With football supporters rapidly becoming harder and harder to please, the more fickle amongst us would appear to be coming to the fore with their voices seemingly the loudest in the room at present.
With the rising cost of attending live sport also becoming an increasingly prevalent factor in the makeup of each team’s fan base, is there anything that can be done to dampen the flames of the overriding blame culture that is swamping English football?
As I have said previously, it saddens me that a win nowadays isn’t celebrated in the same manner that it always seemed to be when I was growing up. Maybe that is just me and I am being a little naiive in my asessment and the real reason was that I was possibly oblivious to the negative feelings of others during my tender years, as we filtered out of the ground; me atop my dad’s shoulders.
Almost unavoidable these days however is the notion that anyone who commits any kind of a mistake on the field of play is instantly labelled as a colourful combination of assorted expletives on some scale or degree. On the other side of the coin, in supporters eagerness to highlight their exemplary analytical skills when it comes to deciphering the code that is football, it would appear that goals are now only scored as a result of the poor play of others. As I say, to me, that is a sad state of affairs to find a sport which is supposed to bring us joy and happiness (I did say supposed to).
I accept that the innocence of my youth has long since dissipated and I find myself more detached from the club I support these days than ever before. The fabled collection of learned scholars, also known as ‘They’ say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and in that respect, when I take my seat (I honestly can’t remember the last time I actually sat down in the seat I pay for) I am wholly focused on the action on the pitch and not much else besides. I still feel the same joy when we score against any one of the teams in the Premier League as I did when those goals were being scored in days gone by by players who, in all honesty, were unfit to lace the boots of the current crop against even lesser opposition in much less glamorous leagues and surroundings.
So what was so different back then, or is it something deeper; more of a social shift on a seismic scale? I would have to say that on the whole, and I don’t like mass generalisations, that today, people aren’t as happy as they were when I was growing up. Again, this may well be because I was young and unaware of the feelings of the older generation, but to me, I see people becoming more embittered with each passing year, with happiness and joy proving more elusive commodities by the day. The cynic is overtaking the optimist. That is if they didn’t already swap places some time back.
On Monday night, the derby atmosphere at The Hawthorns was the exact opposite of last years installment of West Brom v Villa rivalry as Albion raced into a 2-0 lead inside 11 minutes, thanks to Shane Long, as opposed to going in at half time 2-0 down last season. That both games finished 2-2 shows how close the teams are currently matched, whilst possibly also highlighting why these two teams are mid-table and not pushing for European qualification and a slot on Thursday night TV, with passport stamps awaiting those qualifiers and their fans.
By the time the final whistle had brought an end to a great match for the neutrals watching at home on TV, the early joy of Shane Long ripping a Villa defence which was as weak as over-diluted cordial to shreds had long since evaporated, to be replaced by anger, hatred and bitterness from the frothing masses. And all towards one of our ‘own’ too (well, he isn’t technically but his successive year-long-loan deals have made it seem that way – not to mention his catchy song). I am, to those of you who don’t know already, talking about Albion’s on-loan left back Goran Popov.
Popov, the Macedonian International, has had an on-off, stop-start career since moving to The Hawthorns, with him finding it tough to beat present incumbent at the position Liam Ridgewell to a starting role. That Ridgewell was out injured for the match wasn’t something that I found myself overly worried about, as I have always had the opinion that, with a run of games, Popov would go on to assert himself and become the default starter. Accompanying that feeling of mine is the background noise that Ridgewell is, amongst other things, not the greatest of footballers around. At this completely unstartling ‘revelation’, nobody be surprised. We are a mid-table Premier League side with a bottom-half wage bill, yet seemingly top-half expectations from a growing chunk of supporters.
The majority of players in the Albion squad will have some form of a chink in their makeup, a glitch in their technical ability or a bug in their footballing brain. Again, that should surprise nobody at all. Had they not, it is highly doubtful that they would be wearing the blue and white stripes in the first place, as there is a premium to pay for the apparently infallible – one which we as a club (it is definitely still ‘we’ to me), we just will not pay, even if we could afford to.
From that grows this ‘glass-ceiling’ feeling amongst fans who have become disillusioned at the less than startling revelation (another one) that we are unlikely to win the Premier League any time soon or compete in the Champions League without the exhaustive support of a rich benefactor or foreign investor – ironically, something that would be the final nail in many supporters coffins should it ever come to fruition.
I have seen the performance of Goran Popov dissected in detail, over-analysed like many other aspects of every game in the technological age we are in (to those that aren’t aware, he was involved in a poor clearance leading to the Aston Villa equaliser) to the point that it was described by one social media commentator as being one of the worst performances by an individual that he had EVER seen. Another said it was the worst performance in an Albion shirt for many years. As poor as the headed clearance was, and possibly even his overall performance, to go to such extremes during the process of venting your frustrations seems incredibly over the top to me, especially considering some of the lesser lights that we have seen take the field before us over the years.
Fans, at times, need to display a little more balance in their opinions – and I’m no different to anyone in that respect, and to view things with a little more perspective. Is today really all that bad, and was the past always better? No is my answer to both questions. Unequivocally. Looking at the great Albion teams of the past, how many times can fans much older than me honestly, hand-on-heart say that they were genuinely in with a chance of winning the league? To those around their mid-to-late-50’s, I’d say a couple of times, perhaps. The title has found itself on display in West Bromwich just the once, in a season which will be celebrated with a centenary in the not too distant future to honour the greats of the 1919-20 season.
Football today is dominated by money and TV companies and that is unlikely to change – and if it does, it may not change in the way that many fans would like to see. The game may well become even more global as the appetite for live football to build your TV day around increases even further. Coming to terms with that is a step that many have yet to tread. Once you do, and you cast aside your fondness for times long since gone, you may well see that things today aren’t anywhere near as bad as they can easily be painted to be.
And on the plus side for Albion fans everywhere, at least Liam Ridgewell is a better player than he was a week ago.
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