Not really sure where to begin. I'm finding myself at a stage where my interest in football is diminishing again. For context, I got into watching football in the late80s (ITV Big Match etc), was an avid fan for 10 years then I went to uni and sort of drifted away from it, got interested in other stuff. I can kind of understand this because my priorities were a lot different than when I was at school.
Then I distinctly remember shortly after finishing uni putting an England game on and we beat Germany 1-5, and this reignited the spark, a great match. That then led into 2002-4 which was absolute peak Arsenal. I was hooked again.
Before the pandemic I'd been regularly going to matches for over 10 years, then obviously that ceased for a while. Changing in working styles mean I'm in London a lot less. I've only been to two matches since, a loss to Liverpool and the 6-0 against Lens (which was a great performance/atmosphere to be fair). I also took my son to the women's Euro final at Wembley. But it's much, much harder to get Arsenal tickets now, there was a period before the pandemic where basically I could nearly always get a ticket, I even went to a FA Cup semifinal at Wembley because I'd been to enough matches to qualify, but the resurgence under Arteta and introduction of a ballot system makes it harder. Plus, I'm less hardcore about it, sometimes I even forget the ballot window.
I'll put football on TV now (Arsenal/England men & women) but it's basically become an excuse to drink alcohol and then spend half the match scrolling on my phone and looking up when I hear the crowd/commentator get agitated. I find myself less engaged than I used to be. I rarely watch MOTD, my knowledge of players outside the big6 is terrible compared to what it used to be (maybe why my fantasy football performances are way off, I finished top ~3000 in the world two years running back in the day). Heck, I don't even post on this subforum that often any more. There's the odd game that gets me excited, but I don't remember it being like this. And Arsenal have been much more competitive the past two seasons, it's not like I can say I'm fed up with the performances.
Not sure what to do to get myself out of this malaise. Football is supposed to be a religion rather than something you 'grow out of' or 'drift apart from'.
Then I distinctly remember shortly after finishing uni putting an England game on and we beat Germany 1-5, and this reignited the spark, a great match. That then led into 2002-4 which was absolute peak Arsenal. I was hooked again.
Before the pandemic I'd been regularly going to matches for over 10 years, then obviously that ceased for a while. Changing in working styles mean I'm in London a lot less. I've only been to two matches since, a loss to Liverpool and the 6-0 against Lens (which was a great performance/atmosphere to be fair). I also took my son to the women's Euro final at Wembley. But it's much, much harder to get Arsenal tickets now, there was a period before the pandemic where basically I could nearly always get a ticket, I even went to a FA Cup semifinal at Wembley because I'd been to enough matches to qualify, but the resurgence under Arteta and introduction of a ballot system makes it harder. Plus, I'm less hardcore about it, sometimes I even forget the ballot window.
I'll put football on TV now (Arsenal/England men & women) but it's basically become an excuse to drink alcohol and then spend half the match scrolling on my phone and looking up when I hear the crowd/commentator get agitated. I find myself less engaged than I used to be. I rarely watch MOTD, my knowledge of players outside the big6 is terrible compared to what it used to be (maybe why my fantasy football performances are way off, I finished top ~3000 in the world two years running back in the day). Heck, I don't even post on this subforum that often any more. There's the odd game that gets me excited, but I don't remember it being like this. And Arsenal have been much more competitive the past two seasons, it's not like I can say I'm fed up with the performances.
Not sure what to do to get myself out of this malaise. Football is supposed to be a religion rather than something you 'grow out of' or 'drift apart from'.