A place, and league, you no doubt only go while holding your nose.

You really are a sensitive lot. Get on a real football forum and grow some balls

Spend more time in the championship thread.... a thread that your well qualified to write in !!

Liverpool and the Gunners share the spoils today in a match as negative as a lot of comments posted on two. Again Arsenal had good posession but did little with it... both goals were keeper errors but no suprise there as both teams offered very little in attack.

Sums it up in a nutshell. We can't have a view because we're not 'in the club'. What a load of unmitigated rubbish.

I haven't seen one coherent, or even non coherent, post indicating why the Premier League has been good for English football.

If you drop the pretence that the fat cats care about that I'd have at least some respect for you all.

It's a point that can't be challenged. Sky & the Premier League has undermined the national team and created a bunch of 'fans' who think that by taking out a subscription to SKY, pulling up an armchair but never actually getting involved in the game, they somehow are football fans.

Even that's OK, so long as you don't try and decry those of us who do, and dismiss us because our teams aren't in the Premier League. Truly pathetic.

In fairness though, a Hereford-born boy will eventually play for England in all likelihood. Shame he'll never play for Hereford Utd however.

Hey, you may end up being 'in the club' next year. Are you going to slash your wrists should that happen? If you like I can draft a letter for you - the one addressed to Ken urging the PL money to be handed back

The fact that you gloat in that sums it up for me.

You're not a football fan. You view a SKY Sports subscription like a Movies plan. The football equivalent of banks. In it for themselves, selfish and ever so vaguely distasteful.

You don't care about football. You like thinking you like football.

That's the second line of argument from those who are bankrupt in that department. I have already said that I'd probably not be able to go because of the prices. And if I did go it would be because of my mates who have shared the ups and downs, not because of where we are.

Having been as low as we have I now appreciate a little bit more about the game, and how it doesn't revolve around the fat pigs. But that only matters if you get off your backside and actually experience it regularly.

You have no concept. None at all.

And I think you're an inverted snob perpetually content with wallowing in mediocrity. You're no more or less a football fan than I am - just different perspectives.

Your snobbery and misplaced sense of superiority, and that of many of your ilk perfectly encaptulated right there. Sad really, yet predictable 

Coming from a Spurs fan I guess you'd know about mediocrity.

You're wrong, of course. The fact that you typed the words shows that your ideas tank is dry. I spend far more time of football forums than I do on here. I also come across rather cleverer opposition.

I'm the bloke who, when he used to live in Huddersfield, used to go to Oldham Athletic to watch a game of football, regardless of who they were playing. Who tucked 1,500 live matches (work it out -can't all have been watching Leeds) under his belt when he stopped counting. Who went to Anfield & Goodison & Prenton Park when I lived in Liverpool, and who once hopped on a train to go to Highbury from Manchester with a mate when student railcards were running a promotion to see Arsenal v Liverpool. Who was actually there when Michael Knighton did his juggling trick at old Trafford.

Who had a season ticket at Maine Road because it made financial sense for me back in the 1980s. Who used to go to Stoke City with a mate and once had to get the equivalent of the milk train back. Who used to go to Newcastle with his next door neighbour because he was a fanatic and a lift is a lift.

Call me mad, by all means, but don't talk utter bollocks about what sort of football fan I am. Been there, done it, more T shirts than you could dream of.

I may be no more knowledgeable about the game than you, but I've put the miles in, and certainly watched, live, more football at all levels than you could stomach or conceive of. If nothing else it gives you a perspective that you simply can't get from the comfort of your living room.

Indeed, that is something we, as fans, can share. I suddenly feel all warm and fluffy.

Now, getting back to that letter. Should I draft one for you in the event of Leeds getting promoted?

Nope what is pathetic is your continuous whingeing about a league you can only dream about participating in !! If you dont like it then post elsewhere and take your troll like behaviour with you and stop banging on about not being real fans ..blah blah blah. Yes i can dismiss you very easily...

