Topic: That's it, we've had it with the (insert stand name here)

[AJL]

Some tool in the KOP yesterday with a foam hand.....305 yesterday was family/tourist/whopper central

 

[jambutty]

A standing/singing section behind the Kop goal would be a start.

[Fathead of Bootle]

No. Pay on the gate for a singing section done at the front of the kop. With a cheap boys pen next to it, to get the next generation in.

Would be perfect this. I hate Anfield now, your looking on paying near a ton on tickets and ale, where's the love for us poor old Scousers? I go, get told to sit down, too scared to sing because I know I'm gonna' look a t*t, grown men with replica shirts around me chuckling at the away support. Ohhh nostalgia...

[Juneau]

I'm (from just outside Birmingham) a young OOTER and was at the game yesterday. I'm probably classed as a day-tripper, but I actually want to get behind the team. When you're the only one singing the songs though, it's just gutting. Being told to sit down sucks too.

I think it was the most depressed I've felt at Anfield. It wasn't even the match that depressed me, just the shite atmosphere. The fans just don't seem to have any interest, desire or passion to get behind the team, sing and get an atmosphere going. I enjoyed the game but I will definitely not be going back to Anfield again. Why the fuck would you pay £40+ to sit down all game, not sing, go get a pie or whatever before half time and leave 5-10 minutes before full time? Shit fans.

I've been to a few away games over the past year (all Carling Cup matches) and have thoroughly enjoyed them. Stoke away last season and WBA away this season were absolutely brilliant. Singing throughout the whole game, banter with the home fans and everyone coming together as one. Although it is mostly all scousers that are the away fans, I don't feel out of place, even being a midlander! Which is great.

When I see the home support of foreign teams like Dortmund, Ajax and a lot of the Eastern-European teams, it makes me so jealous. Every single game those fans are going crazy, singing constantly. It doesn't matter what the score is, whether they are winning or losing, they are singing throughout.

Is it that tasking for supporters to learn the songs and actually sing? I'm sure they'd enjoy the day more if everyone was singing. Maybe that's the lazy society that we live in that causes this. The famous Anfield atmosphere seems to be gone for me though.

[redgriffin73]

This says it all! Taken yesterday!

Sweet Jesus.

[wesralph84]

i've been going to games regularly for 11-12 years now and there is a huge difference in loads of aspects of Anfield & the club that all contribute to the atmoshere going shit in that short time.  My first game in the kop was dortmund in the european cup, back then it was a privilage to get a ticket in the kop and you wanted to sing because of the history of the stand and you just wanted to do your bit.  to get that ticket you had to constantly be on the phone pressing redial for hours at times, you had to work for your ticket.  now you can be online in vietnam and get your ticket in august for anything up until xmas.  there was no big screen t.vs, fan parks, sports cafes or food courts then, it was less family friendly and the majority of people were men, now there are loads of couples and families going which is good in a way but not for atmosphere.  its not that people have stopped singing, there just not there anymore and have been replaced with a group of chinese students who can't speak english let alone know any of the songs.

The club has turned it into a massive money making operation which most of us were calling for when we wanted to be commercially in line with the other top clubs.  I live in london now and got the train to liverpool for the 1st time from london yesterday and couldn't believe the amount of people travelling back from the game, a load of them had been away for the weekend, had bag loads of crap from the shop and clearly had a good day out, that's what the club wants and thats what we have to do to keep up with the other big clubs. 

none of the big clubs have a good atmoshere and most of its corporate at arsenal, utd, chelsea.  teams with a good atmosphere -stoke, newcastle, dare i say everton have a very local support and will never be a truely big club and thats something we don't want.  compare there match day income to ours and i bet it doesn't compare on a £s per seat basis.

i supose we got what we wished for- a more commercial club that generates more money to spend on players. rightly or wrongly these owners will take it even further and it will be for the good of the club, the atmoshere is just collateral damage unfortunately. 

i just hope i'm not there when mighty red comes out before a game high fiving the players,

[LiverBirdKop]

I think we need a couple Jumbotrons flashing MAKE NOISE!!! every so often to get everyone going. 
And that guy wearing a GoPro type camera strapped to his head....well, at least he had his hands free to clap.

[RideTheWalrus]

Not taking something super serious is a crime now, OP? Gosh.

[Motty]

I think we need a couple Jumbotrons flashing MAKE NOISE!!! every so often to get everyone going. 
And that guy wearing a GoPro type camera strapped to his head....well, at least he had his hands free to clap.

or to eat his popcorn;)

[AJL]

now there are loads of couples and families going which is good in a way but not for atmosphere. 

