I'm somewhat of an outlier in the "real fan" demographic as I hate most of the people I'm surrounded by at football games and have never understood why so many grown men feel the need to get so emotionally invested in a game. At every home game I witness bizarre levels of hatred directed at opposition players, referees, opposing fans, hell even our own players. I've seen people crying over football results, which makes no sense to me whatsoever. I feel like I don't belong in this place most of the time, but I love watching football and I love Everton so I keep going. I'm good with words, but I still can't really express why I love it, which I guess is the only thing that actually connects me to these people.

And yet despite all that, I still find the above quoted post way more offensive than anything I ever hear at Goodison. I hate sneering scumbags like Dean Manifest, with their condescending "capitalism is king" bull**** way more than I hate the simple, stupid people on the terraces. GTFO with that crap.

England 2004 was the better side. Even with Scholes on the left. Then Wayne got injured.

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Maybe not that high baids but its part of it. Maybe that high for you but then fair enough, your life. Some take it too seriously, guys in africa committing suicide after a chelsea-united game. But in the main yeah sports isn't life threatening or serious but to enjoy it fully you should take it seriously and take pleasure in your rivals failures and at the same time many appreciate their successes. In the end it jut doesn't matter so go 100% and dean's view on football and everything in general was far too narrow.

Jesus I hope this is the last time Plop change their manager during an international break, at least for this season.

In the mid 1980s, English football was in the doldrums.
Hooliganism and the resulting ban from European football, along with the state of the stadiums meant that the whole football industry in Britain was falling behind the rest of Europe. There was no investment in the game.

The Premier League was formed in association with what was BSkyB at the time. Essentially, it was about money. Before the Premiership, we'd be lucky to get one live game on TV a week. Sky offered what was seen then as a big wedge of cash. Looking back it was very cheap, but Sky saw the potential.

The potential was enhanced by the terrible events at Hillsborough that had the silver lining of legislation that forced the football stadia to upgrade their facilities.

Sky saw a great opportunity and took it.

This is true. Sport doesn't exist at a professional level without it.

Living in Scotland must be like living in Cleveland - sporting disasters

They beat Samoa and celebrated like they'd won the WC

They are even **** at snooker now

Agreed, but it was only a Euros.

I remember thinking after the 1-5 in 2001, 'How the hell did that happen??'
I was at the Stad de Luz for the Croatia game in 2004 and our reaction was very different. More of a 'Blimey, we've actually got a bloody good side for the first time in 15 years!'

The fact was an injury to a single player showed us that we weren't really as good as we thought.

Tennis tho.

Stephen Maguire though

There is no real standout team going into these Euro's. Germany prob in cruise control throughout the group stages and will likely go full throttle when the tournament starts but I don't see England being that far away from contending. This is not a troll. If they run good they have a legit shot esp if they keep everyone fit.

Nice, use a reference to Cleveland? wtf does that mean?

And it's not as if your country is great on the world stage either!

+1

He represents GB so technically doesn't count

Is this meant to be an argument against my point?

if we add the bolded, I tentatively agree

I just felt the need to point out i could name a scottish snooker player that is not hendry

I'm feeling a lot of lolbritain on this page

The Americans will let you know about Cleveland.

On your other point:

We have made more major tournaments in recent years

We have won the Six Nations and won a Grand Slam

We have won multiple majors in golf + had a player as #1 in the world

We even do well in cricket, wtf is that about?

We rule the world when it comes to Gaelic Football and Hurling

We have Guinness

Guiness sucks

Im sitting in the car listening to the radio and there is this feature sponsored by a bookmaker where a football"specialist" who knows **** all comes on and tips the audience to bet on the favorites of a bunch of games tonight. He develops by explaining that said favorite is the better team therefore its the best bet.

Taking my CDs next time

KW the city of cleveland hasnt won a championship in in any of the american major sports for like 50 years. Then they luckboxed lebron james in 2003 through the draft and still couldnt win a title with him

I've got to laugh at that 'we should've beaten Brazil in 2002' comment from earlier.

Sure, we scored a very good goal early on. A real cracker. It was cancelled out by some comedy goalkeeping though.
They ripped us apart in the second half, despite only having 10 men for half an hour of it.

Apart from the Swedish goal, Danny Mills had a surprisingly good World Cup and bless Pele for thinking Nicky Butt was one of the best players in the tournament.

LOL aren't you a Tory?

Dean is Donald Trump, that came as a surprise to me I must admit. He hid it well.

Capitalism is king? It's like you can't mention the word unless you're crapping on it without be presumed to vote conservative (I don't) and worshiping supply-side economics (ditto). It happens to be the system we've got, and it happens to have both positive and negative outcomes for all of us. Bashing the negative (Person X has undeserved wealth usually) while soaking up the positives (doing so on an iPhone, in an air conditioned home or automobile, all three of which can be afforded on the median income or less) is a common occurrence I object to. I'll apologize again for my rude tone however.

Do you post about anything else? It's been seemingly every single post since I returned a few days ago and I remember it being that way last time I was here. It's like tuning in to pro wrestling every few years - same old story lines from the same old characters.

thank god england didnt beat brazil back then. I think losing the final to england in the first world cup I ever watched probably would've scarred me for life