Nobody cares!

Spending as many hours as I do on the road, combined with an insatiable appetite for sport, Radio 5 Live and Talk Sport invariable dominate my air waves. The sad state of affairs that is English football is dominated by the nations obsession with the Premier League and the media are only too happy to feed these junkies.

It’s as if other sports don’t even exist these days and all pave into insignificance compared to the might of the Premier League. I think before I carry on it is important to understand that I am a huge football fan. I have travelled away with England and seen my beloved Exeter City at over sixty grounds now across the country. That said, the Premier League has become a juggernaut destroying everything that comes in its way, but as a lower league football fan I can’t help but think I will have a grin on my face when/if it all comes crashing down.

As I eluded earlier, I am an Exeter City fan and know the pains of being a football fan. It makes me sick to the stomach when you hear the morons that are the British public calling up these ‘phone ins’ week after week with their ridiculous moans and gripes. The Arsenal fans calling for Wenger, the Liverpool fans crying over lack of investment, the Chelsea fans that moan about everything. Jesus Christ ten years ago Chelsea were an average mid table club, now look at them, multiple Premier League and FA Cup winners, with a Champions League to boot!

These people could do with remembering where they have come from and be grateful to watch such great players and football week in week out. The ones that really get me are the Man City fans. I mean come on, four years ago they were one of the biggest ‘yo-yo’ clubs in the league fighting to stay up, now they have fans moaning the only came 2nd in the Premier League and that they need Falcao. These people disgust me. As much as I dislike Arsenal and Arsene Wenger, I can’t help but think that when it all comes crashing down or when Abramovich or Hicks/Gillette or Sheikh Mansours of this world get bored or go skint they will dominate English football for years to come. A top stadium, balanced books and a decent squad…slow and steady wins the race and I’m sure they will have the last laugh.

As an Exeter fan I have had the enviable summer of watching eight senior players depart with the news we have funds for one new signing! Do you hear me moaning…. no!!!! Its reality, its life, its football. Everyone has got well above there station and the Man City fans for example could do with dropping back to League One for a bit of playoff pain to remind them how lucky they are. Also, the despicable treatment of managers in this country is worth mentioning, particularly by the money grabbing, idiotic Premier League Chairman who think loyalty and dignity died when the old League One did. It’s as if the fear of relegation is an excuse to behave like a gutless, hideous dictator, well it doesn’t.

In Paul Tisdale we have the best lower league manager and a true gentleman. With no money to spend, budgetary cuts left right and centre and offers from top clubs on the table, the Exeter City fans should be eternally grateful to him. Careful what you wish for, that’s my warning to the boo boys and the decreasingly intelligent and insightful crowd at St.James Park. We play good football under Tisdale and when we don’t at least we are trying to. Who could do better, who loves the club more, which manager in the clubs history has been more loyal and devoted to the cause…..none.

With no money, no prospects and huge geographical constraints in terms of attracting players, until we attract a Sheikh nothing much will change.

Be grateful we are still a club, because if it wasn’t for the tireless work of our loyal and intelligent fans we wouldn’t have a club at all. You don’t hear them booing or calling for the managers head or shouting “get it forward” in a moronic voice. Why you ask yourself? Because they THINK, they see the bigger picture, they are realists. They see that the manager is trying to instil views and values into the young players. He is trying to breed an attractive brand of football that sees the ball on the deck. The same brand of football that saw us achieve our highest league finish ever, before the inevitable exodus of talent to the higher echelons of the British game. To all of you who were at Northampton some twenty odd years ago, with that huge banner when extinction why nigh, remember Tisdale is the best man for the job and the best man to keep our club alive. After all if you couldn’t go to the Park every week what would you be able to moan about.

In terms of our very own Sheikh, I won’t hold my breath but when we finish fifth and miss out on the Champions League by one point, I can assure you, you won’t hear me moaning!