Falling Out Of Love With The Game/watford

We will always be shopping in the bargain basement in prem league terms unless we get wealthier owners who are happy to bankroll the club.

 

Great ball handling skills.

 

They used to get 80/90 per game for as long as I can remember, however since lockdown ended and football was back on the menu they’ve regularly been getting north of 300 even when local pro clubs such as MK Dons and the filth are playing at home. On Saturday just gone they got 356. That increase in crowds could well be due to more and more people getting put off high level football as plenty of people have mentioned in this thread.

It’s a decent level of football and the games are competitive.

 

My mates, very strange behaviour.

 

Not really too sure when the rot set in really? I am practically 37 now and only really know the Sky generation really. I guess for a lot of people that's when the game changed for the worse! For me it changed when clubs started knocking down their history-laden stadiums to build soulless, boring stadiums in the middle of nowhere - selling f**king popcorn in the Kiosks! What a joke. I moved from Hertfordshire back in 2004 down to the South Coast (Portsmouth).

It's only got worse over the last few years with VAR, player power (due to sky money really) and lockdowns!

I don't think i've felt so disengaged from football in my 32 years of watching Watford! Travelled the country watching us lose 2-1 away at Plymouth on a Tuesday night (in fact I think i've been to Plymouth to watch us play in the midweek on about 5 occasions, never seemed to be on a Saturday!), watched us lose year-after-year at Preston, Burnley, Blackburn etc. It use to be fun! The fun has now gone for me, I haven't been to a game since Brighton away in 2020 before lockdown 1.0 and don't really have any enthusiasm to go and watch us again anytime soon, despite my 11 year old son badgering me at every given opportunity to go back to the Vic! I feel sorry for him, he enjoys it, I f**king hate it in all honesty. It even slipped my mind we were playing Arsenal last Sunday!

 

I definitely miss going to games since I’ve left the UK, and though I played football myself most weekends when I was still living there, we’d still get to games fairly often. I’d always gone to a decent number of Aylesbury United games as a youngster, too. Home games had definitely begun to feel like a chore, and I gave up my season ticket once I’d finished Uni, but nothing beats an away day.

Sport here tends to be so sterile, and the atmosphere feels so manufactured and forced. Unless it’s a playoff game, typically there’s really nothing riding on the game, and that’s reflected in the attitude/reaction of fans to big moments.

I probably watch more football than ever, but that’s as much down to accessibility, and the fact it gives me an excuse to keep in touch with a few mates from home who do fantasy with me. I think that football still being something of a niche sport here, and the fact there isn’t wall-to-wall coverage, along with avoiding constant repetition of the same talking heads, has insulated me a bit from the growing disillusionment that’s been echoed by others in this thread. If I want to put football on, I can find it, but if not, there won’t be any mention of it in the media, or amongst people I know.

I wish I’d have the option to take my kids and give them the same excitement I felt as a kid when my dad took us to the football, but as we typically only manage to visit in the summer, it’s not really an option even then. My last game was the cup final, and seeing up close how far away we are from ever being able to properly compete and win anything really dampened things for me - but it was a cracking day on the beers, which is what it’s all about really.

 

Yes he should, which was the implication of my comment; him getting up the way he did played into the narrative expounded from the Ar5e perspective that he was 'feigning injury' so Lacazette was fully justified in taking a 'live' throw-in. Had that been the case I have no doubt Rose would have tried to welly it out nearer the halfway line...the way he just gently tapped it off a couple yards away from him would suggest he thought Tufan really did need treatment.
However, in the context of the force of the challenge on him, I'm not sure we can assume he was thinking that clearly at the time...probably still a bit dazed.

 

Not Watford but England. At home, playing in blue whilst the opposition play in white. Unless it's some political message that I've missed then purely a money grabbing scheme.
Just **** off.

 

That's a good crowd, Holbeach near me plays in the United Counties League Premier division North (quite a mouthful), which is level 9 and they average around 250. It's definately increased since lockdown as people have either been turned off higher level football or perhaps are wary of being part of a large crowd. The other club I sometimes go to is Boston United in the National league North league and they average around 1600.

Both are a great afternoon of football, very cheap, really close to me, a decent pint and pie at half time. What's there not to like?

 

Yesterday made me realise just how crap the facilities really are at the Vic...it really isn't fit for the 21C. Perhaps the move to Bushey, MK, Hemel or wherever it will be and the rebranding it as American Airlines Watford FC we will all be able to have a pint and pee in relative comfort?

 

Hemel Hornets has a nice sound to it, or even the treble H .

 

Wasn’t sure where to put this but thought maybe here made sense:

Why do we have so few widely-sung songs for our players at the moment? Is it part of a greater disconnect between the pitch and the stands?

Our current favourite thing to sing about seems to be Luton. They get battered everywhere they go and seemingly several times a match. Zzzzz. It’s good as a warm up but leaning on it so much is pretty sad. Do they sing that much about us? And sometimes Masina’s **** excites a small minority.

I’ll grant you Sissoko has one, as does Danny Rose. And Pedro has a new song to Gold. Plus there’s a couple of classics that still do the rounds - W A T… etc and the ‘der der der…Watford’ chant after we score.

