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Post by wagstand on Jan 30, 2014 21:38:22 GMT
Been supporting since 1971 son so no need to judge somebody on posts . Do u wonder why me and loads of other fans can only stand to look at this forum once in a blue moon as a result of negative morons posting drivel all the time. Some peoples glasses are half empty all the time!
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Post by stonmg on Jan 30, 2014 21:39:29 GMT
Bring back muddy pitches and the 70's and that hudson bloke!
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Post by borat on Jan 30, 2014 21:40:04 GMT
I'd much prefer league 1 football, with crowds of 9,000 some games and very little quality on show. It's rubbish beating Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and Man City at home with 28,000 fans. Prefer the wins over Rotherham, Preston, Gillingham, Brentford and Walsall, with grounds holding about 3,000. The Premiership can fuckoff.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2014 21:41:42 GMT
OldStokie posted a fantastic piece on this sort of subject just the other day. One sentiment, amongst others that struck me whilst reading his thoughts has very much stayed with me since. Bear with this as it’s very hard for me to explain properly in typed words and me being quite thick like, but hopefully I’ll make some sort of sense. I’ll probably get taken to task on one or two points but that’s fine. I know what I mean if nobody else does. The fact that in excess of half the Premier League is comprised of clubs who genuinely can only really try to survive. Whichever way you cook it, that's a bloody sad state of affairs but shockingly true. Now, there will be some clubs who have a decent, maybe over-achieving season and end up finishing 8/9th or something, which will prolong the "agony" or "glory" for another year, but there is something fundamentally wrong when your "best league in the world" has a bottom 12 in it, comprised of teams who, when you strip all the bravado and nonsense aside are basically just trying to stay in the division for another year. I'm only really remotely knowledgeable on English football so i can only speak as i understand with relation to that and if you look at the leagues you'll find that in The Championship, League One and League Two. There are clubs who, at the start of a season are "trying to get automatic promotion" "trying to finish in the play-offs" "trying to maybe finish near to and hopefully in the play-offs" or "hopefully maintaining status in their respective league to push on for a play-off place next season" The latter ordinarily are sides like Yeovil who are trying to establish themselves after promotion. That's it though and what's the common theme there? They're realistically aiming to reach a goal which is not out of their grasp. If you take the Championship as an example, look at the table and honestly, 20+ out of 24 teams could really have made the play-offs this season and people would have said “oh, they’ve done well, nice one” and that’s mint! That’s called COMPETITION and is a world away from the Premier League. I understand, it's not a level playing field as QPR have money etc. but as i've said it's still a world away from this. This Premier League has unfortunately nullified that sense of being able to compete really y’know. Gone are the days of for example.... Aston Villa got promoted to Div 1 (old money) in 87/88. Stayed up on goal difference in 88/89. Then nearly won the bloody league in 89/90! Finished 2nd to Liverpool. It wasn’t to do with a huge investment of money into a squad neither, it was football, good management and players who could compete with the best. That sort of thing will NEVER happen again, ever, ever, ever happen again. Just a shame really, but, to quote somebody on here who posted quote this back in 2009 in relation to “would you miss the Premier League?” or something like that…. “If I hadn’t seen such riches, I could live with being poor” - James ‘Sit Down’ That's a bit of a messy post but i swear there's some sort of logic in there and if not, sod it. Try to ignore it, i would
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Post by dwr17477 on Jan 30, 2014 22:12:07 GMT
I can't stand the thought of being out of the top division.
I do understand all the comments but it's all down to the gloryhunter and as mentioned on the 'Elite League' thread a few days ago, they are the reason we are where we are now ie Sky pandering to the shit, man shitty, scousers, the arse and chelski because gloryhunters quite simply have no grasp of following your local team/connected team(in my case, I've roots in Stoke on Trent as far back as the 1700's and even though I have never lived in the city, most of my relatives still reside in or around). I've printed the comment off that I feel hit the nail on the head and, as I can't talk to gloryhunters with regards to football(and, believe me, my office is crammed with them) will use it as summing up my reasoning for lack of football talk.
