Middle Class opposition to "Conspicious Consumption"

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OP ignores the fact that football, like any sport is supposed to be about competing fairly; the excitement of unpredictability; the romance etc. That's what distinguishes sport from pure commerce, and is the reason why people love it.

Of course, we are coming increasingly further away from the Corinthian spirit, but once you stray as far from it as football is getting, the competetiveness aspect of the game starts to disappear and sport loses its essence.

So I would bracket Citeh and the Chavs along with athletes who dope. The result of what they are doing is nothing more or less than gaining an unfair advantage in pursuit of success. And the reason I would say that their situations are different from the 'have's/have not's that have always existed in the EPL is that they are basically taking out all of the variants that used to exist before the kinds of sums that they are now able to spend. Injuries/suspensions - no longer an issue for them. Players off form? - ditto - just bring in some international superstar from the bench. And they are not only making themselves immune to some of the variants that others are subject to, but they are effectively suppressing the competition by unsettleing their bast players; making transfer targets unattainable, and making all players more expensive - therefore destabilising or relegating the weakest of them.

Nothing to do with class politics, I'm afraid.

[fakeyank]

I have said this before.. Our club is a middle class club. Same mentality of middle class people to just be happy with 3rd or 4th place finish, happy to make up the numbers in the CL and complaining about the riches of other clubs. Our fans are pretty much the same too.. far too many who are keyboard warriors and wont do a 'serious' thing to make the necessary noise for change at the club.

The only part our club that has a 'winning' or 'high class' mentality is the board.. no wonder they are getting richer at our expense while we just sit here and complain how terrible they are.

[Niall_Quinn]

I have said this before.. Our club is a middle class club. Same mentality of middle class people to just be happy with 3rd or 4th place finish, happy to make up the numbers in the CL and complaining about the riches of other clubs. Our fans are pretty much the same too.. far too many who are keyboard warriors and wont do a 'serious' thing to make the necessary noise for change at the club.

The only part our club that has a 'winning' or 'high class' mentality is the board.. no wonder they are getting richer at our expense while we just sit here and complain how terrible they are.

Take it you are voting Ron Paul in the upcoming elections?

[Boss]

I hope the people spouting nonsense on here do realise the league has only become more competitive as a result of this 'financial doping' and we've probably seen the best title race in years this season.

In the past only us or United could realistically win the league, now at the beginning of the year you have Chelsea, ManU, Citeh at the very least competing for it and us, Liverpool and Spurs that should be able to. Look at Dortmund in Germany and Montpellier in France for examples that show it's not all about the money.

Of course money gives Citeh, Chelsea etc a head start but Fergie proved you could beat millions of pounds worth of spending when he took the title away from Chelsea and for all Citeh's quality players, they were run very close by a United side that on paper is probably weaker than ours. I wonder how much of this whining would still be taking place if we had manned up and bought a couple decent players over the last few years instead of selling on average a world class player every season.

[Dennis Bendtner]

fucking middle class free market fundamentalist ponces

[fakeyank]

Take it you are voting Ron Paul in the upcoming elections?

Mitt Romney

[Globalgunner]

As was aptly shown last year Chelseas spending was not our undoing last year, neither was Citys. Man U were the only top 6 team that beat us home and away. You can argue that Chelsea ahad an ubcharacteristically bad year in the league, but we were not there to capitalise because of our own shortcomings. it is the nature of unsuccesful people to always blame others for thier own shortcomings. indulge me me please

1. is it Chelseas fault that we have 1 young excellent keeper and 3 hapless clowns

2. Is it Citys fault that we have 1 dent RB, 1 average LB and Djorou as back up CB, with the god awful Squillaci taking up a squad place

3. Was it SAF that forced Wenger to play Wilshere into a literal grave 2 seasons ago, knowing full well what the implications could be long term

4. Who was making all those mind bogging sunstitutions and playing a clearly out of sorts Ramsey for 70% of last season.

2 seasons ago, it was reported that RVP literally begged Wenger to sign VDV who eventually went to the spuds, evidently Wenger must have not known where to play him aor maybe that would have 'killed" Walcott. Afellay is apparently available now, another player that RVP swears by. If your best players dont believe in your stategy, you will fail

We lost last season to mind boggling defeats to Blackburn, Wigan, Swansea et al and poor displays when there was no one on the bench to change the game, add to that an infuriating incapability to defend on the break. These are sysytemic and endemic deficiencies that have little to do with money and all to do with tactics and training. Our wage bill is not reflective of the quality of our players. Money is not our problem, we are stupid in the way we spend it. We buy shit, caress shit, maintain shit, indulge shit and finally wonder why we look like shit.

