Falling Out Of Love With The Game/watford

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by JimOrn, Nov 6, 2021.

  1. JimOrn

    JimOrn Academy Graduate

    Like a lot of people on here over the years I have followed us all over the country spending too much time and money in the process. Trying to explain to people why travelling to Barnsley on a cold Decembers day and watching us somehow lose was a good thing however, to me it always seemed worth it. A couple of years ago I relocated to the South West and find myself disconnected with the club, this coupled with the tedious premier league for the first time I find myself not caring as much and I’m falling out of love with the game that once dominate my life. I know quite a few fans that post on here have moved away and support from afar, did you go through the same crisis? For the first time I’m start to toy with the idea of watching my local team Exeter as I long for that connection with a small community club.

    I’m well aware that I’ll get a lot of responses saying it was my choice to relocate etc but it’ll be interesting to hear people’s perspectives who are in a similar geographical situation.
     
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  2. Since63

    Since63 Squad Player

    Don't blame you for losing the passion the way the modern game has evolved. Watching another team maybe OK, but you'd never be able to support them in the way you have WFC. I didn't move as far as you, so the trip to the Vic is not as arduous, but I find a lot of the spontaneous enjoyment has gone out of it. Too many hoops to jump through now, some understandable, but some apparently designed to make the 'experience' as challenging as possible.
    If I get so disillusioned as to decide to stop going to see Watford, I'd probably just stop watching football entirely.
     
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  3. Mazzereth

    Mazzereth Academy Graduate

    I travel up from the Bath area. If I went up purely for the game then I would probably not be enjoying it as much. I always go with a friend, not the same friend, for each match and make a day of it. We tend to leave home early, get to Watford early, have a few drinks, food and a catch up. I tend to pick different pubs to SHAKE IT UP a bit. After the game we have a drink in the Paddington area before getting the train home. So basically every home game is like an away game for us.

    But yeah, not sure how I would feel if I was spending the money I do on the train fares for just watching the often **** sandwich that is put before me.

    I'm not disillusioned yet, as I used to go with a Watford fan who died a view years ago (aged 40), so obviously he can't go anymore! So there is a little bit of 'going for him' feeling about my Watford visits as well.
     
  4. Mazzereth

    Mazzereth Academy Graduate

    I've seen Exeter a few times (I have a scarf!), a friend of mine is a season ticket holder. I do like the club and the general vibe, not a bad option.
     
  5. RS2

    RS2 Squad Player

    I can understand why people get fed up with the Premier League because I hate it myself. The money, media and the new generation of Twitter fans that come with the Premier League are all gross.
     
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  6. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    I'm nowhere near as far away as you but am experiencing the same and started a thread a year or two ago entitled "football, what's point?" or similar.
    Being a footy fan is all about the dreams of what could you achieve. In the late 70s the dream was to get into 3rd division, then second, then targetting highest ever finish, then getting into the top league, then european football, then a cup final.
    What's the dream now ? Surviving in a league we were comfortably surviving in just 3 years ago ? Football has become so polarised between the top few and the rest that we can't realistically dream about european football or winning a cup. It's just not going to happen. So it's just a case of lose most weeks and hope to survive until we are relegated, then hope to be able to enjoy a promotion season before it happens again. Rinse & repeat. Logically it is utterly pointless and I really don't get those that spend a day and ££££s to travel, only to feel miserable after defeat. So why do I struggle to enjoy watching us live as the result "matters" so much to me and affects my mood for days ???? Why 2 weeks ago was I bouncing round the house like a kid ????
    I really don't understand why it matters so much when it's ultimately pointless without a realistic dream to aim for.
    If I was in your shoes I'd go regularly to watch Exeter if it's close. You'll soon start to feel a real affinity and there you can dream of promotion, cup runs playing the big teams, away from all the prostitution of the premier league. Just have WFC as your "Big team" whose results you look for first and watch when live on TV. I much preferred watching Watford 1977-84 when everything was new ....and nothing seemed impossible..
     