I've gone off the point a little but I really feel that's why we have such nonsense as wanting to be in a more competitive league because the bastards are driving us to this. As I said before, if there was a closed shop league then my interest would be gone completely...nothing to strive for.
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Post by baystokie on Jan 30, 2014 22:13:59 GMT
Would people feel differently if we were continually in the top 10 or 12? Probably not.
It's always more comforting to slag off what you can't/won't be successful in rather than doing something about it
If, so many say, we were never going to be anything other than between 12th and 17th with the odd Cup run, what exactly is the point in having any ambition - being an also-ran is classed as success?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 30, 2014 22:15:43 GMT
Yeah it's wank. Bring back the days where we lost at Oxford vale Swindon Telford Crewe Cambridge etc etc.
This board is becoming a fucking joke
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Post by ersaurebot 1, 000, 000 views on Jan 30, 2014 22:19:40 GMT
agree with all of it, especially the cheating that occurs.
Ive been saying it for a while now, but if the prem is a much less attractive watch to the foreign markets with no fans bothering to turn up.
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Post by wuzza on Jan 30, 2014 22:22:16 GMT
While there is now no option but to try and be in it - the league itself was set up with nothing but greed and self-interest at its heart. Its subsequent history has stayed true to those concepts. The only slightly amusing part is that clubs like Oldham who were so keen on it at the begining subsequently felt the full backlash of the monster they created !
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Post by TheBra1n on Jan 30, 2014 22:26:37 GMT
It's not just me losing interest then ? I had a knee operation yesterday so it's more than likely I wont be able to attend the Man Utd game...first league game i'll miss for years but i really dont care at the moment to be honest.Dont know why but i just dont get the buzz any longer...having a season ticket next year a serious doubt. dont be a pussy, i went to a home game 4 days after a full ACL reconstruction, on crutches, on the bus, on my own, man up and get yourself down there hope your recovery goes well
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Post by onionman on Jan 31, 2014 0:10:46 GMT
The problem is, being back in the Championship with an aim of getting back into this despicable league would be even worse.
It's like when Del Boy became a millionaire and realised the journey towards the goal was the fun bit ... Actually being there, after the initial buzz, is a bit of a let down.
Or are we thinking like this because we're on a stinker of a run and haven't had a single thing to cheer about for a couple of months? Would we still enjoy being in the Premier League for all its faults if we had sneaked a win against Everton and a draw against Liverpool? Probably.
Maybe football fans are only meant to enjoy a small percentage of their time watching football. Maybe that's what makes the good bits so good: we had a great time between 2008 and 2011, but it wouldn't have been so much fun if we hadn't endured three decades of hell. Now it's someone else's turn to have fun and we'll rejoin the big group of underachievers moaning about their club, the league they're in and the plight of the football fan in general. I don't know to be honest.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2014 0:24:24 GMT
The problem is, being back in the Championship with an aim of getting back into this despicable league would be even worse. It's like when Del Boy became a millionaire and realised the journey towards the goal was the fun bit ... Actually being there, after the initial buzz, is a bit of a let down. Or are we thinking like this because we're on a stinker of a run and haven't had a single thing to cheer about for a couple of months? Would we still enjoy being in the Premier League for all its faults if we had sneaked a win against Everton and a draw against Liverpool? Probably. Maybe football fans are only meant to enjoy a small percentage of their time watching football. Maybe that's what makes the good bits so good: we had a great time between 2008 and 2011, but it wouldn't have been so much fun if we hadn't endured three decades of hell. Now it's someone else's turn to have fun and we'll rejoin the big group of underachievers moaning about their club, the league they're in and the plight of the football fan in general. I don't know to be honest. Spot on. But for one piece of twatishness from a now ex-player and complete fucktardary/corruption from a referee, our two recent matches against the merseysiders would have been much more profitable, and this thread wouldn't be here. The Premier League is wank though.
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Post by cobhamstokey on Jan 31, 2014 0:26:17 GMT
Most annoying things for me - cheating see Young, Suarez, Altidore, Sterling etc - referee bias for the top teams. - Money buying success and the loss of homegrown talent. - The majority of pundits are awful. - Big club bias. - Too many London / Southern clubs like Fulham, Palace and previously QPR, Watford and Reading and small clubs with rich owners like Cardiff and Hull. - Foreign owners. - The absence of clubs with history like Leeds, Forest, Sheffield Wed, Derby, Birmingham. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else though
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Post by Miracle Aligner on Jan 31, 2014 0:42:19 GMT
Interesting.