For the record.. nobody in their right mind will say the premier league has been good for the national team. Fact is though that the premier league is the most exciting league in the World with some of the best players (albiet Johnny foreigners) in the world. A league which any team would want to play in.. a league any football fan would want their team to be in !!

Careful FIO. There's no trolling going on in here ok?

I still think you're missing the point. You keep telling Simon what he should be thinking and should be wanting for his team with actually listening to what he's saying. It's this sort of attitude which does fans of the Prem no favours whatsoever

Whatever !!! Pity i am not in the premier wannabes club then i could get away and post the pathetic drivel thats been spouted today.... oh well no point in continuing posting in this thread anymore i mean after all i am a fan of the premier league.. best off i post in the championship thread for sunday league pub teams that would make sense !!

Cheers

Any argument you had you just lost forever right there

Doubt it....... But maybe in your opinion of course and those of your merry band of championship chums perhaps

If you dont want your team to play and challenge in the premier league one day.. then sadly no point in supporting your team.

No, I'm quite sure. Emotion fuelled, poorly constructed rants will always finish last to well constructed, articulate postings such as Simon's . Even Merc, who clearly disagrees with us, but keeps hs emotions in check and still keeps a sense of humour about him

I didn't quote your last sentence because it's missing the point again. I want my team to make the Prem because they will need the money just to survive eventually. That's the way it's heading for the lower tiers. I certainly don't want it for reasons linked to the game on the pitch. I see better more even games every week in the Championship

The championship thread can be useful though. At least I found out there that Bellamy isn't coming to WHL, thank God!! 

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11677_6314082,00.html

Time to call it a day on here.. unfortunately wading thru each post knocking the premiership by fans whose clubs dont play in the league is becoming very tiresome. Its not what this thread used to be about but unfotunatley thats the way it has gone.. i do have an unbiased opinion when it comes to  football and give credit when credit is due. But there seems little in the way of contributions other than the discussions revolving around the prem league fat cats ruining the english game.... and unsuprisingly the posts have come from non prem league footie fans. Little posts whatsoever regarding the weekends games but rather more a general slagging off of the prem league and any team who dares play in it. Articulate postings are one thing but continuous postings spouting the same theme do become tiresome and border on trolling.. my opinion only of course. However... enough is enough maybe a few other prem fans can post about the actual football rather than constanly knocking the league.

LMAO!!!  I'll bet he does. Does he honestly think anyone takes him seriously?

Merc, did you go to Spurs yesterday? I see you were posting on here. I also post on here from my iPhone on occassions when I've been at The Gate. Wondering how many games you go to a season, how much you spend on it and whether there's at least a bit of you that begrudges the way Sky has priced many true fans out of their favourite sport

Are these your toys on the floor?

Running off in a nark is the easy option when you run out of constructive argument

Of course you're entitled to your opinion, but in this case you have very much misinterpreted the comments in here and took them personally. If the heat has got too much then that's fine. I'm about done on the subject in here anyway. I will, without doubt, continue it of a football forum where there are lots of hardcore fans that will, also, agree and disagree in equal volume.

Onward as they say

The answer is no, I didn't. Yes Sky charge too much, although ironically for anyone interested in watching as many PL games as possible the cost has gone up because they broke the BSkyB monopoly by allowing Setanta/ESPN to muscle in.

However, I used to be a regular visitor at Arsenal because:

1- Arsenal nearly always lost when I went.

2- A mate of mine, who has good contacts there, had 'forgotten' to tell the authorities that his uncle - a season ticket holder - had died some years before - hence he could jump the queue and use the season ticket.

I could, if I wished, not have Sky and watch every game online - all perfectly illegal of course.

I actually meant priced out in terms of tickets rather than on tv. The amount of money ploughed into the game has encouraged irresponsible spending which, in turn, has caused massively above inflation ticket prices.

Was that why you weren't at the game yesterday? Must have hurt not being at the first game os the season. I think I'd move heaven and earth to avoid that, so is it money? How many times do you actually go and watch them each season?

Not a dig, just genuinely wondered whilst we're talking about fan loyalty and how it's tough to balance that out with the actual cost of going