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2021
  7. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Pretty much done tbh.
    Not been to a match for years, got fed up with the hassle of getting in and out, spending a reasonable amount of cash to be treated like a 2nd class citizen and often watching overpaid lumps put less effort in than I did to get there.
    I don't bother listening to live commentary anymore. I'll watch if it's on telly live and Sky do show the match late Saturday or early Sunday and I'll watch that but my TV contract is up in March and I'm not sure I can justify the expense now I'm semi retired.

    What can the club do to win me back? Engage with the fans first and foremost. Communication is shocking at the moment.
    I'm afraid to say it, but the Vic despite the good work put in in recent years is half the problem. Time we had a new stadium with decent facilities, easy access, the ability to get a drink or go to the loo if I want without inconveniencing anyone else or missing half the match because of the queues. Essentially something tending towards hospitality without having to take out a mortgage.
    Improve the facilities and capacity so it's easy for occasional fans to get tickets and when the players start to give 100%, people like me would pay a premium to attend occasionally if it was more comfortable.
     
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  8. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    I’m completely disillusioned. I used to wake up with excitement in the pit of my stomach about a midweek trip to Burnley. Mates drop out? No problem I’ll drive up on my own to watch a pretty poor team who will probably lose unless Ramage turns up. Driving to Southend for the Anglo Italian to watch us get thumped. Not a problem there is always Grimsby on Saturday.

    I think it’s a combination of 50% our ownership and 50% modern football but I’ve just lost the passion. I’ve still got a season ticket and will go to the home games and support the team (I leave my venting for here) but my heart is just not in it.

    I expect us to be a goal down within 20 mins tomorrow at which point I’ll just shrug.
     
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  9. LondonOrn

    LondonOrn Squad Player

    If the 1980s were Watford's golden era, then you could say that the current one, for all its frustrations and disappointments, is Watford's "silver era".

    It'd be interesting to know what you and other fans who saw all that it was realistically possible for Watford to achieve felt what it was like to support the club during the intervening 25 years, ie after Graham left the club and the team were relegated and before the Pozzo's took over. In that period we had two surprise promotions to the top flight, going straight back down on both occasions and falling well short of survival, a relegation to the third tier, and many mostly forgettable mid to lower table finishes in the second. Even though you'd seen it all, did you still feel that same sense of purpose and dream of achieving something - in this case, like I did of having another shot at an extended spell in the top flight, like Charlton, Bolton, Portsmouth, Stoke etc. managed, with a great team spirit and mostly British/Irish players, and a chance of finally winning a major trophy or at least getting to another cup final?

    I can understand the feeling that now you've seen all that we can expect to achieve in the modern era, there isn't much to look forward to except another good cup run and the odd surprise result like the one two weeks ago.
     
  10. Moose

    Moose First Team Captain

    For me, while I can still experience the big highs, I’m much less engaged with the lows. There are far too many other things competing for my time (like other sport I’m involved in) to be worried about a game for more than an instant. I still have a season ticket and go with mates, but if I don’t want to bother I won’t and I’ll return it to the club for someone else to suffer that game.

    It’s also about getting older I think. I don’t hold with the Bill Shankly maxim on football’s importance. It’s not all we have.

    I think you should enjoy the game as you see fit @JimOrn If that includes watching another club then that’s cool, but the Horns will always be yours whenever you want.
     
  11. Harrow Orn

    Harrow Orn Squad Player

    I live very close and have definitely started to care less and less. It was after the Mazzarri season that I decided on no longer having a season ticket. Just felt incredibly disconnected from the club, the football was dire and Premier League football was just boring to me.

    I still go to the odd game, done Villa Wolves and Norwich this year. Not in any particular rush to watch another one but will probably go sometime over the festive period.

    I've gone to far more Wealdstone games than Watford games over the last 3 or 4 years, a lot more enjoyable.
     
