Has Your Passion Gone?

For the first time ever in a game against Wolves, I got the feeling we were beaten before the game even kicked off.

No one thought we could win there, and when we went a goal done there was no outrage, no venting, just jokes and talk about when (rather than if) Dougie will get the bullet.

As those of you that follow my work know, I used to be Bolton's biggest fan, but this afternoon I went to watch Chorley and didn't give Bolton a thought. I once caused a family rift by going to watch BWFC rather than attend my Aunt's wedding. How times have changed.

Do you really care anymore? Does it spoil your weekend like it used to?

I'm just used to us getting beat , if we win its a bonus, tbh I watch my lads team where the passion is second to none, Bolton comes third after the Bill.

My passion started in 1959 and it remains.
These ponces however?
Gerry Taggart had more passion in his big toe.

Megson, Coyle, and Freedman have killed all the passion at BWFC!!!!

I'm way past the point of getting my hopes up after a few decent results, so I do struggle to find the passion these days. Because even when we win, I feel like it's only a matter of weeks, maybe days, before everything turns to shite again. And it's here that I struggle to relate to a lot of other Bolton fans.

I looked around at the euphoria at full time after we'd just beat Rotherham. How could anybody have been that happy about that? Surely they realised they'd probably be pissed off all over again by 5 o'clock today. Because it's all one step forward, one step back under Dougie.

For me, my life-long relationship with Bolton is the same as my relationship with Asthma.

I didn't ask for it, it has made me ill on the odd occasion, its impact on my life has lessened dramatically over the last thirty years, after dominating my life and determining how I lived for long periods and it's just something that I'm stuck with.

It'll never go away, but it no longer rules my life like it did when I was a kid.

I once hitchhiked back to Bolton from Birmingham for a meaningless Tuesday night game in the Third Division when I was a student but there's absolutely no way I would do anything like that now.

But it's not just Bolton, it's football in general.

The game's ruining itself with money and corruption and I honestly wouldn't lose too much sleep if it all went tits up tomorrow.

bryan458 wrote:Megson, Coyle, and Freedman have killed all the passion at BWFC!!!!

Wrong, they all were trying to do a job, problem was the job was too big, not their fault, the fault begins and ends at Gartsides office door, piss poor appointments, and even worse decision making regarding dismissals, Gartside is the cancer, Freedman, Megson, Coyle, are just the side effects.

Breadman wrote:But it's not just Bolton, it's football in general.

The game's ruining itself with money and corruption and I honestly wouldn't lose too much sleep if it all went tits up tomorrow.

I fully agree with this and have done for years, since the silly money and the greedy players became all that was important in the game.

Following the club for the best part of 50 years the passion as long gone, in fact it is more the opposite feeling for me.

What I mean is that as a youngster it was a way of life, all your mates went, it was all you talked about at school (then work when you were a little bit older).  We were a team on the decline back then and you sort of expected to get beat but that didn't matter too much as the game was only part of your day, as you would meet your mates at twelve, go for a pint, stroll down to the match, have a beer afterwards, go home for a bite to eat and a wash and change and then meet up with the lads again for a drink then on to the disco to meet some girls.

I get the impression these days (I may be wrong) that most people just go to the game, then home, or at best have a quick pint before kick off - then match, then home.

Anyway for me that was the norm and the passion only started when we actually did something - I think the 3-0 beating of City was the first time I felt it, then it grew under Armfield and later Greaves and peaked with Frank Worthington - then things went back to normal again.

A decade or so later the passion came back under Rioch and the White Hot years, with another later spell with Allardyce, Okocha and Djorkaeff.

Normal service resumed under Megson and it's been as dire as anything I can remember since.

I can't see anything to have any passion about to be honest as I can't see a way out of the mess we are in and it wouldn't seem quite as bad if it liiked as though the team wanted to put up some kind of a spirited fight but we seem just to be in a kind of free fall all the way round - ownership, management, players and fans have all seemed to have given up together.

I've never experienced anything like this before.

Things don't look good.

But I'll still be here, no matter what.

More fool me I guess.

Breadman wrote:But it's not just Bolton, it's football in general.

The game's ruining itself with money and corruption and I honestly wouldn't lose too much sleep if it all went tits up tomorrow.

Indeed.

Spot on, Sluff.

It's Sky TV's fault in the main.

They threw millions at the Premier League to attract the "top players" and thus make their "product" something they could charge a premium for.

