The hatred is great.
This is my starting point, and from there it's an easy and immediate transition to caution. Hate isn't that great. Enjoying hate means cheerful aggression and violence, and there is far too much of that in this maddening world for me to add. The reason is that they were given 900 words to write something about why they disagree. Football is fun at this stage of the season.
Hatred is not right. I don't dislike anything in football. Correction: I don't dislike anything in soccer except VAR, and I certainly understand that. Oh, I hate xG, just because I don't understand it. And of course the referee. And football boots that aren't black. And goal music and stupid sock holes. And young people. And for a good chunk of time, I thoroughly hate every club, players, managers, owners, coaches, fans, sponsors, mascots, shitty ball boys, etc., except my own. I hardly think that makes me a monster.
But that's true, right? Hmm. No, that's terrible. “Let’s retreat to hate” is great, but it’s not really about hate.What that teeth Description: I was sitting in a pub with friends watching the Champions League on Wednesday night when I suddenly noticed a change in the atmosphere. The “oohs” and “aahs” of (mostly) neutral observers when Manchester City and Arsenal missed chances turned into laughter and choked cheers.
Arsenal players watch the final whistle in Munich (Michaela Stache/AFP via Getty Images)
Consider City vs. Real Madrid. For much of the match, one could only marvel at the speed of Pep Guardiola's gorgeous, fluid team's movement, speed of passing and single-minded intent to win the game – something had changed. , maybe until the moment you feel that way. Perhaps Real were planning to endure harshly. And this was, after all, a victory for football. It's not the style or purity of the football, but its capacity for insane acts of comic brutality.
City deserved a comfortable win, but suffered a disappointing loss, which led to cheers at the end. Honestly, unless you're rooting for it, it's just hilarious.
The same goes for Arsenal, who are very good but not brilliant and will never be uninteresting to others. My boss, who is a Tottenham Hotspur supporter, had specific reasons for finding this very funny, but the effect of this laughter was hugely damaging to England's coefficients and therefore Tottenham Hotspur's league It would be a car accident for anyone hoping to participate. Of course, the Champions League is also incredibly interesting, but for him it's not that interesting and for me it's still interesting.
Ultimately, it's too complicated for me to understand, but this coefficient disaster could spill over into the division and prevent Newcastle United from competing in any kind of European competition. It would be really annoying and my boss would laugh at me then. I think that's fair enough. But if your choice is between being cynical about Coefficients and laughing at the misfortunes of others, then I'm sorry, but fuck Coefficients.
In fact, add a factor to the list of things you dislike.
As for Newcastle fans, their usual chant is: “You laughed at us when we went down, but who's laughing now?” And the idea here is that Newcastle are no longer in the Mike Ashley era. It means they are no longer the club that has been relegated twice, making crazy and baffling decisions. It was a complete pain in the ass for the Geordies and great fun for everyone else, the insensitive, unempathetic asshole rds.
This is something we don't consider enough.here The Athletic, we stroke our chins and wonder which team will or should win the Premier League, or about the best comebacks we've seen or the biggest questions facing this game. Publish round table thoughts, yawn, blah, yawn, blah. As the nights lighten and the buds on the trees swell, the most important thing is to rejoice in the trivial things that you did not do in October or November. Who cared back then?
If you admire the competitive nature of sport and have a natural empathy for the underdog, wouldn't it be great and worthwhile for Arsenal to win the title? As a football fan: hahahahaha Hahahahaha, they will bottle it again! Check out Jurgen Klopp's final season at Liverpool and the emotional weight of his impending departure, as well as its powerful human story. As a soccer fan: Hahahahahaha, cry more!
Liverpool's defeat against Palace would have pleased some fan bases (Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images)
In this context, the most interesting thing would be for Manchester City to win the title again, but that in itself is not very interesting. But it would be weird if they didn't win it four times in a row, preferably in dramatic fashion on the final day, but the fun of it is that it wouldn't be fun no matter who won. will be balanced by And how funny you find it depends on distance, geography, history, and how pathetic you actually are. For the record, as far as I'm concerned, the pathetically better.
It would be funny to many people for Arsenal to win and thereby laugh at Spurs, who are laughing at them today, but I'm not sure it's any funnier than Arsenal losing. Liverpool winning and Everton losing is perfect for Liverpool, but it's also a wider story. Because Arsenal won't win and Everton are a big, unruly, restless club like Newcastle, and everyone else is therefore obliged to do so. laugh at them
As you can see, hating being great is actually a very serious and important topic. No matter the division or competition, enter your preferred outcome for boring/interesting stakes for the rest of the season. Don't forget to click “Okay” when you're finished.
(Top photo: Getty Images)
