Do You Give A Shite?

Just watched the Community Shield on TV. Decent game, but the place was half empty and it wasn't even Wembley - it was played at Villa Park which only holds half as many as the national stadium.

The commentators and pundits tried to blame the Olympics for people not turning up - but does the prospect of watching a bit of horse riding really trump top class football? Of course not.

Is the truth more likely to be that people have finally woken up and realised that football is currently a massive rip-off, especially Premier League football? I'm not saying the games aren't exciting, but the standard is pitiful, no better than League 1 was 20 years ago.

If we'd had a monkey in charge last season we would have stayed up, but I wouldn't have been looking forward to the new season, the only debate being how many we would lose by. In truth I am looking forward to the Championship season purely because it's new teams and new grounds to visit.

But it doesn't change the fact that football, in my opinion, is dying a slow death. And that can only be a good thing.

Honestly, no i don't.

Natasha Whittam wrote:
The commentators and pundits tried to blame the Olympics for people not turning up - but does the prospect of watching a bit of horse riding really trump top class football? Of course not.

Troll, attendances at all domestic sports have been significantly down during the Olympics.

It's glaringly obvious that this has happened. In fact, it was glaringly obvious that this would happen many months ago when they scheduled the Community Shield game for Villa Park.

Glaringly obvious even to you. Can you spend your afternoon trolling on a Barnsley forum and post the results here please? That would be a more productive and entertaining use of your unique 'talent'.

largehat wrote:

Troll, attendances at all domestic sports have been significantly down during the Olympics.

It's glaringly obvious that this has happened. In fact, it was glaringly obvious that this would happen many months ago when they scheduled the Community Shield game for Villa Park.

Glaringly obvious even to you. Can you spend your afternoon trolling on a Barnsley forum and post the results here please? That would be a more productive and entertaining use of your unique 'talent'.

Shut up you bellend, you don't even know what troll means.

Back on the foes list.

Natasha Whittam wrote:
Shut up you bellend, you don't even know what troll means.

Back on the foes list.

Spending your time on a Bolton Wanderers football forum posing as a woman and slagging off both Bolton Wanderers and football at every conceivable opportunity has nothing to do with trolling I suppose.

largehat wrote:

Spending your time on a Bolton Wanderers football forum posing as a woman and slagging off both Bolton Wanderers and football at every conceivable opportunity has nothing to do with trolling I suppose.

Correct! Read the definition for troll, then get back to me with an apology.

Natasha Whittam wrote:

largehat wrote:

Spending your time on a Bolton Wanderers football forum posing as a woman and slagging off both Bolton Wanderers and football at every conceivable opportunity has nothing to do with trolling I suppose.

Correct! Read the definition for troll, then get back to me with an apology.

I don't need to, I already know what it means, and so do you.

In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory,[2] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as a forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[3] or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion

Looks like Largehat is trolling again tbh. Natasha started a perfectly good thread imo.

Bernard Dennis Park wrote:Looks like Largehat is trolling again tbh. Natasha started a perfectly good thread imo.

I don't believe you think that the Community Shield was moved to Villa Park because "football is dying" rather than because the Olympics are on.

Football attendances are up several seasons in a row across the board. Number of people attending games, number of away fans, number of season ticket holders. These are facts.

Lets see how many sincere posts are added to this thread which support the idea that "football is dying", then we'll see if it's a perfectly good thread or not.

largehat wrote:

I don't believe you think that the Community Shield was moved to Villa Park because "football is dying" rather than because the Olympics are on.

Football attendances are up several seasons in a row across the board. Number of people attending games, number of away fans, number of season ticket holders. These are facts.

Lets see how many sincere posts are added to this thread which support the idea that "football is dying", then we'll see if it's a perfectly good thread or not.

You really are a pedant. No matter who starts a thread you always pick on some tiny irrelevance, even though you know full well what the thread was getting at.

You say football attendances are up, but does that mean they will go up every season until Bolton have 10,000 fans locked out of the Reebok? Of course not. Could this be the season where things change and grounds aren't as full?

no, not giving a shiny shite


BTW, who is this weeks avatar?

not one shite football died a long time ago

Natasha Whittam wrote:
You really are a pedant. No matter who starts a thread you always pick on some tiny irrelevance, even though you know full well what the thread was getting at.

You say football attendances are up, but does that mean they will go up every season until Bolton have 10,000 fans locked out of the Reebok? Of course not. Could this be the season where things change and grounds aren't as full?

I can be pedantic when I want, certainly. However, if you feel that football is on some sort of downturn in popularity, you're on a hiding to nothing using today's Community Shield match as an example.

You've created three threads in the last three weeks slating one aspect of the Olympics or another. So when you say that "of course" the attendance today has nothing to do with the Olympics, I read it as another pop at the Olympics, because it obviously and clearly IS because of the popularity of the Olympics.

That was the whole premise of your article, so pointing this out isn't nit-picking - it's saying, "I disagree with your article and believe you're deliberately ignoring the facts".

Football attendances ARE up. If BWFC hadn't dropped our of the PL, then they would have grown again this coming season. Attendances are trending upwards across the 92 clubs. Even though more games than ever are on TV and loads of people are watching in the pub and on the internet. Now stack that evidence up against your Community Shield example.

largehat wrote:

I can be pedantic when I want, certainly. However, if you feel that football is on some sort of downturn in popularity, you're on a hiding to nothing using today's Community Shield match as an example.

You've created three threads in the last three weeks slating one aspect of the Olympics or another. So when you say that "of course" the attendance today has nothing to do with the Olympics, I read it as another pop at the Olympics, because it obviously and clearly IS because of the popularity of the Olympics.

That was the whole premise of your article, so pointing this out isn't nit-picking - it's saying, "I disagree with your article and believe you're deliberately ignoring the facts".

Football attendances ARE up. If BWFC hadn't dropped our of the PL, then they would have grown again this coming season. Attendances are trending upwards across the 92 clubs. Even though more games than ever are on TV and loads of people are watching in the pub and on the internet. Now stack that evidence up against your Community Shield example.

If you'll read the thread properly you'll see I was asking if football was dying. It was a question to which you can answer yes or no. I wasn't asking you to abuse me.

I do not think football is dying...

Natasha Whittam wrote:

If you'll read the thread properly you'll see I was asking if football was dying. It was a question to which you can answer yes or no. I wasn't asking you to abuse me.

If you prefer, from now on, I'll just reply "yes" or "no" to your threads. I was under the impression you liked having a discussion. But as you wish.

largehat wrote:

Natasha Whittam wrote:

If you'll read the thread properly you'll see I was asking if football was dying. It was a question to which you can answer yes or no. I wasn't asking you to abuse me.

If you prefer, from now on, I'll just reply "yes" or "no" to your threads. I was under the impression you liked having a discussion. But as you wish.

I like the discussion, just don't like the abuse I get when you don't like the subject matter.

I am not a troll. Some threads are hit and miss of course. I post about things I am interested in.

Well usually I am itching for the season to start but this year I am not, for many reasons. (1) Bolton are shit and we've got no new players that I am looking forward to seeing. (2) In the premiership we have no new exciting big named signings that interest me. (3) We have had a great summer of sport - The Euro Championships, the Olympics, Tour de France, Wimbledon, The Open Golf.

I am not bothered about the new season starting, I hope I get some enthusiasm back soon.

Natasha Whittam wrote:
I like the discussion, just don't like the abuse I get when you don't like the subject matter.

I am not a troll. Some threads are hit and miss of course. I post about things I am interested in.

I don't particularly like being called a "knob", a "dildo", a "bellend" and so on. I just ignore it and concentrate on what's being discussed.