The concept of 90 plus minutes of two teams playing football is lost amongst all the punditry, transfer fury, banter, post match analysis and all the other crap.
I put the bins out or wash the dishes or some other mundane tasks and turn the telly on just in time for kick off. Turn it off at half time, back on again for the second half and off at full time.
I feel similar to Meady and yourself.
Thankfully, I've never had Twitter or Facebook accounts, so I manage to swerve most of the utter shite out there. Just seeing some of the stuff reposted on here and stuff Mrs Spion tells me about (she has accounts and views but doesn't post anymore) I know I made the right decision in not getting involved with it all.
I, too, hate what football has become. I loathe the circus, the moronic punditry, the 'bantz' etc... If it wasn't for Klopp and LFC I'd have binned the whole sorry mess off long ago. Even now, I'll turn on at kick off and off at the final whistle. The rest is just tedious nonsense peddled by tedious people wrapped up in their own self importance.
To me, the beauty of football was in its simplicity. A bit like how you can appreciate a fine wine or beer and enjoy it for what it is. You really don't need to be a pretentious arsehole about it and analyse it to death, looking for things that aren't there just so you can waffle on about them and feel knowledgeable and important. All that matters is the wine or, in this case, the game. The rest is just noise made by people too fond of their own voices.
A simple thing like David Fairclough putting the ball away then wheeling away in celebration against St. Etienne is something that will stay with me until the day I die. That's the beauty of football. Raw, real, honest. It never needed the circus in order to make it special. It just was. Now, the game is lost amongst the hype, the smoke and mirrors. The moronic punditry. The so-called banter, the social media airheads who pump out endless drivel.
The good thing is that most of it can be avoided. Yes, it's out there if you look for it, but it can be swerved if you are determined to swerve it. Twitter and suchlike may well be a cesspool, but one we don't really have to step into. Pre and post game punditry can be avoided too. Inane, biased, miserable commentary can be harder to swerve, but plenty put local radio commentary on whilst turning the TV sound off.
We shouldn't really have to go to such lengths to try to retain our interest in the game, but it's often worth it. I've wanted to walk away from the circus for a long time now, but I'd have missed out on Klopp and the magnificent squad he's built. There is something real about him. Something worth sticking around for. He's also built something worth sticking around for too. If filtering out all the tedious shite surrounding the game is what it takes in order to retain my investment, then so be it. All things considered, the only thing that really matters is the 90+ minutes on the pitch. I don't care about the rest. No way am I putting myself through the rest of the circus. Like in many aspects of life, I think we have to learn how to filter out the shite so we can focus on the good. If others want to swim in the cesspool then that's their business. We don't have to join them though.