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  12. Heidar

    Heidar Squad Player

    Its all about growing up.

    I used to lambast people for being negative. 30 years on and I'm really struggling to find the positives.

    That said I am really looking forward to bringing my daughter to a game when she's old enough. That excites me and will hopefully re-invigorate my enjoyment.

    As for communication - sure ours isn't perfect but I think the Pozzo's have done a damn sight better at retaining a community and recognising our history than other club owners.
     
  13. The Voice of Reason

    The Voice of Reason First Team Captain

    I moved to Plymouth in the mid 80's and I was only about a 15 minute walk from the Argyle ground so I did try to switch my allegiance to Plymouth Argyle, but it did not work as The 'Orns are in my blood. I moved even further down into mid Cornwall in the early 90's and I even had a full Watford season ticket for a few years, but I eventually got a 75mile season ticket, which worked quite well.

    I have now moved back a lot closer to WFC on the South Coast near Worthing so I am a lot nearer now, and yes the 'Orns are still in my blood, even though Brighton are only 20 miles away and Southampton is not that far away either.
     
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  14. The Duck

    The Duck Academy Graduate

    Your last comment about the Pozzo's I totally agree with. The way they have embraced our history, worked with the NHS, Graham Taylor's statue, the way Munoz inspected the statue in the new kit launch to name but a few things is fantastic.
     
  15. The Duck

    The Duck Academy Graduate

    I moved to the Midlands in 1999. What with starting a new job and raising a young family, football took a back seat.

    I love being a Watford fan and although the club has changed significantly from when I started watching Watford in 1979, my love for the club hasn't changed. I really enjoy going to a handful of away games every season in and around the Midlands.

    I haven't fallen out of love with Watford, but I probably have with football in general. I hate what the Premier League has become. The way Manchester City have been artificially elevated to what they are now, fans and ex professionals in the media that only know about the top 6, excessive punditry coverage on Sky and MoTD (incidentally, I think MoTD and in particular, Gary Lineker are awful) is everything that is wrong with modern football. I'd hate to be a City fan.
     
  16. JimOrn

    JimOrn Academy Graduate

    I’d guess that most people’s favourite era’s would coincide with a time in their lives where they could watch lots of games (before children etc). Mine was between the end of GT part 2 and when we reached the prem under the pozzos. I suppose I’m just surprised that I’ve lost that passion, maybe one day it will return.
     
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  17. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    I don’t think the big 6 is a new thing. In the mid 80s it was Liverpool, Everton, Man Utd, Arsenal and Spurs as the big 5 and all live games and punditry was around those clubs.
     
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  18. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    In reality would we though?

    The success and lording it over their local rivals.

    The neutrals will hate the way they have basically brought their way to the top which is a fair point but if we supported them or Chelsea we wouldn't care one jot I suspect.

    I agree with your point about the Pozzos doing a lot for the club off the pitch and helping the community or building the club up but do people care about that as much as doing well on the pitch?

    Good point on the pundits - anyone outside the top 6 or not big like Leeds is basically forgotten about.
     
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  19. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    I think football in this country could be so much better if it wasn’t for the obsessive greed. Getting promoted to the PL is a poisoned chalice, you earn £100m+ but you’ve got to spend £100m+ just so you can earn the right to repeat the process the next year. Despite parachute payments It inevitably means getting promoted means dicing with financial oblivion, unless you do what Norwich do but then you’ve got to put up with a whole season watching completely pointless and depressing football just so you can repeat that process all over again as well.

    It really shouldn’t be like that, promotion should be an unbridled joy, relegation shouldn’t be a cause for absolute despair and concern over the future of your club.

    Unfortunately the greed is rampant, nation states and oligarchs distort the landscape even further and the gap grows ever wider. Covid and the ESL were a great opportunity to level up, unfortunately it was missed and promotion to the PL for a club like us will grow ever more pointless and perilous as time goes by.
     
