Is football losing it's competitiveness?

http://pogmogoal.com/video-just-hold-it-there/watch-full-keane-vieira-best-of-enemies/16756/

When I've watched Viera vs Keane......those battles were immense as a neutral.

There's no comparison between teams like that any more, or between players like that any more.

Even the derby.....it's either we win, or they win.

Has the PL become that sterile? That obsessed with 'fair play'?

I must admit, I do miss watching that anger, aggression, competitiveness or rivalry that doesn't seem to exist now.

Shame......

Me too.

But football has gone the same way as Formula 1 and snooker.  The money has ruined it.

I remember F1, back in the 70s and early 80s, when you had the likes of James Hunt, Gilles Villeneuve, Rene Arnoux, Nelson Piquet...  Gentlemen racers, who used to go hammering round the circuit, performing some fantastic overtaking moves.  And then the money arrived and we ended up with some right dullards who'd never fight back when they were overtaken.

Same with snooker.  Remember the characters?  Jimmy "Whirlwind" White, Alex "Hurricane" Higgins, Big Bill Werbeniuk, Ray Reardon (Dracula), Cliff Thorburn, Dennis Taylor - all hard drinking, hard smoking characters.  And Steve "Interesting" Davies.  They made the sport popular, and then came the money.  And after that came that boring Scottish robot kid who won everything and made Davies look like a right character.

Sport + Money = Sport - Fun

Yeah, guess you're right Leo.

That's why I always like watching O'Sullivan...he's a maverick from the old school.

Even as a City fan, I was always excited when United played Arsenal during that 5-6 year period, as you knew the game would be fought to the end and players would give everything, even it it meant fighting, tackling dirty....whatever it took.

Now, you cannot even make a late tackle without getting a yellow or a red...yet them 2 would be pushing each other in the face, but that was all about the 'battle'....and the refs most of the time, let it go unless it got too over the top.

Nowadays, footballs become a little pathetic, boring and sterile.

Where are those battles now like Viera and Keane? There haven't been any for years.

Is the best we see...... Wenger tapping Maureen's shoulder from outside his technical area? Or Pardew calling MP an "old c$nt"?

Boring.

How do you think Pardew says it? You miserable old caaaant

blueboy wrote:Even as a City fan, I was always excited when United played Arsenal during that 5-6 year period, as you knew the game would be fought to the end and players would give everything, even it it meant fighting, tackling dirty....whatever it took.

I know.  And what do we have now?  Two players who are narked just put their heads together and wiggle them about a bit.  Or you see a sixteen stone bloke at full speed get a gentle brush from an opponent's arm and he goes down like he's just been run over by a lorry.  You can almost see the handbags.

I remember when players used to get punchy, they'd have been slammed to the ground by a hard challenge and got up and retaliated.  Now, it turns into a shoving contest if someone just gets bundled over in a clumsy tackle - the sort of tackle that, in the past, would see the recipient just barge past, but now they fall over like their legs turned to jelly, then get up and get all narky.  Honestly, I've seen six year olds behave better!

The refs should grow a spine and send off anyone who falls over at the merest hint of a challenge.  It'll stop all this pathetic nonsense.

Agree.

Watching the Sergio interviews on mcfc tv, they ask why he doesn't dive or go down.....

His answer: as kids, we played 6v6 or 7v7, no ref and on a pitch full of stones. If we would have dived, the other kids would just say "no foul"...and that was that, we never tried to dive as the pitch had no grass on it just stones, so I just don't dive now.

Can you imagine the likes of Keane or Viera (who didn't retire that long ago) playing today?

It just shows how much football has gone soft and sterile, even within the last 8 years.

They'd both get sent off in every game they played in.  Especially Keane, he'd last about five minutes.  But at least their opponents would know they've been hit.  None of this flappy arm, shirt tugging bullshit.