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Especially over the last two seasons I can't help feeling that the club regard the supporters not with contempt, but not far off it with the patronising e mails, 'matchday experience' bullshit...it's almost turning into a North American ice hockey charade. Dumber and dumber..
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Saints And The Modern Game on 18:18 - Sep 23 with 2000 views
Totally get what you are saying. What has helped me is changing job completely a few years back which means I can't get to every game anymore. Now, when I can go, I probably appreciate it more than I used to. However, I could have gone to Lpool this weekend but decided I would rather spend the time with my wife, who puts up with my shifts than go and sit in the awful away end at Anfield, surrounded by tourists or Saints fans singing about libraries or signing on.
I watched the Sky games today, and really, the Premier League just isn't all that. I enjoy going to football, but that is mostly to see mates. I will watch football on television but then normally find myself playing with my phone or whatever. Guess that we are just not the target audience for any of this.
Looking forward to Wolves next week though!
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Saints And The Modern Game on 19:42 - Sep 23 with 1947 views
When I moved up north 5 years ago I quickly realised that it wasn't the football itself I loved it was the day out with mates. A couple of three hour each way train journeys on my own to the first few away games after moving up here meant any future game was very unappealing. Although I still met up with old friends it just wasn't the same. I've since met a couple of saints fans up here who I've gone with and whilst I've done games with them and met up with the old lot I just don't feel the same at games anymore, maybe its age, maybe it's the fact I now live over 250 miles away. I'll always love saints as I've got so much history, a kid on the Milton, great away days, some of the best moment in my life, the stories and the best people (and worst) people I've met Have been because of saints, but it's just not the same anymore.
Things like how the tickets we allocated for the cup final and semi final last year where only home games counted made me think that the club only really care about the income they get from homes fans. The cup final season a fan who had been to two home games was considered more of a priority to them than someone who had gone to one home game and 7 aways.
Nicks rather aggressive "not aimed at anyone" post they other day lamblasted people for wanting to be entertained and win things, telling them if that's what they wanted to f*** off and support man United, that last season was one of the best in our history. Well having been a fan for over 30 years I'm quite realistic in what I expect, top 10 finish is a great season for us, thrown in a cup run and its as good as it could ever get. The game is rotten to the core, it's all set up for the big clubs to get bigger and everyone else is just cannon fodder for them, I swear even referees are influenced to give decisions to the big clubs the amount of times time and again they get them.
I could have gone to Anfield yesterday instead I went to see my local conference side with my son, cost £14. They lost, we enjoyed it despite the result, stood on the terrace, pint before and after. When I heard the half time saints score the only surprise was that I wasn't surprised we were 3-0 down. The premier league is pointless, we are only in it to try and stay in it. We are set up to fail. The worst thing about it all is that we haven't helped ourselves and have been caught up on the corporate premier league machine, I struggle to actually think of any reasons left as to why I would want to go to a game, take yesterday, what's the best that's going to happen? Likely a heavy defeat, a chance of a plucky defeat or a tiny chance player I don't like scores a goal to beat a team I can't stand surrounded by absolute freaks telling the opposition freaks that they should sign on and their grounds like a library. Hardly worth £40 is it.
[Post edited 23 Sep 2018 19:48]
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Agree entirely with TCM; the difference to is I haven't moved away. Started on the Milton, had an ST at St Mary's, nowadays I just wouldn't do it. All my pals are the same; we had a group a minimum of 5 or 6 of us who always went to every game in League 1, more than often double figures of us and sometimes 20+. Can barely get 2 or 3 of us together for a game these days.
Nicks comments on this site are just pathetic also, he's clearly had hid head turned to not bring any sort of his previous commentary and examination of the ownership onto the existing incumbents. Nick has for decadesvmade a living out of pointing out the flaws in Saints management and rabble rousiing off the back of it, but it seems to be that can be stopped at a price and its all fluffy clouds and sunshine now.
I don't go much to the games any more, I don't post much on here any more, and apart from the good people at both I just don't miss it either. Which is a shame (for me anyway).
