For me, the football season ended on a high for one reason alone: the sight of supporters coming back to stadiums.
This period with empty grounds has been a reality check and has underlined to me that football is absolutely boring and a waste of time without them.
Of course, it was a positive that the game kept on going and people were able to watch it but has it been as good? I’d argue that much of the football has been dreadful.
If it was in my garden I’d have shut the curtains half the time because of players going through the motions. In fact, next time there are no crowds, let’s just have cartoon sound effects to make it more entertaining.
It says something about much of the football in this past season that the pundits seem to have got more coverage than the games. Everywhere I look it’s Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane and Gary Neville. The pundits have come to the fore.
Ultimately, though, we love sport for the emotional highs and lows and what’s been missing from matches is people singing, crying, clapping, laughing, shouting, being happy or gutted, that crazy atmosphere inside the ground. What’s happened should have made people within clubs realise they are nothing without fans.
Backlash raises questions
The reaction to the European Super League plan was an undoubted positive from 2021-21 yet there are still so many questions. The petition for an independent regulator for football earned more than 140,000 signatories – meaning it will be debated in parliament – but what power would such a regulator have? Where would they come from? Who would appoint them? I also look at the FA and ask, isn’t that what they’re supposed to do?
Aren’t Uefa and Fifa meant to be independent governing bodies? On top of that I see you’ve got people like Gary Neville pushing for this who work for Sky – the same broadcaster that divided fans between those who could afford to buy a dish to watch live football, when the Premier League started, and those who couldn’t.
And while some of the would-be Breakaway Six have taken steps recently towards greater supporter involvement, I fear the Super League seed has been planted and it will come eventually. If Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons go against the small shops on the high street, who wins? Exactly, and I don’t see any more morals in football.
Fantastic Foxes family
It was great to see a different club win the FA Cup with Leicester City’s historic first triumph – and especially for what happened to the family who owned the club and the tragedy they suffered.
Leicester’s strength is their team ethic and I like how they all graft. Off the pitch too they have developed a strong sense of community and it’s good to see.
Bravo Moyes and Bielsa, good luck Pep
David Moyes at West Ham deserves praise for bouncing back from where he was. He’s done so well to lead them into Europe with their highest top-flight points’ total since 1986.
At Leeds United, Marcelo Bielsa’s done an incredible job too on their Premier League return. There’s been no fuss, no panic. They have believed in what he’s doing, trying to play good football, and he’s been a success, leading them to ninth.
Another manager I admire, Chris Wilder, was hung out to dry by the owners at Sheffield United, who seemed to give up halfway through the season.
Sean Dyche, who I also like, has kept Burnley up again and I’d suggest that’s a harder job than Man City in some ways as he doesn’t have top players so it’s all about his coaching.
As for City, I’d like them to win the Champions League as I think the manager has earned it. It’s funny to think people were starting to question Pep Guardiola in the autumn. City’s owners have done a lot for the community in east Manchester and they’ve always had loyal fans who’ve followed them everywhere, even when they went down the divisions – and for that especially, I hope they do it.
Welsh marches
Wales and Scotland both qualifying for the Euro was one of my season highlights and it’ll be great for south Wales if Swansea City can now get back up to the Premier League in the play-offs.
There are other positive stories in the principality with fan-owned Newport progressing to the League Two play-off final and Wrexham getting new owners in. We’ve also seen Connah’s Quay Nomads retain the Cymru Premier League, meaning proper competition for The New Saints who’d previously won it eight years running.
Social conscience
No reflection on 2020-21 would be complete without mentioning Marcus Rashford and his successful campaigning for free school meals.
Indeed footballers present and past have shown they have a social conscience – look at the ex-players helping highlight the link between football and dementia.
More recently we have seen players from Leicester and both Manchester clubs with Palestinian flags and while some people criticised them, I’ve got no problem with it when there have been children dying. We seem to be great in this world at letting innocent people die when we’ve got the power to stop it.
My pet hates from 2021-21…
VAR has been a disgrace once more. At the heart of the problem is that when you’re out on a football pitch, you can feel what players want to do because you know their body language.
When you watch it in slow motion on a screen, it’s almost like seeing it out of context.
This means you have a referee getting the feel of what’s going on inside the game and then you have someone watching it upstairs on the outside and these are two totally different approaches. No wonder it’s a mess.
This has been the worst possible time to hear people like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer moan about fixture congestion.
There are people working in hospitals who have not had a break all year and they’re saying footballers get tired? Go and work a 70-hour week as a nurse or doctor or cleaner in this pandemic. Things aren’t hard as a footballer, things are easy. Nowadays I get up at half past five and go to work. Did I ever get tired when I played football? Not really.
And finally, I see they’ve now got a Hall of Fame for the Premier League. Obviously, there was no football before the Premier League, was there? (Just the 93 seasons.)
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3yBtcmj
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