Well done, Donny, and keep the faith, Peeps!
I have to admit that I'm going through a period of disillusionment with football. Here in Scotland, the game is in a dire state, both in quality and in the way that it's actually run. The inability to establish a remotely workable league system has gone beyond a joke and the financial plan for most clubs is "sell any half-decent player who attracts any kind of bid at all". As a traditionalist, I like to go to games at 3 o'clock on a Saturday afternoon and, for several practical reasons, this is the time that suits me best. This Saturday, I will go to watch Dundee United at 3 o'clock. It will be the seventh time, out of nineteen games in the entire season, that this has happened. I am simply not interested in going to matches at 12.05 on a Sunday or 7.25 on a Friday evening.
The game South of the border is little better, with its collection of averagely-talented multi-millionaires kicking off at ridiculous times for the sake of television money. Outside the top four or five in England, the gaps in the stands are becoming more and more prominent. The game is dying---through the greed of clubs, the greed of players and the greed of television companies. As someone who has loved football all my life, I hate to sound so bitter about it and I hope I'm wrong.
Funnily enough, Jack, it's the likes of Doncaster that gives me some optimism and provides me with the hope that REAL football will survive.
