The Terrible Journalism & Tom English Thread

[Charles Stiles]

3 hours ago, kennie makevin said:

Having lived in England for many years through the 80s and 90s I can concur that no one cares about Scottish football down there. Why should they when it's for the most part such predictable garbage. 

'no one'. Yep, absolutely no one. Not one person. Anyone using that term is purely and simply 100% wrong. 

[kingjoey]

I used to be almost as interested in English football as Scottish football. Everton were my English team an I've been down to Goodison countless times. But that was many moons ago. To me personally, the English Premier League is no longer football as I recognise it, a totally different sport which doesn't interest me in the slightest. I know loads of folk disagree with me. It saddens me to see the number of top English Premier League shirts on our kids.

[Desp]

34 minutes ago, kingjoey said:

I used to be almost as interested in English football as Scottish football. Everton were my English team an I've been down to Goodison countless times. But that was many moons ago. To me personally, the English Premier League is no longer football as I recognise it, a totally different sport which doesn't interest me in the slightest. I know loads of folk disagree with me. It saddens me to see the number of top English Premier League shirts on our kids.

Certainly my interest in the EPL has diminished greatly in the last 10 years or so.  I've also probably saw a handful of Champions League games in the last five years as well.  Like you say, I don't really recognise it as proper football anymore.  I still take an interest in the lower leagues in England as I have family in Barnsley and get down to a couple of games a season. 

For the Premier League shirts on kids, that's been the case for 30 years or more.  I'm 37 so was just a kid when the EPL kicked off in '92.  My parents got me loads of shirts when I was a boy.  Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle.  Even a belting Man City away kit in the Kinkladze days.  I actually think you see more Scottish tops on youngsters these days (you'll always have lads having the EPL tops, plus Inter Miami etc due to Messi) but you also see a lot more tops of the "diddy" sides around.  Being in Lanarkshire, I see a lot more kids wearing Motherwell tops, which is great, but I've even seen youngsters wearing Hamilton & Airdrie tops, which you would hardly ever see 20/25 years ago.

Edited April 22 by Desp

[LIVIFOREVER]

I've watched the odd MoTD, that little when i looked at the bbc results page over the weekend , i had no idea it was so close still between 3 teams.

Haven't watched any CL games either, in fact i've watched more Fri night Scottish games between lower league teams than EPL games. I have more interest in how the Scottish divisions are all panning out than giving a f**k about English games. Quite like all the SPFL play offs too.

[AndyM]

3 hours ago, stu2910 said:

That's all fair.  I think to try to bring this to an end will we try to agree on something:

Scottish football is marketed terribly, particularly with the focus on 2 clubs, but is also screwed over by being one of only 3 national football associations who's national broadcaster is also the national broadcaster for a much bigger league.

This is certainly true.  We are served atrociously by SkySports and they underpay for the rights massively . Their overlooking this season of 2 Edinburgh Derbies for games involving whoever v  Rangers/Celtic was poor decision making. Next year we'll also have Dundee Derbies. No doubt these will be similarly overlooked depending on who Celtic or Rangers are playing.

[stu2910]

1 hour ago, AndyM said:

This is certainly true.  We are served atrociously by SkySports and they underpay for the rights massively . Their overlooking this season of 2 Edinburgh Derbies for games involving whoever v  Rangers/Celtic was poor decision making. Next year we'll also have Dundee Derbies. No doubt these will be similarly overlooked depending on who Celtic or Rangers are playing.

Overlooking the derbies drives me insane.  The Edinburgh Derby is absolutely the 2nd biggest game in the country and should be given that profile.  Even if you accept that Aberdeen v Rangers etc has appeal, the Dundee Derby has got to be in our top 5 biggest matches, certainly in terms of spectacle if not always quality - regularly a full house and the 0-0 draw we had last season ended a run of 28 matches without one.  The idea that these games are ever overlooked is just mindblowing.  They are among our very few opportunities to show the best of our game without 2 clubs.

Imagine the heads gone down south if the Manchester Derby wasn't on TV.

Edited April 22 by stu2910

[craigkillie]

1 hour ago, AndyM said:

This is certainly true.  We are served atrociously by SkySports and they underpay for the rights massively . Their overlooking this season of 2 Edinburgh Derbies for games involving whoever v  Rangers/Celtic was poor decision making. Next year we'll also have Dundee Derbies. No doubt these will be similarly overlooked depending on who Celtic or Rangers are playing.

They probably won't be because the new TV deal will kick in next season and Sky can pick more games per season. The 4 games per stadium deal imposed by the clubs in the current deal is the main reason those Edinburgh derbies weren't shown.

[kennie makevin]

3 hours ago, kingjoey said:

I used to be almost as interested in English football as Scottish football. Everton were my English team an I've been down to Goodison countless times. But that was many moons ago. To me personally, the English Premier League is no longer football as I recognise it, a totally different sport which doesn't interest me in the slightest. I know loads of folk disagree with me. It saddens me to see the number of top English Premier League shirts on our kids.

