Wheres The Passion? Is An Outdated Concept Jose Mourinho may want more noise at Stamford Bridge, but hes fighting a losing battle. At the prices the fans pay they want to be entertained, not part of the entertainment... Sometimes, people who have been in football all their lives seem blind to how it changes. The way the pre-match discussion of the Manchester derby was conducted, youd have thought it was 1974 not 2014. Stuck in an out-moded perception, it was no surprise that it really wasnt the tackles flying in, manic, foul-fest that they talked of. All the talk of the stadium being a cauldron was misplaced IMO. It appeared little different to any other game. If you could apply trades descriptions legislation to football match promotion, this would have contravened it handsomely. Life is different now. I dont know where Jose Mourinho has been watching football recently, but his comments this weekend about Stamford Bridge being quiet could probably be applied to most, if not all, football grounds during any game. Stamford Bridge going through periods of being like a morgue is unexceptional, Old Trafford has long been so quiet you can hear the barcode scanner bleep in the club shop from what i have heard. Arsenal, at times, is almost silent, presumably out of fear of lowering the house prices around north London. Liverpool, once a cauldron of aural intimidation,now goes so quiet you can hear Brendan Rodgers rehearsing an aphorism. The noisily manic joy and heartbreak that was Manchester City fans historical attitude to their travails at Maine Road appears to have evaporated at the Etihad. The only consistent noise at White Hart Lane is the sound of grumbling complaint. Even St James Park isnt what it once was. The low hum of discontent and barely suppressed fury mixed has replaced the electric atmosphere of the mid 90s. Mourinho might want Chelsea home games to be noisy affairs but hes batting on a losing wicket. It wont happen, not for any length of time, anyway. This is not how the majority want to experience football now. Many would rather eat pizza and look at their phones. Theyd rather be doing something else other than focusing on the football. Theyre distracted. Go to any game and you will see this all around. It is partially a consequence of the culture of digital distraction but more than that, I genuinely believe it is because fans are simply not as excited by football as they once were. It has to be very special to get worked up about. A whole generation has been brought up on a smorgasbord of TV football and have understandably become blasé. These are instinctively reactive, not proactive fans. We watch it to be entertained, not to be part of the entertainment. There used to be a pent-up excitement to a game that most times cant quite happen in the same way now because were satiated with football. We also dont like the game of football as much as we once did or, more accurately, there are so many things we dislike about it that its easy not to show passion. There is a permanent reservoir of bile, frustration and discontent that is easily stirred. At the heart of this is, of course, MONEY. A lot of people leave the game early, despite having paid handsomely for a ticket and that shows you just how little some people care about the spectacle presented to them. Also, slower, more possession-based football is simply less stirring. It might be more successful and look like ballet on TV but in real life its slow and dull to see a side knocking it around fruitlessly in midfield. That isnt an argument for or against any particular style of play in pure football terms, but in terms of entertainment it doesnt bring the ball of red hot passion to your throat the way more direct, aggressive football does.The lack of physicality allowed means the game is innately more cerebral and less primal, which again provokes silent appreciation. If you doubt this, even now, as soon as a player comes on who puts himself around a bit, it stirs the emotions and makes for a more noisy crowd, whichever side youre on. Clattering people makes a better atmosphere, but passing it sideways 100 times in a game doesnt. Mourinho might not want this all to be the case but not even he can change it. If it wasnt for the away supporters, most grounds would often be pretty quiet a lot of the time. Maybe a more interesting question is whether it really matters. We live in a different society to when football was played out to a working class who had just done a Saturday morning shift in the factory. Is there any reason to assume that all noise, all the time, is really the ideal situation? Is cheering and clapping when something good happens not enough? In the great neo-liberal capitalist swindle, we are now all customers, not fans. Youre paid an insulting, immorally large amount of money to play football, so get on with it and stop telling us how we should behave, some might say. #CFC
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 13:18:32 +0000
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