English Football, It is the pits !!

Cork Skate

Who agrees !!

Who on this board would go out of their way to condem Irish League Football to promote the English Game, While answering this please note the Club you support, why ?? and try and give an insight to your way of thinking and how it came about.

I just want to see the result of this thread, should be interesting.

PiE

English football is crap compared to Spanish yea, but still a thousand times more entertaining than Irish.

KdjaCL

Latley Due to BlackBurn /Man City and Newcastle i have been watching a lot of English Football and enjoying it.
The top teams are faltering which is creating good football matches in games against them.Some of the lower end of table matches are desperate but thats why they lower end

I always watch spanish football but find my self screaming at defenders to make a bleedin tackle and not watch the other guy dance around with the ball.Great football tho

Oh Im a season ticket holder for St Patricks Athletic and been going since Paul Mc Grath played for them.

Kdja

Waylander

I support Man Utd. There are several reasons for this but the main reason is when I was a kid they had Paul Mc Grath, Frank Stapleton and Kevin Moran. I know other English clubs had Irish players but I was a big fan of Stapletons and from the same GAA club as Kevin Moran. I do not see how my supporting an English club will condemn LOI Football, as I am just awaiting Rovers to complete their new stadium and I will regularly attend games there. However, if you cannot see the difference in quailty between the two leagues I think you must be blinded by bias. I watched the Shels v Bohs last week and enjoyed it as a very good game. I watched United v City the next morning and even though the team I support got played off the pitch, it was a different class.

burn-afc

Originally posted by Cork Skate
Who agrees !!

Who on this board would go out of their way to condem Irish League Football to promote the English Game, While answering this please note the Club you support, why ?? and try and give an insight to your way of thinking and how it came about.

I just want to see the result of this thread, should be interesting.

I don't watch the FAI League.

Why? Because Arsenal play in the English Premiership.

I support Arsenal because thats the way I was brought up.

CCCP^

Originally posted by burn-afc
I don't watch the FAI League.

Why? Because Arsenal play in the English Premiership.

I support Arsenal because thats the way I was brought up.

WEST BRIT!

johnnynolegs

I watch all footie that is on i am mainly a supporter of Liverpool because my family are originally from liverpool so they support them....................

burn-afc

Originally posted by CCCP^
WEST BRIT!

Don't be a twat.

Dustaz

Originally posted by CCCP^
WEST BRIT!

I also support Arsenal because i was brought up watching a team that contained as many as 7 irish players.

Having said that i used to go to see Rovers in milltown, but after a couple of visits to the RDS it just wasnt the same. I sort of lost my way when it came to LOI in my teens because it just wasnt on the TV and 1st division was.

johnnynolegs

exactly dustaz - the beauty of watching the english league was u could watch it on telly whereas u had to actually go to the LOI matches

KdjaCL

Being a lover of all things round and in size 5

I get to see LOI fri night ,sometimes prem game sat morning ,Norwegian TV at 3pm and spanish football sat night then sunday it can be bedlam Goals on sunday ,a div 1 game ,prem at 4pm and more spanish football that night then if there is a mon night game in prem .

Well thats my weekend booked

Tho i couldnt be arsed if ppl dont like the LOI ,i certainly wont try and shove it down their throats with an "your supporting an english team and your irish type of rant".

As Dustaz said it wasnt on TV and still isnt (1 game this season WOW) so english football pretty much has Ireland in its grasp.
Blame the FAI.

Dont really care tbh i watch as much as she allows me to see

As
gwan the saints

Kdja

thegills

KDJA,
I'm also a Pats fan, not a season ticket holder as I work in Limerick Mon-Fri. I go to all the Friday night home games and was in Cork last week.
I love Liverpool also. I'd actually watch any football as I used to play a lot myself. I live in Clondalkin so try and get down on a Sunday morning at 11am to watch a local team.

Knowing some of the Pat's players personaly they train and prepare as much as a premiership team in terms of time and effort. Unfortunately there's not enough cash in the game.

KdjaCL

I live there too


Kdja

mike65

My name is Mike65 and I'm a Liverpool fan!

The reason, as I stated in that "Which team do you support?" thread is that the fist game I saw that made any impresion on me was the FA Cup final 1974 when Liverpool played Newcastle and won 3-0 it was a great game and I decided they were my team.
I lived near Southampton at the time, so I suppose I should have followed them (Mick Shanon and all) but what 9 year old follows the Sanits?!

(I was born in Wolverhampton, so I follow them for family reasons.)