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Saints And The Modern Game on 20:08 - Sep 23 with 1898 views
Bar the odd game I haven't gone for a few years now. It's shite. The prem is hyped up bollocks and going to the football now bears no resemblance whatsoever to what I used to enjoy. Each to their own but anyone who goes week in week out now can have f uck all better to do on a Saturday.
"We receive emails asking for feedback on our ‘match day experience’"
Far be it for me to mention I'm currently on my 3rd luxury and exclusive holiday of 2018, however I think Saints could take a leaf out of my hotels book and install a traffic light smiley face electronic scoring system to rate the match day experience. I had been looking forward to tonight's Roy Orbison tribute but it was hugely disappointing and only warranted amber indignation.
Echo what many other people here have said, i started going back in the early 80s, on the Archers road/east stand to begin with, then moved to the Milton terrace. Back then you were spending no more than a few quid as a kid (i think my first entry price was £1.50).
As i got older i stopped going with family and moved onto going with mates, on the Milton we'd have a group of 10-15 of us who would go together, you wouldn't have to plan it or buy tickets in advance, just rock up on the day and find your "usual" spot on the terrace.
Hell i can remember mornings of playing football on the car park of the local jehovah witness' near my mates and deciding about lunch we'd head up the Dell. All of us chip in with one mates advertiser round and then go up there.
From there it went to away games, discovering booze (and women) and travelling the country having a f*cking great laugh with my mates watching football, getting drunk and just generally being teenage lads having a laugh.
As time went on an the ticket prices went up that group dwindled, from 10-15 regularly to about 4-5 now. Some were priced out of the game, some had kids and stopped going, but most of us just don't like the game anymore.
I still have a season ticket, and still do far more than the average away games, but as i was saying to TCM the other day i can't relate to most of our support anymore, i have no idea when it happened but groups of mates at football seems to have been replaced by oddballs that have only football in their lives. People that wear full club merchandise, replica kits, facepaint and gurn like gimps to their cameras to take selfies for social media.
There's so much more i dislike about football than like now, lets not lie the Premier League is absolutely f*cking rigged. The swells of money will only ever let a handful of clubs anywhere near the top 6, and if they do succeed for more than a season they're ripped apart by the vultures above.
Games are moved on a regular basis and you can't book trains when they're cheap because you don't know if the game will move or not. The successful clubs are given precedence for fixture scheduling. United, Liverpool, Arsenal to play on a tuesday night in the league cup and week after in Europe? Then move the small clubs game so their players aren't tired.
Inside the grounds the atmosphere i grew up and loved is gone, 99% of games are played out to soulless stadiums where people sit on their hands or partake in stupid, banal, humourless "banter" taken straight from the idiot machine that is Soccer AM.
Even away days are becoming a struggle now, i've lost count of the amount of times that we've begrudgingly pulled ourselves out of the pub to go to the match, and you probably only get a handful a season that are a shadow of what it used to be (Huddersfield, Wigan and Fulham last season).
And before Nick starts it's not just us, most fans of my generation i speak to (regardless of the club) feel the same. The game is gone at the top level, it's been sold abroad and packaged to a different audience.
The big irony is that if this kind of gentrification happened elsewhere the media would be crying about it, they'd be shouting about "cultural appropriation" as our atmosphere was packaged up and sold abroad. Protesting about how local folk and working class people were being replaced by tourists and tarquins (i really feel for clubs like Arsenal who've had their core support decimated).
But because it's football we're told it's a good thing and it's us that's the problem.
I renewed last season, i did it knowing it's probably not for me anymore. Next season i'm not so sure that'll be the case. If we go down i'll renew, in fact i'll probably enjoy it a hell of a lot more. But the Premier League "Experience"? The hype? The "matchday 18" americanised crap? The clappers, fireworks and Soccer AM banter? The transfer deadline days and gurning idiots in the press talking about players "deserving their move" to whichever international brand can pay them the most?