Bollocks, sorry.

If you are generalising that women and kids cannot support their team as passionately as 'blokes' then I'm going to disagree with you, and I'm not even going to give your comment the benefit of any rational reasoning.

[Zanchent]

teams with a good atmosphere -stoke, newcastle, dare i say everton have a very local support and will never be a truely big club and thats something we don't want

Seriously? I'd take a few years in league one at this stage if it meant regaining what we used to and should still have.

I've said so much about this, it's painful - The only way it will stop is when the tourists fuck off. They're the ones who keep ticket prices high and destroy the atmosphere.

[Fat Scouser]

I agree with what someone said in the general sports forum the other day, large numbers of the fans not joining in are the locals who've had season tickets for a long, long time. The amount of tired, old men who take the match for granted these days and would rather sit or stand around catching up with the others around them than even bother singing YNWA. It's almost like they've had their time in the 80s and now just go through the motions of showing up and not really caring about the atmosphere.

I disagree with people saying the club have "missed a generation", there's tons of good lads my age and a bit older who go to all games home and away and support the team no matter what. The whole "no child tickets on themselves" rule is a load of me arse though and really needs changing.


Oh and it's worth noting that whilst we are shit we are still the loudest in the league statistically: http://www.madeupnonsense.com/articles/liverpool-crowned-loudest-fans-premiership-1626251

Them tired old men made the atmosphere what it was. When my generation took over the kop, the old men didn't like it or the way we supported the team. That's life. Aul fellas like to grumble and romanticise their good old days. But there was a line of progression. They went into the stands and moaned. We kept the place bouncing. I feel sorry for the people that inherited it off us. I know they're fighting a losing battle. But us aul fellas aren't the problem. Greed is. And if something isn't done about it, there'll be no one to take it over after you and you'll be able to sit in the kop with your few aul mates, moaning about it.

[Durlmints]

Agree...visited from the States for Hearts and Arsenal this season....we made more noise on the KOP than most, and we were making a racket for Arsenal until just became depressing.

Same here man. I'm from southern UK and I get a lot of odd looks whenever I try and start singing. People on this forum need to realise that some OOTs make more noise than some locals, and some locals make more noise than OOTs. It works both ways. I've sat next to OOTs that don't sing a word all game, but I've also sat next to locals who don't sing a word all game.

[hoppyLFC]

IMO i think the singing on the Kop will be a thing of the past in a few years, the lads who sing now will be old men who can't afford to go the game anymore and there will be no younger generation of lads all sitting together to sing.

When i first started going (mid 80's) i went with 6 of my mates and we stood together on the kop and sung our hearts out.

I have took my 7 year old son to all the home games this season including Europea's and we sit on the Kop, he  really enjoys the singing and knows most of the words to the Suarez song, the Gerrard song ( but not the swear word) YNWA and FOAR, what makes me sad is that when he eventually gets his seasie ( i put him on the list when he was born) he will be maybe going with one or two of his mates and me and they/we will be dotted all over the ground.

[Paragon]

For me the key was to extend the RTK 'singing section of the Kop down into blocks 202 to 208. Doubt it would happen though.

[carling]

I'd love it if they could seat all the away fans together at home games ... again not going to happen.

[Jake]

A lot of our fans are shit fans. I get just as wound up by their shitty attitude at the match as I get wound up by the ref and the fact I spend 100-150 a weekend sitting on the famous Kop wondering what the hell is wrong with the other 45000.

I can't afford to go at the moment and part of me misses it like mad, part of me is glad.

[Butter Keks]

Sat in the KOP for the majority of last season but towards the end of the season (Villa at home) we ended up sitting at the back of lower Anfield road.....Never ever again. People actually discourage singing, shouting and passion in that morgue of a stand.

[Jake]

I remember the Derby last season I got bollocked by a steward in the Upper Annie because some people complained my singing was ruining the game for them.

If I could I'd put a bullet in their head (not the steward, she was apologetic)

[Zanchent]

For me the key was to extend the RTK 'singing section of the Kop down into blocks 202 to 208. Doubt it would happen though.

I'd prefer bringing it down to the very front, like at Madrid. I've been talking about that for years. That way you've got the most vocal closest to the pitch and leading the way!

[Redman0151]

A standing/singing section behind the Kop goal would be a start.

