11-08-2019, 10:22
Although I'm long in the tooth and been watching the Baggies since 1962, I've always tried to resist saying "in my day..." when discussing current football since I used to get the same when I was a kid, often being told that George Best was not a patch on Stanley Matthews. The game evolves and players change, along with everything else associated with it - the ball, boots, kit etc. I think all these things have been positives.
However, I believe the one thing that has really harmed it is the amount of money that is now influencing all decisions made with regard to football. The fact that teams want to get promoted into a higher division, not to win it or see better opposing players/teams but to receive the financial rewards that go with promotion says a lot about the ambitions that clubs have...or don't have. For a team such as ours, promotion into the EPL would allow us to fulfill some fixtures and get some money, and that's about it. I've probably never expected the Albion to win the top division since I've been a fan (although we gave it a good go in the late 70's) but I've always felt the FA Cup was a realistic ambition. I don't even believe that now. I know there has been the occasional outlier - Leicester winning the League and Wigan the Cup - but these are such anomalies as to make them instantly memorable. I suspect if you ask the fans of similar clubs to the Albion, they will have not dissimilar views, although maybe not as grumpy as mine!
I agree a lot with salopbaggie in his original question, yesterday's game between West Ham and Man City should have been a match between two established EPL clubs but it was completely uncompetitive...probably not helped by VAR. i expect we'll see plenty more of these games this season when the top six are not playing each other in their own mini league.
However, I believe the one thing that has really harmed it is the amount of money that is now influencing all decisions made with regard to football. The fact that teams want to get promoted into a higher division, not to win it or see better opposing players/teams but to receive the financial rewards that go with promotion says a lot about the ambitions that clubs have...or don't have. For a team such as ours, promotion into the EPL would allow us to fulfill some fixtures and get some money, and that's about it. I've probably never expected the Albion to win the top division since I've been a fan (although we gave it a good go in the late 70's) but I've always felt the FA Cup was a realistic ambition. I don't even believe that now. I know there has been the occasional outlier - Leicester winning the League and Wigan the Cup - but these are such anomalies as to make them instantly memorable. I suspect if you ask the fans of similar clubs to the Albion, they will have not dissimilar views, although maybe not as grumpy as mine!
I agree a lot with salopbaggie in his original question, yesterday's game between West Ham and Man City should have been a match between two established EPL clubs but it was completely uncompetitive...probably not helped by VAR. i expect we'll see plenty more of these games this season when the top six are not playing each other in their own mini league.