Nah f*ck all that sh*t, i'd rather sit in a pub with those mates that have already given up on the game.
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Saints And The Modern Game on 09:09 - Sep 24 with 1683 views
always have been to an extent, can't even remember the amount of times i've used the phrase "don't let the football ruin a good day out at the football".
Difference now is i'm not talking about Saints being sh*t and losing all the time, i'm talking about football in general.
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Saints And The Modern Game on 09:46 - Sep 24 with 1655 views
I ended up getting 2 season tickets this year in Club Southampton at the last minute. I thought I'd have one more season watching the football, but do it in relative comfort in the hope that will make up for the dire football.... it doesn't.
I imagine this will be the last season that I will ever own a season ticket, which is upsetting.
Unless we get relegated to the Championship, that's it for me, I just can't build any excitement up to watch Southampton in the Premier League whatsoever.
Had some great memories with Saints, as Delbo said, some of the best moments of my life... but top-flight football is dead.
I'll probably go and watch Eastleigh again next season.
I totally agree with you Frannie. I started in the chocolate boxes, had season tickets on the est stand benches with the old man then moved to the "tap" under the east, then had season tickets on the archers for the last few years. Then 15 of us had season tickets on the Northam for the first 6 years at St Marys then that number started to dwindle. I've been up and down the country following Saints but no more.
I'm not sure when it happened to me. I estimate around the time that John Terry (a centre back ) started wearing his socks over his knees like a Japanese school girl in a porn film. Or when players got off the team bus with their hoods up and headphones on. I'm not joking - that just showed that the players have no interest in interacting with the "little people". I often wonder if they are even listening to anything at all. Or even when fans behind the goal were busy recording a penalty on their phone then filming their mates celebrating if it goes in. Just watch the game!
I still love the actual game itself but I didn't see the game Saturday and once I knew we lost, I didn't bother watching MOTD or any highlights. In fact I rarely watch MOTD at all now unless we win. I never really think about why. I started watching the Arsenal game on Sunday and soon lost interest. Lots of passing for passing sake and pretty much zero atmosphere.
Maybe it's a generational thing. The younger lads on here can tell me if at 50 I'm an old fart and it's never been better but frankly I don't feel part of it. The game is packaged at a global tv shirt buying audience and I have no idea who these people are.
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Saints And The Modern Game on 11:06 - Sep 24 with 1579 views
One of the best threads we’ve had for a long time.
Sadly, I find myself in agreement with the majority of points made and many have summed up how I feel. I will never stop loving my team but the modern game is leaving me behind.
As a lot of posters have said, perhaps it’s a generation thing.
The meat’s the same, the gravy’s different
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Saints And The Modern Game on 11:22 - Sep 24 with 1563 views
agree with nearly everthing on here far better that we had gone down in the championship everything was possible,win the league,runners up,play offs,mid table,relegation all things possible instead we have a league where the top 6 are so far in front of the rest that the others just gift the points and concentrate on those around them,gosh how exciting and clubs of our ilk dont even have a crack in cups prefering to protect there better players for games in the holy grail,i go to most home and away games and can honestly say it was much more enjoyable in league 1 and championship and for the ordinary fan would have been much better had we been relegated.Sick of watching young millionaires putting in half arsed effort for the team,the club should have a fans forum where the players are all there to field the questions wouldnt that be a blast
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Saints And The Modern Game on 11:32 - Sep 24 with 1554 views
Your last point is a very good idea. The trouble is the ones picked to ask the questions would be the modern selfie obsessed super fan, that would ask the likes of Bertrand what his favourite drake song was. What’s needed are a set of older fans that don’t go anymore to ask the questions.
100 % agree with this post. I’ve been going since 1971, had years of season tickets but didn’t renew this season I am a member now. I sat in the pub last week with my group and thought to myself , if I didn’t do this anymore would i really miss it ? sadly the answer was no.
I enjoy the social side of it and I love saints and always will but the whole matchday experience The prem league is a complete turn off for me. I couldnt give a toss about Liverpool and the rest of the top six but for some reason sky and the like think I should be interested that’s all you hear about.