No chance, there's no way the stewards would allow it cos the people in 20X blocks would either all have to stand or wouldn't be able to see the game. They're slowly trying to push back the standing at the back

[Priest078]

I had my first season ticket in the kop in 1995, it was great even though the kop had been seated the atmospher was still good. When we were backs against the wall trying to get a win like yesterday the noise level used to go up and up and up till we scored, now it goes the other way. Used to love all the players getting thier names sung before the game and the celtic rangers in the old kop.

You can't spontaniously go to the game anymore it's all pre-planned weeks in advance and recorded on cards, they should have 7,000 seats that you can just pay to get into on the day and if that means getting in the ground at 1 o'clock like you used to on the standing kop then so be it. Can you imagine telling people they have to que up at 12 o'clock now for a bit game, the que streching down walton brec k round the down the centenary stand.

[hoppyLFC]

I had my first season ticket in the kop in 1995, it was great even though the kop had been seated the atmospher was still good. When we were backs against the wall trying to get a win like yesterday the noise level used to go up and up and up till we scored, now it goes the other way. Used to love all the players getting thier names sung before the game and the celtic rangers in the old kop.

Happy days ........Celtic.. Rangers..Celtic..Rangers.......repeat.

The good old days when the Kop sung for the majority of the game, i miss those days as well .......gone forever i reckon .

[ghost1359]

I lived in Germany for 4 & a bit years & in my opinion the following is what would rapidly improve the atmosphere in Anfield.

1) Safe standing areas. A bone of contention & regardless of how safe it is proven to be time & time again, some will never go for it but there is no denying in terms of atmosphere standing makes a huge difference.

2) Buying tickets at the gate. If only for the Kop it is something that absolutely should be introduced. It wouldn't be difficult to implement & would enable groups to be able to congregate together & sing together. All well & good trying to sing but if the people around you aren't arsed & one of your mates is two rows behind & ten seats to the left & another is three rows ahead & six seats to the right what chance do you have of getting anything going?

3) Lower ticket prices for those under the age of 25. Controversial maybe but lets face it, as has been alluded to by some of the old lads in here it is up to the younger generation to be the driving force behind improving the atmosphere. What chance do they have when a ticket to Anfield these days is more than most people's phone bill a month?

4) Again a suggestion I don't expect to be popular. We really, desperately in my opinion need something like the green brigade at Anfield. We seem to deride other clubs for having 'Ultras' & for forcing an atmosphere but yet we'll happily applaud Dortmund fans for how brilliant they were. We can do that, I've no doubt about it. I'd fucking LOVE to do something like that, I'd move to Liverpool to do that. Just have a look at this video as to what Celtic fans think about the Green Brigade....

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/nFPhD_eFZ8Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/nFPhD_eFZ8Y</a>

Get 2,000 lads on the Kop week in week out with flags & banners right behind the goal & the atmosphere would pick up in no time at all. Not only that you'd soon find that, that 2,000 quickly became 5,000 if we worked toward helping the fans as a club as Celtic have with the Green Brigade.

[Always_A_Red]

I wish I was around for the 80's. When I hear all of the stories and see the videos, I just envie every single person who waslucky enough to stand on that KOP.

I lived in Germany for 4 & a bit years & in my opinion the following is what would rapidly improve the atmosphere in Anfield.

1) Safe standing areas. A bone of contention & regardless of how safe it is proven to be time & time again, some will never go for it but there is no denying in terms of atmosphere standing makes a huge difference.

2) Buying tickets at the gate. If only for the Kop it is something that absolutely should be introduced. It wouldn't be difficult to implement & would enable groups to be able to congregate together & sing together. All well & good trying to sing but if the people around you aren't arsed & one of your mates is two rows behind & ten seats to the left & another is three rows ahead & six seats to the right what chance do you have of getting anything going?

3) Lower ticket prices for those under the age of 25. Controversial maybe but lets face it, as has been alluded to by some of the old lads in here it is up to the younger generation to be the driving force behind improving the atmosphere. What chance do they have when a ticket to Anfield these days is more than most people's phone bill a month?

4) Again a suggestion I don't expect to be popular. We really, desperately in my opinion need something like the green brigade at Anfield. We seem to deride other clubs for having 'Ultras' & for forcing an atmosphere but yet we'll happily applaud Dortmund fans for how brilliant they were. We can do that, I've no doubt about it. I'd fucking LOVE to do something like that, I'd move to Liverpool to do that. Just have a look at this video as to what Celtic fans think about the Green Brigade....

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/nFPhD_eFZ8Y" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/nFPhD_eFZ8Y</a>

Get 2,000 lads on the Kop week in week out with flags & banners right behind the goal & the atmosphere would pick up in no time at all. Not only that you'd soon find that, that 2,000 quickly became 5,000 if we worked toward helping the fans as a club as Celtic have with the Green Brigade.