The League Of Ireland not the Irish League, has never caught my interest except in a minor way when Waterford look like they might actually acheive something, its not on the telly and that counts for alot whether true belivers like it or not.

Mike.

Jake303

Celtic fc
Born in England of Irish parents (was brought back to live as a tot) but can still identify with being the son of a family who had to immigrate for financial reason and so Im naturally drawn to Celtic fc, founded by immigrants to help retain links and a sense of identity with their homeland!

I totally accept that Scottish football is ****e and Im ok with it but to hear some of em on here (and in Irish society in general) go on about how good the English game is would make you puke.

The technical level is terrible, you only had to look at the style of football played by Basle against Liverpool to see that!
This why I get confused when people slag me for watching Celtic, if they are so interested in watching good technique then why dont they all support teams in La Liga?


If technical ability is not the most important factor and all they want is blood n guts with a little skill here and there then why not support Celtic, or their local LOI team?

The Premiership is nothin more than a better version "high ball'n chase football" that can be found in Scotland or Ireland or Wales as well.

BKtje

The Premiership is high ball and chase?

Im quite sure that you are unbelievably wrong there.

I watch Premiership football for the likes of Arsenal,Man u, Chelsea, Liverpool and even leeds to an extent.

Even the lower teams can have great matches with nice touches and skill. I dont think many teams in the Premiership play long ball and chase non stop.

I've never really watched League of Ireland as atm it just doesnt interest me.

joey D

Er... League of Ireland is crap.

Pigman

Originally posted by Cork Skate
Who agrees !!

Who on this board would go out of their way to condem Irish League Football to promote the English Game, While answering this please note the Club you support, why ?? and try and give an insight to your way of thinking and how it came about.

I just want to see the result of this thread, should be interesting.

The champions League has become a true measurement of a leagues quality. Spain, Italy, and England all had four teams in the last 32 of the competition. Italy and Spain got their sides thru. England were midly unlucky not to get four into the last sixteen which would make them the 3rd best League in Europe by my reckoning. Spain is still miles ahead of everyone tho.

I'm a major EL fan but facts are facts. The premiership still has quality and the fact that so-called lesser sides like Bolton can on occasion even topple the likes of ManUnited proves it is a league with strength in depth, a claim that Spain and Italy certainly can't make.

Bateman

Anyone who watches Liverpool for reasons of good football is obviously a Liverpool fan stuck in the 80s.

My general feelings on this thread are obvious and well known, and I don't think this warranted a new thread, but some people just can't wait to tell us how much they love a team they've seen in the flesh around 10 times.

But to pick up on something Pigman said, I think the Spanish league this year is really interesting, your point about minnows doing well is pretty much defeated by the current Spanish table.

Real Sociedad (managed by someone who I bet not one person on this board can name) have just drawn away to the disgustingly expensive Real Madrid and here is the current table.

1 Real Sociedad 22
2 Mallorca 21
3 Valencia 18
4 Real Madrid 17
5 Celta 17
6 Deportivo 17
7 Málaga 16
8 Atlético 15
9 Barcelona 15
10 Betis 14
11 Valladolid 14
12 Athletic 12
13 Racing 11
14 Alavés 11
15 Villarreal 10
16 Sevilla 10
17 Rayo 8
18 Osasuna 8
19 Espanyol 7
20 Recreativo

Contrast that to the predictable (bar Everton) top 5 of the Premiership and I think you have a clear case of television saturation of the English Premiership that makes people think its actually more exciting than it is, to the detriment of people being freed by the media to watch games from other countries (including their own).

I'm not trying to convert people to the experience of REAL live football (as opposed to a TV), just stating a strong opinion that I have that Ireland as a nation of Andy Gray's Armchair Army is partly due to ridiculous post Italia 90 saturation of English football in the Irish media.

Pigman

Originally posted by Bateman
But to pick up on something Pigman said, I think the Spanish league this year is really interesting, your point about minnows doing well is pretty much defeated by the current Spanish table.

Contrast that to the predictable (bar Everton) top 5 of the Premiership and I think you have a clear case of television saturation of the English Premiership that makes people think its actually more exciting than it is, to the detriment of people being freed by the media to watch games from other countries (including their own).

Eh, I think you're missing the point there Bateman. I wasn't refering to so called 'minnows' reaching the upper end of the table. What I was refering to is that the gulf in competitiveness in LaLiga between the top and bottom is greater than the Premiership which in result leads to the lower likelihood of a bottom team beating a top team.

