Perils of a TV game show: Football's televised revolution finally comes to fruition today

Football: Kick-off 92-93 / Perils of a TV game show: Football's televised revolution finally comes to fruition today amid fears that the game could be devalued in the long-term. Joe Lovejoy, Football Correspondent, sets the scene for the new season and evaluates the competing claims of the 22 Premier League clubs

Saturday, 15 August 1992

Extraordinary. Everything in there is wrong.

must be related to tim

i am worried about this "live football" phenomenon too tho

Brian Moore shd have a word

Gerry Francis, manager of QPR, said: 'It's unfair. My players will get home from Manchester between two and three in the morning, train on the Tuesday and then be expected to play Southampton on Wednesday night. We're the only club expected to play two matches in three days. Then, on the Saturday, we're at home to Sheffield United.

so. many. lols.

Much depends on retention of Townsend, the country's best midfielder.

what are you on about noodles, mon-wed-sat would be controversial even today

Of course the clubs need their TV hand-out - it keeps most of them afloat - but dependency is a dangerous thing, which saps initiative and militates against good housekeeping, and it should be fought much more

Tradition goes out of the window when the television moneymen are at the door, and the Saturday night results sequence, once so compelling, has become much less so now that the integrity of the fixture list is compromised on a routine basis. The worst example last season saw the FA Cup quarter-finals, a major occasion, wrecked when the four ties were televised over three days.

Jack Walker, Blackburn's rich- as-Croesus patron, is fully entitled to indulge himself by trying to buy the championship (Manchester United have been doing it for years)

The legislators would have done better to address themselves to a more exasperating transgression of the rules, which would have been much easier to discourage.

After so many dark hints of a return to his long-ball roots, we await Graham Taylor's first squad with some trepidation. Is it really to be Palmer, Batty and Deane?

TYPICAL Spurs: they finally get around to strengthening defence (Ruddock and Cundy), only to flog their most gifted attackers (Gazza, Lineker and Stewart).

SHEFF WED A nice team with some nice players. Too nice on occasion.

LIVERPOOL Injuries accelerated decline, and summer break has done little to improve matters

QPR In: None. Out: None.

all still true!

plus overrating arsenal, condemning the rich club, and sounding the death knell for utd

lovejoy's:

1 Arsenal
2 Leeds
3 Man Utd
4 Liverpool
5 Sheff Wed
6 Man City
7 Aston Villa
8 Everton
9 Sheff Utd
10 Queens Park Rangers
11 Crystal Palace
12 Chelsea
13 Nottm Forest
14 Blackburn
15 Tottenham
16 Southampton
17 Coventry
18 Wimbledon
19 Middlesbrough
20 Oldham
21 Norwich
22 Ipswich

reality's:

1 Manchester United
2 Aston Villa
3 Norwich City
4 Blackburn Rovers
5 Queens Park Rangers
6 Liverpool
7 Sheffield Wednesday
8 Tottenham Hotspur
9 Manchester City
10 Arsenal
11 Chelsea
12 Wimbledon
13 Everton
14 Sheffield United
15 Coventry City
16 Ipswich Town
17 Leeds United
18 Southampton
19 Oldham Athletic
20 Crystal Palace
21 Middlesbrough
22 Nottingham Forest

the norwich disparity is amazing - was lovejoy that crazy at the time or did they really overachieve to that extent? (b4 my time, i can't remember)

soz i was laughing at matches against Southampton and the Blades rather than the schedule which was yeah fucked up

Norwich had a great team for a moment there, Sutton and co. iirc

It was the ultimate purple patch iirc but they actually were pretty good with it. Could've won the whole thing but it just drifted away from them at the death.

yeah i remember it as a great team too but not anything about its gestation. suppose they did come 18th and 15th in the preceding seasons though

Football: It's just not fair play: After one year of the Premier League, the fans speak out. Derek Hodgson reports

Thursday, 12 August 1993

bitter, bitter, bitter lols

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-the-season-ahead-joe-lovejoy-football-correspondent-assesses-the-prospects-of-the-22-premier-league-clubs-1460876.html

and here's lovejoy's preview for 93-94 while we're at it