And that’s basically it. Sarr doesn’t have a song, nothing for Dennis and I’ve not heard King sung about either. Sarr in particular is an odd omission. Nothing for Ranieri yet either, though I guess that sort of makes sense.

 

Isn't this what the 1881 was formed for?

 

There was an attempt at a Kucka/Cuba song a game or so ago . But never took off.
Sarr/Star has to be a shoo-in but again there has to be a genuine attempt at this alliteration.
Never mind tho .....cos everywhere they go and all that

 

There's nothing wrong with falling out of love. But maybe it's more of a temporary lull and partly connected to the pandemic. Have you been to any games in the South West as a home fan? Exeter is a good option or if you dont mind a bit of a trek Bristol Rovers. For me personally the further I am from WD18 the more strongly I feel my invisible connection to Thee 'Orns but not everyone is the same.

I miss the 80s era when the atmosphere was so much more visceral with the type of people who went to games and the terraces. But overall for me the current era is the best. The quality of football in the PL and CL at it's best is sensational and the number of top quality young English players coming through now is by far the most in my lifetime. It seems as a nation we are finally remembering how to play football having done our best to forget for 50 years. The national team has been more successful in the last 4 years than the whole of the rest of my life. With Klopp, Tuchal, Pep and Conte we have the best group of managers the league has ever seen and we've just reached the end of an era where 2 of the best 4 footballers of all time were regularly competing against each other which is something no one had seen before. Pele never played against Maradona. For me football keeps evolving and keeps getting better and better.

Being a Watford fan and having the likes of Sarr, Dennis, JP and King leading our attack is out of this world really. It doesn't get much better than that and next year England will be fielding their strongest sides since '66 in an international tournament.

It's still the beautiful game but it doesn't stand still and it is facing a genuine threat from FIFA and others attempts to make more money out of it.

However, football is one of the lifebloods of the human race, long may that continue.

 

There’s a nailed on way that fans can cost their team a goal and that’s by having a go at Jamie Vardy.

I get why you’d want to but it never ends well.

 

When the move to Bushey was touted I was wholly against it but it has become increasingly apparent to me that we have outgrown The Vic and it is no longer fit for purpose.

 

I think we missed a great opportunity to adopt Buddy Holly's Raining in my Heart when GT died and it was revealed that it was his favourite song. No need to adapt the words just sing it as it is. Like Stoke and Delilah, Liverpool and their dirge etc

 

Some people see football as an opportunity to vent frustrations, anger and negativity at their teams lack of success.

Which is fine, football acts as a projection for people to pour into any unspent emotions they may have.

I see it as a chance to express irrepressible hope and positivity to what may happen. What could happen. A metaphor for a life that is endlessly positive and bountiful.

And if it doesnt, which it invariably doesnt, then its only 7 days before another chance to rectify that dissapointment comes along.

And along that journey you get to share moments of intense emotion, elation and pain, with your friends and loved ones. That is something to cherish.

Football is not real life, but a narrative metaphor for people to project into their passions , hopes and dreams.

And then when it stops, real life continues, in all its glory, sadness and beauty, but hopefully richer because of the time you ve spent invested in your passion for football.

 

This morning is one of those days in the PL that I question my sanity to spend four hours driving to watch us getting murdered, listening to 2000 Chelsea morons singing about we’ve never won **** all and gloating that they are Champions of the world cos they got more money than us. Or I could just sit at home and watch it on tv, whinge about our defence for most of the game then turn it off after the third Chelsea goal and get back to Netflix. **** it I’m going, help me...

 

Beautifully put. That's my view entirely. I'd add that it's also a good excuse for a tear up in the town with other geezers who are up for a scrap

 

Does this help anyone fall back in love with the game?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59767736

A million quid of taxpayer’s cash granted to Bury fans if they can match it to buy their stadium.

 

Thing with this is, you need stadiums where everyone gets involved and booms it out. We don’t have that kind of fan base.

 

Article doesn't say how much it would actually cost to buy the ground, just that they will give £1m if the fans can raise £1m. However if it costs £5m to buy the ground.... I'd contribute a notional sum if I knew the value they need to raise.

 

I think that's it for me with Watford now. Its very easy to be reactionary (first time I've left the ground with so much time remaining when that 3rd Norwich goal went in). Season ticket holder for 15 years and just feel so detached from the club . . Only thing keeping me is the fact my eldest boy is getting into football and wants to come to games!

 

genius

 

Talking to the chaps tonight and next season we get to visit so many more decent away grounds with a lot less glory hunters after tickets. Win win.

 

Am 100% in this camp. I think it would be naive to imagine that so many others feel this way and it has nothing to do with the way the club is being run.

 

Not so sure how much the gates would drop actually, we have picked up a fair few new fans recently. Last nights attendance really surprised me, over 20,000 for a bottom of table televised clash on a cold Friday night.
We definitely have a greater following now than we did first time we went into the top flight under GT, I seem to remember we were doing well at the time probably around mid table and we get 14,000 gate at home to Birmingham, that would not happen now.
My feeling is pushing for promotion, full house, not taking into account away support might be somewhat lacking.
Mid table probably 15- 16,000, but always now I don't think we would go much below the 12,000 mark, even near the bottom.

 

If there were actually 20,000 in the stadium last night I’m the Pope.

 

There certainly wasn't by the end. I'd say about 8,000 at the final whistle.