And since you're so fond of 'contrasting' the two leagues then take a look at the bottom of your LaLiga to see that the bottom 4 sides have success ratios* as follows : Vallacano 30%, Osasuna 30%, Espanyol 25% and Recreativo 20%.

In the premiership the bottom 4 teams have higher ratios : Sunderland 39%, WestBrom 32%, WestHam 32% and Bolton 35%. This shows that the worst teams in the premiership are better at achieving a result than their peers in the LaLiga and THAT was what my point was refering to.

*Btw, success ratio is got by the simple formula : % = (won + 0.5*draw) / (played)

I'm not trying to convert people to the experience of REAL live football (as opposed to a TV), just stating a strong opinion that I have that Ireland as a nation of Andy Gray's Armchair Army is partly due to ridiculous post Italia 90 saturation of English football in the Irish media.

I think you'll find that the 'saturation' of Irish media by the premiership had more to do with Sky Sports than the sucess of Ireland in WC90. Also from my own reading there had been widespread interest in English football in Ireland ever since Match of the Day was first broadcast in the early 1960's (and probably even before that.)

Bateman

>Also from my own reading there had been widespread interest in English football in Ireland ever since Match of the Day was first broadcast in the early 1960's (and probably even before that.)

---

Not in the print media there wasn't.

And IMO the "success ratio" will even itself out over the course of the season in Spain, I know we can only judge on what we have so far played of the season, but it doesn't show the whole picture. Sociedad were muck last season and have transformed to t atop of the table team using the same squad. For me that's much more fascinating than one-off fluke results like Bolton beating Leeds (where's the shock there?) or Bolton beating United or whatever. In my experience, 90% of people who say the Premiership is the most exciting league in the world say it because its the only league they watch on a regular basis. I just don't buy it. Even the mediocre players are household names. If the Spanish league received such publicity, would we see a proliferation of shirts around. Although its more expensive and inconvenient to traval to, I think we would.

soma

"premiership bashing" is extremely stupid. It is a good league with some very exciting and enjoyable matches. I do not follow any particular team cos quite simply, I am not english and don't feel an affiliation with any of them. If I'm watching a game I'll usually take the side of a team who has the most (if any) Irish players.

In the eircom league I support Shelbourne. It's a good, not a great league, but it is entertaining and closely contested. There is also the thrill of LIVE football that the armchair-sky-sports fan totally misses though - the action is in front of you, buying your programme and your hot dog at half time - it might sound childish to you but for me that's a far more enjoyable evening-out that just sitting in front of the telly?

Pigman

Originally posted by Bateman
And IMO the "success ratio" will even itself out over the course of the season in Spain, I know we can only judge on what we have so far played of the season, but it doesn't show the whole picture. Sociedad were ......]

I could argue you with you til the cows come home as to why the premiership is better than la liga, but I'm not going to because , lets face it, we all know that is not what this thread is really about.

I'm a supporter of the Eircom League and like yourself goto as many of Bohs games as I can manage. You should realise that slagging of the PremierLeague (as well intentioned as it seems) is not converting people to domestic soccer ... in fact it's doing the exact opposite and is just making you sound like a bitter zealot - which in turn tars all EL supporters with your brush.

Herald the EL to high heaven if you like but stop bashing other leagues that are in direct competion for the imagination of the viewing public of this country. I say this as a person who cares about the image of the EL and not as a premiership fan so you don't need to come back and attack me over it.

I want the same thing as you do, I just don't think you're going at it the right way.

Bateman

In fairness Pigman, if pressured, I must say that my opininion is that our current generation is lost to the barstool and the remote control, and they can stay there as far as I am concerned, I think the best way to increase support for the eL is to target young kids.

However, I do have a favourite English team and get to travel to see them now and again. I am not in any way anti-English football or anti-English in any other way. I do think though that the English Premiership is an over-hyped product. The Spanish games I watched over the weekend were excellent, but I admit that they were not as exciting as ManU Newcastle for example. However, if its taken for granted that people perceive the Premiership to be more exciting than any other league, the reasons why have to be looked at.

If there was only one hour of coverage at 1am on a Tuesday morning, instead of constant primetime coverage, would it be as oved in Ireland as it is? Probably not.

I think the media treatment of Irish soccer is nothing short of disgraceful, thats the way I feel, this is not bitter or narrow-minded anti-Englishness, its a reasonable opinion. The Irish media are ashamed of our senior professional game because its inferior to the English product. There is not, however, a willingness to make it better. People like Dunphy slag off something they know little about, and present no realistic alternatives.

BJJ

I blame the Jackeens

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