Five reasons why everyone wants club football back

Barely a few weeks into a new season of exciting Premier League football and we are already at a dead stop.

A dreary international break has foisted a new competition – the UEFA Nations League – onto a largely uncaring public.

For some reason known only to the powers that be, we follow that thrill-a-thon with a friendly game in Leicester. Neither of these international games have sold out to fans and the decision makers can’t work out why. Well let’s help them.

I shall explain as a die hard Manchester City fan the five reasons why international football is rubbish. Strap in. Let’s go.

1. Northern fans are left in the cold

Notwithstanding a partly empty Walkers crisp packet stadium in Leicester tonight, international football for England takes place in London at the new Wembley, a concrete stadium built as a homage to the £10 hot dog.

Packed with corporate sponsorship and unsold £10 programmes (What do they do with all the programmes they have left over?) So England international games are full of local supporters.

It costs most of us a fortune to get to London. And then they charge £75 a ticket to get in. So its not a surprise it doesn’t generate much response from fans north of Watford.

Of course I understand the FA have to pay for the enormous white elephant of new Wembley so want to hold every event there, but they must also see such an approach continues to reinforce to us fans the FA are not interested in us, only money.

Sure they’ll throw us northern football fans the scraps – we can have a few friendly games at Leicester, but then the FA will nod knowingly at the empty seats as a reason why their beloved England should stay at new Wembley.

So international football is for London and southern based fans – much like jellied eels and pie and mash (without gravy).

2. Intensity lacks

I support Manchester City football and I pay my money, for most of these last ten years at least, hoping to see some scintillating attacking football.

Where established craftsmen like David Silva ply their trade coupled with the youthful exuberance of Leroy Sane to put teams to the sword. I marvel at the sheer cheek of some of the passes we attempt and the pace we seek to establish in the game.

Under Guardiola we love the ball. We caress it. We keep it. If we lose it we want it back. It is our precious.

In comparison watching international football is like watching two teams of strangers gently pass about for 90 minutes.

It’s like Soccer Aid with slightly less celebrities. It’s only exhilarating when we play kick and rush in the last few minutes when we are one nil down to Armenia.

International football is like watching Jose Mourinho coach a pub side.

England have flattered in the World Cup and the media have risen the team to be potential world superstars but come on. We all know Manchester City would not only have won the World Cup if they were able to enter but would have done it in style. So international football is grey and dull in comparison.

3. Supporting players of other clubs

As a Manchester City fan I get to watch a lot of great players (ours) and a lot of players I hate (yours). I jeer Jamie Vardy’s face and liken him to Albert Steptoe.

I become apoplectic when Dele Alli works out a new handshake with Jessie Lingard. You are grown ups (please Kyle Walker don’t get involved).

More from Man City Square

Luke Shaw is a semi pro wrestler who seems to move forwards in 3 gears but backwards in just 1. Ashley Young is a dirty dirty dirty player. Jordan Henderson is a headless chicken in midfield who tries passes that seem to trouble NASA more than the opposition.

Please don’t start me on Harry Kane. It’s cruel and I won’t but really at what point is he being treated like a world class player? So much of his game seems to be about the art of standing still and waiting for a lucky break he can swing a leg at.

If you take your head out of the papers you can see how he was nullified by big teams at the World Cup. So international football forces me to get behind players I not only dislike – but get this – I actually enjoy disliking them.

It’s taken 50 years of being a fan to cultivate that kind of animosity and there’s nothing you can do about it.

I still put the United players upside down in my Panini World Cup Sticker album. So international football is not like real football.

4. We want to watch City!

International football stops my beloved team playing. It introduces the equivalent of a cultural desert into my football viewing.

Two whole weeks at a time taken out of my football schedule which means Manchester City end up playing 3 or 4 games in 7 days to catch up.

I’ve an idea – take the international breaks out the game and play a World Club League in the gaps instead between the league winners from every nation. Straight knock out. See how much I have improved international football in those 5 seconds?

During these wastelands of international football breaks you always get some bright spark on Twitter who poses the question what would you rather see – your country win the World Cup or your team win the league.

5. Clubs lose momentum

International football messes up my beloved Manchester City. It loses us momentum. It takes the players away from Pep Guardiola, the best football coach in the world.

It reduces the time together for the players and impacts on team spirit. It allows our players to be injured playing for someone else in a competition we don’t give two monkeys hoots about. Vincent Kompany anyone?

So as a Manchester City fan it leaves me a nervous wreck. Why did Bernardo Silva come off at half time with a groin injury? What’s wrong with Raheem Sterling’s back? Why does Roberto Martinez keep breaking Vincent Kompany? You end up just checking City TV to see who has made it back in one piece and whether they are training or not.

So as can be clearly seen – international football is rubbish!

Red Side of Manchester compete City for which midfielder?. dark. Next

Thankfully proper football is back from Saturday. Until 8 -16 October when there is another stupid international break. And then again 12-20 November!