I think the 'green brigade' idea would be a great thing for us. Its up to the club and not us though to allow it to happen

[Istanbul_05times]

things have changed at liverpool past few yrs....becoming a selling club...becoming a club which rotates managers at the drop of a hat...our owners aren't british & it seems they dont give a damm about the old school values that liverpool always used to uphold. ANFIELD USED to be loud. not in years unfortunately.

[Istanbul_05times]

i've been going to games regularly for 11-12 years now and there is a huge difference in loads of aspects of Anfield & the club that all contribute to the atmoshere going shit in that short time.  My first game in the kop was dortmund in the european cup, back then it was a privilage to get a ticket in the kop and you wanted to sing because of the history of the stand and you just wanted to do your bit.  to get that ticket you had to constantly be on the phone pressing redial for hours at times, you had to work for your ticket.  now you can be online in vietnam and get your ticket in august for anything up until xmas.  there was no big screen t.vs, fan parks, sports cafes or food courts then, it was less family friendly and the majority of people were men, now there are loads of couples and families going which is good in a way but not for atmosphere.  its not that people have stopped singing, there just not there anymore and have been replaced with a group of chinese students who can't speak english let alone know any of the songs.


here here
The club has turned it into a massive money making operation which most of us were calling for when we wanted to be commercially in line with the other top clubs.  I live in london now and got the train to liverpool for the 1st time from london yesterday and couldn't believe the amount of people travelling back from the game, a load of them had been away for the weekend, had bag loads of crap from the shop and clearly had a good day out, that's what the club wants and thats what we have to do to keep up with the other big clubs. 

none of the big clubs have a good atmoshere and most of its corporate at arsenal, utd, chelsea.  teams with a good atmosphere -stoke, newcastle, dare i say everton have a very local support and will never be a truely big club and thats something we don't want.  compare there match day income to ours and i bet it doesn't compare on a £s per seat basis.

i supose we got what we wished for- a more commercial club that generates more money to spend on players. rightly or wrongly these owners will take it even further and it will be for the good of the club, the atmoshere is just collateral damage unfortunately. 

i just hope i'm not there when mighty red comes out before a game high fiving the players,

[J-Mc-]

I'll be in the paddock for the Reading game with my little brother, anyone else in there and fsncy getting a few songs going with me?
Time we made a fucking stand and fucked off the gobshites who jeer and snarl because we're actually making some noise.

[Marty 85]

This says it all! Taken yesterday!

Wayne Szalinski goes to the games now?

There needs to be some proper dialogue with the club and how they treat the fans. It needs to be put to them do they simply view us as pound symbols. We know they do but they should be made to feel uncomfortable and squirm a little. There are many things that contribute to the atmosphere but take form, opponents, time of kick-off etc out of the equation and the only constant you have is the singing section in the kop. This needs to be expanded into other blocks.

[Pilchard]

I might be missing the point, but trying to recreate the good old days is a non starter.

A lot of the ideas here are good but require organisation and/or administration. When the ground rocked it was spontaneous. It was like that because like minded people wanted it like that. When we paid 10 bob to get in we went to support. Now people pay £40 and expect to be entertained. As someone said we can still get spontaneous occasionally, but its getting rarer.

Somedays you didnt know if you were going the match until the night before when you got together with your mates. More often it was just taken as fact you were going, (talking about if pocket money stretched to going the game here).

We cant recreate the old days, but if were going to rise above other teams and remain unique in our support then something has to be done soon and the answer could be written in any one of the posts on this forum.

Football as a sport is in danger of becoming a homogenous game played for the benefit of T.V. and owners, not for the fans.

Talking about other fans chants and chuckling, I used to think that after ourselves, the Mancs were quite close at producing some great songs. I was always a bit jealous of their Giggs song. But as was shown recently, their supporters are now incapable of delivering a witty well sung song. The best we seem to do at the moment is add a players name to 'Theres only one XXXXX'. The problem is football wide and not just at Anfield.

We need to innovate not recreate, but I doudt the owners will listen. Perhaps if some of the above ideas are put to Spirit of Shankly, they could discuss them with the board when they meet.

[Always_A_Red]

We need to innovate not recreate, but I doudt the owners will listen. Perhaps if some of the above ideas are put to Spirit of Shankly, they could discuss them with the board when they meet.

This in my opinion is the only way forward

[Fat Scouser]

I remember the Derby last season I got bollocked by a steward in the Upper Annie because some people complained my singing was ruining the game for them.