[Cripps_orig]

As was aptly shown last year Chelseas spending was not our undoing last year, neither was Citys. Man U were the only top 6 team that beat us home and away. You can argue that Chelsea ahad an ubcharacteristically bad year in the league, but we were not there to capitalise because of our own shortcomings. it is the nature of unsuccesful people to always blame others for thier own shortcomings. indulge me me please

1. is it Chelseas fault that we have 1 young excellent keeper and 3 hapless clowns

2. Is it Citys fault that we have 1 dent RB, 1 average LB and Djorou as back up CB, with the god awful Squillaci taking up a squad place

3. Was it SAF that forced Wenger to play Wilshere into a literal grave 2 seasons ago, knowing full well what the implications could be long term

4. Who was making all those mind bogging sunstitutions and playing a clearly out of sorts Ramsey for 70% of last season.

2 seasons ago, it was reported that RVP literally begged Wenger to sign VDV who eventually went to the spuds, evidently Wenger must have not known where to play him aor maybe that would have 'killed" Walcott. Afellay is apparently available now, another player that RVP swears by. If your best players dont believe in your stategy, you will fail

We lost last season to mind boggling defeats to Blackburn, Wigan, Swansea et al and poor displays when there was no one on the bench to change the game, add to that an infuriating incapability to defend on the break. These are sysytemic and endemic deficiencies that have little to do with money and all to do with tactics and training. Our wage bill is not reflective of the quality of our players. Money is not our problem, we are stupid in the way we spend it. We buy shit, caress shit, maintain shit, indulge shit and finally wonder why we look like shit.

:goodpost:

[Tipsychubbs]

OP ignores the fact that football, like any sport is supposed to be about competing fairly; the excitement of unpredictability; the romance etc. That's what distinguishes sport from pure commerce, and is the reason why people love it.

Chelsea and city are not obligated to compete fairly for the good of the game, they'll do whats in their interests. If a rich businessman with bottomless pockets chooses to invest in a business, then so be it.

So I would bracket Citeh and the Chavs along with athletes who dope. The result of what they are doing is nothing more or less than gaining an unfair advantage in pursuit of success.

So report them to UEFA and FIFA for their illegal activity.

the competetiveness aspect of the game starts to disappear

Those clubs can't buy every player alive. You make it sound like everything's pointless and clubs without sugar daddies should pack up and go home. Then there would only be about 2-3 clubs in some leagues.

Ask montpellier if the essence of the game and the "lessened competitiveness" stopped them from competing and even winning the title against mega-rich psg. It was a 3 team title race till the last few games including Lille. This defeatist attitude is a bit strange.

I get the sense that this same attitude is on display on this forum quite frequently when talking about clubs like Chelsea, and it's a convenient way of ignoring the failings of our own board, who also criticise City and Chelsea to distract us from their own failings.

I agree and its also to do with the class argument. It's become a sort of snobbish excuse and great a decoy to use that deflects attention from our own board/manager/team's failings.

I don't really know how we can get on our "self sustaining" high horse. The stadium project that was sold to us apparently to propel us into the big league has resulted in asset stripping, fatcats profiting from the club and expecting the fans to pay for it, 6 years later, with regular CL revenue. That to me is more annoying than big spenders who have always been around in some degree.

The essence of the game arguments are deceiving, football is already out of touch with reality and has been for a long time. Whats the difference between 1 million and 100 million. I could retire and live on both amounts. I'd be happy with the 1, i don't need to be snobbish and turn my nose up at the guy down the road who has 100 of them. Football is no longer an after work community club thing. Its big business. We are already dealing with humongous sums of money here, so perspective flew out of the window a long time ago. If someone is richer than you, then tough luck. You were already rich in a sense since you could and already have paid a million pounds or more for a football player, and more on an annual wage bill!

If FIFA/UEFA want to do the wage/transfer caps like the American sports or enforce the ffp rules in a greater way, then ok if they take steps to level the playing field. Till then, as mentioned above, if some clubs want to take a headstart with sugar daddies, instead of crying about it and using it as an excuse, do your best to maximise your own resources and keep growing as club to compete as best as you can. Arsenal F.C. are far from being paupers, good management at all levels and solid signings should see us up there competing.

[Niall_Quinn]

Mitt Romney

Precisely. You sit in America urging UK fans to do something and yet you are voting status quo (doing nothing) in your own backyard. Won't even defend your own country and countrymen but you are quick to tell us all we are cowards.