Changing Times!

There’s a certain amount of merriment viewing league table after the first weekend of a new football season; no more than two points separating top from bottom; promotion, relegation open to all; televised league tables always accompanied by the comment “…just for fun”.

The true value of these early points won or lost only start too reveal themselves many months down the line, towards the business end of the season.

But a glimpse at the tail end of League Division Two and something strange stands out.

On first glance there’s nothing hugely unusual to see Rotherham United, Bournemouth and Luton Town occupy the bottom three places.

Maybe a clear indication of how things can change so swiftly in the football world; just four years ago Ronnie Moore’s Rotherham United were competing in the Championship with the likes of Sunderland and West Ham.

Slightly less glamorous, Bournemouth changing fortunes are mostly confided to League One mediocrity.

Of the trio, Luton Town could claim to have the most colourful of recent times; comprehensive League One Champions three years ago, a faded push towards Premier League glory, quickly followed by an incredible, blink and you’ve missed it, sink to lowest ranking in English League Football.

Modern League Tables

But a scan across to the right of the table and the real oddity stands out, resembling more of a Scandinavian winter temperature forecast, the points tally for the respective trio reads: -14, -16, -30!

Rotherham United, AFC Bournemouth and Luton Town all started the new season on negative points, punishment from the Football League for reasons of administration and agent irregularities; an extremely vivid reminder of how the world of football has changed.

Points deduction is nothing new, but the bigness certainly exhibits the Football Leagues stance on maladministration, leaving the rights and wrongs for such a harsh punishment open to debate.

But in these circumstances I can’t help feel for the fans, the real people who live and breathe the football club. They’ve effectively been punished twice; firstly with the mismanagement by the management of the legal entity, the football club. Then, compounded by the Football League’s point deduction, given for the mismanagement by the management of the legal entity, the football club.

Something feels very wrong here and possibly highlights some of the reasons why football fans have concerns when outsiders come in to run their beloved football clubs.

Comprehending how bizarre the League Two table appears; 33 points dividing top from bottom after just one game, completely out of left field a flash of nostalgia washes over me, I’m transported back to my childhood and memories of Shoot! Magazine League Ladders, strangely occupies my immediate thoughts; another of the endless reminders of how the football world has changed.

Football Nostalgia

For folk of a certain age this may stir up some warm memories of dirty grey wet Sundays in front of a fire, sports pages open, placing tiny tabs in to tiny slots.

In a time when shorts were shorts, pitches were brown and players shared a beer in the local with the locals, in the weeks running up to a new football season Shoot! Magazine annually gifted its readers with League Ladders; t-shaped tabs displaying the name of each league football club, in club colours would be slotted in to the slits of a thin printed sheet, displaying the English and Scottish league tables.

As the season progressed, the tabs would be placed up and down the ladder reflecting the current positions of each league club, but the information wasn’t the hook, it was the thrill of interchanging week on week and updating could take hours; either by replicating the league table published in the newspaper or from the sports pages of Teletext, a considerably painful process for those without a hold button!

Of course by early December the novelty had all but worn off, even sooner if your team was performing in the lower echelons, but come the following season the same youthful enthusiasm and excitement would be generated in anticipation of a new league ladder.

Shoot!, football’s leading weekly digest for many years, until the birth of Four-Four-Two, was radical for its day, it pulled star names, asked them questions like; “what’s your favourite food, drink and TV programme” – Only Fools and Horses the cast iron favourite.

Sadly, in the June of this year after 40 years of publication, Shoot! Magazine seized to be.

Administration, deducted points, global superstars, dead magazines or nostalgic league ladders, just a mere skimming of the objects of change in the world of football, some good, some not so.

In the age of 24 hour sports news, infinite web sources and posh Teletext via the red button, cardboard League Ladders are truly redundant, and whilst we may not miss them, for a fleeting moment the stir of Sunday mornings, paper wide spread and the hours replacing team after team, provides a warm glow, the new football season is back; what on earth does it behold?