Latest betting advice: Blackburn, Aston villa, Bolton, West Ham and Newcastle fans – start watching Rugby… (sorry our american readers may not understand a word of the following analysis of the situation):
schmoo generally wants the downtrodden to rise, the working classes to toast the aristo’s, the South to ‘out market’ the North, Open-source to triumph over Microsoft.
Consider the plight of the lesser teams of the English Premiership:
Like it or not, outside the big five of Spurs (Yes Spurs), Chelski, Arsenal, Liverpool and Man U, nobody has a shot for the foreseeable and, in odd contrast with the 'schmoo' attitude to the world outside football, that’s the way we like it.
Basis for this will have to wait, although it’s obvious …
schmoo is interested here in why it is that the majority of football fans seem to have a mindset in reverse of the schmoo.
You think that the free market is a great thing; you love Britain because it’s such a meritocracy; you think that if a person is poor it’s because they didn’t work hard enough.
And yet you piss and moan about how unfair it is that Roman ‘The Ruble’ Abramovich can buy success for Chelsea, and how such a gulf between the best and the rest ‘ruins’ football.
Many of you would like to see the governing bodies do something to level the playing field; salary caps for players is often talked about so that the top teams wouldn’t be able to monopolise the best players.
You cry in horror at the notion of the G14 splitting off into a European Cup with guaranteed entry for the top teams (which even schmoo thinks is going a bit far).
You hate seeing Spurs do well this season, because you enjoyed watching them stutter for all those years.
You say it’s because they have delusions of grandeur, but it’s their grandeur that makes you hate them, and our (did schmoo let that slip), belief that our glorious history entitles us to our place at the top.
Manchester United; no room in football for corporations you say, their success is based on history and marketing not football, what a scandal.
You sit there with the 'Daily Mail' or the 'Sun' in your hand; one minute you’re criticising people on the dole, the next you’re salivating about the latest 3rd division team to go bankrupt.
Does the schmoo need to spell out what we are saying? If so, you’ll have to wait, because 'schmoo' is finishing ‘work’ now, and has a train to catch.
Just consider the fact that football is the perfect socio-economic metaphor for real life.
2 comments:
"you think that if a person is poor it’s because they didn’t work hard enough."
a naive view of football fans uk wide me thinks
the true 'silent majority' in this country (as opposed to those who have news international and associated newspapers spouting their opinions daily) are northern and working class
far from state and capitalist lackies the uk working class are about as anti-state, anti-capitalist as they come
whether its yorkshiremen still suffering from the onslaught of thatcher, scots who just want the english fucking out or socialist geordie ex-ship builders, the resentment anger and hatred of the capitalist system is evident in almost everyone you meet who doesnt live in harrogate or london
go to your local council estate and talk to the folk their, ask their opinions of the government, the police, shell oil, bush and man united
the day after 9/11 a friend of mine took to the streets of brixton market with a video camera to record peoples thoughts ... almost to a man (or woman) the response was ... well, they had it coming
ignore the odd working class sun reader, we know the tabloids are a joke, but we want the telly pages and like to read the stars (and tabloids are cheaper than broadsheets)
my grandad read the daily mail and was as big a socialist as youd ever meet, but my nan liked the sunday mag and i liked the cartoons
the problem in ukplc lies not with the working class, who cheered us at the dsei arms protests and let us in their pubs even when the cops told 'em not to
the problem lies with pseudo-intellectual guardinistas, evening standard readers and media fuckwits who (having no knowledge of working class communities) feel free to glorify or judge the working class based on their own petit bourgouis prejudices and ignorance
working class people by and large have no truck with the current exploitative system, and that comes through in footy, but most of em are too busy working and feeding their kids to do anything about it
but the day will come
btw ... true revolutioneries follow the championship (thats the old first division to any fake football pundits out there) which is hotting up by the week
and spurs'll be mid-table fodder come next season, its what they do best, theyre not even interesting enough to get relegated
Post a Comment