If I could I'd put a bullet in their head (not the steward, she was apologetic)

I told a story in here years ago about a steward asking me to tone it down because I was upsetting some people in the centenary. Very few believed it at the time. But it's true. I was sober as a judge, sitting with a kid, at Anfield for his first time for his 8th birthday present. I was teaching him to sing YNWA.

[Upinsmoke]

Wish we owned this club...

[Jake]

I told a story in here years ago about a steward asking me to tone it down because I was upsetting some people in the centenary. Very few believed it at the time. But it's true. I was sober as a judge, sitting with a kid, at Anfield for his first time for his 8th birthday present. I was teaching him to sing YNWA.

Mine was similar to that, I was on me own though as my mate was in another stand, hadn't had a drink all day, trying to sing along with the kop at the other side of the ground. People actually grassed me up for singing,

[finnansounderrated]

Agree...visited from the States for Hearts and Arsenal this season....we made more noise on the KOP than most, and we were making a racket for Arsenal until just became depressing.

No you didnt.  I was sitting next to you.  You got up for a bag of popcorn. You finished that then went for a hotdog.  Then you went for a piss and came back with a Pepsi.  You then came back 10 minutes into the second half.  I then heard you say 'why isnt Robbie Keane playing?' and then you left 20 minutes before the end to catch your plane ;-P

[tjtaylor182]

I think that one of the main problems now is a lack of songs due to lots of the players with the best songs leaving. I actually thought the atmosphere at the stoke game was much better than a lot of games last year though. Not that it was hard to better.

[Only Me]

Seriously? I'd take a few years in league one at this stage if it meant regaining what we used to and should still have.

I've said so much about this, it's painful - The only way it will stop is when the tourists fuck off. They're the ones who keep ticket prices high and destroy the atmosphere.

I agree mate.

I've been watching non league a lot of late - in terms of a match going experience its so much closer to what going the match was like 25 years ago than the sanitised shite that Anfield is now.

Best fans in the world, my arse. UK is now a joke in terms of atmosphere compared to most places abroad. And its no coincidence that that has happened just when the clubs over here are pursuing the more affluent "fan". Can't have it both ways.

Problem is that its gone for good now. What astounds me is how fucking stupid people are though. Ticket prices are a disgrace, but it just shows how much cleverer the club owners are now than the fucking plebs who go and watch. £700 for a Kop season ticket. £700! And apparently there's a fucking queue of people waiting to pay! Can't get me head around it. And I've heard all "the going rate" bollocks, and how much those knobs down at Arsenal and Chelsea pay, but more fucking fool them.

I know I probably sound like the bitter old man that I am, but now that groups of young local lads cant go together, and stand together, for a reasonable amount of cash, there's no way the atmosphere is coming back. I feel really angry that a generation of young lads have got no clue what its like to be able to go and regularly support your local team, just because the "brand" happens to attract a load of johnny come latelys willing to pay Thomas Cook whatever stupid money it feels like charging that week.

And FS is right, its not up top the old ones to make the atmosphere - never has been. It was always the younger ones making the fucking racket, and usually being abused by the older ones for doing so!

[Paul-LFC]

I told a story in here years ago about a steward asking me to tone it down because I was upsetting some people in the centenary. Very few believed it at the time. But it's true. I was sober as a judge, sitting with a kid, at Anfield for his first time for his 8th birthday present. I was teaching him to sing YNWA.

Mine was similar to that, I was on me own though as my mate was in another stand, hadn't had a drink all day, trying to sing along with the kop at the other side of the ground. People actually grassed me up for singing,

It's ridiculous how some who go to the match look at others like they're stupid for trying to sing and get some atmosphere going. On Sunday quite a few people around me couldn't even be bothered to sing YNWA - a few of them stood up and didn't sing, some of them couldn't even be bothered to do that. Me and a couple of others behind and in front of me were trying to sing when chants started, most of them around us just gave us funny looks and carried on sitting there in silence, some of them even looked annoyed. This was near the front of the Kop. I'd love the singing section at the front of the Kop idea, they probably wouldn't allow it though sadly.

[Fat Scouser]

Mine was similar to that, I was on me own though as my mate was in another stand, hadn't had a drink all day, trying to sing along with the kop at the other side of the ground. People actually grassed me up for singing,

Maybe the singing disrupts the counting going on in the offices.

[Cpt_Reina]

The problem's the pricing. Until that changes the atmosphere wont improve.

Only way the pricing will change is if people vote with their feet. Which they wont.