Football at the highest level

[richtherover]

Will Rooney go to China? Who cares. A 3 year contract worth 110 thousand a week (reportedly) for Lallana? Madness. A tournament for losers called Europa to allow the rich teams to generate even more money? The so called "big" teams even put out their reserve sides in the F. A. Cup, (the most famous knockout trophy in the world, apparently) as it is no longer a priority. Staying in the Premier league with all its wealth  is all that counts. Sad but true. I have been obsessed by Rovers since the early 60's when I first saw them at a floodlit Belle Vue. The journey they have been on since then has been the stuff of both dreams and nightmares. Thankfully in all that time we have played at "grass roots" levels, peaking in the Championship and plumbing the depths of non-league. The more I see of the bloated and greedy money making monster which calls itself "Football's Elite", the more I pray that we can become a major force at a realistic level, not sell out to some Chinese consortium and lose our identity, or change our name to Doncaster Taipans all in the name of progress.
I realise that all of this is a long way from merely being top of League 2 but what would be considered "a successful side" by most Rovers' fans?
Three points tomorrow will do for starters.
RTID.

[Donnywolf]

Got to totally agree with you - I really detest what is going on in the Premier League and elsewhere

The FA Cup as you say besmirched and has largely gone the same way as the Football League Cup and astonishingly that was borne out by Sutton and Lincoln making it this far. Clubs play weaker sides and one Man Utd even decided to miss the FA Cup to further their business model in the Far east instead. Now they are playing to win it as this Season they are not good enough to win "the Holy grail" and I for one hope they dont

Ditto for Man U in the Europa League - as you say a chance for them and the "losers" in the Champions League at the Group stages or several other contrived methods of entry to make more and more money beating Teams such as Gawizinsky United and Apllepeel Beeeaters (I made them up) AND being forced as a Season Ticket Holder so they tell me to buy Tickets for those riveting games in order to have your Season Ticket.

There is also the cheating diving and other such stuff going off which does not help the Referee in any way at all. No wonder they get lots of stuff wrong. That is not exclusively a Premier problem of course and has cascaded itself down the Divisions here and elsewhere and was so obvious when watching the Luton game last Saturday

However I would love to see Rovers do well a la Bournemouth but I cant see it in my lifetime as we would need several benefactors just to establish ourselves in The Championship - and having lived through the last revolution going out of the League - getting back (eventually) via Stoke - winning the 4th at the first go - beating Leeds at Wembley - the first game at Derby - the SOD era with 34 passes v QPR - and punching above our weight v lots of the rest and then the inevitable relegations - before this Seasons triumphs (to date)-  it has been a ride I have largely enjoyed it. It must be preferable to say supporting Celtic who are now closing in on 30 straight wins - how do they sustain interest when they just turn up and win 4 or 5 nil ?

[Drover]

What is to be expected,the premier league was born from the FA bribing the big clubs from Division one and they took the bribes and ditched the Football league.When it happened,I felt like I was the only one who was worried it would end up like this.I can say,hand on heart,I have not loved football as much as I did before the FA took over the top division.Most around me was buzzing about it and the emergence of sky coverage coinciding too.Not me.I wish the football league could have come up with a counter bribe,that was good enough,but not so that it harmed the game like the FA has(IMO),but I can understand it was possibly a mission impossible at the time for the FL.Rant over,Im going back to me Bovril while standing in the rain and then going for a wazz in open top toilet.

[not on facebook]

I have been on same track of thought for sometime now,but since I don't get to hardly any games did not feal correct in starting this subject.

Should rovers ever get into the prem the mindset of the type of players required to keep rovers compatible in the prem would change
For the worse I guess.

Rovers had a issue with the players during the Mcaky issue with two different camps of players in one changing room it's been reported.

As things stand today I am getting turned off more and more by the prem season after after season and it's all down to player reaction and agents views.

[Sammy Chung was King]

The game has been destroyed at the top level simply by too much money. There used to be a time when managers looked for certain things in each position to build a cohesive team now they throw sides together signing whoever sells the most shirts.
It used to be even more possible if you were a very good manager to build a side that could compete for the title with smaller sides. Leicester aside how often has a side of that size won the league?. I can only remember Blackburn out of all those years. It used to be that yes the usual sides were involved but you would get an unlikely side break into the pack it doesn't happen hardly at all now.

It felt back then that players were well paid without being too distant from the fans we now have young players who are on tens of thousands for five to ten decent performances whereas back then the top lads had to work hard to get to that stage. As every year passes our younger players become technically better but mentally weaker.
No apprentice duties with this lot the fan is there to bull..it and pretend they respect, they respect nobody. The old ways were not all the best but many of them were. Working your way up and earning what you got these players have no need to strive to get better many come off council estates and have never seen the sort of money thrown at them how can you expect that sort of money to not badly affect them and their want to get better they have everything in life almost that they could need. We reward them too early and expect different results it won't happen.

The money from Sky has improved our football in some areas the little that trickles down but it has destroyed the fans closeness to the players and some of that respect has dwindled. Nobody begrudges them the money they are the performers who wants it all going to faceless directors?-not me. The old saying ''Money is the route of all evil'' applies in this case. Clubs and players with agents in tow relentlessly chasing the next buck or pound coin which they don't really need but feel they have to have.

