I feel it has.
£50 million for Kyle Walker..........KYLE WALKER FFS!!
It's been gradually getting worse over the years but I feel it's gone to hell in a handcart this summer.
I went to watch Stourbridge FC's first friendly of the summer the other night.....640 attending a pre season game of a Northern Premier League team,this is three levels below the football league.
Average leave match attendance last season was 828 I think,not much below teams at the lower end of League Two.
The number of lads I know at Stour who have given up watching Villa/Wolves/Albion/Blues and Walsall is quite alarming.
To a man they all say the same thing,over priced,over paid,Prima Donna attitudes especially to fans.
Don't be surprised at the gaps in our crowds this season........if people like me,Des,Chris etc can give up our unconditional attendance then clubs need to be very scared because WHEN a club like Albion has it's inevitable relegation you suddenly find yourself with 9000-10000 crowds as the glory hunters depart.
I'm not sure Albion "get it",the Premier League itself certainly doesn't.
Neymar for £196million.....that really is sick.
We can rage against the absurdities, disgusting transfer fees, inflated salaries but the stark reality we can do very little. Sure we can choose watch Stourbridge and the like if that floats your boat but if it's the Baggies or nowt then we have to face the harsh truth that the new owner & the Board don't get it- that you need to pay to play in the Premiership.
This profit obsession is laudable but it can only end one way sometime soon and that is relegation & if we persist in that model we will never be back at the top table
If you do not have the resources to compete not with the top 7 - Everton now doing **** or bust but with Palace, Stoke, Bournemouth , Huddersfield even then one day and soon you will be found out.
It wasn't even that much of a fun ride recently but that will be over shortly.
No point complaing about the excesses of the Premier League- no point hoping for glory- we are what we are, playing way beyond our resources. That is something but the reality is it's over and sometime soon
Sky chucks massive money at it for the rights to televise, the stupid owners then hand it all over plus more to the players and to other, mainly foreign, clubs to bring in more players to throw money at.
Meanwhile the entertainment falls and fans start leaving their clubs to seek their football rush lower in the chain, or, not bothering with it at all.
There were 650 at a Brimscombe & Thrupp v Forest Green Rovers friendly down here last week.
Problem is premier football clubs don't need the paying punters at the turnstile anymore sky are responsible for that fact
Agree about Sky and no longer clubs relying upon the fans. However for me there is one other big factor me that is so many of the younger generation are just fixed and hooked on all this hype and big fees. They are the future, not us over 60s and all they seem to want is Fantasy whether that be football, big brother or Britains got talent.
We have a generation who want everything, appreciate nothing and Sky and tv are giving them what they want. Rant over but I really do fear for what society of self obsessed and money oriented people we are seeing in this generation.
You're quite right 53 from a financial perspective. Where it would hurt them is if their global 'product' was played out in front of half empty stadia to the millions that watch around the world. Sadly, many supporters in the modern era have been bought up on Sky and all its hype and think the current state of things quite normal. Many of course do not to the benefit of smaller local clubs. I'm tempted to join them having seen this week that Neymar has been offered a £45M signing on fee by PSG along with £595K a week - a deal which is reportedly 95% complete. This type of ludicrous deal will of course send ripples in to the Premier League as the agents beat a path to their Chaiman's door.
Last edited by stripes39; 21-07-2017 at 12:49 PM.
The Premier League has become obscene in many ways, as I have stated many times on here I have a passion for cricket and the Premier League is operating in the same way as the Indian Premier League, faceless clubs with too many foreigners makes it hard to maintain any allegiance. Only international matches making the same appeal as we had a few years ago.
All excellent points. I do wonder if the wheels will come off in our lifetime.
I only ever watch Albion & England games now. Record MOTD and only watch bits of it that have strange incidents or worth seeing goals.
Chelsea v Man Utd has no appeal. Who wins the league is irrelevant to me, I know it won't be us or another like us.
Of course, following Leicester's heroics there is an outside chance of a club doing something spectacular every 20 years or so.