Real fans not bedwetters have had enough. I’m sick to death of some saying support the club through thick and thin, well we’ve been there done that. We’re all expected to buy season tkts look at the Shyte we’ve just bought. Hoedt and Vestergaard are two of the worst defenders I’ ve seen at this standard because we won’t spend decent money.
I will still go to most home games but not every game just pick and choose.
I e seen us lift the Fa cup the best day of my life, I’ve seen us in league 1 never missing a home game and I’ve seen Saints in around 70 grounds but as matey said money has ruined the game and I’m really not that bothered anymore.
I got a season ticket last year for Everton having not had one for a few years and had picked and chosen home games for years and gone to the south aways. Tickets for home games became really difficult to get as even though Everton have been the epitome of mediocrity for the past 30 years, the demand for tickets was nuts. The ballache came when I was home for a family do and couldn’t get a ticket for the West Ham even though it was life of SKY and Everton hadn’t won a game in six matches. Tickets on Stubhub were going for 90 quid. Everton fans = mediocrity hunters.
So now I have a season ticket, pick and choose my games and put the rest of Stubhub (for only 25 quid a game). I won’t watch any game involving the big six as inevitably it will be televised and inevitably Everton will lose, unless it coincides with a family do or trip back home. Unlike Chinese tourists with this half and half scarves and selfie sticks, I have no desire to watch any of these teams/players with their pathetic goal celebrations, manager histrionics, players talking behind their hands, awful officials and everything else that goes on in a game.
If they said that the pubs in and around the ground were closed before and after the game, I simply wouldn’t go. The match day is about meeting mates and having a laugh, not bantz, Delli Ali rubbish goals celebrations, Pogba being in a mood etc.
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Saints And The Modern Game on 13:55 - Sep 24 with 1432 views
That does seem to be the general gist. The number of times we've been in the pub at 2.45 thinking shall we stay or shall we go, and away games are decided upon by whether the town/city is good for the ctaic and beer etc rather than quslity or otherwise if the opposition or chance of a good game
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Saints And The Modern Game on 14:45 - Sep 24 with 1390 views
As i think most on here are probably over 40/45 (?) it would be interesring to hear the "younger generations" viewpoint or are we all just old farts wanting the good old days back
But did we really enjoy those dark days of the 90's and early noughties fighting relegation? At least they kept our interest in the game going
Also agree with another poster, sorty can't remember which one, about motd. Only ever watch it if we win, hence havent seen mush of that prog this year
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Saints And The Modern Game on 14:51 - Sep 24 with 1379 views
I'd take a guess most of us on here are here because we're older, the younger generation wouldn't have a clue what the ugly, on the march or the beautiful south were.
Their version is twitter, facebook and instagram (and i suppose Saints Web)
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Saints And The Modern Game on 14:53 - Sep 24 with 1376 views
I’ve barely watched MOTD in the past few years, certainly not all the way through. I tend to record it and fast forward to Everton (on the occasions that they win) and maybe Saints (win, lose or draw) and always fast forward the ‘experts’.
Watching SKY is rubbish these days too. The game could be Palace v Saints for example, but the pundits mainly the likes of Carragher will talk about Liverpool for twenty minutes and then reference them throughout. It’s become pointless.
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Saints And The Modern Game on 16:08 - Sep 24 with 1339 views
if i couldnt have a few beers home and away with mates and people i meet i wouldnt just go to watch the game alone im sure im not the only one,says it all about premier league football
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Saints And The Modern Game on 17:49 - Sep 24 with 1289 views
Well I am a bit younger (30) and totally agree. Like most who have commented we used to have about 10/20 of us that went week in week out. That has now dropped right down to me and one other. The few years in the lower leagues were the best I have seen. See us win more, in 'proper' stadiums, not these modern tourist hotspots! No matter how good or bad we were doing you never really knew what would happen one match the next. And all for a fraction of the prices they try and charge now.
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