The FA Cup

When you see the genuine beauty and skill of some of the best players (including those at Liverpool, Real, Barca etc) you will be astonished but you will only get that at clubs prepared to pay a combination of transfer fees and salary for those players.

Why is Haaland going to City - partly family influence, partly the chance to play with Kevin de Bryune and under Pep Guardiola and partly its the £400,000 per week. Sanchez moved from Arsenal to ManU on a free transfer but a salary of something like £750,000 per week. Stupid but it made sense at the time (he was awful once he moved). No point moaning about wealthly owners, because if there were no wealthy owners in the English League, English clubs would be nowhere in Europe and you would not have English teams in the highest levels of European competition each year.

Do I care about the source of wealth of our owner? No. Because every other team owner is a very very wealthy person. IF you want ultra clean owners then you can only have fan owned clubs and that way generally leads to dull football, with limited ability to convert ambition into success.

EIII's opinion is vey popular with supporters of all the "big" clubs, because they want them to stay that way. They baulk at the idea of proper competition. Personally I enjoy the rollercoaster of following a non-premium team because when there's a bit of success, it means so much more. Fans of the big clubs tend to be in perma-whinge mode because their darlings aren't winning all the trophies all the time. The spectacle of Man United fans at the moment in particular is gruesome - disaster, they howl, woe, where are the trophies for we are a BIG club and are entitled to them, worst Man U team EVER, manager OUT. And yet they're the 6th placed team in the country still and will likely play in Europe next season. One wonders what would happen should they actually fall upon a period of proper decline.

I have no idea where the fun comes from in following a big club which achieves regular trophies. It must get jolly boring being Schroedinger's fan - constant supply of success, alongside a constant feeling that it's never enough. Because it is supposed to be fun, a leisure pursuit, a distraction from the drudgery of life. The fun comes from the jeopardy, the camaraderie, the shared hope, not trophy after trophy after trophy.

Yes, similar wailings from some England cricket fans these days. Never any credit to the opposition for playing well.

Esp, isn’t the only reason it costs a fortune to assemble a top football team that the money with which the game has inflated everything? Success has become a commodity you can buy, so that’s what those with the money do.

Well, yes, you are odd, but I don't think that is smply related to whether or not you support a team.

The only teams I support are National teams, and even then really only the Wales Rugby team and I'm hardly fervent about even that. I don't support a football team, though I have three friends who do - Brentford, Burnley and Liverpool. I am often amazed how a game, particularly a result, actually materially affects their day and their mood. One of them, the Brentford supporter, is actually unbearably stressed leading up to what he thinks is an important match.

One of them, the Liverpool supporter, is one of those that wishes other teams ill, even when they are not playing Liverpool.

It all seems a bit OTT to me.

One of my friends who is a City fan ets very very depressed when they lose. So much so, if he had a dog (he doesn't) he would kick it, then go to bed and hide for hours. This is a very senior partner in an international firm of accountants. Frankly - yes I was disappointed at the Rear Madrid result, but after a few minutes I got over it. I am not quite at the Bill Shankly level of support.

There is certainly a groundswell of support in the country for 'Anyone but Liverpool', who make up every excuse why they have only won one Premier League title.

>>There is certainly a groundswell of support in the country for 'Anyone but Liverpool',

I doubt it. I don't think football supporters are capable of changing their opinions quickly enough for there to be a groundswell of anything.

Football supporting seems to come with a very strange mentality, and not one I like or understand. A generalisation of course, which always results in choruses of 'not me' and 'those aren't proper supporters' etc, not totally unlike the reaction when you use the term "Daily Mail readers" which seem to be the most elusive bunch despite their reported numbers.

Sometimes I read the comments under a soccer oriented article on the BBC website. Frankly I am surprised some of them can type.

Oh well bpg, at least we have the World Cup to look forward to this summer. Oh, wait…🤯