The reason I give you this background is that there was an old feller at the next table to ours and later on I thought that old feller's probably going to be telling his mates... "You'll never guess, viss morning I 'eard two scaaasers towkin, and veese two absolutely HITED footbaw".
If that is the case, I don't blame him. Because there was nothing joyous about what we were saying. We were incredibly negative but...neither of us could find anything to be positive about.
The World Cup? Shite. Brazil? Shite. Brazil again? Cheats. Most Premier League players? Shite, over-rated, greedy, thick. The Champions League? Dull, shite, cheats And on and on we went...
There was a moment when I said "Is this because we're old and just getting more...um...'old'?" My mate just said "Maybe... but they ARE a bunch of cunts and the Champions League is as dull as fuck" ... On it went.
Sky, Ferguson, Benitez, Chelsea, money, Kirkby, Kenwright, contracts, refs, something my mate had seen where United fans got jumped in Stanley Park, Soccer AM, wags, tabloid shite, Sky stats ? we could find nothing in football that even was 'alright' or 'ok'.
Then my mate said "So who's our first game again?" "Blackburn" I said; "That should be three points" he says... "Yeah it'd be good to get off to a good..." Pavlov's blue dogs.
Force of habit, institutionalised the pair of us,
Sorry ? you want to know: Is there a (FUCKING!!) point to this??? Not really, but I wonder if there are any 60 or 70 year olds reading this? If so, I'm curious as to what happens to us in the next 10 to 20 years.
Does this bitching and moaning just get worse? (better?) Do we stop going to the match? Is it just us two?
When I was 11 we won the title; then nothing for 14 years. It was frustrating but I was always sure winning another was possible. Now I KNOW (the way things are set up) winning a title is impossible. Consequently, the idea of another season where 'really good' would more than likely mean us finishing 5th or 6th, doesn't have me (as I used to be at the start of a season) excited or expectant.
I just feel ? 'sigh' ? here we fucking go again.
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It's like a gut wrenching ennui, isn't it ? I'm soon to be 48 now and the Catterick era came too soon for me. With youthful enthusiasm, I approached every new season with optimism but to no avail. My Father had seen all the "If you know your history" greats and judged the 70's /early 80's players as falling badly short by comparison. Football "Isn't the same" and his ennui was expressed on many occasions.The "glory days" in his opinion had gone never to return.Thankfully, our "Howie"" and his team disproved that.
Sadly my Father is no longer here and I have faithfully carried on the legacy of supporting the blues. The optimism ? No longer there really. Where my Father would talk about Vernon,Young,Wilson etc, I will talk about Steven,Sheedy,Reid etc. I'll now tell anyone who'll listen that football "isn't the same" and feel sorry for younger Everton fans.My ennui is not resisted but rather expressed without inhibition.
Perhaps your article could have been entitled "Those were the days". However, somebody told me recently of a speech that Churchill gave post-war in which he was expected to speak for several minutes. Instead he got up and essentially said in a few words "Never give up " thanked his audience and sat down.
So every season I approach with the feeling that supporting Everton is on a par with sticking red hot pokers up my arse. However, as with my Father, I shall somewhere within me retain a small amount of hope and shall enjoy the glory days if ever they are to return.
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