  20. SkylaRose

    SkylaRose Administrator Staff Member

    I don't go to as many now as I used to either. I went to Wolves H this year and that's it. I am planning on going to a few more but not till the new year. Everyone is correct, it has gotten very expensive and that's even with a season ticket. Food and drink is way overpriced and we all know about the line system, not to mention the fiasco with the electronic ticket app. I can never really stop loving the game or Watford FC for that matter. I never realized how much the club meant to me before I was at Hillsbrough, after a 2-1 loss that left us just 2pts shy of the relegation zone with less than three games to go, looking into League One, with tears in my eyes.

    I do get the loss of interest though, with money ruling the game so much more now than when I first got into football. It's about the smaller parts of the game for me. Following Bury FC demise feeling powerless to stop it, and almost seeing Bolton, Wigan and Portsmouth go the same way. It's a right laugh having loads of cash and watching the best in the world play for your club, but apart from a few fans, most who support the "big six" are plastics imho. Half of the people who support Man Utd have never been to a game, they follow the brand not the team.
     
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  21. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Really interesting discussion. I think JimOrn’s issue is twofold. One, the problem of the gap between the biggest clubs and the rest, which most agree with, and simply being far away from Watford and wanting a easier way of watching football. It’s perfectly possible to support your local small club, but you’ll never feel as invested in their fortunes in the way you used to be with Watford’s.

    I think we have to accept that becoming more disillusioned with football in general and supporting Watford in particular is a function of getting older. The younger you are the more exciting and new everything is. You are more hopeful of success and more annoyed at failure. Personally, what division we are in is largely irrelevant to me - I just enjoy going to the live games and hoping we do well.

    As for the dominance of the ‘big 6’, I’m convinced this will continue to gradually change over time although it doesn’t seem like it. Newcastle could be next to force their way in, as Chelsea and Man City have done, while others like Leeds have fallen away. What sadly seems impossible now is a club like Forest, Derby or Ipswich rising to the top through good management. Leicester did it very briefly but soon had their best players whipped away.
     
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  22. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    But a club like Watford finished second. NF won it the season after promotion. AV won the league. Ipswich came second after winning it the decade before. Liverpool we’re almost mid table. It’s far more restricted now, because the financial difference is so huge.
     
  23. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    …and I don’t agree with the “getting older” thing. I would be just as excited Today if we were breaking the new ground we did in the 70s. In fact it would probably mean more. But we’re not.
     
  24. Eric IS Bananman

    Eric IS Bananman Academy Graduate

    I always find a 'half n half' scarf reinvigorates my love for Watford...and the team we're playing.

    Seriously though, those peddlars should be jailed, although in the mid-80s you could get half Watford, half Celtic/Rangers hats and they were pretty cool...I had a Celtic one.

    I think the pandemic has played a major part in the malaise, fans are only just recovering from the fallout of empty stadiums so there's a natural distance which is being bridged.

    The money/greed thing will only be curbed once salary caps are imposed.
     
  25. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    Yes it is. But the point was about pundits endlessly fussing over a group of clubs.
     
  26. The undeniable truth

    The undeniable truth First Team Captain

    Sure, but I think there’s more fussing over the big 6 now than before, partly because the title race and cups weren’t always decided between the big 6 as they pretty much always are now.
     
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  27. Jumbolina

    Jumbolina First Team

    Yes due to wall to wall rolling sports news and endless live games. On the plus side, you'd never get Watford v Burnley as a live game in those days! I remember we'd be on once, and then maybe a few more times if we had a cup run.
     
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  28. Smudger

    Smudger Messi's Mad Coach Staff Member

    I used to be ST holder until I hit the noughties and then also watched Sarries if they played on the Sunday. I'm not now and rarely go now. I have fallen out of love not just with football but with many sports. The obscene prize money, the lack of ethics, the excess hype and the complete stratification of competitiveness.