These "top players" can command ridiculous money from their clubs in wages (£250,000 a week for playing football is not only ridiculous, it's obscene) and we wind up footing the bill both in terms of TV subscriptions and match tickets.

£35 for 90 minutes worth of alleged entertainment.

Would you pay that to see a film at the pictures? Would you bollocks.

And this reinforces and increases the disconnect between fans and players - it's an obvious (and valid) stick to beat under-performing players with.

Can anybody really feel sorry for the likes of Sordell when he whinges on Twitter about being homesick, knowing that he's earning the sort of money we can only dream of just for playing football?

It makes you think that these pampered idiots are pissing down your back and makes the decision to withdraw your support for them ever easier.

But the Genie's out of the lamp and I can't ever see how it can ever be put back in.....

doffcocker wrote:I'm way past the point of getting my hopes up after a few decent results, so I do struggle to find the passion these days. Because even when we win, I feel like it's only a matter of weeks, maybe days, before everything turns to shite again. And it's here that I struggle to relate to a lot of other Bolton fans.

I looked around at the euphoria at full time after we'd just beat Rotherham. How could anybody have been that happy about that? Surely they realised they'd probably be pissed off all over again by 5 o'clock today. Because it's all one step forward, one step back under Dougie.

I was going to post on this,  but the above gets how I feel exactly. 

So, this.

bryan458 wrote:Megson, Coyle, and Freedman have killed all the passion at BWFC!!!!

In other words Gartside has killed the passion for hiring these guys, in his endless search to find another BSA (which he will never do!)

Currently, I have more passion for BoltonTillIDie's Predictions Competition. So today is a win for me.

Something needs to change, or the passion will be totally gone. Just fans turning up out of some misguided sense of loyalty. I don't think anyone can actually enjoy going to the Macron.

From 1993 to 2007 I went to every home game and majority of away games, would have to have a good reason to miss a match. Had a season ticket the last few seasons but mostly give it to my brother for free (even he turns it down) because I just can't be bothered sitting there for 90 minutes constantly thinking about all the other things I could be doing that are better than this. It's got to the point I resent going.

I took my nephew to his first match last season and he complained all the way through. Where are our next generation of fans going to come from?

OneFinFreedman wrote: Where are our next generation of fans going to come from?

Singapore and China on "Sports tourism" holidays.

My mate's a Utd fan (Boo!) and he told me that OT is getting fuller with tourists every home game.

We went seeing Bill Bailey at The Lowry last year when Utd were at home the same day and it was like the UN in the bar of the Holiday Inn at Salford Quays.

It was rammed with foreign Utd "fans" who'd come over on package deals to see them play.

That's where the future is for the big clubs.

The rest of us are fucked.

OneFinFreedman wrote:I don't think anyone can actually enjoy going to the Macron.

Them people that sit in the South Stand usually have fun.

Since I turned 40 and again since I met Wendy football has slithered down my list of priorities. 

Sky weren't to blame, they asked how much, the FA fell all over themselves to take the money, said ker-ching and Sky paid it, thus buying football's soul. But the truth is football was becoming more and more a money grabbing exercise for agents, players and clubs at least a decade before sky arrived. The Bosman ruling only made that situation more extreme and of course the big talent went where the big money was. 

If football is EVER going to be a working class game again the change needs to come from within the game at its very top level but it won't happen. In fact Sky and the Premier League are now in a symbiotic relationship from which neither can AFFORD to escape. 

Without the virtual monopoly on Prem Football Sky Sports is effectively in the dustbin, most of its subscriptions and pay per views come from armchair fans. Without Sky's money more than two thirds of the Premier League is bankrupt, dead. And its getting worse not better. 

Sitting here today we can confidently predict at least three of the four teams that will be in the CL qualification spots come May. We can confidently predict most of the mid block (5th to about 14th) and confidently say which five or six will basically spend all season desperately struggling to stay in the prem because relegation is a financial blow to anyone and a crippling one to at least three of those six. It's not a real league any more, not even a real competition. Gone are the days when an Ipswich Town or Nottingham Forest could win the League because they had an awesome manager and a close knit team that upset the 'big boys' with grit and guile. 

And football is much, MUCH poorer for it.

It's more Frustration than Passion with this team and management.

Can't see a way out of it , it might be less painful just banging my Head against a Brick Wall for 90 minutes .