Overeducated sports writers log

[luka]

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

 

[william kent]

I prefer foreign football. I hate the English attitude to the game. Can't stand all that bollocks about "passion", "getting stuck in" etc. I hate the gamesmanship in foreign football too though. The football's often better, but there's too much diving.

 

[IdleRich]

To me the best thing about football is the mixture of philosophies and how one can beat the other. I quite like it when a Jack Charlton or whatever comes along and starts beating better teams (who will moan about it of course) with a deliberately simplistic style. I don't like the football but the story.

 

[luka]

Germans are alright but I hate the mincing Latin stuff

 

[luka]

And all the cheating the foreigners do as you rightly say. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

 

[IdleRich]

How about African? Wish they showed more games from there to be honest.

 

[luka]

How about African? Wish they showed more games from there to be honest.

They're rubbish

 

[william kent]

To me the best thing about football is the mixture of philosophies and how one can beat the other. I quite like it when a Jack Charlton or whatever comes along and starts beating better teams (who will moan about it of course) with a deliberately simplistic style. I don't like the football but the story.

Depends. I get really frustrated watching teams like Mourinho's Inter or Simeone's Atletico at their most cynical. I don't mind reactive football, but when it's taken to an extreme like that it's just irritating. Likewise when Spain took the possession game too far and started playing without a striker. I don't want to watch 90 minutes of sideways passing.

 

[luka]

I liked all the mad fouling they used to do though, that was great.

 

[william kent]

Germans are alright but I hate the mincing Latin stuff

The Germans seem the best of both worlds. The game's faster, more physical and less cynical than in Spain and more technical than in England.

 

[luka]

I don't want football to be an art form I want it to be an intense struggle for supremacy. Everything fought for, tooth and nail.

 

[luka]

That's what I liked about the old heroic English defensive efforts. Strong, willing men, fighting their hearts out, desperate to hang on, and failing to hang on. That's where the drama is.

 

[luka]

Don't want to be sitting there with a cigerette holder and a glass of sherry ooh what a delightful pass. I want to be on the edge of my seat. All twisted up with tension.

 

[william kent]

I just find that depressing. I want to see people pinging beautiful passes around, the opposition chasing ghosts, an entertaining strategy played to perfection. Pep's Barca, Mourinho's Madrid when they won the league in 11/12, Heynckes' Bayern, Sarri's Napoli, Klopp's Liverpool and Dortmund. These are the teams which stand out to me.

 

[william kent]

The English suspicion of technique and complexity plugs directly into Brexit. The desire to show managers like Pep who's boss when they come to the Premiership. It's just embarrassing.

 

[william kent]

All the talk about how he wouldn't be able to do it in England. How England isn't soft like Spain and Germany then he obliterates the league within a couple of seasons.

😂

 

[luka]

I need the game to grip my whole being, completely involved and living every moment, not just appealing to some inner decadent aesthete in yellow silk pyjamas

 

[luka]

Tied in knots, hardly able to watch. That's what football is for. Not for some detached airy appreciation of 'technique' like you're watching a rhythmic gymnastics routine.

 

[william kent]

I just find that stressful and question why I'm watching it. Too grounded and mundane, like watching daytime TV. A direct extension of what I said a while back about finding England completely depressing.

 

[luka]

The whole point of sport is that it is a contest. That's the heart of the thing and the source of the drama.