I remember saying well before we even thought of promotion to the Premier League that I would hate to become one of the run of the mill clubs like a Fulham or at the time Middlesbrough where the only real ambition is to stay in the damn league. As Hancock put it earlier, like it or not, we are now one of those clubs but we aren't alone, of all the bottom 12 not one of those is guaranteed a place year on year. What we have to think is that we are back in the top division in English football and brand Stoke City is bigger than its ever been because of all the oversees interest and the accessibility of live streams. In the grand scheme of things the positives, like the constant money flow from Sky etc and the possibilities of a top 8 finish and european football just about outweigh the biased referees, cheats and media whoring to the bigger clubs. The Premier League stinks, but it just about beats losing a midweek game away at Plymouth.
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Post by staffsvilla on Jan 31, 2014 0:45:06 GMT
football took a nose dive in my eyes when reality finally hit home and at the beginning of a season instead of dreaming we could compete for a European place at least, the truth is our main aim is to survive the drop and maybe have a decent cup run, believe me for a club like mine with average crowds of around 35,000, a glorious history to look back on it really is gut wrenching to accept how far we have fallen
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2014 0:50:47 GMT
football took a nose dive in my eyes when reality finally hit home and at the beginning of a season instead of dreaming we could compete for a European place at least, the truth is our main aim is to survive the drop and maybe have a decent cup run, believe me for a club like mine with average crowds of around 35,000, a glorious history to look back on it really is gut wrenching to accept how far we have fallen I rarely go onto other teams' message boards, but I'm curious as to whether other clubs' fans are as disillusioned with the refereeing/media bias towards the big clubs as our lot are. Is it just us because of our current situation? Just wondering because there are a lot of Stoke fans now questioning whether they can be bothered with the game as it stands. Is it just us? What's your view as a Villa fan?
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Post by gb on Jan 31, 2014 0:53:32 GMT
I very often watch the other league matches after Match Off The Day .. I am of late enjoying the other matches more than the premier. Is it me or am I imagining it , but the refs dont seem to be making stupid decisions and the players seem far more honest , no where near as much diving and trying to get fellow players on the other side sent off ..
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Post by rogerjonesisgod on Jan 31, 2014 1:12:55 GMT
football took a nose dive in my eyes when reality finally hit home and at the beginning of a season instead of dreaming we could compete for a European place at least, the truth is our main aim is to survive the drop and maybe have a decent cup run, believe me for a club like mine with average crowds of around 35,000, a glorious history to look back on it really is gut wrenching to accept how far we have fallen SV, a question; Do you think that if Lerner chucked in £100M - £150M you'd get that Euro spot or do you think that those REALLY good players aren't interested in a club like Villa anymore, no matter what your league position is or what the weekly wage was?
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Post by denman on Jan 31, 2014 1:26:13 GMT
Embarrassing thread
Embarrassing fans
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Post by stokerob2 on Jan 31, 2014 1:32:34 GMT
Football is all about winning trophies. We are not going to win the league. But by staying in the prem, trying to improve each season, trying to bring more quality in, trying to push on as a club, betters our chance of winning silverwear in the future. Where's the passion ey lads?
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Post by DannyStokie on Jan 31, 2014 2:37:55 GMT
I wouldn't want to go down, it's not good, money wise, it's just not good in any way you look at it realistically.
But I feel like many games are a chore these days, pre match I start to get a buzz thinking what if we go on a winning streak now? I have this every single fucking game then as the whistle goes, I get that sinking feeling, as if I could puke, because I just know something's going to go wrong.
I don't ever remember feeling like this before, not in the same way at least.
I remember believing we would do it when we missed the play offs, I rember believing we would do it when we actually did it and remember knowing we would stay up in our first season in the Prem, 2nd season and 3rd etc.... But last year doubt started to creep in and now I'm convinced we will go down and I hate it, every fucking second of every game, I feel like something is going to go wrong.