    I much prefer watching international football. I still watch the side but I don't feel the same connection and there almost seems to be an inevitability about a result in the PL given the huge financial imbalances there are where sovereign states compete with each other for PR. The whole point about sport is that it's supposed to be an unwritten drama to leave you on the edge of your seat uncertain about the outcome. However that outcome in many matches is almost a foregone conclusion which sucks any excitement out of watching and even more so when we ship the first goal.

    Jumbo is right about the eighties as well but you still had teams staying up with relative ease and the dominance of those clubs has been shown statistically across the major European leagues not to be as dominant as they are now. And the media still gave most clubs a fair whack of coverage nationally with MOTD not so focused on the bigger sides. But ever since the advent of the PL circus it has been a growing incestuous relationship with the bigger so called glamour clubs. The rest can go to hell. Even the BBC are guilty of it so much so it can be a pain just to find the results of the other leagues using a link from the football page.

    And the hype. No contest. The proliferation of media in all it's forms had merely amplified the focus on these clubs with all the sycophantic hangers on. The new generation of fans are interested in product so much so that they and dumb pundits question the purpose of having clubs like us and Norwich in the PL. We're not rich or shiny enough which highlights the point it's not really a competitive sport anymore just an entertainment. The amount of hot air and piffle generated each season probably contributes to climate change.

    And I have cancelled my subscriptions to Sky and BT. They will not get a penny out of me anymore. Most of what they product is utter tat anyway.
     
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  29. I Blame Pozzo

    I Blame Pozzo First Team

    I am resigned to my fate as a Watford fan I think now.
    I despise most aspects of the modern game. The players having total power ( unless you're Harry Kane!),the ridiculous salaries and fees,the blanket coverage,the proliferation of gormless ex pros wittering on about the big clubs and knowing sweet Felicity Arkwright about anyone else. The change of kick off times to suit the tv money .... continued page 94.
    However I can't divorce myself from Watford, it's the Jesuit priest thing,I was indoctrinated by the age of seven and it's far too late to extricate myself now.
    COYH, please!
     
  30. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    I love everything Watford when we win, I despise them when we lose.

    It resets before every game. Rinse and repeat.
     
  31. Cassetti's Beard

    Cassetti's Beard First Team

    I always just see it as a form of entertainment so only go to games where I think we have a chance of winning. Give me a Norwich away over a Man City/Chelsea/Liverpool at home.

    Also usually plan to go for a few drinks with mates before and after so even if the result is awful there's something good to take from the day.
     
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  32. Relegation Certs

    Relegation Certs Squad Player

    It's shyt no matter where you live. But what else is there to do?
     
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  33. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

    @JimOrn , I live walking distance from the ground and haven't been since the laughable Cup Final. I let my season ticket lapse and despite having cracking seats haven't missed it in the slightest.
    It's not just the scummy moneygrabbers that we now have all over the pitch, it's the Premier League nonsense, feeling like a criminal every visit, the ear busting half time adverts and a hundred other reasons.
    I'll go to a few away games this season for no other reason than a day out on the lash with my mates, and unfortunately my Son is now addicted to the club, so I'm wondering if I ****ed up in that sense.
    I can say with hand on heart that I'd rather go watch Millwall next week than Watford.
     
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  34. Keighley

    Keighley First Team

    Football’s a bit **** really.

    I only come on here for the craic.
     
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  35. Halfwayline

    Halfwayline Reservist

    I do think it’s a combination of age, TV, Premier League and our players

    When I was younger Saturday was an all day event where the conversation over a pint was whether we’d win, now it’s about how quickly I can get in and out of the ground

    when I was younger the only way I got to watch football was going to a game, now i can watch any game around the world on my laptop

    when I was young there was a real chance of getting to the promised land and shaking it up with the big boys, now that dream is impossible so it’s boring

    when I was young I knew every player, sometimes bumped into them and they’d have a chat and I always felt they played for the shirt. Now I have no idea who half of them are
     
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