble? Can you only ramble in the countryside?

Apparently a ramble is a walk for pleasure in the countryside

 

[bigwolf]

Can't wait until NFTs start being issued by wolves and fans in Shanghai get to choose Raul's goal celebration music.

Greed and money has changed football and will continue to change football. I am guessing most of the posters above are what would be called 'legacy fans' by marketing teams and ultimately they are difficult to monetize.

So ultimately medium to long term you are not that important to the club. And it is only going to get worse for us as more tourist and younger 'now now now' digital age fans take our place.

Let's be clear Fosun are here to make money from football. That's it. And they will build and deliver plans that achieve thay objective whether we like the plans or not.

It is happening across many teams in the PL.

 

[Axle]

This is a sad thread

 

[Wednesbury Wolf]

This is a sad thread

Yes but it's true modern football particularly at the Wolves is simply gash.

 

[SmokeyGB]

Gave up my season ticket 4 years ago now.
Do I miss going to the games, yes only for the people I meet before hand.
130 miles each way, half day off work for midweek games, price has gone up nearly 2 fold since..

Not for me, happy with a HD Stream, my son and friends watching in Yorkshire on a 50" TV..

Just miss the lads, that feeling walking up to the ground, pre match noise/music, but not enough to pay the ££££ they want now and my time invested to/from and costs.

 

[Ewok vs Wolf]

I love football but really dislike the Premier league
It's so plastic, false, political
And recently it's become like la liga used to be with 2 teams dominating. It's boring and predictable

 

[Big Saft Kid]

Quite difficult to identify with the players. They all drive round in cars costing £100k or more, earn ridiculous amounts even for average skill levels, and have no real contact with or understanding of the place they play in. There's no emotional attachment any more

 

[WeAreTheWolvesII]

It's just because our team is boring, that's the real problem here.

Nobody would've thought of packing it in a few years ago when we were in Europe, an FA Cup semi-final and so on. That was still the 'modern football' era and many of the issues that are raised now were still there then.

Those days were perhaps the best for a whole generation or two of Wolves fans.

However, when the team isn't successful, it does highlight these things even more, although we've only got ourselves to blame for some of it, such as the ticket prices and atmosphere.

In my opinion, the two are linked, when you start pricing out the working class you start to lose the atmosphere but we've accepted for too long that it happens. Why? Me and many others argued relentlessly on here at ticket prices going up saying it was disgraceful but far too many didn't want to know. Now it seems as though it's becoming a big issue and there will be a lot of anger in the coming weeks but it should've been there before. This is something we (and football fans in general, not just Wolves) can do. If we (again, not just Wolves) took collective action, prices would be lowered, but we won't.

I think moaning about VAR is a bit excessive. It's rare to get an incident that drags on too long and there was so much moaning in the past when bad decisions were given, which people forget.

Kick-off times can be a pain in the **** but I can't be hypocritical on this as I really enjoy watching games on TV, as I'm sure most do. Should Brentford fans really be having to travel across the country to Manchester tonight? No, but I'll watch the game and them (or anyone) doing that travelling is much better than having to watch Coronation St or something else instead!
I also think the TV companies get a raw deal from fans considering they are the reason we have these players and this league. They pay the money.

So, I think this thread and the feelings on it are highlighted because we have a boring team right now who are awful to watch. Even if we were down the table but playing well, there would be much more enthusiasm.

My only real concern/complaint about modern football is the ticket prices as it's pure greed and exploitation from clubs to charge the prices they do considering the little % of total revenue it makes up. That will eventually turn us into a West Ham/Arsenal type (we're well on our way) and that's going to be sad to see. However, as soon as we go down they'll be begging for everyone to come back.

 

[Contrarian]

I wish we could have the improvements, without the worst aspects. Because I think some things have improved, but others have got worse, a lot worse.

Since starting watching in the early 1970's, the quality of football itself has improved immensely. In terms of the skill level, pace, movement and so on. Also, I prefer the modern stadiums - architecturally, that is - to the cattle pens/disasters waiting to happen - that we had in the 1970's.

But the downsides, there are so many of them! And often linked to those very advantages. At the level of the game itself, the level of cheating that players have descended to. I hate VAR, but essentially, if players didn't continually try and fool the ref, VAR would never be considered. Time wasting, feigning injury, just spoils the skill level improvement in the game.

Though I prefer the stadiums, not so sure about what goes on in them. Goal music and so on, corporate boxes, increasing numbers of tourists while life time fans can't get a ticket. And the price. The price is so much more in real terms than the 25p it cost to stand back in the early 70s.

The other thing that I really dislike now is this whole "Big 6" thing. That the game was more evenly competitive. But the past 30 or so years have seen this group of around 13 or 14 European clubs just take control and dominate everything. They game is run for them, they get what they want. Look at the league table now, the same 6 up there. And I think this aspect also links to many of the negatives. VAR was introduced because *they* feared losing out on something to an incorrect ref decision. Time wasting happens because there is so much at stake, if a team gets in the lead, they are desparate to cling on, because every point is vital to survive because realistically, it's 3 relegated out of 14 each season.

And now they have changed the European qualification to benefit those big clubs even more. The whole thing is a cartel, soon to be a monopoly. Since the "Super League " thing died down, I'm now wondering if it might actually be better if those clubs ****ed off and formed it after all! They could have their razzmatazz theatrical light entertainment and leave the rest of the us to reorganise around competitive, open football instead of this mock-competition we have now.