Very few Scots would now recognise a sport that's exciting, technically excellent and which hasn't been totally dominated for nearly 40 years by two secterian hatebuckets who've an obsession with the island of Ireland. Totally alien. Utterly unfathomable. How do they tolerate such a thing ?

Edited April 22 by kennie makevin

[invergowrie arab]

56 minutes ago, kennie makevin said:

Very few Scots would now recognise a sport that's exciting, technically excellent and which hasn't been totally dominated for nearly 40 years by two secterian hatebuckets who've an obsession with the island of Ireland. Totally alien. Utterly unfathomable. How do they tolerate such a thing ?

We all hate the OF mate. You aren't going to get super fan points for extra hating them.

[kingjoey]

2 hours ago, kennie makevin said:

Very few Scots would now recognise a sport that's exciting, technically excellent and which hasn't been totally dominated for nearly 40 years by two secterian hatebuckets who've an obsession with the island of Ireland. Totally alien. Utterly unfathomable. How do they tolerate such a thing ?

It's the WWE of England. 

[DiegoDiego]

9 hours ago, Alert Mongoose said:

To take this further then, can you explain why so many Scottish people watch English games when they should have 'no relevance to them'?

I don't understand why folk do. I have updates for a couple of English teams on because I have English friends who support them and it's nice to be able to say "good/shite result the other day". Other than I have zero interest in English football. I know a little bit through osmosis and the tartan army forum, but couldn't tell you who is in the running for the Premier League title this season.

Other than a few cross-border transfers, English football just has no relevance whatsoever to Partick Thistle or the wider game in Scotland which Thistle are part of. Unless I'm actually at a match, I'm not going to actively pay attention to Wolves vs Everton any more than I would Lens vs Brest. I just don't get it.

[Super Staggie]

Just to add that the BBC have basically done a copy and paste of or squad for the euros, they have gone through the "who is on the plane" and bluffed as as original.....

[itzdrk]

9 hours ago, Lex said:

Taking that a step further, would you watch a Northern Irish Football League Premiership game on the TV? There is a decent title race going on there between Larne and Linfield just now, but I still wouldn't want to watch. 

It's on BBC iPlayer right now, let's give it a go. 

[RawB93]

23 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

Brest. I just don't get it.

I could've told you that.

[Desp]

24 minutes ago, DiegoDiego said:

I'm not going to actively pay attention to Wolves vs Everton any more than I would Lens vs Brest. I just don't get it.

Nice v Brest, however... 

[Scooby_Doo]

8 hours ago, kingjoey said:

To me personally, the English Premier League is no longer football as I recognise it, a totally different sport which doesn't interest me in the slightest.

That sums up my thoughts - I went to see Brighton vs Palace earlier this year, and whilst the stadium was great, and Brighton in particular played really well, it felt like I could have been in almost any stadium in the World.

Later that week I saw Glenafton beat Hurlford 4-3 in the pishing rain, and I know which game I enjoyed more.

[Lex]

You just need to look at this Misc other football board on this forum to see how popular English football is in Scotland. 
On the first page of that board alone we have the Barclays thread, the English football league thread, the English non league thread, the FA Cup thread, The Everton thread, the Carlisle thread and the Liverpool thread.

A few years ago I got speaking to someone who worked behind the scenes in the broadcast media and naturally got to me moaning about how bad the Scottish football coverage was compared to English football. He said that he knew that, but MOTD has more Scottish viewers than Sportscene does.

Dont know how we go about changing that but I don’t think it’s going away. 

[Molotov]

4 minutes ago, Lex said:

You just need to look at this Misc other football board on this forum to see how popular English football is in Scotland. 

The huge financial backing to promote the marketing of English football is having a massive influence on why it’s deemed so popular all round the world not just Scotland. 

Hopefully the EPL crashes and burns at some point in the future. 

[AndyM]

19 hours ago, Desp said:

For the Premier League shirts on kids, that's been the case for 30 years or more.  I'm 37 so was just a kid when the EPL kicked off in '92.  My parents got me loads of shirts when I was a boy.  Man Utd, Arsenal, Liverpool, Newcastle.  Even a belting Man City away kit in the Kinkladze days.  I actually think you see more Scottish tops on youngsters these days (you'll always have lads having the EPL tops, plus Inter Miami etc due to Messi) but you also see a lot more tops of the "diddy" sides around.  Being in Lanarkshire, I see a lot more kids wearing Motherwell tops, which is great, but I've even seen youngsters wearing Hamilton & Airdrie tops, which you would hardly ever see 20/25 years ago.

Sadly where I live on the outskirts of Dunfermline it's the opposite. The kids playing football in the park where I stay generally are kitted out in English Premiership team shirts (Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, United)  plus the odd Real Madrid or Bayern Munich top. If your really lucky there will be a Scotland or a Celtic shirt. And knowing a few of the kids as they are pals with my youngest none of them have actually been taken to a game. Football is something that exists on the telly for them. 

[Dons_1988]

It’s certainly a sign of the times that you see kids wearing the shirts of that Saudi team Ronaldo plays for.

Appreciate this makes me an absolute da but I was quite taken aback the first time I saw that.