Why do I feel like this? We have no ambition, no drive, nothing to play for except money, loads of fucking money that I, me, myself don't give a shit about, I just want to see us win and play well, but we don't, we fuck it up.
What is their left to do? What are we actually playing for right now? It feels like we aren't playing for anything, when we should fighting to death but we are dozing ourselves in to relegation from the worst thing ever to happen to english football, The Premier League.
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Post by harryburrows on Jan 31, 2014 3:02:19 GMT
I'm well bored. I had more fun watching us in Division 2. Honestly. Always said this , used to go to a lot of away games back then , without all the hassle it is now
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Post by bristolians on Jan 31, 2014 3:11:02 GMT
This thread demonstrates what a bunch of sad losers some Stoke fans are
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Post by jmst4 on Jan 31, 2014 3:13:22 GMT
Yeah...it's great going Bury, Cambridge, etc...much more fun. I am not doubting you or and even get you to a point but, having spent most of my time watching Stoke lose or be pleased with a draw in these God forsaken games, then I much prefer life in the Prem. We are a little way off playing Bury and Cambridge. But I would suggest an away day at Bury would be far more enjoyable than another trip to Stamford Bridge or The Stadium of Light... but maybe that's just me. I'm tired of being a 'customer' - being treated with such utter contempt. I want to stay in this league - but I do question why sometimes. These last two seasons rank as some of my least enjoyable as a football fan. I've spent a fortune and feel I have got such staggeringly little in return. Chelsea at home, half-time at Old Trafford, West Ham final whistle... that's it really this season; put against all those games you travel back from feeling cheated on the pitch and cheated out of pocket. I know that's football sometimes - but it's not even much of a laugh anymore, either dead quiet or no one has bothered to turn up. Sorry... I'm just on a fucking downer at the moment. Oh, and for what it's worth: Cambridge is a beautiful city.
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Post by MadMarko10 on Jan 31, 2014 3:53:55 GMT
I wouldn't say I'm pissed off with it, just more disillusioned by it all. It's absolutely fucking non-stop, there's no break from it, coverage 24/7, left, right and centre, heat maps, average positions, how much fucking oxygen has been breathed during 90 minutes, stat after stat, all relentlessly driven by Sky Sports. You're sat there wondering when the referees are going to shaft us every single game and that kind of feeling isn't just us either, it's anyone who isn't in the interests of The FA/Premier League i.e, Chelsea, Man United, Arsenal etc. In the Championship and further down, you know the ref is fucking dogshit and that he's highly likely to shaft both teams at some point so it balances out to the point that it's fair and not so completely and obviously biased. We're never going to win the league or get into Europe via the league, the most we can realistically expect to achieve is to finish 8th at the very highest, unless Sheikh al-Moneybags takes us over. There's no trophy for it, there's no glory, just more fucking money. You may as well have an end of season ceremony where we celebrate by seeing Shawcross lifting one of those enormous novelty cheques above his head. "Get fucking in, we've won 8th and a few million quid, wayyyyyyyyy!". It's not like how it used to be where anyone could win the league and that's just plain shite. Ticket prices are a fortune, both home and away, especially in this day and age where one has to prioritise what matters due to a nackered global economy. And that's even before knowing that we're utterly hopeless away from home and it's likely we'll come away disappointed and feeling like it's around £50+ wasted for the entire day. You're left thinking "What's the point?". The simplistic answer is "Because it's supporting Stoke" but it's a hell of a lot of money to shell out and again, for what? A ref shafting us? Seeing overpaid shitehawks actively cheating, diving, feigning injury? And that's another point, the fucking cheating. The cancer on world football. Seeing it week in, week out and seeing absolutely nothing done about it for whatever reason. And then what's even worse is the media, ex-professionals supporting it with the tired out, horseshit statement "He had every right to go down". Seriously, fuck off. It's cheating. Tackles being punished with cards. Players being sent off for winning the ball due to this dreamed up, murky piss that is "Intent". It's just fucking enraging isn't it? And then there's no longer being treated like a football fan, just simply a Customer ID number, due to buying into the Premier League gravy train. It's just horribly soulless. Add all that together and it leaves one