You know the score, there are football grounds in the premiership that are synonymous with football, where football literally seeps out of the concrete, steel and wood holding the place together, I’m talking about Goodison park, Villa park, St James’s, Anfield, Old Trafford, Craven Cottage even.
These places still FEEL like football grounds, they have history, they are a homage to a bygone era, even if the atmosphere has gone at Old Trafford, no one can deny it still captivates fans the world over, with its cantilever stands, the Stretford end, the Munich memorial clock, there is a sense of occasion when matches are played there.
Same, as much as I hate saying it, goes for Anfield, although the sickening media hype surrounding every night game there having “that famous Anfield roar” and the Kop being a “12th man” (which is about as true as the Stretford end being labelled as “partisan” these days), when eventually (dole money permitting) Liverpool build a new ground, it will take away another chunk of football’s history and heritage, one of the main thing that makes the English game stand out among the other European “giant” leagues in Spain, Italy, Germany and France.
The modern day football ground is a hideous notion, full of light airy space, safe seated areas, burger stands that oddly don’t carry 3 different potentially deadly diseases, and shiny megastores to sell Arsenal emblazoned cufflinks, to replica shirt wearing mongs.
And this is only the ones that have been “redeveloped”.
Don’t get me started on the brand new superstadiums that litter the country looking strangly like ikea build your own football ground kits. Soulless structures, I’m talking to YOU Bolton, Arsenal, Middlesbrough, Wigan, Reading, Stoke….etc, Stoke are a real bunch of cunts in particular, a real bunch of “we support our local team” merchants, with a shiny new ground, full of odious plebs, the media seem to think them some sort of benchmark for football support, when in reality they offer nothing songbook/atmosphere wise that Bolton or Boro don’t.
Arsenal are a particular pet hate as well, Highbury was never the most passionate of grounds, but that ground of there’s, like them or not, had character, it had history. It is now infested by utter wankers who boo there team off if they arnt 5 up at half time, I was at the champions league semi final second leg at the emirates the other season, and they proved to be the most disloyal, fickle bunch of tossers I’ve ever had the misfortune to clap eyes on, after 25 minutes of the first half the ground was half empty. Shameful.
Don’t get me wrong, as I have already mentioned, Old Trafford these days is hardly a wall of noise, where once the day trippers were restricted to north and south stands, they have successfully infiltrated the Scoreboard AND Stretford end’s these days to such an extent I can barely watch without cringing these days.
Another thing that really gets my goat, is teams who play a fucking song on the PA system when they’re team scores, I mean come on!! Is there ANYTHING more cringeworthy in modern football? I mean pigbag?? FUCKING PIGBAG???? Other gems include Blur’s “song 2”, James cunting Browns “I feel good”, and Madness’s “One step beyond”, why don’t we introduce time outs, cheerleaders, and advert breaks sponsored by mountain dew while were at it?
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