In the space of just seven days

"You youngsters are seriously brainwashed by the media, you never saw football in the 60'\70s\80s so how the hell do you know what it was like ? Take it from me it was a damned sight tougher and harder work than it is now so dont give me the fatigue crap."

My old man used to say to me :

You kids. You've never had to head a ball and have the lace-marks imprinted on your head.

But as I said yesterday, the fixture list this season doesn't even come close to 1981/82. A PL squad would probably die of heart failure if they had to play a similar number of games.

RDBD

That team were playijg 3 games a week to catch up and cost us a great chance to win the title

But they still went on and won something



No team comes close to that team in recent yrs

I am open to scientific/medical explanations as to why the game is physically harder than back then (pace of game etc) .

Wrt the state of pitches, I would even listen to analogies of horsey "the going is firm/soft" etc.

But to general "the game is harder nowadays" blurb.

grand,

Best sentence on JA for a long time is:

"Opponents cant punch you in the head off the ball now there are to many cameras".

But as I said yesterday, the fixture list this season doesn't even come close to 1981/82.
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Yes I remember that season and I also remember an interview with Graham Roberts. We had something like 18 games to play in 5 weeks and the interviewer said to mad Robbo how tough and exhausting it was going to be.

Robbo replied with an incredulous look on his face and said WHAT ? Getting up at 5 am to start a 12 hour shift in a shipyard is hard work playing 4 games a week is dead easy, or words to that effect.
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I used to work for 15 yrs running wedding etc and would work 100 hr weeks without breaks 7 days a week , thats hard work

weare

I know how you feel one year (not that long ago) I worked 84 consecutive days had one off and then worked another 92 (12 to 14 hour shifts as well). My youngest, who was 25 at the time" said "dad I dont know how you do it".

Its called a mortgage and a family, I replied. At least I know where the saying "you dont know what hard work is" came from
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"Opponents cant punch you in the head off the ball now there are to many cameras".

chicken

Its true tho thats exactly the sort of thing that happened. Ask any Spurs fan about Souness taking out Tony Galvin in the league cup final at Wembley one year. Not a punch that time but it might as well have been and the media never batted an eyelid

grandspurs

It made me laugh more in a way that you almost miss that type of incident.



I totally understand where you're coming from though. When i played (retired fom regular league football about 8 years ago), i played as a CF with the understanding that i kick players & they kick me - its part & parcel. Its part of the reason i played.

Grand..


Players of today have it all but still complain and show little loyalty to club or fans

Ledley being a big exception, he could be traveling the world now but hes working in Tottenham with local kids trying to better their lives


A dying breed

"Yes I remember that season and I also remember an interview with Graham Roberts. We had something like 18 games to play in 5 weeks and the interviewer said to mad Robbo how tough and exhausting it was going to be.

Robbo replied with an incredulous look on his face and said WHAT ? Getting up at 5 am to start a 12 hour shift in a shipyard is hard work playing 4 games a week is dead easy, or words to that effect."

I think we had FIVE league games IN HAND at one point.

It made me laugh more in a way that you almost miss that type of incident.
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chicken

But I do

I played semi pro and then managed and coached semi pro, one of my well known phrases was "If you are not prepared to get hurt dont pull the effing kit on in the first place".

Take the Wigan boys tackle that at the moment the media are screaming about. I have had a look at it and dont think it was that bad at all. A bit mistimed maybe but 30 years ago that would not even have got a mention in the papers match report.

"I played semi pro and then managed and coached semi pro, one of my well known phrases was "If you are not prepared to get hurt dont pull the effing kit on in the first place"."

When I was a kid in the 70s, the phrase that I sometimes heard for Sunday League games was ...

The referee kit consists of :

- A watch (and spare)
- / (and spares)
- An ambulance