[Crowle Rover]

In the old days of the first division (ie pre Premier League) there was always a chance that a "lesser" team would do rather well or even win it.
From 1970 to 1974 you had 5 different winners (Everton,Arsenal,Derby,Liverpool,Leeds) and even during Liverpool's dominance in the late 70's and 80's you still had a varied selection of victors (Forest,Villa,Everton,Arsenal)
And think of all those runners up during that time.
QPR only lost out to Liverpool in 1976 on the last day.
Ipswich,Watford,Swansea,Southampton all put in strong displays and even West Ham stood a chance in 1986.
That any of those teams could do anything like that nowadays is unthinkable,Leicester last year excepted.
Nowadays it's the same old,same old battling for the top 6 with the odd team breaking in every few years (Everton,Southampton)
Same with the FA cup.Again,with the odd exception,the last 20 years seem to be one of Arsenal,Chelsea,Liverpool or Man Utd
Really dont care about the Premier League and Sky.
Give me the Rovers any day

[Donnywolf]

Give me the Rovers any day

 

[idler]

You had real fans in those days rather than the plastic fans that only support teams to be able to brag on a Monday morning at work.
The price is driving traditional working class fans away to be replaced by the more affluent in the Premier League stands.
All sports must progress but top level football seems like a greedy, obese child that is demanding more and more.
 Eventually the child will die through ill health, and all self inflicted.
RTID rather than til a better more successful team comes along.

[drfchound]

In the old days of the first division (ie pre Premier League) there was always a chance that a "lesser" team would do rather well or even win it.
From 1970 to 1974 you had 5 different winners (Everton,Arsenal,Derby,Liverpool,Leeds) and even during Liverpool's dominance in the late 70's and 80's you still had a varied selection of victors (Forest,Villa,Everton,Arsenal)
And think of all those runners up during that time.
QPR only lost out to Liverpool in 1976 on the last day.
Ipswich,Watford,Swansea,Southampton all put in strong displays and even West Ham stood a chance in 1986.
That any of those teams could do anything like that nowadays is unthinkable,Leicester last year excepted.
Nowadays it's the same old,same old battling for the top 6 with the odd team breaking in every few years (Everton,Southampton)
Same with the FA cup.Again,with the odd exception,the last 20 years seem to be one of Arsenal,Chelsea,Liverpool or Man Utd
Really dont care about the Premier League and Sky.
Give me the Rovers any day

I tried to get this point over to a couple of plastic Man U "supporters" at work when we were battling to stay in the Championship for two years running.
I was saying that as things were, financially we could not compete with most other clubs in the division and at the time our aim was to stay in the division and doing so was a triumph.
One of the lads responded that he could never be associated with a team that just flatlined year after year and that it was better to follow a team like Man U who had a realistic chance of winning something.
( He has never been to see them play live by the way).

Now when have Rovers flatlined over the past fifteen years or so?

Give me the Rovers anytime, my team since I first went in 1962.

[Syme]

That any of those teams could do anything like that nowadays is unthinkable,Leicester last year excepted.

So unthinkable. Apart from that time when it happened. 9 months ago.

[i_ateallthepies]

You had real fans in those days rather than the plastic fans that only support teams to be able to brag on a Monday morning at work.
The price is driving traditional working class fans away to be replaced by the more affluent in the Premier League stands.
All sports must progress but top level football seems like a greedy, obese child that is demanding more and more.
 Eventually the child will die through ill health, and all self inflicted.
RTID rather than til a better more successful team comes along.

That's been happening since God was a lad Idler.  The numbers of Donny folk who hitched a ride on top flight teams of the day is proof of that.

[swintonrover]

Honestly, if by some miracle Rovers got into the Premier League, I wouldn't want us to stay there. Sure, seeing us at Old Trafford/Anfield/Stamford Bridge would be fantastic, but being there too long would tear the soul out of the club. Paying overpaid mercenaries would take me back to the days of McKay, and I wouldn't want that.
Premier League; nice for a visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

[idler]

You had real fans in those days rather than the plastic fans that only support teams to be able to brag on a Monday morning at work.
The price is driving traditional working class fans away to be replaced by the more affluent in the Premier League stands.
All sports must progress but top level football seems like a greedy, obese child that is demanding more and more.
 Eventually the child will die through ill health, and all self inflicted.
RTID rather than til a better more successful team comes along.

That's been happening since God was a lad Idler.  The numbers of Donny folk who hitched a ride on top flight teams of the day is proof of that.

Not in the same numbers though. I used to go to odd games at Leeds or Wednesday occasionally if we were away and we didn't go. Sometimes we would see other Rovers fans. It was only ever a day off from Rovers to see a top league game. It was never ever going to be permanent.
There's too many armchair fans now paying no gate money and recycling the pundit's cliches on a Monday.

[Colemans Left Hook]

surely you header meant this

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Football_clubs_in_Quito

place is so high they need oxygen breaks !!!