completely disillusioned with everything to do with the highest tier of football. It's soulless, fake, plastic, media-driven, biased, corrupt wank that's almost killed my interest in football altogether. However, would I happily see the back of all that by seeing us relegated? God no, even if I know I'd enjoy it far more in the Championship. I'd even feel a sense of relief getting away from the constant coverage, the constant reminders of that calcium deficient coward Aaron Ramsay and his matchstick shin, the biased drivel we have to read week in, week out on social media, newspapers, blogs etc about how we're thugs, Neanderthals, medieval football playing hoofers. But if we want even a small chance of winning a major trophy, like we almost did a couple of years back, we've got to put up with all this bollocks. Christ, I feel better for that.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2014 4:53:42 GMT
Too many steak and chip dinners, that's the problem. No really, it is. Success does breed contempt; if it didn't, there wouldn't be a saying about it. And worse, a little bit of ongoing - but not ultimate - success, breeds PissedOffNess; which, like man flu, is a right tvvat to get rid of. I believe we contracted PissedOffNess in 1990, or thereabouts. Certainly no earlier than that. (if only we'd contracted it just a bit sooner ...) With man flu, I find getting rid of anyone else in the house, then putting my feet up and watching nogger all day, while drinking beer and smoking, is a great cure. With PissedOffNess we've already tried: Getting promoted from League 1, getting promoted from the Championship, spending sack loads of cash and signing players whose wives appear on TV shows, staying up in the premier league, playing in Europe, changing the manager, changing the formation and changing the style. So yeah, probably only relegation left to try. Last year, when most of the world seemed to be running around waving blow up axes and trying to figure out which side their strap-on, strapped on, I managed to help Joe get a 150 "discussing" this with Rob. I came up with a song, but no one wanted to sing it "We're not different any more" - It was great: short, accurate and with a widely known tune. Hartlepool are different. Hartlepool are Jumpers for goalposts. Hartlepool are swaying on terraces because you were too drunk to stand; Hartlepool are journeys on trains, which resembled the meat-wagons that the Nazis used and then escaping at the end of the journey to smash up the town; Hartlepool are badges and patches on jackets made by Levis or on long green coats with hoods; Hartlepool are floodlights - with about 5 lamps each - up on enormous towers that look too fragile to stand in a stiff breeze; Hartlepool are crush barriers, perimeter fencing, fasks of tea (or coffee with a nip) and piss flooding the aisles. But we're not different. We're Fiddlesborough. Where the pies are cold and expensive, the floodlights are nailed to the stands and the seats are everywhere and made of plastic. WARNING: Content unsuitable for anyone under the age of 41: You are getting on a bit. League 1 (Division 3) that was more than a decade ago. A decade ago womens breasts were firmer, pints were cheaper, stuff on TV was worth watching (and was performed by actors who were paid), you had a full head of hair and all of your own teeth. It's not the twentieth century*, anymore! * (well, ok, 01/02 ... but that was no where near as punchy )
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Post by Deleted on Jan 31, 2014 5:03:40 GMT
Been supporting since 1971 son so no need to judge somebody on posts . Do u wonder why me and loads of other fans can only stand to look at this forum once in a blue moon as a result of negative morons posting drivel all the time. Some peoples glasses are half empty all the time! What pisses me off is that some of the biggest moaners dont even bother to go the games, instead watching on some dodgy stream then telling us who do go how shit we are! one thing is clear the prem do not like us they never have so its us v the rest fuck them.i cannot wait for the champions league to become the main comp in europe, let the elite and thier gobshite glory hunting fans fuck off and leave us with a fairer more even 1st division
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Post by JoeinOz on Jan 31, 2014 6:37:25 GMT
I love the Prem. Its the only place I want Stoke to ever be.
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Post by penkvillepotter on Jan 31, 2014 6:54:25 GMT
Only for a few seasons! If we go I won't miss it and in fairness they won't miss us either.
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Post by underdog on Jan 31, 2014 6:57:43 GMT
Fully agree...I would also add I. Pissed of with the cheating teats that don't act like men in the football field. The premiership is a massive poison chalice...I enjoyed championship games more...wouldn't care if that's where we end up.
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